Timber is Missing

[Flame]

Flame had returned to the camp, with no caribou and a starving pack. He was crushed with shame.
What would my forefathers be thinking now if they could see the fire pack in such a condition?

"It is late," he announced to his pack. "And we should all hunker down now... this night is going to be cold."
All of Flame's pack listened and said nothing as they readied for the chill that would creep in as they slept. Flame turned his head away in shame. So thin. And they were his responsibility.

He heard someone murmur, "I think it is best that you keep your pups on milk until the winter is over, Rose."
"Do you think it will last that long?" Flame heard Rose say.
"I sure hope, because there isn't enough prey to feed the pack, let alone your pups."

Soon, everything was silent.
Nightfall.

In the morning, Flame almost didn't call together a hunting party at dawn when they awoke. It didn't seem of use, for they hadn't seen any food in countless sunrises. But the caribou they had seen the day before at the border had perked up his hopes slightly, so he looked about for Timber.

"Timber?" Flame shouted. "Tim?"
Sparky moaned and rolled in his nest. "Nooooo....."
"Sparkles, get up! Help me find Timber."
Sparky stretched and said, "Timber! Get over here so I can go back to sleep!"

No answer.

"TIMBER?!"

Everyone looked around. The beta was nowhere to be seen.

[lavenderwhisp]

"Ummmm..... Disturbing. Maybe you should question everybody on as whether they had seen him or not. And if they have when they did and where so you can find him. Keep up the search for Caribou during the day and have some wolves go searching in the night for him. It is very important to keep a low profile when looking. You wouldn't want anybody from the Ice Pack to find out about this. Always keep and eye out when hunting and keep your hopes up. You will find him! " Lavenderwhisp said.

[sparky]

"Good idea, Lavender!" Sparky said. "Has anybody seen Timber?"
"She was with us in the hunting patrol yesterday!" Rose offered.
Sparky said, "Okay. What about on our way back?"
"I think I saw her walking back towards the river!" One of Rose's pups peeped.
"Did you see anything else?" Sparky asked.
"She ran far away and I think she was trying to get the caribou! But Timber ran to the.... south... I think..." the pup explained.

"South?!" Rose gasped.
Sparky gulped. "But what if the-?"
"FOXES!" the pup cried.

[Flame]

Flame's ears shot up in alarm. FOXES!
Flame bounded onto a rock and yelled, "Timber is missing! Wake up, everyone! MOVE, MOVE, MOVE! Find her! Now! Get up!"
The fire pack was up immediately, searching and scrambling, trying to find Timber's scent trail. Flame organized several search parties with trackers into all directions of the territory. Soon, most of the camp was empty.

All that remained were Fuego, Sparky, Rose, Lavenderwhisp, Echo, and Flame himself.
"Sparkles, Lavender, you're with me. And Fuego... yeah-you come too. Echo and Rose, you need to stay in camp and watch to see if any groups come back with Tim. If anything happens, howl for us and we'll come straight back."

Fuego, Sparky, Lavenderwhisp, and Flame headed south towards the blood barbed fields that housed the dangerous rogue foxes. They had stolen pups and prey before, but Flame was still doubting they would capture a full-grown wolf.
As they neared, Flame saw that the poisonous bushes had shrivelled and died more along the border broadsiding the mysterious beyond. With the extreme drought, it wiped out a good sum of the protective screen. With the frosts, more blood barbs had died, creating an entry for the foxes to come through. With the forest fires, they burned to ash. The foxes were now flooding through now since there was no way the bright red stingers could hold them back.
"This can't be good," he said. "They're all gone."

"Well... look on the bright side! At least now we can see what lies past our territory." Lavenderwhisp said, optimistic and cheery.

Flame grumbled, "But I don't like what I'm seeing."

[sparky]

[[I'm reviving this thread]]

Before the search party lay a large stretch of hilly fields, and behind that, a huge dark mass perched on the horizon. Sparky said, "What is that?"
Fuego sighed and explained, "It's a human forest."
"But it doesn't look anything like a forest!" Lavender exclaimed.
"It looks like rock," Sparky stated.
Do you think they took Timber there?" Fuego asked Flame.
He replied: "There's only one way to find out,"

[Flame]

Flame lead his patrol through the dry scraggly bushes. They crunched when their pelts brushed as they passed through. "Careful," he warned. "The barbs may be dried out, but they may still have poison in them."
Flame and the others sniffed about. It wasn't difficult to pick up the scent trail of the foxes; they had a horrible stench.
"It's leading to the humans' place." he said.
Lavenderwhisp gasped. "We can't go there!"
"We must of we want Timber."
"But it's going to be sunset soon. We can't travel in the dark!"
"HEY!" Fugeo barked. "Flame decides what we do and don't do!"
"Clam down, Fuego." Flame said. "We'll go."
Lavender whimpered. "I don't think this is such a good idea..."
"We are going anyways. We can't afford to lose her." Flame said grimly. "Let's head out to the human forest."

