The Crimson River *Chapter 1, Part 1*

    The sun's brilliant light hit the trees of the forest, casting their shadows onto the lush greenery below, where a brown-and-white wolf-pup ventured cautiously.  Where are you? he wondered, fighting the urge to call out because that could draw unwanted attention to himself.  The pup's slightly muscular figure tensed as he heard the sound of paws too heavy to belong to the one whom he was searching for slowly gaining on him from behind.
    Frightened, he broke into a run, making random turns left and right in hopes of throwing off his pursuer.  He risked a backward glance, glimpsing the silhouette of a bulky adult wolf far behind him but approaching quickly.  Before the pup could face forward again, he collided with a silver figure and ricocheted to the ground.  
    "Violet?" the pup panted, hoping he'd ran into the light-footed she-wolf that had went missing two days prior.  His hopes vanished as the figure, a she-wolf but not the one he was looking for, let out a growl, giving the pup just a heartbeat to dodge before she lunged at him with her jaws agape.  In that moment, the heavy paws behind him caught up.
    The pup closed his eyes and braced himself for his death...then reopened them as he was still alive, protected by a bulky golden wolf who tackled the pup's silver attacker.  "Father!" the pup cried, relieved but shaken.  
    The two adults combated with each other until the she-wolf suffered a wound too many and fled.  The relief the pup felt diminished to be replaced with shame as his father loomed over him, the golden wolf's bloody muzzle giving him terror as an added bonus.  
    "Thunder, your mother made it clear that you not enter the woods unsupervised!" he growled at the pup.
    "But nobody else would search for Violet!  You can't just leave her--"
    "Violet was murdered, son!  Searching for the dead is just a risk on your own life."
    "You don't know for sure she's dead," Thunder whimpered despairingly.  "She was never found...  She could have been captured by Shadow, waiting for her pack-mates--us--to rescue her..."
    The wolf didn't reply, instead opting to lift his son by the scruff and carry him alongside the river that flowed away from the waterfall at the base of the mountain where their home was.

    "Lightning, you're back!  And you found Thunder," a black-and-white she-wolf greeted them upon their arrival.
    "Yeah.  But Thunder wasn't the only one I found," the golden wolf answered her, setting his pup down.
    The she-wolf's joyful expression changed to a worried frown as she took note of the blood in Lightning's fur.  "What happened?  Did Thunder get hurt, too?"
    "I'm fine, Mother," Thunder mumbled.  "But Violet isn't..."
    "You found Violet?" Her ears perked up and she leaned to the side to get a view behind them wishfully.
    "No, Midnight.  We found Tulip, and she would have hurt Thunder if I hadn't have gotten there on time," Lightning explained.  Midnight looked serious at that.
    "Who's Tulip?" asked a black-and-white she-pup who had bounded up to eavesdrop.
    "One of Shadow's followers," the golden wolf replied calmly, hoping not to scare the pup.
    "Not just any of his followers," Midnight added dreadfully, "she's Shadow's mate...meaning Shadow himself can't be far away, now..." She shook herself.  "Thunder, I'm sorry about Violet, but there are more serious things going on that pups like you won't understand.  Take your sister with you to fetch Cotton to help your father."
    Thunder gave the faintest of nods.  "C'mon, then, Lily," he said to the eavesdropping pup.
    "But I wanna know what's so serious," Lily huffed.
    "Lily, go with your brother," Midnight repeated.  Then added with a falsely lighthearted smile, "Your father's depending on you two."
    Lily straightened up at that last part, her mother's smile taking her attention away from what she overheard...not that she listened much, anyway.  "Alright, then!" she said with a new feeling of importance.  She scampered past the tree-stump in the center of the clearing and headed towards the Healers' den to the right of the waterfall. "Father's life is on the line!  Onward to Cotton!  Follow me, Thunder!"
    Thunder rolled his eyes at Lily, then took off after the she-pup.  They entered the den to be greeted by a white wolf not quite as old as their parents, and a reddish-brown she-wolf.
    "Cotton, our father's been hurt," Thunder announced.
    "Hey, I wanted to be the one to tell him!" Lily barked at her brother, her feeling of importance lost.
    The white wolf sighed.  "It was Shadow's followers again, wasn't it?"  Under his breath, he added, "That's his second victim since we moved here... The fifth victim this month."
