It was super dark outside and was getting rather late, but the young male didn’t mind that too much. He had a sword now! Despite the fact that he was unable to shift yet, the youngster toted the weapon around with him everywhere he went. He would use it to protect Nayru and himself from anything that would seek to hurt them, even if he had to hold it with his mouth! Bris had told him that the sword had come from his father, that it was meant as a gift, and Gideon felt very special to be the one to carry it now.

His mouth opened and closed in a yawn. He was heading back through the woods toward Dahlia to get some sleep. The male had spent the day exploring the lands beyond the borders of their pack, observing the different types of territories. He could see why Dahlia had been formed where it was…their territory had a little bit of everything in it! His favorite part was probably the secret garden that he and Nayru had discovered.

It was a brightness shining through the brush that caught his attention, catching the movement of shadows and light between the trees. A fire? Was someone else out here? He doubled back to take a look, having caught sight of the scene out of the corner of his eye, and stopped when he could clearly see what was going on. He could barely hear small little squeaking sounds, and looked around. What sort of animal made that sound? Then he noticed something else that he hadn’t seen when he had first come; there was a big black wolf standing in the shadows.

He knew that strangers lived out on their own in the wild territories, but hadn’t encountered anyone other than his packmates before. His ears and tail went down for a moment before he remembered that he had his sword. He’d be safe. He watched in puzzlement as she picked up a bag. Gideon couldn’t see too well through the darkness, but it looked as if the bag were moving a little bit. Did she have an animal inside of it? A pet, perhaps, like his pet gull Fred? Maybe that was where the squeaks had come from.

And then the bag had flown through the air; it landed just beyond the fire, the top of the bag in the flames. There was something alive in that bag; why had she thrown it at the fire? He leaped from the brush just as the adult turned to run. His paws were on the bag, pulling it away from the fire. He looked around for something to put the flames out, but didn’t see anything; he turned backward, kicking dirt at it instead. This seemed to work; the fire went out and the bag smoked.


He had it open after a few moments, nearly burning his paws on the singed top as he used his teeth to tug at it. There were..some small animals inside. Two were moving around and squeaking, but one was un-moving and was quite cold. He nudged at it, trying to see if it would move around like the others, but it seemed that he was too late. Gideon realized now what exactly these were…that these were pups. Someone elses’ pups. And that they had tried to throw them into the fire.


He looked toward the surrounding brush accusingly, feeling an immediate surge of anger. Why would someone want to do this to their puppies? The bag was in tatters but it would hold well enough…he picked the deceased pup up and dug a small hole for it, burying it before picking up the sack with the two remaining pups and racing back through the woods to Dahlia.