[Scorch]

A rustle in the bushes behind them made the patrol look back. As they turned they saw Scorch step out of the bushes."I followed Timbers scent this way and lost it in this fox stench." He reported.

[Flame]

"Scorch!" Flame yelped. He had been caught by surprise. He had meant to arrange thier mission so that no other wolf knew they were leaving the territory, but it was an epic failure, seeing that he had overlooked one detail-Scorch. "Um... since you're here, you might as well join us. Come along!"

[Scorch]

The group trecked out into the hills. As they passed the top of one hill they only saw more.
Suddenly Scorch stop and sniffed the air then the ground."there's a fresh fox scent in the air, there may be one close by. Also Timber's scent leads this way."
Ofcorse Scorch caught Timbers scent and didn't tell anyone!

[sparky]

"It leads to the human forest! Flame, are we going to go in there?" Sparky worried.
"We have to. We cannot abandon Timber," Flame said.
Flame's courage was admirable. Sparky only wished he could be as brave. But maybe he could, someday.

The rescue party traveled to the edges of the human forest. As they approached, the sights, smells, and sounds overwhelmed him. There was very little foliage; only scraggly weeds sprouted from the foul-smelling rocks. Tall metal buildings with shiny flat-hard water rose up on all sides of them, pressing in. Everything was sharp and angular; symmetrical and alien. The lack of life and growing things was stiffling. The closest the fire pack wolves found to living things were humming machines-cold, mechanical, unnatural. I need some space! How can humans stand living in such a dead place?
The forest reeked of rotting human waste. Harsh chemical smells burned Sparky's nostrils and rumbling dark stone paths with monsters roared along.
"What an awful place!" Sparky coughed. "Could she possibly be here?!"

[Flame]

Flame buried his nose into his chest fur to block the stench of the human forest to no advail. "Has to. This place reeks of fox. Timber's scent is stale, but he was here not too long ago." He tipped his muzzle to the sky far above. The stars were barely visible in this strange land.
They followed Timber's wavering trail into a gorge-type thing with steep etchy red sides that stretched into infinity. High above, whispy pale cloths hung from long thin strings that reached across the canyon like cobwebs.
"Here! It's stronger!" Flame shouted. He ran around a corner into another dark valley of the hard red stones where the end closed off in a wall. "It's a dead end," he said.

"LOOK!" Sparky cried.
"What?!" Fuego barked.
Flame looked into the shadowy dead end. "I don't see anything," Flame sighed. "You're just spooked."

Sparky pointed his tail tip to a shiny tree stump at the end of the shadowy canyon gorge. It was bathed in darkness. Flame strained his eyes to glimpse what Sparkles had seen.
Lavenderwhisp gasped suddenly. "Oh my! Did you just see that?!"
"What?" Flame didn't see a thing.
"I saw something too," Scorch said.

The fire wolves stared into the dead end not daring to move a muscle. A flicker of movement; a sigh of wind. Something, something... in the shadows. Flame glared into the depthless black, hackles raising.
"Pranxor!" he snarled.
A scrawny fox with flinty yellow eyes slinked from behind the hollow tree stump. "Flame," it said coldly. "What are you doing in the city? An alley filled with garbage doesn't seem like the place for wild wolves."
"The only garbage here is you!" Sparky growled.
"We want Timber." Flame demanded. "Where is she?"
Pranxor cackled. "Fiesty, I see. You haven't changed at all."

A second fox came from behind the trash-stump. The Destroyer. "No, not at all." he echoed.
"Shut up you stupid fox!" Lavender screeched.
The two just laughed. "This is going to be fun..." The edges of Pranxor's mouth curled into a sadistic smile.

As if from nowhere, the shadows were swarming with bobbing orbs of slitted amber malice. Yips and chuckles resonated through the alleyway. Pranxor's teeth gleamed. "This is the end for you."

[sparky]

Terror siezed the fire wolves. Sparky whimpered, his heart beating faster. This is the end for you.
"Flame...!" he squeaked.
Sparky was scared. Should he call for help? Will the others be able to hear us from here? He looked up the walls of the alley, looking for escape. But they were trapped. Foxes hissed in the shadows at them, laughing maniacally. This is the end for you. This is the end. The end. The END...
Sparky drew in closer to Lavender. They all huddled together as the foxes advanced with grins on thier maws. Sparky squeezed his eyes shut. He wished he was home.

Would he be remembered as a warrior who went down bravely in battle?Would his pack mates miss him when he was gone? Is it too late?
He looked into Lavenderwhisp's eyes. "I love you," he whispered. Sparky nuzzled into her fur then turned into the shadows where dangerous slitted eyes glowered.

