((LET THE DERPNESS BEGIN))
"Beta! Beta! Urgent news!" A small auburn creature sprinted into the nearly frozen camp, golden eyes wide in panic. He had a tan underside with a canine body, pointed ears and a long cat tail. An unusual sight for most, but the group was accustomed to him. A sleek silver wolf rose from her resting position, causing the smaller one to skid to halt. Her mismatched eyes stared unblinkingly down at him, making him shiver nervously.
Rutix hated eye contact, especially when the beta looked his way. As if she would never trust him. He averted his own gaze to stare at the snow covered ground as he spluttered, "Th-The nursery, it was found empty! Our young are all missing!"
Tarvene's gaze hardened. "What?! Who was watching them?" She asked harshly. Rutix winced, reluctant to answer. He had looked away for one second, then they were all...
"I believe it was Rutix who was supposed to take care of them." A cool voice said off to his left. A black panther with piercing blue eyes leered at him with a mischievous smirk on his face, "You must be dumber than the pups to let them get out of sight."
"That's enough. Hayo, gather up a few trackers, we're going to look for them." Tarvene growled, and Hayo slunk away. He would sooner throw himself into a ditch than start a fight with the hot-headed beta. She didn't wait for Hayo to get out of earshot before wheeling on Rutix, blocking him as he tried to creep away unnoticed. "And as for you, you are coming with us." Tarvene flicked him angrily with her tail and went after Hayo. Rutix sighed, pointed ears drooping. This wasn't going to be pleasant, he deduced before following his beta.
Tarvene's mismatched eyes scanned over her search party. She circled them like a wolf closing in on a lamb. The group all sat in a straight line, consisting of a beige wolf with maroon tiger stripes, a bulky tan-furred lion, a lithe lynx, Hayo and of course Rutix. Finally the beta grunted as sign of approval, then led the way out of camp.
The tundra was a cold, barren place. There was only one fir tree forest there, which was where the group had taken refuge. Everywhere else the ground was covered with hard-packed ice and snow, and the sky a smoky mix of dark grey clouds against a silvery background. A pale sun shone from behind one cloud as if to say it has not abandoned this Earth yet. Rutix looked worriedly up at it from the back of the running party, hoping it wouldn't get too dark before they found the pups and cubs. If it did, they'd be stranded in the dark, and the young most likely dead from the freezing temperatures.
They reached a part of the area where the ice was thin and would have icy water underneath. Rutix had heard about it before, but never saw it with his own eyes. Looking at it now, he would sooner put his weight, as little as it was, on a thin branch 50 feet high than on that. It looked as thin as a deer pelt, and looked like it would crack just by being looked at too long. Miwu, the sand pelted lynx was the first to step on, one steady paw after another. Tarvene followed with Rune, the beige wolf tailing her. The well-muscled and rather large lion, Fenrar managed to stay on the ice without it making a sound of protest under his massive weight.
Rutix gulped as he realized he was next, with Hayo right behind him. One small brown paw reached out onto the ice, then the next one dragged on. When he was on the ice with all fours underneath him, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Relief for Rutix always seemed to be shortlived.
Something or someone made a loud Snap! behind him and ice started to crack rapidly beneath him. He glanced back at the icy eyes eyes of Hayo, who had plunged his front paw right through the ice, causing it to break. Rutix heard cries of surprise from where the rest of the search party had gone, but had no time to look back at them. The ice collapsed under his weight and he splashed into the frigid water, flailing around in his doom with a rush of panic.
A pair of jaws pulled him up and shook him around roughly. He opened his eyes, which had been closed in terror. Rutix stared, confused at Fenrar, who let go of him as soon as he had calmed down. Prepared to plunge back into the freezing waters, he was thouroughly surprised, and embarrassed, that the water was only about two feet. His paws could reach the bottom easily, even for his short body. Hayo and Miwu were snickering to each other, but Tarvene silenced them with a death glare.
"Lets get back on the move." She stared pointedly at Hayo, "And no more nonsense from you or I'll strip your fur off and use it for bedding."
