Jewel stared in shock at the wolf who stood on the rock in the big field. This was the base of the Third District, and most of the other Clan animals there stood upon the field, looking up at the wolf. The pale moonlight from above made each animal appear even more eerie.

Perched on top of the rock sat Sai, and he was holding the head of their district leader, Skull, between his jaws. A row of defensive-looking animals, most of which were wolves, blocked the path from the regular Clan animals to the rock.

Sai gazed down on the animals, his muzzle red with blood and his gaze cool and devoid of emotion as always. He calmly waited for the gasps and screams of shock to die down as he put Skull's head on the rock in front of him.

Jewel stood frozen to the ground. She didn't know what to do, but she felt herself tremble all over her body. What had happened? Was this a coup? Skull was dead. What would happen now?

When the crowd wouldn't calm down two minutes later, he made a gesture with his tail.

"Quiet!" bayed one of the wolves that blocked the path to Sai and the head. They were clearly in cahoots with the brown-and-gray wolf.

Sai then cleared his throat and sat up proud--well, prouder than usual. "Listen, fellow Clan members," he started.

"What are you doing there? Get down! What happened to our district leader?" a livid-sounding lynx in the crowd sneered.

"QUIET," said the same wolf who had spoken earlier.

The crowd now finally seemed to calm down, and Jewel forced herself to look Sai in the eyes as he continued.

"The Clan has existed for many years now, and Rufus had been a good leader to us before. However, times change. Due to the immense size of the Clan and Rufus' pacifistic nature, we have too little territory to properly accommodate all of the Clanmembers without running into problems. Rou, our mighty second-in-command, and some others have been brainstorming a plan to do something about this for a while now. And there was no other option. Rufus and his kin had to die to make place for a new generation of stronger, better leaders than ever before."

The crowd started to act up again. Jewel herself couldn't repress a gasp of shock as well. She kept her tail tucked between her hind legs. Rou? she thought. No way. He is violent and power-hungry, but he would never do something like this!

"HOW COULD YOU?" a voice from the other Clan members shouted, emotion edging it.

"W-wait, does this mean everyone is dead? Rufus, his brothers, Aless, Walter, Starlight, and Saedira?" another one asked shakily.

Sai spoke calmly. "Walter, Saedira, and Starlight are still alive, but that matters not. The Clan will be led by Rou, Taima, and the other new district leaders from now on. I happen to be the new leader of District Three. From now on, you are to do as I...we...say."

"No..." was all Jewel could muster. This had to be some kind of mistake.

"NEVER!" the lynx bellowed.

Sai made eye contact with one of the wolves in front of the rock, who was shielding him from the crowd.

Within a few seconds, the wolf rushed towards the lynx, knocked her over, and grabbed her spine between his jaws. He kept putting more pressure onto her spine until she let out a screech of pain, her claws digging into the earth.

"See this as an example of what will happen to you when you choose to disobey us. Welcome to Rou's Clan."

***

Jewel snarled as she stomped onto the sandy surface of what was the Main Base of the Clan. She'd left her own district behind after it became clear that she had not been wrong. Rou really had taken over. And she was here to demand an explanation. She'd never felt this livid before.

She stomped over to the cave that had before been Rufus' and Ru's. Now the scent of her brother and Taima was all around it. Four guards in armor sat in front of it.

Jewel forced herself to talk calmly as she stopped in front of them. "I demand to see my brother." Her voice was as cold as ice.

"No," was the simple response of a black-and-white dog guard. She narrowed her pale blue eyes. "Our leader is resting."

"I'm his sister, in case you need to be reminded of that!" Jewel spat angrily. She had trouble keeping her hackles down.

"No need to," the dog simply said. "I don't care who you are. Rou doesn't want to see anyone, currently."

Jewel felt the need to rip off one of this dog's ears and stuff it down her throat, but she kept her temper in check. She licked her lips. "Well, when your mighty leader has time to see his own family, you tell him his sister wants to speak to him!"

She turned tail and was about to walk away when she heard a familiar deep voice behind her say her name. Jewel loathed the owner of it .

"Taima." Jewel, turning around, did whatever she could not to make it clear how much she despised the brown she-wolf.

Taima stood in the cave opening, the guards having moved aside to give her space. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in the Third District?" The brown eyes of the bulky she-wolf narrowed suspiciously in disgust.

Jewel knew how much Taima hated her too, but the two had to put up with each other, because they both loved Rou.

"I'm here to talk to Rou," Jewel bayed loudly, her head high and her ears pointing forward defiantly. She wasn't about to cower before Taima, even if she was the new second-in-command.

"No," Taima said. "Rou's resting, like Chuuya just told you."

Resting from what? Being a tyrant?

"Just tell him I'm here." Jewel then got the guts to actually sit down in front of Taima, her gaze still not leaving the one of the new second-in-command. "I'm staying right here until I get to speak to him."

Taima growled deeply in her throat and frowned. "You don't get to do that!"

"Really?" Jewel tried to repress her anger and forced herself to make the snarkiest expression she could muster. "And what are you going to do about that? Rou won't be very happy to know his dear mate attacked his own sister, you know."

