Aleu and Niju

Night in the Den

Aleu's vision was hazy with slumber. The days were at their longest now, so she wasn't surprised to have fallen asleep with the sun still up. These days the sun would barely dip below the horizon before quickly rising again. However, tonight she caught a rare glimpse of the moon. It usually didn't get dark enough for her to see any more than a ghost of it in the sky, but tonight she could see its light shining into the cave. She could also see what looked to be Niju silhouetted against its light in the entrance of the den. He seemed to be lying on his belly and picking at a bone with his teeth.

She rose up, stretched and padded over to him.

"Niju? Why are you awake?" She yawned and joined his side.

"That's not your concern." He retorted while picking the bone for scraps. His massive paws twirled it as he gnawed.

"Have you been awake all night?" She ignored his typical rude response. She was still a little sleepy.

"Yes."

"Hmm. I couldn't really get comfortable so I just decided to-"

He cut her off. "That's probably because you don't bed down properly. I see you toss and roll constantly."

She started picking at some cartilage attached to a rabbit she'd killed two days prior. "So you watch me sleep? Yeah, that's not creepy." She added the eye roll just to bother him.

Niju grunted in frustration. She may be growing into an adult in some ways, but she could still act like a juvenile. "No, you fool… I hear you rolling around and sighing in your sleep- which keeps me awake. You are clearly uncomfortable."

"I don't make a bed like you do because I was never taught how. Remember my dad- or that 'mutt' as you called him? Well, he's half-wolf and sleeps on a boat with a blanket. My mom is full husky and she sleeps in a basket. There. I said it. Happy now?" Aleu looked at him with a weighted gaze.

"No. You almost got killed out there today, you may not realize it but I do. Without you the plan will be lost. Aniu must have been yon your side today." He spoke harshly.

"Well what about when you first learned to hunt, who taught you? I'm sure you must have made mistakes."

Niju frowned at her. "I didn't make any that egregious and stupid."

Aleu persisted as she saw a noticeable change in the large wolf's demeanor. "You didn't answer me. Who taught you how to hunt?"

Niju took in a breath and slowly released it. "I suppose… I just watched and learned how. Easy. Any wolf could learn. Even Sumac can do it- but he may be even worse than you. My father was supposed to teach me, but I really just learned it out of necessity." Niju paused. "Yes, now that I recall it, Sumac is certainly worse."

"… Has Sumac always been, uh, like that?" Aleu couldn't help but grin slightly upon remembering the lanky wolf and his outrageous antics. She hoped he was doing alright.

"How would I know that? I wasn't raised with him. He was born in Nava's pack."

Aleu couldn't understand why he was becoming irritated, but she could tell he was. "I guess I forgot that you were born to a different pack… Why not lead them instead?"

"They don't exist anymore." Niju paused for a moment before proceeding to keep working on his bone.

"What happened…?" Aleu asked innocently.

"Forget it."

Aleu wasn't giving up that easily. "…Did they die?" She risked asking after a moment of silence.

"I told you to drop it." Niju stared directly at her. The look on his face convinced her that this wasn't a battle she was going to win.

" Well anyways, I'm guessing you're pure wolf, aren't you? Otherwise you wouldn't be calling me a 'mutt', would you?" Aleu tried a different approach.

"Obviously. My parents were alphas. I'm not just any wolf; I've got the natural skills to lead. It is my destiny." Niju boasted.

Aleu was slightly annoyed with the arrogant tone he'd taken. As if it somehow made him better than her. "Destinies can change, you know. I think mine did." Aleu aimed to correct him.

"No it didn't. I think you were just misguided by some old-fool into believing you can claim what is rightfully mine."

"Don't forget that without me, you cannot 'claim' anything. And how dare you speak of Nava that way!" She had him there, and she knew it. He just softly growled at her. She guessed he didn't mean those harsh words against Nava, she saw how it grieved him that Nava was gone… Though his expression of it was extremely subtle.

"Niju, have you ever seen a human?" She decided to change the subject.

"No, and I don't ever plan to. I've heard of what they can do. " He said after he picked a scrimp of flesh off the bone.

"Did you know I started out with the destiny of being adopted by one?"

Now it was Niju's turn to roll his eyes. "Doesn't surprise me."

"No one wanted to adopt me and I couldn't understand why. Then my pap- I mean- father told me how I looked like a wild animal and no human would want a wild animal. I was devastated. That's how I've lived my life. I'm too much of a dog for the wild and too much of a wolf for the humans." Aleu hoped to gain his understanding.

"How tragic." His response reeked of sarcasm, and any hope of empathy seemed lost.

Sighing, Aleu got up with the intention of returning to her slumber but was surprised to hear Niju following her. She glanced behind and expected to see Niju settling into the patch of soft dirt that was his nest. Instead he came to her side.