The party searched for another hour or so, following faint paw trails and false scents. No sign of the pups, or cubs, or even the fox kit that had been born a mere two months ago. Things were looking grim, with the dark and cold of night steadily approaching. Hayo's unsheathed claws tapped rhythmically with the sound of snow crunching underpaw.
"This is just a wild goose chase. We won't find them alive at this rate!" He hissed, causing the group to stop. Tarvene wheeled around and slammed into the panther's shoulder with inhumane force. Hayo landed hard in the snow, looking up in fear and surprise. The beta was so often calm, but so easily angered. Her gold and green eyes were on fire, hackles standing on end.
"Say that one more time!" Silence. White puffs joined the air every breath the group exhaled, looking like smoke. Tarvene huffed, and another puff of air joined the sky. "Our young are our future. If you aren't willing to find them when they need us most, then I suggest you leave now and don't come back." She finished sternly, turning to the others, "Anyone else have a problem?" No one said a thing. The silvery she-wolf led the way without turning back to see who followed.
~*~*~Meanwhile~*~*~
Honey-colored eyes gazed up at the slowly setting sun. The black pup with white paws shifted uncomfortably, the tips of his fur frozen together. He glanced at his more carefree companions.
"Tag your it!"
"Nope, you are!"
"I thought I said no tag-backs!"
"...Who said you get to lay down all the rules?"
The youthful voices were accompanied by tapping claws, skidding paws, barks, yips, and of course...Whatever sound tagging makes... Fracture, the black pup, was the only one aware of the fact that: one, they were rough-housing on thin ice. Two, it was getting dark. And cold. A combination that Fracture hated with every fiber of his being, despite having lived in these conditions most of his life. Three, there were birds overhead, which may not seem very threatening, but to Fracture it looked like these birds were circling their prey down. Not good.
Still, he was the more quiet and observant one of his group, which usually caused the others to think he was simply paranoid and ignore whatever warnings he gave them. Well, most of the others. His sister, Wishbone, a pup with white fur and black paws, noticed his uneasiness and sat beside him.
"Hey, whats up with you? You not usually this quiet." Wishbone asked through heavy pants, looking at Fracture with big brown eyes. She followed his gaze to where the circling birds, and possible predators, were. She raised an eyebrow, they were flying awfully low for such large birds. They normally didn't get that close. The wolf pup called out to the others,
"Guys, check out those birds!"
The rest of the group consisted of a young cub with a tan pelt, and mottled black spots, a pup with dark brown fur and white spots, and two arctic fox kits, one of which was only two months old. The younger kit lay cuddled up to Fracture, lost in the mess of his bushy tail. Several pairs of eyes looked up curiously at the flying creatures. They stared, unsure of what to do.
CRACK! The sound was sickening to their ears. They looked in horror at the source of the noise, a bird with raven feathers had started pecking at the ice until it broke. Frozen in shock, they stayed perfectly still, following the splintering ice with their eyes. The cracking stopped, the ground beneath the pups shuddered, then completely broke into several parts.
Wishbone, Fang (the lion cub), and Winter (the youngest fox kit) huddled on one chunk, fear struck their hearts as they stared at the birds quickly closing in on them. Wishbone let out a cry of surprise as a bird swooped down and picked out a tuft of fur behind her ear. The iceberg rocked violently, sending out waves of frigid water.
Meawhile, Fracture gasped for air as his head bobbed under and over water. His paws paddled uselessly against the chilly liquid. At last, through blurry eyes he saw a block of ice before him and scrabbled desperately for purchase. The ice gave way under his undeveloped claws, but before he could fall back under a mouth clamped onto his scruff and dragged him onto stable ground.
Wishbone. Fracture sucked in more air than he could let out, too out of breath to be grateful at this moment. They had bigger problems to deal with.
The dark brown pup with white spots, Cookie, yelped as three birds circled and pecked at her body, attempting to get at the flesh beneath it. She was standing one a different ice berg, but was only a short distance away from where the rest of the group was huddling.
"Jump! I'll catch you!" Fang called, not really sure exactly how he was going to 'catch' this pup, but he didn't dwell on it much. Cookie leapt from one berg to the other, colliding into the tan lion cub. Oh well, so much for catching. He served for a good cushion, anyway.
