Lights

Lights

by Margaret

The wind whistles across the tundra, blowing snow off the ground and into my face. Pip and Rikhani, the two betas, dance around the den playfighting. Niara, Poof,Sami,Talya, Sakara the wolf­dog, and Dawnie and Rora laugh and joke beside the huge rock that forms our den, while Noloa the omega bounces around them, trying to get them to play. Snowiik, the pup we rescued a couple weeks ago, sits next to me, singing. “I want your fuzzy hat, fuzzy hat, fuzzy hat, yes I do!” she howls. Ever since she saw Violet’s new hat, she has been obsessed with it. Violet,Sierra, America, Daisy, and Billy Jr. are sled dogs owned by Bill, a man who lives a couple miles from our den. Bill has over one hundred dogs.Can you believe it? He keeps them as pets. People are weird. I loathe people. Most wolves do, because of how they act around us.I am the alpha of the wolf pack. My name is Sariak. I have silver and white fur. To other wolf packs, we are called The Coastline River Pack. To me, our pack is just Our Pack.

Our pack is weird; it’s different from other wolf packs. For one thing, there are no boys in our pack. Also, we only have one alpha, and two betas.

We live on the banks of a freshwater river that runs through the tundra, and down to the ocean. It has cold, blue water. It is The Coastline River. To the east, there is The Eastern Mountain. To the west, there is the ocean.

A loud growling noise meets my fluffy silver ears. I look up to see a giant metal human thing rocketing through the sky. Not more people! I turn to see my pack staring at the thing as it passes. I look back at the thing to see where it’s headed, and watch it swoop to the ground in front of The Eastern Mountain. Except I can’t see The Eastern Mountain, it is blocked from my view by people buildings. Lots of people buildings tower in the sky, lighting up the night with their bright lights. I decide that I should talk to the dogs about this. They know more about people than we ever will.

“Come!” I howl to the pack. “We are going to visit the dogs.”

“Why?’’ Snowiik yips.

“To ask them about that thing.” I answer.

We trot along in silence, wondering why people would come to our tundra.

“Sierra, America, Violet, Billy Jr., Daisy!” I call, when we reach Bill’s cabin.

The four groggy huskies slowly climb out of their dog boxes.

“What do you want Sariak? It’s four in the morning!” Violet exclaims.

“Do you know anything about those people buildings by The Eastern Mountain?” I ask.

Sierra crawls over to the fence that keeps them a part of the human world.

“They’re building a city, a place for people to live. Bob Austin Zayne Harry Dullwit is in charge of it. It’s going to be big.” She licks my nose through the bars of the fence. I glance over at the city, squinting my eyes against the glare of the lights.

“Why are the lights so bright?” I ask. “ The people can’t see without them, and they think that the lights are beautiful. But they’re wrong, the lights aren’t beautiful.”

I stare at the human lights. They glow, they dance, they flicker. But Sierra is right they are not beautiful. We have to go now, because Bill will be up soon, so we say our goodbyes and leave Bill’s cabin. But instead of heading home, I start to trot to the south.

“Uh, Sariak where are we going?” Pip asks.

“To see Why.” I answer. Why is the alpha of the rival wolf pack that lives a couple miles away.

Snowiik giggles. “Why?” she asks. Classic Why joke.

“Seriously Sariak, why?” Rikhani says.

“To see if he knows anything about the city.” I woof.

We walk slowly, our paws dragging through the thin layer of snow that covers the ground. None of us want to see Why. But I need to see if he knows anything about the city. He probably won’t since his head is empty of brains.

We reach Why’s territory in less than twenty minutes. The sun is

starting to rise, and everyone is yawning.

“Who goes there?” Why’s unfriendly voice booms across the tundra alerting everyone within ten miles that there is a trespasser in his territory.

I know that he is hiding behind a large snow­covered rock about five yards away.

“It’s us, Why.” I say.

“What do you want?” He struts out of his hiding place, snarling. His beta Eyei creeps up beside him. Why has smoke­black fur with cloudy gray paws. Eyei has dirty brown fur with a drab gray streak along his nose.