"What is it now?" She was in a foul mood at this point.

"You did well out there today; you brought down a full caribou. You are making some improvement, despite a few setbacks." He offered.

Oh. Now he wanted to praise her. He had all day to do it, and it finally happened. Better late than never she supposed.

"Well… Thanks." Aleu went to sit down in her usual spot.

"Here… I'll show you how to bed down. " Aleu hopped up at those words.

"Oh! Great- how does it work?" She jumped about excitedly like a pup.

"Just take your paws like me…" His large paw stamped into the dirt that she had been resting on. His large claws made tracks in the dirt. Her smaller paw was about half his size as evidenced by the tracks in the dirt. "And keep digging in the dirt, but not too deep. I am trying to stir the dirt up, not dig a hole." She followed what he was doing until she'd made herself a nice patch of soft and loose dirt.

"I suppose it's alright for your first try, personally I wouldn't want mine so deep."

She finally bedded down in her patch and he circled around a few times before settling into his. "Niju? I think I'm ready for the pack tomorrow."

She was disappointed to hear Niju's sneer. "I didn't give you a little praise for you to run off with it! I never said you were ready for that. Leading hunts is a very special position. You'll need to bring down a bull caribou before I can say you're on my level and worthy of such a position."

Aleu felt color rise in her furry cheeks. He was really an arrogant ass for a majority of the time. "I'll show you…Bulls aren't so tough. I could do that- easy."

" You foolish mutt, you got knocked down by a granny cow. I'd love to see what that bull would do to you." Niju snickered as he lay on his side.

"But we haven't got much time, the clan needs us…" Aleu was frustrated.

"Don't try to tell me what the clan needs. You haven't a clue. If you want to prove yourself to the clan, you'll need to bring down a bull at least."

"No I don't… Why would I need to do that?" Aleu demanded in her anger.

"Because it's the tradition, you fool! It is customary that all hunt leaders must have killed a bull caribou." Niju roared back.

"Yeah but, the elders didn't seem to care about that. Desperate times call for desperate measures."

"That may be so, but the elders will not be impressed enough to step aside without a big kill by you alone. If you make a big kill and lead the pack to feast, that will bring you back into favor and give you a position to ask the elders to step aside."

"Hmm… Okay. That sounds promising." Aleu thought it over.

"I've taught you how to hunt, but I never taught you how to lead a hunt. That's what you really need to know." Niju was toying with her.

"Well that will be the first thing you teach me tomorrow!"

"Not so fast mutt, we only have one chance for this to work. I need to be sure you will not fail… I'll only teach you that after you kill your first bull. You're a ways off from that." She could hear Niju's smug grin through his words.

"How far exactly?" She was frantic to get this over with and move on with her life, it was showing in her tone.

" I'd say a few young moose and caribou cows off for starters, your technique needs much more work before I'd even try going for a caribou bull." He replied with his usual arrogance.

Aleu couldn't take any more his tone and leapt up. "You're holding me back on purpose! I can do this; you just don't want to see me succeed, do you?! You like having this power over me! You're afraid that if I succeed that you'll lose your authority over me?"

"How dare you speak to me that way you insolent mutt!" Niju was now on his feet as well.

"I know why you're a loner now… No pack can stand you! Your only friends and followers are complete idiots. I bet your parents probably left you on purpose…Maybe if you weren't such a jerk, I'd have enough pity to feel bad for you!" Aleu was really getting herself on a roll now.

But she wasn't quite finished. "I'll go get the bull; I'll bring you his head so you can eat your words!" She finally finished with enough fervor to leave herself gasping for breath.

Niju was nearly expressionless. He strode up to her and leaned into her face. Aleu had seen him in many different shades of anger, but this was a new one. This was pure wrathful and barely constrained anger.

" ." It was all he could manage to grit out. He didn't attack her or make any move to do so. Aleu knew what he was capable of but she wasn't spoiling for a fight. It would have been a waste of her energy, energy that she should be using to help the clan. The sun was rising up as Aleu ran out of the den.

She turned to face back to the entrance and saw Niju standing in the entrance. Her little outburst seemed to do more damage than she meant it to. She just wanted to get under his skin a bit. She hadn't meant to actually take it that far… There were some things she said that she didn't totally mean… Maybe. "Niju I- I'll get that bull, and the pack will be following me again… You'll see."

His words were like the terminal frost on this warm summer morning. "Kill the bull or be killed… I don't care. You were just means to an end. I'll make my own way."

He turned his back to her but still spoke softly. "Unlike you, my life has purpose."

Aleu had grown strangely close to Niju in the last season, and his words stung deeper than she'd like to admit. She turned to run with one purpose in mind: kill the bull.

*** A/N little something for you guys to nibble on. Next chapter is gonna be longer. Attitudes will begin to change for the better I promise. :]