"Bandit, we need to go now!" Phoenix's deep yell is barely audible over the frantic howls and barks of wolves from the pack racing back and forth, desperately trying to evacuate. "If there is a pyroclastic flow, getting on the road to safety sooner rather than later is the best idea!" His voice becomes muffled as his jaws clamp roughly on Cloud's scruff of fat on his neck. I frantically search around the den, grabbing anything that I think is valuable. I snatch a small bone that my mother had carved a bedtime story into for me which she had also read for my brothers when they were younger.
"Here," I say as I hand it to Shadow, "and I swear, you lose it, I'll kill you." Shadow barely pays attention as he stares out towards the billowing smoke wide-eyed. He slowly bends his head down and picks the small rabbit bone in his jaws just after he comes out of the volcano's hypnotization.
"Hey, I remember this story! It was all about a wolf named Scarlet who was born with wings and—" I cut his sentence short as I replicate Phoenix's motions by picking him up. "Ouch," he says, annoyed.
"Yeah, well if we get caught by the flow, then it will be more than an 'ouch'," I say in a subdued voice. Shadow moans and grunts as I swing him around with my head, searching for a place of sanity to hide and run away from reality. Wolves are sweeping left and right, their coats just a blur of color. Some may not even be aware of the news since it was nearing the time to go to sleep.
"Bandit," Phoenix barks, "we'll go this way—eastward." I drop Shadow beside me and follow him without questioning as I dodge the oncoming wolves who also have pups dangling out of their mouths. Nobody knows where to go. And nobody seems to think that fleeing is the answer to escaping the volcano's wrath. I take one more glance at Amethyst Mountain. My home. I look up as movement catches my eye. White specks begin to fall closer. And closer.
"Snow?" Shadow asks.
"No. No, that is definitely not snow," I say as panic floods throughout my body. Adrenaline courses through my veins in sharp spurts as the sulfuric scent becomes stronger and stronger within each passing millisecond. Boom. The noise tantalizes my ears. "What's happening?" I ask as we begin to move at a brisk trot, slow enough to let Shadow and Cloud stay with us comfortably.
"I don't know, but I think it is best if we don't find out," Phoenix says in a rushed matter as he picks up his pace. Shadow begins to quicken his trot until he's almost galloping. Cloud begins to wheeze as the ash touches the tender, dried grass. He stumbles as he runs. I focus back onto the deer trail that we have decided to follow. I leap over a large root as I hear a squeal. Cloud's paw becomes lodged in the root, his face burrowed into the soil. Shadow paces around, looking for a way to help.
"Help!" Cloud yells. I wheel around and begin to tug at the root. Suddenly I stop as a new smell reaches my nostrils—the scent of scorched bodies. Something doesn't make sense. How could we be able to smell that when…? My questioning is answered as a wall of lava ash and smoke and who knows what else comes barreling down Amethyst Mountain—towards us. I whimper as I try to break Cloud free. Phoenix paws at the dirt, trying to give Cloud's paw enough room to withdraw so he can escape.
"It's like, no use," Cloud says with tear-filled eyes. "I wouldn't like be able to keep up anyways. Like, go! Save yourselves! Please. Like, I love you. I don't want you to die," he says between sobs. I glance up at the tumbling wave of lava that is racing down the mountain. "GO!" Cloud screams. I fight back tears as I begin to feel nauseous. My stomach tumults as roughly as the flow. I want to hurl, but I keep it down as we keep running. Everybody from the Specimen pack, who stayed, that is, is dead. Now Cloud will be to… A pain-filled howl erupts the air as we sprint away from the disaster. God, Cloud. I shut my eyes as I run behind Phoenix, Shadow clamped firmly between my jaws. The ash begins to settle into a fine layer on the now invisible grass. It feels like stones between my paws as I run. The minute rocks continue to fall as we race through Lamar Valley. Some of them are shaped differently. Like ash from a forest fire. But I'm not worried about what I'm breathing anymore, it's who. This oddly shaped ash is from scalded wolves, the reeking scent of it lets me know.
