Mist

## Chapter 1

It was dark. Mist couldn't sleep, so she decided to get out of her nest and explore.

She made her way across the clearing and pressed her belly to the ground, placing her pawsteps light as a feather while creeping past the half-asleep guards. Once she was past, she realized she'd been holding her breath, so she let it out.

She padded around the forest for a while, not sure what to do. She could catch a mouse. She could scare off a dog. She could bark at the horses nearby. She could maybe even cross onto the grassland wolves' territory... but she was pretty unlucky, so she decided to leave them be or else she would've gotten caught.

She heard a small rustle under a bush, and immediately flattened herself out onto the earth. Her nose picked up the scent of a rabbit. A rabbit was pretty rare out in the forests, so she figured she was close to the grasslands. She decided to go for it, and she stuck a paw under the bush to scare the rabbit out, then rushed to the other side of the bush to find it leaping away. She slammed her paw down on it and gave it a killing nip on the neck.

Mist gazed around her. That's when her heart dropped down to her paws. She was on grasslands. There were only a few trees as the forest gave way to grass. She picked up her catch and hurried away before she got caught. But her heart started racing when she caught the scent a wolf. And it just had to be the leader of the grassland's wolf pack.

"What do you have here, Mist?" he whispered to her.

"A-a bunny," Mist stammered.

"And where was it caught?"

"Here…"

"So does that mean you *stole* from us?"

"No, please, please, Shadow, let me explain… it was an accident…"

Shadow gazed at her for a moment.

"A true hunter doesn't cross onto another pack's territory." He bared his teeth.

Mist dropped the rabbit and pawed it towards him. "I'm sorry, I really am. Please take it as an apology."

Shadow pushed his muzzle into hers. "Listen, next time you cross onto my territory, you'll be punished. Understand?"

"Y-yes," Mist huffed.

"Good." Shadow turned tail and left.

At that split second, they heard a moose. Shadow stopped in his tracks and looked back at her.

"You hear that?" he whispered.

"Yes," Mist replied.

From the shadows of the forest, two sets of antlers came out, followed by the rest of the moose.

"Run!"

Mist dashed after Shadow, not caring if she was crossing onto his land. They were heading away from both of their camps, trying to swerve the moose away from the two packs' land.

She heard giant hooves from behind her and realized the moose wasn't very far behind, so she changed tracks and sprinted right, hoping the moose wouldn't go after her. But of course, it was focused on Mist.

She ran back to the forest, hoping she could jump in a lake and get away from it to where it couldn't follow. She tried to stay as far away from her camp as possible, dashing to the nearest lake she knew.

She was only a few tail-lengths away from the lake when she felt something hard pick her up by her two hind legs. She was flung onto a tree branch, and she managed to find a paw-hold so she wouldn't fall. Mist had never learned how to climb trees. She'd heard from elders that only cats could climb trees. She always envied cats. But here and now, she realized climbing trees wasn't a good thing after all. She was terrified. The moose ran to the tree and kicked its bark with its front legs. The tree shook, and Mist tried to grab it with her claws, and realized she wasn't like a cat. Not at all. She fell from branch onto branch, then her body slammed on the ground. The moose picked her up by its antlers and smashed her into the tree. It let go, and she fell again.

She closed her eyes and she felt blood soak her pelt. Her breath was quick and desperate for air, but it hurt to breathe. She tried to open her jaws to howl for help, but nothing came out.

The last thing Mist saw was black.

"Congratulations!" yowled Flameheart, the forest's medicine cat.

Blaze let out happy yelps.

"One sire¹ and one dam²!" she yowled.

"Can Birch come in and see?"

"Yes!"

Flameheart went to get Birch. When he entered, his eyes lit up.

"They're beautiful." He nuzzled her cheek. "Do you have names for them?"

"Isn't that a little fast?" Flameheart added.

"I already have names!" Blaze woofed. "This gray one will be Misty, and this white one will be Cloud. They match!"

"They're elegant names," Birch said and sat down next to her.

Misty wailed, and Blaze licked the top of her head to comfort her.