Taima took a step closer, until her muzzle tip almost touched Jewel's. "You don't get to talk to me like this! I'm your superior! I don't give a shit about you being related to Rou! Just go back to your district and stay there!"

"Stay where?" A tired-looking Rou came out of the leader cave. He let out a yawn, and it was clear that he'd only just woken up.

"To her district. Jewel just came walking up to our cave and thinks she can order us around!" Taima lifted her lip briefly to reveal her teeth.

Jewel simply blinked and eyed her brother, trying to repress the urge to lunge at him, pin him, and demand answers. "I want to speak to you, Rou," she said.

Taima was about to say something nasty again, but Rou spoke before she could. "That's fine. I imagine you have a lot of questions about this. Come on into my cave." He sounded calm and relaxed, like it was no big deal that he'd staged a coup and taken over the entire Clan mere days ago.

He turned around and headed back into his cave. Jewel followed and, to her dismay, Taima did, as well.

Jewel had never been in this cave before back when Rufus ruled the Clan, but she was certain he'd never decorate it like this. The ground was covered in deer skins, and skulls of various animals--some prey and some canine or feline-- hung on the cave walls. Jewel suspected these were Taima's kills. It was well known in the Clan that the bulky brown she-wolf took a liking to murdering those in her way. Jewel quietly wondered if the skulls of Rufus and Ru were among these, shuddering in horror.

Rou sat down on the dappled pelt of a fawn and curiously looked at Jewel. "Speak, Jewel."

Jewel bit her lower lip and looked at Taima, who was about to sit down beside her mate. "My words are only meant for your ears, Rou."

"Anything you want to tell Rou, you should be able to tell me!" Taima snarled.

But Rou made a quick gesture with his front paw. "It's fine, Taima. You go and check up on the dusk patrols, they should've returned by now."

The brown she-wolf looked like she was going to protest, but she simply narrowed her eyes, nodded, and stalked away out of the cave.

Rou's brown eyes returned to the amber ones of Jewel. "I'm sorry I didn't come to speak to you personally," he then apologized, something the gray she-wolf hadn't expected at all. "I've just been so busy. Being leader of the Clan is a much, much heavier job than I thought it would be."

You should've thought about that before killing Rufus and taking over, Jewel thought bitterly.

"Why?" she then demanded. "Rufus made you his second-in-command after Silkey left. Wasn't that enough for you? He trusted you. Why did you do this, Rou?" She tried not to sound upset as she spoke, but it was really hard.

He scratched behind one of his ears with a hind paw for a moment before sitting up straight again. "You know how much we need more territory, Jewel. We're with hundreds of animals on such a tiny patch of land that Rufus refused to expand. If we would've kept living his way, it would've only been a matter of time before things went horribly wrong. We would've run out of prey. More territory conflicts would arise. We'd practically be trapped in our own territory with a Clan that's only growing more and more in numbers. Taima and I tried to convince Rufus of the need to expand territory again and again, but he refused to listen, so we had no choice."

"You murdered your leader." Jewel suddenly refused to meet her brother's gaze and stared down at her front paws instead.

"I didn't. Taima did," Rou simply pointed out, as if that would change anything. "And sometimes the end justifies the means. Killing a few wolves to prevent further problems in the Clan isn't the worst thing to ever happen. My Clan members have started expanding territory again. Soon we'll have plenty of space again, and there'll be less trouble in the Clan itself."

"By expanding territory, you're killing animals of surrounding packs if they refuse to give you their land, you mean, right?"

"Like I said, the end justifies the means. When I became second-in-command of the Clan, Jewel, it became my job to look out for the members. That's what I'm doing right now, too. The outsiders are all given a proper warning to leave or join us before we kill them. If they refuse to, they've chosen death for themselves."

Jewel simply couldn't believe what she was hearing. The brother she'd once known seemed dead, suddenly. "How could you...?"

"Don't make a big deal out of it," Rou said. "Everything will be better from now on. I can give you a high rank, too! You can have power over your own group of Clan members! Isn't that great?"

"Power? What the hell am I supposed to do with that? I don't give a shit about your power!" Jewel couldn't keep her anger in anymore. "Did Taima put you up to this? Because it really seems like something she'd do!"

"Don't speak ill of my mate!" Rou boomed, his hackles slowly raising. "We came up with it together, and then gathered followers. That's simply how it went."

"And what would Mother think of this?" Jewel bayed, feeling tears form in her eyes.

"Mother is dead, Jewel! She's been for over a year now! Who cares what she'd think?"

"You're a bad wolf, Rou! I'd never expected you'd do anything as horrible as this!" Jewel felt the tears stream down her cheeks as she looked at her brother. "You're just as bad as the Deformed Demon!"

"Don't bring him into this!" Rou snapped. "I am not my uncle!"

"What's the difference?" Jewel sneered. "He killed innocents, you kill innocents! You're horrible, Rou! I don't know what happened to you, but this...this isn't you!"

Without waiting for a response, she stormed out of the cave, sobbing.

***