Forest's Journey
Chapter 26

That afternoon, the fighters from the three packs gathered together at the Pack of the Forest’s section of the East River.

“Does everyone know what to do?” asked Forest.

“Yes.” replied everyone.

“Good, let’s go. Remember to listen to all instructions.” said Leaf.

Everyone who was chosen to fight knew how to swim, so they were able to cross the river quickly and in an orderly manner. Once they were on the other side, they shook themselves dry and moved as a group inland. They sniffed the air and detected the faint scent of foxes.

“This way.” Bush called, beckoning for the others to follow.

After they followed the scent for a while, they saw a small cluster of dens, and around five foxes lived in each one separately. Unlike in other fights, the wolves didn’t make an effort to be quiet. The group sent eight wolves to fight the foxes. The idea was to make the foxes think there was a fighting chance so they wouldn’t leave, but the fighting wolves won’t be put in any actual danger. The ones who didn’t fight even made a point of being loud and attracting other foxes by adding in howls and barks. It worked. Soon, the forty foxes all rushed to where the wolves were. To Forest’s relief, the loners had joined the fight too.

Wolves surged up to both sides of the foxes to form the horseshoe shape. The formation nearly broke when the foxes realised that they were trapped and were fighting outwards, but the wolves’ far superior numbers kept it in place. Forest was on the outer line of the defences, and he was fighting a fox that wanted to break out of the trap. The fox bit his shoulder hard, and Forest gave a hiss of pain. Rose, who was fighting the same fox with him, scored her claws along the fox’s flank. Forest raked his claws over the fox’s right eye. The fox aimed one of its front paws at Forest’s throat, but he dodged to one side and knocked the fox’s other paw out from under it. The fox tumbled and fell as it lost its balance. Forest used the opportunity to claw the fox’s throat out, but the fox bit his paw, creating a deep wound and making blood gush out. Forest howled with pain. The fox got back to its feet, but not before Rose raked its belly with her claws.

“Do you need to take a rest? I can tell someone else to fight this fox with me.” Rose offered.

“No thanks, I’ll be fine. Just gotta favour this paw.” Forest replied.

Forest could see from the corner of his eyes that the foxes were slowly being overwhelmed. Many of them had fled, were heavily injured or even dead, and they were fighting with less vigour than before.

“Everyone, push the foxes out more. Our aim is to push them out of these territories.” yelled Forest.

Those who couldn’t hear his message passed it on to those who could, and soon everyone got did what they were told. Bit by bit, the foxes inched towards the road that marked the end of the loners’ territory, but they weren’t quite there yet. Forest refocused his attention on the fox that he was fighting. It was getting tired and worn down too, and he fought with less energy. Forest reached up and shredded the fox’s ear. It would probably never hear out of that ear again. He noticed that Rose had shredded its tail. It staggered, and Forest and Rose knocked it down again. Neither Forest or Rose really wanted to kill the fox, and seeing that the fox was so weak, they didn’t need to. The fox couldn’t even push them off. They battered and clawed its face, belly and flank until it was heavily bleeding and in great pain. Forest closed his face just centimetres above the fox’s face. He could smell its foul breath and hear it coming out in short gasps. The fox may not be able to understand everything he said, but he was sure it could understand something very simple.

“Yield, and run.” he snarled.

The fox nodded, terrified, and when he and Rose let it go, it ran with its bloody tail between its legs.

“Great teamwork.” Forest panted.

“Yeah.” Rose replied.

Despite their pain and exhaustion, Forest and Rose leapt back into the fray. Clawing, biting and snapping they helped their fellow wolves fight off their adversaries. Before they knew it, only over half of the foxes remained, and they had already nearly approached the road. That wasn’t to say there weren’t many casualties on their side. Some wolves had fled too, and many had sustained heavy injuries. The Thetas and Iotas who were on the scene treating wounded wolves were working their paws off. Seeing that they were heavily outnumbered, some foxes opted to flee while others fought even harder. He saw an Eta whose throat was about to get slit by a fox, so in the heat of the moment he leapt in and tore out the fox’s throat instead. He looked down in horror, first at his blood-covered paws, then at the convulsing body of the fox he had just killed. He had killed nothing but prey before, and he felt immense horror at having killed another canine.

“What have I done?” he whimpered.

His packmate thanked him in a timid, scared voice, but he paid no heed. The blood was spreading around the fox, turning its orange pelt red.

“What happened?” Rose asked as she rushed to his side.

“I-I killed it. I know it’s a fox, but it’s still another canine and I-I just killed it.” Forest whispered.

“The fox was about to kill me but Forest killed the fox and saved my life.” recounted the Eta.

“Don’t feel guilty, Forest. You did what you had to do to save a packmate. Plus, the foxes are our enemies, and they hadn’t hesitated to kill us before. Please rejoin the fight. The pack needs you.” comforted Rose.

Forest glanced around and saw that Rose was right. There were about 10 foxes left, but half of the wolves had deserted the fight too. He ran to help a Lambda named Pod, who was having trouble fighting a fox. That fox was stronger and tougher than the other foxes, and as a result it had more energy left and less injuries. Forest determined that the only way to gain an advantage over the fox was to be quick. Forest jabbed at the fox quickly and continuously, scoring some claw marks on its pelt as much as possible. He clawed the fox’s face, chest, belly, pelt and legs all while the fox was trying to knock him away and land a blow. The fox was really frustrated and worked up, and suddenly it gave an earth-shattering growl and leapt at Forest with all its might.