Ending: Chapter Twenty

The wolves still attempt to get themselves out of their unfortunate situation while coping with more death; Sparrow makes interesting plans.

FTOYWGAS: This chapter was also fun to write, but it's not the best thing I've ever written.  ♥♥♥
CW: Um, some gore and angst, but not as much.
RF: I jumped on a water bottle today, and it exploded.  8D

[t h e  .  a v a l a n c h e]
[p a r t  .  t w o]

I won't give in
No more denying
I've got to face it
Won't close my eyes and hide the truth inside
If I don't make it
Someone else will
- Stand My Ground by Within Temptation

"...I'm surprised we're still alive."

Opaque's soft words made Sparrow's eyes fly open at the sound of her voice, and he sat up quickly, irritating his injuries but attempting to ignore them at the same time.

"Me too," Sparrow said quietly, looking around.  It was the next day, and they still had not made it out of the snow and ice surrounding the mountain.  Thankfully, some of the snow had begun to melt, since it was summer, of course, and the snow was not resting atop the permafrost mountain where it was always cold.  Because of the new found heat, the snow had begun to slowly melt away, and the group of wolves could now see around them. 

Hurricane's eyes snapped open next, and he looked around, groaning as his neck cracked.  He had nearly forgotten about his head and neck injury by the time he managed to fall asleep last night, and this morning wasn't any different.  "Morning," he said weakly, and Sparrow rolled his eyes.

"Is that all that you can say," Sparrow said flatly, "when we nearly died yesterday?"

"Yes," Hurricane replied.

Sparrow scoffed and turned to Sapphire and Sunset, who were lying down, clearly still asleep.  He fought the urge to cuff them or throw something at them and turned back to his sister, but his eyes curiously wandered beyond her, and then they widened sharply.

"Uh," he said, not taking his eyes off of the landscape behind his sister.

Hurricane and Opaque turned around to see four or five dead beings from slightly farther away.  They couldn't tell if they were sheep or wolves, but... one of them was definitely a wolf.

"...Is that...?"  Opaque's mouth dropped open as she raced over to one of the bodies, which was medium-sized and... red.

"Oh no," Sparrow mumbled, and he tore after his sister, Hurricane remaining behind since he couldn't exactly run at the moment without fear of his head detaching from his neck.

It was Scarlett, one of Sunset's pups.

"No," Opaque mumbled.  In her time that she had spent here with the North Pack, she and Sunset had grown close, as nearly every wolf in the pack noticed at some point.  This was a shock to her, considering that she was her friend's daughter, and her friend's daughter was dead.

"Sunset," Sparrow said quietly, as if pondering whether or not he should get her attention.  "S-Sunset..."

Said she-wolf was thankfully still asleep, but Sparrow had a plan.  He suddenly walked over to the dead wolf, who was not even a year old, and began to drag her across the ground.

"Sparrow, what are you doi-?" Sapphire was awoken by the words sentences before, but was cut short as Sparrow laid Scarlett down gently next to Sunset.  When she woke, her daughter would be right there, right next to her.  Her daughter's eyes were closed, so it would look as if she was merely sleeping, and not dead.

Sapphire sighed, clearly distressed.  "Sparrow, you know that's not going to fool her," she said softly.  "Sunset will be able to tell."

"I don't care," Sparrow muttered, gritting his teeth and slumping down on the ground.  "I don't want the fact that her daughter is dead to be the only idea on her mind, right when she wakes up."

"Well... what will we do...?" Sapphire asked.

"When she... f-figures it out?" 

"Yes."

Sparrow swallowed.  "...Nothing," he said quietly.  "Just... don't do anything that could make it worse."

"But she'll figure it out," Sapphire said darkly.

"That doesn't matter.  As far as she knows..." Sparrow gulped.  "Scarlett is sleeping."

Opaque sighed at his efforts to make Sunset feel less... depressed when she woke up.  She would find out anyway, of course.  And that fact that her daughter was dead would make her even more depressed if Sparrow tried to hide it. 

As most wolves knew, Sunset had a history for losing her pups.  And now, Sparrow knew why.  In some ways, it was a good thing that he had gotten trapped in the hole with Sunset for that long period of time... Otherwise, there would be a chance that she would have never told him about Leader, and the fact that Leader and Hurricane's family killed her pups before.

