Well well well... What do we have here again? Or better, WHO do we have here again?
Yeah, it's me... Happy? No? Well gotta a few words for you if you're not happy... Contact me in PM :P
Anyways, here's chapter 27... Hope you will like what I wrote... *thinking a bit* No... I just come to the conclusion that you HAVE to like my work...
Ahah, just kidding... However, please...
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Chapter 27: Low Down Showdown
GRIN's P.O.V.
I feel like a crap… I just assisted to the death of a my dear friend… A friend who inexplicably felt a sudden hatred towards me… I just stared to a fixed point on the horizon… I really couldn't do anything else, the weight of what had just happened really overhung me… I felt as if I had lost an important part of my person, irretrievably gone away with him…
I think Garth could feel my being down and depressed while he climbed the rocky wall… If it was he was dragging a lifeless body up the wall, and not a live wolf…
I kept holding on his neck with a paw, almost dangling when he moved deftly and expertly between a foothold to another, in such a way as not to create a kickback that could be fatal for me… I could see with the corner of my eye his gaze looking around for a firm pawhold capable of being able to sustain both our weights… And amazingly he's not missed a shot, always choosing the right way to go up…
Telling the truth, I was a bit scared about this chosen workaround, but I could see that, as we continued to ascent, I was gaining more and more confidence in him…
Thinking about what happened before, I didn't realize we were almost reached our destination, the top of the cliff…
I was suddenly focused on trying to search the words to explain to the mass of onlookers wolves what had happened… But the truth is that even I was not aware of what happened… And especially why it happened.
Tabula rasa. Nothing. I tried to squeeze my brain harder, but the more I tried to squeeze it more I felt my thoughts leaving me, abandoning myself to a sad and lonely destiny…
Finally we get on the solid ground… But before even being able to touch the ground and feel the earthy rock under my good feet, I could feel someone grabbing me for the scruff and pulling me off Garth, throwing me violently to the ground, making me bump the hard ground with my injured paw, wailing loudly for an enormous wave of violent pain and contract achingly to the ground…
Garth didn't have the time to intervene because obviously the climb had nearly exhausted him, and I could hear him panting heavily…
After I recovered a little from the shock of my painful limb, I could see all the wolves standing in the middle, completely surrounded by all the wolves there, and there was one of them standing before me, with its teeth bared threateningly, tears flowing profusely from its eyes, its paws with claws unsheated slaying the soil beneath them in a fit of extreme anger…
Its eyes were begging for a single thing: Revenge… Revenge for something.
I was shocked, stunned, speechless to find that wolf before me, not really knowing the motivation of all this…
I was exhausted, my patience reached the limit… I could not defenitely stand to be groping in the dark… I recollect all my courage and looked at that wolf, almost screaming
"CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN ME WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING THERE…? IT HAS PASSED JUST A SINGLE DAY THAT I'M HERE, AND YET TWO OF YOU WANT TO THREATEN ME…! Have I done something wrong…? Did I miss something…? Please, tell me…"
The wolf standing before me was non other than… Pia. She grabbed me for the scruff and threw me away.
I could see her nose wrinkling even more when I said her these things, and other wolves just confabulating among them…Without anyone intervening to stop all this…Mess.
I could see her narrowing her eyes and groping to clear her throat, perhaps with the intention of speaking…
Maybe finally I could get a valid response to these strange attitudes and treatments…
I turned slighly my head while being lying almost still on the ground, partially unable to move due to my probabily broken paw, to see Maya still crying for Wilson's death… But she was petrified too…Perhaps even she didn't know too why her best friend was behaving in such a way towards me… I could see her ears twitching a bit, as if she wanted to know what she had to say…
Pia then starts to talk.
"YOU… YOU TWO ARE THE MAIN REASONS THAT DROVE HIM TO SUICIDE…! "
A rise of murmurs could be heard from the crowd around us. I was shocked… I already heard these words from Wilson himself, but I still didn't understand why and how I drove him to suicide!
Pia continued, turning his gaze veiled by tears to Maya "DIDN'T YOU NOTICE ANY WILSON'S BEHAVIOUR AROUND YOU, MAYA?"
I looked towards Maya who was staring into nothingness with an incredulous face, thinking to Wilson's behaviours… and she answered back "You know he was my best friend…I know him since we were pup… But why do you ask me this ?"
"BECAUSE YOU WERE SO BLIND AND STUPID TO NOT NOTICE HE LOVED YOU! " Pia thundered, clawing roughly the ground. Silence fell on the group of wolves.
My eyes widened in realization: Wilson secretely loved Maya. I blinked my eyes several times, as if everything was just the worst nightmare i've ever had in my life.
I tried to speech some words to Pia… "B-but… W-why didn't he told me… Anything?
In that moment, the Alpha Leader couple, Kate and Humphrey, reached the site of the debate, and Pia shouted me back in extreme rage.
