Ending: Chapter Fifteen

The entire pack is sleep-deprived, putting each pack member in a stressful mood; a hunt which was supposed to be difficult is easier than expected; Sparrow learns one of Opaque's pups may not make it.

FTOYWGAS: I was excited to write this chapter before, but I got kinda bored of it after a while and got writer's block.  It sucks.  Don't kill me.  PLEASE?!
CW: Crack?  xD  Like, seriously.  This chapter is retarded.  And you also get to deal with a bitchy Sparrow, Hurricane, Opaque, Sunset, and Sapphire.
RF: A wolf pack may contain just two or three animals, or it may be ten times as large.

Don't want to let it lay me down this time
Drown my will to fly...
Here in the darkness I know myself
Can't break free until I let it go
Let me go...
- Lithium by Evanescence

Sparrow groaned as he fought the urge to close his burning eyes.  Normally, Sparrow would be asleep with the others at this time of night, but not tonight, and not two days ago.  Not sure why he had made up the absolutely genius plan of not sleeping for that number of days, Sparrow had been fighting the urge to fall asleep for two days now.  It was three hours past midnight, and he had been up for more than forty-eight hours.

Sparrow and the rest of the pack had done nothing whatsoever in the past two days, besides a quick hunt that Sparrow did at midnight the day before where he managed to catch a rabbit.  Because of their current lack of food, they were doing slightly worse than they would have been anyway if all that was going wrong was the fact that they hadn't slept in several days. 

It may have been dark outside, but everyone in the pack was awake, with the exception of smaller pups.  Sparrow was sitting in the center of the clearing, right where the moonlight shone, casting a sinister shadow behind him in the grass.  His eyes narrowed as he watched the wolves in front of him, satisfied that they were finally listening to his ideas, no matter how stupid they would turn out to be.  Sparrow blinked as he heard a nearby growl, quickly discovering that it was Sunset.

"Stop knocking into me," she growled at someone nearby her, who Sparrow couldn't see because of the dark sky.  "Can't you watch what you're doing?"

"Sorry!" the voice snarled back.  It was male, Sparrow realized, so it must have been...

"Hurricane, Sunset: relax," Opaque said casually, breaking the silence.  She was a few feet to the left of the two, watching them curiously as they argued.  "It's too late for you two to be arguing about something as simple as..."

"Well, tell your mate to get out of my personal space!" Sunset snapped, pulling further away from Hurricane.  Her attention suddenly changed, and her eyes began to wander around the clearing.  "Sparrow?"

"I'm in the light, smart one."

"Shut up."  The ginger she-wolf sighed and stood up, stretching.  "Please tell me again WHY we're out in the open and not in our dens?"

"If we have to make a hasty retreat, it'll be easier out here," Sparrow said simply. 

"...How?" Hurricane asked snappily.  He was apparently even more annoying when he was tired.

Sparrow sighed, shaking his head and closing his eyes for a few seconds to ease the burning.  "Hurricane, you never cease to amaze me.  Nothing EVER gets by you," he said flatly.  "We're out here because we'll have a faster chance of getting away if the bear DOES find us.  We won't have to get Opaque's pups and everything... they're all out here in the dark.  With us.  Safe."

"Just because we're all together doesn't mean it's safe," Sapphire muttered, speaking for the first time.  "Something else could happen..."

"Like what?" Sparrow asked her simply.

Sapphire shrugged, stretching.  "Bad weather?"

"Weather doesn't matter," Hurricane cut in. 

"So NOW you agree with me?" Sparrow muttered under his breath, assuming that no one heard him.

"Yes," Sapphire said sarcastically.

Glad that it wasn't that time of night where everything was just hilarious (although that had to eventually happen), Sparrow just rolled his eyes at the she-wolf's sarcasm and chose to ignore it.  No one else said anything for a while, and at some point they managed to stop bothering each other and not talk until the sun rose.