Apparently, the curse hadn't worn off.

Sunset stirred, and Opaque held her breath. 

"M-morning," she said shakily, staring down at Scarlett.

Sunset opened her eyes and looked down at Scarlett, startled by her daughter's sudden appearance.  She sighed.

"I heard everything you said," she said quietly.

Sparrow, Opaque, Sapphire, and Hurricane were silent.  They looked at the ginger she-wolf as she looked back down at her fallen daughter, and raised her head up, not taking her eyes off of Scarlett for a few seconds.

Finally, she met eyes with Sparrow, who was biting his lower lip.  "...I appreciate what you were trying to do," Sunset said quietly, looking back down at Scarlett.  "But..." She sighed shakily.  "That doesn't change anything.  She's still..."  Sunset's voice trailed off.

"She's in a better place," Opaque said inaudibly. 

Sunset stood up, her legs trembling slightly.  "I... I know," she said.  "They all are.  All the ones who have died, and... all the ones in the process of dying."

At those words, Opaque looked down apprehensively at Hurricane. 

He smiled uncertainly.  "Don't worry.  I'm not going anywhere," he said breezily.

Opaque gave her mate a doubtful smile, although she wanted to tell herself that he would survive this.  Honestly, she wasn't so sure of it.

"...Don't worry," she said flatly. "We, and the rest of the pack, are going to make it home."

"...For one more day," Sparrow muttered. "That may be all we have..."

Sunset shook her head strongly. "No," she protested. "We are NOT giving up yet, even once we do make it back home."

"IF we make it back..." Sparrow pointed out.

"No!" Sunset said again, shaking her head even harder. "We can do this. We've gotten through the hunters. We've gotten through Isis. We've survived the fire, and the grizzly bear. And now... We are going to survive the avalanche!"

Sunset walked off confidently with her head held high, away from the other three who were staring at her as if she was insane.

"Well?" The ginger she-wolf turned around to face them, her eyes wide with demand. "Are you four coming, or do I have to go and find everyone on my own?"

Sapphire joined her side. "I'm going," she said flatly.

"Me too..." Opaque said, standing next to Sapphire and looking at her brother questionably.

Hurricane nodded shortly, appearing next to them.  "...Come on," he said thickly to Sparrow.

"I guess Sparrow's not coming," Sunset said, and she started to walk off.

"Wait," Sparrow said finally. "Let's go." With a new ray of confidence shining inside him, the injured black wolf limped up beside his three pack mates and stood there. "We are going to find them, if it kills us."

The sky was pale blue that morning, mixed with smoky shades of grey and white.  The trees cast eerie shadows across what was left of the blinding snow.  The ground was hard and cold from the snow being on it for several hours, but flowers and bits of grass still poked out of the earth.  Sparrow raised his head up and stared at the sun, just barely peeking out behind rays and rays of clouds.  The puffy grey shapes signified either the coming rainfall, or just the early time of day.

Sparrow made a list inside of his head as he found each wolf, if he even found them at all.  The first wolf they discovered was Midnight, one of Opaque's pups, who was whimpering slightly but appeared to be okay.  Blaze and Fire, Sunset's older pups, were found together, in which Sunset quietly rejoiced inside her head after being shown that at least two of her pups had survived.  Next, the pack located a lone dall sheep, its legs quivering as it walked, and just beyond it, they found Oak, who was sniffing around and looking for his brother Ridge.  They never found him. 

The pack continued walking to find Opaque's other two pups, who were clearly stunned but also appeared not hurt, other than a few cuts standing out against their dark coats.

Out of the wolves in their pack, there were still some that had not been found.  Moon, Jewel, Ridge, Storm, King, and Amethyst were some of them, so the group continued traveling.

They spotted King, Jewel, and Amethyst sitting in the middle of a snow-less patch of land.  King was the most injured: he was badly cut across his left shoulder-blade, which the pack would take care of later.

Thankfully, the pack found Moon next.  Her right eye was bruised and the back of one of her remaining legs was torn like Sunset's, as if a hook had been dug into it and pulled out roughly.  Without Moon, the pack would have most likely been dead by now.

