Chapter 1

Far away in a green forest near the mountain area, there lived a grey wolf cub named Ainu. Ainu is like your typical youngster who likes to run around and play and eat whenever he can get his cute little paws on. He lives with his mother in a wolf den in the forest and nobody else; the reason is that the father of the young pup has died in a hunting mishap involving a mountain lion. He fought bravely to give the rest of the pack time to retreat to safety, leaving his mate a widow and his newborn son an orphan. Ainu was still happy though, having his mother around to take care of him, teach him, and nurture him with all the love a mother can give her son.

Ainu was waiting for his mom just outside the cave, eager to eat the fresh kill his mother promised him. Ainu's favorite food was rabbits and deer, the latter being more difficult to bring home for two wolves, but Ainu didn't care what his mother would bring as long as he got to eat it.

Ainu was pacing left and right in eagerness until he saw his mom approaching him with two rare black rabbits in her mouth.

Ainu happily runs to his mother as she stops and sets the rabbits down by her feet.

"Mama!" Ainu cries out happily. "You're back!" Ainu runs up to her to nuzzle against her head, which she lowers down. She affectionately licked her son's cheek as she was happy to be home.

"Breakfast is served," she said. "And I got us a rare find as well. Black rabbits don't come around here often, you know."

"Awesome!" Ainu said with glee. "I'm gonna eat all of it until they're nothing but bone!"

Mother Wolf giggled. "What about me?"

Ainu paused as he realized he had forgotten his mother could also be hungry.

"Oh. Uh, well, you can eat one. As long as you leave the other half for me."

Mother laughed. "Okay, I guess that's fair."

Ainu jumped in joy, excited that he was going to eat one rabbit and a half. He couldn't be happier. Not only did his wonderful mother bring him food, but he was also going to eat premium black rabbit meat!

Just as he was going to start digging in, a howl in the distance could be heard. Ainu lifted his head to look back and forth and left and right. "Huh? What was that?

Mother looked up at the council rock just a few yards from their den, where a lone wolf howls. "That's the meeting call. It seems our leader wants to announce something. Let's go, son." She ran off away from the den with Ainu following her actions.

"Oh. Okay, Mom. I guess we'll eat later." Ainu looks back at the rabbits. Don't worry. I'll return, he thought to himself as if he was talking to the dead rabbits.

Many minutes have passed as the mother and son duo reach the edge of the forest. Exiting out of the hedge, they walk in on all the wolves in the area gathering for the council meeting. They all murmured questionably, wondering what the meeting would be about.

"What do you think happened?" one wolf asks the wolf next to him.

"I dunno," the other wolf replies. "Probably a mountain lion eating most of our prey again."

"Ooh, if I see another one of those pussycats eat my deer again, I'm gonna lose it."

"Hey, quiet!" a female wolf behind them yelled in a shushing manner.

All the wolves stopped murmuring when they saw a large dark-grey wolf with a scar across his face walking up to the big rock. His name was Kaz, the leader of the wolf pack. Nobody knows how old this wolf is; many assumed he was at least ten years of age, while many others assumed he was much older than that. His mate, a white wolf, follows him up the rock next to him and lays down while looking at the crowd. The male wolf with the scar sits down on his rear, getting ready to make his announcement. The crowd of wolves followed suit to listen.

He clears his throat and begins to speak, "I'm sure all you wolves are wondering why I've assembled this meeting. All I ask is for your patience and for you to listen." All wolves nodded their heads. "Very well. Earlier today. I had a visit from one mother wolf. She comes up to me and tells me that her mate Ray was not in his den this morning. After I asked her if something had happened, she told me that she didn't know. She claims that she always wakes up early in the morning while Ray always oversleeps until the afternoon." Kaz gets up from his seating position. "I have also been hearing from three other females exclaiming that their husbands are missing. With that information, I can only assume that something terrible has happened to those four wolves."

The wolf crowd began to babble on to each other trying to assess the situation. Where could four of their pack members be? It wasn't like them to disappear without one knowing.

One female wolf gets up and asks, "So what are we going to do about it? Surely we can't just leave my husband to die. We have three kids!" Three adorable wolf pups of different fur colors appeared behind her legs, whimpering for their daddy. "Could they all be in danger?"

More wolves began to sync in agreement with that possibility.

"Settle down!" yelled Kaz. "I will conduct a search unit of our finest trackers. With them getting their scent, we'll find them and bring those young and dumb wolves to their families." He jumps from the rock and lands in front of the wolves. "In the meantime, I'll be entrusting someone to take over the hunt while we search. I hear there's a fresh herd of buffalo wandering around today." The audience cheered for their leader, all expressing their admiration for their proud pack leader. "All right I will now assign the search-"

"WAIT!" came a loud, scared, and desperate voice. All wolves turned to the source of the voice and saw a young male wolf. That wolf was Buck, one of the foolish wolves who entered that farm. He was covered in blood and scratches, along with a look of fright in his wide eyes. He walks through the crowd of confused and concerned wolves until he is in front of Kaz.

"Buck!" cried a red female wolf. She runs up to Buck to embrace him. "You're back! I thought I lost you forever! Oh, I missed you so much that I-" Her sentence stops as she stares at Buck's scared face. "Buck? Are you okay? What happened? And where's Ray and-"

"Dead," Buck said quietly.

"What?" she asked. "What did you say? I couldn't hear you."

Tears swelled up in Bucks eyes as he looked up at his mate. "Dead. They're… all… dead. All of them. Dead."

Every wolf gasped in disbelief. They were hoping they misheard him, that he said something else that was more reassuring.

Kaz walks up to Buck and angrily asks, "What happened? And where did you and your foolish friends wander off to? I swear if you went to that sheep meadow a few hours away, so help me!"

"It was him."

"What? Who?"

Buck looks at Kaz with widened teary eyes, as if he saw a ghost. Or in his case, a monster. He then answers Kaz's question with, "The Demon. He's real. The Ram Demon is real. And he killed all my friends!" He then puts his head on the ground and covers himself with his arms, trying to hide his sorrows. Every wolf around, including Kaz, looked at Buck with shock and horror.

Story Trivia:

* The name "Ainu" is a combination of the Japanese phrases "ai" (love) and "inu" (dog)

* "Kaz" is means is short for "Kazuya" (peace), which differs from Woe (Wor/War)