Sparrow, for the third time, managed to survive another sleepless night.  As soon as he heaved himself off of the hard ground he had been lying on all night, he discovered that, to his discomfort, his neck was aching and his head was throbbing.  Trying to stretch, Sparrow wasn't happy when that only made it hurt even more.  Annoyed, he stood up completely and stopped by the fresh kill pile.  It was bare.  Annoyed yet again, Sparrow growled furiously and cuffed Sunset, the closest wolf to the fresh kill pile.

"Ow!" she exclaimed, jumping up and glaring at her leader.  "W-what was that for?!"

"We have no food," Sparrow told her.

"And why are you telling me that?" the she-wolf grumbled, stretching and yawning widely.  "Tell Sapphire and Hurricane and the others who actually WANT to go hunting..."  Muttering something about how they were all insane, Sunset proceeded to walk off into one of the dens, but Sparrow blocked her path by standing in front of her.

"Let's.  Go.  Hunting."

"FINE!  If you're not going to stop talking about it until someone goes, I'LL GO.  But I am NOT doing this again."

"That's not my problem..."

"Technically, when you think about it, yes it is," Sunset said snappishly.  "What are we even wide-awake enough to catch?"

"I said nothing about us being wide-awake," Sparrow said smugly.

Sunset yawned, her gaze going from Sparrow to the trees up ahead.  "Whatever," she replied.  "My point is, can we even catch anything?"

"Like, a rabbit... that might work..."

"For a day, maybe!"

"COOPERATE WITH ME.  THIS MIGHT JUST WORK.  SHUT UP."

"Fine," Sunset finally snapped, walking into the center of the clearing in a huff.  "Everyone, Sparrow's making us hunt, so you'd better get up..."

The wolves in the clearing stirred, and were suddenly jolted awake as a loud crack of thunder erupted through the sky, immediately making Sparrow wince and roll his eyes.  Apparently, the weather wasn't going to be nice to him tonight. 

"Um," Sparrow said as rain began cascading out of the sky like a waterfall, "never mind."

"...Tomorrow?" Sapphire asked hopefully, standing up and heading into the healer den.  "There's more room in here for all of us, so why not come in here?"

"Sure," Sparrow said quickly.  "Let's get in here..."

The pack followed him in obediently, but Moon looked slightly miffed about the fact that she would soon have about fifteen or so wolves crowding inside the den.  Although it was bigger than everyone else's, it wasn't exactly huge, either.

"Yay," Sparrow said weakly, "let's tell stories now..." He got several turns-of-the-head, eye-rolls, and weird looks from his pack members.

"I was TRYING," ("And failing," Sapphire added flatly) "to lighten up the mood," Sparrow growled.  "Don't judge me..."

Sunset scoffed.  "Sparrow, even if you didn't try to 'lighten up the mood,' we would still judge you."

"Do me a favor and shut up," Sparrow muttered, arching his back and stretching sleepily.  He was more tired than he had ever been; in fact, he was so tired that he no longer had the strength to think of good come-backs anymore.  Instead, he mostly just kept quiet for the next ten minutes or so whenever someone said something to him, getting to the point where Hurricane told him something.

"Sparrow, it stopped raining," Hurricane said loudly, making Sparrow, who had just started to doze off, wince. 

"...Well?" Sparrow asked flatly, his eyes narrowed.  "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Um."  Hurricane's eyes narrowed as well.  "Weren't we supposed to hunt?"

"Who said anything about hunting?"

"...You did."

Sparrow frowned.  "...Oh," he said innocently.  "Are you sure?  Because honestly, I don't really feel like doing anything whatsoever at the moment."

"We haven't done anything for the past two days," Hurricane snapped.  Then, a smug smile lit up his face, which creeped Sparrow out a little bit.  "I say that we should hunt."

"I say that you should die!" Sparrow said, smirking.

Hurricane stepped forward, and Sparrow winced, considering that Hurricane was about three times bigger and twice as tall as him.  Cowering over his new leader, Hurricane's smile only grew wider as their eyes met.  "I suggest that we go hunting," the grey wolf hissed, "or the rest of us will go without you."