A sigh of wind. For you...
And he leapt into the darkness.

[Flame]

[[That's waaaarm! How you tied in the love for his denmate with Pranxor's thing... and the The END... for you... awesome.]]

"Attack!" Flame howled.
Everyone burst into action, leaping at the enemies. The sheer number of foxes became evident as Flame struggled to fight off three on his own. Mangy, thin, enraged, the foxes yowled and tore at the fire wolves.
They battled on and on. Whenever one fox was struck down, two more rose to take its place. They kept coming in waves, overwhelming Flame's small, faithful battalion.
A burst of light. An angular beam of light shot from the alley wall and flooded over their battlefield. Fear and shock paralyzed the wolves and foxes alike. A human stood waving about and howling, swooping its front legs over them.

They all scattered. But the traitorous Pranxor wasn't fast enough to escape Flame's vengeful jaws.
He cornered and shook the leader fox. "Where is Timber??"
But the fox just laughed sadly and said, "I'm not going to tell,"
"WHERE IS SHE?!" Flame roared.
Pranxor whimpered. "We don't have her! The humans stole her!"
"What?"

[Eclipse]

* * *

Eclipse walked slowly down the edge of the river, starving. Her head was weighed down with guilt due to the lack of food for her pack. They were starving, and she was responsible for them. If anyone died, she would never forgive herself.

Her gaze drifted across the river, where the Fire pack's territory was visible. A flash of movement caught her eye. A rabbit...

No, she shouldn't cross the border and steal it. That would be wrong.
But no wolf from the Fire pack was in sight. She shouldn't just let it get away.
So? What if one showed up and caught her red handed?
But this could feed a mother and thus a litter of pups!

Finally, instinct got the best of her, and she slid silently into the water, swimming softly across the water. The icy water soon had her shivering all the way down to her bones, but she persisted.

Upon reaching the other bank, she climbed out of the water, fighting the urge to shake the icy droplets out of her fur, so she wouldn't scare away her prey. She crouched in one of the bushes, spotting the scrawny rabbit picking around for seeds in the dirt. It was skinny, but better than going hungry. Eclipse lowered herself onto her haunches.... and leapt.

The rabbit dodged, slowly due to lack of food. But Eclipse was hindered too, for the same reason. The rabbit dodged, taking off towards the south. The chase was on.

In any normal circumstance, Eclipse wouldn't have chased a rabbit this small, especially not into enemy territory. But this was not a normal circumstance. Wolves were starving.

So she chased the rabbit, running faster than she had in ages. She realized the change in terrain, and the air was getting much warmer. It may have been winter in the fire pack, but this was more like the temperature of the ice pack's summer. But Eclipse persisted.

After not long, the blood barbs were visible. Eclipse was so shocked to see that they were all wilting that she almost lost track of the rabbit she was chasing. She saw it dart through the barbs. She realized with a jolt that she was going to lose the prey she had chased from so far. A wave of fury swept through her small skinny body, and with the came a burst of energy, and she took off after the rabbit.

She ran through the dead blood barbs, half worried that she would be stung, half determined not to lose her prey. Soon, a human forest came into view, and she realized that they were headed towards it.

But wait, how could the skinny rabbit still be running so far? Eclipse stopped, and realized with a sickening jolt that she wasn't chasing the rabbit anymore. It must have dived into a hole, and she had been so furious that she didn't see it disappear.

How could I have been so stupid? she asked herself.

She turned to head back to her territory, when she heard a wolf howl from the direction of the human forest. Her ears pricked, and she thought she recognized the howl. But that simply couldn't be.

She listened again. Sure enough, it was Flame's howl.

Eclipse was tired, sides heaving from the chase. Even if Flame wasn't from her own pack, she couldn't just abandon him and any other wolves that were with him. Why would he be in the human forest?

She took off towards the south.

***

The moon was high in the sky before she reached the canyon. Howls and the barks of... could it be?

Foxes.

It was clear there was more than one wolf, probably Flame and Timber, and Sparky. But the wolves were far outnumbered by foxes. Suddenly Eclipse wished she had gone back to get reinforcements.

She peeked around the corner and saw Flame pinning down a fox. Eclipse crept through the shadows, getting close enough to hear the pair....

"You'll never see your little friend again." the fox was hissing, defiant but slightly desperate. Flame was clearly more powerful. But more powerful than not, she was outnumbered.

But wait, where was Timber?

A slowly moving object caught Eclipse's attention. A large fox, more muscular than Flame, was creeping up on the fire pack alpha. It crouched, ready to spring.

Eclipse decided to act fast.

"Flame, look out!" she shouted leaping out of the shadows and revealing herself.

[Eclipse]

[[Phew, that might just set a record for longest RP ever. xD But I had to tie Eclipse into the story some how. Wouldn't want to be left out of an awesome RP now, would I? xDDDD]]