Prologue

As I pull ahead of the pack with the rest of the scouts, I feel the wind pick up and run its paws through my fur. The smell of the coming rain helps to mask our scent from the deer herd we have been tailing for the past few nights. The ground beneath my paws is getting looser and softer from where the herd must have been only recently. I, as the swiftest runner of the group, dash back to the rest of the pack to tell them how close we are to the herd. Tonight we kill.

 

I lope swiftly to the pack leader, Sharp-Tooth, to tell him of our nearness. While he rounds up the rest of the pack I sprint ahead to catch up to the scout group and tell them to wait for the rest of our pack. As the rest come up behind, my group picks out the weaker deer of the herd. That one there - with the lame hind leg, this one here - the oldest one, and this last one - the plumpest, slowest doe.

 

There are thirteen or so wolves in our pack, so the three deer should be enough to feed us for at least the next two nights before we need to hunt again. I growl softly to the rest of the scouts, we need to go the meeting place to get the rest of the pack, choose who is doing the hunting and wait for the perfect time to strike - just before sun-up.

 

As the Alpha, Sharp-Tooth chooses who hunts tonight. Sharp-Tooth himself is to go along with five others - two per deer - and I find myself to be one of the five lucky ones to be chosen. Our hunting group assembles and I recall everyone’s name from the last hunt we did together. There is Sharp-Tooth, the Alpha, Silver-Claw, the cleanest killer, Soft-Paw, the quietest, Black-Ear, the strongest, One-Eye, the most experienced hunter, and, of course, me, White-Paw, the fastest of us all.

 

We head for the rear of the herd and single out our three targets and decide who is going for which deer. One-Eye and Soft-Paw are to take the doe, Black-Ear and Silver-Claw, the old one, and Sharp-Tooth and I are going to take down the lame one.

 

We, Sharp-Tooth and I, choose to use a decoy tactic, where I run around to the front of the deer to make it bolt backwards while Sharp-Tooth comes up behind it to target its lame leg. This, we know from previous hunts, will work.

 

Now, as one being, we close in for the kill.....

 

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