Sparrow stepped backwards uncomfortably.  He didn't like when others disagreed with him, and especially didn't like when that "other" was Hurricane.  Opaque's nuisance-of-a-mate was always proving him wrong, and he hated it.  Curling his lip back in a snarl, Sparrow said nothing, instead walking over to Opaque in hidden anger.

"Get.  Rid.  Of.  Him," Sparrow snarled at his sister when he approached her, and she sighed. 

"Sparrow," Opaque said, "I know that you don't like him, but... I do!  You're just going to have to put up with him until -"

"...I die," Sparrow said quietly.

Opaque looked shocked.  "I said nothing about you dyi-"

"Yes, but you said that I'll have to put up with him... which basically means until I die.  Because as far as I know, you're not letting go of him any time soon," Sparrow replied flatly.

Opaque was speechless for a few seconds, but finally she narrowed her eyes.  "...That is true," she said slowly, her eyes darting over to Hurricane momentarily.  "I'm confused about why you care about that, though... Oh, no.  It's the whole mate thing, isn't it?  You're concerned about everyone's mate..."

Sparrow scoffed.  "I am not!"

"...Sure," Opaque said sarcastically.

"Again, you can't use sarcasm," Sparrow said matter-of-factly.  "I already told you that was MY thing, and not yours!"

"That was months ago," Opaque said flatly.  "It doesn't matter.  Now, are we going to go hunting, or what?"

"Um, let me thi- no," was Sparrow's response.

Opaque glared at him.  "We're STARVING!  Let's go!"

"I'm starving too," Sparrow said.  "I just don't want to get up..."

"Then I will get you up," Opaque growled.  She was finished putting up with her brother's laziness and his entire personality in general.  She knocked into her brother on purpose, causing him to literally fly to the left and flip over.  He wasn't very strong when he wasn't expecting things. 

Annoyed, Sparrow growled and leaped at his sister, landing on top of her and clawing at her.  Sensing the fight, the rest of the pack did what any sane wolf would do: they sat back and watched.  All except for Sapphire, at least. 

While Opaque was trying to get Sparrow off of her, Sapphire ran forward and threw her entire weight at them, especially Sparrow.  As soon as she collided with him, Sparrow groaned and fell to the side, landing several feet away and his head beginning to pound frantically.  He was going to kill her someday, he swore...

~ ~ ~

The pack was traveling in the valley, Sparrow being the only one who was even attempting to look the least bit interested in the hunt.

"You see," he practically squealed, "we'll find something hopefully easily today... If you're actually looking, pick something small or weak or dead... It will be the easiest thing to kill.  With the exception of it being dead, already... Because you can't kill something that's already de-"

"Sparrow, do us all a favor and stop ranting," Opaque said, annoyed.  "No one's really listening to you anyway."

"Well!" Sparrow stopped suddenly and turned around to face his pack, his expression of great disappointment.  "You all have failed me... It's about time that I get some respect around here."

The wolves' expressions remained either blank or amused, with the exception of Opaque, who was frowning at her brother.  She couldn't stand him lately, especially today.  When her brother was tired, he was more snappish and annoying than ever.

When Sparrow turned around, he caught the scent of something... Something... elk-y.

"ELK!" he yelped, racing towards and ignoring the wolves behind him, who did nothing.

Sparrow, after realizing that he wasn't being followed, turned around and glared at his pack.  "Coming?" he snapped.  "It's a CARCASS!  It's not a live elk!"

At hearing the word "carcass," all the pack members leaped forward and took off towards where Sparrow was standing, except for Opaque, who walked innocently over to her brother and cuffed him.

"WHAT THE HE- really?!  What was that for?" Sparrow snarled at his sister.

Opaque shrugged.  "I find you to be extremely annoying today, even more than usual."

Sparrow narrowed his eyes.  "You too."

Opaque ignored him.  "Shouldn't we go eat, so it's not gone by the time we get there?"