"They'll grow up to be fine hunters," she murmured.

"They will," Birch sighed.

1: A male puppy.

2: A female puppy.

## Chapter 2

“May all wolves gather for a pack meeting!”

Paws scuffled as wolves hurried to the gathering spot at the middle of the clearing.

“We have received information from our loyal Hunters. Mist is dead.”

Gasps filled the camp.

“They found her body out in the forest by a tree near the lake. No one knows how she died.”

Murmurs rose. Mist was quite popular. Everyone liked her. Even the elders, who just couldn’t seem to like any of the Hunters. Especially the newbies.

Two Hunters, Tooth and Claw, dragged Mist’s limp body forward. Misty couldn’t quite understand why they had to show Mist’s dead body to the wolves who were clearly mourning her death, and it just made it worse.

A wail rose out from the crowd. It was Misty’s mother, Rain. Rain had lost one of her pups, Misty’s sister, and her mate had been killed in a  battle. She had lost everyone. Misty couldn’t help but feel like Rain should get a new mate by now. She felt guilty for the feeling, but Rain would be happy. She knew it.

Misty had never met Mist. She had been born after she could meet her, the day she went missing. That was three sunrises ago. During the time she’d gotten used to her packmates, she’d spent time in the nursery and elder’s den listening to stories. Yet even though she’d never met Mist, she felt honored to have a name similar to Mist’s. Mist was quite a hero, according to the tales. She’d saved two pups, a hunter, and again, was quite popular. She sounded quite pretty, too. Her mother had said she was a dirty white color with blue eyes on the day they’d sent Hunters looking for her so they would know what to look for. Misty was light grey. She had green eyes. Yet she still felt quite similar to Mist, because Mist was a dirty white and she was light grey. That was close enough for her.

She snapped out of her thoughts when Cloud prodded her in the side with a paw.

“Ow,” she yipped.

“Sorry.” Cloud rounded his eyes. He lowered his voice. “Do you think we’re allowed to be here in this pack meeting as pups? I’m pretty sure it’s for trainees and Hunters along with the grown ups.”

“Of course we’re not allowed here!” Misty teased him. “You think they’d want newborn pups seeing a dead body?”

“We are wolves, after all,” said Cloud. “Don’t we have to get used to dead bodies?”

“Not at this age, we don’t,” Misty said.

Cloud glanced at her for a moment, then looked back. “We should really go, though,” he fretted. “They’ll mourn soon, and we have to sneak back into the nursery without getting caught. We can’t do that.”

“Just a little longer.” Misty craned her neck to get a better view. “I want to experience older wolf stuff.”

“Misty, come,” Cloud whisper-yelled through gritted teeth. “Being a Hunter is a long time away, seeing these things now won’t do you any good. Soon we’re gonna get caught.”

“You go back, I’ll be the one to get in trouble anyway!”

“Just come-“

“Misty and Cloud!”

A whole group of heads turned to look at the queen rushing out of the nursery.

“Where are Misty and Cloud?”

“Run!” Misty spat into Cloud’s ear.

Misty dashed off. Outside, she looked at the wide, open forest. She was awe-struck. She never thought the world could be so big. Inside that stone hollow, nothing could be seen outside. The starry night was beautiful. She looked around to see if she could find Mist’s star. Surely it would stand out, with them being similar and all. Her tail drooped when she couldn’t tell the difference between any of the stars, but then she realized she had to run.

She winded between the trees, the shadows like great spirits looming over her. She jumped over roots and avoided spiky thorn bushes. The mist was thick. She could hardly see where she was going, and soon she found her paws wet. She was in water. She yowled and went back, then bumped into a tree. She sat down and reached up to rub her head, but she failed. She looked up at the tree that had so rudely interrupted her escape. She scowled at it, and got up.

She wanted to leave, but something about the tree was different. It scared her. She didn’t like it. It seemed like there were spirits hanging around it. She was told by her mother it was foolish to believe in spirits, but she was strongly convinced they were real. That’s why she wondered if Mist was in the sky with her shiny star.

