Chapter 3, Wolf Domestic Affairs

Salaryman

Managing a wolf pack proved to be a fascinating experience. Of course if they were normal wolves I am sure it would not have been as interesting. Most likely I would have already been eaten. They were intelligent enough that once I proved I had control they were willing to go along with me. Which meant I now needed to secure my continued position. Considering how in order to attain this position I had to kill the last Alpha, I could assume that that's probably how transfers of power were undertaken.

A good reason to get out of the pack the moment I found a way, as I doubt I would be young and strong forever even if I had some sort of altered biology. But for now, I needed to deal with the problems that were more immediate threats to my rule.

First on my list of troublemakers were the yetis. As invaders they were slowly creeping in and taking my pack's resources. Allowing this to continue would be detrimental to my rule and my life expectancy, so I began my operations against their infiltration by breaking the Pack up into groups of three or four and letting them hunt down these yetis. It was not long before we were dealing with any rogue scouts of theirs that tried to move further into our territory.

I didn't need to do much, the wolves were a product of generations on this world. They knew how to handle territorial invaders. Really, all they needed was for me to observe and offer assurances of their success when they murdered one of the wandering yetis. Frankly, the wolves were some of the best employees I had ever had. They were thorough, confident in their skills, and took payment in head pats and belly rubs which is a lot cheaper to give out than any other resource I could offer them.

Before long, approximately after our fifth kill, the seven feet Giants had stopped coming out of their camp alone and were now scouting and hunting in groups of three or more. This meant I could no longer split my wolves into smaller packs to hunt down the invaders. However, it was now a lot easier to get a good read of the number of Yetis I had to deal with. Over the course of several days, from my position in a tree at the edges of the open area, I watched the parties of monsters leave and enter their camp. It allowed me to gather data such as particular items certain individuals would wear and weapons they prefer to carry around. After some time I had a good idea of all the identities inside the camp's walls.

At any given time there were nine yetis inside the compound. Outside their makeshift compound there would be at least three groups or more hunting for game and such to feed the ones inside the compound.

So theoretically there were only 18 of the monsters I had to deal with though I gave it an extra + 3 due to the fact that I thought I'd seen a few rogue yetis pop up here and there during my watch.

21 in total then, the numbers were in my favor since we had nearly double that in wolf power but we have been hunting those single yetis in packs of 3 and I would like to preserve that tactical advantage. I hadn't lost a wolf yet and I wasn't going to lose one now, every lost wolf was a chink in the armor of my power and control and status as Alpha. Not to mention when we were done with these monsters I would still have to deal with the twenty or so wolves that had split off from the main group, as well as the other wolf tribes in the region that were nosing around.

No doubt if they saw weakness, they would strike and I doubted the leadership of the wolf packs coming to take our territory would leave me in power. No, I needed to preserve as much of my wolf power as possible for that inevitable fight.

How am I going to do it? Well that was simple, I had 40 wolves at my command, split that into three groups and I most likely could take out half of the Yeti's when they were out hunting.

So on a fine winter day, the sun is low in the sky and its blue light is creating some interesting patterns through the branches of the trees. I and my constant companions, Fierce and Cunning, were hiding behind some fallen tree trunks watching the camp. For this operation I needed wolves I could trust to lead the thirds of my pack and I couldn't think of anyone I trusted more than those two. If I was a sentimental sort, I might even say they were like brothers to me. Considering how well I was integrated into the pack, I acknowledge that they perhaps thought the same of me.

It had been getting even colder so I believed we were going into some sort of heavy winter season. As a result, I was wearing more furs than usual, enough so that from the distance, it would probably look like three wolves laying down watching the camp and not two wolves and a human. Patiently, we waited and before long the first Hunting Party left their Camp to ander towards the east. I tapped Fierce on the shoulder and he got up, heading off to get his third of the pack. Once they were gathered I knew they would stalk the yetis till they were an hour or so away. If we wanted this mission to be a success we didn't want any of the yetis to hear the other hunting party getting ripped to shreds.

