I do not own anything except most of the ideas and animal characters.
After staying up the rest of the night, everyone was calm and happy again. Amy (the dog) was curled around eight pups; Alexandra, a black dog with a white star on her forehead; Kate, a pale brown dog; Julie, a silver-grey dog; Stephanie, a silver-grey and white dog; Terri, a pale golden dog with pale green eyes; Annie, a white dog with brown eyes; Lion, a thick golden furred dog with thicker fur around his neck; and Rock, a dark grey dog with piercing blue eyes. Cobra was pressed next to her on the other side, and Thorn and Clover decided to tell their secret; now Clover was in the nursery with Amy, Blizzard, Kacey, Addie, and Emma. Blizzard had been in the nursery for a while, and the others had just joined not long ago. Kacey and Emma seemed irritable; well, more than usual. They weren't really happy about being stuck in there in the first place, so forget about having more pups in with them. The only ones that were there were Star and Tornado, than the kits, but they didn't really bother them, and if two was enough for those cranky dogs, than ten should be fun. Not to mention when they had their pups. Addie seemed pretty happy about it, though.
"I wanna play with the new puppies!" Tornado whispered into her mother's ear.
"First of all," Blizzard replied. "It's the middle of the night. Second, they're much too young. Give it a moon of two."
"But Star's boring! And the kits never play with us!"
"Hey!" Star yelped. "I heard that!"
"All I'm trying to say is, we need new playmates."
Blizzard sighed. "Not long after these pups can play, the others will be there. And then you'll want to play with them."
"Of course we will," Star spoke up. "We're pups; we won't be much longer, though."
Blizzard sighed. "Alright. But you still have to wait."
She licked Star's head. "Good night, little ones."
Rain opened her eyes. She was standing at the edge of the woods, looking out over a vast lake. It shimmered in the sunlight, making Rain feel like she never wanted to leave this place.
"Rain," A voice whispered. The grey wolf turned to see the glimmering image of a wolf with stars in her fur; she was about the same age as Rain.
"Feather," She breathed.
"Rain, listen," The spirit replied. "Look into the lake. Look into the lake and tell me what you see."
Rain nodded and stepped forward, until she was on the edge of the rock. She looked down into the water. It shimmered and an image appeared. She gasped. The young wolf saw three people—Amy and Ian, she guessed. They were a lot older now, though—and they had a little girl between them.—Their daughter?—She had dark skin, like Ian, but long, reddish brown hair and jade green eyes, like Amy's. Rain shivered. Suddenly, the image disappeared, and she was left alone with her long dead sister.
"Feather," She murmured. "What-what was that? What am I supposed to do?"
Feather shook her head. "That is for you to decide. Good luck."
Her spirit began to disappear.
"Feather, no! Don't leave me!"
It was too late. The other wolf was gone.
Rain's eyes shot open, and she was breathing heavily. She didn't feel like she had gotten any sleep. She scrambled to her paws, her head thrashing wildly from side to side. I have to find River! She thought. I need to figure out what that dream meant! "River!" Rain yowled. "River—" She yelped and tripped over her own paws. The wolf leapt back up, ready to run, but something stopped her. She looked down and gasped. On the floor, glinting in the rising sun, was a golden ring, embedded with a crystal heart. Rain cocked her head. It looked new—not like the other things in the house, old and brittle. Love can make us do crazy things… Rain glanced around at the sound of her sister's voice. Feather's sent wreathed around her, trying to tell her something. She grabbed the ring in her mouth and raced across the room.
"River!" She yelled. "River!"
River grunted and lifted her head. "Yes, Rain?"
"I had a dream…"
After Rain explained her dream to River and showed her the ring, there was an awkward silence. Rain sighed. "What do you think?" She asked.
"I think you should—er—tell Ian, I guess, and give him the ring. Maybe he'll know what to do."
Rain dipped her head, lapped up the ring, and ran to wake Ian. He was still asleep on the floor with Natalie and Amy. The wolf carefully stepped over Amy and nudged Ian.
"Ian. Ian!" She whispered.
"Huh?" He grunted. "What? I'm sleeping."
"I need to tell you something…"
Rain explained the whole story again, than dropped the ring on the floor.
"Here." She said. "Give this to Amy. It's part of the prophecy."
Ian snorted. "Like she would except that from me."
"Well? Just slip it on her finger while she's sleeping. Go! Hurry!"
"Now?"
"Yes!"