Soon Adno, Why’s third­in­command appears behind him.

“Have you seen the city?” I ask.

“Oh that? Those people will move away as soon as they find out that I am here!” Why lifts his chin proudly.

“You mean the people that can shoot, and kick, and slash knives?”

I growl grimly. Why rolls his eyes.

“It’ll be fine.” He says.

“Yeah ‘cause we actually know how to survive!” Eyei cackles.

“And…We are much tougher than you!” Adno boasts. Another wolf from Why’s pack, Pho, jumps out.

“We are awesome.” He says coolly.

“Whatever.” I bark in frustration.

I lead my pack away, mumbling under my breath about Why’s brainless head.

Back in our territory, I crawl into the den, with the others right behind me. Maybe it will all be better in a couple hours. It isn’t. The city is still right where it was before. I can smell the stink of humans. I snarl. Snowiik crawls out behind me.

“Sarie what’s wrong?” she whimpers.

“It’s nothing, Snow” I tell her.

“Is it the city?” she squeaks.

“Yeah.”

“Then why don’t you try to tear it down?” she says. Suddenly an idea pops into my head.

“Snow, you’re a genius!” I yip. Without stopping to get the rest of the pack, I start sprinting towards Bill’s house.

“Yay!” Snowiik barks, bouncing after me. We run straight up to the fence, howling. Violet climbs out of her dog­box.

“Sariak, what did we tell you about waking dogs up?”

“Violet, we need to tear down the city!” I say, jumping up and down.

“We can try to bring down the buildings by harnessing you guys to the buildings so you can pull them down!”

Violet thinks for a moment.

“It could work.” she decides. “The people say that twenty dogs can pull a house.”

“Great!” I woof.

“Billy Jr., America, Daisy, Sierra!” Violet calls. The three dogs climb out of their dog­boxes.

“What?” Daisy asks groggily. Violet explains my plan to them, giggling.

“I bet we could do it.” America says. She draws a line in the snow with her claw.

“Sierra and I will be in Lead, Billy Jr. and Lily will be in Swing, Daisy,Violet,Tanner,Aurora,Polar Bear,Grizzly,Lynx,Tiger,Wildfire,Blue, Ruby, and Snowfox will be in the Team positions, and Sarge and Wolfie will be in Wheel.”

Sierra howls and Lily,Tanner,Aurora,PolarBear,Grizzly,Lynx,Tiger,Wildfire,Blue,Ruby, Snowfox,Sarge and Wolfie all trot out of their dog­boxes and straight up to Sierra. She explains my plan to them.

“Let’s do it!” Ruby yaps happily.

“We will have to do it tomorrow morning, before the people wake up. We’ll have to do it quickly, so that no one sees us.” I say. The dogs nod.

The rest of the day passes quickly.I go home to get the rest of my pack, and we sleep by Bill’s house, so we don’t have to travel to get them.

I can’t sleep, I really hope my plan works. We are risking a lot, going to the city.There are so many bad thing that can happen; we could get caught

and killed by the people,the dogs can be seen and taken to the pound. I have come up with over a hundred problems we could face, by the time morning comes. Finally, the sun creeps over the horizon, and I bark to wake the others.

“Is it time?” Sierra yawns.

“Yeah.” I whisper.

The huge pack of us; eighteen dogs, and twelve wolves, trot silently across the tundra until we reach the city.

The dogs are each carrying their own harness, and Pip and Rikhani drag the gangline. The dogs drop their harnesses, and my pack and I move up the line of them helping them get into their harnesses. When we are done, the dogs walk to their places next to the gangline, and we hook them in place.

“Okay,” I squeak quietly, “Let’s go.” I walk straight into the city, looking for a place where we can hook the dogs.Finally I see a hose sticking from the side of a building. My pack and I tie the dogs to the hose, and hide behind the side of the building.

“All right everybody, up and HIKE!” I howl, instructing the dogs to begin running. They run. Their legs are a blur as they pull the building, but they don’t go anywhere. The building stays where it is.

“Whoa!” I call. The dogs stop running.

“It’s not working!” Polar Bear yells.

