The Saga of the Runt 2
If someone had asked me if I was a dog person, I would have told them that a pet's species does not matter; They're either there for your comfort or because they are useful to you. Those concepts are what matter, that was why humanity had domesticated animals for generations. So I suppose I should not be surprised that I ended up a pet to a pack of giant wolves. I had proved myself useful to them by giving them food and helping in defending their territory, so of course, they would want to keep me around.
And keep me around they did, keeping me from returning back to my camp and staying by my side while I was healing from my injuries. It was nice to have something that could watch over me in my sleep since this planet was teeming with monsters. At my old cave, I had just depended on the narrow entrance of my home to keep the horrors out. The security was almost worth the downsides… What were the downsides? Well living with massive wolves meant having to deal with some… species-related issues, namely that they were not a fan of fire… at all. The mother wolf, as I came to call the pack leader, had destroyed my attempts at creating fires. An unfortunate problem, since I preferred my food cooked, but understandable, as they were animals, and most likely their experiences with fire were not pleasant ones.
Consequently, the lack of fire and the five days I was out of commission meant that for the entire time, I was dependent on the wolves for food… and I just had to get used to something a bit too raw for my taste. Eventually, I was able to cajole them into letting me set a fire, though it took several weeks of hard work acclimating younger wolves to me building campfires at hunting sites to cook some food there, rather than in the wolf den while the mother wolf was out hunting.
Once that hurdle had been overcome I thought my situation could only improve, given the improvement in food, shelter, and some social interaction instead of solitude. Sure, they were wolves, and thus not very talkative, but they were far more intelligent than most beasts I had seen. There was an almost human level of intelligence in their action, which made them effective hunters. They displayed an impressive degree of coordination while hunting the megafauna of the world, as well as exhibiting a significant degree of foresight in rationing their supply of food.
Things became simpler to understand as time went on. Mother wolf would leave me to watch the two younger wolves, who, while both having darker fur coats, did have some differences in personality that I had noted while we were out hunting. The wolf with the darker coat I came to mentally label "Fierce" due to his ability to put on a damn good aggressive display that we would use to drive the prey where we wanted them to go. The other wolf I came to think of as "Cunning", due to their knack for finding ways to take down prey from unexpected angles. They were quite the effective pack hunters. The pair also seemed to have taken a liking to me, as they would stick close to me when I left camp to go on hikes, whether we were in need of food or not.
And with the free time I had managed to find between our team hunts and sibling scuffling, I was able to investigate the remains of the yetis, a rather hard task as the wolves had eaten them down to the bone… at least I hoped it was just the wolves, I hadn't exactly asked where the meat they had given me had come from. Even if I had, it wasn't really… cannibalism, so I suppose it doesn't matter. But more to the point, after looking over the remains, I was able to confirm that they were in fact human skulls and bones amongst their belongings, shaped into various tools. Most looked old and bleached, so it had most likely been quite a while since they had last seen a human, which I took to mean that I was somewhere far out from civilization on this planet, but the teeth marks on the bones were a rather worrying addition to the situation. The yetis were most likely man-eaters and a threat to the humans on this planet.
An unfortunate development, but one I could handle. I would need to make contact with whoever these humans were and find out more about this world, but there was a massive chance I would not speak the local human language. Not to mention that just because there were humans, that did not mean they were all that advanced. This was clearly not Earth, the megafauna may resemble animals from Earth but I didn't recognize any of the star constellations. It was theoretically possible that I landed on the winter version of North Sentinel, so talking to the local population may just end up giving me recipes for cannibalism. If that was the case, it would be preferable not to talk with them.
But besides my musing on what humanity was like on this world nothing major happened–Then I grew fangs… that had been an unforeseen development, my lower and upper canines had fallen out after months of living with the wolves, causing me some mild panic, thinking something they had fed me during the week I was denied fire had given me a disease. Fortunately, they were quickly replaced with sharper replacements, better suited to biting into the meat which was my staple of food at this point. Since nothing else happened after that, I came up with two possible theories, one I disliked terribly and one that was at least palatable. Worst case scenario, the reason these wolves were so intelligent and the reason I had yet to find any humans on this world even though I could confirm they existed, were related, and I would be soon walking on all four like my wolf friends. Another reason to find the humans of this world, hopefully, they had a cure if that was the case. Something I would heavily consider if this started progressing.
Since no other developments had happened, I was leaning more toward the second option, that my body, which had already shown great strength and resilience as well as healing abilities, was also able to adapt as needed. Humans should not be able to adapt to their environment within their lifetime to this degree, that was a firm tool of generational evolution which meant I was some sort of post-human experiment. What that meant for me, I was not sure. I had not been an avid sci-fi reader, preferring history and economics to futurism, though having a body that was able to adapt to its environment certainly was useful.