About 30 minutes later the second group of three left their camp, heading to the north, and I tapped Cunning, sending him off to do the same as his brother. This just left me to watch the camp in the quiet cold morning. I got a little bit worried after an hour passed and the third group didn't come out. Eventually the party I was waiting for exited the camp, but there were four yetties and one of them looked older than the others. They started heading south.

As quietly as I could I got up and moved back into the woods, quickly finding the ten or so wolves that made up my pack of operations for this mission, including the Mother wolf since I trusted her to watch my back more than the others.

With patience and determination, the pack and myself followed quietly behind the four ugly beasts, keeping a good distance away so it was very unlikely they would spot us. But we had to be careful regardless, raising the alarm could be detrimental to the second part of my plan.

After about 30 to 40 minutes of following, I figured we were far enough away from the main camp that they wouldn't hear what was about to happen. Since I hadn't heard anything from the other two groups I assume that those operations had also been successful though I wouldn't know for sure until this was dealt with.

Carefully, I took a knee and tapped the mother wolf on the shoulder, giving a hand sign that I had taught them meant attack. Nodding, the wolf went off, followed by several of the others and quickly encircled the yetis. What was about to happen was going to be gruesome, but necessary for my survival.

I had considered possible negotiations with these beasts once or twice but I had ultimately thrown it away. For one it was a miracle I was able to communicate with the wolves as well as I did, and two the wolves during my initial hunts of the lone scouts had proven to be rather vicious in their takedowns of the 7 ft. beasts. Mix that with the first time I saw that these creatures were them trying to attack a mother wolf guarding her pups, it was very unlikely that the yetis and the wolves would ever have good relations. Frankly, I was left to assume that the yetis preyed on the young when the adults were away because they didn't have a chance of winning those fights without properly stacking the odds.

If I tried to smooth all this bad blood over I would just get myself covered in it. And if it's a choice between my life or theirs, well theirs didn't mean much to me, I already knew they used human bones for tools and decorations, I wasn't going to test my luck with them.

Once I was sure my pack was in position I stood up and prepared the makeshift javelin I built from Elkhorn and a local tree.

The yeti for their part were busy scavenging through The underbrush looking for berries or perhaps mushrooms, who knows what they ate. I aimed carefully at the older looking yeti who seemed to have a horn at his side, a very finely made one. Perhaps not one created by their species, but they knew how to use it to signal they were under attack and I was not going to let that happen.

With a true throw, I let loose the javelin, sending it through the yeti's chest. The beast screamed and toppled over, struggling with the spear in its chest. The other three looked up, confused, towards their elder, which took their eyes off the periphery as the wolves rushed in, jumping on and tearing at the yetis. Before long they were ripping them apart limb from limb, their blood splattering all over the place and staining the snow red. Carefully I made my way closer, confirming that the four yetis had been quickly dispatched and watching the wolves use the compacted snow to either clean off the blood or diffuse the acid in it enough that it wasn't hurting them anymore.

Once I was sure the four yetis were dead, I picked around in their belongings, stealing the horn for myself. You never know when a device for long-distance communication could come in handy. But besides that, there was nothing of use and I quickly set about organizing the wolves to head back towards their camp.

By my calculations, there were only 10 maybe 11 of the monsters left in their camp and they were now 40 wolves under my command as long as none had been lost in the other attacks. Assuming that stayed true, an attack on their camp was feasible; however I had another plan already in the works.

Once we were back in the periphery of the open area in which the yeti had created their base camp, I organized the wolves to start bringing me some of the wooden Spears I had created for this moment.

Quickly I set up a fire and then put the heads of the spears in the flame. They were wrapped in pieces of cloth soaked in tree sap that I found to burn quick well. It was a very flammable materials that I could put together, for this moment.

Once they were lit, I carried two of them over as close as I could and hurled them over the makeshift snow walls guarding their complex, aiming for the structures that looked like they'd been built by pulling trees over. I knew it was probably impossible to catch snow-covered wood on fire, but my hope was to cause panic, not burn the whole place down.

It worked better than expected, as the spear slipped through the woodwork and into the hut. I do not know what happened inside, but by the time I was readying the third and the fourth to throw over the wall, that hut was on fire.

