Mister Ōkami

I follow the poop scent all the way back to the room where the weakest of the strongest wolves usually sleep. Bella. Oh my gosh, it’s Bella! I walk right up to her with my nose to the ground. She stares at me a moment, confused.

“What are you doing?” Bella asks.

“I could ask you the same thing,” I say.

“What do you mean by that?” Bella asks.

“Let me see your paws,” I prompt.

“Why?! You’re not my Alpha!” Bella whines.

“I need to check something,” I say. “And don’t you dare lick your paws first!”

Bella reluctantly shows me her paws. Sure enough, her paws are covered in feces that smells exactly like what was all over Vicious. I glare and nip Bella until she follows me to Mr. Ōkami. The Alpha glances at me and then at Bella.

“What are you two squabbling about?” Mr. Ōkami asks, looking slightly annoyed.

“Bella framed Vicious. She covered Vicious in poop and pee to get her in trouble,” I state.

“Nosey brat you are…” Bella grumbles.

“Bella, is this true?” Mr. Ōkami asks.

“Yeah, unfortunately… I see no point in lying now that I’ve been caught…poop-pawed…” Bella says, showing her filthy paws to Mr. Ōkami.

“Why have you tried to betray your sister? Don’t you know we are meant to be one big family?!” Mr. Ōkami asks, sounding utterly disappointed in Bella.

“I got jealous… I feel like my life has been falling apart and I wasn’t rising in rank… So I thought if I got Vicious ranked down, I could rise in rank,” Bella explains. “I just wanna be a more valued member of this pack!”

“I see. I understand your concern…However, costing someone in waste material is THE WORST way to go about trying to derank them!” Mr. Ōkami says, shaking his head.

“I’m sorry…I guess that was rather undignified of me…” Bella apologizes, sinking low.

“As punishment, I’m ranking you down…and Vicious as well! As for you, Suisen, for your nosiness, I’m sending you out on hunting patrol ALONE today! And you better bring back plenty of prey!” Mr. Ōkami yells.

“WHAT?!” Vicious, Bella, and I exclaim.

“I’m the Alpha, what I say, goes! I had better announce today’s assignments…” Mr. Ōkami says.

I have to go hunting alone. I literally haven’t been out on my own since I was rescued. Mr. Ōkami glances around, I bet he’s making mental note of who to assign what roles today. He struts, making a wide circle around the main room.

“Let’s see, so Suisen is on hunting duty today, you may need to make multiple trips, unless the food magically multiplies again… Jewel and Viper are busy regenerating pups… Hash, Quickie, and Chain are injured and in Frostt’s care… Let’s see… Bounce and Walk, you two stay here and look after Ressa, Mouth, Ivory, Toosh, Acorn, Hoop, Iddi, Kibby, and Lost! Squirrel, Bat, Kurai, Jell, and Grammy, you will be in charge of fixing and reinforcing the mud wall that broke yesterday. Border Patrol! I’m taking Umami, Noise, Gargle, Dilly, and Ellie. As for the rest of you… I expect you to behave, keep the den clean, and get some training in. Fight each other if you have to. You never know when I’ll need you to fight at my side,” Mr. Ōkami says. “Next ranking day, I’ll have you guys spread out a bit more. I’m still working on assigned roles for you guys so that it isn’t as spontaneous…”

“Cool, wall building time,” Kurai says.

“Alright, see you later, everyone…” I say, heading for the den entrance.

“Alpha, can I please go hunting with Suisen?” Clementina asks.

“No. This is her punishment. She must go alone,” Mr. Ōkami says.

I leave. I know exactly where I’m heading to, first. Perhaps Sage will share some more of her secret knowledge with me today… There’s still quite a lot of wreckage from the helicopter crash. I wonder if Mr. Ōkami will send anyone to clean up this mess or if we’ll just be leaving it there and hoping none of the herbivores notice our hideout.

I make my way along the path I took last time. If I wanna catch up with Sage, I have to make it quick. I find Sage’s house and, much to my luck, Sage is in the front yard watering her garden. Sage stops and smiles at me.

“So you have returned,” Sage says.

“Yes, I must know more about the lion,” I prompt.

“Very well,” Sage says. “Last we spoke I told you The Lion Of Judah created this world and watches over us…”

“Yes,” I say.

“Well, did you know the world wasn’t always this broken?” Sage asks. “The lion didn’t find this broken world and adopt it as his own, nor did he create it this way.”

“I figured. Who would purposely make something broken? That would be kind of mean…” I say.

“Yeah, The Lion created the world to be perfect, filling it with us animals…and two humans who also were perfect when they were created,” Sage says. “They had one rule. I’m sure you know about following rules, right?”