"The carcass?"

"No, the campfire," Opaque muttered.

"Shut up," Sparrow growled at his sister.  "I guess you're right... we probably should go eat.  Now."

~ ~ ~

"I have an idea," Opaque mumbled, slumping down to the ground.  "Let's sleep."

It was several hours later, in the pack territory.  Nothing had changed.

"We can't!" Sparrow protested, although he really wanted to.  He yawned, but attempted to hide it by closing his mouth, which resulted in a painful throbbing in his neck.  "We have to stay awake..."

Sunset lazily opened one eye.  "Next, you're going to start hallucinating," she grumbled.  "That, and being more tired than you've ever been, are the effects of going two days without sleep..."

"I don't know about any of you, but I'M not in the mood for hallucinating," Sapphire snarled underneath her breath.  "And Sparrow over here is going to have a lot of explaining to do when I'm actually wide awake enough to think."

Sparrow rolled his eyes, shading himself with a nearby tree.  "I can wait six months," he said simply, crossing his front paws.

Sapphire frowned beneath her closed eyes.  "Why six months?"

"Winter."

"What does WINTER have to do with it?"

Sparrow shrugged nonchalantly.  "Everything," he said slowly, resting his head on his front paws and fighting the urge to close his eyes.  "Just think... this bear will stop stalking us in winter because they will hibernate."

"Oh, yes, Sparrow," Moon said sarcastically.  "We can all go six months without sleep."

Sparrow sighed.  "Exactly."  Moon scoffed and curled up into a ball, her eyes closing.

Sparrow took a moment to look around the area they were in.  Him, Opaque, Sapphire, and Sunset appeared to be the only ones who were awake now as the sun finally rose completely.  Disturbed by the shine, a few of the sleeping wolves stirred or muttered something wherever they had sat down.  Opaque groaned loudly as Midnight accidentally kicked her, and the annoyed she-wolf raised her head up.  "Morning," she said, yawning.  "I'm hungry."

Sparrow looked at her quizzically.  "Opaque, you've been awake all this time.  I just talked to you five minutes ago..."

Opaque narrowed her eyes.  "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Oh," Opaque said calmly.  "Well... I'm going back to sleep."

"Oh, no, you're not!" Sparrow growled at her.  "You JUST said that you were hungry."

"I lied," Opaque mumbled.

"Great," Sparrow said sarcastically.  "I'm going to find something to eat, I guess... You're in charge."

Muttering something in response, Opaque nodded and closed her eyes, apparently not going to remain awake while Sparrow was gone.  Narrowing his eyes and shaking his head, Sparrow was frustrated that the entire pack (except for him) was asleep.  Usually Sparrow couldn't stay up all night, unless he ran around every hour or something. 

Now, he'd been awake for two whole days, forty-eight hours of nothing.

He wasn't sure what kept him awake, but Sparrow hoped that it would stay so he would be awake if the bear came and tell the pack.  His eyes burning every now and then, due to the fact that they had been open for so long, Sparrow yawned and felt his eyelids droop lazily.  They snapped back open as he realized that he was still standing, and falling asleep while standing wasn't fun.

Blinking several times to ease the burning feeling, Sparrow yawned again and strolled off into the trees.  He jumped after he heard the slight sound of movement, and sighed, rolling his eyes after he realized it was a bird landing on top of a tree branch.  Finally, Sparrow's ears pricked up as he heard a rustle in the bushes.  Out ran a tiny little mouse.  Sparrow was too tired to kill it, so instead, he did what any sane creature would do: he began to bother it.

Poking it, Sparrow was amused when the mouse flipped over onto its back, terrified, and got up just as quickly, running to the left of the black wolf beside it.  Sparrow swiped at it with his paw, capturing the creature, and dragging it back over to him.

"I'm too tired to eat you," Sparrow muttered to the mouse, which in return made a shrill squeaking noise and looked in his direction, cowering.  "You're lucky," Sparrow growled at it, and the mouse's eyes seemed to narrow.

