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  As the alpha rounded the corner, a morbid sight unfolded before her.

  They stood at the back a small mountainside cave, roughly cylindrical like the lava tubes, and probably only twenty-five, thirty wolf-lengths long at most. The outer entrance looked recently reopened, likely from the earthquakes. A deep, fuzzy silence filled the room, the only noise being the faint snowy wind from outside, deep in the Dragonshield. A deep carpet of ash coated the ground, flakes of it thrown airborne by the gusts. Scattered throughout the chamber, half-buried in the breath of what ended them, lay the ancient skeletons of many wolves.

  Large, small, fragile, strong. From all strengths, all ages, even pups. Some crumpled near the far entrance, others huddled against the walls. All preserved in ash, and perfectly hidden from the elements for a hundred years. The original members of Tentaka, of which only bone remained.

  Akuto stood unmoving, jaws slightly parted. She couldn’t see any of it, but a haunting, nauseating feeling gripped her chest, filling her stomach with dread. The ash choked her nose with a chalky scent of death, and the stifled whistle of wind rattled her frame. “What...what is it?” she asked softly, already fearing the answer.

  What he saw knocked the breath out of him, to the point where he could not bring himself to answer his Alpha’s question. Instead, all he could was watch both mesmerized and horrified, at the remains of a whole pack that had been immortalized by the very thing that had probably ended them.

  He could feel his plush fur standing up and bristling along his spine, the heaviness of ash and dust clinging to the inside of his nose and throat as he gasped beneath his breath. The sight was unbelievable, and he had feeling he could still see them moving, hear them screaming at their demise. A shiver run through the Tora, who stiffened as he tried to get himself together, brushing his flank against his Heika lightly in silent comfort.

  Hayes couldn’t believe it. Never in his life had he heard of something similar, much less seen it.

  “How… how is this possible?” He questioned, his voice barely a hoarse whisper, afraid he might awaken the dead if he spoke any louder. The presence of the rest of their party, of Akuto herself, suddenly felt secondary and hollow, all of his focus set on the mummies that stood before him; at the proof that other wolves had belonged to their legendary pack, probably long before they had even been born.

  This was… horrific.

  There were no other words, as the brown-hued Itachi followed her packmates around the corner, golden eyes blinking as light from outside began to pour into her vision. It took her a moment for her sight to adjust, nose quivering and ears twitching as her body began to make sense of the world around her. The scent was that of stale, dead ash, mixed with the harsh chill but freshness of the mountain air outside. The echo and low moaning of the wind carrying its way through the tunnel took a moment for her to orient herself with, but once she did…

  “Death.” The word dropped from her mouth before she could stop herself, instinctively answering the heika’s question. Swallowing, the she-wolf padded forward and glanced at Hayes and Akuto before cautiously going to sniff one of the mummified skeletons. Her tail was in between her legs. “There were wolves here, Akuto-heika,” she said, voice slightly louder to make sure it carried. “But… they’re only bones now. Ash and bones. Lots of them.”

  The sizes of so many of the bodies. There’d been pups here. And juveniles. And older wolves. Her stomach clenched. Rey was no stranger to death, and she’d long since conditioned herself to know and believe that there was a concrete end to all life at one point or another. That was how life worked. But this… even this sight made the Itachi feel almost faint with horror, and her heart ached for whatever sudden end had met these creatures. They were stuck in poses of life. Whatever had killed them had been quick, and had frozen them here.

  “But what… did this? I-” Rey had never seen anything like this, nor had she ever truly believe in the supernatural. Perhaps, that was, until now. “Were they… cursed? An earthquake could not have done this, they’d be crushed.”

  I will never say another word against the mountains for stubbing my paw on a rock ever again.

  Chandra froze in place, his eyes locked on the horrible sight. The herb leaf fell out of his open jaws as a nervous quiver overtook him. He couldn’t believe what was in front of them. Death in every direction- no it was worse. It was life cut short and abruptly by some powerful, terrible force. The strength drained from him and his hind legs met the ashy ground. He could barely hold himself up as an uncontrollable shaking grabbed ahold of him.

  “What...what is it?”