Just how useful that ability would be was yet to be seen. For all I knew, my initial assumptions about the reason the teeth had grown in were correct and the original colonists had ended up like these wolves over time. Regardless, it would probably be best for me to continue attempting to improve my situation, specifically by making tools.
And that's exactly what I had been doing. I'd gathered more furs, hides, and pelts in hopes that keeping myself warm would prevent any potential trigger mechanisms from deciding that I needed fur. It wasn't long before I had a full fur cape to wear over my collection of hide I used for clothing and my makeshift leather armor. Too many animals had dangerous natural weapons at their disposal for me to risk going unarmored. To start with, I needed something to cover my chest and protect my vital organs, and maybe my upper thighs to reduce the chance of being crippled. I had thus endeavored to build myself a dou-like chest plate and a tough skirt that would hang off of it. The final result was less than pleasing, reminding me more of stormtrooper armor from Star Wars. Except that,instead of white and shiny, it was a mix of browns and reds. Which at least matched the terrain. If someone wasn't looking hard enough I could probably pass for a tree. Assuming that the animals in question weren't color blind.
I was also incrementally improving my weapons, shaping more daggers out of the elk antlers, as well as crafting a couple more spears (though my stock of wiring had finally run out and I had been forced to start using leather to secure the heads to the poles). I had tried to make a bow as having a ranged weapon would mitigate some of the risk of hunting our usual prey. Close-up, one misstep meant death. Unfortunately, I was unfamiliar with the mechanics of how to make a bow. I could string some leather between two ends of a wooden branch, but this didn't quite work. There was not enough tension and when I tried tying the leather more taut the branch would break. Perhaps, with time, I would figure it out but for now I focused on learning how to throw my spears with some accuracy.
With at least some weapons and armor secured, there did not seem to be much I could do in the current situation to improve my outlook. After 3 months of just hunting, surviving, and building clothing and weapons, I came to the conclusion there was not much else I could do until I found the humans of this world. This was probably close to the extent of what the wolves looked for in life(asides from mating, but I chose to ignore this for now).
Regardless, I set about improving my surroundings. The cave we were staying in was rather large for the pack mother and her two pups as well as myself, but it was well-heated thanks to geological activity and it wasn't hard to improve on that situation. I had plenty of fur lying around, skinned from our kills. Before long I had created a few blankets for myself and the others of this little pack I had been forcibly adopted into, though the ones I gave them were mainly my failed attempts but they did not seem to mind. Over time, I was also able to gather enough wood to create a workbench. Granted, said bench would only work well if you were on your knees and was held together by hopes, prayers, and leather but it was a flat surface and it allowed me to improve on my skills greatly. I was also able to build a tool from the wreckage of my pod to start marking basic 7-Day weeks into the wall to keep track of how long I had been out in the middle of nowhere.
Otherwise, I would have completely lost track of time, especially during the days when the sun never really set. That did tell me that I was near one of the planet's poles, but also meant that my day counter may not have been the most accurate.
It was about five months after I had been adopted into this little pack when the situation changed. One day when I woke up and stepped out of the cave we called a shared living space, I found that the number of wolves had drastically increased from 3 to somewhere North of 60. The mother wolf was standing some distance away, appearing to have some sort of communication with a large male wolf, with several more wolves loitering about and taking control of the area. If not for the two younger wolves acting like this was perfectly normal I may have put my hand on my spear, assuming we were under some sort of threat.
This situation was odd to me, from my understanding of wolf packs they tended to move in family units, and typically did not grow into large groups unless they were forced to live together, such as a zoo, which was where the famous alpha misconception had come from. For there to be this many wolves, it would imply either they did not use family units, which could perhaps mean that the alpha wolf misconception was a reality in this world. It would make some sense with so much megafauna and other likewise dangerous creatures as well as the hazardous environments, that some sort of wolf society based on a rudimentary class structure could take shape. And I had seen that these creatures were more intelligent than your average wolf, assuming they were as intelligent as primates or more so that theory had even more merit. After all, there was a thing such as an ape war where a tribe of apes would fight each other for resources.
Considering these wolves were not fighting each other, I must assume that they are part of the same pack. The question then became why are they now showing up when I had not seen them for 5 months. Looking at my two wolf friends I quickly came to a possible hypothesis, the majority of the tribe must have gone somewhere with more game than there was to be found in this area, leaving the mother to fend for her two young pups. Most likely, this other hunting ground was also more dangerous and thus unsafe for the younger pups. If that was true, then that means their territory was rather wide. It could be that this group of wolves had complete control over the entire mountain I was on as well as some of the valleys and plains I'd seen in the distance.