As expected, those who were not fighting the fire rushed outside to find out who was throwing flammable objects at them. Fighting them outright was not on the cards, I was barely 5 ft. tall and even with increased strength, I didn't want to try and fight four of those hairy bastards alone, but I was faster than them and made the run back to the edge of the woods comfortably.

The four yetis rushed in after me and didn't realize their mistake until after the wolves had seized their legs and toppled them. Their screams as they were ripped apart were disconcerting, but it was necessary for my survival.

By the time the four yetis that chased me were dead, the other two groups of wolves had returned from their hunt and besides looking slightly bloodied and bruised from their own combat, they were all there. This operation had gone perfectly, I had reduced the enemy numbers greatly and now all that was left was to let the wolves have their fun.

I simply signaled them that they could attack and they charged at the camp. It was a marvelous thing watching a 7 to 8 ft. tall wolf jump over a 5 ft. wall, hearing the screams of bloody murder afterwards was less so.

Part of me was annoyed that I had to waste the resources the yetis could provide, but there was nothing I could do. I just sat back and let the wolves have their fun and once the screaming stopped I entered the camp, searching for any useful materials.

I had estimated there had been maybe six yetis inside the camp, I had been one off, there were seven adult yetis. No children, which seemed odd. Perhaps the wolves had eaten them whole, but that seemed unlikely. Then again, I couldn't tell which were female and which were male, so maybe this was some sort of expedition. Were the yetis the dominant species on the planet and the wolves just some semi-intelligent species that may have one day taken on a similar role dogs would take on Earth? It was hard to say.

All I knew for sure was that there were some resources to be gathered from the camp - cloth rope, pots full of food kept cold by being left in the snow, and other such resources that would be useful to my camp. I set about gathering as much as I could, creating a makeshift saddle across several wolves to tie the materials to, before sending them off home. By the time the blue sun was fading to just barely above the horizon, I had ransacked the camp and was on my way home.

Salaryman

With the yeti threat dealt with, I was able to let my charges take a couple of days to rest before throwing them at the next problem.

How was I going to deal with the 20 Rogue wolves in my territory? They left because I killed the former alpha. Most likely they were directly related or didn't feel that it had been a good kill, perhaps they felt threatened by the shift in power; I didn't know.

With the wolves not speaking a language I understood, it was near impossible for me to make a good estimation of what I needed to do to win them over from my enemies to my allies and I needed them as allies. The wolves outside our territory that were not part of my original pack were snooping around, it was obvious they sensed weakness and were ready to strike and take over all the territory that belonged to this pack before I had taken control. I have no idea of their numbers but I didn't want to risk being outnumbered so I needed to bring those 20 wolves back into my camp.

How I was going to do it took a bit of thinking, but eventually I came up with a possible plan. My pack had found where the rogue Wolves had made their shelter, to the east from my camp… or at least what I would consider east since that's the direction the Sun rose from. Once they were located I simply organized a hunt for food in that area. I'd come a long way from the surprise attacks on Elks as it was much easier to take down the megafauna with the help of the Wolves. I filled the saddlebags with as much meat as I could and then took the 40 wolves I had to their camp.

What I was about to do was a risky play. Yes, I had 2 to 1 odds in my favor but things could always go wrong. Perhaps the Wolves I was about to meet were the best fighters. I didn't know, but I had to hope that this operation would work because at this point I was committed, and I needed their wolf power if I wanted to survive the coming conflict with the outsider packs.

My pack arrived at their camp in the late afternoon, the sun was still high but it was on its way down, the blue light turning darker as it passed through a nearby volcanic cloud of debris. The rogue wolves had set up camp in a box canyon, not the greatest place unless they were planning to defend it to the death as they couldn't escape it but they would definitely know where the enemy was coming from.

I did not want to experience Thermopylae from a Persian wolf's perspective, so I'd already thrown out any plans to attack the camp. If this plan did not work, I would employ the same strategy I used against the yetis before ever assaulting this Camp directly. But there was no need for them to know that, so I quickly cut off the entire Box Canyon by having my wolves form a line along its entrance. I could see about 15 wolves inside the camp, with probably another 5 outside, so I deployed 10 to keep watch behind us to make sure they didn't catch us by surprise.

