3 months later
Under the dim light of the waning moon, Jupiter traversed through the pallid blanket of snow which was only a few inches deep. The onset of winter was just approaching, and the air would slowly become colder and colder with each passing day. His appearance reflected nothing of the weather's chill; he garbed his lean, golden frame in a simple white wife beater and khaki cargo pants that were tucked into black doc martens. Boasting a gray band of tattered fabric around his left wrist might have been the only article of sparse, additional warmth he had – save for the medium sized bottle of rum gripped in his hand. Others might have condemned them for relying on such primitive, lowly ways of warming up, but frankly, Jupiter couldn't force himself to give a shit. They could freeze while he and Saturn were toasty.
Stealing was something he had become good at since leaving his homelands with his brother. It was really how they managed to survive for so long. Hounding down elusive prey like deer or boar was too bothersome. A couple times Saturn had managed to catch a rabbit, but Jupiter would always be stealing from humans. It made surviving a lot easier – which indeed, was saying a lot.
His footfalls in the snow were like bombs, crunching underfoot and shattering the cold silence of the chilly night. Jupiter found himself weaving in and out of trees and boulders, following the musky scent of his brother. Following his nose, he continued his path until possibly 20 feet from their current territory when suddenly a new musk hit his nostrils. Jupiter froze, the fine hair on the back of his neck prickling up. Dim shadows weaved in the pit of his mind, worming about in malice, threatening to rise and devour his brain altogether. The traces of that jet black fur and fiery eyes were amide them, and he nearly dropped the rum.
Jupiter's stomach tightened, his eyes darting about the dark forest in alarm.
Nothing.
He slowly let his breathing flow again, shakily but to a somewhat normal degree. He sniffed at the air again, and although the smell of his nightmares still linger, another tied into it: light and airy, the cool smell of a young female. Confusion stirred within him, and quickly he passed the marking boulder into his and Saturn's temporary camp.
"Jupiter, tell me you don't smell that," his brother immediately asked, his voice hurried with fear as he stood up. Saturn's own human frame bore a different fashion – jeans that were tight on his skinny legs, ripped up and frayed, tucked into brown doc martens with a beaten-up long sleeved black shirt under a denim vest on his torso. The frayed appearance in clothing marked several healing injuries that would've been healed fully if not for the tapering off of the moon's energies.
"Yeah," Jupiter nodded, anxiety still preying at his gut. "But it isn't him."
"I think it's one from his litter," Saturn stated, and Jupiter's heart seemed to stop for a second. He hadn't even given thought to that. Why would it be so far from home?
Jupiter leaned and sat down next to his brother.
"Why would it be here? You don't think they've migrated?" he asked, uncorking the bottle with a sharp fang.
"I don't understand why they would come here," Saturn replied, grabbing the neck of the bottle after Jupiter had taken a swig and handed it off. "You don't think they're looking for us?"
Jupiter's golden eyes searched his brother. He seemed so calm for worrying on that matter.
"I think they're looking for Chuva," he said and effectively, Saturn started up with a ruckus of choked coughing, spitting rum out onto the snow.
"But – why – they," he coughed, wiping his mouth. "She's – she must've died that night. If she - didn't don't you think she would have found - us by now?"
Jupiter let his eyes fall, the reminder of the grave assumption putting gravity on his soul like a soaked fabric. The weight would be unbearable if they had known for sure.
"Maybe she has a grudge," he said. Jupiter could feel Saturn's crisp azure gaze upon him, and finally felt the bottle's mouth nudge his shoulder. He took it by the neck and gulped the rum hastily, the warmth burning down to his belly. Saturn had opened his mouth to speak, but a sudden nearby rustling enraptured both of their attentive gazes instantly. In the dark outline of bushes afar, leaves stirred. Jupiter immediately stood upon his feet – with a swagger brought on by the warmth of rum – he recklessly pursued the oddity. Saturn stood and hung back, waiting to be called upon for immediate backup should anything present itself a threat.
The scent – now overpowered by the not unpleasant reek of youth and female – was incredibly strong. He tore open the brush with lack of hesitation and common sense and with a bolt of start into his heart, leapt back. The stupidity of intoxication had gotten him; brave enough to throw away good sense and cowardly enough to be startled by what he had suspected was beyond the brush. His dulled senses sparked a sudden joy – a white pelt, female – that was crushed by a blow of reality.
A young white wolf was indeed lying in the brush, but it was not Chuva. She didn't smell like Chuva and she was too young to be Chuva. Jupiter's overwhelming disappointment had him ready to retreat to the camp before forcing him to sober up. The runt was barely breathing and her thin frame looked emaciated; no winter pelt for warmth gave him the ability to see the small outlines of the bottom of her rib cage and her pointy shoulder blades. Jupiter slowly knelt down, studying her face. A slender muzzle that would grow to be long as she aged, slim pointed ears and large, closed eyes. She reminded him of an old wolf he had seen in his early years in the pack.
"Jupiter?" Saturn's voice rang out from behind him. Quickly he ran his hand over the runt's back, as seeing that she would not wake, he lifted her out from the bushes, deciding that she must have fainted while walking. He returned to camp to meet with Saturn's curious, nervous gaze.
"Is it alive?" he asked as Jupiter sat down again. He placed the unconscious wolf pup between him and his brother as they were situated adjacent to one another.
"Yeah," Jupiter said, grasping the bottle of rum again and drinking. Saturn gave him an eye of disbelief-mottled aggravation.
"I don't know to do with her though," he continued, "I don't know if she's even going to live."
End Prelude
Yeah, a continuation from the first chapter to some extent. I'll have the real chapters up after this one now.