Crow’s Kin

## Author’s Note

This is a backstory about Crow who is from Hidden Enemies. Crow will be the protagonist of this story. This takes place before Hidden Enemies.

## Prologue

A large black dog with pointy ears and blue eyes emerged from his den. “Raven, why are you up so early?” asked his mate, Lilac. She was a cream colored she-dog with pointy ears and green eyes. “You’ll wake up the pups if you make too much noise.”

Raven flicked an ear. “I know, I know. I just woke up, and couldn’t get back to sleep.” He growled. Three pups were huddled together in their den. One was a large black and white male with brown eyes. Another was a brown she-dog with green eyes. Another was a small, lithe black male with dark amber eyes, all with pointed ears.

“I’m going to go hunt.” Said Raven. Lilac’s eyes flashed with worry. “Do you-” He cut her off. “No I’ll be fine. I promise.” Lilac looked at him doubtfully but didn’t protest. “Alright.” She said. Raven sprinted out of their small camp, and into the forest.

Raven caught a flash of a black pelt. Another dog. A familiar one. *NO!* The scent of blood stained it. “You monster!” Roared Raven, as he tore back to camp, away from the black dog covered in blood. “It’s too late, brother. I’m a monster, as well as you. It had to be done sooner or later.” Anger surged through Raven. “Lilac was the one who kept me from killing!” He howled.

“Well now she’s gone.” He snarled, And he ran off. Raven sprinted back to his small camp, knowing what he would find. Sure enough the dead body of Lilac was sprawled out. The dead body of one pup was laid out in front of him, and another one was missing. The only one that was left was the black male.

Blinded by anger and grief, Raven raised his paw to kill the pup when a large black bird began to screech, and clawed at his face and eyes. Raven cried out, “Crow!” before turning tail and running away to find his brother, and kill him. Or maybe his brother would kill Raven. He didn’t care. He was too horrified about what he had tried to do.

He eventually found his brother on a pile of rocks. Without waiting, he lunged towards him. His brother moved away one rock with his paw, smirking to reveal a coiled up Boomslang. It lunged, biting his eyes. Raven cried out, falling to the ground, gasping, and drowning in his own blood.

It began to pour out of his ears, eyes, mouth, and nose. Every opening in his body. His last act of anger and defiance was taking his brother down with him. Eventually the two dogs collapsed on top of each other, both dead.

## Chapter One

The small pup blinked open his eyes. He was confused, scared, and didn’t know what to do. He didn’t even know his name. He decided his name was Crow, since that was what his father had called out to him before he had run off. And since there was a crow sitting in front of him.

Crow looked around, unsure of what had happened. But he did know it was bad. Very, very, very bad. He crept forward, peeking out of the den, looking left and right. He saw his mother, Lilac, laying there. Crow tried to convince himself she would get up, and assure him everything was alright, but deep down he knew what had happened to her.

She was dead. The stench filled the air. He didn’t know where Raven was either. Or his brother. He could see his sister, also dead. Crow sniffed. He could smell his father’s scent. A sickening feeling took hold of him. He didn’t want to follow it. Not one bit. Crow backed up, fearfully. A dull hunger began to gnaw at him. He knew it would get worse over time.

He hadn’t even been weaned seven days ago. The crow flapped above him, and cawed, and began flying in circles and flying away. Crow looked up, and tried to pounce on it, when it landed in front of him, a few times. Crow ran after it, following it as it flew in the sky. It eventually landed on a tree branch. Crow looked up at it, puzzled.

*What does it want me to do? Climb the tree?* When he was younger his mother had told him stories about creatures called sharpclaws who could easily climb up trees. He had even seen one once. *Okay, so how did that one sharpclaw do it?* He wondered. He dug his small claws into the bark of the tree, and clung on to it, and grabbed on with his hind-legs as well.

He began to try and haul himself up, grunting with effort. He fell down a few times, but eventually made it up to the first branch. A familiar scent wafted up into his nose. Death. But death meant there was meat and that meant there was food.

Crow jumped off the branch, and sprinted towards the scent. He found a half-eaten carcass. He began to tear into it, eating it in small bites. He was still a puppy. He had to take it slow. When he was done he heard flowing water. A river. He drank out of it. He looked around for a place to sleep. There no den. But there was some soft mud, near the river, but not so close that it would flood.

He spent the day and night digging, and making a make-shift den. It wasn’t perfect, but it would do for now. He had made a small hole, that wound into the ground, and had replaced some of the dirt and mud to make a small ledge to sleep on, incase the den did flood or something bad happened, and he needed a bigger space to look around or a higher place.

That night he dreamt. *“What have you done?” Came an angry howl. Explosions shook the ground. Crow looked around, unable to tell where the voices were even coming from. They seemed familiar, and he felt scared and angry, but he wasn’t sure why. “I knew the lightning was bad . . . but I didn’t know it would be this bad.” Came a low throaty growl.*

*Rain poured down on to the ground, and extremely bright lightning flashed, and thunder roared overhead. “It’s flooding, it’s flooding!” Came another shriek. The voices came from everywhere. Some of them even sounded like longpaws? No. Longpaws couldn’t talk. But they were. Dogs and longpaws alike were howling and screeching to each other.*

*“The city, it’s flooding!” Came a wail. Crow clambered up onto a high cliff. He saw all his hard work, everything he had lived for, flooding, and getting torn away. “IT”S COVERING MY VISION!” Came a shriek. Particles of black started to take over Crow. Exhaustion poured over him. “The mountains.” Whispered a voice. “Go to the mountains.” The last thing he saw was a black crow.*

## Chapter Two

Crow awoke with a start, and looked up. What had that dream been? A weird one for sure. What had it told him? Go to the mountains?

More Coming Soon