  Chandra couldn’t respond, there was a tightness in his throat as his tears broke over his lids and stained the gray earth. His head hung low as he finally tore his vision away from the monstrous scene. He knew Akuto warned them in the beginning of this journey that what they found might not be pleasant but he was in no way prepared for this. He thought back to the bones next to the rubble. They must have been from a wolf also. Even they weren’t able to escape whatever happened here. He stood corrected from his earlier thought. This was the scariest place he had ever been.

  “So much life… cut short so quickly…” He spoke out loud, finally able to voice his thoughts. But like a thought, he was not talking to anyone in particular. ‘It can’t have ended this way…’ He thought solemnly.

“No… That may have been their death but that should not be their end.” He said as defiant confidence filled his voice. He slowly lifted himself from the ground and furrowed his brows as he looked to the many skeletal remains and then turned back to Akuto. “Akuto-Heika. This tragedy must not stay this way. These wolves died so quickly… and their was no one to put them to rest. But now that their fate has been revealed to us, it is our duty to do so.” He suggested, voice steady and full of conviction. Maybe that the reason they were called to this place in the first place.

The alpha visibly recoiled, fur bristling and ears pinning flat against her skull.

“There were wolves here, Akuto-heika.”

Her gut twisted, every inch of her fur standing on end. Chandra’s plea almost passed her by. Everything felt like a blur, barely real. She mashed her eyes shut, as if she could will the spectacle out of her mind.

  Back before she’d resurrected the pack, she’d learned bits and pieces of legends from the old pack. Several of them, including that etching in the ground from far ago, depicted a rain of fire from Ascension Peak, which had devastated all the land in a moment. Their lives had ended so quickly, in the virtual blink of an eye. That alone was horrifying...but what truly scared her were its implications - if this had happened once before, it could happen again, couldn’t it…? There was nothing to prevent history from repeating itself. What if that happened to the wolves standing next to her, right now? The others back in the Cavern? They stood beside her, real and living, but so had the Tentaka one hundred years ago….they must’ve thought they were safe, too. What were they thinking, when the mountain erupted? What were they feeling? So many lives, so many hopes, dreams...friendships, memories, worries...so much had died beyond mere flesh, in the instant fate chose to turn. These wolves had personalities, souls unique to them. Gone, and now buried in this choking essence of death.

  Tears rose unbidden to her eyes and she shuddered. Flashes of a moment long gone rose again: her parents, her brothers. She couldn’t do it again. Hayes, Yuuzai, Reahla, Chandra...all of her pack. Akuto struggled to shut her mind up, its conjurings overclocked by fear. Stop it, she begged silently, stop it! She was supposed to know what to say. She was supposed to be the one who fixed things. To make things better!

  But she only managed to shake her head in response to the Kawa. If she opened her mouth, she wasn’t sure what would come out.

  He felt the change in his Heika, the air growing heavier around them as their common dread grew and grew with every passing second. It was the first time he saw her so drawn back into herself, so small and affected by the statues they now looked at. And it felt wrong to the Tora, who began to shrink as well, hunching over while his eyes searched for something invisible amongst the cadavers.

  The lack of response to Chandra’s suggestion took him aback, but something told him it wasn’t out of rejection for the idea, but out of… something else. Something bigger. So Hayes took it upon himself to comment, if only to aid the Kawa and speak his mind for once.

  “That is a beautiful idea, Chandra” he said, his voice sinking slightly, charged with emotion. Hayes even went as far as looking back at the other male over his shoulder, gratitude and admiration in his gaze at the bit of closure he was offering those poor souls.

  And now them, bearers of such a realization, as well.

  Chandra was speechless as he witnessed tears well up in Akuto’s eyes and watched her shake violently. He was more prepared for her to reject his idea than break down and be unable to answer it. His ears laid back against his skull when she shook her head. He took a few pawsteps back in an attempt to give her more space. Chandra was honestly more confused by it than anything.

  Though he never thought about it before, he did somewhat believe in the idea that alphas-or Heikas they were one in the same- were somewhat divine or at least were above other wolves. When he thought of an alpha, he saw a figure of immense strength and wisdom. And that even though they made mistakes, they were much better at correcting the damage from them. This, after all, was the reason why he couldn’t be one, right?

