Forest's Journey
Chapter 14

The next day, during prey sharing, Meadow, the mother of four pups, went up to the prey pile first to grab some prey for her pups. A he-wolf named Prickle stepped forward angrily and said:

“How come the ones who sit around at camp all day doing no work all day get to eat first?” Prickle asked incredulously.

“Because, in case you haven’t noticed, I have pups to take care of and feed.” retorted Meadow.

“Oh yeah? And what’s so special about your pups?” Prickle spat.

“The whole point of a pack is to hunt for others, dimwit. If you don’t want to do that, leave!” shouted Juniper

“This is how a pack falls apart, Forest. You’ve gotta mediate this now. If you don’t, wolves will start leaving until you don’t have much of a pack left. This is what happened at the last pack I joined” urged Rose.

“Right, I’ve got this.” Forest assured himself.

“Juniper is right, Prickle. The point of a pack is to protect and provide for the wolves who can’t defend or hunt for themselves, because those wolves are going to or have already contributed much to the pack. When you have pups or grow old, you would want wolves to hunt for you, right?” reasoned Forest.

“Fine.” Prickle grumbled, settling back down to his spot.

Forest gave a sigh of relief.

“First conflict, solved.” Rose whispered in his ear.

“And many more left in the course of my leadership.” Forest replied.

Three days later, the pack had around 55 wolves, which was the amount that Forest had initially planned. The time for recruitment was over, and now it was time to officially establish the pack. That morning he told his wolves to not go out and hunt because he had to announce something really important. But first, he had something else really important to do. He went out to the edge of his camp to pick a beautiful rose from a bush. He went back to camp to replace Rose. His heart pounded wildly in his chest. Doubts flooded his mind but he pushed them all away.

“Hi Rose.” he greeted.

She spun around to face him.

“Why are you carrying a-” she asked.

“Over the past two weeks, I have been enthralled by your intelligence, your grace and your leadership. You supported me when I felt down and you became a true friend to me. I would like to do the same for you. Will you become my mate?” Forest proposed.

He dropped the rose in front of her and bowed down face to the ground with his paws in front of him. Rose gasped. The whole camp was watching. It’d be embarrassing if she rejected me, Forest thought.

“Yes!” Rose yelled, happy tears streaming out of her eyes.

The whole pack cheered, and calls of “congratulations” reverberated around the camp. Forest smiled. Happy tears were streaming out of his eyes too.

“Thank you, Alpha female.” Forest said.

“I should be the one saying thank you, Alpha male.” replied Rose.

They pressed their muzzles to each other.

“Come on, we’ve got a pack to establish.” whispered Forest.

“Yes we do. Do you remember the rankings we discussed?” Rose whispered back.

Forest nodded. They climbed atop the tall rock beside their den, and called for a pack meeting. The wolves were already congregated at the centre of camp from watching Forest’s proposal.

“Today everyone will officially get their ranks and roles in the pack. Before we start, just remember that if you’re in a higher rank than someone doesn’t mean you’re more important or deserving of respect. Everyone deserves the same dignity and treatment as everyone else, so please keep that in mind. Without further ado, let’s get started.” said Forest.

“So firstly, I’m Forest, the Alpha male, and this is my mate Rose, the Alpha female. Ash and Amber, we pick you two as the Beta and Delta. They are the second and third-in-command in the pack. Whether Amber wants to be the Beta or Ash, that’s up for you to decide.” announced Forest.

“Amber can be the Beta. I’ll be Delta.” Ash replied.

“Are you sure, dear?” Amber asked.

“Positive.” Ash answered.

“We appoint Titan as the Epsilon, which is the head guardian who guards the camp, and Steel as the Zeta, which is the war general.” Rose announced.

They proceeded to appoint 23 Etas, the warriors in the pack. They were mainly stronger, older and more experienced wolves.

“We appoint Feather as the Theta and Pigeon as the Iota. They are the healers in the pack. Ferret will the be Kappa, the lead hunter.” Forest declared.

They chose 23 young, inexperienced and fast wolves to be Lambdas, the hunters in the pack.

“We appoint Hazel to be the Sigma, the teacher of the Psi, and Fennel and Ebony to be the Omegas, the caretakers of the pack.” declared Rose.

“Now we will allocate the dens. The huge cave on the right side of the entrance in the warrior’s den, where the Epsilon, Zeta and Etas stay. The den beside that is the Alpha’s den, beside the den is the rock on which we’re standing on now. The bush beside the rock is the Beta’s den, and the bush beside that is the Delta’s den. The den next to that is the Gamma’s den, where the retired wolves will stay. Next to that is the Theta’s den, and the den next to the Theta’s den is the pup den, where pups and their mothers stay. Then, we have the Psi den, where the Psi, the pups training to become a Lambda, and the Sigma stay. After that we have the Omega den and the huge cave next to that is the hunter’s den, where the Kappa and Lambdas stay. Does everyone understand?” asked Forest, pointing to every den as he spoke about them.

“Yes,” everyone replied.

“Good, now since we haven’t set out borders because the other packs are not yet established, the Zeta and Etas have nothing to do. They will join the Kappa and Lambdas in hunting until the borders are set and they can go out on border patrols.” decided Rose.

Every wolf got to work. Titan and Steel looked them both in the eyes and gave them a nod of respect. They had come to see a pack fall, but instead they saw the rise of one.