The noise of the flow softens as we journey out into a small opening between the tightly-knit trees where the Lamar River is cutting through. Ash is beginning to pollute the waterway already. I drink hastily, my parched throat greedily urging me to keep drinking, even though my brain says no, it's not safe. The volcanic ash is barely noticeable, but I know that it is getting into me. There is no way out. We are all going to die, even if we did escape the pyroclastic flow, there is still the ash. Why did the volcano have to erupt now? Why me? Why Phoenix? Why were Cloud and my mother dead? My life had only delivered to me a series of most unfortunate events, and now it is giving me death on a silver—rather, ashen, platter. Furious thoughts swirl around in my head as the crisp water becomes more and more distasteful. I lurch back as a cumulated chunk of ash enters my mouth. I spit it out, my tongue lolling out of the side of my jaws as I back up, lifting one leg high, revolted. That's when I look down and notice something horrible. There is at least one twelfth of a whinx of ash layered beneath my paws. Phoenix finishes drinking and looks at me, something short of aversion and angst reflected in his hollowing golden eyes. They tell me what he is thinking. "There is no way out. We will never be together like we thought. The perfect den, the perfect pups… all of it was a dream that would one day become a reality until today where it was slivered in half by the eruption. It's the sharp knife of a short life. A short life that we can't stop. The end is unavoidable. Imminent. Impending. Inescapable. Unalterable. I love you, Bandit, but I may never live another day to tell you that." I know that he hasn't actually spoken words, but tears well up in my eyes anyway. I push my muzzle into his fur, my body leaning against his.
"I love you," I say, my nose quivering as tears run down my cheeks. Shadow doesn't move to make a smart comment, or say that I should just save it because we're going to die, and things will no longer matter. He just sits there like a statue and stares at us, his own eyes big and… teary? I can't help but flicker a smile at my little brother crying about this. But that quickly fades as Phoenix withdraws—my sanctuary is gone.
"We need to go," he says, his eyes avoiding mine. Is he scared? Of course he is, but is he scared of me? I can't tell. Maybe he is scared, because becoming my mate meant he would—and will—protect me, but he knows he can't protect me from this. Pain wallops my heart as I reluctantly move onwards. Shadow presses between us as the ash fall quickens its pace. A thin layer forms on my back. Moving becomes hard and my back feels like a stiff board. I can't help but wonder how we're even alive still. But Cloud isn't. He's dead. Burnt right to a crisp, and it was just to save us. Knowing that I'm still alive because Cloud practically sacrificed himself and told us to go on makes me feel worse. We're going to die anyways, he shouldn't have spared his life. I could only begin to think of how painful that must have felt.
"How could I do that?!" I yell. Phoenix looks back, shocked.
"Do what?" He coughs, his golden fur a sanded grey.
"I let Cloud die. Think of that pup enduring that much pain. Several hundred degrees!" I scream. It doesn't make sense, not really, but I don't know how else to get my anger out. More hatred towards myself and everything else builds up within me the more I think about it.
"At least it was quick, Bandit," Phoenix unsuccessfully tries to calm me down. But I just get more riled up, like he is purposefully egging me on.
"QUICK? QUICK! What do you mean quick?! Think of the scolding flames coming at you, the lava ebbing at your hind paws. Then before you know it, the lava ash and hmm…" I let my sentence trail as I glance at Shadow, a rumble my throat as I let the word die. "…is up to your head, and you are enveloped in it all! Then you are burned alive! It doesn't matter about quick!" Phoenix keeps walking, but I can sense him searching for an answer. But he won't find one, and if he does, I'll keep going.
"Why are you doing this?" Oh my God. Seriously. But then I let it sink in. Why was I? We were all going to die, we already knew that. So why did I bother to make our last day or possibly days suck? I let out a blustery sigh.
"I don't know," I mutter. Nobody says anything after that. We just keep trekking through the ash as it continues to fall and build up. Shadow continues to cough throughout the next hour, his little body shivering with hopelessness. More anger froths inside of me as I think back. I wish that I could've sensed this coming, after all, there was the landslide and all this other stuff that happened…. Yet nobody had the faintest clue. But if I had, then mother and Cloud would still be alive. We wouldn't be about to die, and then everybody in the pack would still be alive, too. As we walk on, I cannot help but blame myself for this misfortune.
"Did," Cloud coughs, "you hear," he hacks again, "that." His voice is crusty and withered. I flinch every time he talks. I wish he hadn't. His voice sounds so awful. Phoenix nods and I don't bother answering, but I do turn around towards the source of the noise. Now there isn't just one mushroom of ash, but a second one is floating towards the sky. Two vents open, and the cloud of ash is still lingering over our heads. All I need to do now is multiply one vent by five, and I'll get the outcome. Dead. One hundred percent. Maybe Cloud's death wasn't that bad, after all, we have to suffocate in ash. But the one thought that continues to echo through my head is: One down, three to go.
A/N: 2 vents open. Double the trouble. What will happen next? You won't know until there is 1 more review!