  Akuto showed him something he had never seen before. An alpha being weak and vulnerable. Even his own parents, despite their times of gentleness, had never shown much vulnerability. So with this Chandra had an epiphany. Alphas are imperfect. They were no better than any other wolf despite their title. They had strengths and weaknesses and fears and anxieties like anyone else.

  ‘What have I done?’ He thought as he realized how much pressure he put on the Heika. They stumbled upon this terrible scene and though he quickly recovered and set his mind to moving on that didn’t mean anyone else did. This was not the time to speak ideas. He should have given them more time to absorb the horror that was in front of them. Chandra turned away from Akuto. “I apologize Akuto-Heika.” slipped out of his mouth quietly.

  “That is a beautiful idea, Chandra”

  Chandra looked up to Hayes who had responded despite their Heika’s silence. He appreciated that he agreed with him and returned his gaze with a small smile. “Thank you Hayes” He said in small voice still yet unable to shake his new view of reality. This whole experience gave him a lot of uncomfortable subjects to think about.

  Looking around at these mummified skeletons, feeling a dark pit in the base of her stomach, the brown-hued Itachi gave a few more snuffles at the ash-covered forms before sneezing and turning away. Too much life cut too short, indeed. Her golden eyes landed on a pair of miniscule figures. Pups, perhaps no older than a month or two, were huddled together in a corner. Feeling her ears go back in discomfort, she promptly looked away.

  From the corner of her eye, she caught glimpse of Akuto trembling, and Rey cleared her throat awkwardly before looking away from that sight as well. Emotions had never quite been her strong-suit, nor had comfort, and so in truth the she-wolf began looking for some kind of an escape from this heavy environment- “Let me take a look outside,” she said, coughing uncomfortably before padding a ways from her packmates. “See where we are.” Giving them, and herself, some space was probably for the best.

  Picking up to a trot, the ash grew thinner the closer to the opening of the cavern she went. The air became cleaner, more open, until finally it felt as though she was breathing fresh air for the first time. At the very least, it had been several hours. Flaring her nostrils, and letting her eyes adjust, Reahla peeked outside to be greeted by a vision of the most intense majesty.

  Ascension Peak stretched out high above this cavern, this entire area surrounded by massive sky-touching mountains that shielded this place from the entirety of the outside world. It was isolated. Beautiful. This truly must have been where the old Imperials had made their home. See, Grams and Pawpaw? The stories were true. But even that brief, golden revelation was not enough to truly distract her from the grim situation back inside.

  Rey returned to the rest of their scouting party. “We’re in the middle of the mountains. Nothing out there’s been touched in a long while.” It probably wasn’t the most tactful of announcements, given the subject matter currently circulating about, but she truly didn’t know what else to do, or say. This was not her specialty. “We should… probably head back, now that we know what’s here. And we can figure out… a burial, or a ceremony, once we’ve had some time to- Well.” Remembering her place, Reahla cleared her throat. “The choice is yours, Akuto-heika. We… we stand with you, whatever you decide.” At least I do. I’ve got nothing else better.

  Akuto took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. You’ve got to keep it together, she forced herself. They’re waiting for YOU. But it took her a long moment, even then. The scent of ash alone was so choking, regardless of the horrors it’d created.

  She managed to stand up straight, ears still slightly angled. “You’re fine, Chandra,” she responded quietly, her voice raw and weak. But at least...it was something. She was speaking. All energy seemed to abandon her as she took a sluggish step forward, paws sinking uncomfortably into the blanket of ash. “I would be...happy to see that happen. It’s honorable. And I think it’s what they deserve,” she added. Akuto continued forward until she reached one of the skeletons, where she stopped. The alpha bent her head low, softly touching her own nose to the crown of their skull. The followup was nearly imperceptible, almost a whisper: “...they are the ones who founded our entire legacy.” She closed her eyes, hovering over the long-fallen wolf’s form, then finally drew away.

The alpha rose up to full height again, exhaling wearily. She sniffed and shook her head emptily before turning back to the others. “You are right, Reahla - for now, this is as good a start as any. The rest of the pack should be informed...and when the dust has had time to settle,” she continued, turmoil bubbling in her chest, “we can figure out how best to honor their memory.”

