Anyways, try to keep an open mind.
An eerie silence looms through the shimmering white forest. A gentle breeze scattering the thin layer of white powder coating the soft white blanket drapes over the land. A wondrous place, full of beauty and hope. Alas, looks can be deceiving. It is the site of war, vicious battles raging often throughout the land. For the majestic wolf, life is rough.
A gentle scratching sound. A small beetle scuttles across the cold, damp, floor. The tiny beetle settles amongst the warmth and shelter of a large furry object. Upon movement of the object, the beetle becomes startles. A large lazy eye settles upon the beetle. Sleepily the creature rises.
With a tone of sleepiness the creature speaks.
"Been a long time, since I had company anyways." Horrified by the large creature, the beetle faints. Surprised, the creature moves closer to the beetle. After a long minute of staring at the beetle curiously, it awakens.
"P-please.... D-don't eat me!" The creature looks at the beetle with a confused expression.
"I'm not going to eat you, I prefer larger food, like deer, and elk."
However the beetle did not listen, terrified he scampers towards the wall, and out the tiny hole, in which he entered.
Disappointed the creature nestles himself back onto the only warm spot on the floor, the place where he had been laying before. Seeing as there wasn’t anything more to do, he slowly droops into a deep slumber.
A strange sound awakens the creature from his sleep; it is a sound he hadn't heard in ages it seemed. It was the sound of paws, patting on a hard floor. Confused, he scours the room, his large eyes, able to see well in the dark, scan every corner of the room, searching for possible sources of the sound. He notices a small crack in the wall, from which a light looms. He goes over to investigate. A shrill chill shoots through his body. He wraps his large, gray tail around him. This combined with his thick gray coat of fur warms him fast.
Curiosity gets the better of him; he puts his large eye into the hole. Excited he yips, he can see outside! He begins pounding on the wall, hoping desperately it will break open.
He smashes into the wall again and again, three times he does this. On the fourth the wall explodes inward, sending cement and rocks flying, along with him, inward towards the center of the room. Shocked he hasn’t any time to react before a large chunk of cement hits him atop his head. His vision blackens, and he falls into darkness.
This time he awakes to a surging pain cutting through his head, struggling to keep himself from yelling out he smashes his head to the floor and puts his paws over it. After a few minutes of groveling over the pain, he begins to notice little things around him, actually rather large things. The room isn't what it used to be. It is cold. Freezing cold, not what he is used to. He grew up and spent a majority of his life in the cold. But for the last many years he has been captive in this room.
He also notices the biggest thing, the room is no longer enclosed, and there is a gaping hole in the wall allowing access to outside. Excited, he runs to the hole. He stumbles over something in all his excitement. He looks down, and all the excitement leaves him. It is a wolf and a coyote, intertwined in combat, until death. The wolves’ jaws locked on the throat of the coyote. It appears as if in the rage of their battle the coyote smashes through the wall, sending them both to a pitiful grave. It is a shame to see that of my own kin die in the war.
After a moment of silence, he ventures out into the world he once knew. He is in a coyote camp, used to keep the coyote troops nourished. He was one of the only captives, captured in the early parts of the war. The camp however is deserted; the coyotes that inhabited it had been slaughtered in the night by a stealthy attack by the wolf clan. Dwarfed in power the wolves are forced to fight with strategy, not strength.
He scans the camp, hoping to find someone akin. Though to no avail, he searches for an exit. After a few long minutes of searching he finally stumbles across an exit.
The gate lay ajar, obvious that the wolves had found a way to open it and silently enter and assassinate the coyotes off guard. He exits the camp and ventures out into the strange "old" world.
He adores the sight of snow once more, after living in the room for the last 5 years he spends hours romping and playing in the snow, just as he used to with his brothers and sisters as a puppy. Ohh how he misses his old life, He used to live in a mighty clan of over 50 wolves. Then the thought occurs to him. I must find them! How silly he felt for not thinking of it earlier
So he let his nose, ears, and eyes guide him along the trails he knew as a young pup. Until he came upon a sight he bear not see.
He walks out into a large clearing, where lay the ruins of a village. It is that of his village. The one he used to love, his old life. He was no more then three years of age when he was captured. The ruins are three years old at that.
His heart surges with wonderful, and terrible memories. Memories of his mother, siblings, and father. And then the memories of the war. All of it was beginning to come back to him. He enlisted for the war at the age of two years, where he fought in the army. At that point of the war, open field battles raged everywhere. Wolves far out numbered coyotes at the time. But their sheer barbaric power allowed them to win massive battles and kill many wolves. In which one of these battles, was that of his own.
He was captured one year after enlisting in the army, he had only fought in three battles, all of which he barely escaped. All but the last. He himself was lucky to be captured rather then killed. Crippled and wounded the coyotes took a might bit of pity.
