Mister Ōkami

“I’m okay,” Kurai says.

She’s been unconscious for almost a minute since she got attacked. Frostt went ahead and cleaned out the wounds, patching her up. The hunting patrol has set off without Kurai today even though she did an excellent job. Today’s hunting patrol was just Oil, Edge, Vicious, Ziff, Jewel, and Hill.

I guess sending the entire pack out is reserved for special occasions. The search team also is a bit smaller and I was asked to stay behind today. The search team today is Alpha, Frostt, Viper, Walk, Bounce, and X. In fact, as the highest ranked wolf remaining, I’m in charge of the rest of the pack until Alpha returns.

Meanwhile, the pups are being very rowdy. The pups are Hash, Presha, Quickie, Ressa, Mouth, Ivory, Noise, Dilly, Toosh, and Kurai. Mouth is trying to teach the other pups how to curse and is laughing like a maniac. Clementina is struggling to catch up with the pups as they zip around the den.

“Wow, the ******* ***** can’t ******* keep up!” Mouth says, shaking her butt at Clementina.

“I wish I was faster,” Clementina says with a sigh. “I want to rank up so badly.”

“Welllll,” Kurai says, lying down, panting. “I might be able to help you, but who takes advice from an Omega? Surely if my advice was good, I would have ranked up by now, right?”

“You have an idea?” Clementina asks.

“Perhaps we could work together on a solution,” I suggest. “We’re a pack, we should be in this together.”

“I can run you though some speed training. You and anyone else who wants to join. Just don’t tell Alpha or you’ll get in BIG trouble!” Kurai says.

“You’re in charge, Suisen,” Clementina says.

“Okay, as temporary leader, I say Kurai can have a speed class while Alpha is gone,” I state.

Clementina, Moov, Presha, Kurai, and I set up for class. Moov is feeling a bit indifferent and Presha is already super fast. Clementina is the one who needs this class the most. I believe that she truly can rank up, and I’ll be happy to be there when it happens.

“While I am out hunting, the few times I’ve been allowed out, I sometimes discover little secrets. I just so happen to have on me five speedy beans!” Kurai announces. “If the five of us consume the speedy beans, we all can become faster!”

“Oooh! What if I eat all five?!” Clementina asks.

“If you did, the other four of us wouldn’t be able to have any fun,” Kurai says, pouting.

“Okay, I’ll behave,” Clementina says.

Kurai hacks and spits up five reddish brown beans. Despite having come from her stomach, they are rather dry. She pushes one bean to each of us. It smells…deep…toasty…delicious…

“Eat up!” Kurai says and crunches one of the beans.

The five of us consume our beans as the others are fooling around still. It tastes a bit bitter, but…strangely addicting. I feel tingly, warm…energetic! The five of us begin zipping around super fast. I CAN’T STOP! AWOOOOOOOOOOOO!

“See?! Speedy beans! Makes your toe beans hit the ground faster and more frequently!” Kurai says.

“Ah man! I knew not what I was missing out on! How long do the beans last?!” Clementina asks.

“Not that long, unfortunately, but if we train under the influence, the effects could be long lasting,” Kurai says. “I know where to get more speedy beans, as well. They grow not far from where we usually grab food from.”

“Being speedy alone can’t save me, but it’s a start!” Clementina says, still running circles.

While she wasn’t very fast before the beans, she at least appears to be good at stopping. She hasn’t crashed into a wall yet, nor has she tripped over any of the pups. I just hope Alpha never finds out… Kurai leads us around the main room of the den. The others try to keep up with us, cheering excitedly.

“Wow! What magic is this?! You’re suddenly fast, Clementina!” Ava cries out, running alongside us.

“Speedy beans!” Kurai announces cheerfully.

We continue our speed training for a bit, but we best get back to work before Alpha returns… Celmentina is looking a bit more confident; that alone is a sure sign that she deserves to rank up. She continues running, getting her legs accustomed to running fast for longer periods of time. Now, if only we could help her with her weakness.

Bound, Ellie, Springy, and Crusty are still recovering, so they’re not much help right now. Kurai is currently on cleaning duty. After having secretly given us the speedy beans, she has to pretend she wasn’t up to no good. I watch as she exits the cave and returns with a bucket of water.

“Want some help?” I offer.

“Sorry, Xi don’t clean floors. Though, you don’t have any pups to nurse,” Kurai says.

“You’re a pup,” I say.

“…true, but I’m not THAT little,” Kurai says.

Adult female wolves can produce milk when needed even if they aren’t pregnant or even have pups of their own they’ve birthed. I could make milk and feed the pups right now if I wanted to. They’re old enough to eat meat, but meat isn’t so easy to come by now that it’s illegal to hunt. I continue standing there as Kurai dips the new scrub brush into the water bucket to moisten it.

“What did you do before you got that scrub brush?” I inquire.

“She ******* used her **** and ***!” Mouth says.

“WHAT?!” I ask in surprise.

“I did no such thing! I used my paws, tail, or tongue, but never my urine and bum!” Kurai argues.

“****!” Mouth exclaims and bursts out laughing.

“Hold up, you need to stop using those words. Not even the adults speak like that,” I say to Mouth.

“So what?” Mouth asks.

“When do you think the hunters will be back?” Toosh asks with a heavy sigh.

“It might take them awhile. Apparently, yesterday, it took them longer to hunt than it took us to walk part of Clawderwilde,” I remind Toosh.

It’s not likely Toosh will receive any food, any how. Mouth, Ivory, Noise, Dilly, Toosh, and Kurai are all pretty low in the rankings. In fact, I’m surprised that Hash is so highly favored considering she’s like, only 7 months old or nearly 7 months old. Who am I if I don’t look after the weakest of my family?