Skin by SimplySilent | BG image by Nikkayla

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  As the alpha rounded the corner, a morbid sight unfolded before her.

  They stood at the back a small mountainside cave, roughly cylindrical like the lava tubes, and probably only twenty-five, thirty wolf-lengths long at most. The outer entrance looked recently reopened, likely from the earthquakes. A deep, fuzzy silence filled the room, the only noise being the faint snowy wind from outside, deep in the Dragonshield. A deep carpet of ash coated the ground, flakes of it thrown airborne by the gusts. Scattered throughout the chamber, half-buried in the breath of what ended them, lay the ancient skeletons of many wolves.

  Large, small, fragile, strong. From all strengths, all ages, even pups. Some crumpled near the far entrance, others huddled against the walls. All preserved in ash, and perfectly hidden from the elements for a hundred years. The original members of Tentaka, of which only bone remained.

  Akuto stood unmoving, jaws slightly parted. She couldn’t see any of it, but a haunting, nauseating feeling gripped her chest, filling her stomach with dread. The ash choked her nose with a chalky scent of death, and the stifled whistle of wind rattled her frame. “What...what is it?” she asked softly, already fearing the answer.

  What he saw knocked the breath out of him, to the point where he could not bring himself to answer his Alpha’s question. Instead, all he could was watch both mesmerized and horrified, at the remains of a whole pack that had been immortalized by the very thing that had probably ended them.

  He could feel his plush fur standing up and bristling along his spine, the heaviness of ash and dust clinging to the inside of his nose and throat as he gasped beneath his breath. The sight was unbelievable, and he had feeling he could still see them moving, hear them screaming at their demise. A shiver run through the Tora, who stiffened as he tried to get himself together, brushing his flank against his Heika lightly in silent comfort.

  Hayes couldn’t believe it. Never in his life had he heard of something similar, much less seen it.

  “How… how is this possible?” He questioned, his voice barely a hoarse whisper, afraid he might awaken the dead if he spoke any louder. The presence of the rest of their party, of Akuto herself, suddenly felt secondary and hollow, all of his focus set on the mummies that stood before him; at the proof that other wolves had belonged to their legendary pack, probably long before they had even been born.

  This was… horrific.

  There were no other words, as the brown-hued Itachi followed her packmates around the corner, golden eyes blinking as light from outside began to pour into her vision. It took her a moment for her sight to adjust, nose quivering and ears twitching as her body began to make sense of the world around her. The scent was that of stale, dead ash, mixed with the harsh chill but freshness of the mountain air outside. The echo and low moaning of the wind carrying its way through the tunnel took a moment for her to orient herself with, but once she did…

  “Death.” The word dropped from her mouth before she could stop herself, instinctively answering the heika’s question. Swallowing, the she-wolf padded forward and glanced at Hayes and Akuto before cautiously going to sniff one of the mummified skeletons. Her tail was in between her legs. “There were wolves here, Akuto-heika,” she said, voice slightly louder to make sure it carried. “But… they’re only bones now. Ash and bones. Lots of them.”

  The sizes of so many of the bodies. There’d been pups here. And juveniles. And older wolves. Her stomach clenched. Rey was no stranger to death, and she’d long since conditioned herself to know and believe that there was a concrete end to all life at one point or another. That was how life worked. But this… even this sight made the Itachi feel almost faint with horror, and her heart ached for whatever sudden end had met these creatures. They were stuck in poses of life. Whatever had killed them had been quick, and had frozen them here.

  “But what… did this? I-” Rey had never seen anything like this, nor had she ever truly believe in the supernatural. Perhaps, that was, until now. “Were they… cursed? An earthquake could not have done this, they’d be crushed.”

  I will never say another word against the mountains for stubbing my paw on a rock ever again.

  Chandra froze in place, his eyes locked on the horrible sight. The herb leaf fell out of his open jaws as a nervous quiver overtook him. He couldn’t believe what was in front of them. Death in every direction- no it was worse. It was life cut short and abruptly by some powerful, terrible force. The strength drained from him and his hind legs met the ashy ground. He could barely hold himself up as an uncontrollable shaking grabbed ahold of him.

  “What...what is it?”

