Two years had passed since the important talk back then, I’m now 13 and currently stalking a delicious rabbit. Love and I are still together, despite how much he wants me to stay ‘Home’. Something about the dangers in the world. We continued to fight and more than once he tried taking my Scent Clip the first year I had it.

It’s a lovely nose piercing now.

Right now, I’m away from the Warehouse Den and traveling with my Stick to track down a wolf that has gone AWOL from a neighboring Pack a few towns over.

A Stick Pack or Stick for short has a minimum of 8 Wolves. Each with a different job. Mine is Point Black or Tracking. I track down someone by their scent alone and figure out where they are heading. Point’s are usually the ones in the lead for these kind of missions.

Point’s have two wolves only, a Point White who are very experienced. Then myself a Point Black who’s is just starting out. I follow behind White to get a feel of the scent and what I’m suppose to be doing.

The Delta Alpha is the leader of the Stick, he is in charge of everything and what we are meant to do. They also take over when the Ace’s or as I call them Directions, fail to find a compromise between two people.

The Delta Beta is the second in command, when the Alpha is away it falls to the Beta to make the decisions. Up to two Beta’s are in command, they are Beta Howl and Beta Claw.

The Directions, North and South are the experienced wolves, East and West are the new wolves. As stated before, they handle the negotiations and peacekeeping between the two parties. They also command us to be in certain positions when hunting down our Target’s.

Delta Medic, on long journey’s Medics are needed. These wolves are crucial to the Stick but not needed most of the time and are very busy.

Finally, Souls. Delta Souls are the only wolves who are numbered because they are the most experienced of the Stick. There can only be 5 Souls in the pack and depending on what the mission is they are never the same Souls.

My Stick has Alpha, Howl, North and East, Black, Soul 1 & 2. This is my first mission solo, out of three successful missions and two failures I’m being tested. This would also be my Sixth Stick that I have joined.

Walking back to the Camp I dropped my four rabbits beside Soul 1 who had made themselves the cook of our Stick for the mission. I shifted back and picked up a rabbit to help with the skinning. After skinning them I handed them to Soul 2 who cuts them up and gives them to Soul 1, I mainly help because of the the fur.

Of to the far side of our little Camp was Alpha was talking to Howl, North and East.

“We should have brought White or at least had two Points for this mission,” Howl growled softly trying to keep their conversation a whisper. Hesitating a moment before continuing with my work I tried not to think of how useless I am. I lost the scent more than once and Howl was getting frustrated and so am I.

Trying to track a wolf down after a week, the scent is long gone and I only managed to get a small whiff of it before it disappeared. Softly growling to myself I focused on the rabbit scent. So far that’s the only scent that I can track according to Howl and the Directions.

“Many scents cloud your soul with it’s fowl mist,” Soul 2 said in a grizzly growl, I huffed in frustration. “The one that doesn’t belong in the night will linger and go quiet, like hunting. Keep that.”

Most of Soul 2’s advice were cryptic like this but after hearing him talk like that for a bit I was starting to understand. No matter how frustrating it was to hear his voice, I forced myself to take in a breath and calm down. “How can I find it?”

“Listen, Calm, quell the fire in paws, one small breath,” I had finished my fur and shifted. Closing my eyes I took in a deep breath and slowed it down. Delicious rabbits, pine that we kicked up while chasing each other, damp earth, running water. “Sinking deeper into the forest, below the surface.”

While the Stick ate and rested I searched for the scent of the Target. Keeping in mind what Soul 2 had said, removing the scents that belonged to the forest. Searching for that scent that didn’t belong and hunted, my nose went to the ground and started to take in the earth.

A small scent, faded.

Was that it?

Taking a deeper breath in, dog, blood. Injured dog?

Scent was clear in my mind of what it was but was this the scent? I remembered the Target’s scent.

Another deep breath.

Saw Dust, Pine? No Aspen.

Breathe.

Rust, metallic. Ignore the blood.

Breathe.

Aspen Saw Dust. Wolf Willow?

Wolf Willow was a mix of Sugar Cane and Jalapeno Pepper’s.

I’m sure this is the scent. This was the scent that belonged to the Target. It really was sinking into the ground, Soul 2 was right.

Now where was it going?

Lifting my head the scent was still in my nose and held, it almost felt like the scent was amplifying. My ears flicked forward as I caught sight of an invisible trail. I felt a small tug that I haven’t felt in such a long time. It was going in the direction of the Target.

“Black found it,” Soul 1 called and soon I heard the Stick behind me.

“Lead Point Black,” Alpha ordered, our things were already packed there was no need to waste time. I took a sniff and shot forward only taking the orders of the Alpha now. The scent was so strong now I was sure that we were on the tail of Target not even five minutes away. We ran until dawn started to break, my paws were sore and each paw trembled hitting the ground. They threatened me that they will give if I continue further.

“Scent is High,” Soul 2 said and we slowed our pace to a gentle walk, I just know that if we were to stop now I would collapse. “One Sun of Wind we’ll gain.”

“Point Black?” Alpha called to me as they stopped. I took a deep breath.

“Target is Injured and Hungry. They’ll be resting beside water and taking shelter to patch themselves up. Injury was caused by another wolf, same pack. If we don’t hurry they could get infected within...” I took a sniff, “three days.”

