《METAMORPHOSIS - devouring Its way to immortality》 Chapter 1: Origin and frenzy Chapter 1 : Origin and frenzy Origin In the middle of the night with only stars present as a light source, at the center of a large and dense forest, a small descending object disturbs the dimness and momentarily illuminates the surrounding woodland. The object falls with a thump on the soft ground creating a small dent on the peaceful plot. The rocky object; the size of a baseball, cracks, and opens, revealing a small lumpy gel. The gel''s color had a dark shade of red, and it appears to defy gravity as it floats slightly above the ground. The air around the gel is denser, causing the gel to look like it''s being compressed and painfully contorted by the air. Some time passes and a ground spider hunting for food crosses and sees the bizarre blob floating weirdly near the ground. To the eyes of the hungry spider, It looks like a squirming prey waiting to be eaten. The spider slowly comes closer to the blob and lunges towards it. As soon as the would be hunter''s appendage touches the gel. The gel expands like a net and encases the whole body of the spider. Slowly, the gel kills and absorbs the attacker. More time passes and the blob changes its shape and forms into a spider. The moment the blob changes its shape it has its first thought¡­.HUNGER¡­ hunger¡­ Hunger¡­..HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGEEEEEERR!!!!! Its own new instinct combined with the instinct of its new form a spider was to satiate its current hunger¡­ IT follows its instinct to find any prey smaller than It. IT goes on a feeding frenzy and looks for anything IT could consume. Frenzy In a state of psychotic madness IT as a spider, encounters its first creature/victim, a grasshopper. Following the instinct that accompanies its new form, IT immediately rushes towards the grasshopper with frightening speed. Before the grasshopper was able to jump, IT lunges and sinks its fangs into the grasshopper. Poison quickly spreads inside the grasshopper''s body, at the same time IT impatiently sucks the grasshopper of its body fluids. The grasshopper dies a vicious death. After IT finishes its meal, IT feels stronger so IT craved more. IT wants to eat more, consume more, devour more so IT continues on. IT sees a cutworm {nocturnal caterpillar} and again sinks its fangs on the oblivious insect. The cutworm tries to wriggle its way free but that only made the venom spread faster and paralyzes it quicker. IT then takes its time feeding on the cutworm. As IT drains the cutworm of its life, once IT was done, IT felt something change, as a result, he became even hungrier. IT wanders the ground, trying to find any living creature. Not a minute passes and IT, using the instincts of its current form, senses an insect predator. IT slows down and halts to a stop, waiting for the unknown predator to pass. The predator steps into view, revealing itself as a tiger beetle [the fastest running creature in the world in proportion to its body size]. To the eight eyes of IT, the predator looks weak, but it has a dangerous appendage that causes the instinct of IT to go into overdrive. The tiger beetle unknowingly passes IT and as soon as the angle was good enough, IT ambushes, lunging at the tiger beetle, from behind. IT, controlled by instinct, takes a quick cautious bite. The tiger beetle was fast. As soon as it got bit, it quickly turned around and thrust its mandible to whoever attacked it. IT evades the attack and steps back. [note: Tiger beetles have very sharp mandibles that can easily sever limbs and body parts of insects even bigger than IT] IT watches and waits for the predator to move. The tiger beetle faces IT, pointing its mandible towards its attacker. IT sat stillThe tiger beetle waves its mandibles threateningly. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.IT kept waiting. The beetle steps closer and the poison kicks in. Freezing the beetle in place IT immediately pounces and kills the beetle. As soon as IT finishes its meal it gains the Tiger beetle''s speed. IT moves faster than ever before and with that, IT searches for more prey. After a while, IT comes across a cricket. This time, the prey notices the fast movements of IT and the cricket tries to jump away. IT, reacting quickly, jumps as well and catches, with its fangs, the cricket in midair. Before they reach the ground, the cricket was already dead and reduced to a dry, empty husk. As IT lands on the ground, somewhere ahead of IT, something moves. IT notices this and looks towards that direction. IT spots a blind army ant and IT immediately moves in for the kill. The army ant never sees what killed it. [note: army ants are usually blind or have compound eyes that are reduced to a single lens making them unable to see anything.] IT senses more army ants up ahead and fearlessly runs towards them. As IT passes a bush, IT sees a large battalion of army ants, making a long line and following an invisible path of ant pheromones. larger Soldier ants were scattering around the line. The line consists of mainly normal working ants and some soldier ants. The scattering ants, being mainly soldier ants, was trying to protect the line. IT charges like a bull at the nearest ant and proceeds to devour it. Some ants notice this and begins charging towards IT. IT gladly receives the meals that were coming towards him. Any ant near IT died and was reduced to a dry husk. Quite a bit of time passes¡­ As the last ant was sucked dry IT looks around. IT was on top of a mountain of ant corpse. During the slaughter, the supply of army ants dwindled slowly until the flow finally stops. IT was planning on following the army ant pheromones but a sudden appearance of light from above stops him. Curious about this strange light, IT climbs up a tree and sees something really bright on the horizon. The sun has risen and it''s morning. IT, controlled by instinct, goes down into the trunk of the tree and then proceeds to burrow itself near the roots to rest. The frenzy ends. -------------------- {Hi this is the author I''m basically new to this writing thing. A Great Friend of mine showed me his story and this site.I began to read his work and It spiked my interest in writing. Basically, what I''m saying is that he gave me the courage to resurface my old ideas during the times I was staring at a ceiling while trying to sleep and For that I thank him} {since I''m new to this I am open to suggestion or comments and open to people pointing out any mistakes or flaws in this story} INFO SECTION- you don''t need to read this but it basically gives out some info about the story. { Note 1: The Ground spider A.K.A huntsman spider that hunts prey without the use of a web. They mostly hunt on the ground for insects, their bites can paralyze insects} {Note 2: The reason IT didn''t change its form when IT eats/sucked the living soul out its victims is¡­is well it''s because Its original instinct guessed and guessed correctly that the current form IT was taking is vastly superior to the ones IT had so far eaten..well more accurately sucked} {Note 3: The reason why IT becomes stronger when eating weaker or any other creature it eats is because what IT Takes from Its victims is protein, nutrients and >>>>>>>>>>>>> DNA!} {Note 4: IT is driven by instinct and is not aware yet when he eats a weaker prey IT will unconsciously know the actions, structure habit etc. of most of that preys family/species making that certain species easier to hunt. ITs instinct knows this because of the preys DNA} {Last Note For This Chapter: if there''s any grammar, mistakes or any other confusing stuff in the story let me know in the comment section below and I will answer on the next Chapter on the info section and do some fixes on the current chapter} Chapter 2: Tarantula and Fear, Flight to mammals, Offspring and Anger Chapter 2: Tarantula and Fear, Flight to mammals, Offspring and Anger Tarantula and Fear Night has come, again. IT, while hunting, becomes the hunted and was now ambushed by a hiding spider. Due to the ferociousness of the hiding spider, IT lost 2 of its right hind legs when the ambushed happened. IT manages to take a quick bite and escapes the spiders grasps. IT stops and turns to face its attacker. This was the first time IT has seen a predator stronger than IT. The predator who ambushed IT was a Tarantula [Giant Black Tarantula], three times the size of IT and five times more ferocious. IT for the first time felt FEAR. Being a ground spider [ Huntsman Spider ] IT was faster than the Tarantula, but the missing limbs and the sheer size of the Tarantula makes IT fear for its life. IT tried to run away, but due to the missing limbs, IT was greatly slowed down. Due to this, the Tarantula was getting closer. The Tarantula catches up and bites IT causing IT to lose another limb. IT tried to turn around and bite back, but due to losing some appendages, the Tarantula was able to easily dodge. IT, having no chance of escape, stops running away and faces the Tarantula. The tarantula takes this as some kind of challenge and charges. IT also charges straight towards the tarantula, with murderous intent. They both jump at the same time, crashing into each other making a tangled mess of appendages. The fight was brutal, messy, and loud bushes that they hit made a lot of rustling noises. Fang bites caused more limbs to fly away from both the IT and also the Tarantula. The scuffle doesn''t go unnoticed; a bird of prey spots the fight and immediately flies towards them. The night hawk''s sudden appearance distracted the Tarantula and gave IT a chance to crawl away and hide inside a small hole on the undergrowth of a nearby tree. The bird of prey swoops in to try and kill the Tarantula. The fight between the Tarantula and the night hawk was intense. The nighthawk was smaller than the Tarantula, but due to its wings and sharp beak the nighthawk had the upper hand. Another advantage the night hawk had was due to the Tarantula being injured from the former fight. The fight ends in an ugly mess with the night hawk weakened, but victorious, and the tarantula in pieces and dead. The night hawk comes closer to the body of the Tarantula and took the largest piece in order to bring it back home to its nest. The Nighthawk leaves, leaving some pieces of the tarantula seizing the opportunity IT consumes the remains of the tarantula that was left behind by the Nighthawk. Flight to mammals A couple of nights have passed and IT has assumed the shape of the Tarantula. Having seen a nighthawk made IT hunger for birds. IT looked around and hears chirping sounds. IT sees a birds nest on top of a tree. IT climbs the tree and spots three baby birds. IT bites, and drinks away. After the meal, IT turns into a juvenile sparrow and flies away in search of small insects. IT eats a number of insects before spotting a small creature scampering away. IT decides to follow the creature. The creature had a tail. Was fluffy small and full of hair. It had two small front teeth and was very agile. IT begins its hunt to kill and devour the small creature. IT proceeds to swoop in on top of the creature and morphs into a tarantula midair. IT bites the mouse and paralyzes it. As soon as IT is finished with the meal, IT curiously morphs and turns into a wood mouse. IT, as a wood mouse, searched for more prey and found it easier to devour solids in this form, having a full set of teeth and a mouth rather than fangs it was convenient for IT to have obtained this form. IT started hunting while alternating forms between a sparrow, a wood mouse, and a tarantula. As a sparrow, IT had a birds eye view of the ground. As a tarantula, IT had the advantage of size and power. IT devoured a lot of insects and small animals during the hunt. After a while IT spots a snail, IT had ignored this creature for a while due to being unable to eat it before, but now IT has acquired the form of a mouse so IT gingerly transforms into a mouse and attempts to eat the snail. The convenient shape of the mouse''s mouth was a great step in expanding the available creatures IT can eat. While breaking the shell and eating the snail inside, a creature passes in front of IT. that creature was another wood mouse. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Currently, IT was a male wood mouse and as soon as IT sees the lone female wood mouse, a new desire arises from IT. The desire to reproduce. IT, with the instinct of its current form, performs the mating ritual of a wood mouse. The female was enticed and casually approached IT, indicating that the mating ritual succeeded. During the deed the female judged that IT was a strong candidate for bearing offspring, so the female marks IT as its only mate, and in return IT marks the female wood mouse as its mate, making IT able to know the complete intentions, current state of mind and behavior of the female mouse, partially. { wood mice are usually polygamous meaning that females can have many mates, but ''''IT'''' was an exception¡­ :} Offspring and Anger Days have passed, and IT was still a mouse. During those days, IT had not even once changed its form and has stayed as a mouse during the 25 day gestation period. IT was gathering seeds and insects in order to feed its mate and help her produce milk for the new born litter. The hungry desire of IT was quelled for now by helping its mate feed the litter. The litter was strangely twice the normal number for the average litter of a wood mouse. The off-springs were also quite big unnaturally big, probably because of the large quantities of milk produced by the well-fed mother. Everything was going well for the mate. Still it was unusual for the male mouse to help the female mouse in feeding the litter but the mate doesn''t mind, in fact, she was happy for the help. IT also made a burrow for the mate to reside in and it was a good way for her and the litter to be shielded from the elements while nursing. A bit of blissful time passes... But While the mate was nursing the litter, she senses that the circulation of air changed and something has entered the burrow. The mate knew that it wasn''t IT that entered the burrow. Knowing this, the mate faced the direction where the burrow entrance was located and prepared herself to protect the litter. Something pops out of the burrow entrance and the mate sees the large head of the intruder as it slithers its scaly long and slender body towards her. The intruder opens its mouth revealing two venomous fangs and then it strikes¡­.. IT was on its usual routine of gathering seed and insects for the mate, something seemed off so IT quickly traveled back to the burrow. But as soon as IT enters the burrow, it realizes the burrow reeks of fresh blood and then finally IT sees the horror that has transpired while IT was away. The mate of IT was lying on the ground bitten and poisoned to death The Next thing IT sees was a blood-spattered ground with the no litter nowhere near in site. All that was left was blood. IT sees something move on the corner of his eye. IT then spots a long and slender creature on the side, clearly looking satisfied and full. As the pieces fell together, something inside IT snaps, ANGER. IT loses control and uncontrollably transmutes into an abomination, a cocktail mix of the creatures IT had eaten so far, IT had the appearance of an unknown entity. IT had 34 pincers of different sizes with a mouth a disfigured mouth so large and it had different sizes and shapes of teeth set protruding out of it. The head had an oddly shaped oblong with different sizes of antennas with not a single pair that matches. The body of IT was like a centipede with different sets of body-parts, each with different sets of legs and appendages. IT had four tails filled with stings of different insects that had no sense of pattern and uniform. What happened next was instantaneous. IT struck the long slender creature with its tail and stuns it instantaneously. The tail retracted back like a blur. immediately after IT lunges at the long slender creature and swallows its whole head. IT ends up swallowing the whole snake with its large disfigured mouth, and in its blind rage and frenzy, IT also ate the body of its former mate whole. Some time passes¡­ IT gains control of Itself and now has the form of a snake, IT without a thought slithers away from its former home. Looking for prey. --------------------- INFO SECTION {Note 1: Spiders are cannibals, they can eat their own species. In fact, there are some species of spiders that eat their partners during and after they mate.} {Note 2: ''''IT'''' at this point of time is slightly aware but not completely.. at this point he might or might not recall this moment in the future when he becomes completely aware¡­} {Last Note For This Chapter: if there''s any grammar, mistakes or any other confusing stuff in the story let me know in the comment section below and I will answer on the next Chapter on the info section and do some fixes on the current chapter.} Chapter 3: Wings with fangs Chapter 3: wings with fangs IT was filled with self-loathing, IT didn''t know why but IT hated itself and its current form. Due to this, IT wanted to quickly find a creature higher than its current form. Having traveled a long distance, IT was hungry. While looking around hoping to find a nice meal, IT spots a croaking animal. IT slithers silently opting for an unsuspecting ambush. As soon as IT was close enough, IT strikes, filling the animals body with venom. The animal tried to jump away, but the jaws of IT were clenched tight making its attempt to escape useless. The animal twitches and immediately dies. IT then begins to devour the body whole. Hungry for more, IT circles around hoping to find anymore delicious toad. IT hears flowing water and immediately begins following the sound. The closer IT got, the louder the flowing water gets, and at the same time the area around began to feel a bit moist. IT comes across a river. It was already night time and small insects were flying around; their tails emitting a dim light that reflected themselves in the water. They flickered on and off. The lights irked the curiosity of IT, but having come across a river for the first time. IT ''s focus pointed towards the river, indicating that IT was more excited about this new environment than those weird flickering bugs. The river was very shallow and wide and IT could see the creatures swimming underneath the gentle river. IT got excited and IT began peering over the edge of the water waiting for a creature to swim near. IT waits, unmoving so that IT doesn''t alert and scare any creature that swims near. But before any of the water dwelling inhabitants came close to IT, IT sensed danger. Something large and unknown was behind and it was traveling ever closer towards IT. IT slithered away avoiding its path, but strangely enough as soon as the creature arrives at the spot where IT has been, the creature turns and heads for the direction IT currently was in. The creature then speeds up and heads straight at IT. But before the creature reaches its prey, IT was gone, having flown far away after transforming into a bird. Having traveled quite a distance, IT lands on a tree and rests. Then suddenly a high-pitched screeching noise could be heard above, flapping sounds were also heard. A small figure was seen flying, and that figure was not alone. There was a whole swarm of them flying around making high pitch noises and looking for insects to feed on. IT changes into a snake and blends in with the surroundings, watching curiously at the swarm of creatures hunting together. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. IT noticed that these creatures had tiny claws on their bony wings and they were all flying in a purposeful and unified manner. Their appearance was peculiar as they had a small head, but very large ears. they also had small beady eyes that looked useless in front of the darkness that was in front of them, but somehow IT could see that they could detect the surrounding area around them. IT wanted to devour this creature, so once they were done feeding on the surroundings IT followed them, and because IT had the eyes of a nocturnal creature, IT had no problem seeing in the dark. ------------- The sun has started coming up the horizon and IT followed the creatures and lead him to the entrance of a small cave. IT enters and hears the screech and squeaks of the creatures, as IT sees them flying on top of the cave. Some were clinging on top of the cavern, others to the sides. Tons of droppings were on the floor, and still more droppings were being added by the creatures above. IT quietly goes to the wall, transforms into a spider and starts to climb up. It was a good thing the cavern walls are rough and uneven making it easier to hide and blend in the walls whenever those creatures fly near. But the closer IT got to the top the harder it was to approach. Because of this, instead of climbing up, IT looked around found a crack large enough for IT to fit in, transformed into a snake and waits. A creature flies and lands right next to the crack IT has settled in. Before the creature notices, IT strikes with great speed and then retracts back towards the wall. Venom was injected and the startled bat flies away. The disturbance makes the other bats around the area react and fly as well, this caused a chain reaction, and chaos ensues. The cavern was filled with screeching and flapping noises and the cavern walls made the sounds to echo that made the noises louder, which aggravated IT, but IT still stayed in the crack and holds still. Eventually, all the bats settle down and got back to their positions on top of the cavern, but IT doesn''t budge. IT knows that the bats were now looking for the disturbance and if they find IT they would swarm and kill, so IT stayed still. Moments later one of the creatures above the cavern falls to the ground. That creature was the one that was bitten by IT. IT doesn''t collect the fallen body. not yet. As more time passes night arrives and the bats trickle out of the cave and set out to hunt for food. As soon as the last bat exited the cavern. IT slowly climbs down the cave, transforms into a snake and the started to devour the bat whole. --------------- INFO SECTION { It has been a while since I posted a new chapter. The reason why is that I was reading some other novels on this site for research and entertainment purposes. I learned a lot and this will, in turn, make my writing skills improve, so expect the chapter to be slightly longer than usual and thanks for reading } {Last Note For This Chapter: if there''s any grammar, mistakes or any other confusing stuff in the story let me know in the comment section below and I will answer on the next Chapter on the info section and do some fixes on the current chapter. Chapter 4: Herbivore, Lone wolf Chapter 4: Herbivore, Lone wolf Herbivore It has been eight days since IT devoured the first bat and the type of bat IT consumed was an aerial insectivore, a type of bat that catches insects while in midair. They use their mouth to catch the insect then eat it while in the air. However, they can sometimes use their tail membrane or wings to scoop up the insect and trap it in a sort of "bug net". They will then proceed to take the insect back to the cave. During those days, IT hunted for other species of bats and came across a vampire bat. It took a while but eventually the vampire bat was beaten and then eaten. There were other bats that IT ate but none of them are worth mentioning. During a hunt on an afternoon, IT while being a sparrow spots a fluffy looking creature. It had long fluffy ears, two front paws, two strong hind feet and finally two exposed front square teeth. It has the color of a light brown shade. Strangely enough, after IT spots the creature, the creature stands up on its hind legs as if sensing danger. IT ignores the strange action and swoops down towards the creature. IT flies behind the creature and proceeds to come at it in a diagonal path, and while in mid-air IT transforms itself into a snake in order to give the creature a small dose of venom. But as soon as IT changed into a snake the creature immediately dashes away as if seeing IT from the back of its head. Before IT touches the ground, IT reforms back into a sparrow, beating its wings strenuously in order to stop the fall and stabilize itself, IT then flies higher in order to tail the escaping creature. The creature was incredibly fast, having powerful hind legs it jumps and skids making a zig-zagging pattern which makes the creature hard to spot and follow. Suddenly the creature vanishes in the corner of a tree. IT swoops down into the spot where the creature disappeared and sees a hole, the size of the very same creature IT was chasing, it seems that the creature went inside. Having seen this IT transforms into a snake and slithers inside. The creature put up quite a fight. It had claws for digging but can also be used for fighting against predators. It also used its two front teeth which were sharp and dangerous. Nevertheless, one bite was all it took to bring down the rabbit, IT only just had to turn into a mouse to avoid the claws and teeth and scurry away and wait for the venom to kick in to completely paralyze the daunting rabbit. After paralyzing the rabbit, IT came close to it and turned into a vampire bat. IT using thermoception looked for the largest warm spot on the skin which has a blood vessel underneath. IT then created a small incision on the warm spot and blood spurted out. IT salivated on the wound to prevent the blood from coagulating and then lapped up the blood that was continually gushing out. IT as a snake could swallow the rabbit whole, but IT wanted to test out the new form. Some time passes and the rabbit dies from blood loss. Finally, IT decides to turn into a snake and then devour the rabbit whole. Not leaving anything to waste After the meal IT wanted to search the whole warren {rabbit hole} in order to see if there''s any more prey to eat, and sure enough, IT sees a litter of rabbit kits, strangely enough, there were no other rabbits inside the warren, usually rabbits have partners or live in loose communities. Using the opportunity of being alone with the rabbit kits, IT proceeds to swallow them whole one by one. a bit of time passes¡­. Coming out of the warren IT turns into a rabbit, IT wanted to test out the new form. Rabbits are herbivores they don''t eat any animals. This means that this form won''t open up on any possibility to advance into a higher form unless through reproduction and mutation. But interestingly enough this form has very good eyesight and has a 360¡ã panoramic vision, allowing them to detect predators from all directions. They can see everything behind them and only have a small blind spot in front of their nose, this was the reason why the rabbit was able to detect IT from behind, during the attack. The form also has very sharp ears and was able to hear any incoming predators that were sneaking up. As the form was not suited for consuming prey, IT reluctantly turns back into a sparrow and flies away. Lone Wolf Having the urge to reach new forms, IT wanted to go back to the river and prey on one of the creatures swimming in the river. It doesn''t matter if the predator was still there IT was confident that IT would be able to hide or fly away from the predator. With echolocation IT can also detect animals easier, decreasing the risk of death. So IT flew back into the river as a bat. Upon arriving near the river, IT used echolocation to define its surroundings better. The night was young and IT wanted to confirm if the predator lurking in the area was still there. IT flew around the area while screeching hoping to spot the very creature that made it escape in fear for life. Then finally, IT detects a creature larger than the size of IT. IT then lands on a tree, watching and waiting to see if the creature was able to hear and spot IT, and judging by the creatures actions it did. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. The predator turned its head towards IT, seemingly glowing eyes were staring back at IT but strangely enough, the predator didn''t do anything, it just continued to stare, showing a hint of intelligence. The predator new that it won''t be able to reach IT from the tree, so the predator did nothing. The predator had a grizzly grey coat, two large erect ears, a black snout, and a mouth big enough to completely swallow IT in one bite. It has two front paws and each paw had very sharp claws, it also has two powerful hind legs and a long furry tail. {the title already gave the animal away}. Finally after a while, the wolf seems to have lost interest, the wolf turns around facing his back against IT and moves on. This entices IT to attack the back of the wolf. IT flies towards the wolf in order to attack, but suddenly the wolf turns around and pounces at IT, IT was caught in an elaborate ruse, IT due to the pounce slams into to the ground. IT tries to fly and escape but IT wasn''t able to escape easily. During the attempt to fly away the wolf bit one of the wings and then tightly clenched its jaws shut, and with its left paw pinned IT to the ground, the wolf then proceeded attempt in ripping IT in two. To protect itself IT transforms into a snake and tried to strike at the wolf''s face. Surprised by the sudden transformation the wolf lets go and jumps backward away from IT. Unfortunately, the wolf was able to evade in time so the strike missed, at least the wolf let go of IT. Having some distance from the wolf has given IT a chance to escape. IT transforms into a rabbit and escapes the view of the wolf in a zig-zagging motion. As soon as IT was far enough IT transforms into a sparrow, flies on top of a tree and rests in order to recover, and Some time passes... --------------- When IT had recovered, IT had the strong desire to acquire the wolf''s form, The fear of being killed was still there but the desire to acquire the wolf''s form was stronger. So IT tried another attempt by turning into a bat and used echolocation to locate the wolf a second time. As soon as the wolf came into view IT transforms back into a spider in order to stalk the wolf. The stalking went on until midnight. Finally, the wolf got tired and fell asleep, the wolf did not sense the presence following it. Since the wolf was asleep it was a good opportunity for IT to turn into a vampire bat and leech on the wolf. But just to be safe, IT waits until IT was sure that the wolf is actually asleep. More time passes¡­. With the help of the bat instinct, IT was sure that the wolf was completely asleep. IT flies quietly towards the wolf landing 10 feet near the slumbering creature and carefully crawls towards it. Upon coming closer, IT began looking for a warm spot where a blood vessel might be, and sure enough, IT finds a nice spot near the belly, far away from the wolf''s head, away from those horribly sharp teeth that almost ripped IT in two. In order not to wake up the wolf, IT created a very small incision. Slowly blood oozed out of the incision and IT enthusiastically lapped on the blood. The blood flow was too slow so IT salivated on the incision in order to stop the coagulation of blood. The blood was extremely delicious causing IT to become a little too greedy. IT tried to make the incision a little bigger. This causes the wolf to jerk and awaken. In a state of panic, IT tries to transform into a wolf, in order to defend himself from the incoming danger. But instead, IT uncontrollably transforms into a disappointingly small wolf pup, about 2 months old. IT tries to pounce. The wolf easily avoids the small creatures pitiful attempt to pounce. Bewildered the wolf attempts to gaze into the small creature that woke him up, the small creature freezes and stays still. The wolf growls as he readies himself to pounce, but then the growling of the wolf was answered with a whine and a whimper. ---------------------------- INFO SECTION {Note 1: Bats aren''t blind. They can see but can''t see well in the dark. They have developed echolocation to combat this since they are nocturnal.} {Note 2: Vampire bats have developed thermoception, in order to look for warm spots in an animal''s body. They also have some kind of anticoagulant substance on their saliva''s.} {Last Note For This Chapter: if there''s any grammar, mistakes or any other confusing stuff in the story let me know in the comment section below and I will answer it there on the comment section or on the next Chapter of the info section and do the fixes on the current chapter.} Chapter 5: Pack, Territory Chapter 5: Pack, Territory Pack It has started getting colder, the leaves have yellowed and are now starting to fall. Fruits and berries have started to ripen and are now being feasted upon by different kinds of animals. Squirrels and chipmunks have begun eating and storing mounds of nuts and seeds on different hiding places. some birds have started to migrate to God knows where. Snakes and other cold-blooded creatures have started occupying caves, hollow logs and burrows in order for them to keep away from the oncoming cold. It has been a month since IT met the lone wolf. IT was now a juvenile wolf, not too big of a difference between a pup but IT has grown quite a size compared to a month ago, and the apparent hair patterns of IT is becoming more and more similar to a complete adult wolf. Right now IT is in the middle of the river playing and trying to catch a fish with its mouth, IT was accompanied by an adult wolf which was closely watching for any danger that might occur. IT resembles the wolf in almost all aspect, except for the large size and sharp features that IT has yet to acquire. The wolf has apparently taken in a mini-version of itself, they had the same fur color, the same scent, the same eye color, which was grey, and even the unique white fur tip of the grey wolf''s tail, seemingly the only difference between IT and the grey wolf was its age. This was, even if it wasn''t on purpose, an advantage on which IT had. The same scent alone makes the grey wolf''s paternal instinct kick in, causing the wolf in question to protect his progeny, which IT actually is part of. {in terms of same DNA} IT catches a small fish and immediately gulps it down. On the way back to the riverside IT could feel the fish weirdly wriggling inside but decides to ignore it and continue to go towards the leader of the pack. A wolf pack usually consists of family members, a breeding male{pack leader, father, alpha male, etc}, a breeding female (alpha female, mother etc.), and their kids (the female and male breeders offspring}, and there are also uncommon cases where different wolves from outside the pack join in. Usually for a pack to grow an alpha female needs to produce offspring''s, and from there the offspring''s grow and becomes part of the pact, they will either stay or hang around for a couple of years and then leave the pack, usually male wolves, to find female wolves to mate with, and there the cycle begins again. The alpha wolf before having come across IT was an upstart wolf {having left an old pack consisting of relative family members in search of a mate and new territory}. The grey wolf has been traveling downstream since the beginning of its journey and hasn''t stopped ever since. The territories between the sides of the river were always already taken, usually by large packs. IT notices that the river is a natural border between the two packs, the reason why IT knows this is because of the scent and tracks left by the pack wolves around this area. Since the current pack only consisted of IT and the grey wolf, it would be unwise to challenge the current holders of the territories, so the search must go on, and so they continued to travel¡­.. Territory It was around mid-afternoon, IT and his companion were at the edge of a wolf territory, the territory, in particular, encompasses both sides of the shallow river. The gray wolf hasn''t come across a territory that occupies both sides of the river until now, and even if the case was related or not the scent of the mark was that of a female wolf. The gray wolf decides to continue on and follow the river, thinking that since the territory they''re passing is big enough, they wouldn''t be detected by the territory holders. As they traveled for a short time, they came across a small mound, somewhat close to the river but not close enough for water to go inside the hole that was strangely dug underneath it. The scent of the female wolf here was extremely concentrated, this causes the gray wolf to tense up as he realizes this was a wolf''s den. Usually, wolf dens are built at the center of the wolf territory, this gave away the information to the grey wolf, that the territory was unusually small. As soon as the grey wolf finished his thoughts, a wolf immediately rushes out of the Den. The wolf was quite thin and starved looking, The fur on the wolf was brown, the fur on her forefeet had the color of white snow, and Judging by the scent, this was the female wolf that had her mark everywhere. She by the looks of it was completely agitated. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. To the eyes of the female wolf, two intruders have trespassed on her territory and are now coming towards the den to kill her children, a misinterpretation on her part. She curls up her lips and starts to growl, her tail was down and her ears back, she started to crouch, judging by her stance she was frightened and wanted them to leave. This stance gave a clue that she was clear on defending her den, she won''t attack but will be forced to do so unless provoked by the intruders. Seeing this the grey wolf and IT slowly backed away from the hill and then moved close to the side of the river in order to cross the river and separate themselves from the den. After they crossed the river, the grey wolf then began traveling downstream near the riverside. but before following the gray wolf IT turns around to take one last look at the female wolf, IT then sees the heads of two pups coming out of the den and peeking curiously at them. As they walked for a short distance downstream, they were almost at the edge of leaving the territory. The grey wolf was planning on leaving the territory immediately but suddenly his companion started to bark repeatedly, signaling hunger and thirst. The wolf shows a look of tiredness at his needy companion but then decides to follow his wishes. since learning from the scent that the female wolf and his pups were the only wolves occupying this territory, the grey wolf decided that they will be safer here since the female wolf would most likely stay at the wolf den to watch out for her pups. They turned around, back to the river to begin hunting fish since it was the easiest and nearest place to acquire food and water. They arrived at the riverside and immediately IT started jumping around in the water looking very playful Before a month ago IT had a hard time catching even the slowest of creatures in the water, now IT was able to easily play with the fast moving fishes and was able to catch large fishes with his mouth in a single attempt. Due to this IT, having been well fed was much bigger than any wolf around his age. IT in his current form, even if he was still a juvenile was able to hunt and kill small animals easily, like rabbits and squirrels. The problem with hunting them is that it was hard to find a place that was not marked territory, so hunting in a large area risks coming across the wolves who own the territory. Also, they couldn''t hunt bigger animals like elk or deer since their pack was still so small, but miraculously the river helped them by giving them a constant supply of fish. This makes it effortless for both IT and his companion to easily fill their stomachs on a daily basis. Once they were full IT still continued catching fish. IT caught a big one, big enough for IT not to have enough room to close his jaw. IT then proceeds to cross the river running back upstream, towards the wolf den that they have encountered a while. This alarmed the grey wolf, he stopped what he was doing immediately tried to follow IT. Before the grey wolf was able to catch up to IT, IT was already at the entrance of the den and already, in front of him was the looming figure of the mother wolf with her teeth bared ready to take off the head of the impudent intruder in front of her. IT was quite small compared to the mother wolf, she could easily kill IT which made the grey wolf fear for his companions life, so he slowed his movements in order not to stimulate the mother wolf from attacking. But what IT did next was unexpected, IT lowered his head and nonchalantly dropped the fish in front of the mother wolf, and then turned around and proceeded to walk away. unable to process what the juvenile wolf has done, both the mother and the grey wolf stood still. Then IT, wagging his tail like it was all a game, proceeded to go back downstream to the place where they caught the fish and proceeded to catch another one. IT then went back and dropped another fish in front of the den, and repeated the action, again and again while the mother wolf just looked at him filled with suspicion for the weird cubs behavior but also with a hint of curiosity. During the time IT was catching fish, the grey wolf was just sitting on the exact place where he was before, watching his strange companion doing what he was doing. Finally, night came and IT dropped his last catch in front of the den, two wolf pups have so long ago, peeked out from the entrance, attracted by the smell of food. As the last fish was dropped, IT heads back to the direction where his companion was sitting. When IT arrived by the grey wolf''s side, IT casually nudged his companion, telling him that he was tired and wanted to sleep somewhere nearby, and so they slept inside the border of the territory. ---------------------- INFO SECTION {Note 1: grey wolves are territorial, they will kill any lone wolves when they encounter them in their territories, to counter these lone wolves howl less often in order to prevent them from being detected. } {Note 2: sometimes wolf territories can overlap with other wolf territories.} {Last Note For This Chapter: if there''s any grammar, mistakes or any other confusing stuff in the story let me know in the comment section below and I will answer it there on the comment section or on the next Chapter of the info section and do the fixes on the current chapter.} Chapter 6: Unity Chapter 6: Unity IT has been continuously offering fish to the mother wolf every day and IT never left the territory, even if the grey wolf wanted to leave he couldn''t leave behind his precious companion, so he stayed around the border of the territory. At some point, the wolf cubs who were now quite big came out of their den whenever IT comes around with fish in his mouth, and they would run, eat and then play with their generous benefactor. Eventually, this leads the mother wolf to accept IT as less of an outsider and more of a pack member since her offspring has shared a good bond with him. But since IT was also part of the grey wolf''s pack he was supposed to choose which group he would stay, but instead, he became a bridge between the two packs which brought the two wolf leaders together. The time came and the two wolf leaders met, which then became a battle of supremacy, No fighting and biting happened, just a stare off, intimidation the occasional growling and barking and more intimidation happened until one of them backed off. The mother wolf has slowly been gaining back her strength from starvation but she still wasn''t in top shape and she wasn''t confident enough to become the alpha, so she backed off. and thus the grey wolf became the pack leader and they had earned a home. Right now the newly formed pack has five members, The grey wolf, mother wolf, IT and the two juvenile cubs. one of the wolf cubs had the same color as his mother and he was male, the other had a darker red color and she was female. They would now come with IT or any other members of the pack to watch them hunt small game or catch fish, and since the territory was small, deer and other large animals are rare since their none was living in their territory. Occasionally though some elk will pass the territory and most of the time the pack will miss them. IT was still young and growing, but he was big and already knows how to hunt game so he was already considered an adult. An adult means that he is a functioning member of the pack and he must contribute his strength when they are hunting in groups, and a group hunt hasn''t happened yet. since they always miss the opportunity. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.Since the territory is now officially owned by his new formed pack, IT decided to explore around it. He found tracks that have entered the territory, the tracks were numerous and the tracks traveled in one direction, an unknown group of animals must have traveled here, they were not wolves since they smell different, and it seems they have been circling this area for a few months since there were also old tracks passing here with the same hoof print, IT thought. He followed the scent and tracks until he reached the border of his packs territory. IT stopped following the tracks since he didn''t want to leave the territory, the other side were the territory of a different group of wolves, and he didn''t want to get caught and killed trespassing. Instead, he circled around the territory and noticed that the territory of IT''s pack was surrounded with three other wolf territories. one on the place where the sun rises and two where the sun falls. This causes problems for the pack since they couldn''t freely hunt for big game anywhere, but at least the other wolves don''t enter the territory as they please. As IT was done exploring his packs territory he heads back to the den and then to the river, in order to have a nice meal since there was no small or large game to be found. As IT enters the river and catches his first meal, IT sees snow falling from the sky, as IT looks up and the first snowflake lands on his nose, winter has come.... ---------------- INFO SECTION {Its a short chapter so I''m planning on making a longer one next chapter, so expect some action. and thanks to a commenter on the last chapter, motivation was sparked in me so thank him for the early chap. undefined } {Last Note For This Chapter: if there''s any grammar, mistakes or any other confusing stuff in the story let me know in the comment section below and I will answer it there on the comment section or on the next Chapter of the info section and do the fixes on the current chapter. Also, I''m currently looking proofreaders, I''m kinda blind at seeing any horrible sentences that need some rephrasing or any other info that I might be confusing, so I''m looking for any help I can get.