A/N: I would like to give a shout out to Supervolcano (The 2 episode docudrama) for greatly inspiring my choices on what events happen (Rockslide, Crevasse, Geyser, etc.) before the Yellowstone Caldera bursts open.
"She's gone… she's… she's dead."
"How—how did she die?" I ask Corvor as the pack begins to disperse and head back to their dens to sleep.
"An earthquake—"
"But I thought that there weren't quakes here?"
"There are. You've just been lucky enough not to experience one besides the landslide that was the result of one." His voice is tough, and almost angry. "It was a freak accident," he continues. "There was an earthquake. The land just… split. Your mother was on the rocks that fissured. It just came apart like teeth ripping into a carcass… She tried to jump. Her paws even hooked onto the stable land. But we weren't fast enough to help her. More land broke apart and fell down the crevasse, and before we knew it, bang… she was gone."
"Couldn't she still be alive?" I ask, my eyes searching his for answers.
"Most likely, no. That drop could have been hundreds of whinxes down for all we know. I'm sorry, kid," he says as he turns away, his paw rising to his face. He walks off.
Pain shoots through me like a volley of hunter's bullets. I feel worthless, like there is barely a point of living. God, if it weren't for Phoenix and my brothers, I would probably kill myself. Emptiness steals my heart. My gut suddenly becomes a swirling river, and I can sense bile rising to my mouth. My father is gone, and probably dead, and now my mom is, too. Who will it be next? Me? My brothers? Skhala, Cherry, Liko, or Phoenix?
I cough as I force my breath out, my nose becoming stuffy. I shake my head, the cloudiness slowly leaving. I need to focus on Shadow and Cloud more than anything, now. It's my job that I never do, because mom is—was—around. And I won't let them die. I'll be able to be sure of that when they're by my side every second of the day and night. Corvor begins to stride away.
"Wait!" I say. "What happened to my father? I have right to know, now that my mother's dead, and everyone refused to tell me." It seems too hard for Corvor to say, his mouth is slightly open. He knows what to say, but he doesn't want to say it. "Tell me," I practically demand. His brows scrunch in anger before he makes his face relax.
"I—we forced him out."
"Why?"
"He and your mother weren't supposed to have pups, and we don't believe in sending away the mother and pups to die. So we went with the alternate choice. We sent him away. I have no idea if he's alive or not—"
"Is that why my name's Bandit?" I cut in, "Because my dad's like—an outlaw? Was it some sort of thing that…" I let my voice trail, not sure of what I'm asking exactly.
"Yes," Corvor answers, "that's why you were named Bandit." He turns away and heads towards his own den. I look back at Phoenix and I bury my head into his fur. He smells like spring does. Like the mountain air and fresh grass. He walks me over towards my den as I sway back and forth, my head dizzy.
"Are you going to be okay?" Phoenix asks as I lay down in the den. I shake my head.
"I'm never… never," my voice breaks. Tears roll down my face like the floodgates of heaven have opened. "I'm never going to see her again." Phoenix licks my head gently as I continue. "And… and I never really saw my dad…. How the hell am I supposed to care for my brothers?" I look at him with a tear-streaked face.
"I can help you, Bandit. You're not alone."
His words cascade over me with new meaning. I'm not alone. I have him, and even though I have to take care of them, I have my brothers. We can all help each other.
"Shadow, Cloud," I yell shakily to the pups. They come over, but not in their usual prancing way, but sullenly. Their paws scrape the ground as their lowered heads enter the den.
"What's he like, doing here?" Cloud asks, his voice empty. I look at Phoenix. I don't want him to leave, but…
"I'll… just go now," Phoenix says awkwardly as he slinks out of the den. His golden body disappears into the darkening forest. I peer over my shoulder and see a saddening scene. Both boys are weeping silently, their little shoulders vibrating mercilessly.
"Hey," I say to them. They look up and immediately come towards me, wiping their little tears on my fur. They lay down in between my outstretched front legs. I rest my chin gently on their backs.