  Chandra couldn’t respond, there was a tightness in his throat as his tears broke over his lids and stained the gray earth. His head hung low as he finally tore his vision away from the monstrous scene. He knew Akuto warned them in the beginning of this journey that what they found might not be pleasant but he was in no way prepared for this. He thought back to the bones next to the rubble. They must have been from a wolf also. Even they weren’t able to escape whatever happened here. He stood corrected from his earlier thought. This was the scariest place he had ever been.

  “So much life… cut short so quickly…” He spoke out loud, finally able to voice his thoughts. But like a thought, he was not talking to anyone in particular. ‘It can’t have ended this way…’ He thought solemnly.

“No… That may have been their death but that should not be their end.” He said as defiant confidence filled his voice. He slowly lifted himself from the ground and furrowed his brows as he looked to the many skeletal remains and then turned back to Akuto. “Akuto-Heika. This tragedy must not stay this way. These wolves died so quickly… and their was no one to put them to rest. But now that their fate has been revealed to us, it is our duty to do so.” He suggested, voice steady and full of conviction. Maybe that the reason they were called to this place in the first place.

The alpha visibly recoiled, fur bristling and ears pinning flat against her skull.

“There were wolves here, Akuto-heika.”

Her gut twisted, every inch of her fur standing on end. Chandra’s plea almost passed her by. Everything felt like a blur, barely real. She mashed her eyes shut, as if she could will the spectacle out of her mind.

  Back before she’d resurrected the pack, she’d learned bits and pieces of legends from the old pack. Several of them, including that etching in the ground from far ago, depicted a rain of fire from Ascension Peak, which had devastated all the land in a moment. Their lives had ended so quickly, in the virtual blink of an eye. That alone was horrifying...but what truly scared her were its implications - if this had happened once before, it could happen again, couldn’t it…? There was nothing to prevent history from repeating itself. What if that happened to the wolves standing next to her, right now? The others back in the Cavern? They stood beside her, real and living, but so had the Tentaka one hundred years ago….they must’ve thought they were safe, too. What were they thinking, when the mountain erupted? What were they feeling? So many lives, so many hopes, dreams...friendships, memories, worries...so much had died beyond mere flesh, in the instant fate chose to turn. These wolves had personalities, souls unique to them. Gone, and now buried in this choking essence of death.

  Tears rose unbidden to her eyes and she shuddered. Flashes of a moment long gone rose again: her parents, her brothers. She couldn’t do it again. Hayes, Yuuzai, Reahla, Chandra...all of her pack. Akuto struggled to shut her mind up, its conjurings overclocked by fear. Stop it, she begged silently, stop it! She was supposed to know what to say. She was supposed to be the one who fixed things. To make things better!

  But she only managed to shake her head in response to the Kawa. If she opened her mouth, she wasn’t sure what would come out.

  He felt the change in his Heika, the air growing heavier around them as their common dread grew and grew with every passing second. It was the first time he saw her so drawn back into herself, so small and affected by the statues they now looked at. And it felt wrong to the Tora, who began to shrink as well, hunching over while his eyes searched for something invisible amongst the cadavers.

  The lack of response to Chandra’s suggestion took him aback, but something told him it wasn’t out of rejection for the idea, but out of… something else. Something bigger. So Hayes took it upon himself to comment, if only to aid the Kawa and speak his mind for once.

  “That is a beautiful idea, Chandra” he said, his voice sinking slightly, charged with emotion. Hayes even went as far as looking back at the other male over his shoulder, gratitude and admiration in his gaze at the bit of closure he was offering those poor souls.

  And now them, bearers of such a realization, as well.

  Chandra was speechless as he witnessed tears well up in Akuto’s eyes and watched her shake violently. He was more prepared for her to reject his idea than break down and be unable to answer it. His ears laid back against his skull when she shook her head. He took a few pawsteps back in an attempt to give her more space. Chandra was honestly more confused by it than anything.

  Though he never thought about it before, he did somewhat believe in the idea that alphas-or Heikas they were one in the same- were somewhat divine or at least were above other wolves. When he thought of an alpha, he saw a figure of immense strength and wisdom. And that even though they made mistakes, they were much better at correcting the damage from them. This, after all, was the reason why he couldn’t be one, right?