} Chapter 7: Winter and Trespass Chapter 7: Winter and Trespass Winter Winter is hard, those were the thoughts of IT, although his fur has grown thicker IT could feel the cold seeping in his skin, this was the first winter IT had experienced. A lot of the trees around him look dead and barren, but some tall pointy looking trees have retained their small bristle-like leaves. Everything was white and everywhere was snow. The winter season has turned the green luscious forest into a white superficially lifeless land, yet it was also peaceful. The river was beginning to freeze, small chunks of ice are seen flowing down the river. IT can see both sides of the river slowly forming ice sheets. Days are now shorter and it''s getting colder and colder as the days go by. IT tries to take a step on the river, the cold water gives him a shiver but continues on in order to catch any of the fishes that might still be swimming around. It now takes a whole day just to catch food barely enough for everyone. The two young wolves are now being taught how to hunt small game. they are slowly getting better, although still quite small compared to the adults they are big enough to hunt rabbits and other small animals. Although the territory was small there was quite enough small game to catch, at least for a while. Pretty soon the pack will be forced to cross other territories in order to stave off starvation. One morning IT heads to the river in order to catch fish. As he arrives he sees the river completely frozen over, their main source of food was now gone. IT heads back to the den in order to join the others for catching small game. Upon arriving IT notices that nobody was there. He starts to breathe in a lot of air and then howls, IT makes a slightly high pitched howl that slowly drops into a deep tone. IT waits and hears the familiar howls of his pack, IT then starts to go towards the source of the sound and finally to his pack. Trespass Hunting around the territory was becoming harder and harder as the animals became scarcer and scarcer. As the pack circled around their territory twice, they didn''t pass any small rabbits that were hopping around, nor any squirrels. The pack circles one more time and then they reached the border of their territory, they stop. They are at the end of the line. There is little to no animals in their territory. If the pack enters the territory of other wolves there will be risks and danger when they are encountered by the territory owners but if they stay inside their borders, the pack will surely die of starvation. While they are still strong and well fed, the grey wolf along with the mother decides to move and enter the territory of their neighbors They head for the direction of the packs territory where the sun rises, the rest follows. The pack was currently following some tracks, the tracks have similar hoof prints to the one IT saw during autumn. The group they were following weren''t the same group since the hoofs were not as numerous, there were five distinct prints, two prints were larger than the others. They continued to follow the tracks until they see five figures lumbering ahead of them. The pack increased their speed in order to close in on the animals they were tailing. When the pack was close enough IT studied the features of the group. They have dark brown color, short and relatively thin legs, their hindquarters are more developed than the front legs, their necks were short and thick, they have a large head and a long snout. They also have a slightly pungent odor wafting around them. What made them dangerous were two sharp tusks on their lower jaws, which can gore and injure any predators that attack them, leading to death. Two of them were approximately the same size of IT and the other adult wolves, one looks extremely older and had a lot of scars and bald patches around its thick hide, the other three were quite small, they look like young juveniles. IT noticed that the grey wolf and mother wolf knew what these creatures were so he followed the two adults lead and stayed back. From their reactions these animals were prey. The group of prey notices the predators behind them and stands their ground, the small ones hid behind their larger counterparts while the large ones snorted and made '' ukh! ukh! '' noises and then started to make high pitched squeals. This was the first time IT saw such a defiant and somewhat threatening prey so he continued to stay a little farther away waiting for the actions of his elders. The two experienced wolves began circling around the group of prey on different sides, trying to get behind and get an opportunity to attack and steal one of the small ones hiding behind. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. The group of prey reacted by each of the bigger creatures facing the two circling wolves, having the two big creatures backs behind each other and the little ones sandwiched in the middle. As the mother and grey wolf circled around, they from time to time tried to prod the prey''s defenses by getting closer and falling back while continuously growling and barking. This causes the group to get agitated but they still continued to face the two wolves circling around them in a clockwise motion. IT got an idea of what the older wolves were doing so he decided to join in and began circling the prey in a clock-wise motion, and started growl and bark as well. This causes one of the big prey to divert part of their attention to IT giving an opportunity for the grey wolf to close in, the hog tries to turn away and managed to swing its tusk towards the grey wolf, the grey wolf jumps back and evades the animals tusks. Having failed the grey wolf then continued to circle around again. Eventually, the two younger members of the pack joined in imitating the actions of the adults by barking and growling but only as distractions not going in themselves to prod. this went on for quite a bit of time, prodding and then retreating, more prodding barks and growls, the tension increases. The grey wolf repeats his actions and comes dangerously close to one of them. The prey he went close to finally snaps started charging, a very risky tactic but it opened an opportunity. With quick judgement and fast movement, IT runs towards the little ones while one of the bug creatures full attention was focused on the grey wolf. IT quickly reaches one of the small prey and bites its snout. The small wild boar begins to squeal and the other larger old boar, who was facing the mother wolf turns around and tries swing its tusk at IT, another opportunity. IT lets go of the young boars snout and backs away evading the strike while the mother wolf began going in as well and bit and dragged the smallest boar away from the group. The wild old boar''s attention turned away from IT and began to run towards the mother wolf. Too late though the mother wolf was already behind, with the young juvenile boar in tow and was guarded by the two young wolves intimidating the boar with growls and barks. IT circled around the sounder of boars {group of boars} and joined in with the intimidation while the mother wolf drags the juvenile away from the group of boars. Finally, the boar stops following the pack since protecting the other young boars were of higher importance and also because one of the wolves were still with the sounder. As soon as they were far enough, the pack proceeded to bite the jugular killing the juvenile boar and then they started to howl, giving away their location to the grey wolf who was separated from the pack, and unintentionally some others. When the grey wolf came, they then proceeded to feast on the carcasses until nothing but bones were left, the risk was worth it. As the pack were chewing on the bones a howl is heard near the packs proximity. They stopped chewing on bones and proceeded to look on where the howl came from. A pack of wolves were coming near them, growling and snarling at the trespassers that dared to enter their territory. ------------------- Info Section I really like to read the comments left behind by the readers and I''ve noticed that they''ve dropped to only two to three replies, so I''m encouraging you guys to start commenting below. Please, any comment will help whether it be your thought, suggestion or funny reactions, ANYTHING!!. Your comments will contribute a lot in helping me improve thereby making future chapters increase in quality, so please feel free to comment below. anything helps! Though it is optional. {Last Note For This Chapter: if there''s any grammar, mistakes or any other confusing stuff in the story let me know in the comment section below and I will answer it there on the comment section or on the next Chapter of the info section and do the fixes on the current chapter. looking proof-readers, I''m kinda blind at seeing any horrible sentences that need some rephrasing or any other info that I might be confusing, so I''m looking for any help I can get.} Chapter 8: Dispute to chase, Standoff Chapter 8: Dispute to chase, Standoff Dispute to chase The pack was outnumbered 8 to 5, The territorial wolves kept Howling, snarling and barking but kept their distance. The grey wolf uses this opportunity to slowly back away and turn around trying to avoid a costly confrontation, the pack members also did the same except for the mother wolf who were facing the opposite direction trying to serve as a rear guard. But after the grey wolf took a couple steps. One of the territorial wolves blocked the direction halting the grey wolf''s pace. This causes the grey wolf and the pack members to growl. It seems that they don''t want the pack to leave. The grey wolf threateningly snarls and tries to close the distance between him and the blocking wolf but the wolf keeps backing away whenever the grey wolf tries to get close. Realization comes to the grey wolf as the grey wolf sees the territorial wolves were instead of confronting them completely were, in fact, trying to stall the pack as a couple of new arrivals started to join the encirclement, There was now more of them. This causes the grey wolf to signal the pack members to start running and they began to aggressively charge towards the wolf trying to block their path. This causes the blocking wolf to yelp and tries to step away before it was hit by the five bodies charging towards him. Too late! before the wolf who was blocking could step to the side, the grey wolf rammed the side of the blocking wolf which causes the wolf to trip and fall to his side. The blocking wolf was then trampled and clawed upon by the pack members of the grey wolf. The pack started running with the two slowest pack members running ahead. The two juvenile wolves were fast for an average wolf but the three adults were faster due to being well fed and at the prime of their life. The territorial wolves were now chasing them, sounds of howling and barking can be heard behind. Some fast territorial wolves were able to catch them, but the pack was able to block and trip them easily since they came in one by one. Apparently the territorial wolves were trying to take out the weakest of the pack which was the two juvenile wolves, IT and the grey wolf though used this tactic against them. Whenever a territorial wolf was close enough, IT and the grey wolf, who were behind the pack would flank the sides of any would be threat that attempted to get near and overtake the two by clawing, swiping and biting their front or hind limbs, tripping them in the process." After a while, they finally reach the border of their own territory and there the pack stops running. The grey wolf then turns around indicating this is where they''ll stand their ground since this was their home and territory. Those that were chasing them stopped at the edge of the packs territory, unsure whether they should risk fighting while fragmented or not. They started to howl in order to call all the wolves that got lost during the chase. Slowly the number of wolves on the other side starts increasing as more and more find their way towards the howling pack. The six territorial wolves who were able to chase the pack started to increase in number, three more arrives, and then another three. The numbers kept increasing until there was a total of 15 wolves on the other side, a staggering three against one. That''s when they stopped howling. IT and the rest of the pack members starts growling but stayed still in their positions, in order to conserve their energy. Standoff It became a standoff, two sides standing ground at the edges of their designated territory. The occasional growling could be heard on both sides but none was showing extreme aggressiveness like barking and snarling. In the current standoff, IT had the opportunity to gauge the other groups strength. IT first tries to study the other group as a whole. The enemy pack have two different arrays of fur colors, ranging from a muddy white to a smoky red color, It seems that the group of 15 wolves were somewhat healthy, none were too thin indicating that either there''s a bountiful amount of game on their territory or that the territory was big enough to accommodate their population. But somehow, It seems they aren''t able to utilize the full extent of their territory as they were although healthy looking, they were not as well fed as the pack of the grey wolf, that owns a minuscule territory, compared to theirs. IT then began to look at the opposing wolves weaknesses and noticed that most were quite young, out of the 15 wolves, 8 were juveniles. Around 3 were probably around the same age as IT, although they were quite noticeably smaller. The other 4 young juveniles were about the same age as the mother wolf''s two children. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. The young and inexperienced, an advantage and opportunity to surprise the young ones and dwindle their large numbers sharply. Although IT himself was young as well, IT has experienced near life and death situations in all his past forms, making him more capable than an adult wolf. The abnormally large number of young wolves signifies that there was either a recent increase in the size of their territory or that a large group of game has settled in their territory and thus made it bountiful. For their pack to also increase and produce more young wolves means that there were two or three more couples of breeding wolves in their pack. Their strength wasn''t only in their numbers, It was also the power of the adult wolves too. In the observation of IT, there were two domineering old wolves. The fur of one of the old wolves was the color of dirty white while the other was a patchy brown red. Scars were filled on their faces and they had small patches and holes on their fur indicating that they were older than the rest and more experienced from their dangerous encounters in the past fights, they were somewhat weaker than the younger adults in raw strength but experience and time have made them on par or above an adult wolf''s level. The other 5 adults wolves were at the prime of their lives, equally as strong and agile as the two adults on the packs side. The situation was near impossible, The pack only consisted of 2 full grown adults which were the grey and the mother wolf, One adult size juvenile wolf which were IT, and two juveniles whose only experience on fighting with wolves were the play fights they did with the pack. If one were to look at it in a crude way it would be three against one for each wolf. But on a more logical level, IT knows it would be between 5 against 7 or 10 since the younger wolves on the enemies side will most likely just stay behind and watch the adults do their thing and learn from them. Of course, none of the wolves from the packs side will sit out since the pack is greatly outnumbered and they need all the numbers they could get. But since the two young wolves are greatly inexperienced there will be a compromise from the third oldest. IT will be in the front along with the grey and the mother wolf and the two younger wolves will be slightly behind, so they don''t get too overwhelmed. An option would be is that the pack could escape and abandon their territory. There''s barely any game around on their territory, and they could avoid this encounter and just continue running. But if the pack decides to run they would have no place to safe place to rest since there seem to be no unoccupied territories and they would always be vulnerable to attacks from other wolves since the pack would be forced to travel to other wolf territories and at such a big number, they would be easily detected. So the pack stands their ground, to defend the small territory. IT could see the reason why the other pack decided to observe first and not just charge straight in. If the confrontation happens, both sides would incur great losses although the pack of IT has the huge risk of getting wiped out. The two old white wolves that looked like the alpha male and the alpha female were not moving and weren''t doing anything that would ignite the fight. IT also notices that the two old wolves were also sizing up his pack. the old wolves were still deciding whether the risk of losing pack members is worth the eradication of pesky invading wolves. After a few moments, the two old wolves have decided to move forward signaling their pack to start the fight and charge. They have decided that the risk was worth it and 9 enemy wolves began running towards the pack head on with no need for plans since they were completely confident with their strength and numbers. As they came closer IT and his pack ready themselves to fight to the death! ------------------------ INFO SECTION { I love cliffhangers but I promise there won''t be one in the next chapter. I''m looking for proofreaders again since I think my current proofreader stopped visiting royal road and has abandoned his post without notifying me. } {Last Note For This Chapter: if there''s any grammar, criticism, mistakes or any other confusing stuff in the story let me know in the comment section below and I will answer it there on the comment section or on the next Chapter of the info section and do the fixes on the current chapter.I''m kinda blind at seeing any horrible sentences that need some rephrasing or any other info that I might be confusing, so I''m looking for any help I can get.} Chapter 9: Teeth and claw, Aftermath Chapter 9: Teeth and claw, Aftermath Teeth and claw The skies have darkened and one could still see nine wolves were charging towards the pack, In front of the charge were the two old wolves. Blood was pumping vigorously as adrenaline spreads throughout their bodies of all the wolves participating. As they came ever so closer, the pack of the grey wolf met the charge by another charge, with the grey wolf leading the front. The two packs clash and madness ensues, A flurry of teeth and claws were unleashed on both sides. Fur and flesh were thrown everywhere and the snow beneath them were tainted red with blood as claws ripped fur, and teeth puncture flesh drawing blood. Sounds of snarling and barking from the wolves were uttered from those whose teeth weren''t already occupied with biting on flesh. { The fight was actually fought in a group, but since there were so many enemies the clash somehow separated into a cluster of individual pockets.} The grey wolf was fighting with all his might, biting and scratching any bit of the two wolves that were fighting against him while moving erratically to avoid the two old wolves teeth who were hounding him. The old wolves were trying to aim for the grey wolf''s vital parts, mainly the neck and the face. They knew that the grey wolf was the alpha male of the pack, and if they were able to kill him, sure enough, the rest would fall. The mother wolf were fighting vigorously against the 3 wolves that surrounded her, they were a heap of mess as blood and exposed flesh were starting to show on the bodies of the wolves. Meanwhile, The two juvenile wolves from behind were trying to bite and scratch the wolves that were around their mother, trying to help her any way they can. Meanwhile, three wolves had their full attention on IT, their attacks were full of intent to kill and damage him. To avoid injury, IT began moving like a worm on drugs, narrowly avoiding claws and teeth while IT himself were clawing and biting madly at any fur he could feel and see. IT was moving so wildly they got separated from the main scuffle. They came farther and farther away from the main group. As a bit of time passes, the fight between IT and the three wolves became gruelling, they were at a far distance away from where the fighting started. Claws were starting to connect on ITs body as IT haggardly tried to avoid the attacks of the three wolves. Little by little the wolves were beginning to be able to solidly land an attack on IT. A bite was able to land and set on the leg of IT impeding his movements caused by the leg bite. Due to this, a second wolf began to slam its body on ITs side causing IT to topple over further impeding his movement, the second wolf then proceeded to pin IT to the ground. The third wolf saw this as a chance to finally get rid of the troublesome wolf and proceeded to aim for one if his vital spots, the neck. At this point Before the third wolf''s teeth were able to maul on ITs neck, IT shrinks and morphs into a snake and narrowly avoids the clenching jaw of the third wolf. Before the wolves were able to react to the strange phenomenon that has happened before them, IT strikes at the third wolfs face biting him on his nose. Venom squirts out of fangs as IT retracts his fangs and as the wolf yelps and jerks away. IT turned his head around and began to strike again, this time towards the second wolf''s neck who was pinning him. The second wolf yelps in pain and surprise and startlingly tries to move away from the venomous serpent that was wriggling beneath him. Finally free, IT then turned its head at the first that bit its leg which caused this predicament in the first place. The wolf didn''t let go of the leg even if the leg morphed, melded into ITs the body and turned into a tail. It did confuse the wolf though, enough to give an opening for IT to attack freely. IT hissed and opened his mouth to reveal fangs towards the wolf who was still biting his tail. The wolf was stunned from fear as the wolf felt the serpent''s eyes gaze at him {death is approaching}, and then IT strikes straight onto the wolf''s left eye. The wolf lets go of the tail and yelps, IT held on to the eye as the wolf jerked, twitch, and flailed wildly from the pain. Finally, IT lets go and gets thrown into to the air by the jerking of the wolf. Using the momentum, IT turns into a bat mid-air and flies away, leaving the three confused, wounded, and poisoned wolves to their faith as IT flies back to the main group. In moments, IT was able to reach the place where he was in before the clash. The melee was still continuing, It became as brutal as ever. IT surveyed what was happening while flying in the air. The grey wolf were riddled with gashes and open wounds, he seems to be near exhaustion but was still fighting as aggressively as he possibly can. The mother wolf and the two juveniles were now fighting side by side with the five enemy wolves. It seems that some of the young wolves from the enemy side have joined the fray. From up above, they look like a sea of differently coloured fur, swaying and crashing with each other. IT decides to help the grey wolf first as It seems that he needs it the most. IT as a bat swoops down behind one of the old wolves and with its leg claws lands firmly on top of the nape {The back of the neck? or under the head and above the back.