I'm still here! I just need to think of what to write...

~Alpha

As I slept, I felt a sudden chill down my spine. Like something, or someone, who shouldn't be alive is. 

Then I had the dream. 

Wolf pups, screaming, howling, pain in their eyes. But not just wolf pups. He saw Beta, her eyes swollen with tears and foam coming from her mouth. He blinked, and everything was dead. He crouched, pain in his eyes, and watched as more and more and more fell. 

Suddenly he was whisked into the clouds, and be saw, one by one, the tribes. Tiger, lion, cheeta, coyote, deer, mouse, dragon. They all fell in union, one after the other. 

Terafu. Terafu is here. 

Then he saw the leaders of the three furosious tribes. The great and mighty Tigeress, her claws of steal and teeth of jade. Her coat of battle scared fur, the colours of a rising sun. The stripes as dark as twilight. Her eyes a piercing amber. 

The wise and loyal Thunder, his eyes warm Sun coloured eyes and long, dangerous claws. His long, sole piercing roar and his brilliant golden main. His beautiful deep gold fur and peril white snarle.

The fast and furious Amber, her limbs slim and agile, her eyes a deep auburn, her claws slim and dagger sharp. Her fur a light gold and her spots a deep midnight. Her teeth, white and pure, bared in a heart skipping snarle.

He was the fourth leader of the three ferocious packs, the dragon pack, leopard pack, jaguar pack, and polar bear pack next in line.

He watched as each doubled over, hissing in pain, and fell limp. Then it was his turn.

The pain was nothing he'd ever expected before. It came like a million claws pocking into him, starring out his insides. He doubled over. His eyes clouded and teared. His mouth foamed and his claws tore deep gahses into anything they could reach. 

Terafu. Terafu is here. Terafu will kill again. 

In his last firing breath he realized he needed a successor. There was no time to choose. 

As the world became black, he whispered,

Pick someone where Terafu will never know.  

~Moonight

She woke as stabbing pain ran through her shoulder like a lightning bolt. For a second she thought she was still in a dream, and the pain was imagined. Then she glanced around, and saw she was upside down in her sleeping spot outside the cave. 

The pain struck through her shoulder again, and she doubled over, slowly looking around to see who struck her this time. She found no one. And her shoulder was unharmed. 

Maybe she broke it? Dislocated it? Sprained it? 

She bring a shaky paw up to rest on he'd shoulder. Suddenly the pain was gone. Then it came, all at once, seemingly through her paw and into her shoulder. She couldn't help but howl the distress signal. 

Then her shoulder was numb. And the pain was gone.

There was a claimor in the cave, and her mother came out with a worried expedition, scanning the trees a d bushes for any attackers. What she saw instead was Moonight still clutching her shoulder, tears streaming down her cheeks. 

"What happened?" Mother asked slowly.

Moonight paused and mumbled. "I-I don't know. My shoulder, it just hurts so much." 

"Let me see."

She felt her mother's paw on her shoulder and she reluctantly let go. Her mother gasped. Then quickly rushed into the cave.

Ow. How bad is it? Moonight risked a glance at it, expecting a blood-gushing gash, a large thorn, or a price of bone sticking from her flesh. 

What she found instead was a blue paw print.  

So wait is Forest....*scanes pages for mentions, sees none...gulps* Dead?!?!

Name: Fauun. In the native tongue of coyotes, it bears similarity to the name of a common source of prey. Fauun translates to "weak one". 

Species: Coyote. She is near the bottom of her species clan, also known as Kalyska. Kalyska is based on a Miwok (Native American) name that means "coyote chasing deer". This does not bode well for Fauun.

Appearance: Brindled tan and orange fur, tail perpetually between her legs, dull gray eyes, teeth blunted as punishment from her clan leader, claws disfigured as punishment for insufficient fighting, long legs that make for fast running (useful when she needs to get the heck out of a bad situation)

Personality: She was once an energetic, talkative member of the Kalyska clan, and loved running. But when is became apparent that the few rabbits she gathered weren't going to be enough, she lost this innocent, happy demeanor and became silent and ashamed. Her former friends take minor pity on her, but are afraid to approach her lest they have their teeth blunted and claws distorted as well.

Backstory: Fauun was born into a litter of four, her siblings being Blate, Loproy, and Reva. Blate was named after a great former leader of the Kalyska clan. Loproy was given a name signifigant to a sister species to coyotes: wolved. Reva was named for her loud, aggresive growls upon birth, "Reva" translating to "barks and bites". Fauun was given the short end of the stick, as it was obvious to her parents that she was the weakest of all four. Growing up, Fauun did everything she could to support her clan, to make up for her many mistakes, which there were more and more of as the years went by. She became a lowly hunter for the clan, given small things to catch like rabbits and mice, but she wasn't even good enought at that. Reva went out to defend the clan from possible attacks, Blate pursued a career of catching traitors or spies (for all the coyotes), and Loproy grew into a great second-in-command for the leader of the Kalyska clan. Fauun's parents had knewn they would be great. Fauun made a few friends over the year, but mostly they just felt pity for her, until one day she was called out by the leader for being insufficient. Loproy couldn't do anything but watch as Fauun was punished. She began stalking the outskirts of the Kalyska clan, her only friend now a budgerigar who flitted away after a couple of minutes anyway. Every night she would silently pray that someone would come, and recognize that she could be good for something. Even if she, you know, wasn't.

~Fauun

I rolled to the side to escape the terrible stench.

During my time as an outcast, I had learned to take what I could get. Sleeping in the bushes behind dens, catching injured animals (no matter how bad it made me feel), until I was caught.

Now I was sentenced to living behind the excretion den.

It had been like this for months already. I had gotten used to the light, dreamless sleep that came with the darkening of the sky. Nobody had ever stood up for me, never in my entire life, not Reva, not Blate, not Loproy. Not Mum. Not Dad. There was only Fllick, the green budgerigar that sometimes perched on the lowest branch of my hiding tree. That was all I'd ever be good for. Hiding. But Fllick made for some good company, the few times he had shown up.

The smell became unbearable after a while, so I miserably trodded over to the rickety maple that served as my hiding tree. It wasn't much, but nobody else had wanted it, so I was stuck with it, just like everything else in my life.

Using an ability that was not mine, but that of everybody in the Canis group, I used the moon's placement to detect the time. It was just after midnight, but I'd never be able to go back to sleep.

So I wandered around. Too bad I couldn't emit a birdcall. Anyway, even if I was able to summon Fllick, he'd probably be killed on the way here. Night patrols had been stepped up since a recent attack on the kesaay. The kesaay, a group I had lived my whole life hearing about but never encountering. Every once and a while, the leader of the Kalyska clan, Thurr, would leave for and "important meeting" and Loproy was left in charge.

Thinking about my littermate reminded me of how alone I really was, and I slumped down mournfully. I let out a little whimper of despair.

It was returned by a fierce, snapping howl of the wind. It wasn't the normal kind of wind we had every once in a while. It had a soul.

Somebody is here. my brain replied.

I'm going to die.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one who had heard the noise. Silent footprints pattered in the Kalyska camp, and I saw the shadows of Reva and the other coyotes in her crew. Thank goodness, they're coming to save me. 

And then the shadows were gone.

Disappeared. They weren't there.

So naturally, I went to investigate. My eyes grew to the size of saucers as I saw what had happened.

There would have been carcasses in front of me, but there were just bent, twisted shapes of the coyotes who had died. Shapes of darkness and nothingness.

Instinctively, I went to check the dens of Loproy and Blate. Everybody in their dens were in the same state. It was the same for every other den in the base. Haunting, empty shadows.

I had always known I was worthless.