Suddenly, it hit him.  "...I'm talking to a mouse," he sighed, pushing the fearful rodent away and watching it scamper into nearby bushes. 

Sparrow returned to the pack territory minutes after he stopped staring blankly at the mouse, who wasn't even visible anymore.  He finally stood up, and went straight to his den after going to the territory. 

Suddenly, Moon charged into his den, and Sparrow sighed in annoyance.  "Sparrow, it's one of Opaque's pups," she said quickly.  "It's weak, and I can't get Opaque to wake up."

"Idiot," Sparrow muttered.  "I'm trying to sleep.  Leave me alone."

"One of Opaque's pups is weak and most likely won't survive," Moon said slowly and louder, trying to get Sparrow to understand, which she knew wasn't the easiest thing on earth.

Sparrow suddenly jumped up and raced out of the den, probably heading off to the nursery.

"Opaque," he panted, but then he quickly realized that his sister WAS asleep, as Moon had said.  He noticed that the smallest pup was whining and whimpering, and it annoyed Sparrow greatly, so he glared at the pup, hoping that would cause it to be quiet, but that only seemed to make its whines louder and more squeaky. 

"Shut up," Sparrow growled at the pup.  It stopped, and Sparrow smirked.

Opaque opened an eye lazily.  "Sparrow, don't be rude to them," she mumbled sleepily, closing her eye again.  "They're too small to understand you..."

"Exactly.  One of your pups is weak, most likely the tiny one which is currently yelping, according to Moon," Sparrow said, ignoring her.

Opaque's eye opened again. "Huh?"

Sparrow had lied down on the den floor as soon as he finished speaking to her.

"Sparrow..."

"Yeah, whatever..." Sparrow mumbled, yawning.

Seeing his eyes close, Opaque shook her head sharply and cuffed her brother.  "Oh, no," she growled.  "You are NOT sleeping in here."

Sparrow said nothing.  Opaque snarled in frustration and grabbed her brother by the scruff of his neck.  She was annoyed when he stirred but did nothing else, and she began to drag him out of the nursery.  This was difficult considering that Sparrow, although he wasn't even that large, was a lot heavier than she was.

Satisfied, Opaque stared at Sparrow for a few seconds and was amused and startled when he suddenly thrust his head up, panting in rage and glaring at her with pure hatred.

"I.  Am.  Sleeping," he growled in annoyance.  "Stop... touching... me!"

Opaque smiled at his words, but her smile faded again when she saw the serious rage in her brother's eyes.  "Oh well," she said calmly, sitting down outside of the nursery next to her brother.  "You and I are the only ones awake, I think."

"Which is why you should leave me alone," Sparrow spat.  "Just go to sleep.  The damn bear is NOT going to come."

"You were the one who told us to stay awake in the first place," Opaque snarled back.  "So, you shouldn't be asleep."

"Opaque, I'm pretty sure the bear is gone by now," Sparrow muttered.  "GO TO SLEEP."

"Good idea," Opaque muttered.  She turned and headed lazily back into the nursery, leaving her brother outside of it.  He sighed heavily and stood up, staring at the tops of the trees.  Now, he was alone, and he didn't know what to do about that.  Curing boredom while alone in the wilderness wasn't the easiest thing to do, especially when you were the leader of a wolf pack who was easily bored and used sarcasm in every other sentence you said.

~ ~ ~

It was sunrise, twenty hours later.  Sparrow lifted his head up at the rising sun and groaned.  There was an annoying pain in his neck, and it ached, causing him to rest his head right back down. 

Today was going to be a LONG day.