    Thunder opened his mouth to answer, but Lily cut him off as pieces of what their mother said came rushing back to her mind. "It was Tulip!" she blurted.
    That got the reddish-brown wolf's attention.  "Tulip... She was such a great healer. How she could side with that traitor, I'll never know..."
    "It's okay, Rose.  We're still together and that's all that matters," Cotton murmured comfortingly.  To the pups, he said, "Lead the way."
    Lightning and Midnight were in the depths of conversation.  Their words became audible as Cotton, Thunder and Lily approached them, Thunder in the lead.
    "...I thought we finally found a place to settle down in, but it's not safe here anymore.  Our pups and our pack-mates are in danger.  So many of our wolves, even Daisy, have been taken from us already--there's no guessing who they'll target next," Midnight was saying.  She silenced herself as Cotton began to check Lightning's wounds.
    "Can I help?" Lily asked the white wolf.
    "He should be fine, but he could use some cleaning-up," Cotton reported.
    "I'll clean him, then," Lily yelped, licking at the blood on her father's flank.
    "We'll talk later," Lightning said to Midnight, flicking his tail toward Lily in an indication that he didn't want his daughter to get involved.
    Midnight understood and turned, walking away.  Thunder tailed her until they were out of Lily's hearing range.
    "We're leaving?" he asked in a hushed tone.
    Midnight blinked, surprised that he had picked up what she said.  She didn't bother denying it.  "I'm afraid there's no other choice," she confirmed sadly.
    "But what about Violet--and all of the other missing wolves?"
    "Thunder, you could have been killed today looking for Violet.  I know she was our last caretaker left to watch over you and Lily, but I can't afford to lose any others of this pack by sending them out to search for the missing.  You understand that, don't you?"
    Thunder reluctantly nodded, dropping his gaze to the ground.  "Then where will we be going?"
    "Gather up the rest of the pack and I'll tell you," Midnight said optimistically.
 Thunder was skeptical of her sudden change of mood, but he did as she directed. Midnight hopped onto the stump in the middle of the clearing, followed by a now-clean Lightning, with Lily sitting at the base of it below her parents as her brother rounded up the few wolves left in their pack in front of the stump.  
    "I guess we don't need to discuss anything farther, then?" Lightning guessed.  Midnight nodded in answer.  Thunder took his seat by Lily once everyone was settled.
    Midnight took a deep breath.  "As you are aware, after our former leader Shadow was exiled so very many months ago, he and his traitorous followers had been joining up with rogues and picking off our pack-mates one by one.  We've relocated to many new places in hopes that they would never find us again, and I thought this would be our permanent home.  But sadly it seems that's not the case."
    The gathered wolves talked quietly amongst themselves, wondering where they would go next.
    "So we will be leaving here, to a place almost as beautiful as this on the other side of the mountain," Midnight announced, gesturing to the waterfall cascading down from the top of the mountain behind her.  
    "But we moved here from that direction," a dark-white wolf speckled with gray pointed out.  A few of the wolves muttered their agreement.
    "Exactly, Gravel.  Shadow and his makeshift pack won't expect us to head back the way we came."
    "So when are we leaving?" Lily asked excitedly.
    "We'll spend three more days here to prepare for the journey," the black-and-white she-wolf answered her pup.  She faced her pack.  "Does anyone disapprove?"  The wolves looked at each other, then expressed their agreement with the plan. "Okay, then.  Get the preparations started.  We've a long trail to follow."
    The pack separated to do just that.  Thunder watched them go, then thought he picked up on the faintest sounds of rustling bushes coming from the forest's entry.  Curious, he slowly began to creep toward the sound, his turquoise eyes narrowed to spot any movement to match the noise.  As he neared the edge of the clearing, that was when he spotted a flash of a silver wolf's tail--at least, that's what he thought, since at the moment he glimpsed it he nearly yelped with terror because something tackled him to the ground from behind.
    "Move it, lazy-butt!" Lily cried, prodding Thunder.
    "Lily, stop!" Thunder snarled.
    "Why?" the younger pup huffed.  
    "Because I just saw a..." Thunder let the sentence trail off as he stared into the forest in a vain attempt to see the silver tail again.
    "Saw what?" Lily asked, following his gaze with interest.
    The woods were as quiet and peaceful as they always were.  "Nothing," Thunder sighed. "Forget it."