The pack never found the rest of Sunset's pups.

Or Storm.

"I'm finished with this," Sapphire growled.  It was nearly afternoon; the group was reunited with almost all of their pack members, except for the dead ones and the wolves who were missing.  "We've been out all day so far looking for wolves who can't be found, and... it's not like any of them that we didn't find would be any help to us."

"She's r-right," Sunset said, although she knew that some of the wolves missing were her offspring.  "And... Storm... he's been alone for years now, after Rain died."

"I know," Sparrow said flatly, interrupting the two she wolves' conversation.  "And... we didn't find Topaz, either."

~ ~ ~

They made it home. 

They made it home.

We made it home. 

Back home. 

But are we safe? 

The bear...

Probably not.

Sparrow made his way to the meeting cliff.  He was limping slightly, and his eyes were narrowed as he stared down at his pack.  They were completely silent.

"...Hello," he began.

No one said anything.

"Well..."  Sparrow swallowed.  "I... We lost a lot of wolves today, and yesterday."

Sparrow said each of the wolves' names slowly and as clearly as he could. "Among those wolves were... Ash."

He saw Opaque turn and rush into her den.

"...Scarlett. "

Sunset choked back a small sob.

Sapphire sighed, tired of the suffering around here.  They were cursed... They couldn't be happy anymore.

"And..." Sparrow continued, "...Some wolves are still missing.  None of us are sure of what their fate will be, or if we will ever see them again.  They could have escaped the avalanche, or they could have been killed.  It was so large that we couldn't cover all the land, so... no one knows where they are.  Some of the missing wolves are the rest of Sunset's pups, Storm, and Topaz.  We'll just assume that... they won't survive."

Sparrow sighed shakily. "Um... well... These wolves lost their lives in the avalanche, as you know. There was n-nothing more that Moon could do for them, so...." He trailed off.

"...I just want to make sure that you all know... I am an idiot for taking you out there yesterday.  I knew that we hadn't explored the mountain, and I knew that something wasn't right as soon as I walked up to it.  But I was too busy worrying about myself, instead of us... instead of what truly matters to me." 

He swallowed for the thousandth time. 

"...My pack."

Sparrow turned around quickly, starting to walk down the ledge of the cliff.  But before he could, someone stopped him.

It was Sapphire. "I want all of you to know," she told the pack firmly, "that Sparrow has done a lot for you all today. Even when he realized that so many wolves were.... not going to make it, he didn't stop. He has never let you down, and as far as I know, he never will.  He's done well today, and..." she swallowed. "Without him we wouldn't have made it out out of there today."

As she spoke, Sparrow was couldn't believe that Sapphire had just done that... she had just congratulated him for not letting everyone down, but he knew it was his fault.  If he hadn't had the stupid idea of going hunting yesterday, this would have never happened to the pack.  His pack. And he had let them down yet again.

Sapphire hurried after her leader after the pack became speechless and Sparrow ran off into his den.  She didn't want to bother him right now, but... she had to.

"Sparrow, please don't -"

"That's it," Sparrow snarled, turning around to face her. "I - I can't take this anymore," he said in a quieter tone. "I've had enough of the pain, and the illnesses, and the death. I can't do it."

"B-but you have to," Sapphire choked out. "There's no one here who can do it as well as you can, and we would be n-nowhere without you." She trailed off for a moment, looking up at Sparrow with sad eyes. "Please..."

Sparrow shook his head. "No!" he burst out. "I can't do it, Sapphire."

"Then WHO else will?!"

Shocked by her sudden outburst, Sparrow looked at Sapphire with a quizzical yet still grieving expression. She didn't answer for a moment, but finally shook her head and sighed.

"Sparrow, if you can't do it, no one else can. Death is just a part of life. Get over it," she said, more flatly. "I remember when I used to think that you were s-so strong and powerful and that you would never give up." Feeling a lump grow in her throat, she swallowed quickly. "But apparently... I was wrong."

~ ~ ~

"I have a plan," Sparrow said to his pack, who were all standing limply around him. They hadn't done much in the last twelve hours since the avalanche, besides stay in their dens and be at least a little bit miserable.