Author's Note

Like, kill me? o.o I was super excited about this chapter like last week, but now I don't think I like it too much. But ZOMGI'MGETTINGSOCLOSETOCHAPTER19! *squee* ...I thought it would be super fun if I like, wrote about them being all tired and... stuff, and it was, but I got writer's block so much even though EVERY MOMENT of this ENTIRE CHAPTER was planned out. ...Except the thunderstorm. o.o That just popped into my head... randomly... My head does weird things sometimes. :3

NOTE STUFF. At the beginning of each chapter, I'm going to have three parts... First, the FTOYWGAS, which translates to "for those of you who give a shit." That will be some random thing about the chapter. Next is going to be CWITIABIDISWTH, which is "chapter warning, if there is any, but I did it, so what the hell." That'll be like (ex.) gore, blood, angst, whatever. o.o And third is going to be RFWYPDCA, a.k.a. "random fact which you probably don't care about." I'm sure I'll get tired of spelling all that out, so whatever... Let's see how long it lasts, and I'm SFSTTA/RNWLAH. ..."So fucking sorry that this author/review note was long as hell." :3

Reviews

[r]

LMFAO. THAT WHOLE CHAPTER WAS SO FUNNY. I don't have the patient or the will to point out every part that made me laugh, but then again the entire chapter and basically every f*****g word made me almost fall out of my chair. xD

Well, first of all, I want to point out mistakes! This will probably be the first time I EVER pointed out anything in your books. o.o WOW.

--Sparrow sighed. "Exactly." Moon scoffed and curled up into a fall, her eyes closing.-- ((that should be BALL not FALL, right?))

And, um, yeah. I think that was the only thing I noticed. I fail!!! :D OHBYTHEWAY I LOVE YOU [nh] FOR POSTING THIS CHAPTER FINALLY!! I CANT WAIT FOR C19. IT IS GONNA BE SO F*****G EPIC!! The whole excitedinthebeginning thing and then getting bored or whatthefuckever with the chapter happens to me all the time. xD ITS NOT JUST YOU.

Um. I don't feel like pointing out some of my favroite things about this chapter, but I do have to tell you that Sparrow is a f*****g dumbass. Not sleeping cause of the bear? 'Stead of keeping the entire pack up, he should have just had someone guard while everyone else slept. Dumbass. xD Oh, and I loved the "something elk-y." And the part where Sparrow said "I was trying" and Saphhy interjects with "And failing" in da parenthesis. And a lot of other stuff made me laugh, like the whole chapter and like the part where Sparrow told the POSSIBLY DYING FREAKING CUB to shut up. o.O Sparrow is so retarded... And I love how Hurricane challenges Sparrow, but it makes me want to strangle him. -.- Stupid wolf, leave the sarcastic, stupid leader ALONE. :D

But yeah... I loved this chapter sooooo f*****g much and i cant wait for the next chapter!!!! :D SO WRITE, WOMAN!!! :D

[halflives]

OH. So THAT'S what the stuff at the top means...

"I. Am. Sleeping. Stop... Touching... Me..."

...BWAHAHAHAHAHA.

Sparrow seems to have developed a habit of interrupting Opaque. Their relationship is so CUTE IMMA DIE. Amazing chapter. I think I'm going to die from my laughing. THANK YOU FOR MAKING ME DIE. I was already marked for death anyway, so this changes nothing.

OPAQUE IS MAI FAVORITE TOO. She makes meh laugh. Lotses.

I'M SUPPOSED TO BE WRITING, BUT I'M READING BMW INSTEAD. SO FEEL HONORED, D****T.

[נнα&p..]

THIS WAS FUNNY AS HELL!!!

OH MY GOD. XD

I LURVE IT. xD The sleep-depreived-ness was funny. xD

So, yeah.

I LOVE YOU.

I'M GONNA KEEP READING. =3

[Rayne~Drop.]

...I. LOVE. YOU. God, his chapter was fucknig hilarious. XD All of them feeling/being sleep deprived was funny as hell. XD ...I loved how all of them just started running after Sparrow said "Caracas." WHY THE F**K would they want to eat a dead animal? lol XD

...Haha...Opaque had to drag Sparrow's lazy a*s out...XD lol Um...I really don't feel like pointing out anything else...So...Yeah. XD Again. I LUFFLEZ CHU. THIS WAS F*****G AMAZINGFUL. =3 XD