I stare aimlessly off into nowhere as my stomach tumults over itself. I refuse to hurl, and I lay there for a good hour while my stomach summersaults.
"Mom!" I yell as I feel vibrations echo upwards from the ground. "Mom, get out of there!" I run forwards, towards her. The pack stays behind me, nervous and afraid of the devastating event happening before them.
"Go back! Bandit, listen to me," she pleads. I make a hard stop, just a sixth of a whinx away from the edge of the cliff. No! The rocks spread apart. She leaps, her legs flinging herself across the gap and towards the stable land. She tries to pull herself up, her muscles in her fore legs bulging as she begins to clamber up. Everything begins to slide down into the crevasse, rocks, pebbles, dirt… and my mother.
"Mom! No… No!" I scream into the new canyon as I see her disappear into the haze of debris. My heart throbs harder than my head does as I pace back and forth. My life is suddenly meaningless. My heart is empty. There is no reason to remain alive. My soul is becoming crushed with despair.
I shake violently as I collapse onto the ground, my paws hanging over the edge as I look down. Everything becomes wavy and distorted. I force myself back onto my feet. Too much loss… too much loss…. The thought rings in my head over and over until I make the jump into the canyon to join my mother. The air rushes past my face, blowing my fur around wildly. I can see her body below me as I fall through the miasma. The ground becomes closer every second. My paw hits the ground first, and I can feel a crack grow along my bone all the way up to my shoulder. My head greets the ground, and the earsplitting thump of my body landing envelopes all other sounds. I can feel the warm, hot blood race from my fractured skull. The sappy liquid spills from my stomach, pooling on the biscuit-colored rocks. I make a last attempt to see my mother. Her fur is coated with crimson, just like mine. And soon she will see me, too, when I join her in the sky.
My breath rattles as my body fights for life. But my mind combats against it. I've never been more ready to die. Blackness feeds at the edge of my vision, slowly gaining more and more ground. Soon I can only see a small flicker of light from the sun's rays peeking through the dust cloud. Then the lights are turned off, and I am plunged into a world of darkness. I feel peaceful as my heart beats slower and slower, and my chest fails to rise any longer. My swirling thoughts are put to rest. I'm finally free of the thought of forever losing my mother. Now I can never fear of her demise again.
My eyes snap open. Small streaks of light pour in from the den's entrance. Cloud and Shadow are still curled up underneath my chin, resting soundlessly. I try not to wake them as I get up and walk out of the den. Skhala and the others are hanging out in the clearing. I decide to talk to them and make up for the other day.
"I'm sorry," I say to Skhala as I near, my voice weak and feeble.
"Don't say that," she whispers as she puts her paw on my shoulder. "That's not something we need to worry about."
"I never got to say goodbye!" I break down again. God, I just can't pull myself together. "Just one more day to say goodbye. To see her again. To say sorry for all of those times I was a brat. Or annoying." Tears roll down my cheeks as I sob, my chest heaving as I breathe. Cherry moves closer and I gently press my head against her. Liko stays where she is. I don't blame her. I probably look awful. I try to calm down, but sadness sears across my body in painful shockwaves. My chest is empty as if somebody grabbed everything out of it, and my gut feels hollow. The point of living becomes fuzzy and distorted. My firm belief on everything falters, and suddenly I'm plunged into a world that doesn't make sense. The only thing that matters is Phoenix and I, and no longer do I care what other wolves think about us. He's mine and I'm his, and no opinions will strengthen nor destroy that fact.
"Shhh… Shhh," Skhala tries to calm me as she strokes my fur with her light tongue. My ears flatten as the hissing noise reaches them. It was just like what my mom did when I was upset. I can't bear anything doing with my mom. I back up like a grihl animal and I run off towards the general direction of Phoenix's den, trying to search for a wolf that wouldn't create connections to what would remind me of my mother but who will still comfort me. My heart pounds as memories that I have been trying to block come flooding into my mind.