Sunset looked at him quizzically. "A meeting?" she asked.

"Yes," Sparrow told her. "Since we all suffered a few losses the day before... I have a plan for us to never get injured or effected like that again."

Most of the pack groaned. Whenever Sparrow got an idea, they went through three stages: first, they'd pretend to know what he was talking about. Next, they would act like his idea was the stupidest thing they ever heard. Finally, they would question his supposed insanity and start to agree with him.

"Never?" Ginger asked flatly. Sparrow nodded, sitting down atop the meeting cliff and staring down at the wolves below him with a smug smirk.

"It will work perfectly," he said egotistically. "I mean, how could it not...?"

"We don't even know what the plan is yet, smart one," Sunset muttered under her breath.

As if he heard her, Sparrow told them his plan. "My genius plan, which will keep us safe and completely out of harm for the rest of our most likely short lives, is... Stay here."

The pack all looked at him blankly. "We can't stay here," Moon said defiantly. "Hunters..."

"We kill them."

"Hunting!"

"We'll scavenge."

"Boredom?"

"Bother someone."

"Lack of food?"

"...Cannibalism."

Especially shocked at his last answer, Moon looked at her leader disgustedly. "That's... Most definitely going to work," she lied. If lying made Sparrow happy at the moment, she would do it.

Sparrow grinned, obviously amused. "I wasn't serious about the last one," he told them. "But the others..." He grimaced. "They're in question."

"There are too many things that are wrong with you," Opaque muttered, and Sapphire nodded in agreement.

Sparrow shrugged. "I know," he admitted. "But you need to at least give me credit for trying."

"No, technically we don't," Oak protested. "The idea of staying here won't help us. In fact, it might make it worse."

Several voices began to argue at once, and Sparrow silenced them with a bark. "Shut up," he growled. "Now, Oak might be right, but he might not be. He does have a point from what I can see because there will always be risks no matter what we do, but... Look at me. I've been through a lot in my life, but I'm still here."

"You're one wolf. Our pack has MANY," Oak argued, fluffing his fur up.

"Don't start with me," Sparrow muttered. Although Oak was technically Sparrow's brother, since he was Dawn's son, they both found each other irritable. "I know that."

"His point is, Sparrow, just because you were able to survive doesn't mean that we all will," Sapphire said quickly, to end any possible arguments.

"I know that!" Sparrow snapped at her, glaring at her dangerously through narrowed eyes.  "Everybody just shut up, and listen to me for a second, okay?" 

He paused momentarily to make sure no one had anything else obnoxious to say.  "Anyway... I was just trying to think of things we could do to avoid more problems like we had yesterday."  He gulped quickly.

"Make better decisions," Oak said flatly.

Sparrow glared at him, and Oak flattened his ears against his head, lowering his head to the ground and letting his tail fall between his legs. 

"That's what I thought you said," Sparrow said.  He narrowed his eyes at the brown wolf, who slowly stood up straight again and said nothing.

"Anyway... Any plans?"

The pack said nothing.  Absolutely nothing.

"We'll talk about this later," Sparrow said.  "You all can... Go into your dens.  Just..."

He sighed. 

"Don't leave the territory.  Because..."

He gulped.

"I swear, if I ever lose any of you again..."

He turned away and headed down the meeting cliff. 

"I'll never forgive myself."

Author's Note

♥♥♥ YAY. IT'S FINISHED. Opinions? c:

Reviews

[r]

OHMYGODOHMYGOD!!1M, GHFGJDFBG NDFG MFG GMN FN I LOVED IT SO F*****G MUCH!!!! IM LIKE...DYING I LOVED IT SO MUCH!!!!!!! IT WAS SO ANGSTY AND AWESOME. AND THE DESCRIPTION AND THE DIALOGUE AND EVERYFUCKINGTHING WAS THE F*****G BEST EVER. I JUST LOEVD IT SO F*****G MUCH!!! LIKE ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO PUT INTO WORDS HOW MUCH I LOVE IT!!! Theres so much depth and Sparrow is such the perfect charrie. he's an idiot...and its awesome. im like...yeah. speechless. f*****g speechless.