“Move, I need to scrub the floor…” Kurai mutters, ramming a scrub brush into my foot. “Don’t make me bite you, Suisen…”

“Okay, I’m moving,” I say and move out of the way.

“I think I could be a pretty good Omicron,” Clementina says, mostly to herself.

“Just an Omicron? Wouldn’t you be happier as a Beta?” I ask, approaching her while avoiding the spots that Kurai is scrubbing.

“Maybe one day, but, for now, I’d be happy just becoming an Omicron,” Clementina says. “But for now I’m a weak warrior.”

As I am talking to Clementina, I feel a tug. I glance down and find Toosh has decided to suckle on me. I feel my heart melt, the poor hungry child… Gently, I lick her little head.

“Child, I wish I could do more to help you…but if this is all I can do, this is what I will do,” I murmur.

The other hungry pups gather around. Hopefully the Alpha doesn’t catch me… Technically, an Omicron should be feeding these pups, but they’re all busy currently. I feed and bathe all the pups, aside from Kurai.

“Suisen,” Kurai says, clearly exhausted from scrubbing the floor.

“Kurai, come here,” I prompt.

“Why?” Kurai asks.

“Don’t you want some milk?” I ask.

“I’m an Omega, Suisen. I don’t deserve milk at my age,” Kurai says.

“I have plenty enough. See? The other pups, even Hash, have had their fill,” I point out.

“…I suppose…” Kurai says, inching forwards. “Aside from sneaking and eating during hunting, I haven’t really eaten much lately…”

I had just finished feeding Kurai and grooming her when the first patrol returned. Despite all of Mr. Ōkami’s complaining, Kurai wasn’t THAT stinky. Sure, she was a bit filthy and matted, but nothing a good licking couldn’t fix. The hunting patrol returns first, but we are not permitted to eat until Mr. Ōkami gets back.

Having just fed 10 pups after running around for almost an hour, I am starving… It’s worth it, though. The children are clean and happy. Today’s catch is nothing from Oil, a bottle of shampoo from Edge, a medium sized pig from Vicious, an entire cow from Ziff, 5 mice from Jewel, and nothing from Hill.

That could feed maybe 20 or more of us if nobody is greedy. I suspect, however, that Mr. Ōkami will eat more than he needs to. We’re just waiting for Alpha, Frostt, Viper, Walk, Bounce, and X to return. After a few hours of everyone sitting impatiently around the meat pile, Alpha returns looking rather grim.

“Alpha! You’ve returned!” I exclaim, my heart nearly skipping a beat.

“We lost X,” Mr. Ōkami says, lowering his head somberly. “We couldn’t save her…”

“What?!” I exclaim, staring in shock.

“She was getting old, and she couldn’t keep up. I was hoping she would pull through, but they killed her…” Mr. Ōkami says.

“We did find a few more wolves, but it’s gonna be hard to go on without X…” Viper says.

One of the new wolves is an 8 month old male pup with a chain stuck around his neck where they clearly attempted to murder him, with him, his sister who is unharmed. Two more pups for me to look after. If we can find a way to safely remove the chain from the little boy, we can save him. If not, he’s not going to be able to live much longer as that chain will choke him as he grows.

“We found these two in a dumpster in the city. I was inspired to check because I saw you check last time. That was before X died. X perished in the Feral Lands. Still, it surprises me that the Feral Lands are being harassed as much as the civilized portion of Clawderwilde. I had thought we all agreed to leave those lands alone,” Mr. Ōkami says.

“There were three dead wolves on the outskirts of the city. Two puppies and their mother. They died together,” Bounce reports.

“That’s when I found two more adult males and Alpha nearly refused to take them in,” Frostt adds.

“I did not!” Mr. Ōkami argues. “How dare you say such slander!”

There is a 2 year old male with a torn up face and a 16 year old male with both of his ears missing. They call us brutal for killing them to feed ourselves in order to survive, and then they go and slaughter us just because they feel like it. I feel sick looking at the wounds. I got lucky, I was found before they could torment me aside from slaughtering my parents.

“Then we headed into the Feral Lands following a trail of blood. We found four wolves under attack and we couldn’t save any of them. That’s where we lost X. A male gazelle impaled her while we were trying to rescue the other four wolves. She put up a fight and died so we fled as the other four were also slain,” Bounce reports.

“I remember that X saved me just the other day… She risked everything to bite me free from the net as I was suffocating,” Crisp remarks.

“Let’s eat, then we can sing our laments for the death of X,” Mr. Ōkami directs, lining everyone up even though he knows darn well there won’t be enough food for everyone.

There are 40 wolves here. It would have been at least 41, but without X, we are 40. Only about half of us can eat at most, I would suppose. Mr. Ōkami eats and then Frostt eats.

Again, I am encouraged to eat a double portion. I don’t reject it this time, because I’m going to need it if I want to keep feeding the Omegas. Hash eats a little, but she’s rather full from drinking my milk. Next is Viper followed by Walk.

Most the pile is gone, but we didn’t get much this time anyhow. Bounce eats and then Presha eats a little tiny bit. Oil eats most of what is left. Edge comes and cleans up followed by Vicious who is chewing the last bits of meat off of the bones.

Not counting the pups who drank my milk, that leaves 21 hungry wolves. Frostt gets to work trying to remove the chain from the little boy pup. He screams the entire time, bleeding out. I’ve only been here a short time, but if anyone can save him, it’s gotta be Frostt.

“Hang in there, little one!” Frostt exclaims, and then the screaming stops. Silence falls.