“Yeah, Alpha gives us rules to follow,” I say.

“The humans broke the one rule they were given and a curse was set on the world, leading to the brokenness we see today,” Sage says, shaking her head.

“So THAT’S who did this!” I exclaim.

“Once evil entered the world, even we began to fight each other. Some animals, like yourself, became carnivores and hunted us herbivores. It wasn’t supposed to be that way, but now that it is, we can’t just go back,” Sage says.

“Dang, that’s a bummer…” I say.

“Yeah, there’s even more to the story, too, but you best get going, right?” Sage suggests, glancing around nervously.

“I’m solely in charge of bringing food back for my pack today…” I say.

“Oh really? Did they like the bread and cheese yesterday?” Sage asks.

“Well, those who ate the cheese ended up with bad gas. Other than that, yeah, I think everyone enjoyed it,” I say.

“Ohhhh, I suppose wolves aren’t good at digesting large amounts of cheese,” Sage says. “Would you still be interested?”

“I’ll take a few, I guess,” I say. “Thanks.”

Safe runs inside. At first, it appears she isn’t going to come back. She does, eventually, return with a bunch of bread rolls and a few cheeses. I lick her head and gently take the bread and cheese from her.

“I wish you luck on hunting. God bless you, Suisen!” Sage says.

“And you, too,” I say.

I head on my way, the bread and cheese carefully stored away for now. We already have enough food for most of the pack to eat, but that’s no excuse to be lazy. I catch two more rabbits and bring them and the bread and cheese back with me to the den. It’s only been maybe 45 minutes…or an hour… That second rabbit evaded me for awhile.

Kurai is waddling back to the den, her belly dragging. Her face is covered in mud so I assume she has attempted to transport mud in her belly. She sees me and wags her tail. I wag my own tail and head inside with my catch.

“First batch. I’ll go get more elsewhere. Best not to strike the same area twice in one day,” I say.

Oil is in charge right now. She nods and motions for the usual drop spot. Kurai pukes a whole lot of mud-stomach acid mix onto the floor near the hole. The squirrel takes the mud and mixes it with his hands before pasting it together with Jell’s help. On the other side of the mound that is being constructed, Grammy is working with the fruit bat.

“Is everything holding up alright in here?” I ask.

“I’m a bit bored,” Nora says, stretching and almost hitting her head on an area where the ceiling is a bit low. “Oh, I forgot the ceiling sags here…”

“Yeah it does!” Lucy exclaims, running in as fast as she can before slamming face first into a wall. “Owwww…”

“Careful, Lucy!” I say with a laugh.

“I’m okay!” Lucy exclaims, running and crashing into the opposite wall.

The force of the collision collapses what little of the new wall was constructed. Kurai throws herself to the ground, crying. What a disaster! Lucy stumbles around, dizzy from clonking her head.

“Are you alright, Lucy? Do you need to go see Frostt?” Springy asks.

“Nah, I’m good,” Lucy says, shaking her head.

“Alright, I’m going to head out again. Keep up the good work, Kurai!” I call out.

“Hmph, Alpha secretly ranking Suisen up to Theta… She thinks she’s so great. I bet she can barely even hunt! I bet the prey walks right up to her and begs to be eaten!” Frostt grumbles from the healing room.

Frostt is never going to forgive me. I have created an enemy. It was bound to happen. I head out, trying to distract myself with hunting.

“A perfectly beautiful day,” I say, sniffing the air for signs of prey.

I head off towards a sheep scent. My fellow wolves are a big fan of sheep meat. I sneak past the barn house, close the the ground. There are plenty of animals here, but I’m already honed in on sheep.

There, planting some more crops, is a sheep. Such a wooly, meaty creature… Closer…closer… WAH-BAM! I strike the sheep and she bleats loudly. I let go…of course I did…

“Sorry…” I say, backing away.

“Ah! It’s a wolf!” the sheep exclaims.

“Ah dang it!” I exclaim, hiding in a haystack.

I hold as still as I can, hoping no one else will notice me. I smell a bull approach. One stab from a bull’s horns and I’d be dead! He gets closer and closer; my heart is racing.

“There’s no wolf here,” the bull says. “Keep sounding false alarms and I’ll ignore you from now on.”

“B-but I saw one! It must have hidden!” the sheep wails.

“You think a carnivore would be smart enough to hide?” the bull asks with a scoff. “Nice try, but I’m not falling for it!”

I stay still as the bull walks away. I can still hear the sheep freaking out. If I had just killed the sheep, she wouldn’t have tattled on me… I decide to wait until the sheep leaves to emerge.

However, as soon as I step out, the bull comes running at me. I thought he was gone! I run for my life, but I’m not quite fast enough. SHINK! I’ve been impaled…