Chapter 1: Mother's Last Lesson

     "G'wintar, my son. Come. It is time for another lesson." Ever since birth G'wintar's birth, his mother pushed him beyond his limits. He went days without food because it was scarce and as his mother said, "It is good to adapt to having no food. In this war, we will not get to eat very often."
     G'wintar took this as a great lesson. He agreed that this was a good quality to have and so he hardly ate. Over time, his stomach shrunk and he hardly needed to eat anything even when he did get to eat. He did manage to get strong which shocked Gwilla for some reason. She always told him stories of how strong and courageous his father was. So he decided he would try and be like his father.
     G'wintar already knew how to hunt and find water underground. He even knew how to get the berries from high trees and make a den to stay safe in a fire. He hoped that today was going to be his lesson in forging. Forging metals was the only lesson his mother never taught him. She kept on saying it was something he would never need to do himself. Something she would do for him as the best remaining blacksmith. She made him armors that fit him perfectly and added designs and sharp points for combat.
     His favorite was an armor that she made by mixing metal and some of the red berry juices that grew around their land. The armor was bright red and wrapped around him perfectly from chest to his tail. She had also made a mask that covered the right side of his fave and his whole snout. It had a design of a giant lizard with wings. Gwilla called it a dragon, Detra's gift of the sky. the body of the armor had spikes that stood erect on his back to protect from an attack from behind. It also covered the top of his paws and had a sharp point to cut through these nets that humans used. He called this armor Dragon's Blood.
     G'wintar followed his mother to the top of Alpha Hill. This was where the Alpha males and females of each clan would meet and negotiate war tactic until it was assaulted by humans and the alphas were killed. Now it was a demolished building that provided us with some cover and a great spot for fishing and swimming and lessons. "G'wintar. come here and sit."
     Sitting? I walked all the way up here to sit? G'wintar looked around him. Nothing to forge, no metals to use, no smoke from a fire. What useless lesson could be done here? "G'wintar!" Gwilla yelled with impatience, "Come here and sit now!"
     G'wintar slowly walked over and sat near his mother his ears back and tail down with fear. He had never seen her like this. Never had she yelled at him like that. Then she spoke calmly and gently, "Now close your eyes, point your snout to the sky, and listen."
     Listening? I can hear just fine. I can hear the water fifty feet under ground. How does this help me? But G'wintar knew better then to question his mother. The last time he disobeyed Gwilla, she had batted her paw against his snout hard enough to make his head swing and feel at though his neck would snap. So he did as she instructed him to do. He closed his eyes, Lifted his snout toward the sky, and listened. He heard the usual sounds that he always heard. The running stream, the birds above him, the fish in the water, and the wind whistling in his ear.
     What confused G'wintar was this feeling of three wolves. There was Gwilla, and himself, but he felt another wolf close by. "G'wintar," Gwilla's voice broke his concentration, "I am not going to be around forever. I am weak and feel my time to return to Detra is near. So this will be the last lesson I teach you. It is the Lesson of the Blind. Your eyes are sharp my son. You can see more then i ever could. But the humans, they have ways to confuse your eyes and steal your vision. So you must learn to use how to use your other senses to do the seeing. Use your hearing to pinpoint the location. Use your smell to point you in the right direction, and your touch to feel the earth's vibrations."
     G'wintar was amazed by this "new sight". The more he relaxed and let his mind free, the more clear the picture came to see. It was as though his eyes were open but the color was gone. He saw the burnt tree leaves flow in the wind. He saw the river running, down to each little wave. Everything he saw with his eyes, now seemed more clear with his eyes closed. But something he didn't see, he sensed. Something off in the distance. It was a wolf, a female, he could smell her. She was strong by the way she walked and the vibrations she sent through the ground. She had long fur by the way the wind hit her and seemed to get caught in her fur. But, who was she? And why would she come to Red Pack territory?