Maybe Mist was even… haunting this tree. Could it be? Could this be the tree Mist had been found by? Misty smelled for the scent of blood, and sure enough, when she checked the other side of the tree, she saw blood, gleaming in the mist. This was it. She was convinced Mist died here. She circled around the tree, trying to figure out what could’ve killed Mist. Was it the tree that killed Mist? She gasped and jumped back. But the tree did nothing. It was like every other tree.

She heard pawsteps coming from around her, and she couldn’t navigate where it was coming from. But she was sure she had been found.

“Misty?”

Misty poked her head out from behind the tree. She had questions to ask, but if she asked them they’d be suspicious of why she asked if Mist died there, because how would she know? She wasn’t allowed at the gathering, so did she eavesdrop? She decided not to ask any questions.

“Why are you here?” Claw asked.

“I wanted to hunt,” Misty lied.

“Pups don’t hunt! Especially at night! It’s dangerous out here, understand? You’ll be able to hunt in a few moons.” Claw sighed.

Misty rounded her eyes. “I didn’t know.”

“Pups are so foolish,” Tooth muttered from behind. “Come, let’s go back to camp.”

Misty got up to leave, but she just couldn’t leave the tree. She had a feeling she couldn't push out of her mind that she had to stay at the tree.

“What are you doing? Come!”

Misty couldn’t decide what to do. She said the first thing that came to her mind.

“What if a moose comes?” She whispered

“A moose won’t come.”

Misty closed her eyes. She thought of moose¹. She thought of the tree. Somehow the combination scared her. She sighed and left to follow the Hunters. She would sneak out tomorrow. Alone. Without Cloud.

1: Moose is the plural of moose. Since the pronunciation ends with s, grammatically, it would be wrong to add ‘es’ to the end.

## Chapter 3

Misty opened her eyes. Light shone through the branches of the den, uneven and unstable on the flat ground. She’d woken up late.

She stretched until her tail quivered and circled around her nest. She ducked as she got out of the trainee’s den and padded over to Cloud, who was scanning the fresh-kill pile for a plump piece of prey.

“Can we go hunt?”

Startled, Cloud jumped and barked.

“Gosh, you scared the stars out of me!” He complained.

“Sorry,” Misty apologized.

“You wanna go hunt?”

“Yes, Cloud, please?”

“I’m about to eat!” Cloud grumbled with a mouth full of squirrel.

“But the last time a wolf caught a deer was moons ago. I wanna catch a deer or an elk and be special.”

“Wolves catch deer and elk in packs.”

“We’ll we a pack of our own!”

“Elk run fast. We need skilled hunters. We barely started training, we can’t even catch squirrels yet.”

Misty let out a humph. “You’re too good. I’ll catch a deer or even better, an elk myself!”

With that, she stormed off out the entrance. Cloud looked after her, back at his squirrel, then ran after her.

“Wait! I’ll come!”

Misty didn’t look back. “Okay, let’s split up! I’ll go right, you go left. Go far, elks don’t appear in small forests like these.”

“How would you know?”

“I want to be a skilled Hunter, so I asked Tooth and Claw.” Misty raised her chin.

Cloud gave out a sigh. “I’m off.”

Misty watched him run until he was out of sight. She’d expected him not to come. She wanted to be alone, she’d asked him to come just so he wouldn’t ask where she was going. It would be risky with him with her, but Misty wasn’t near him anyway. She dashed off. Of course she wanted to hunt deer and elk one day, but she was just going back to the tree. Something about it terrified her. It did. Last time she went near it, it loomed over her like a master ordering his slave.

She ran and ran, but soon, she was lost. She watched the forest give way to grasslands. She smelled something rotten. She smelled something… big. But Misty ignored it. She wasn’t scared of anything. She wondered if she was on grassland territory yet. She wasn’t going to risk it, so she started to walk back to her territory. And yet that big creature’s smell just got closer. Along with the smell of wolves. Grassland wolves.

Misty dashed off. She would be in big trouble if she was caught there. She didn’t even go there intentionally. She wondered if Mist had ever gotten caught on another pack’s land. She probably didn’t. Mist was too good. She would know if she were crossing over.