“I know.” I say, letting out a distressed whine. I drag my paws to the front of the line, where I help Sierra out of her harness. My pack starts helping the rest of them until they all are free. We slowly walk them back to Bill’s cabin, where the other dogs are waiting.

“How’d it go?” A black and white spotted husky asks. Sierra glares at him and he looks away. Daisy yawns. The dogs didn’t get much sleep last night either.

“Uh,” I say. “We should go.”

“Yeah.” Violet growls. We walk away, heads drooping. When we get to our den, we all wordlessly flop down in our spots. Before I know it, I’m asleep, and dreaming of a world where humans stayed out of wolves’ way, and

there were no hunters. I wake up to Snowiik play­fighting Talya.

“I’m gonna get you!” Snowiik yaps. “ ‘Gonna’ isn’t a word.” Sakara gently corrects. Rora stares at the city. “ I wish I could go bite that Bob Austin guy’s butt.” She growls. “This is wolf territory.” She laughs. “If he saw our teeth, he’d be real sorry for intruding!”

That gives me an idea.

“Rora, Sami, go get Why and his pack!” I command.

“Why?” Rora asks.

“I have a plan.” I say mysteriously. Rora and Noloa trot away to get Why. “Pip,Rikhani, get Tago’s pack!” I call. They do as they’re told, no questions asked.

“Niara, Poof, get Nikolai’s pack!” They stand up and begin walking south.

“Talya,Sakara, get Kaya’s pack!” Away they go. “Noloa, stay here with Snow!” I order. “I’ll get Siku’s pack.” Siku is an old friend of mine. She has pure white fur,the color of freshly­fallen snow, with stunning ice­blue eyes.

She has a large pack of strong Alaskan wolves. She lives north, where the rolling hills of the tundra melt into a bunch of tall mountains. It takes me a couple hours to get there.

“Siku!” I howl. “It’s me, Sariak!” After a couple minutes, I hear her howl back.

“Coming!” She calls. Soon she appears with her pack on the hill in front of me.

“Hi!” She yips. “What’s up?” I explain my plan.

“So, can you come help?” I ask.

“Of course!” She says. We walk back to my territory, wondering if my plan will work. The area around my den is surrounded by wolves. Wolves from all the different packs I know are sitting around, chatting.

“Ahem!” I woof. They stop talking and turn to listen to me.

“I have an idea for getting rid of the city!”

“Yay!” They cheer.

“We will surround Bob Austin’s house, and snarl, until he wets his pants!

He will be so scared, he will take down his city, and find somewhere else to build it!” I bark.

“Yay!” The wolves howl.

“Let’s go!” I yap. The wolves follow me to the edge of the city, where Bob Austin’s house sits. We surround it, snarling our loudest, most vicious, snarls. It doesn’t take long for Bob Austin’s wife, Lilly to come to the window. She gasps in fear.

“Bobby!” She shrieks, “There’s wolves out there!”

Bob Austin appears.

“WOLVES?!” He bellows, “I will not tolerate WOLVES near my city!”

He runs to his phone, and dials a number. “Hello, it’s Bob Austin Zayne Harry Dullwit, is this the Hunter’s Association Of Alaska?” Pause. “Good.

We have wolves here, and need someone to exterminate them.” Pause.

“Ok. Does Tyrell Faceplant still work there?” Pause. “You know the man with the blond beard who always wears a bearskin coat?” Pause. “Good, send him over. Tell him I’ll pay him two­thousand dollars.”Pause. “Great, thank you.” He hangs up.

“Um… I think you can go home now.” I say to the wolves. They walk away, grumbling. Once they are gone, I address my pack. “He’s sending a professional hunter after us, we’re going to have to lay low for a while.”

Snowiik whimpers.

“It’s okay Snow,” I tell her. “We’re just gonna have to avoid humans from now on.” We drag our paws back to our den silently. I flop down in my sleeping spot. I fall asleep quicker than a snow hare hops. I wake up early the next morning, before the sun is up. Snowiik, still asleep, twitches with bad dreams.

