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lordragoon
The alpha whipped his paw past my face, clipping my nose with a claw. "Wake up, pup. Time for the hunt." My stomach grumbled in agreement.
I stood up, glancing at the cave mouth. The sun had already set, and soon the half moon would rise. I nodded to the alpha of the pack before following him out of the cave, pausing only to scratch a few motes of dust from my pelt.
It was my first hunt. A wolf pup can�t hunt for himself until he grows up, opens his eyes to the land. I had just learned to see the world. So now it was time for me to see how good of a hunter I would be.
Since my birth, I was one of the pack. But until I proved I was of the wolf, the garo-te, I would remain nameless. Pending that point, I was simply pup.
I stepped out of the cave mouth, glancing at the wolves, the two other than the alpha himself who had awoken. One was the alpha female, the mother of the pack. The other was a young female, brought from the deeps of slumber by the loud rumbles of hunger. Between her sharp claws and impressively muscular build, her strength as a hunter was incredible.
And I had to prove myself against her.
"You lead the hunt, pup," the alpha growled. "But don�t be a fool." With that, he stepped back into his den, preparing for a hunt of his own.
Jumping up onto one of the nearby rocks, I took in my environment. Red-brown dust coated the desert clay, a few short bushes poking out from it. Pinpricks of starlight shot through the clear night sky, meeting the horizon with only a few the shadows of cacti dotting the otherwise perfect line.
I shut my eyes, licking my nose instinctively and let my muzzle hand open. The territorial odor of the wolf pack was the strongest scent, and the easiest to ignore. Once that was cleared from my mind, other smells came in. The constant stench of garo technology and of the humans themselves crept into my nose. The taste of running water, less than a mile away, was bright as well. With it came the scent of prey animals, many of them.
I motioned a direction to the other wolf, and we set off. A quiet tattoo of pawpads hitting dry clay pattered into our ears. The heavy footfalls of my fellow wolf began to blend in, matching with my own rhythm of running. The pack - my pack - prepared for the hunt.
Our pace slowed to a crawl as we got close to the prey. Thick, light-brown fur and long, overgrown horns, the buck was at least five times my weight. He greedily slurped up the last dregs of a mud puddle, funneling the water down his throat and spitting out the grit.
I nodded to the other. "Don�t let him run." She muttered no dispute, but fear was obvious in her eyes. And not without good reason. Our entire pack would have thought twice before trying to take this animal down.
I crept closer, waiting for the buck to lean down next to another puddle. Instead, he stopped suddenly, raising his head and flicking his ears. A loud click echoed as one hoof hit a rock - he was backing away.
A lithe, graceful dive through the air ended with a cloud of dust blown into the air; the buck had managed to drop out from under my leap. He turned to run, but the female wolf had already circled around to prevent his escape.
Cornered, he turned; flight or fight, with one option exhausted, he only had one choice left. With a snort, her charged forward, his horns brushing against the ground. I sprang to the side, muscles in all four legs twanging just to prevent me from being gored. He turned to face me again, tendons bulging. I couldn�t keep trying to dodge - I had to be lucky every time, but he�d only have to be lucky once.
The buck dashed forward again, slashing downwards with his horns. I lunged at him, then jumped up at the last second, sharp prongs mere inches from my belly.
I hit hard, digging claws deep into skin. I turned around, still on the animal�s back as he tried to throw me off, barely holding on. Then I sunk my teeth into the buck�s neck, greeting the taste of warm blood flowing past my fangs. A smooth pull of my jaw was met by a resounding crack. The animal�s muscles tightened one last time, then the carcass hit the ground with a dull thud, its blood pouring down my throat.
We feasted.
And when the hunger was quenched, four wolves stood up. The alpha and his mate nodded at me, licking clean their chops. The moon, high above, reached its zenith.
"Well done, garo-te," he said, and I relished the meaning behind those words. They defined who I was. They called me wolf. And they promised me another day.
The alpha female glanced at the wolf standing next to me, then the corpse laying between us. "Quite a clean kill, for your first. Not the most standard of attacks, though." I stared at the dust under my paws, embarrassed. "But still good. You don�t have a mark on you, and the pack won�t go hungry."
A strong wind began to rattle across the desert, blowing strips of brown fur over bloodstained bones. "You�ve earned a name, that�s for sure," the female next to me said.
The alpha female nodded in agreement. "One that fits your fighting style: R�tai dar."
I mouthed the words, thinking about the name. Bites the winds. It would work, even if it sounded stupid.
The alpha turned and loped off, we followed him back to the cave. A trail of dust rose up behind our pawprints, rising into the sky. We reached our home, piling around the cave mouth.
I watched as the moon slowly climbed down from the sky, and I fell asleep.