Day upon day. Week upon week. He searches for the ones that he loves. But to no avail. He searches until the pads of his paws are red and worn. He finds no single trace of any one that he once knew. His old life has ended, and his new is here. He is forced to live exiled, without a choice.
He lives like this for about a week when his luck takes a huge turn, for the worse. He stumbles upon a clearing, in which all is not well. Bodies of wolves and coyotes spew about in every direction for hundreds of yards. It is a brutal scene. Carefully he investigates each body hoping against hope that someone he knew was there. Even if they were, it would not be a happy occasion.
A small crack alerts his attention. He spins around only to come face to face with a charging coyote. The beast is on him in a flash, no time for him to react. It pins him to the ground. Their eyes meet, and lock onto each other. The coyote slowly inches forward. When the coyote was mere centimeters from his snout, the coyote immediately goes sailing backwards, giving time for him to escape. With no warning, a ravenous pack of wolves are swarming over the coyote. Ripping and tearing him apart, until thereis no more. A bloody scene yes, but necessary.
Dazed and confused he looks to his saviors. One of the wolves diverts his gaze from the coyote to him.
"Argolis? Argolis is that you?!"
"Who? Who are you?" He replies confused.
"Dude! You don’t remember me? Its Nelos!"
"What? No... Wait... NELOS?!? Is it really you?" Happily Argolis bounds toward the wolf. Nelos was one of his closest friends way back when he was young. After several minutes of happy rejoicing they discussed events of the sad past.
"What happened to the tribe?"
"Argolis... The tribe is dead... It was killed by the coyotes, only a few escaped, me among them."
"Then that mea-"
"Yes, your family is dead."
"What happened to Jason?" Argolis eagerly asked.
"Jason was killed not three weeks after you were captured."
Argolis silently mourned.
"We must leave, there aren't any more coyotes in this sector, but we can't be too careful."
Nelos led Argolis and the remainder wolves to a small encampment. Where a bunch of wolves scurry this way and that. Nelos then turned to Argolis and sadly stated.
"These are what's left."
Argolis scans the few wolves looking for anyone he used to know... None...
"The war has gone nowhere what so ever. The coyotes have far more then we do now, and their power outmatches us, I fear we will not win."
Argolis silently continued scanning the wolves,
"Give it up, they're all gone."
"I’m sorry, I’ve been away so long I just want to be with my family again."
"We're your family now."
Nelos introduced Argolis to the clan and designated him as second in command of the so-called troops. which only consisted of 15 wolves strong.
The encampment was small, very small indeed, small enough to be called no more then an outpost. A small perimeter was set up around the outskirts, guarded by merely 4 measly wolves.
Argolis began scouring the encampment, reuniting himself with those few who knew him as a puppy. Though none he remembered. He looked around until he stumbled upon a small scraggly tent in one of the far corners of the camp. Curiosity got the better of him, he pokes his head into the tent and looked around.
Nothing.
He comes back, turns around to leave but ends up face to face with a wolf, teeth bared.
"What are you doing in my house?" A scraggly voice echoes from beneath a tattered wool shawl draped over the figure.
"Please, I meant no harm. I was merely curious. This of course did not persuade the one in rags.
With a sense of understanding he beckoned Argolis into the tent. Inside he found out that he was actually the former leader of the clan, leader in fact when he was a puppy.
He told him of all the things he missed, all the happy moments, all the young generations of fuzz balls discovering snow for the first time. He could sense in Argolis, with a sort of eternal mind reading. He could sense Argolis' troubled past.
"You wish to know of your family, do you not?"
Surprised by the sudden change of topic, Argolis shouted yes loudly, too loudly in fact and he hurt his sensitive ears.
"Please, I’m sensitive to noise as well."
"Sorry."
After this he told Argolis of his family, his parents, his siblings.
(for the sanctity of those weak-hearted I will not tell the details of his family's death)
However not all of it be bad. He tells of one of his brothers.
"Yes, yes. He grew up big and strong. At one point he began rivaling the leaders of the clan. And as you can imagine eventually he would want the spot of head wolf. Well he did, and he tried for it many times. He suffered many-a-wound trying to get the head wolf spot. But eventually he did get the spot, and became out greatest leader we'd seen in an age. Far better even then myself. But one day he just vanished, sure he'd show up here and there eventually, but in the long run he just left. We learned soon after that he wasn’t leaving. But he was a traitor, he was spying for the coyotes."
"Wait, wait. How is this a good thing then?"