If they needed to move around for resources, the tribe probably kept careful control of who joined or remained inside their pack. It was possible that they banished members of their pack that were not effective hunters or a drain on their society. Hopefully, the mother could figure a way to convince the alpha that I was worth keeping around.
Thankfully it would appear that this was the case, as besides the wolves giving me suspicious looks, the mother wolf seemed to have the situation well in hand, or paw in this case.
At least I thought she did, then the growling became a little more avid. Whatever communication was going on between the two had obviously taken a turn for the worse and suddenly, the male wolf bolted straight at me from where he had been standing. Realizing that that wolf was coming to kill me, my heart started pounding and I reached for my knives.
As the adrenaline pumped, time seemed to slow down, giving me a chance to grasp the situation before me. Though this pack leader seemed intent on killing me, the other new wolves were just sitting by passively, implying that this was normal. Most likely all new members of the pack had to pass whatever inspection the leader decided was necessary. And me, being human, had not passed.
As for my wolf companions, the mother seemed distraught, trotting mournfully behind him while the two brothers came to their feet growling, but none made any move to stop the alpha male. Most likely whatever decision the alpha made was law and if they attempted to stop it they could face being killed or banished.
I had two choices before me: throw myself at its feet and hope for its mercy (really that just seemed like an easy way to die, trusting a wolf not to snap your neck when it has the ability to bite your head off) or fight.
I think I would be going with the second option. Tightening my grip on my knife I waited for the last possible second before ducking low under its lunge and shoving the blade deep into the flesh of its left shoulder, letting the motion carry me past his left side.
I was quick; the beast was just as quick. Before I even fully turned around, a knife drawn in each hand, it had already spun itself about and was using its mouth to attempt to pull out the knife I left embedded in its side. Having no success, it growled and came at me again. That trick would not work twice, the wolves were not stupid, so there was not much I could do but trust my makeshift armor.
The wolf collided with me knocking me on my back, jaw snapping shut on my arm. I felt its fangs pierce my flesh, though the leather cuff kept the damage from being too severe. I shoved my free blade straight into its neck, not letting it have a chance to savage my arm. Unfortunately, that did not put it down but did force it to let go of my arm, allowing me to smash its fist into its face. The wolf stumbled back, pulling the knife free for my hand as it attempted to recover.
Pulling myself back to my feet I glanced around and saw that the other wolves were still not taking action. The fact they weren't coming to their leader's aid meant my assumptions could be very well right, Alpha wolf may be in charge of the pack but it would appear that if it attempted to exile someone from the pack that wolf, or in this case, person, had the chance to defend themselves.
So all I needed to do was make the alpha submit and I could end this situation favorably for the both of us. How I was going to do that, I had no idea, but I had one knife left and I was prepared to use it if nothing else worked. After all, if it was a choice between me or him I'm going to choose myself.
Reading my remaining knife out I took a stance and prepared for another assault, the alpha seemed to take a moment to steady itself before finally charging me, springing forward, jaw aimed at my head, this time I dodged to its right and hooked an arm around its neck, using the momentum to latch onto its back, arms locking in a chokehold. I'd hoped it would fall to the ground and submit due to lack of air, but unfortunately, it was a tough son of a b**** and once it realized he couldn't reach me with his mouth or claws, he instead bucked and ran about trying to toss me off. Really though I had no choice but to hold on tight, if I fell off it might get lucky and kill me, despite its injured state. If I stayed on it would eventually pass out and I would be the winner. Hopefully, that meant I would not have to fight any more wolves.
The damn thing stayed on its feet for a full 5 minutes even though I was pulling as tight as possible, but eventually, it fell forward, collapsing to the ground. I waited until I didn't feel it moving very much before letting go just in case it was playing dead.
Thankfully it stayed down and I was able to take a moment to get a breath of air as I sat on its back, the mother wolf came forward and licked my face before checking on the alpha as well. I sat there getting myself centered.
That brief moment of peace was shattered by the mother wolf pausing, then sitting on her hind legs and howling to the sky, a moment later all the other wolves started howling leaving me rather confused. I took a closer look at the wolf I was sitting on top of and realized it wasn't breathing at all.
It didn't take me long to realize my mistake, I had held on too long and accidentally murdered the alpha, an unfortunate but expected result, my luck seemed to be going in that general direction since I had woken upon this world.
