Chapter 6: New Faces and A History Lesson

AN: Sorry for not posting sooner ive just had alot to do lately.

Nikoli decided to speak while they waited for Kodiak to return with the others "Well my friend, while we wait for the others to return I would like to introduce my self. My name is Nikoli, I am the squad's leader." "Nice to meet you Nikoli." Humphrey replied

Nikoli was a large wolf with a black body and a white underside and face and grey eyes. He had noticeable scars all over his body, probably from other fights like the one that happen only half an hour ago. He also had a scar starting from above his eye and running down all the way to his nose. If it wasn't for the obvious size difference, scars, and the Russian accent, Nikoli would remind Humphrey of Hutch.

"Ahh there you are." Nikoli said as Kodiak approached with Anya and Andrey in tow.

Kodiak approached Humphrey first and said "As you already know my name is Kodiak and it is a pleasure to meet you comrad. I am the squads scout and second in command." Humphrey nodded.

Kodiak was a large well muscled pure brown wolf with amber eyes. The way he spoke, with great confidence, reminded him of the person he hated the most, Garth.

The next wolf to speak was Anya "My name is Anya, I am the squads tracker, give me a scent and I can track it for miles. It is nice to meet you Humphrey, my brother Kodiak told us all about you." "Nice to meet you to Anya." replied Humphrey

When he heard Anya call Kodiak Brother, Humphrey now knew why Kodiak had said he would rather die than lose her and with that Humphrey felt almost relieved. Anya was a beautiful pure white wolf with ice blue eyes like Humphrey's but right now they were rimed with red, it was obvius that she had been crying. She wasn't as big as the other Russian wolves, in fact she was as big as Humphrey.

That last wolf to speak was Andrey and he wasn't very happy "My name is Andrey and I am the team's assassin and I don't think you should even be alive right now outsider. You don't deserve to take my brother's place."

"That is enough Andrey, now return to the territory." commanded Nikoli. Andrey obeyed and stormed off with Kodiak and Anya following trying to calm him down.

"I am sorry my friend, its just since he recently lost his brother, he hasen't been the same." said Nikoli to Humphrey.

"It's ok, his brother must have really mean't alot to him." replied Humphrey in a sympathetic tone.

"His brother was all he had ever since his parents died in the nomad wars." said Nikoli

"I overheard you and Kodiak talking about the nomad wars what were they?" asked Humphrey

"Looks like Im going to have to give you a history lesson so sit down and listen closely." replied Nikoli. Humphrey nodded, sat down, and perked his ears up to listen to what Nikoli had to say.

Nikoli began his story "Many generations ago all wolf packs in Russia were nomads, never staying in one place because of the lack of food or conflict with other wandering packs. Our original pack leader was a wolf named Peter and as the story goes he decided that he was tired of endlessly leading his pack all over Russia and so he set out to look for a place for the pack to finally call home. He lead the pack eastward until the came upon great mountains that seemed to be blocking his pack from the sea. Ivan then lead the pack south to look for a way around the mountains but not even two days went by when he found a small pass that lead into the mountains. He lead the pack into the pass and when they came out the other side they found the territory. It was heavily forested except and it was large enough to hold all the packs wolves, Our pack used to number in the thousands. Peter lead a scout group deeper into the territory and found that even though it was vast it was surounded on its front and both sides by mountains, you can't see them now because they are far away and the trees are so tall. Finally Peter saw that the farthest point east of the territory was the seashore and he also found out that the territory was only inhabited by large amounts of deer and caribou."

Nikoli continued "Knowing his pack would be safe because the only way to get into the territory would be through the small pass and also knowing they would be well fed he set up the pack in its new home. The pack prospered for many years and because of this Peter was named Peter The Great. Many years passed and unfortunatley Peter passed away and because Peter had no children he was succeded by his younger brother Ivan. Ivan was a good leader for awhile but when other nomad packs found the territory he cruley drove them out. The nomads that were driven out then spread the news of the territory and to other nomad packs and soon all the remaining nomads amassed an army that would scale the mountains to take the territory by force but Ivan visously defended the territory and because his curilty towards the enemy was so great he gained the name Ivan The Terrible. After the intial conflicts ended the pack had lost one third of it's wolves. After Ivan passed away the nomads continued to wage war on the pack but on a smaller scale. Day after day, month after month year after year the wars dragged on and before we knew it hundreds of years had passed with what appeared to be no end to the conflict insight. Our current leader, a wolf named Maxim, back when he was just a general in his father's army, finally managed to beat the nomads out of the territory.

Humphrey yawned but NIkoli still continued "As the nomads retreated they drove the deer and caribou out of the territory and replaced them with vicous creatures with razor sharp tusks that can reproduce faster than we can kill them off, thease creatures are called boars. To make sure we didn't survive as the nomads retreated they closed off the pass that lead out of the territory and because none of our packs wolves knew how to climb the mountains because we have had no need for so long we were left here with our only food source being vicous creatures that take five wolves to take down. That is why we have squads like the one I lead, We hunt and kill the boars for food and safety."

"I see." is all Humphrey could say because by now he was very tired and Nikoli could tell.

"Come comrad, we shall rest and then return to the rest of the pack, Maxim will surely wan't to meet you and after that we will begin your training." said Nikoli as he lead Humphrey towards a cave to rest. When Humphrey heard the word "training" he instantly start to dread the months to come.

AN: Please review