Once I was sure everything was set up, I pulled off the saddlebags from one of the wolves and started walking towards their camp. I had a spear in one hand and Cunning was by my side, carrying the other supplies I would need. I knew the other Wolves could cover the distance quickly in case the Rogues decided to try and take me out so I felt relatively safe as I walked down the rocky path towards the rogue wolves.

The rogues, of course, had noticed our arrival and had been growling in our general direction the entire time, trying to psych themselves up for the expected fight. Their de facto leader, I assumed, was the large gray wolf with scars running down its left flank. It galloped to the front of their line and gave up a howl, trying to frighten me off. It didn't intimidate me, but I did stop as I got about halfway between my line and their camp. I opened the saddlebags and revealed the meat before placing it on the ground. Reaching over to Cunning I opened the saddlebags on him and pulled out several chunks of wood and other burnable materials and quickly set about setting up a fire.

For the next 30 minutes or so, the Wolf attempted to frighten me or perhaps goad me into attacking, either way it put on an impressive aggressive display. But, after a while, it realized that wasn't working at which point curiosity and the smell of cooking meat seemed to have finally won it over, as it gave up its aggressive display and padded towards me quietly.

By this point, the elk meat I had been cooking had finally reached a point where I thought it was edible for myself, so I took it off the makeshift spit and took an over-exaggerated bite, chewing aggressively. Offhandedly, I offered some to Cunning, who also took a bite, ripping about half of it off and swallowing the meat.

Then I offered it to the scarred wolf in front of me. The plan was very simple: offer the Wolves the chance to rejoin the original pack by showing that I had no hard feelings and would willingly share food with them. Of course, I had dictated a power structure by taking the bite first, and then Cunning before offering it to them, but that was needed to maintain control of a tribe.

The wolf stood there looking at the meat for a good few minutes before looking past me at the Wolves who had been their pack mates and now guarded the only entrance and exit of the canyon. That was an implicit threat, but I think the wolves were smart enough to get my meaning through my actions.

Finally, the wolf gave up and stepped forward taking the last bite of meat off the stick, this resulted in Cunning letting out a howl, surprising me, but then the other wolves, both from my pack and the Rogues, joined in. The Pact was signed and the aggression simply melted away as the rows of wolves started to flow together.

I smiled as the plan seems to have worked and pulled out More meat from the saddlebag, setting it up on the fire to cook before I took a moment to survey the situation.t Some of the Wolves had opened the other saddlebags I brought and were just eating the meat, which was to be expected. Cooked meat seemed to be a delicacy they may enjoy but didn't need.

Watching the 60 wolves intermingle I could only grin, as I'd seemed to have finally found a species of intelligent life that could understand me and do as I wanted. It would seem that the harsh environment of this world had led these wolves to be more social and willing to work with each other for a common goal when feasible. And that meant when presented with a logical argument, they were willing to hear the person out. That all this had mainly been done through action and I not words after all…

If domestic affairs with Wolves were this easy, I hoped foreign affairs with the outside wolves would be comparable. After all, I seem to be able to communicate with the Wolves fine, and communication was necessary for successful negotiations and the light of civilization to spread. I just needed to figure out how I was going to get the foreign wolves to communicate with me.

Writere note: Alright here is chapter 3 of this, let me know what you all think, I expect a bunch of you want to get to civilization, and to that, I say we're probably about halfway they. Can only say wolf so many times after all. Right?

In other news, we have an official editor for this project, give kind thanks to Pierre folks. He has already gone true and helped clean up chapters 1 through 2 as well.

Edited by: Gremlin Jack, WrandmWaffles, Pierre

Community edited:

Community editable doc (Chapter 3) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread

Responce to reivews

123dal: tell me weren't reading it why don't ya hahah

Toaneo07 Ver2.0: thank you

Oucs : see if I can't improves that in chapter 5 which what I'll be working this weekend though chapter four may have some of that

T3ddy: thank you

Grocamol: it always warp fuckery

Umosin: thank you

Guest: your going to enjoy this chapter i think