} of one of the old wolves. Before the old wolf was able to do anything, IT turns into a snake and proceeds to quickly bite the front neck of the old white wolf. The old wolf yelps as it felt the fangs sink in deep. the grey wolf turns its head to try and bite whatever bit its neck. But the old wolf couldn''t bite IT, as IT was in a position which the old wolf couldn''t reach. Even still the movement causes IT to slide off to the right side of the old wolf. IT then started to grow and morph into a wolf. IT was still clenching onto the old wolf''s neck, and as IT grew his fangs turned into canines, widening the hole that was punctured on the old wolf''s neck. The old wolf tries to madly manoeuvre itself to try and shake off the attacker. This causes IT to let go of the neck and quickly dashes back, away from the old wolf. As soon as IT let go, blood immediately squirted out of the two punctured holes on the old wolf''s neck. The old wolf tries to Snarl at IT but only gurgling sounds came out. The old wolf tries to lurch forward but he stops, he couldn''t breathe. The old wolf began twitching, and then the wolf proceeds to fall, blood was splattered on the snow as the old white wolf''s body falls to his side. He then continued to twitch and spasm as he drowned on his own blood. Without sympathy, IT looks around and sees that the grey wolf was still being occupied by the other old bloody mud coloured wolf. Both wolves look like they didn''t even register the death of the old white wolf as both wolves were so intent on killing each other, so consumed by aggression and rage one would question whether they were even conscious. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. IT turns back into a bat in order to try and repeat the process that dispatched one of the old wolves. IT flies up and again swoops down on the nape of the old bloody wolf. IT took a bite as a snake but the bite to the neck didn''t even make the wolf flinch, much less notice him and she just aggressively continued to attack the grey wolf. Seeing this IT transforms into a wolf and the weight of IT causes the legs of the old bloody wolf to buckle and fail, pinning her to the ground. Surprise was met by the two wolves as IT just appeared seemingly out of nowhere. IT continued to clench his jaws and held on to the neck as the bloody old wolf tries to frantically stand up, to no avail. The grey wolf joins in and proceeds to claw at the old wolf''s eyes. The wolf loudly yelps and began to gurgle, bloody foam starts to seep out of the old wolf''s mouth. It convulses wildly struggling in a futile manner. The wolf then twitches weakly as It tries to draw its final breath. After a couple of moments, the old wolf dies and it stops moving. After the gurgling sounds died down, no noise can be heard anywhere and the surroundings became deafeningly quiet. IT releases his grip on the old dead wolf''s neck and looks around. All The wolves have stopped fighting and was looking towards IT, the grey wolf and the two dead alphas. The two alphas were dead. The grey wolf and IT growled and snarled towards the enemy onlookers, fear spreads throughout the enemy pack. The grey wolf accompanied by IT using the opportunity proceeded to charge straight towards the 5 wolves that had ganged up on the mother wolf and the two juveniles. As soon as they see the two approaching, the 5 enemy wolves began Lowering their ears and started to retreat back towards the juvenile enemy wolves, in fear that they will die by the claws of those alpha killers. The grey wolf along with IT proceeded to change direction, the mother and the two juvenile wolves went with the flow and followed them. The pack as a whole proceeded to run threateningly towards the jumble of enemy juvenile wolves who were watching. The pack started to bare their teeth intimidatingly and started to snarl like rabid dogs in the meantime increasing their speed. Panic spreads throughout the juveniles wolves as the fear of the impending doom were coming near. They start running away as fast as their hind legs could carry them, away from the mad pack that were chasing them, IT could see clearly their enemies tails were tucked behind their legs. Aftermath The clash was over. As the danger passes all the pack members slowed to a stop. The intimidation attempt and bluff was a success, if the conflict continued with the young juveniles joining in as soon as the alphas died, the pack would have been overwhelmed and would have been wiped out. Though It was thanks to IT that they even survived the first wave in the first place though no one in the pack had an inkling except for the grey wolf. Pain slowly came back as the adrenaline inside their bodies wore off. Out of the five pack members., the grey wolf was the most heavily wounded, he began panting loudly and started to sit on his hind legs to rest. Blood was oozing out on most of his wounds and half of his left ear was bitten off, His right eyes were bloodshot and swollen, but It doesn''t seem like the damage was too extensive. His right hind leg and his right side had deep bite marks, tufts of missing fur and gashes were all around his body, part of the grey wolf''s skin on his right shoulder were ripped off exposing some muscle. The grey wolf began to lick his wounds in order to clean it. IT helped on licking the grey wolf''s wounds. IT helped by licking the parts were the grey wolf couldn''t reach. After licking the wounds, IT then proceeds to look at the second most wounded of the pack, the mother wolf. She had already begun licking her wounds. Although not as bad as the grey wolf''s injuries, she took the brunt of the injuries sustained by the 5 wolves. She also has some parts of her fur ripped off but none was too big to cause any immediate problems. She had a shallow bite on her neck but it didn''t bleed too much, indicating no major artery was punctured. IT proceeded to help lick on her wounds. Looking on, the two juveniles had minor injuries, probably because of their mothers protection. They have some shallow cuts and some gashes. IT approached the most injured among the two juvenile wolves, the dark red female juvenile. IT began licking on her wounds. While IT was licking on her cuts, she, in turn, licked his wounds. After finishing, IT then proceeded to lick on the gashes on the back of the brown juvenile, on which the brown wolf couldn''t reach. When the whole pack was able to move, they went straight for the den. They were slow since the grey and the mother wolf were limping and also because they were all tired. ------------- That night, while the pack was sleeping, IT wakes himself and sneaks out of the den. IT transforms into a wild boar and then proceeds to head towards the place where the fighting between the packs took place. IT plans to collect the five corpses and their blood, in his stomach. ------------- As morning came the male juvenile wolf who had the least amount of wounds woke up. He looks around and checks the pack. All were sleeping. From their wounds, the grey alpha wolf and the mother wolf won''t be moving for a while. Maybe even the young strange grey wolf. The brown wolf stretches his body and curiously went towards the place where they fought yesterday. Strangely enough, he notices that the two alpha wolf corpses were nowhere to be seen, even the blood that was splattered around the snow have been lapped on and have mysteriously disappeared. ------------------------ INFO SECTION { Note 1: just to make things clear the two alphas and the enemy wolves side were an Alpha (breeding) male and the Alpha (breeding) female. It''s possible to have more than 1 pair of breeding couple in a pack but there will always be the oldest alpha female and the oldest alpha male. }not sure if I explained this properly¡­ just search on google or smt { Note 2: I need Proofreaders! and please keep commenting I want to hear the readers thoughts. Originally I was planning on wiping out the whole pack of IT, but midway I changed my mind. } { Last Note For This Chapter: if there''s any grammar, criticism, mistakes or any other confusing stuff in the story let me know in the comment section below and I will answer it there on the comment section or on the next Chapter of the info section and do the fixes on the current chapter.I''m kinda blind at seeing any horrible sentences that need some rephrasing or any other info that I might be confusing, so I''m looking for any help I can get. } Chapter 10: Disease and careless hunt Chapter 10: Disease and careless hunt It has been three days since the fight between the two packs took place, IT has spent the time sleeping, trying to recover from his minor wounds. IT was nudged awake by a lick on his face followed by the sounds of whimpering. Having been awakened, IT began to observe his surroundings. IT noticed that the one who licked him was the female juvenile, apparently she woke IT up because something was wrong, it was related to the whimpering sounds. IT followed the source of the sound and saw the two figures of the adults on his side lying on the ground, the mother wolf was the source of the whimper, she was probably in pain. IT stands up and checked on her wounds. The wound on her neck has a yellow-white substance oozing around it. IT guided by instinct decides to lick it off in order to clean it. The wound is infected. After IT was done, IT looked over to the grey wolf and saw the same predicament. Some of his wounds were filled with pus and all of his bite marks were infected. IT begins to clean them. While cleaning the grey''s wolf''s wounds, IT noticed that some areas of the grey wolf''s body were swollen. Having no clue what the swelling means, IT decides to ignore it and continue cleaning. The grey wolf during the wound licking barely even moved, giving the illusion that he was already dead. The only sign of him being alive was the rise and fall of his side. Something was very wrong with the grey wolf. IT could do nothing but to keep cleaning the infected wounds. Having completed cleaning their wounds to the best of his abilities. IT turns his direction to the female Juvenile wolf in front of him, her features and posture suggested that she was hungry. Since there''s nothing else IT can do to help the injured wolves heal faster, IT decides to hunt. Besides the wounded wolves chances of surviving might increase if they''re wounded but full rather than wounded and starving. IT proceeds to look for the male juvenile and sees that the he was nowhere near insight. Having seen this IT signals the other juvenile wolf to follow him outside of the den. It was already dark outside. IT makes a loud howl in order to call the missing juvenile, the howl could be heard throughout their surrounding territory. After IT stops howling, another howl was heard in the distance, a response and judging by the sounds, it was the male juvenile. IT howls again in order to tell him to come and then IT waited for the juvenile. Sure enough, the juvenile comes and appears out of some nearby bushes, from the direction where the sun moon rises. He too looked quite hungry, judging by his looks. IT greets and nudges the male wolf to follow him. The three of them proceeds to go to the place which the clash between wolves took place. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! They reach the edge of their territory and IT looks up into the sky, The moon was out and was in its full glory basking the white forest with its silver light. IT followed by the two juveniles enters enemy territory in order to hunt, a very high risk with a small chance of success. With only IT and the two juvenile wolves, there was a very low chance that they would successfully hunt any big game, there was also a risk to encounter the territorial wolves again. ------------------------- Hello this is the author. I reread my story and noticed that some of my chapters were extremely short and filled with some typos that I haven''t noticed before. Therefore I did what a responsible author would do, fixed them in order to rake in new viewers. There was little to no change to the story so the old readers (readers who have read my work since the beginning) don''t need to reread everything. Now the reason for the chapters having been reduced is that I merged some of the short chapters together, this is just to inform the old readers so they don''t get confused when they see the number of chapters significantly reduced. Also pardon me for the long break I took, I got a little busy with work, some new releases of shows, reading and some new research so I wasn''t able to make a long chapter today so... to make up for it I''m making a poll I made a poll to know what the readers want for the fate of the pack whether they die, live or be wiped out. this poll won''t affect the current story line too much, I just wanted to know my readers opinion. This would also be a good time to comment any ideas you might have concerning the story. If I like your idea I will put it in the story. { Last Note For This Chapter: if there''s any grammar, criticism, mistakes or any other confusing stuff in the story let me know in the comment section below and I will answer it there on the comment section or on the next Chapter of the info section and do the fixes on the current chapter. I''m kinda blind at seeing any horrible sentences that need some rephrasing or any other info that I might be confusing, so I''m looking for any help I can get. } Chapter 11: Territory invasion The pack detects the scent of deer in the vicinity, they excitedly followed the scent. As the scent got stronger, it indicated that the deer was close by. IT slows down and the two other juveniles did the same. They circled the area and saw a doe in the distance, it was foraging on something on the bottom of a tree. IT signals the two juveniles to crouch. They obeyed, IT started to crawl quietly towards the deer, the two juvenile wolves behind him, careful not to make a noise, one wrong misstep and they''ll miss the chance to surprise the deer. IT could feel the wind on his face, this was actually good. If the wind blew the other way the deer would be able to detect them and immediately run away. Deer are harder to hunt than boar. Unlike the Boar, deer were faster and bigger. Boars when being hunted will stand their ground most of the time but deer will most likely run away and hide at the first sign of danger. Also, if the wind was right they can smell the presence of wolves from half a mile away, IT noticed this a couple of times when an occasional deer passed their territory. There was one time a Stag passed through the territory, IT was the one who came across the Stag. It was a good opportunity the wind was right and the Stag hasn''t noticed him yet but since no pack members were in the immediate vicinity, IT tried to take it down all by himself. It did not work well; The end result was that the Stag received a snake bite but escaped nonetheless, IT, on the other hand, got stomped and trampled all over. Today, though, IT was not alone and at the same time, the wind was in their favor. IT and his pack members ever so slowly went closer towards their prey. IT was close enough to notice some white spots snow on the doe''s fur. The Doe lets out a breath of air and mist blows through her snout IT took in the scent; IT could almost feel and taste it. A twig snaps from behind and the Doe raises its head to look at the source of the sound. Their eyes met. Between the doe''s dark brown, square pupil orbs and the grey wolf''s hungry grey eyes. The brief second their eyes met seemed like an eternity to the two of them; time seems to have stopped as both of them gazed at each other. Leg muscles on IT and the doe started to tense as IT begins to give chase while the Doe tries to run away. The two juvenile wolves were late to react and they were almost left in the snow. The doe ran with all its might, swerving and jumping on obstacles to try to slow and deter the predators but IT was closing the distance between them, It took quite a while but IT was so close and was about to bite the deer''s rump but suddenly the deer swerves to dodge a tree causing IT to stumble and forces it slow and skid to his side, narrowly avoiding the tree only to fall upon a huge pile of snow that accumulated on the side of the tree. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. This put a large distance between IT and the doe, the two juvenile wolves zipped pass IT and were now running ahead. IT tried to recover the distance by running at full speed, IT catches up to with the two wolves and ran past them. But alas the Doe was already gone, IT was exhausted and was panting, chasing it would only waste more time. IT stops and sits on his hind legs to rest while panting. While resting IT realizes that a large distance was covered trying to chase the doe around 3 times the span of their territory, Behind him the two juveniles were also panting. IT waited for everyone to rest. After everyone has recovered IT decides to just hunt some small game instead of trying to catch large game. While hunting a wolf not from their pack appears, the wolf was one of the wolves that owned this territory, a member of the pack that they clashed with days ago. IT and the juvenile pack growls and run towards the wolf, the wolf yelps and cowardly runs away, memory still fresh from the death of his alphas and superiors. Judging by the actions of the wolf that they encountered, something was wrong with the inner workings their pack. They didn''t howl to call upon allies, they must still be in disarray with the death of their alphas; they might also be fighting among themselves for the alpha position. IT satisfied with the thought of losing competition, continues to hunt.The land really was bountiful, they easily caught and killed 8 rabbits and devoured them easily, they left three and kept one on each mouth. Having this land would increase their chances of surviving. Using this chance IT travels around and along the way IT marks the territory as theirs, usually the alpha of the pack is the one who does this but since the grey wolf was still indisposed to do this, IT acted as a substitute. With rabbits on their teeth, they travelled back into their territory, only to find an unexpected event along the way. ----------------------------- Info Section While writing one of Blazingfrost''s comments and the previous poll made me realize. that I don''t need to make the pack suffer too much so I altered some minor details in the story. Also I''ve noticed A sheer number of viewer''s has stopped reading after the special chapter, what happened, can anyone tell me? { Last Note For This Chapter: if there''s any grammar, criticism, mistakes or any other confusing stuff in the story let me know in the comment section below and I will answer it there on the comment section or on the next Chapter of the info section and do the fixes on the current chapter.I''m kinda blind at seeing any horrible sentences that need some rephrasing or any other info that I might be confusing, so I''m looking for any help I can get. } Chapter 12: Unexpected turn of events, New members Chapter 12: Unexpected turn of events, New members New members Halfway way back to the wolf den, IT and his pack mates were confronted by a single wolf. The wolf trudges towards them; IT and his pack mates ready themselves to fight. Seeing this the wolf stops a couple of feet ahead of them and lowered his head, IT Growls. The wolf lowers his ears and starts to whimper, the wolf seems to be begging, begging for something. IT run towards the wolf and causing the wolf to yelp and back away and accidentally showing the right side of his body. IT used this to push the wolf to the down into the ground. The lone wolf kept yelping, whining knowing that his life has ended the moment he fell down and exposed his unprotected belly. IT barks and the wolf stops moving, accepting death. As the wolf lay still IT began sniffing him. The wolf has the color of muddy snow, the same color and scent of the pack that they clashed with. The wolf was young, barely older than the two juvenile wolves that were with IT, IT gets off of the wolf and goes back to his pack mates. The two juveniles started picking up the rabbit that they dropped. IT urges them to move on, as if telling them to ignore the wolf that lay still on the ground. IT did not pick up his rabbit and trudged on with his pack mates, leaving the lone wolf and a dead rabbit behind. IT and the juveniles came back to their territory without a hitch. IT and the juveniles enters the den and they find an unexpected scene. The Grey wolf was alive and kicking and the mother wolf was looking as healthy as if she was never wounded in the first place. What was more surprising was what they were doing. The grey wolf was behind the mother wolf mounting on top of the her while the mother wolf stood still panting vigorously. IT and the juveniles turns around and goes out of the den not wanting to watch nor disturb the two of them doing their business. New members The grey and the mother wolf began getting back their strength, they started moving a lot more often and began going outside again. Most wounds have turned to scars. The pack bringing food for them helped them with their recovery. A month passes and they were almost as good as new. During the month, IT and the juvenile wolves were also thriving. There was a lot of game to hunt. Hunting started getting easier and easier, deer though were still hard to catch, they never once caught one during that month. But IT and the juveniles were easily able to take down boar. Due to the bountiful amounts of game in the territory, the juveniles were able to grow quite a lot, they were now as large as a normal adult wolf, IT, on the other hand, has become even larger than the grey wolf and he is still growing. There were also some trouble brewing around. Some wolves have been hovering around the newly acquired territory that the pack claimed. At first it was just one wolf, the young wolf was acting submissive and didn''t do much but just skirt around the border and hide away every time IT and his pack passes. That was not a problem but then the wolves skirting around the border began increasing. When they started to number at 3 IT began perceiving them as a threat, IT paid close attention to them, they were lean, thin and were as young as the two siblings. IT begins to notice that the stragglers were starting to get thinner, ribs on their side were starting to become more prominent, they were almost on the brink of starvation. This was not good, IT knows that wolves tend to become more dangerous and aggressive when they are starving. IT takes action, he starts hunting a little more game than the pack needs. This is to ensure that they don''t start attacking pack members once the extreme hunger sets in, better to starve them slowly and weakening them little by little rather than starving them all at once and inciting an attack. He leaves a hare or two and drops it at the border of the territory every now end then, one would think that one or two hares were not enough but this is to ensure that the stragglers don''t get too strong, they might even fight among themselves from the lack of food. This went on for half the month At one point after dropping a hare. One of the wolf stragglers pops out near one of the bushes. Thinking that the wolf is there to attack IT charges aggressively. But then the wolf starts shrinking away and his posture arched and he lowers his neck and head, his tail tucks itself between his legs, he began lowering his legs and then he starts rolling. The young wolf suddenly exposes his belly towards IT and the young one starts urinating a little, spots of yellow starts to stain the surrounding snow. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Exposing your belly and neck completely in front of a wolf is a lethal action, it leaves one open to being instantly killed but the young wolf did so willingly and it was a sign of total submission. It was akin to offering up your life for the other to do what he pleases with it, in a way this wolf is saying that he wishes to be a subordinate of IT, the young wolf gave complete control of his life to IT. IT comes closer, seemingly accepting the offering but not quite. The young wolf whimpers, IT didn''t show exactly his answer to the wolf''s submission. From the way IT walks in comfort and security to the moment his eyes gave away predatory blood lust, IT were sending mix signals. The young wolf could not dare do anything else as any other actions he take to try and take back his risky move would be too late, IT is already upon the young wolf. IT notices that it was the same young wolf that IT encountered around the time the pack started claiming the territory. The same color of muddy snow, he seems to have not grown too much. It is because of being underfed this whole time. the young wolf''s belly has shrunken quite significantly since the last time IT saw it, his belly has become almost hollow, his ribs were painfully stretching out his skin, his fur has started to turn thin, IT could smell the stench of hunger and sickness emanating around the young wolf. Pretty soon this wolf would die if left unfed and alone any longer. The young wolf''s life was in IT''s paws. Dying from starvation is extremely painful, IT thoughts. If IT kills the wolf now the young wolf won''t suffer as much he would starving slowly, IT would be doing him a favor. IT inches even closer towards the young one''s neck. IT curls his mouth revealing his sharp killer teeth. The young wolf whimpers. IT growls in response and the young wolf ceases to make a sound. Teeth are now millimeters away from spilling fresh blood. But all IT did was breathe in through his nose and out of his mouth. IT moves away and turns around. IT has taken pity and let the wolf live. Little did IT know that letting the wolf live means that some problems would arise, namely because he did something only an alpha can do, his actions were akin to accepting an outside wolf to become a member of the pack. The second problem is that IT and his choice has made it easy for the other two young stragglers to do almost the same as the young wolf did and in their own way they more or less showed extreme submissiveness to IT. ----------------------- Info Section {Hello, This is the author speaking. It has been almost a month since I posted the last chapter. I would like to apologize since I''ve been to caught up with properly forming and making an event with the scribble group and also making something for the valentines event. Also I would like to apologize for making a short chapter. I was planning on lengthening it but it has already been a month so I posted right away in order for me to reinvigorate myself to write weekly again.} {If you would like to know what I''ve been doing with the past month here''s the link to the scribble group and also my contributions to the valentine event. Don''t look at my short story though I overreached with the plot and it resulted in a half baked story, I will edit it at a later date. Instead look at my drawings and poems. :)} {Also For this lower half of the chapter I wanted to fast forward a bit, The winter wolf arc is beginning to get a little tiring for me to write. so I will begin accelerating the pace from now on if you guys want me to slow it down just tell me. By the way, I''ve just received information that this site is dual colored and I might have annoyed half the viewers with the color font. Should I try and fix it?} { Last Note For This Chapter: if there''s any grammar, criticism, mistakes or any other confusing stuff in the story let me know in the comment section below and I will answer it there in the comment section or on the next Chapter of the info section and do the fixes on the current chapter.I''m kinda blind to seeing any horrible sentences that need some rephrasing or any other info that I might be confusing, so I''m looking for any help I can get. } Chapter 13: Hierarchy, familiarization, last days of winter and the beginning of spr Chapter 13: Hierarchy, familiarization, last days of winter and the beginning of spring Hierarchy Both wolves stare at each other, not backing down and at the same time unsure whether they should proceed with it or not. On one side we have a mean looking wolf, he has grey rough patchy fur, if one were to look at him one would notice that he went through a brutal fight, half his left ear was missing, something is a little off with his eyes, his right eyelid seems to droop a little more than it should, his right eye were a little murky and clouded and this gave the wolf a very uncanny appearance which amplifies the intimidation of his glare, but the wolf''s right eye can still see well but not as well as before. But it did little to decrease the grey wolf''s battle prowess, one could see that this wolf is older than the one that is challenging him. The challenger, on the other hand, is another gray wolf but younger looking. Though young and still growing the challenger is a lot bigger than the old grey wolf, if one were to remove the scars and the size they would look completely identical. The challenger due to any lack of scars had a sleeker and more orderly grey fur and this wolf is IT. IT in just 6 months of being a wolf has challenged the alpha for his position. This was unheard of in a normal wolf''s behavior but IT is not a normal wolf. There is a reason why they have to fight, the main reason would be the large risk of the pack splintering and splitting. The new pack member¡¯s recognizes IT as the alpha male while the rest identifies the grey wolf as the alpha. They could, of course, separate but a problem would occur from doing so. They would have to fight on who would have the Territory, they could solve this by splitting the territory in half but the same old problem will rise again, who gets the bountiful territory and who gets the one with the place with no game? At some point, the holder of the less bountiful territory would have to invade the other, turning it into a more brutal clash. So they had no choice. They start circling each other, no one has yet uttered a single growl or bark. They were just silently circling each other while the other wolves watch. They went in circles for a while and little by little they started making assertive actions. Trying to display their dominance to one another, they began circling a little faster, bold movements, like leaping close as if to pounce and then backing away immediately after, at first glance they look like they were playing, but then both wolves began getting agitated at one another. Small short growls were now being voiced, then growling turns into aggressive barks. It starts escalating and the forest were filled with aggressive barks and growls, even the watching pack members started howling and barking. It is turning into a ritual combat, it''s what wolves do when there is dispute inside the pack, whoever is the most dominating wins, whether it''d be fighting for food or climbing the pack hierarchy the most dominant one will have his way. But strangely enough, before the aggression rose any further, the grey wolf suddenly recedes and steps back, the whole pack becomes silent and IT tilts his head, did he just win? his thoughts were swirling in confusion, to him it did not seem like he won, the fight hadn''t even began. The grey wolf turns away and heads towards the mother wolf''s direction. The grey wolf nuzzles the mother wolf''s nose and then he glares at IT. The message was clear ''You can have the alpha status but she is mine.'' that was the message the grey wolf portrays and without further adieu IT complies. familiarization, last days of winter and the beginning of spring There were 3 new member¡¯s in the pack, one would notice a difference between the new members and the original younger members. Although IT and the two wolf siblings were around the same age group with the new members one would notice the smaller size of the new pack members, the reason for that would be malnutrition. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. The first wolf IT began familiarizing with was the young muddy colored wolf, he was male and is a little larger than the rest of the new pack members, the second wolf he got to know were a pure white snow colored female, she was smaller than everyone in the pack, she was the second wolf to submit to IT after the muddy wolf. The last wolf IT got used to is the brown colored female wolf, she was a feistiest of the three of them. During the time when the two wolves have just submitted, the feisty wolf in her insane hunger charges and attacks IT, she was already so weak from starvation IT didn¡¯t even took a dent at any of her attacks, since she is also extremely light IT were easily able to push her, back first into the snow. She gave an aggressive thrashing while IT pinned her to the ground, she started growling and snarling trying to take a bite out of her oppressor. IT gave her none of it and bit her hard near her neck, she yelps and began whimpering constantly, she continued to thrash but the more she did so the tighter IT clenched his jaw, she contorts uncontrollably from the pain and her contortions led to even more suffering. In the end, she gave up due to lack of strength and submitted but, not completely, even now she shows her pacified defiance at IT. Although her full body language screams submission her lips were always curled whenever IT passes, it is a sign of resistance. Weeks pass and slowly but surely the new members began familiarizing with the older members, at first, hunting along with the new members were problematic, they were extremely inexperienced mostly due to living in a bountiful area, another factor to add is that they were also young and wasn''t taught enough by their former deceased alphas. Time begins solving the problem, the more they hunted together the more they began familiarizing themselves with one another, they learned quickly along with IT and the two young original members who also continued learning from the older members. It paid off and they were finally able to catch deer. Days got easier and all the young members were growing even more. Days got a lot less cold, IT relishes at the rising temperature. As the snow melts, the ground was exposed, plants start sprouting and leaves began growing. The promise of life starts rousing small animals and birds from their sleep. But close to the packs new territory, the remains of an old wolf''s corpse was released from the grasp of the snow. Near the vicinity of the corpse lies a cave. Inside a beast roars as he awakens from his long slumber. ------------------- Info Section {Killashard mentioned a reduction of quality, if it wasn''t for his mentioning it I wouldn''t have noticed it. I would like to thank him for reading and keeping a close watch on my writing. This made me also notice that the moment I sped up the plot the quality took a blow. I would still try speed up the plot but I would also keep in mind the quality from now on. So I apologize for this, but the wolf arc would would still continue for a little bit more.} { Last Note For This Chapter: if there''s any grammar, criticism, mistakes or any other confusing stuff in the story let me know in the comment section below and I will answer it there in the comment section or on the next Chapter of the info section and do the fixes on the current chapter.I''m kinda blind to seeing any horrible sentences that need some rephrasing or any other info that I might be confusing, so I''m looking for any help I can get. } Chapter 14: New arrivals and Signs of trouble The blessings of spring have made the forest thrive, along with the animals residing within. Trees are growing leaves, birds are singing on perched on top of branches while picking off any caterpillars within their reach. Traces of snow has long been melted and turned into water to further nourish the ever-growing plants and a lot of herbivores along with their offspring which were born right before spring were now wandering around forest, foraging on those plants. The river has thawed and is now flowing freely again and the forest is once again teeming with life. Within that forest a mother wolf aggressively kicks out all of her pack members out of the den. The pack members began scrambling quickly, not one wolf wanted to fight and the pack members immediately left the den. It was a very strange action for the mother wolf but there was a reason, the pack has new members coming and the mother wolf needed some space and so she kicked out all the members. Since the den was off limits for the moment the IT and his pack minus the mother wolf, moves to a small clearing near the den beside the river. Since the river is now flowing freely again and teeming with fish, there was a constant flow of food. Food isn''t a problem anymore. But still IT and his pack frequently circles around the territory, mainly due to IT wanting to look for different kinds of creatures to hunt and eat. There were a lot of different varieties of animals the pack hunted down, killed and ate, but most of them were either herbivores or something significantly weaker than that of wolves. There were beavers, moles and squirrels. Sometimes they caught some wild cats and foxes. The were a lot more varieties that IT ate like insects that normal wolves don''t even touch, overall IT and his pack were thriving. But during one of the hunts, IT and the pack discovers a dead mutilated boar around the bountiful territory,its belly was wide open and its guts were strewn around the opening, most of it''s backside and hind quarters were ripped off and eaten. This sight was normal for IT and his pack after every hunt but the problem is, is that the pack weren''t the one that hunted it, another predator was lurking around. The boar was old and weak, that might be one of the reasons why it got killed, the predator is opportunistic. there were also claw marks around the trees surrounding the dead boar and the claw marks were deep, a large animal must have done this. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. IT sniffs around and catches a scent, it was the stuffy scent of a beast and it was alone. The scent also wasn''t that of the wolves, it was that of a different animal, the scent was that of an predator that IT hasn''t come across yet, the grey wolf also catches the scent but he too wasn''t familiar with the beast. Curiosity takes over and IT, the gray wolf and the pack follows the scent. they followed the scent and leads to the river, the beast must''ve crossed the river to go to the other side. IT crosses the shallow river and tries to find the scent again, IT isn''t able to do it as the river washed off the scent of the beast once it crossed the river. The beast was either smart or just lucky, it either knew that it hunted on marked territory or just passed throughout the river by chance. The beast left a paw print on the other side of the river thought. IT takes a look at it and compared the print with his paw. It was large, three times larger than his paw and four times wider. The beast is huge. IT searches around the area for more signs of the beast but nothing other than animal droppings were found, that confirms it, the beast is smart. Having no further clues IT and the pack stops the search and goes back to the clearing near the den. However as they came back to the clearing, tiny cries and squeaks were heard inside the den. The pups have just been born. ------------ Info Section {Last Note For This Chapter: if there''s any grammar, criticism, mistakes or any other confusing stuff in the story let me know in the comment section below and I will answer it there in the comment section or on the next Chapter of the info section and do the fixes on the current chapter.I''m kinda blind to seeing any horrible sentences that need some rephrasing or any other info that I might be confusing, so I''m looking for any help I can get.} Chapter 15: sparrow and eagles Chapter 15: sparrow and eagles After the pups were born the mother wolf refused to let anyone but her daughter, one of the siblings to enter the den. Curious IT began trying to enter in but would almost always get chased out, IT got a glimpse and there were eight pups in the litter squirming around. Days pass and the number of squirming pups seems to dwindle. One by one they start dying. from eight pups to seven, from seven to six. Every time a pup dies, the mother wolf brings the body out of the den digs a shallow hole and buries it in. At first IT thought that it was due to hunger, IT and his pack started to hunt even more and brought the surplus of the meat to the entrance of the den. But still another one of the pups died. Something was wrong, and IT wanted to find out, to get a closer look IT waits for night to come, he then transforms into a mouse and goes inside. Inside the den the mother wolf seems to be chewing on one of the pups, the pup she seems to be chewing on were screeching from pain. Curiously IT quietly inched closer. When it came close, IT noticed that the mother wolf was actually trying to remove some blood sucking ticks that were clinging on one of the pups neck. The process seems to be painful for the pups, hence the yelping noises. there were a lot ticks and it wasn''t just on the pup¡¯s neck; The whole den was infested of them. No matter how many times the mother wolf tries to remove the ticks, more ticks crawl in from the dried forage inside and latch on to the pups. The ticks were carrying some kind of disease and it was slowly killing the pups. IT found the problem and it was the ticks, the mother wolf cleaned off most of the ticks clinging to the pups bodies and she goes back to sleep. As soon as the wolf fell asleep, IT Transforms from a mouse into a sparrow. Immediately, IT began picking off all the ticks within reach while being stealthy enough to be undetected by the mother wolf. IT made quick work and most of the ticks were picked off, all except those clinging onto the pups skin and the mother wolf¡¯s fur, the ticks somehow latched on back to the pups while IT was picking off the area. IT began meticulously removing the ticks off of the pups, IT was careful on only picking off the ticks on the pups whose mouth were busy suckling on their mother¡¯s teat. Every time a pup lets go off a teat, IT would stop picking on the pup and move on to the next. While IT was eating the ticks off of the pups, He was also being latched on and fed on by ticks. As IT picks off a tick on one of the pups inner ear a small part of the pups skin peeled off, the pup let¡¯s go of a teat and yelps. The mother wolf who was sleeping on her side starts to rise her head, IT immediately turns into an insignificant cockroach and lies still. The presence of ticks under the midsection of IT became more intrusive and painful, the hole some ticks punctured on his skin widened as he turned into a cockroach, it was excruciating for IT. Still IT did not move. After a while The pup stops squeaking and the wolf went back to sleep. IT reshapes back into a bird. The moment IT grew back in size, the hole the ticks made grew large as well, Some of the ticks begrudgingly crawls into the enlarged hole, much to the dismay of IT. IT began stabbing at them with his beak in panic. Alarmed and panicking IT pecks away at the hole while chirping maniacally. Finally IT manages to peck the ticks out of his body and gobbles them down, at ease that the ticks were in the proper inside of his body IT looks back to the place where the mother wolf and the pups are. Instead of the image of a slumbering wolf and her pups, a huge gaping mouth with rows of teeth between meets his gaze. Terror struck IT as the mouth start clenching with him inside, before the mother wolf''s jaw shut¡¯s tight completely, IT turns into a grasshopper at the same time jumping into the cracks between her teeth, Not even touching the ground IT transforms into a sparrow and flies away. IT flew as fast as he could away from the den, the state of mind he was in was that of a bird that was almost preyed upon. As he flew far away the fear in him starts to subside. He starts slowing down as he got back to his senses. IT starts to make sense of his surroundings, he was high up in the air, the cool morning breeze could be felt over his beak and under his wings, it somehow calmed him a bit. It was already dawn and the sun rising up from the horizon. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. The feeling of flying was calming him more and more. IT circles around the wolf territory just to prolong the feeling further, the sense of safety. As IT was about ready to descend, Two birds simultaneously erupts out of the forest from the distance, the birds soars high, higher than IT¡¯s altitude, IT did not mind them until they began to fly towards his direction. Both birds were exceptionally larger, the smaller one of them was four times the size of IT and their sharp talons were large enough to hold IT securely within their grasps. Fear grabs hold of IT as the instincts of his current form were still clouding his mind and his judgement. IT¡¯s instinct forces him to turn around and evade. The birds follows with incredible speed up one from above and another from below, it was evident that the birds that were chasing IT were faster. The bird from above takes a nosedive directly towards IT. Talons jut out as the bird attempts a grab. Talons puncture flesh and hollow bone snaps as IT get¡¯s caught in between the sharp claws. Desperate, IT turns into a snake and takes a bite at the leg that was grasping him. The larger eagle shrieks and let¡¯s go. IT speedily shifts back into a sparrow and tries to fly but due to the previous damage, some of his bones were misplaced and jutting out off strange places, IT was able to stay in midair but it was evident that his movement got slower, his right wing was also bent slightly out of place with a small bone sticking out of place, the eagle turns around ready to make another attempt to strike from the front but he too also seems to have slowed down, the venom might kill him in a while. IT notices in the corner of his eye, the other eagle tried to sneak an attack from behind, IT manages to avoid death by flapping his right wing vigorously away from the sneak attack. A coordinated attack came from the left by the injured eagle. Since the eagle was too slow IT easily evades by folding his right wing, The injured eagles claws misses by the thickness of a feather. The folded wing causes IT¡¯s body to twist and veering off to the left while dropping in altitude. IT retracts his right wing and hovers in mid-air, the venom finally did the injured eagle in as he awkwardly flap in the air while losing altitude then dropping on the ground like a bomb. The clash was still on as the other eagle manoeuvres itself towards IT in another attempt to attack and kill, the eagle goes for another dive, claws out. IT flaps his wings to try to escape the eagles path but the eagle was too fast to evade and the momentum of the hit made hollow bones bend. IT tries to stay in the air but the injured right wing finally gives in and excruciatingly bends the wrong way. IT starts falling straight down into the ground, and lands hard, while the eagle merely spreads its wings to stop itself from falling. The eagle circles around triumphantly, the eagle watches as its prey tries to stand. Not wanting to wait any longer, the eagle begins a final dive in order to kill and take home the prize. They prey gazes at her as if defiant to the obvious conclusion to this conflict.The moment the was a few feet away from her target, something was off, but she was already committed to make the killing blow. Out of nowhere her prey immediately grew in size and shape, before she knew it her talons pierce fur instead of feathers¡¯ and her head was clenched inside the fangs of a beast. Info Section {Last Note For This Chapter: if there''s any grammar, criticism, mistakes or any other confusing stuff in the story let me know in the comment section below and I will answer it there in the comment section or on the next Chapter of the info section and do the fixes on the current chapter.I''m kinda blind to seeing any horrible sentences that need some rephrasing or any other info that I might be confusing, so I''m looking for any help I can get.} Chapter 16: eaglets and cubs Chapter 16: eaglets and cubs IT grit his teeth tight as the eagle struggled to escape his jaws. The eagle clawed and clawed at trying her hardest to make the prey turned wolf let go of her head. IT vigorously shakes the eagle around as if trying to remove the eagle''s head from her neck. Something snaps and the eagle stops moving. IT devours the eagle, along with her feather¡¯s. IT turns into an eagle and flies high into the sky, going to the direction where the eagles originated from. Five young eaglets await both their parents. They watched as their parents hunted down a small sparrow the same size as the small eaglet¡¯s. With their sharp developing eyes, they say their father catching the sparrow but quickly let it go as soon as it turned into something and bit. They watched as the hunt went on, their father got weaker and weaker. They saw him fell and was out of their field of vision. Their mother went out of view as well. Time passes and the 5 eaglets chirp worriedly. The sun was already at the top of its peak and their parents haven¡¯t returned yet. They were feeling defenseless, at the same time hungry. They searched for the sky for any signs of their parents. They saw a bird flying towards them, it was the familiar figure of their mother. They chirped delightfully at the sight of her. As worry ebbed away, hunger became prevalent on the five eaglets¡¯ stomach. She lands on the branch the nest was sitting on, the eaglets chirped in delight. They looked at her talons and disappointment pervaded them as the saw that they were empty, the sparrow escaped. The five eaglets¡¯ looks back into their mother''s eyes and chirped, they were hungry and they need her to feed them. Strangely enough, their mother just stared at them, usually she would respond right away but she just continued to gaze at them. The five eaglets continued to chirp demandingly, they chirped louder and louder. Their mother takes a small halfhearted step towards them. The five eaglets kept on chirping while looking at her, she¡¯s supposed to fly away from the nest to get food, instead she took another small step towards them. Two of the eaglets seem to notice something and they went quiet, the rest of their siblings kept on chirping madly for food. Their mother took another step, now the rest seemed to catch on as they stopped chirping. Something was off, their mother hesitatingly took a stepped towards them. Their mother was now looming above them. The five eaglets¡¯ met their mother¡¯s gaze, she continued gazing at them . Her eyes had a confused look. One of the eaglets¡¯ Chirps in uncertainty as their mother¡¯s face transforms into a huge gaping mouth and devoured one of their siblings, the confusion in their mother¡¯s now fox like eyes vanished as IT continued to consume another. Cubs After consuming the remains of the fallen male eagle, IT kept thinking about what happened moments ago when he was still perched near the nest. Conflicting thoughts and emotions swirled chaotically inside him while he gazed at the eaglets during the time he was in their mother¡¯s form. Different instincts push and pulled at each other as they battled to move the will of IT. Two equal conflicts clashed within, the desire to devour was strong but so was the maternal instincts of IT¡¯s current form, but the dim awareness inside of IT played a major role on his next next decision, pondering and thinking, his somewhat fragmented thoughts concluded that part of his instincts, the desire to protect those eaglets were irrational, those eaglets were not his own children. More thoughts held on to his mind as the struggle within himself continued, it wasn¡¯t that easy to ignore an instinct, thus he continued suppressing this instinct through logic. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. IT thought of just abandoning them, their obvious fate was death from starvation if he left them to their faith as orphaned hatchlings, his irrational desire of parenting grew stronger at that thought. IT pondered still, If IT stays and irrationally acts as their mother, they will only be a burden. But every time the thought of abandoning the children passed through IT¡¯s thought¡¯s strong instinct kept holding him back. There was only one course of action, remove the source of the maternal instinct. The the moment he changed into a fox, The predatorial instinct within himself overwhelmed and flooded the other. he killed them quickly and devoured them whole. The moment he suppressed a part of his numerous instincts, a new point of awareness clicked inside of him, he became more aware of his own being. Thus his ability to control himself and his form¡¯s developed. IT could now improve a form by will, as long as he had enough DNA sample for the change. The more he eats the same type of creature, the stronger that type of form gets.. IT transformed himself into the male eagle, his wingspan was longer than the original, his beak was sharper, talons were longer, eyes clearer. Overall he was better in every trait the original male eagle had in every possible way. IT spread his long wings and flew up in the air, everything felt better, everything is better. IT relished the feeling of his lungs absorbing oxygen more efficiently as he flew around in a relaxed manner. There was no danger around and he did not need to be alert, he was currently the apex predator, a ruler of the skies and he knew it. IT flew around for hours, just relishing his new enlightenment and form. He roamed around the wolf territory and spotted something unusual with his sharp eyes. What he saw was a large animal that he had not seen before. He soared low to take a close look, the beast was large and bulky, it¡¯s robust size greatly dwarfed an average gray wolves size and what more, the large beast wasn¡¯t alone. IT landed on a nearby tree and continued to observe. Trailing behind the large beast were two others, they were comparably small and were almost the same size of average wolves, it was obvious that they were the large beast¡¯s offsprings. They left prints that were the same as the one IT followed near the river, they were the intruders that tresspassed in the packs territory. As IT continued observing their behavior, he noticed that at times, the little beasts trailing behind their parent would sometimes get distracted over something like a butterfly or a branch that was scented by wolves. This clearly showed that they were young and still learning the ways of the world, they were large but their actions showed a different tale. They were children and from experience, IT knew that younger animals were easier to prey upon. --------- Info Section {this chapter, i''ve more or less fulfilled the requirements to put in the gender bender tag XD } {Last Note For This Chapter: if there''s any grammar, criticism, mistakes or any other confusing stuff in the story let me know in the comment section below and I will answer it there in the comment section or on the next Chapter of the info section and do the fixes on the current chapter.I''m kinda blind to seeing any horrible sentences that need some rephrasing or any other info that I might be confusing, so I''m looking for any help I can get.} Chapter 17: The scent of blood Chapter 17: The scent of blood She travelled from the river to look for food and was now coming back to her home. The river was very bountiful and had a lot of fish. Some animals occasionally traveled to the river for water. Whenever such opportunities arise she hunts them immediately. Their unquenched thirst usually helped hunt and take them down easier. There wasn¡¯t any thirsty animals this time, but she caught a lot of fish and that was enough. She trudged on, back towards the cave she and her younglings dwelled in. She kept watch over the two younglings following her, as they played with the surroundings. It was understandable since this was the first time they travelled outside of the cave. She gave birth to them around the middle of winter, reared them and kept them away from the harsh cold, she has been caring for them since then. She continued travelling and passed over the trunk of a tree that was marked by wolves. Her neighboring competitors were getting ambitious again, continuously expanding their territory.. Nevertheless they would most likely again clash with her in the future and she will most obviously beat them back. She took a quick glance back towards her younglings and saw them sniffing on the marked trunk. It¡¯s good that younglings noticed the mark, they need to remember that scent for the future, those marks are signs of trouble. She moves on. A couple of steps away and she detected the scent of a wolf. It was fresh she sniffed around and realized that the wolf traveled alone. She took a quick glance back again and her cubs were in the distance. She saw them but they were uncomfortably too far away from her. They must have found something interesting. As she was about to turn around to go back to them, she heard sounds of rustling leaves She swiveled back and her eyes met a trudging gray wolf. It had a horrible limp, fresh blood trickled down its fur. By the looks of it, this wolf had enough desperation to venture this deep in her area alone. Unluckiness has brought this wolf to this place. The sight of the wounded limping animal caused her instinct and bloodlust to elevate. She gave chase, it would be over quick. One heavy pounce and it would all be finished. A lone wolf wouldn¡¯t even stand a chance against her, a heavily wounded wolf would be a free meal. Charging straight towards the wounded wolf caused it to become aware of her presence and it limped faster, distress was clearly evident on the wolf¡¯s body posture. Its tail was tucked and ears down. She was about to reach the limping animal but it jumped away in a burst of effort and continued limping away, she sneered and pressed on. Whenever she get close enough, the wolf seemed to have enough strength to get away and avoid her pounce. Anger swelled within her, it was as if the wolf had completely lost its pains and ailments. The wolf ran faster and it wasn¡¯t even limping anymore. She still followed on, it¡¯s yelping encouraged her, she ran at the wolf at her fastest speed. Along the way the she lost sight of the wolf but still smelled its scent, birds flew away as she zoomed passed trees. She reached a clearing and stopped. She sniffed around and strangely the scent of the wolf was gone, it vanished. She looked around and realized where she was. In the middle of the clearing was a small hill and a cave. The evident remains of a long passed corpse situated itself near the entrance of her home, the scent of the lone wolf ended there. She sniffed at the old wolf corpse, she left it there as a reminder to her and the wolves. She always felt secure whenever she came home but this time felt different. Dread thundered through her, she bellowed and spun back. The sun was about to set, she has unknowingly travelled quite the distance and her younglings were dangerously far away from her. Fear and panic pervaded her thoughts as she raced back towards where she last saw her cubs. Trees and bush zipped by and a short eternity later of panicked running, she was at the exact same spot she was before, where she left her children. She took a long breath and caught a whiff on where her cubs travelled. She followed the scent, passing by an abnormal amount of scents of different animals, wolves, hogs, foxes, bats, snakes- it made it hard for her to keep the track she followed. Tiny body parts like claws, tails, feathers, skins and limbs littered the ground. Ignoring the strangeness, she pushed on. Soft crunching invaded her ears and the scent of blood reached her nose, her fur stood up. She took cautious steps and turned to the other side of a tree. The scent of exposed flesh wafted through the air and she was greeted by the sight of a wild boar covered in blood feasting upon two small brutalized corpses. She sniffed around for the scent of her cubs but the thick bloody scent of the boars¡¯ kill melded itself with her cubs scent. She inhaled deeply, her cubs scent was at its strongest when she pointed her head at the corpses. She exhaled and breathed in even deeper, both scents have melded with each other, it melded so well that it was as if the scent and her cubs scent were one. She could not believe that it was so. Her pleading eyes stared upon the boars¡¯ meal. The corpse¡¯s were almost reduced to nothing but torn skin and mangled bones. The smell along with scent of her cubs have become unbearable, their scent both came from the mangled corpses. She ventilated, her breathe short. Pain laced through her body as she watched the boar tore through the last pieces of meat her children carried. Her breath came in wheezing gasps as she barrelled towards the feasting boar. How could this have happened? They were her cubs! Guilt and disgust, anger and fury ravaged through her mind, all converging on one goal. Death and destruction. She wanted blood. This despicable thing would suffer. She was going to kill it.. Tear it limb from limb until nothing would be left of it. Her little children. Why did this had to happen to them?¡¯ The boar became aware of her barreling presence, it did not run nor flinch, it turned its head toward her, suicidally met her head first and ran towards her, blaring its tusks. The distance between them shrank quickly.. Defiance was evident on the impetuous boar, it wasn¡¯t going to run. Raising her right paw and using her whole weight, she pounced. It slammed straight down into the boar, the boar answered with a challenge, by raising its tusks upward. Meat and bones impacted as heavy paw met sharp tusk.The force of the blow caused the boar¡¯s tusk to bore through, but she did not care the least, her younglings were gone and someone had to pay, she held stronger. The boar¡¯s head and body slams into the ground. It was evident that Immense pain flared upon the boar. She bellowed and opened her large mouth. The boar reacted wildly at her movement, it pulled hard and its jammed tusk snapped off leaving it stuck on the bear. Once free from her grasp, Its body strangely shrunk. The boar ran under and away from her sight. Prickling sensation flurried underneath her belly as the boar wove through, she looked down under and porcupine needles littered her belly. Stinging pain came as fangs bit her from behind, she moved her head around to see that, from out of nowhere a large snake had bitten her. She watched as the snake grew in size and changed its shape into that of a wolf. Pain flourished as the bite enlarged and caused the wound it caused to expand. She thrashed around causing the wolf behind her to get yanked over. The wolf let''s go. Upon letting go, the wolf backs away and jumps, transforming into an eagle mid-air. It soared up and flew back down straight down towards her. The eagle then struck at her face. She roared and swatted at the eagle hitting nothing but air. The eagle flew upwards and dove down again, another attempt to strike. She bounded up just before the eagle clawed her, she snapped catching the eagle by its leg, she bites hard. The leg tears off and the eagle gets thrown off into the trunk of a tree. The eagle dazed, grew in size, losing its feathers and replacing them with fur. It had turned back into a wolf, strangely one of its legs was missing. She spat out the eagle leg and bound towards wolf. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Before the wolf could recover she was already upon him. She pounced the wolf and it slammed back again into the same tree, she moved in and pinned the wolf. The action caused the wolf¡¯s to sprawl over, exposing its side. she pounced the wolf with her paw. She hit in an animalistic frenzy. She kept on pouncing and then hitting, then finally biting at the pinned wolf. The wolf desperately tried to snap at her trying to get her to stop, but it was off no use. Her sheer size, weight and anger filled eyes pointed out that nothing could stop her. She bit the wolf on its exposed side and pulled hard. The wolf yelped in pain as she shook the wolf aggressively. The piece she bit tears off, she threw it away and took a larger bite. She yanked upwards and the wolf lifts off the ground. The wolfs flesh could not take the weight as it gives in and rips itself off, the wolf falls and plops back on the ground. Chunk of its flesh left between her lips. She loosened her grip and the soft sticky meat splats on the ground. She edged closer to the wolf and bit again. It was on the wolf''s belly this time, she swung her neck from right to left repeatedly, causing the wolf to get dragged around the floor like a ragdoll. As the wolf stomach rends, organs are exposed, she kept mutilating the wolf. Another loose piece dislodges from the wolf''s open belly as she butchered the wolf''s mangled form. The wolf¡¯s broken cries echoed out as she ripped the wolf piece by piece. The wolf uselessly kicked at her but it only made her target the wolf¡¯s legs. She bit hard and yanked. A violent sound crunching bones echoed around the forest, the wolf howled in pain as its leg separate from its body. Still the wolf kicked with the other leg, she bit the wolf¡¯s paw in response. She bit and pulled until the last of the wolfs appendages were either ripped off or until they became useless stumps of meat. Breathing hard she stopped and gazed at the sight of the brutalized wolf. It was panting hard, its legs were either missing or mangled beyond recognition. Since it was legless, It couldn¡¯t run and it couldn¡¯t properly fight back now either. She took a heavy step on the wolf¡¯s wounded belly, her claws sunk in inside the wolf¡¯s open stomach piercing the wolf¡¯s delicate organs. The wolf yelped in pain but it wasn¡¯t over. The bear pushed in further inside, adding more weight in. The wolf screamed and twitched to its unbearable suffering. It desperately tried to push out the paw but all the wolf was able to do was uselessly slap the mangled stump of its leg at her, staining her intestine coloured fur even further. She inched her face closer towards the wolf¡¯s neck. Her weight going into the paw that she placed on the wolf''s stomach. The wolf erratically flailed, what''s left of its legs slowly retracted back into its body as its form shrank in width and elongated. Her paw felt pressure as the body shrank and elongated. The now bulging snake-like figure thrashed its head around as the mid-section of its body explodes from the the bears paw size. It¡¯s mouth agaped in pain as it continued thrashing. It was time to end it. She took another step on the creature¡¯s body holding it firmly in place, the creature did not take a liking to her action as it immediately struck and bit her leg. She grunted as she moved in for the creature¡¯s neck. As she struck the snakelike creature moved its head instantly away from the bitten leg and unto her face, biting her eye. She jerked her head back and it did not let go. Since her feet was still planted on the upper half of the snake¡¯s body and due to the snakes persistent hold, her eye tears off slightly out of its socket. Blinded she stood back, her sight swirled. Everything was foggy as her two unaligned eyes blurred out of focus. Her damaged eye was numb from venom. She blinked and blinked, but part of her ripped eyelid bled furiously, which made her eyesight worse. She tried to focus with her other eye but everything was still too blurry. Her mind could not register what her damaged eye was seeing, affecting her whole vision entirely. Furious she scratched and pulled at it, more blood came out. She did not feel any pain when a piece of her damaged eye teared off, plopping uselessly on the ground. She blinked again and everything was a little less blurry. It was already evening and the dim light, coupled with her single working eye has made it more difficult to see. Nevertheless she wanted to kill that loathsome creature. She surveyed the spot she was before, a silhouette of a snake still wriggled on the ground. She paced towards it and and stomped with her uninjured paw. It strained at her weight. She ground her paw to ensure the snake underneath her was completely squashed. Once done she took back away from the flattened figure. She looked at it with her good eye only to realize that the snake she was stomping on was smaller in length and it doesn¡¯t have a head. She had been attacking the severed lower half of the snake and nothing else. Even without the upper half of the snake, its lower half was still moving, even if it moved sluggishly. She looked around and saw movement within the the bodies of her younglings. She walked over. A bloody cub sat in between them. It whined at the sight of her, she gazed over the cub. It had a strange wounded look, Part of the cubs backside seemed to have been ripped, the edges of the ripped back rippled and expanded softly outwards slowly filling what was missing, fur flesh and bone. It¡¯s torn stumpy legs bubbled strangely, slowly growing out paws. She walked closer, her eyes not leaving the healing cub. Her nose touched the cubs ears. It had the same smell as her cubs. The same face, the same fur pattern. It had the the strange mix of her younglings, but clearly this was one of her own. Emotions welled within her. She let out a soft comforting sound. She savored the scent of her living cub. But the shallow sense of relief that flooded her for the briefest moment was but an illusion, it shattered the moment she detected the bloody scent of the wolf and the snake. The cubs appearance the first time she it only made it worse. She shook as rage filled her. How dare this creature! It tried to fool her under the loving guise of her cubs. She snarled in anger, the creature with its limbs regrown jumped back in fear and surprise. It whimpered and made itself appear vulnerable, it still persisted on trying to appease. It almost worked, her instincts screamed at her to stop causing her to hesitate briefly. It felt genuine fear its posture and scent reeked of it. She gazed straight into the cowering cub trying to asses what her next move will be, aggression or comfort. Their eyes met for a moment and that¡¯s when she knew, this wasn¡¯t a young cub, fearful yes but it wasn¡¯t a cub. She attacked, aiming towards the cubs head. The creature, having stalled and gained enough strength and energy shrunk in size making her miss. It flew immediately after. She watched as the eagle shrunk in size. She followed it but soon after it was gone from her view. She slowed down her anger, seething. She looked down, dispirited. She sniffed and caught a tiny whiff of blood, her younglings blood still stained the air. She looked up immediately and continued sniffing the air, the creature have unintentionally left a trail of scent. Huffing, she followed the bloody scent. Info Section {Been a while} {Last Note For This Chapter: if there''s any grammar, criticism, mistakes or any other confusing stuff in the story let me know in the comment section below and I will answer it there in the comment section or on the next Chapter of the info section and do the fixes on the current chapter.I''m kinda blind to seeing any horrible sentences that need some rephrasing or any other info that I might be confusing, so I''m looking for any help I can get.} Chapter 18: Unrecognized Chapter 18: Unrecognized Flying past shadows,branches and tall trees, dread and fear was evident on IT. He had just escaped from a life threatening situation. IT got too greedy, not having been satisfied with the two cubs; dared to face off with their adult counterpart, their mother. Thinking about the mother bear caused IT to fly even faster. The weakness and pain of losing too many limbs during the fight have made IT haggard but he still sped on, the strange fear of being followed by the bear was the only thing the kept IT from taking a break and resting. Not paying enough attention, IT slams into a branch, the force caused IT to fall to the ground. It had gotten really dark, even if IT had sharp eagle eyes, it was of no use at night. Fearful at the same time disoriented, IT transforms into a bat. It took a lot more effort to shift into a different form but he managed it and flew on. IT had reached the edge of his pack¡¯s territory, tired it flops to the ground and slowly turn into a thin and haggard wolf. Tired but strangely very awake IT howled, his voice loud but wavering slightly. It had only been have a day since he left the territory and how in bad state had IT become. His howls were answered and two pairs of glowing eyes came into view from the darkness ahead. Two familiar wolves slowly came into view, the grey wolf and the aggressive brown coated female. IT relieved at seeing his pack mates called for help. But the moment they spotted IT they bared their teeth and growled. IT stared at his two packmates in bewilderment, their aggressive response made IT stand up immediately. The wolves circled around him, flanking him and forcing IT to watch from two sides. IT barks a question but the two wolves did not give him anything but Snarls and aggressive responses. Something was wrong with the situation, It was as if IT was an enemy to them. IT barked again, specifically at the grey wolf, the grey wolf just eyed IT with contempt, IT hears movement and fallen leaves shuffling from behind, IT turns around and backs off quickly as jaws snap. The brown wolf had tried to attack it from behind, the brown wolf continued to rush, but IT snaps back forcing her to back away, the slightest hint of movement, from his side caused IT to snap his head towards the direction, IT darts away. The grey wolf had almost caught IT¡¯s neck while he was distracted but IT was fast, incredulously so. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. IT glared at the two wolves in front of him with seething rage his pack members tried to kill him by going for his neck. Their actions were too malicious, wolves wouldn¡¯t normally do this to their pack members only towards other wolves and trespassers. It bugged IT out, but another thing kept nagging, It was not normal to be able to evade the flawless sneak attack the grey wolf did to IT, IT was already battered to begin with and he was still able to dodge. IT¡¯s body as a wolf felt a little different too, almost every senses of IT¡¯s body felt more sensitive, his bones and body were unbearably aching even more so than usual. IT momentarily glanced back at his body before quickly returning his gaze at his two seemingly treacherous packmates. IT now understood their actions, his body had the flurry mix of colors from brown, grey, white and red a different fur pattern from his former grey coat. IT had realized that his form as a wolf had become vastly different. His bones were stronger, nerves more sensitive, sense of smell deeper, hearing and sight even sharper than before, his own scent too was completely different . Slowly, still looking at the two wolves IT shifted his form, his brown coat lost its color and greyed. IT altered his own scent as well and slowly it returned to it¡¯s former smell. IT watched as his packmates reaction turned from anger and aggression to straight out confusion. Unsure with ears half lowered in submission and uncertainty, the brown wolf approached. IT let her get closer, she looked at IT and began taking in his scent. Info Section {Last Note For This Chapter: if there''s any grammar, criticism, mistakes or any other confusing stuff in the story let me know in the comment section below and I will answer it there in the comment section or on the next Chapter of the info section and do the fixes on the current chapter.I''m kinda blind to seeing any horrible sentences that need some rephrasing or any other info that I might be confusing, so I''m looking for any help I can get.} Chapter 19: Revenge Chapter 19: Revenge IT studied his new reflection on the river edge, his face was thin and scruffy. His snout have gotten larger and the teeth inside them have grown as well. His face and grey fur was matted with dry blood, most of it wasn¡¯t his but some of the dry blood, especially around his belly was his. IT briskly rid himself some of the blood that clung to his fur with the help of the river. Once done IT shook himself dry and returned his gaze at his reflection. His body had a different form and posture, it was leaner, sharper and more elogate than his old wolf form, by gaining longer legs his form shifted and prioritized itself to running away from larger predators or to chase prey faster, in exchange IT had lost a lot of his bulk. No wonder his pack members didn¡¯t recognized him, coupled with the scent, color and body change, his his form suggested that he was almost a different wolf altogether. With IT¡¯s form thinned out and slightly altered, the rest of the pack members barely recognized him when he returned to the wolf the wolf den. The pangs of hunger claws on his stomach, this was a good opportunity to regain his lost bulk. IT stopped gazing at his reflection and returned his attention to the river. With a swipe of his paw, IT hits a large and bulky fish out of the water and unto the ground. Almost immediately IT began to work on his meal. The fish flopped violently but IT held it to the ground. After his meal, IT felt relief and nourishment wash over him, he regained some strenght but it still wasn¡¯t enough. IT hunts more fish. Slowly his starved hungry appearance gave a more healthy look. IT was was still too lean and he wanted to eat more but he was stuffed and it became extremely hard to spot anymore fish that had a decent size. IT left the river clean and full, he did not leave a single fish he caught untouched, he even ate the bones in between the meat. His return to the den had mixed results. While some of the members like the grey wolf and the brown female acknowledged him, other¡¯s either gave aggravated stances or just looked at him in confusion. Something was needed to be done. IT closed the distance between him and the brown female wolf. A few moments of acknowledgement and IT started licking off and removing dirt from her mane and fur she in turn bit . A few moments of licking and cleaning and the grey wolf joined in the grooming. Observing that IT was not a danger, one by one the rest of the wolves joined in. Soon enough all the wolves were grooming together, animosity lost between the wolves as IT¡¯s familiar habits and actions showed. After the grooming and familiarizing, IT played with the two siblings, playfully biting on the female and pretending to get pushed around by the male. The other three young wolves chased the grey wolf around pretending that he was prey, IT and the two siblings joined the game. Even the mother wolf peeked her head out of the den and watched the fun activity happening outside. The fun was abruptly interrupted as IT abruptly stopped and bark. The wind blew in a different direction and IT caught a scent. IT sniffed the air several times and shock washed over him. Seeing IT¡¯s sudden change of stance made The pack members take in the air as well, the mother wolf has retreated back to the den too. Everyone sniffed their surroundings, the grey wolf growled upon noticing the scent. Both IT and the grey wolf glared towards the direction the wind came. Moments later a familiar Bear lumbered towards them sniffing and taking in some scents. The bear had a haggard and injured look, one of its eye was missing and it was covered in blood, dirt and wounds. IT shook as panic and fear spreads to his core, the bear has followed him back to his den. The bear sniffed at a blood stained tree that IT passed over on when he was still dirty and covered in cub blood. Their eyes met and the tired look the bear had was replaced with fury. With renewed energy the bear barreled towards IT and his pack. IT was the first to react and his pack followed soot, avoiding the mad bears charge. She stopped abruptly as she noticed that she wasn¡¯t going to hit get at anyone. With a heavy puff she turned her body towards the nearest wolf and charged again, the young brown wolf just bounced away from her reach. A moment of breath and she was loosely encircled and surrounded by the pack. she roared and charged again only to be too slow to hit any of the pack members. The pack circled around to confuse her and kept a safe distance. Every time the bear moved to get at a wolf the circle moved accordingly and avoided her, keeping her at the center. The number and the current situation has caused IT to lose his momentary panic ultimately regaining his wit. With the pack in control of the situation IT observed the bear in the middle. Her breath was short and was puffing madly, On where her eye was supposed to be was filled with a red cake of blood mixed with yellow oozing secretions, her whole body swayed and her legs strained hard to keep her balance. A Wolf¡¯s grin appeared on IT¡¯s face as the lurched and almost lost balance. The bear has been weakened, venom and her injuries must¡¯ve done the trick, in half a days time she would be dead. All IT and the pack had to do was wait and avoid any altercations and the bear would be dead without any risk for the pack. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. The bear struggled to get to the edge of the encirclement of the pack but it was fruitless, the bear was just too slow. The few options it could do now was either to leave and die on its own terms or stand its ground and be eaten to pieces. It would have been very easy to just wait for the bears nearing death but suddenly, sounds of shifting whimpers and cries were heard and everyone including the bear stopped in their tracks. Everyone halted, stunned. Eerie sound of silence issued around them and the same whimpers and cries were once again heard. The bear was first to move as it sniffed the air around her and her nose pointed her way to the wolf den. Immediately as if regaining a burst of new energy the bear ran towards the den, two wolves jumped out of the way and the circle breaks. As She charged the mother wolf emerged out of the den as if sensing the danger. The bear halts just inches away from the mother wolfs face, she stood her ground. The bear eyed her down and the mother wolf glared back. The bear stuck down her paw pinning the mother wolf to the ground, the bear then bit her neck. The Mother wolf shrieked in pain as the bear lifted her up. IT did not know what to do, his legs shook in dread at the gruesome sight before him. The mother wolf squirmed under the bear¡¯s maw. Blood squirted out of her neck as she struggled in. It was a killing wound and everyone knew it. As IT watched the mother wolf¡¯s death throes IT thought. IT knew that a direct confrontation with the bear would mean at the least death to half the members, at the most, utter annihilation. He had experienced the futility and supreme power of the bear, IT did not want to experience near death the second time. The best option was to sacrifice the mother wolf and her pups and keep their distance until the bear dies. But before IT could even decide, the grey wolf took lead and immediately ran with towards the bear. As if a signal the whole packed charged in frenzied unison. IT barked at them to stop but it was of no use, his voice was drowned out by the barks, growls of the pack and the screams of the mother wolf. The pack was already committed. The bear met the charge with energy, swiping back the first wolf which was the grey wolf within her reach ,the rest of the wolves were able to seize opportunity to bite, claw and grab hold. As if unaffected by the bites and scratches, The bear with her grizzly paw, easily swiped off the pack. One by one the pack members get thrown off. The sheer size, weight and power of the bear overpowered the pack. But this did not deter the pack at all, whenever a pack member gets thrown off, they stand back up again and join back into the fray. Especially the grey wolf, he never missed a beat. Everytime he got hit, he kicks upright and attacks again. As if passing off his mad energy the pack fought with fervor. The rush felt within the pack was fierce, Every strike the bear inflicted felt like nothing to the wolves. The damage inflicted by the attack was there but the sense of pain was blocked. The rush did not last long. After the mother wolf stopped struggling and lay still, the bear immediately dropped the mother wolf and used her unoccupied jaw for a better use. Through reckless abandon and aggressive attacks came fatal consequences. The frenzied grey wolf after madly charging the nth time fell prey to the bears maw. A bite straight to the throat. The grey wolf uselessly snapped his jaw at the bear in hopes to get back a bite but his teeth could not even reach the bear due to bear¡¯s clenched bite. The grey wolf growled but not a single noise came from his mouth. Slammed to the ground the grey wolf was pinned. The bear ignored the bites and claws all around her as she pinned the grey wolf to the ground. With a hard yank, the bear tore off the throat she held on to with her teeth. She backed off for a bit the grey wolf¡¯s throat placed on her mouth. The grey wolf tried to stand, but the moment he was able to stand his feet gave way. He tried to do it again but his legs refused to move, he started to twitch, his lungs drowned from the blood the gushed out from his throat as he tried to breathe. The grey wolf could not even flail as the lights between his eyes went out. Like a flame extinguished the fervour of the pack died. Info Section {I apologize for the extremely late chapter, I was caught up because of steam sales, I just had to buy and play 7 days to die, needless to say I got addicted for a bit, hence the extremely late chapters.} { I have stopped rereading my own chapters so point out any glaring mistakes if you see any :)} {Btw just to inform my readers, the story is about to near its end, I apologize for not keeping my promises of making this story be a long one.} Chapter 20: Impulse over Intelligence, Death Chapter 20: Impulse over Intelligence, Death Impulse over Intelligence Blood trickled out of the bear¡¯s maw as she removed herself of the grey wolf¡¯s throat. The pack kept their distance as dread crept in underneath their furs. The mother wolf and the grey wolf were dead. Their bodies lay bloodied on the floor. IT panted heavily, since the grey wolf took charge. IT had no choice but to follow through. But now he was dead and the frenzied pack had lost their fervour and had fallen back. It was back to the encirclement again. The ragged bear sat at the mouth of the wolf den, she wheezingly puffed, catching her breath, giving IT time to think and observe his next course of action. The bear had a mangled appearance, most of her body had more exposed flesh and muscled than fur. Flesh was cut open and bones on the bear¡¯s arms spine, legs and joints were visible. She was nearing death but the burning fury kept her strong and ready for more. IT saw it in her eyes, the hatred and the need for blood. IT looked away. IT observed the rest of his remaining pack members. They looked worse for wear, lacerations from the bear''s paw bled profusely from all of them, some were shallow some were deep. The siblings took the brunt of it, some of their fur and skin were torn off. IT observed his own wounds, they were cuts, gashes and lacerations were healing already. The cuts healed, the gashes slowly faded, the lacerations closed up. IT was soon ready for another round. His abnormal recovery, learned from his new sense of control, his previous altercation with the bear and getting torn apart, being well fed partly helped. IT after healing up, returned his attention towards the bear it was still puffing, it¡¯s back was behind the wolf den. The pups squeaked and squealed inside, still responding to the noise from the fight. From the current standing, no matter what the bear will not stop until her last breath, and she still had a lot to spare, even with the mangled appearance. IT had decided. IT bent his hind legs and sat down. A way to say that IT had decided to not fight and wait it out. The pack members barked and growled in protest especially. They thought that IT would retake the lead and fight on to keep the pups from getting killed, but IT gave no response to change his stance. Although his instinct as a wolf raged at him to continue the fight and protect the newborn, protect his pack, his family, his reason suppressed it. It was the most logical choice, his decision had the higher chance of keeping the pack alive. Besides, the mother wolf was dead and the pups are still too young to be fed with other sources besides milk, even if they were able to save the pups, their life would be taken by hunger. As IT waited, he thought, something inside him stirred, guilt slowly rose up. He thought about the source of the guilt and it told him that the reason why they were in this mess was because of him. Had he not gotten greedy and attacked the bear¡¯s brood, this would not have happened. The bear stood up. The bear have caught her breath and have started to move again. She turned around to face the den. A gut wrenching pull told IT to attack now, but he suppressed himself, the pack members responded to the bears movement with alertness, they gazed their heads towards IT waiting for his move. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Since the entrance to the den was too small, the bear pound her paw at the den¡¯s entrance, the pups inside squeaked louder in response. She hit the entrance again and a portion of the entrance came loose. It was becoming hard to just sit still and watch as the bear dug ever so close to the pups, his instincts, impulse and emotion flared for him to stand up, he barely suppressed himself. Finally the a large portion of soil came loose and the bear was able to take a step inside. Flashes of dead mice convulsed inside of IT¡¯s mind as his small logic and reason caved in and gave way to the strange impulse. Like an animal, IT charged and his pack members followed suit. ----------- Death IT gazed sullenly at the fallen corpse of the bear. The bear really did fought to the last breath. She almost wiped out the pack. IT and his wounds have already healed, his missing limbs and deep wounds have made themselves scarce, but IT felt tired and weak. IT had become thin again. IT turned his ragged head to one of the only survivor of his pack. The small white female wolf, she whined in sorrow and pain, she was the least wounded out of all of them. The only reason why she survived in the first place was because the bear took more priority over the stronger pack members. Squeaking noises, IT went towards the source of the noise. The pups were unharmed. Noisy but unharmed. The bear did not even reach them. There were six of them squirming on the ground, squealing to their hearts content. A number equal to the deaths of the pack traded for their safety. Still, It wasn¡¯t worth it, they were doomed. With no mother left to feed them they will slowly starve and die. IT wondered what to do with them. Should he try to at least feed them? They did not posses teeth yet so it was impossible. Should he chew it then and spit it at them? No, It was not in their nature to eat It. Why not just end it all and just kill them to save them of their sufferings when starvation came? The pangs of hunger urged it to a decision. IT leaned close and opened his mouth. What a waste, It wasn¡¯t worth it. If only the mother wolf had survived¡­ A faint glimmer lit in IT¡¯s mind.. Slowly IT turned back, back towards the corpses of bear¡¯s and dead packmates. IT made a quick glance towards his last living pack member before continuing to his destination. The white young wolf was still lamenting over the death of the pack. Her ears drooped, and she was making broken whining sound. IT gazed down the mother wolf¡¯s corpse. It was a bloody sight, all the blood came out from her neck, it stained her fur and pooled on the ground surrounding her body. IT went to work. He opened his mouth and bit the same part where the bear had inflicted the fatal blow. She was already cold. The white she-wolf whined louder. IT ignored her and chewed. She went closer but IT roared at her to stay away. She did, with strange fear within her eyes. IT returned his attention back to the corpse and licked his bloody jagged teeth with his serpentine tongue. Info Section {This is still the first draft, Only a few more chapters until the end.} Chapter 21:The Mother of six, Huge beasts, The Father of two. Chapter 21:The Mother of six, Huge beasts, The Father of two. The Mother of six IT took care of the pups in the form of the mother wolf, feeding them, cleaning them, giving them the attention they needed. Although the instinct as a mother tried to force IT to stay in one place, IT was able to shrug it off and was able to hunt. The white female wolf on the other hand did not know what to make of IT. She had watched IT consume and devour the corpses of the pack in a form that was foreign to her. Occasionally though she helped IT raise the pups by leaving some some fish near the den, but generally she skirted around the territory avoiding and hiding away from IT. The pups grew quickly into juveniles. IT taught them how to hunt. They first learnt how to fish, then rabbits. When they grew larger IT taught them coordination, changing forms into different animals for the juveniles to practice on. Since the juveniles whose minds and body were still new and unfamiliar to the world they thought that their presumed mother¡¯s ability to transform was normal, their presumption was strengthened by the constant scent IT carried during those transformations IT taught them on until they were able to hunt deers easily. After IT was assured that the juveniles were now able to take care of themselves during the coming winter, IT directed her attention to the white female wolf. Even if the white female wolf had stopped considering IT as a wolf much less a pack member, IT still considered her as member. So IT shifted his form into that of a male wolf and looked for her. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Huge beasts Winter was a breeze and it finally ended in an uneventful manner. The only highlight of the season was that some plant eating hairy beasts with curved tusks, and weird long noses happen to pass by the pack''s territory. They were huge, plowing down trees and grazing on fern. IT tried to hunt them alone at first then with the pack, nothing helped. Their hide covered in tufts of hair were too thick and they were just simply too large to hunt. There was more danger than there was merit. The Father of two Spring had just began and IT had just snuck into the wolf den, her mate have just given birth. IT small and snug as bug gazed in wonder at his two children. They have the appearance of wolves but the normality ended there. The first child was big, too big for the size of a normal newborn pup, it had a grizzly brown coat and it¡¯s body structure had similarities to that of a bear, nonetheless it was more wolf than bear. The second child was small, unnaturally small. It carried a two extra appendages on both its shoulders, frail bony and webbed the extra appendage looked hideous but they were familiar. They were wings that IT used to fly in the dark. They were the wings of bats. As the children of IT grew, IT wondered if these days of ease will keep continuing in the coming days. Info Section {Yes, it is done and finished and Yep, it¡¯s sped up and it¡¯s more tell than show. I might fix it though, at a later date. There will also be some 3 or 4 extra unrelated chapters here and an epilogue so read it if you¡¯re up for IT. XD } Extra chapter 1 :Metamorphosis- The Path of the Queen ¡®These short story extra chapters are unrelated to each other and they¡¯re something like ¡®what if scenario¡¯s¡¯. A beta reader got confused about it so I just wanted to clarify it to the readers¡¯ Metamorphosis- The Path of the Queen ¡®How successful have my daughters become?¡¯ The Queen thought as she gazed at her working daughters; from the smallest to the largest, they were hard at work; digging, hunting, foraging for food, caring for the young inside and conquering the landscape above us. ¡®How numerous have we become?¡¯ From a small group, enough to fit a small puddle to a colony as long and large as a mighty river ever flowing from the her home throughout the outside world. ¡®How unstoppable have we become?¡¯ Enemies that used to be the same as us, gone, defeated a long time ago. Their soldiers killed, their queen¡¯s dead, their bodies brought in as food, their children captured and raised to work as slaves and workers. A sense of glee came from the Queen as she relished the feeling of her success and her colony; she had done her role and did it splendidly. The colony, through her careful observation and large varying diet of insects and small mammals as an excellent source of gene pool, slowly transformed the bodies of her offspring and her own little by little, batch by batch. The Queen¡¯s mellow mood came to an abrupt halt when a group of her daughters carrying unhatched children marched towards her. ¡®Another failed batch? It can¡¯t be helped, mistakes can also be made.¡¯ Her daughter¡¯s dropped the unhatched eggs in front of her and proceeded to leave, they have more work to do. The Queen picked up one of the eggs and casually took a bite. ------ The colony behaved erratically and the Queen took note of it. She knew that something big was happening or have already happened outside of the nest. A river of her daughters¡¯ went flooding in the colony, they carried with them the dead and wounded bodies of their siblings. As her daughters laid down the dead and the wounded, the Queen got to work. She noticed that most of the dead died from trauma and large punctures and cuts to vital parts of their bodies, huge slash marks were all over their bodies, the slash marks were singular and the punctures around their vitals were too deep. Whatever the creature or creature¡¯s her daughters faced must have some really sharp singular claws and stingers. Anticipation filled her as she had not seen wounds like these before, it must be a new creature. After her observations were done she began to rip off the limbs from the dead. She then cut them open and harvested their still usable organs. ¡®They don¡¯t need those anymore.¡¯ A quick thought to herself before continuing on. It was time to pay more attention to the living. Her injured daughters had large cuts and deep punctures on their abdomens. The Queen cut open the bellies of the injured and proceeded to fix and repair what needed to be fixed, she spat out acids and disinfectants, removed debris, replaced damaged organs, reattached limbs and seared all wounds shut. Once the flood of wounded began to dwindle and finally stopped and everyone was more or less patched up, the Queen relaxed and wiped off the blood and fluids that splattered her face and body, The fight must¡¯ve been hard. Whatever her daughters fought, must¡¯ve been formidable. Her anticipation grew even further. The Queen waited for the the rest of her daughters to arrive, and sure enough they did. Carrying creatures the Queen have not seen before and some were still them were still alive, it was a good thing that her daughters finally learned to specialize and use their less lethal siblings to capture and keep some of their prey alive . Their captured prey would last longer in storage and the Queen would have something amusing to watch and play with. The creatures her daughters captured did not look much. From the amount of wounded and dead daughters her children brought it, the queen thought that the creature¡¯s would look extremely strong, they did not. The queen edged close to the most lively of these pudgy squishy looking creatures. It was struggling hard, thrashing with it¡¯s four squishy appendages, red slimy fluid oozed out of the place where her prisoner daughter¡¯s mandibles held its limbs, but still the creature struggled. Disappointment washed over queen as she continued to observe the creature, it had some sort of weak claws on the ends of its smaller elongated appendages, but they were so thin and useless looking, it wasn¡¯t the sharp claw the queen expected. They were a lot bigger than a handful of her daughters combined but the queen still considered them as one of the weaker prey. The queen wondered how they were able to do such damage to her daughters. They did not have stingers nor any wings. Their mouths were so small and their teeth not so sharp. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. The Queen thought them as strange. They were hairy but only in some places like the head and chest area. Skin from a different animal covered parts of their bodies, it was a very odd. As if noticing that it was being observed the creature stopped struggling and darted its eyes to the queen. The queen stared back with intrigue. But just as soon as it stopped, it went back to struggling. A tap from behind directs the Queen''s attention to the daughter¡¯s behind her. The Queen looked on with curiosity to what they were carrying between their mandibles, a team of her daughters stepped forward carrying the first item. What they brought was a long stick with either bone split bone or jagged stone stuck to one of their ends, the queen looked in confusion as her daughters brought similar items in front of her. Just as the queen was about to touch the strange items with the use of her antennas a ripping sound emits from behind her and she feels a force from behind her and she gets flung forward landing on top of one of her daughters. A primal scream erupts from the creature as it flung himself at one of the items. The Queen watched in awe and terror as the creature grabbed hold of one of the items and stood up. The creature stood tall, towering every living thing in the colony, including the queen. The creature did not look to big before it was brought in lying down on its back restrained and carried, but as it stood a sense of foreboding came within the queen¡¯s heart. The creature, swung cleaving some of her daughters in half. It¡¯s eyes then It glinted with intelligence as it apprehended the her. Terror filled the Queen as the creature charged towards her cleaving any of her daughters that was in its way. The queen buzzed for help in a moment of panic, it stopped charging as if noticing the shift in the air. Moments later a swarm of her winged daughters swarmed forth from within the queen¡¯s colony. Screams erupted from the creature as stings pierced flesh. It struggled and struggled, grabbing and pulling away any of her daughters away. But it was of no use, overwhelmed it died twitching on the floor. Once clear that the danger was longer present, the queen gathered her wits and buzzed her small winged daughters away from the corpse. Her disappointment, now gone and replaced with curiosity and wonder but fear still lingered. With a flick of her antenna towards the largest creature that was still alive, her daughters went to work killing the creature the queen pointed at. It was a countermeasure, these creatures must not be underestimated. One by one she killed them. She didn¡¯t need all of them alive, she only needed one. She had strong urge to consume them immediately but refrained as danger was still present. The queen was now in front of the last creature, the smallest and weakest looking one of them all, it was probably a youngling. The creature had the same size of the queen much different from the rest , it assured the queen that it won¡¯t overpower any of her daughters. It trembled and oozed water out of its eyes. Even without having met this specie yet, the queen knew that the creature was afraid. It did not struggle and it did not seem like it was going to fight, it had already surrendered and have given up. The queen leaned close right in front of the creatures face. Both of our eyes met, her eyes was still trickling with fluids, an unexpected urge to drink the fluid urged the queen. Unsure were the urge came from she, soundlessly followed it. She flicked out her antenna and swiped of a trickle. Still looking at the creature she put her antenna in her mouth. Like a dam cracked open, thoughts and emotion flooded in and overcame the queen. The queen stood motionless, stunned. ------ Info Section [8/4/16 2:30:50 AM] Jxxxxxx [jxxxx]: @Manic_Design a reader is pissy at you for wasting your story''s potential. He just wanted you to know that. {So, I heard a guy that has been reading my fic is a bit ¡®pissy¡¯ for wasting my stories potential, don¡¯t be too mad man. I still plan to continue the fic albeit on a different title. Let me just finish these special chapters and finish the epilogue before I myself can move on.} So, what do you guys think of this separate/ unrelated story? The Fruit of All Evil [The Fruit of All Evil] (Yes, it¡¯s horrible naming. Deal with it.)- made by j0nn0 after looking at my short stories and ideas list. Once upon a time, there was a fruit. Akin to a pear in shape, but with the shell of a coconut, it was a fruit regardless, and, as all fruit must, it bore a seed. This seed contained within the hallowed flesh was brown, ovoid, dull, and largely insignificant; if one were to look at it, they would never, in a million years, believe that it could become the stuff of nightmares. As it followed the general cycle of life for a plant, both the fruit and seed within were eaten and eventually came out the other end of some such animal with a pulpy green consistency. The seed, of course, was still intact but now void of its fleshy covering. Anyways, its new home upon the dirt was freshly fertilized and served to provide a home to the seed. After two days, it germinated and sprouted. Unfortunately, during those two days, it became apparent that the seed¡¯s perfect residence, the rich and loamy manure it was cast out within, was no longer the perfect home. The ground upon which it sat was a small hill, situated within a dead swamp, surrounded by feted water and dead brush. What little life remained scratched out its meager existence with a ferocity unparalleled by even the most vicious of animals. With such an environment, one would expect the seedling to wither and die, but, contrary to all odds, it adapted. Taking its que from the surrounding life, the seedling began to change. For one, roots drove down as to seek out the pure liquid of life. For another, it began to grow small, brown leaves (rather than a luscious green) close to the ground in order to avoid detection. Given time and the sustenance provided by its fertilizer, it grew hardy, but it was not enough. The manure had to run out of nutrients eventually and there was only so much that the sun and minimal water could provide. Budding vines, it began to seek out other life, its prey, among the inhabitants of the surrounding area. Once its grasping vines ensnared prey, small thorns quickly and efficiently pierced the stalks of its prey in order to further its hold. Soon after, small veins, tentacles, or rather, roots, began to grow within the other plant. It had latched on much like a parasite and subsequently adsorbed both clean water and nutrients from its host. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Curiously enough, it did not kill its prey and opted to integrate the host body as if a graft. Two became one and thus a monstrosity was born. Years pass and plant after plant was to join in the amalgamation. Latching on from one victim to the next, it also acquired a method of travel. If one were to compare it to a monstrosity of flesh, it would be a homunculus. Flesh and traits of a multitude of species meshed into one horror, capable of devouring all before it. The more it consumed, the stronger it became. Once in a while, small animals would think it a safe haven for a night¡¯s rest. Their ultimate fate, however, was to be consumed as those before it. Now armed with both tooth and claw, the monstrosity¡¯s efficiency grew and grew. Eventually, for one reason or another, possibly because it had run out of new, unique prey to consume, the creature of plant and flesh came to reside atop a hill within a peaceful meadow. The air was clean, the water clear, grass green, and the monstrosity soon adapted to its surroundings, becoming likewise green and full of growth. Despite such coverings, it could not disguise its inner nature and all creatures fled before it. All creatures save one, the only one capable of ignorance and pride, those who sin: Man. Man, in all its folly, decided to uncover the secrets of this mysterious tree, for that is what it appeared to be. Man thought that if one were capable of uncovering its secrets, it would be possible to attain great power. Little did man know just how right they were. In the end, the folly of man is what led to the Overgrowth Event of @#$%^&*. To this day, man still attempts to combat this verdant foe and reclaim lands once lost, but who or what can combat nature itself? Surely not mere mortals. Perhaps this is for the best, for the world to be cleansed and begin anew. Do you believe this tale? Perhaps not, but it is the tale I have told. Make of it what you will, and beware the folly of man. [END] Epilouge: Sapien He gazed at the night sky and howled, the other¡¯s did the same. Surrounded by wolves of different sizes and shapes, he felt comfy and secure. They were his family after all, nothing felt better than being around family. Members of his pack trickled in and gathered. With every new arrivals, he greeted them. It was a peculiar night, some some strange animals had trespassed their territory and were roaming around. He had observed them for a and he knew how dangerous they were, they travelled the same way his pack does, in groups. He also saw that they were hunting, their movements gave it away, it was almost the same way his pack hunts. What more, they carried with them the scent of rotting blood. He had never seen these animals before. They walked and travelled upright while carrying wooden sticks, jagged bone and sharp rock. He knew that there was danger, danger from those pack like animals but he was confident. As soon as everyone was there, he urged his pack to follow, and they quietly navigated the dark snowy forest. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. He could hear them, their loud excited tones and noises made them stand out from the noiseless forest. He urged his pack to stay hidden before he grew himself feathers and sprouted wings. He flew and sat on top of a tree to observe them again, for good measure. There they were,circled around a small shivering figure. To think that they have finally caught their prey. He thought it strange that the shivering figure they hunted were the same as them, was it cannibalism? True, that cannibalism was not uncommon to some animals that resided in the forest, but it usually happens because desperation, they did not look like they were starving but their eyes held hunger. They eyed the shivering creature in front of them as they made tones and noises that he could not comprehend. ¡°Shall we chop off her legs?¡± one of the hairless creatures, blabbered. ¡°No, she¡¯s already too weak, it would kill her too quickly. I don¡¯t want that to happen, eh?¡± another spouted. ¡°it wouldn¡¯t be as fun-¡° ¡°It would fer me!!¡± ¡° That¡¯s only you Kirok!!¡± A third creature butted in and shoved. The other shoved back, it escalated into a fight. He recognized it, His pack did it most of the time. The clamour between the hairless creatures rose, the time was right. They were distracted, as distracted as he had ever seen them. He thought that it was too late but it was in fact the most perfect opportunity to startwhile they were still fighting . He flew down back to his pack and signalled them to begin. Notice! New project! This isn''t a new chapter and for that, I apologize. I got some bad news to tell my readers, the sequel to this story won''t be coming anytime soon But!!! it will come but not anytime soon,A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. on that note, I bring in more news, it''s up to you to take it as good or bad though, I''m working on a new project and From the comments i''ve been getting sp far it''s looking great. So yeah, I''m gonna shamelessly advertise it here for you guys so enjoy!! Title: Dungeon maker out of the dungeon You can just treat that story as a sequel for it if you want. Also, since you''ve finished metamorphosis already, mind leaving a review or a rating? IT needs it that badly!