  Akuto showed him something he had never seen before. An alpha being weak and vulnerable. Even his own parents, despite their times of gentleness, had never shown much vulnerability. So with this Chandra had an epiphany. Alphas are imperfect. They were no better than any other wolf despite their title. They had strengths and weaknesses and fears and anxieties like anyone else.

  ‘What have I done?’ He thought as he realized how much pressure he put on the Heika. They stumbled upon this terrible scene and though he quickly recovered and set his mind to moving on that didn’t mean anyone else did. This was not the time to speak ideas. He should have given them more time to absorb the horror that was in front of them. Chandra turned away from Akuto. “I apologize Akuto-Heika.” slipped out of his mouth quietly.

  “That is a beautiful idea, Chandra”

  Chandra looked up to Hayes who had responded despite their Heika’s silence. He appreciated that he agreed with him and returned his gaze with a small smile. “Thank you Hayes” He said in small voice still yet unable to shake his new view of reality. This whole experience gave him a lot of uncomfortable subjects to think about.

  Looking around at these mummified skeletons, feeling a dark pit in the base of her stomach, the brown-hued Itachi gave a few more snuffles at the ash-covered forms before sneezing and turning away. Too much life cut too short, indeed. Her golden eyes landed on a pair of miniscule figures. Pups, perhaps no older than a month or two, were huddled together in a corner. Feeling her ears go back in discomfort, she promptly looked away.

  From the corner of her eye, she caught glimpse of Akuto trembling, and Rey cleared her throat awkwardly before looking away from that sight as well. Emotions had never quite been her strong-suit, nor had comfort, and so in truth the she-wolf began looking for some kind of an escape from this heavy environment- “Let me take a look outside,” she said, coughing uncomfortably before padding a ways from her packmates. “See where we are.” Giving them, and herself, some space was probably for the best.

  Picking up to a trot, the ash grew thinner the closer to the opening of the cavern she went. The air became cleaner, more open, until finally it felt as though she was breathing fresh air for the first time. At the very least, it had been several hours. Flaring her nostrils, and letting her eyes adjust, Reahla peeked outside to be greeted by a vision of the most intense majesty.

  Ascension Peak stretched out high above this cavern, this entire area surrounded by massive sky-touching mountains that shielded this place from the entirety of the outside world. It was isolated. Beautiful. This truly must have been where the old Imperials had made their home. See, Grams and Pawpaw? The stories were true. But even that brief, golden revelation was not enough to truly distract her from the grim situation back inside.

  Rey returned to the rest of their scouting party. “We’re in the middle of the mountains. Nothing out there’s been touched in a long while.” It probably wasn’t the most tactful of announcements, given the subject matter currently circulating about, but she truly didn’t know what else to do, or say. This was not her specialty. “We should… probably head back, now that we know what’s here. And we can figure out… a burial, or a ceremony, once we’ve had some time to- Well.” Remembering her place, Reahla cleared her throat. “The choice is yours, Akuto-heika. We… we stand with you, whatever you decide.” At least I do. I’ve got nothing else better.

  Akuto took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. You’ve got to keep it together, she forced herself. They’re waiting for YOU. But it took her a long moment, even then. The scent of ash alone was so choking, regardless of the horrors it’d created.

  She managed to stand up straight, ears still slightly angled. “You’re fine, Chandra,” she responded quietly, her voice raw and weak. But at least...it was something. She was speaking. All energy seemed to abandon her as she took a sluggish step forward, paws sinking uncomfortably into the blanket of ash. “I would be...happy to see that happen. It’s honorable. And I think it’s what they deserve,” she added. Akuto continued forward until she reached one of the skeletons, where she stopped. The alpha bent her head low, softly touching her own nose to the crown of their skull. The followup was nearly imperceptible, almost a whisper: “...they are the ones who founded our entire legacy.” She closed her eyes, hovering over the long-fallen wolf’s form, then finally drew away.

The alpha rose up to full height again, exhaling wearily. She sniffed and shook her head emptily before turning back to the others. “You are right, Reahla - for now, this is as good a start as any. The rest of the pack should be informed...and when the dust has had time to settle,” she continued, turmoil bubbling in her chest, “we can figure out how best to honor their memory.”

Skin by SimplySilent | BG image by Nikkayla