The Crimson River *Chapter 7, Part 1*

    Magnolia kicked loose dirt over the dead hare for later.  What a coincidence that her new pack-mates' half-brother would show up the same day Lily had revealed their kinship to them.  She couldn't keep her eyes from wandering.
    "I don't believe we've met," Eclipse stated, catching her gaze.
     "Huh?  Oh--we haven't...  I'm...Magnolia."
     "Eclipse.  You must be the rogue Lily mentioned."
     "M-me?  I...I guess so," the gray she-pup confirmed.  She looked down.
     "Hey, it's nothing to be ashamed of.  I'm also a rogue."
     Magnolia's mouth opened as if to reply, closed, then reopened as she guiltily began, "Well, actually..."
     "Eclipse, tell Thunder about how I caught his bunny!" Lily interrupted with a wag of her tail.
     The dark gray-and-white wolf turned to his little sister, her enthusiasm distracting him.  "You should have seen her," he told the brown-and-white pup.  "She lowered herself to the ground," he crouched, "got downwind of it," --circled around Thunder, "and eased her way toward it..."
     Thunder watched him suspiciously.
     "...and then she pounced!"  Eclipse leapt at his half-brother without intent of hurting him.
     Thunder snarled, rolling onto his back out of the way and kicking the older wolf's side as he passed, the force knocking the dark wolf to the ground where he nearly toppled over.
     Magnolia and Lily both gaped.
     "Hm.  You're pretty good," Eclipse praised, standing.
     The pup just glared at him.
     "W-well," he went on, "that's how your sister caught the rabbit."
     He blinked and looked at Lily.
     "Oh, lighten up," the black-and-white she-pup squeaked and playfully tackled Thunder.  The two tumbled together, Lily ending up on top, pinning him.  She lightly bit and tugged his ear.  Thunder let her.
     It's nice to see them getting along better, Magnolia thought, allowing herself to loosen up for the first time in a long while.
     Eclipse gradually became more serious.  "Okay, that's enough...  We should really get a move-on."
     Lily released her brother.  "Aww!  How come?"
     "It's...just a hunch."  He looked worried.
     "Wait, you're coming with us?"  Magnolia said, surprised.
     The dark wolf was growing frantic.  "If I have to," Eclipse answered, cautiously slinking forward.  He tensed.  "They're coming...!"
     "Who?" Lily asked.
     "There she is," a red-and-white wolf said from a short distance away.  "The puppy that stole my prey."  
     Thunder recognized him from the first time he'd encountered his half-brother.  "Blade," he answered Lily.
     "Eclipse is with them, too," another one's voice sounded ever nearer, followed by a howl of a third.
     "'The puppy that stole...'" Lily gave it a second's thought, then angrily concluded,  "Magnolia!"
     Magnolia let out a soft whine.
     "Run!" Eclipse exclaimed as he ran ahead of the gray she-pup and his kin just to stop and wait, impatiently beckoning them.
     Lily raced to Eclipse with Thunder at her heels.  Blade and his followers began to chase them a split second later.  The air was filled with the beating of paws against earth...none of which belonged to Magnolia.  Thunder was quick to notice her absence and looked back.
     The she-pup remained planted where she stood, her blue-violet eyes widened and staring at the wolves running toward her.
     "Get outta there!"  Thunder barked.  She didn't seem to hear him.  He growled, turned, and rushed to her defense.  He could hear his family behind him.
     "Thunder!" Lily cried at his disappearance.
     "Just keep going," Eclipse demanded.
     "But--"
     "Go!"
     Thunder stopped listening as he purposely crashed into Magnolia, knocking her out from underneath a leaping wolf, velocity sending both of them out of its way...and into a tree.
     The attacker, a light black she-wolf with brown and white spots, landed gracefully, her hazel eyes never leaving the pups.  Seeing how they were a bit disoriented, she seized the opportunity to trap them between her front paws before they could fully recover.  "You should not have stolen from Blade.  Now you shall die as a consequence," she said.
     "Let him go..."  the she-pup whispered.  "Please. I'm the thief.  Thunder is innocent.  Let him go."
     Thunder was shocked.  But he couldn't allow her to take the fall alone.  He had fled when his parents told him to, and when he returned they were dead.  He didn't plan to make that mistake twice.
     "We have no quarrel with the brown one," the she-wolf assured her.
     Now you do, Thunder thought as he suddenly bit her paw as hard as he could.
     She recoiled with a stifled yelp, taking the brown-and-white pup with her as she did so.  She shook her paw violently in hopes of flinging him off.  Through his peripheral vision he saw Magnolia watching them with horror.  In the next moment the she-pup was gone.  
     He couldn't hold on any longer.
     But he didn't have to.  Just as he let go, the she-wolf was headbutted away from him.  It took him a couple heartbeats to see that his rescuer was his half-brother...and that Blade and the third wolf were charging at Eclipse from either side of him.
     "Go with her!" he yelled to Thunder.  
     The pup had less than a second to process this situation.  Magnolia was running away.  Eclipse was bleeding from multiple minor wounds.  He was torn between helping him and being there for his sister and pack-mate.  
     "They need you," Eclipse insisted, dodging fangs and claws.
     "Thunder, come on!" Magnolia cried.
     Thunder shut his eyes as he endeavored to decide.
     "Thunder!"
     He forced himself to turn away and, against his conscience, bounded after the she-pups.