*ahem* Anywayy, I downloaded that song at the beginning before I read the chapter, so I'm listening to it right now. I listened to it while I read. xD I'm just that fcuking awesome. hehehe. IM SO F*****G GLAD YOU FINALLY POSTED THIS!!!! IT'S BETTER THAN CHAPTER 19. IF THATS POSSIBLE. Gargghh, i have so much too say i dont know how the f**k to say it or qwbhjhgjfd gmf MEH.

I guess I'll start with the typo I saw: ---"Well?" The ginger she-wolf turned around to face them, her eyes wide with demand. "Are you four coming, or do I have to to and find everyone on my own?"---- Where it says "do I have to to and find..." it should be "do I have to GO and find..." xD I can't believe I actually noticed it. Lol.

LMAO. THE CANNIBALISM PART. Me and my friends always joke about cannibals, so yeah. it made it so much f*****g funnier. i love sparrow and is idiotic idea. i love him so much. and sapphy!!! when she stood up for him. i was like AWHHHHH. and then when she ran after him into the den and she said "apparently... i was wrong" or whatthefuckever the line was. I LOVED IT. And before that when they were looking for the wolves, it was awesomeness. and about scarlet, when sparrow tried to make it seem like she was just sleeping and sunset heard it all. that was so sad. D: poor sunset... my favorite ALIVE charrie's puppies always die. WHAT. THE. F**K. D: lol. And Storm! I know I never really even thought about him, but the thought of him being dead kind of makes me sad. but then again i GUESS he'll be able to see river again so yayyy. :D Uhhmmm.... was there more for the wolvesbeingdead part? i dont think so... Nope. xD

I F*****G LOVED THE ENDING!!!!!! When he said if any more of you die, i will never forgive myself, and he's walking off and it's just F*****G F*****G PERFECT!!! FUCKINGPERFECTFUCKINGPERFECT. FUCKINGFUCKINGPERFECT. ...roflmfao. Ummmm. F**K I DONT KNOW WHAT ELSE TO SAY.

So...yeah. I LOVE YOU [nh.] AND I LOVE THIS BOOK SO F*****G MUCH, AND I LOVE THIS CHAPTER SO F*****G MUCH, AND I WANT TO READ MORE RIGHT THE F**K NOW, SO YOU BETTER WRITE!!!!

[halflives]

SO SUNSET DIDN'T DIE?! I feel like an idiot now. But thank God she lived, jesh jesh.

AND SO ON.

as cheezit said, it's prettty much impossible to put into words how epic this chapter was. The "they never found storm/rest of pups" was so damn eerie it made me squeal. It freaked me out.

And it's nine o'clock at night. Thanks.

Sparrow is so damn perfect it kills me. Not mary-sue/cliche perfect, just the most amazing leader ever. He admits it's his fault, and everyone's sad and there's sobbing and sadness and ohgodimgoingtodie...

*cries in the corner of a circular room*

[Rayne~Drop.]

...I remember that time a saw Allie jump on a waterbottle...It was round and she ended up falling on the grass/sidewalk in Gym last year. XD ...And then YOU thought you could jump on one without falling, up you ended up going down anyways. XD

.......Sparrow's attempts at making Sunset feel better suck and fail. lmao XD Poor Sunset though....AT LEAST SHE DIDN'T DIE...IF YOU KILLED HER, I WOULD BE PISSED. -.-

...The process of Sparrow's ideas are hilarious. ANd his insanity is questioned ALL the time, not just during his ideas. lmao. XD

My reactions to this:
"Hunters..."

"We kill them." ...Wow.

"Hunting!"

"We'll scavenge." That works...Sortta.

"Boredom?"

"Bother someone." ALWAYS THE ANSWER!

"Lack of food?"

"...Cannibalism." .....BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH *continues to die of laughter*

...No, seriously. I almost fell out of my chair. I thought it was that funny. XD

Sapphy and Opaque are right. There is something seriously wrong with Sparrow. If he were an actual person, I would take him to a mental facility, and or therapy. XD

F**K YES! GUILTY SPARROW!

...Yeah. Thats all I gotz. KTHXBYE, XD