"Patience! let me finish. Anyways once the clan found out it was too late, and the coyotes attacked the clan killing off 90% of them. They completely destroyed out encampment and sent all the wolves fleeing. Eventually the wolves got together and formed a smaller clan. The one you see before you now. But one day he showed up again. This time was the good one, he apologized for his actions, but the council wouldn’t take it. They demanded that he be punished. So he offered to lead an attack on the coyote base. Now seeing as he was with them a lot, he knew all the tricks. And he led an attack against the coyotes. The attack was successful, and many coyotes were killed. Not a single wolf lost their life due to his leaderships. And because of his strategy, now all the wolves have learned to fight with brains, not brawns. That is how it’s good."
They told stories to each other for hours, until a council was called.
They met together in a large tent in the center of the camp, there they discussed strategies, and attacks.
After they were assembled they set out on "search and destroy" missions, finding pockets of coyotes and ambushing them.
They did this for days on end, every wolf killed took 30 coyotes with it. With that kind of skill the wolves seemed to be having a slight chance. Until the one.
They stumbled upon a coyote encampment, much like the one Argolis was imprisoned in, but far larger. On the outskirts of the camp they discussed their plans...
"They hold three wolves captive, if we can get them out we can replace the two we lost last week. Argolis, you take the left flank and try to find an entrance to the west, the rest of us will try and find one from the east. Be wary this camp is home to some of the strongest of the coyotes. It will not be easy."
The wolves split up and situated themselves into position, then they silently awaited the cover of nightfall.
Upon arrival of darkness the wolves began their creep forward. Nelos and his flank found a small breach in the wall and weaseled their way through. Argolis and his flank had to use more primitive methods, they climbed silently over the wall. Nonetheless they were all inside.
Each started making their way towards the center, silently assassinating every coyote they came across. For 4 hours they went through the camp back and forth killing all they could. The coyotes became scattered and confused from the killings, they hadn’t any clue what was upon them.
Until the next day their cover was blown, one of the wolves ventured too far into the light and was spotted by a watch-coyote. From there all hell broke loose, hordes of coyotes began surging from the barracks'
The wolves retaliated the only way they could, they split up and outran the coyotes. They ran circles until the coyotes were too tired to continue the pursuit, then the wolves made their move. They darted in time and time again, attacking one coyote at a time until all were slain.
This worked for some time, until dragons began to take to the skies, they feared doing this for it gave them less strength when actually fighting, but they were able to out maneuver the wolves in this way.
The dragons and coyotes scattered the wolves singling them out one by one, then they would swoop down, grab a wolf, and devour it in the sky. They did this until only 5 remained. All seemed useless, and all was.
Nelos and two other wolves were separated from Argolis and his three. Strangely the coyotes backed down. Taking advantage of the situation the wolves got back together and formed a defense circle.
The ground shook. Again and again and again.
"He's coming." Nelos said horrified.
"Who?"
A massive dragon walked into the area where the wolves stand. Easily three times the size of the others. All feeling of hope died away in Argolis. It seemed impossible.
"RUN!"
The wolves franticly started going in all direction hoping to confuse it. But it did not work, the dragon merely breathed a molted stream of fire singing three of the wolves. The remaining started darting in one at a time to take a bite into the dragon, having no time to react the dragon was helpless.
One after another they took bites out. Again, and again, and again.
Nelos darted in, but the dragon was getting smart. He turned around and met Nelos with two rows of blade sharp teeth.
Without time to react Nelos ran right into the mouth of the dragon, right into the jaws of death.
"NOOOOOOO!" Furious Argolis attacked wildly. Distracted by the warm carcass of Nelos the dragon paid no attention. However his attention was diverted once Argolis sank his needle sharp teeth into the hide of the dragon. In pain he swung his tail sweeping the last two wolves clean off their feet, and sending then sailing right into the horde of coyotes. Who then viciously ripped them to shreds.
In one final attempt Argolis Lunged forward and sank his teeth into the dragons throat. The dragon retaliated by swinging his claws, opening two large gashes in Argolis' stomach. Furious with rage he noticed not. But merely kept going in and taking more and more fatal blows. One after another, after another.
With his last burst of strength Argolis Lunged forward and sank his teeth once more into the dragons throat. In pain, and a last struggle of life he dragon thrust his claws forward imbedding them into Argolis. Unable to move, Unable to breath, Unable to live.
Slowly, the eyes of the dragon started closing. And like a tower of bricks the mighty beast fell to the ground... Dead...
Argolis stood. His body torn and useless... He wasn’t to live any longer. His body sank to the ground, and his eyes closed... Forever.
A never-ending galaxy, with a silent gaze, a light upon the end of the tunnel.
A grassy field, a calm plain. Upon which many live. A quiet life, full of love, hope.
A wondrous land. Lush and green.
And for Argolis.
His family back into his heart.
They're all there, his siblings, those who he played with as a puppy, his parents, his tribe, his friends. They’re all there.
His life.
Heaven.
Edited by SDK Kwen, 10 September 2009 - 12:16 AM.