"BECAUSE HE SAW MAYA'S EXPRESSION WHEN SHE TALKED ABOUT YOU, GRIN… SHE HAS AN EXPRESSION OF PURE HAPPINESS AND CONTENTMENT… SOMETHING THAT ONLY LOVE BRINGS… AND HE SWORE TO HIMSELF THAT HE WOULD HAVE DONE ANYTHING TO MAKE YOU HAPPY… EVEN STEP ASIDE TO ALLOW YOU TO REACH HAPPINESS AND LOVE… BUT HE CANNOT BEAR SEEING YOU TWO TOGETHER… SEEING THE ONLY WOLF HE LOVED MORE THAN HIMSELF WITH ANOTHER WOLF…!"
How have I been so blind to not notice that all his protectiveness toward Maya wasn't only an expression of brotherly love… But something more…? Why didn't he tell me about his crush towards Maya…?
I could hear some gasping sounds coming from behind me… I turned to see Humphrey and Kate standing and looking towards me with a confused and surprised face… I turned slighly my head to see Maya blushing madly, because now everyone knows about her feelings about me.
Man… I mean I didn't have a chance to stay with her that her parents knew about our mutual feelings… That was terrible… Surely I'm going to have to deal with this awkward situation… But not now…
I have to do something more important…I have to regain Pia's trust, in a way or another…
I looked in her eyes, with a distressed but sincere look, and I start talking.
"Pia, I'm so sorry… I never wanted this end like this… I never wanted him to try to kill himself, nor being killed because he tried to kill me…If I had known, we could have solved this thing in a totally different way… I feel so guilty about this…"
I lowered my muzzle in shame, but I got from her a reaction I never suspected she would have… She growled even louder and she ended her speech, saying:
"EXACTLY… IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT IF WILSON… THE WOLF I LOVE… DIED…" and she smiled evilly saying the last part "…AND I WOULD HAVE BEEN REALLY HAPPY IF HE WOULD HAVE KILLED YOU… BUT DON'T WORRY, I'M GONNA FINISH THE WORK HE STARTED…"
The crowd let out a collective gasp, shocked by the reaction of the young she-wolf… But one wolf knew very well the position that it have to take between the two parties…
Maya stepped before me… A helpless and hurt wolf… Hurt both physically and mentally… She stepped to defend me… She assumed a protective stance, slightly baring her teeth towards her bestfriend… I could see Kate and Humphrey's faces completely astonished… They've never seen her daughter being so determined… They should guess that I really mean something to her…
But while I was looking at them, I was surmounted by a giant shadow of a wolf that interposed itself in between me and the menacing she-wolf… I looked at it and I could see Garth, with all his massive build, nodding to me, nuzzling his niece and saying "Well done, Maya… You've just proved me you really got guts… Fighting for someone you care about is one of the most pure and noble gestures you can do for him… I'm really impressed…" He turned to face a bit scared Pia, saying to her "…And, after all, I just sweated like a mule to save him, and now you're just menacing him to kill him…! I cannot let you do that, young lady. " And he put himself in a defense stance, too…
Then other three wolves advanced to protect me… Kate, Humphrey and Oya, and she said: "I cannot let you hurt… my and Valen's son… I would not ever forgive myself for that!" Her eyes twitched a bit in wrath…
I cannot help but…Being grateful. Grateful for the fact that someone cares about me… And is willing to fight for me… I felt so happy that I was almost on the verge of tears…
I could see other wolves around me whispering something to each others…
Humphrey coughs and looks to Kate and Garth, and begins to talk solemnly:
"Well, I think that implicitly a decision has been taken by us, the Leader of the United Pack… We judged all the acts we see in front of us… And we decided to judge Grin not guilty for the consequences that have occurred… But about you…" He turned his gaze to Pia, that was becoming more and more frightened and losing all of her violent swagger
"You…Close friend of my daughter… Never suspected you could show such malice and desire to kill… A member of the pack… A brother… A friend…" He turned his glance to Garth, who nodded and continue his speech "You know rules of Pack's Ancients… "Every wolf who attempts to kill one of his/her brothers must be expelled from the community… And if it does not cooperate peaceably, it must be turned away with the force… And if it still resists… Be sentenced to… Death. So… Last choice is yours, young lady."
Wolves fell silent… Some of them did not agree to this decision, other ones instead agreed… But they knew they have to respect Alpha Leader's decisions, and they ordered Pia to leave… To never coming back here again.
I could see Pia start back slowly… Tears in her eyes… She then turned to me and said: "You're gonna pay for all this… I swear…" And she began to run into a random direction, determined to run away from that place…
I closed my eyes, sighing in bitterness, but soon I was knocked and pinned down by a ball of ormolu-like fur, and I could feel starts crying into my fur… I pulled her close to me and whispered in her ear…
"Maya…I love you…" and I could feel each single eye of the present wolves fall upon us…
Maya's tail began to wag furiously and she raised her muzzle, looking at me with her light cerulean eyes…
"I-i… Love you too… Grin" She said back, smiling to me… With a smile that could melt the coldest and darkest of hearts.
In that moment… I swear I was the happiest wolf in the entire Universe.