I was about to go to sleep, but after reading a review for "Comforting a Friend" I decided to make this little series. I hope you enjoy the mini series that will be called "Howling Fire" . The name might change later if I come up with a better name). It will be taking up the next couple of chapters(probably the next 4-6 chapters, depending on how I pace it. Enjoy the show!
I couldn't hear anything, I couldn't see anything, I only felt hungry. I desperately tried to move around, I was crying around. I only had my nose to guide me. I smelled something to my right, I crawled around, and then I bumped into something, a little nub. I latched onto it, and something started flowing down into my mouth. I didn't know what it was, but it tasted good, and it was filling. Next to me I felt two things on both sides, I paid them no mind, I couldn't even see or hear what they sounded like. After I was full I snuggled up with the two other beings on my sides.
I felt something deep inside burning, not in a painful way, but a pleasant way. I felt it moving, I wiggled around and discovered I had a tail, four legs, but I still couldn't move with them. I felt weak. I felt so small in comparison to what I couldn't see. I don't remember much about the following days, I spent most of the time sleeping, drinking from the nub, and sleeping some more.
Two weeks I could see, albeit my sight wasn't very good, but I could at least tell there were two blobs beside me, and two one huge blob in front of me. Only a few days after I could start hearing things! I could only hear the two blobs beside me, who I assumed were my siblings. I couldn't exactly tell why, but I felt connected to all three blobs. After the excitement of hearing and seeing had gotten old, I went back to sleeping most of the days away.
After about three weeks I was crawling around, trying to explore the small world I could see. I felt much stronger than I did when I was only a couple of hours old. Each time I strayed too far away, Mom would retrieve me, and land me on her side again. My vision had cleared up, I could hear things much better, but most of all my nose was getting even stronger. I wanted to smell everything I saw, but I couldn't get to them. I started spending much more time awake trying to move around.
I was now running around and playing with my brother and sister, we were all four weeks old, and we were having fun. Yipping and barking all the way, :you're it!" said my brother, before running to the other end of the cave. I was hot on his heels, for some weird reason I was much smaller than my siblings. Mom mostly sat at the mouth of the cave, and stopped us when we nearly walked out. We hardly ever did, our cave was home, and that's all we needed.
Just as soon as we were up and ready to play tag or wrestle, we were just as tired. We were fed Mom's milk, and then we went to sleep, only to wake up and start playing. One day Mom headed out of the den, so we were left to our own devices, we obeyed our mother's wishes, and stayed in the cave. In her own words, "I'd be worried sick if one of you got lost," and we loved her too much to make her worry.
After almost the whole day, Mom came back, and dropped something in front of us, "dinner is served," she laid down to let us get our share first. She then got up and shot fire at it! All three of us were astonished by the flames. She licked our foreheads before sitting down again. My brother was the first to try and take a bite out of it. Soon after me and my sister stepped forward and took a bit as well… it tasted even better than milk! We all chowed down until our bellies were full. Mom ate whatever was left of the food, and we all cuddled up with her when she had finished her share.
I couldn't wait to be able to shoot flames just as amazing as Mom's flames! Whenever she went out to get food, I practiced trying to shoot fire on my own, or probably wrestling with my brother. Most of the time I couldn't even shoot flames without getting really tired, sometimes I shot it instantly, and whenever I did I was excited. Mom even picked up on my desire to learn how to breath fire, and started teaching all three of us how to in her free time. By eight weeks all three of us were able to shoot flames on a dime!
Mom even started letting us cook our own food with our fire, each night we'd all take turns cooking the meat she brought home. Despite all of us being able to shoot fire, I was still much smaller than both my siblings, and Mom said I was the oldest! That meant I was the runt of my litter, I hated being the runt, whenever we'd wrestle, I could easily get pinned down due to my size. It had its upsides too, Mom paid me special attention thanks to me being a runt, and I got to get a little extra food.
One day Mom was followed into the den by a Houndoom, whose horns were raked sharply towards its neck. He was smiling, "so these are your pups, huh?" he grinned at us, "they seem pretty healthy, especially that little one," he lowered down, "have you been teaching them Ember, Whitefang?" he asked, Mom nodded, "they've been making some good progress, Alpha," he nodded, he stepped out our den, and came back with three pieces of wood, "a Houndour should be able to burn bark into ash by 16 weeks old, but these little ones look just about nine to ten weeks old."
He turned to us, "now young ones, I want each of you to try and burn these pieces of bark on your own," he set one up, and my brother was the first. He easily managed to burn it in a matter of seconds, my sister went up next, and just as easily did the same! But that made me nervous, it was my turn, and I was afraid I would underperform, "don't worry young one, if you don't do well, there's always room to grow, even I need to improve," he said with a friendly smile. That enticed me into stepping forward, and shooting an Ember at the bark… and it was burnt to ashes!
The Alpha looked bewildered, I would always remember the look on his face, "young one… you are just a runt, and yet you've shown the best performance of all the pups I've seen!" He praised me. My siblings looked at me with envy, "c'mon sis! You've gotta teach us how to do that!" they said, lowering to the ground, they wanted to play. Alpha chuckled, "now, I must be off, a newcomer wishes to challenge me for my role in leadership." Mom nodded, "I guess I'll see you in the next hunt, Damian!"