“Understood, Delta Souls scout the area, Point Black track the Target to their den,” not wanting to collapse I started heading to the scent closest to water as fast as the words left his muzzle. I walked for an hour tracking the strongest scent, they were here for at least 7 hours. The scent didn’t surround the area like a normal Pack scent so they weren’t planning on staying long.

I was going to call for the Stick until I heard North do it. His voice strong, my legs weren’t as weak as before but I knew better than to sit down and rest. We waited for the Stick and for Target to come greet us.

Target’s place was a natural rock den, next to a creek and a small clearing. This place was once used a long time ago, how long I wasn’t sure. North stood a little a head of me to state that he was now in charge from here, I took a step back out of respect.

This Stick worked differently than the others.

My first few missions was nothing but blood thirsty and I complied.

But this one was calm, almost too calm. I felt out of place when I wasn’t ordered to subdue the Target when I found them.

I focused my mind on the task at hand and exhaustion was starting to hit hard. I soon regained my strength when I smelled Target getting closer.

“What do you want,” a large dark and light grey wolf growled. I’m glad we caught him before he moved again, then again why would he come get us when he could have ran? Was he waiting for us? Did he give up?

“Greetings, your pack had sent us to retrieve and return you,” North nodded a bit at the wolf with a calm voice. It surprised me with how gentle he was, it was relaxing in how smooth he could sound. Target snorted but looked at us carefully, his gaze lingering on me. I wanted to growl but his look didn’t say that he was looking down at me.

“I don’t want to go back,” Target growled baring his fangs. I should have known, he was sizing us up to see if he could take us on. Is it because I look tired? Did I make a mistake?

Should I start tearing the pelts off the wolf just to make sure that he doesn’t question my size again?

“We know,” North said not bothered by the threatening defensive display of the Target. When did he figure out that the Target didn’t want to go back? Shouldn’t we do as the mission states? Isn’t that what we were paid to do?

“Then why have you come?” Target voiced my same questions, I shifted from paw to paw to relieve them of their soreness and to keep me from collapsing. Now that I think about it, I haven’t eaten in who knows how long. I’m sure that I didn’t even get to enjoy the food that was prepare last night. Was it last night?

“Negotiations, if you will,” North said. Delta training had paid off any normal wolf would have fainted with lack of food and water for so long. The Pack was always full fed even during the famine incidents.

“What do I get out of it?” Target asked bringing my thoughts back to the mission. I must really be tired and hungry if I’m thinking of being jealous of my Pack.

“Freedom, if that is what you want,” North said, I was still confused as to why we were stalling. We were suppose to take the wolf back to his Pack whether he wanted to or not.

“What do you get?” Target asked growling again. I looked at North wondering what was going on, he never looked at me. Were we waiting for backup? But we’re all tired, there’s no way that we can take on a rested wolf no matter how injured he was.

Unless, was it because Target was injured? I know the Stick will wait for them to fully heal but I didn’t think it would be for Target’s too. Should we have brought a Medic?

I took a sniff to check his wound.

Caused by wolf, but there was no different scent on him. This wasn’t an outside attack. Did his Pack do this to him? Target looked at me sharply and growled. North snapped at my ear, I took a few steps back not realizing that I was getting closer.

“He’s injured, it was caused by his Pack, smells like Alpha. The wound is also dirty and needs to be properly cleaned to stop the infection,” I said and North looked at me almost asking me where the wound were, “Right shoulder blade, left hind leg, behind his right ear, the worse one is the Shoulder blade. It’s deeper, torn even.”

“Are you the Patch?” I tilted my head a bit. Was that what they call Medic’s?

“This is our Point Black, he tracked you down.” North said and Target’s eyes widened.

“A Point Blank?” He lowered his head a bit at me, I could see respect in his eyes. His Pack injured him and he ran, if I focus I could smell that the Pack was small. Small Pack’s usually had every wolf work, was this the reason why he didn’t want to go back?

Would they kill him on sight if we brought him back?

That had to be it, I remember Soul’s talking about how not many Pack’s were as lenient as ours. Omega’s didn’t even get to work like Alpha’s, was this why there were so many in our Pack. I know I thought this before, but the reason behind it wasn’t this.

I looked at North and the look he gave me was confirming my suspicion, then he looked at Target and asked, “Why do you want to be free?”

Target looked at us both and nodded, he turned and started walking to his den. North walked behind him and I followed. Target lead us to the little clearing and sat down in front of the mouth of his den. North took a seat across from him and the two started talking. I laid a bit behind North, the travel was starting to catch up, every muscle ached, pads were so sore and the relief I felt when I was finally off of them.

“Your Point Blank is very good for not having their first Season yet,” I heard Target state, more words were being passed between the two but my exhaustion was making it hard to focus. I yawned but kept my head up, I can’t sleep yet unless we know it’s safe to do so.

The world was finally quiet.

The sight’s and sounds were vivid and muted.

Delta Survival mode.

I was reduced to pure instinct out of exhaustion. Any sign’s of aggression my body will move on it’s own to defend itself.

I saw quick movement and focused on it and seen that I was given permission to howl by North. Nodding, I sat up and howled weakly, at least I think it was. Once I was finished I looked at North, “Sorry that it wasn’t my best, I’m tired.”

Laying back down I watched to two interact with each other until the fowl scent of aggression started to rise. I stood and growled and Target snapped at me and I took it as a challenge and launched myself at him.