Ian snatched the ring off of the floor and carefully slipped it onto Amy's finger. I wonder what she's going to do when she finds that tomorrow. He laughed a little.
"Alright," Rain sighed. "You can go back to sleep now. I have to go check on the other Amy."
She turned and walked away. The wolf stopped when she found Amy and Cobra curled around their pups, sound asleep.
"Amy. Amy, wake up."
"Huh?" She raised her head. The lab's eyes were still half closed. "What?"
"I just wanted to check on you."
"I'm fine. We all are, thank you."
Rain dipped her head. "You're welcome."
She stayed for a moment, until Amy's deep breathing told her that the young queen was asleep. One of the pups, Alexandra, yelped in her sleep. Rain lowered her head and licked the puppy's, right where the star was. "Sweet dreams, little one," She whispered, remembering when she was a pup and Blizzard soothed her whenever Thunder had put thorns in their nest, or Willow told them a scary story about death and destruction. Rain sighed. Well, now what am I supposed to do? She wondered.
"You're not the only one awake."
The wolf jumped at the sound of Jayflight's voice. "Sorry," She said. "I didn't mean to scare you. But I just…wanted to watch the sunrise. And teach you an old lullaby my mother, Faith, sang to me."
Rain nodded eagerly. The white husky mix was an amazing singer; she had a gorgeous voice, like water.
Jayflight cleared her throat and began:
"When the mountain touches the valley
All the clouds are taught to fly
Thus our souls shall leave this land most peacefully
Though our minds be filled with questions
In our hearts we'll understand
When the river meets the sea
Like a flower that has blossomed
In the dry and barren sand
We are born and born again most gracefully
Thus the winds of time shall take us
With a sure and steady hand
When the river meets the sea
Patience, my brothers
And patience, my sons
In that sweet and final hour
Truth and justice will be done
Like a baby when it is sleeping
In its loving mother's arms
What a newborn baby dreams is a mystery
But his life will find a purpose
And in time he'll understand
When the river meets the sea
When the river meets the almighty sea"
She finished, and Rain felt a new feeling take over her. "That was…beautiful. Thank you, Jayflight."
Jayflight nodded. "Whenever I got upset, or scared, Mother would just sing that to me. Shadowstar didn't like it much—she thought it was too calm, not fighting music—but I loved it, and I soon learned the lyrics. I know two of my daughters love that song, Flower and Butterfly. Bramble's a boy—I don't expect much—and Wave; Wave is just like my sister. Kind of like the Kabras. Her pups, too. All except for Daphne. Maybe she's mine, and Wave belongs to my sister. Don't get me wrong, I love her! She's my pup! I just worry sometimes, that's all. I-I-I don't know." She looked down at her paws. "Sometimes, I doubt myself. I doubt that I took good care of my pups, and I taught them enough."
"No! No, you did a great job with them! They couldn't ask for a better mother than you! You and Blizzard, two of the most caring creatures to walk the planet! Just trust me; they'll realize how lucky they are later."
Jayflight sighed. "I hope you're right."
Rain heard a scream. "That's Natalie. I'd better go see what she wants, before she scares away all of the prey from here to the Crystal Cave."
She said good-bye to Jayflight, and saw Natalie standing over Ian as he dusted off some tile on the floor. She had tripped over Tornado, who was taunting Lightning and gotten in the way of Natalie's pacing. Amy wasn't paying attention to any of it; she was examining the ring on her finger.
"What does it say?" Natalie asked, peering over Ian to see the tile. Carved into it was a picture of an eagle with a walking stick clutched in its long talons. There was something on the end—a wolf head?—and a code beneath it. Natalie snorted. "We'll never figure that out!"
Amy was paying attention now, a confused look on her face. "Oh," She whispered, just loud enough to hear.
"What?" Natalie growled.
"N-nothing," Amy stuttered. "It's just—th-the c-c-code. It's e-easy."
"It does seem fairly easy, sister," Ian spoke up.
"Well? Don't just stand there! Read it if you're so smart!"
Ian and Amy looked at each other. Amy started:
"C-Cahill. Fly t-to the p-p-peak, retrieve the b-branch."
Natalie's jaw dropped. "How did you do that? It doesn't even look like English!"
"Natalie," Ian soothed. "It's easy. It's just the last letter put in the beginning of the word.
Natalie sniffed. "Oh. Right. Of course, I knew that. I just didn't know if you did."
Ian rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything.
"S-so, how do we g-get to this p-peak?" Amy asked, looking at the floor.
"Oh, well, I have a couple of ideas…" Ian began.