A large bird nose-dived on Winter, the small kit barely even noticed it coming down. In the nick of time, Flint, the older of the two kits jumped protectively over Winter and snapped aggresively at the predator.
"And don't come back, ya hear me!" He snarled at the retreating bird. It was quiet for a short moment, until the birds decided to gang up and come back full force on the group of helpless young.
High pitched yips, yelps, and cries filled the air.
~*~*Meanwhile*~*~
Rune's ears swiveled, his body suddenly tense and alert. Tarvene raised an eyebrow at him, stopping along with the rest of the group. They all stopped to listen, distant cries reaching their attentive ears. Rutix's eyes widened.
"They are near!" He exclaimed, stating the obvious. Hayo rolled his eyes,
"Yes. And by the sounds of it... Not doing well..." The panther looked uneasy for once, glancing at the others. Rune barked and bolted, paws pounding against the snow. Surprised and worried, they followed after him and stared in shock at the scene before them. The beta's voice shattered the staccato of painful yelps.
"ATTACK!" Tarvene howled with rage, and immediately the group sprang into action, leaping from pieces of ice to get to the young. Hayo's muscles bunched up as he crouched, then pounced at a bird in midair, a yowl escaping his throat as a talon scraped against his muzzle. His jaws closed on one of the avian's feathered wings, jerking it around with force. Miwu took the other wing into his mouth and tugged, let go, and the bird fell into the freezing water.
On a different ice block, Fenrar's large paw smacked down on one of the puny, winged creatures. It squirmed before being smacked away by another powerful appendage, giving a frightened chirp. The lion let out an intimidating roar, batting the approaching enemies away with vigor. The birds were quickly dispersing.
Oh, but the group wasn't done just yet. You mess with the family, you have to face all of it.
Tarvene was going nuts on the feathered animals, snarling and biting the attackers whenever they so much as approached her. Rutix, who was 'defending' (meaning standing over the pups and cubs while the others did the bloody work), stared at the silver wolf with slight concern. Along with attacking almost anything in sight, there was a string of very colorful words coming out of her mouth.
The adults stood in a circle around the young, eyeing the remaining birds as they hung around, circling in the air. Looking for an outlet. Hayo and Miwu yowled, Fenrar gave an earth-shaking roar, Tarvene let out a bone-chilling howl. Rutix made a sound that was crossed between a wild cat's hiss and a deep growl.
The birds flapped off, itching to get away from the deafening sound of all the voices joining together.
__________________ ShortTimeSkip ___________________
Rutix sighed in relief as they den site finally came into view. Snow had started falling lightly with the sudden drop in temperatures, making him nervous for the last part of the trip back but they had made it in time. The moon hung low in the sky, casting long shadows from the tall fir tree's. He breathed in the familiar sent and set down the cub he was carrying, and so did the others. The young retreated back to the nursery, all with their tails drooping, exhausted and throuroughly scared out of their wits. Not just from the birds, Rutix thought with a bit of amusement, Tarvene gave them a stern talking to.
Said she-wolf turned around to look at Rutix, scanning the light smile on his maw.
"Hey, you comin' or not?"
Rutix looked up in mild surprise.
"P-Pardon?"
"The rest of us are planning on getting some fresh-kill. Did you not want to come?" Tarvene asked, trying her best to sound stern, but it came out a bit... Embarassed?
"Sure! Th-Thanks for inviting me..." He walked up beside the taller wolf, golden eyes wide. There was a hopeful grin on his face, "I kinda thought that maybe... You guys didn't accept me as much," Rutix finished sheepishly. Tarvene raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, er, I don't really care..." The beta winced inwardly, That came out colder than I wanted it too..., "Anyway, let's go!" She sprinted off to the waiting group, glancing back at Rutix. He was still grinning, and she found that the corners of her lips were tugging upward as well.
Rutix noticed the group smiling at him too, not mischieviously for once. They seemed almost friendly as they walked off together like old friends.
"Hey Tarvene?"
"Hmm."
"Can you tell me what those colorful words that you were saying back there meant?"
"..."
((Yeah, cheesy ending...Whatever...))