She heard pawsteps behind her.

“Hey!”

Misty ran.

“*Hey!*”

Misty slackened her pace. She stopped, then turned around with big, scared eyes. She was scared of one thing: adult wolves. They meant you were in trouble.

“What are you doing *here?*”

“I’m sorry!”

“Answer the question!”

“I was looking to hunt - Not on your territory! On ours! It was an accident!”

“Here, we’re going to your leader.”

The she-wolf padded over to here and gave an ordering swish of her tail to follow her.

“No, please, no! I’ll be in big trouble! Fire will kill me!”

“Oh, she won’t kill you.”

“My mother will be mad!”

The she wolf stopped. She turned around.

“She should be. You barely even started training, you’re practically a pup. You shouldn’t even be out in the forest alone, much worse *crossing land!*”

“I’m sorry.” Misty trembled.

“Listen, you want to not get in trouble? I won’t tell your leader, but next time I will.

“Hey Fish, you comin’?” One of the wolves in Fish’s patrol howled.

“Yeah!” She ran to them. She looked over her shoulder one more time to give Misty a look, then left.

Misty was still trembling. She’d never gotten in trouble before. Good Hunters never got in trouble. And she didn’t want ber mother to be upset. Heck, she didn’t want *Fire* to be upset. She couldn’t imagine how a pack leader would take such a misbehaved pup’s mistake like this.

But Misty wanted to see that tree. She got her hind off the ground and dashed back in the forest. She sniffed for water. That big animal’s scent was washing over every other smell, so Misty couldn’t navigate her way to the lake.

She heard something big stomping behind her. Something very big.

Two sets of antlers came out of the shadows. Misty’s heart dropped to her paws. It was a moose. Misty had always been scared of moose. She would never admit it, but she was. Somehow, it was her worst fear, even though she’d never seen one. Somehow, she knew what it looked like, but she’d never encountered one. Somehow, she knew it was related to the tree, even though she didn’t watch Mist die.

Right then and there, she had a flashback.

“*Run!”*

*What do I do? Oh, I’ll go right. I can’t go to camp, then it would lead the moose there. Wait, But then it would go after Shadow if I go right… what choice do I have? I need it to stop chasing me. Shoot, it’s close. Anytime now its hooves will step on my tail. Okay, time to go right.*

*It’s still chasing me! What do I do- Gosh, I’m stupid, I should go to a lake and swim to where it can’t get me. Are there any lakes out here? Is the forest really the only place humid enough for water? This is ridiculous.*

*Sigh*

*I’m going left. Sorry, Fire. If it finds our camp, I hope you understand it was life or death. Okay, I see trees. Good. Wait, I forgot where the lake was. It was where this weird group of trees are separated from the other trees in the middle. right? Who cares, I’m going. Oh! I see it! It’s that weird group of trees. I wish Tooth was here. I want us to be on this adventure together. Oh well. Oh gosh, the moose is so close I feel the earth shake behind me. I need to be faster! It’s so close!*

*Pant, pant*

*Panick!*

*Ow.*

*Am I flying? I’m flying! OW! Was I flying or not, because I just hit a branch. Stars, am I a cat now? Cool! Elders always say cats climb trees! My dream! Wait, this is hard. Wow, they made it sound so easy. How come cats’ claws can drag them up but mine can’t? Oh, stars I’m falling! Dad, Drop, someone help me! Why did you have to be stars now? That’s a branch - grab it! Idiot, too slow. Am I really just gonna fall from branch to branch? Ow. Ow! Ow…*

*I’m on the ground now. Great, run to the lake now! Gosh, it’s hard to move. Ow! What is this picking me up? Wait, is the moose picking me up? Wait, wait, this is too fast, why are we moving toward the tree now?*

*Screech*

*I… can’t move…*

*I need help! Tooth! Please! Dad, Drop! Please, just come to me. Rain will suffer! She needs me!*

*Why is my voice not coming out? Rain! Tooth! Fire! Help!*

*I’m done. Done. Gone.*

*I just wanted to tell Tooth I love him.*