Now the question was, was I about to be murdered in revenge for that? Grasping my knife tightly I made no motions and waited to see what the other wolves would do. After a while, they finished their howls and the circle of wolves seemed to break up into two groups, a third of the group just wandered off, leaving the area, while the other 2/3 went down on their four paws and or lowered their heads in my general direction. Distinct signs of respect or submission. Oh, how I had messed this up.
As I had feared, I had messed this up completely. Rulership of the pack went to the strongest it would seem, and that meant I had to deal with figuring out how to keep the wolves happy and content and not considering me a problem that needed to be eaten.
This was above my pay grade, I was a simple human resources officer, not a wolf resources officer, but I really had no option to decline leadership of the tribe. Mainly because I didn't have any language that they could understand and was mainly having to learn their body language and wolf howls in order to communicate with them in any capacity.
But I learned what I could and did what I could, there was no other option but to become the wolf manager, it seems.
The wolves for the most part seem to know how to hunt their own territory, so trying to micromanage that seemed very foolish and unnecessary. Instead, I found that the wolves simply tended to eat more than what was necessary and said about trying to get them to not eat the entire population of the area down to nothing.
I was getting a firmer understanding of how nomadic the wolves had to be in order to keep up with their demands for food and I did not like that. Being a nomad would not allow me to improve my situation, instead, I would have to build up several different camps over the years and though I appeared fairly young I was not willing to waste time repeating the same process over and over again.
Instead, I went on hunts and tried to teach the wolves moderation, it almost failed, but they slowly got what I was trying to do. And I believe that was even slightly effective in keeping the population of elk and other animals surviving longer.
But over the first half month, it quickly became apparent that this was not going to work for a long-term solution.
Three issues had cropped up that needed to be handled in order for long-term survival in the region to be feasible and even then I may have to build up a few camps around the mountain in order for long-term survival.
Problem number one: the 30% that had left the tribe didn't care that I was trying to preserve the population for continuous living in the region and were hunting them down nonetheless.
Problem number two: there were other wolves in the region where these wolves had come from. I wasn't sure whether they had also been down in whatever valleys and plains the main group had gone to or word of the death of the alpha had somehow got out and these other tribes of wolves had smelled weakness.
Finally and this was probably the biggest issue, more of the yetis had come into the region. They had not attacked yet but they were setting up some sort of camp further up the mountains, hunting what animals they could.
If I was going to have any chance of stability in this mountain Kingdom I've been forced to take over, then I needed to remove these issues one by one. The question was how was I going to handle them in such a way that my life was not put at risk and not splinter the packs further. Pulling a similar maneuver on the other wolf packs would probably be less successful than the first pack I had taken over, at least for the first one I had some sort of reputation with mother and her two wolf pups to help sell me as a possible candidate for leadership.
If I understood how the wolves communicated completely I'd probably have the answer to this situation, as it was, I would simply have to go off assumptions, the biggest threat was probably the yeti. If they were allowed to stay, most likely more of their kind would enter the region which would embolden them against the wolves, not to mention they were confirmed maneaters, and I would not abide something that would eat me if given a chance living on the same mountain.
Of course, the wolves could always turn on me but so far they've shown remarkable loyalty and I was not willing to entertain those thoughts at the moment. I have also not seen any evidence of them eating humans. just the alpha showing distrust for them to the point it was willing to kill me.
That reaction would imply some contact with humanity at one point in their history, so the wolves were not only my best route to having a safe haven. With their understanding of the local terrain, they may one day be able to lead me to the rest of humanity on this planet.
Once the yetis were dealt with I could move against the 20 or so wolves that had left the tribe, perhaps negotiations could be opened for a division of territory that was equal or they may be brought back into the fold.
Whatever it is we need to come from a place of power and removing the yeti situation from the board would give me that place of power.
Once I had the domestic situation in hand I could turn towards the foreign wolves that were poking at the border. Hopefully they could be diplomatically dealt with, though I doubted that greatly if a fight between a newbie and an alpha was the outcome of my joining the tribe. It seems more likely that those situations would spawn an all-out battle for the mountain.
Something I would like to avoid, but Fate had not been kind to me on avoiding combat so far.
Author's note
So another chapter is here I did not expect to be putting one out but hey things went well. So let me know what you guys think on the content where you think I could improve or if I've gone off my rocker, I will update once in a while to break up how much writing effort I'm putting into the bleach stuff. I'm six chapters ahead of my editor in that and I don't think that's a good position to be in my mind should be around three at most.
Members of the Tanya discord who helped edit it this: WrandmWaffles, Pierre
