Hawk's Grief

### **Part 1**

Hawk growled playfully and leapt onto Crimson, tackling him. Crimson snarled and swatted at her ears, so in return she battered at Crimson's underbelly. Crimson kicked Hawk off of him, then flew to his paws and leapt at her, which lead to a small wrestling match between the two pups. In the end, Hawk ended up covering Crimson's eyes with a paw and sending him crashing to the ground, where he fought against her feebly.

"Ha! Just accept the fact that I can fight better than you!" Hawk said cheerfully, uncovering Crimson's eyes and leaping off of him. She turned back towards Crimson and got a faceful of his black and red fur. In a flash, Hawk was pinned on the ground and glaring up at Crimson in frustration. "That wasn't fair!"

Crimson grinned, replying, "Life isn't fair. I won, and that's that."

Hawk shoved Crimson off of her heavily, and got to her paws. She turned to look around at the small clearing they were playing in. Sun shone through a hole in the thick canopy of leaves in the colorful forest. Bright green grass covered the clearing, and groups of pink and yellow flowers sprouted out of the ground in regular intervals. All in all, it was a peaceful place... until the sound of gunshot could be heard close by.

"What was that?" Crimson said worriedly, though the look on his face showed that he knew exactly what it was. Another gunshot sounded, followed by the loud noise of rustling branches and crunching leaves that seemed to be coming closer to the pair of pups.

"Crimson, we need to get out of here!" Hawk exclaimed.

"I know, but which way would we go? And what about Heart and Thunder? We can't just leave them, they'll think we're dead!"

Hawk glanced around worriedly, as another gunshot sounded, even closer that time. "Well, I'm not going to let you be killed! C'mon, we'll just have to hide!" She darted off to a nearby clump of bushes, Crimson on her heels. They both skidded to a halt and leapt into the bushes, where they hunkered down and waited for the gunshots to go away.

Instead, the gunshots got steadily louder, until it seemed they were right outside of the pups' hiding place. Hawk decided to check for any twolegs, and mustered up her courage, before sticking her head out of the bushes. She came face to face with a twoleg, a male by the look of him. Hawk let out a startled yelp and disappeared back inside the bushes, but not before the twoleg recognized what she was.

The twoleg yelled some incoherent words, then all the rustling noises increased until they all seemed concentrated in the clearing. A feminine howl sounded outside the bushes, which followed with the loud noises of gunshots and shrieking. After a while the noises started dying out, until they seized to exist. Hawk looked over at Crimson, hoping with all her heart that the twolegs had left. She whispered, "Do you think it's safe to come out now?"

As soon as Hawk said the word "now", a sudden gunshot sounded, followed by a long wail of grief. Hawk looked at Crimson, then, dreading the outcome, leapt out of the clump of bushes. She heard more rustling behind her, and knew without having to look that Crimson was behind her. The two surveyed the bloody scene before them in horror.

The clearing was a mess, with grass and flowers ripped out of the ground and strewn about everywhere. Two twolegs were lying dead on the ground, their blood trickling down numerous wounds on their arms and staining the ground. Hawk and Crimson's father, Thunder, was leaning over a familiar gray figure, that had blood spots covering it's pelt.

Hawk raced towards Thunder, praying that the figure wasn't who she thought it was. She looked down at the bloody figure that used to be her mother, Heart, and grief welled up inside her. Crimson came up behind Hawk and Thunder and stared down at Heart's body in horror.

The three stood there and grieved for a lost friend, mate, and mother. After a while, Thunder spoke, his voice filled with immeasurable pain, "Come on, my sweet pups. We must bring Heart home, to properly bury her."

The pups nodded and wearily stretched their stiff legs, then helped Thunder pick up Heart. They made their way home with Heart's body spread out between them, all of their hearts heavy.

### **Part 2**

A few moons had passed, and the grief had worn off a bit. Hawk struggled into her family's camp, dragging a large bundle of moss in her jaws. She dropped the bundle in a small pile at the corner of the camp, then turned to survey her work. A massive storm had hit the forest a few days ago, and the camp was completely ruined when the storm had finally wore off. Right now only part of the dens were repaired, but Hawk knew that in no time the camp would be brimming with life once more.

Hawk turned to leave the camp and saw Crimson tearing his way up the path, his eyes widened and filled with terror and grief. Hawk in an instant knew something was horribly wrong, and that was when the sound of howling and barking entered the forest. A deep, masculine voice howled, "Come out, come out, whereever you are!"

Crimson sprinted past Hawk, yapping, "Hawk, come on! Thunder said that we needed to run!"

Hawk pivoted around and ran after Crimson, barking over the sound of the other wolves, "What's going on?"

"Th-they just came running into the clearing! Th-they said they'd kill us all, one by one! Then three of them attacked Thunder, and h-he told me to run, far, far away..." Crimson's voice trailed off, and he pushed himself harder, forcing Hawk to quicken her pace.

"What about Thunder? Did you just leave him there?!"

"Thunder is dead! As soon as he finished telling me to run, one of the wolves ripped at his throat until nothing was left! H-he's gone, all gone! And I didn't do anything to help him!"

Hawk turned a stricken gaze to Crimson, who was forcing himself to go faster and faster. She leapt after Crimson, her pace quickening with each step as the horror of what had happened fully sunk in. "*Thunder, our only remaining parent, he's dead...*"

The howling and barking had gotten steadily louder, but the two pups pushed themselves to run faster than they had ever done in their lives. Soon, the noises grew fainter, as the scenes around the pups shifted, going from forest, to river, to moor. After a while, the noises disappeared altogether, and then Crimson fell to the ground in exhaustian. Hawk looked over at her brother and another realisation hit her full on in the face. "*I-I have to take care of Crimson now...*"

Hawk looked over at Crimson, and sighed wearily. They'd have to find a shelter, and go hunting, but Crimson was in no state to do all that. "Stay here, Crimson. I'm going to find a shelter for tonight. Then we can hunt. Oh, and Crimson. It wasn't your fault that Thunder died. He's probably happy now, watching over us from the stars. We'll eat tonight in his honor, and for the memories that he gave."