“Run,” She mutters. “Run faster, he’s gonna get us!” I walk outside, careful not to wake the others. To my surprise, Pip and Rikhani are awake, sitting outside.

“Good morning.” I whisper.

“Hi Sariak.” Pip says.

“What should we do about the hunter?” I ask them.

“I think the city’s a bigger problem.” Rikhani grunts.

“Ok then, what should we do about the city?” I murmur.

“I think we should move.” Rikhani answers. I blink.

“Move?” I gasp.

“Yeah, find a new territory.” She says.

“Huh.” I say, thinking. It could be a good idea. As long as we found somewhere nice, somewhere near the sea. It could work. We could go Northwest, far north, farther even than Siku’s pack. I’m pretty sure there’s ocean up there.

“Let’s move.” I decide, after several minutes of thinking. Pip and Rikhani blink in surprise, they obviously didn’t think that I would agree to leave my territory behind.

“I’m going to tell the rest of the pack.’’ I tell them. I enter the den. “Wake up!” I bark. “We’re moving.” That wakes them up.

“What?!” Poof shrieks.

“Really?” Talya asks, excited by the idea of an adventure. We trot outside.

The sun is up, and I’m ready to go. But first we need to say goodbye to the dogs. We sprint over to Bill’s house. The dogs are awake.

“Sariak, we need to tell you something!” Daisy says breathlessly.

“We’re moving!” Violet woofs.

“Really? So are we!” I say incredulously.

“Bill thinks that the city is stinky, so we’re moving north!” America yips.

“We’re going northwest!” I yap. Maybe we’ll live near them! I’m so happy I could explode!

“When are you leaving?” Sierra asks.

“Later today!” I answer.

“We’re leaving tomorrow.” Billy Jr. says.

“Maybe we’ll see you there!” I bark.

“Maybe.” Sierra says. Bill calls them so we say our goodbyes, and they dash away. We trot away, moving north.

We have to pass through Why’s territory to go north, so we soon hear “Who goes there?!” The big black wolf leaps out of his hiding place, growling.

“What do you want?” He snarls.

“We’re just passing through.” I say. “We’re moving.” He glances at his packmates, who are sitting just a few yards away.

“Maybe we should move.” He mutters to himself.

“Good.” I say. “You should go south.”

“Why south?” He asks.

“Because we’re going north.” I say. Then we walk away.

“I’m staying here!” He calls after us. “We’ll be fine. We’ll thrive here!”

He barks proudly.

Snowiik takes one look at them and snorts. “No you won’t!” She yips, and we trot away.

We walk all day, and at night we stop to rest. I can barely see the ugly city lights from here, and as soon as we find a nice place, I think we establish our territory.I fall asleep. At midnight I wake up to a yell.

“Wake up you stupid wolves!” I see the monstrous silhouette of a man with a gun. He is tall and strong, and I can tell immediately that this is the Tyrell Faceplant that Bob Austin talked about.

“Run!” I yell, rousing my packmates. They see Tyrell, and start sprinting away from him. I can’t see, I can’t think. All I know is we have to get away from this man. BAAAM! A gunshot sounds from a couple feet away. I don’t know who he shot. Someone yelps in agony. Now I know someones hurt. I don’t know what to do.

“Help!” Snowiik yells.

“Snow!” I see a bundle of fluff lying on the ground. Knowing it’s Snowiik, I grab her and run with the rest of the pack. The taste of blood fills my mouth but I keep running, afraid of what will happen if I stop. I know that humans can’t run very far, so after a couple miles I stop. The rest of the pack crowds around me and Snowiik.

“Is she ok?” Pip whines.

“My paw,” Snowiik groans. I sigh with relief that it is just her paw, and she can get better. Suddenly, Tyrell comes huffing and puffing up behind us.

“RUN!” I scream. Tyrell is right behind us as we sprint across the tundra. Then I see the ocean. It is covered in ice, and glistening in the moonlight. “On the sea ice!” I yell running straight onto the ice. It is almost spring, and the ice is thin. We never go onto the ice at this time of year, but

right now, I am not worrying about thin ice, I am worrying about being killed

by Tyrell. We sprint far out onto the ice, then stop, if we go any farther, we might be unable to find our way back. Tyrell comes up behind us smirking.

