User:Moonrise638

= Prologue = The snarling of wolves fighting over prey told Spirit that a piece of prey had come. She got up, shaking dry leaves from her fur, and stalked towards the area in the cave where a dozen wolves were fighting over a scrawny rabbit.

She braced herself, then pounced on a wolf skinnier than she was. She clawed at the wolf—which turned out to be Luna—until she dropped her piece of prey: a rabbit leg. Spirit grabbed it with her jaws and swallowed it without chewing.

“Hey!” protested Luna. “That’s mine!”

Spirit growled, bracing herself for a fight. “Not anymore.”

Luna knew that she would not win a fight against Spirit, and she bowed her head—a sign of respect—and backed off.

Before, there used to be prey for everyone in the pack, all 13 wolves. But then, Standers took over their territory with shiny Destroyers and the pack had to move. They traveled for almost a whole moon now, and they had just stopped in a cave the night before. But the prey was skinny and scrawny, and the wolves always had to fight. The tension in the room increased, and the friendship lessened. Spirit used to be best friends with Luna, but, as it turned out, their friendship wasn’t going to come back until they got better prey. With a sigh, Spirit stalked off into the corner and began cleaning herself. Suddenly, a howl broke out as two wolves started fighting over the rabbit body.

Spirit glanced at the fight and saw that Alaska and Killer were fighting again. She decided to ignore it, until Daisy the pup came up to her and gazed with big, black eyes.

“Big sissy Spirit,” she squeaked, “Alaska and Killer both hurt.” Spirit glanced at Daisy up and down. Her mother, Wana, had died giving birth to her, and her father had also died because of a careless Destroyer. She pulled her in with her jaws and started licking Daisy’s untidy fur.

“And what do you want me to do?” she asked softly between licks. Daisy squealed as Spirit licked a scar from, no doubt, a fight.

Daisy wiggled out of Spirit’s tongue. She jumped to face Spirit, and squeaked,“Help them!” Daisy was unusually skinny, because she had no parents to take care of her, but that didn’t affect her excitement.

“Why would you think I could do that?” Spirit asked.

“Because you clean me very well! You can clean them, too!” Daisy barked excitedly. “And stop their fight! You are a very good War Stopper!”

Spirit laughed. A War Stopper was the title given only to the smartest and best of wolves. They stopped fights, and sometimes, wars.

“Oh fine,” she barked. “I’ll help…I’ll help…” She waddled into the middle of the fight, and barked, “Stop it, all of you.”

Killer and Alaska stopped after that. Killer barked out laughter. “Oh, shut up, you, who do you think you are? War Stopper?” Howls of amusement rose from the few watching wolves. Spirit glared.

“Challenge, me, again,” she growled at Killer.

“Oh, you want to fight, don’t you?” Killer barked. “Sure, a fight you want, a fight you’ll get.”

“And I’ll make sure it isn’t an easy one,” Spirit said under her breath. But then she stopped. Daisy wanted no more fights, and she was just creating more.

“No.”

Killer howled. “What?! Did the O Great warrior just say ‘no’ to a fight?!” Killer howled. “What?! Did the O Great warrior just say ‘no’ to a fight?!” “In fact, I did,” Spirit said coolly. “I’ll stop fights, but I won’t make more.” She stalked off, her tail high in the air.

☘︎

Later that day, the pack was traveling again, led by the pack’s real War Stopper, Leo. Leo just came back from hunting with two skinny thrushes, which one he devoured by himself. The other was torn into pieces.

Soon, in front of them was a mountain with three hills surrounding it.

“Oh, MoonPack, would you look at that,” breathed Silver. “There’s got to be some decent prey up there.”

The wolves all howled their success, and Leo’s howl rose from the rest, “Everyone! We shall move into the mountains, and it will soon to be ours!”

“Ours! Ours! Ours!” cheered the pack, and they ran towards their new future.