Lemmings to Survive

[Jingles]

Snow fell.

The weather was gentle and lazy. Gigantic flakes fell from the cloudless sky, complex crystal lattices. The tundra was frigid. There was a thin blanket of powder snow on the ground. The tough tundra grass emerged from it like frozen fingers, waving stiffly in the cold wind. A flock of three lonely geese flew overhead, honking in their distinctive way.

A lone wolf hunted out in the open. He was as white as the falling snow, with a pink nose. A huge mane of thick fur hugged his neck, making him appear larger than he really was. If one paused to look at him for longer than a precursory glance they would see that his legs were as thin as twigs. Clearly, this animal worked hard for his daily meals. His flank was as lean as a starving deer's! When he heard the geese pass by overhead, he looked to the sky.

His eyes were a startling light blue.

After the wolf determined that the geese weren't flying low enough to be plausible prey, he went back to snuffling at the icy earth. He was hunting lemmings. If he was lucky, he might find a den of the little scrumptious rodents. His paws were muddy from constantly slogging through the tundra slush. Ponderously, he scraped at the ground with overgrown dull claws.

'Damn, can't catch the scent,' he thought bitterly. The crust of the earth was already icing over; if he didn't find food before the impending snowstorm (he could smell it in the air) it would be twice as difficult to get to the lemmings.

Thusly, he half-heartedly began to dig.

[Khy]

[glow=red,2,300]As the freezing wind blew past, the young wolf had to ask himself why he had come out here in the first place. There was no easy food to find out here and definitely none to steal. The wolf continued to walk forward, without a clue as to where he was going. Khy was usually never the type to regret any of his decisions, but this one might be the first. It was true he was a wolf without a warm coat of fur but this sucked! It was cold and if it was one thing Khy hated it was the cold.

However, even though Khy was beginning to regret his decision and it was cold outside the young wolf would not back down. The way he saw it he couldn’t make it through this there would be no way that he would be able to find Paradise. At the thought of Paradise, Khy dropped his head in disappointment. How did he let it come this far? He wasn’t an idiot and was far from a fool but after hearing the stories he stupidly rushed out to find the legendary place, and now he was lost…

“This sucks! I can’t believe I’m gonna die out here alone, hungry, cold, and worst of all without any females!!”[/i] thought Khy. The wolf sat down in the snow and began to howl in frustration of being lost. [/glow]

[Jingles]

The sound of a lonely howl rang out across the barren tundra.

The white wolf's ear twitched. He faltered; his enthusiastic digging paused. Overgrown claws were sunk half-in, half-out of the earth. A thin film of powder snow was already beginning to collect atop the broken ground which the digger had disturbed. The wolf canted his head to the side. It did not sound like the howl of a dog - it sounded distinctly lupine. And he had not seen other wolves since he had left Dusk City. The howl sounded miserable.

The wolf slowly drew himself up, using his hearing to get the general idea of where the howler was situated. He broke into a lope. Although the howl had died a while ago, he was able to remember its location. It took about ten minutes at a sprint to find the howling wolf. The snowy-pelted animal slowed down when he came within sight of the other wolf; a strong-looking grey-furred timber wolf with a white-dipped tail.

The arctic wolf kept his head low to the ground, frost-colored eyes focused on the other wolf. His tail was held at a moderate height; not quite dominant, but not submissive either. After a moment of brief assessment, he said, "...Why are you howling? If the human soldiers drove by here, they would hear you and find you."

The snow was falling more rapidly, now.

[Khy]

[glow=red,2,300]The young wolf quickly turned to the voice speaking to him only to be surprised that it was another wolf. In all of his life, Khy had never met another wolf not even once and now of all days he meets one in the middle of nowhere. Khy was excited about meeting another of his kind but decided it was best not to show his excitement to the other wolf. Besides, wolves were supposed to be cool and aloof right? “Hmph…I’m not worried about any humans. I’m too fast to be caught by anyone!” bragged Khy.

The teenage wolf crouched and sprang from the ground running in quick circles around the older wolf. Khy had to admit this was fun, it was very rare that he ever got the chance to show off his skill in speed without actually stealing anything. He was about to hit his top speed when he tripped…The wolf went tumbling over in the snow and landed in front of the arctic wolf. See it was indeed true that Khy was very fast but he was unbelievable clumsy for a wolf…

“Uh…what’s up? The name’s Khy!” chuckled Khy as he slowly rose to his feet. The teen wolf sat in front of the other wolf wagging his tail.[/glow]

[Jingles]

The snow was quickly evolving into a blizzard around the two wolves.

"Hmph…I’m not worried about any humans. I’m too fast to be caught by anyone!" crowed the other wolf. Then, to illustrate his point, the atheltic lupe bounded around the white wolf in a circle.

The smallish white wolf looked on as Khy bounded through the snow. Eyes as frigid as the arctic air traced the other wolf's rapid sprint; his head did not move to follow the other. Although he tried to disguise it, to another wolf, emotions could be caught in the wind of a scent. It was hard to tell if the white wolf was amused by the other's enthusiasm; his posture stayed stagnant. Then, Khy's own impressive momentum caught him and he went tumbling to the ground in a cloud of snow.

He recovered with admirable quickness. "Uh…what’s up? The name’s Khy!"

There was a thoughtful pause, in which the blue-eyed wolf seemed to be considering the grey-furred pup. He looked down his snout at Khy silently. Then at last he replied.

"... There is a blizzard coming," said the white wolf. Then, in a moment of unusual generosity, he grunted, "... I know of a shelter."

Although that was hardly an invitation, the muddy-pawed white wolf backed up slightly. He kept his eyes warily on the other animal - he was too wise to turn his back to another wolf. Even though Khy was younger, he was larger than him - and stronger. After he had backed up a good ten or fifteen feet from Khy, the arctic wolf turned and loped off. He kept his speed deliberately slow. As a white-furred beast, he camouflaged flawlessly with the landscape. If he got too far ahead, he would disappear into the storm like a chameleon.

The snow by now was shooting past in rapid gales, the shrieking of the wind the only sound. The heavy-maned wolf knew all of the secret places in the tundra that could be used as shelter... but clearly, the pup had no clue. If Khy didn't follow, he was spelling his own icy demise.

He rather hoped the young wolf would follow. Their kind was uncommon enough without losing another of their number to nature's fickleness.

[Khy]

[glow=red,2,300]Khy watched as the arctic wolf began in the direction of the shelter he had mention. The teenage wolf stared for a moment as before quickly following after the other wolf. Most wolves might have been more on guard when meeting another male of their species but Khy honestly wasn’t. The young wolf was just too excited at meeting another one of his kind. Khy smiled inwardly as he continued to try and keep his emotions in check. He had finally met another wolf maybe his life would get a little more exciting now.

The wind started to blow harder as the snow began to fall fiercer. This totally sucked…Other than meeting another wolf Khy was truly regretting leaving his city, where food came easy and there were lots of pretty girls to flirt with. As he followed behind the white wolf, who had offered him shelter Khy began to fantasize about what Paradise might be like. It was pretty difficult to truly know what Paradise looked like, but Khy’s image of Paradise was one where lots of pretty human girls and females wolves surrounded him every day. There was always an abundance of food and they had fun all the time. His fantasy was cut short when the wind became even colder.

“So…it’s hard to talk through this wind…but what’s your name bud?” asked Khy. The young timber wolf was anxious to know who his knew friend was. He was ready to find out where the arctic wolf had come from and if there were more of their kind around.[/glow]

[aidan]

I like this nice story and trying to learn some thing from here.