“I've got you now.” He says slyly. But the ocean is on our side today, because I hear a crack and Tyrell disappears into the black water. I look down, and see a huge hole in the ice, and Tyrell struggling in the icy water.

Rora laughs. “That’s what you get for messing with us!” I watch him desperately cling to an ice chunk. He opens his mouth, but it fills with seawater before he can yell for help. I try to laugh, but it comes out sounding fake. This is not funny. This is life or death for Tyrell Faceplant. I can’t stand it anymore.

“Pip, Rikhani grab his left jacket sleeve. Sakara, Talya, you take his right sleeve. Pull him out!” They do as they are told, careful not to fall into the water. They pull Tyrell out, and onto his back on the sea ice. He gasps, and sputters. Then he faints. “Keep him warm!” I instruct. The whole pack snuggles up against him, except for me and Rora.

“I can’t believe that we’re saving a human.” Rora mutters.

“Especially one that tried to kill Snowiik.” After a couple hours, Tyrell wakes up. Somehow, his clothes have dried, and he doesn't have hypothermia.

He takes one look at us, and screams. Then he gets up and runs away.

I snort. “Looks like we made a friend.” I say sarcastically. We spend the rest of the day traveling, trying to make up for lost time. I carry Snowiik in my mouth, as we trudge through the snow. By mid­afternoon we have gone so far that we can’t even see the city. We stop for a rest. After about an hour of lying around chatting, we start moving again.

A strong gust of wind blows across the tundra. I sprint forwards, enjoying the wind in my fur. The rest of the pack joins me, racing through the snow enjoying the gentle breeze. Suddenly, the ground disappears, and I stop short. We are on a small cliff overlooking the ocean, there is a rocky beach just below us. The sun is setting over the blue­green water. I turn around, to the east, there is a herd of caribou, to the south there is a fresh­water river, and to the north there is a forest. This place looks like a perfect place to live.

“Here!” I bark. Everyone agrees. We get to work building a den. We build it right where we are standing, so we have the view every night. When we are done, we climb in and fall asleep. The next day, I sit and look at the ocean while the others play. Suddenly, I hear footsteps behind me. I turn around, and find myself looking at Sierra!

“Sarie!” She woofs happily. “We found you!” She tells me that Bill is building a cabin about a mile south of here, and since he hasn’t built a fence yet, the dogs can run free. She says that the other dogs will be here soon.

She’s right. A couple minutes later, America, Violet, Billy Jr., Daisy, and one hundred other dogs lope towards us. My packmates see the huge swarm of dogs, and come over to say hello.

Violet spots Snowiik’s limp and runs to her.

“Snow, what happened?” She whimpers.

“I got shot by a hunter.” Snow whines back. I tell the dogs about Tyrell Faceplant. Violet pulls her fuzzy purple hat over her ears in fear.

“Wow. I’m glad you're okay.” America says. Snow grins, happy to be the center of attention.

Violet tells us all about their journey here. She says that they had to pull a sled full of building supplies and food.

“Oh, and I got you something Snow.” Violet says. She turns around and picks something off the ground. She looks back at us, holding a fuzzy blue hat with a pompom on top.

“YAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!” Snowiik howls joyfully, as Violet slips the hat over Snow’s tiny ears. We talk happily as Snowiik shows off her hat. After a couple hours of chatting, we hear a loud call.

“DOGS! COME! Sierra! America! Polar Bear! Billy Jr.! Ruby!” Bill yells.

“Bye!” I bark, as the dogs walk away. I lie down to take a nap. It’s easy to fall asleep in the cool snow, and I sleep for several hours. When I awaken, the sun has set, and the northern lights are awake in the sky.

Snowiik is sitting on the edge of the cliff, staring at the vibrant colors dancing across the sky.

“It’s beautiful.” Snowiik whispers. I look out at the water, the northern lights reflecting on the dark surface of the waves. I look up at the white stars against the blue­black night, and I know that Snowiik is right. It is beautiful.