Phoenix looks into my pained eyes and immediately gets up, his golden eyes searching.
"Bandit? Are you okay?" Phoenix asks worriedly. I shake my head as I burrow my head into his fur, desperately trying to find refuge, again, from everything and everyone. His calm, soothing, steady heart beat calms me. Warmth radiates past his fur towards my face. I breathe out shakily as I back up and look into his soft, caring eyes.
"I'm fine at one point," my voice breaks again as I let out a puff of held-up air, "and then the next second, I'm crying. I hate it." Phoenix lets out a light sigh as he caresses my forehead with his tongue. I follow him slowly as we walk towards the south-west part of the mountain. My eyes settle on Norris Geyser Basin as Phoenix speaks soothingly to me. His words are blurred and bent. Not understandable. I lean against him as I try to focus on Norris, and away from reality. I try to focus on marveling at its beauty and uniqueness of all of the other features surrounding it. I look across Yellowstone as Phoenix continues to speak inaudibly to me. I look across the rolling voids that are filled with just pines that stretch all the way up Amethyst Mountain.
"—just focus on the good things," I hear him say as I finally return to life. I nod as if I was following along the whole time. Phoenix smiles and presses his nose against my cheek. I give a slight smile as I return my love to him by giving him a lick.
"Phoenix, I—" my words are cut short as the rustling of leaves comes from behind us. We wheel around, and once again meet the devil's eyes. Taigo's eyes.
"I can't believe you, Phoenix! What happened to us? Why are you with her? C'mon. We're going to talk," she says fiercely. Phoenix glances at me.
"There's nothing to talk about, Taigo. You know nothing was working out."
"What do you mean? We were in love. We are in love," she says, her face contorts into a confused expression.
"No. You're wrong," I jump in. Her eyes widen as she looks me up and down like I was a rat that had appeared in her den.
"Shut your mouth, mutt!"
"Maybe you should shut yours," Phoenix barks angrily as he steps forward. "Mutt," he adds after a split second. The young alpha's mouth opens in shock.
"Excuse me?"
"We're mates," Phoenix says, his head rising as he talks.
"You and that—"
"Beautiful, young, nice wolf? Yes," Phoenix says as he nuzzles me. Taigo growls and paces, trying to find a way to try to erase the last few words that Phoenix has spoken, but she knows that there's no way that that's even possible. She huffs and then walks away, probably off to tell Corvor. The second smile I have given today comes out in full force as I look into Phoenix's eyes. "We showed her," he says with a large grin.
"No, you did," I say. I pause before mentioning, "See? Now I'm fine."
"Because you're strong, and you can fight your pain and despair," he says. I giggle a little as my face grows hot. Maybe it was just him that made me feel different. Maybe it's because I know I won't lose him. I can't. "Oh God."
"Wha—" I'm about to ask, but I follow his gaze and find my answer. The Norris Geyser is exploding frothing, steaming-hot water into the air. Much higher and ferociously than ever before. "What the….?" I let my sentence trail. Phoenix just shakes his head as he tries to understand. Its wrath finally dies down after several minutes.
"Phoenix?"
"Hmm?" he utters from his throat, his eyes studying the landscape.
"It's like the Norris Geyser is reflecting how I feel. It blows up, just to calm down again…." The thought is far-away and very strange. It is the thought worthy of a grihl wolf, but I believe in what I said fully. That was the tears of the Norris Geyser, just like my tears had fallen. And now we're both better again.
A/N: Oh, the irony. Nobody will be better for long! It's so fun to not have Bandit understand the trueness behind to Norris Geyser's fury. She has no clue what's about to unfold. Keep reading to see what happens next in the relatively small catastrophes that lead up to the biggest cataclysmic event in wolf history!
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Sorry about the fast-changing emotions, but if you think about it, it's sort of accurate. Wolves/dogs mourn in a way, but if a wolf is with its mate, then it's going to feel differently. Tell me if you disagree, and think that I should keep a more even-paced emotion.
Reviews are greatly appreciated.