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Author's Note: the following story is a work of furry fiction and may contain acts of yiffery. This may include violent and sexual acts between anthropomorphic characters of the same sex, adult themes and things like that. It you're underage or don't want to read things of this nature, you are hereby banished to the netherworld. Otherwise, read and enjoy...

A personal thank-you goes out to Lykos Bane, without whom this story never would have been put into my head. Wuffie, you are the one responsible for inspiring this story and the ensuing friendly competition, and I am honored to be challenged by talent such as yours.

Readers, after you're done with this one, please check out Lykos' companion story "Debt" and let him know what you think.

FEEDBACK always welcome to: [email protected]

Coming of Age ©MMV Whyte Yoté

Some called it the Magic Hour. Others referred to it as the Hour of Evil. For better or for worse, it was an hour of unpredictability, when even the sharpest of eyes and ears were put to the test. It was the time of dissolving darkness just before the dawn, when everything under the sky remained a shade of blue before the light of the Great Circle painted them their proper colors. Its companion would come after the Great Circle had disappeared under the horizon again, when the world was put to sleep for another night.

Not only did the darkness cling stubbornly to everything it touched, it also refused to shake off the bitter cold that always came with it during the Cold Season. The air was calm, lending itself to a thick coating of frost that made the grasses crackle underfoot and fur stand on end, especially if its owner hadn't moved in quite a while. When hunting the most elusive game, and for such a high price, not even shifting position was allowed.

Ario's body hurt with each breath he took, and he tried to avoid shivering too much as he watched steam curl from his nostrils and float up into air that seemed to bite him down to the skin. Every time he moved just slightly the coating of white on his fur crackled minutely, and with every sound he could imagine his prey bounding farther away from him and his weapon.

His grey-green eyes scanned the open plain bordered by mountains on one side and forest on the other, looking for any movement at all. Seconds ticked by, each one another regret about deciding not to wear any heavy clothing to save weight, agility and noise. It had sounded like a good idea last night when he had been curled up comfortably beside his fire, but sitting here exposed, in his full winter coat, was starting to make him regret his decision. It was beginning to look like an unsuccessful hunt, except the price of loss was worse than just his pride...it was rejection and banishment, and the possible deaths of his fledgling family.

There was no movement as far as he could see, and the sky was lightening progressively with the rising of the Great Circle. Soon it would be too bright, and he would have to wait until the shadows grew long and disappeared before he dared hunt again. He had precious little energy left; his food had run out many days ago. The warrior wolf's body was slim, his ribs and joints clearly visible even under his thick winter fur. He leaned forward, touching a pawpad to the ground so slowly he could feel the frost melting into the grass from his body heat. On trembling legs he balanced, his tail twitching this way and that to keep him steady.

It sounded like a giant tree falling in the silence, but it must have been a mere stick. The sound came from off to Ario's right; his ears swiveled to home in on the source. For a space of minutes there was nothing, then a much smaller crack issued from the dense stand of conifers. This time the wolf turned his head, squinting. He figured his prey was too far away to hear him, so he settled onto his knees, receiving many thanks from long-cramped muscles. Barely able to see above the cattails, his powerful lupine eyes scanned the darkness underneath the pine trees.

At first he couldn't tell if there was any movement, but after careful study of the shadows a figure dived between two thick trunks and ran off, not bothering to keep quiet. Either he knew he was being followed or he had become complacent. Ario hoped it was the latter, and that the element of surprise would make the killing that much more expedient. At least he was downwind.

The shadow moved toward the edge of the stand and retreated again, as if hesitant to come into the rising light. It did this repeatedly, over half an hour, each time coming closer to the edge and staying longer. Ario remained on his knees long after they had frozen to the ground and watched, gearing himself up for the time when he could finally see his quarry.

Morning had broken into its full splendor, casting the landscape in a neutral palette except for the stands of conifers, which stood proudly displaying their coats of dark green. It was a shock to see a moving patch of light brown after so much concentrating, but Ario tensed just the same when he saw it: the shadow stepped into the light, revealing a male whitetail deer.

The buck stood tall, just a little more so than Ario, and was clothed lightly for a journey. He wore a beaded vest of a many-colored design, and a covering over his loins that extended down to just above his knees. The clothing was foreign to the wolf, who had seldom been on hunts, and those had all been in the Hot Season when such things were not required. At this distance he could tell little else, but he would see to that.

Cautiously, the cervine made his way across the snow, his hooves making almost no noise. One hand lay by his side, near a scabbard hooked to his waist. Ario crept low, maintaining a steady pace and keeping hidden behind the cattails. His mind was abuzz with calculations and ideas about how he would make the kill; there was only a short distance left before his shield would end, and hunter and hunted would be within spitting distance of each other. He knew he must act quickly or he would never catch the quick buck in this deep snow. He drew an obsidian dagger, self-made and his only weapon, from its scabbard hanging on a string over the back of his neck and turned it in his paw, waiting for the right moment to strike.

The deer moved quicker now, nostrils flaring, head jerking back and forth. Something was telling him he was being followed, and he wanted to get across the field and up into the mountains in the shortest time possible. He tasted faint traces of droppings and wet fur on the air; the former was of no concern but the latter was cause to be jittery: it smelled faintly of wolf. He would have to keep an eye out.

And he cursed himself a moment later when he dropped his gaze and realized he stood exposed in the exact center of the clearing; not only that, the origin of the wolf-fur smell was crouched not a stone's throw away, his eyes dark as death.

The two looked at each other for a moment, as if to discuss the situation and come to a conclusion. There is a mutual understanding in the rules of life and death in the wild: when the time comes to fight, you must give everything of yourself without hesitation and without complaint. To do any less is a sign of a weak body and a weak spirit, and there is no honor in backing down from what is expected of you. The wolf was the predator, and the buck became the prey. And when Ario bared his fangs and rumbled a warning from the grass, the cervine knew the game was on. Today he would fly.

Twin geysers of snow flew upwards as the buck launched himself from a standstill, turning back the way he had come and leaping over assorted small rocks. Ario dug his claws in and was up a split-second later, arms and legs pumping, propelling his meager body after the deer. Adrenaline spilled into his bloodstream, and he was faster than ever, but from the start he knew the battle was lost before it had begun. His stiff, half-frozen legs would not cooperate; they felt misshapen and filled with liquid instead of muscle. The buck, who had gotten a generous head start, was gaining ground and soon disappeared behind a large boulder. Ario pumped himself to the top of the hill and ran past the boulder, but a few paces more found the wolf coming to a bedraggled stop.

The pursuit had lasted a few seconds and covered no more ground than one of his pack's fields, but Ario was winded and sore. He looked across the clearing back to the forest's edge and saw nothing. Absolutely nothing. With nowhere to hide, the deer had reached the trees and hidden himself again, well before the wolf could even follow him. He fell to his paws and knees, which were already bruised and painful from the cold.

He wanted to go back to his tribe and the warmth of its council fire, wanted to live his life without having to go through such torment just to be looked upon as an adult. But he knew to go back was to incur the wrath of the elders, not the least of them his mate's father. They would kill him and leave him to feed the spring regrowth, and his spirit would never rest. He couldn't stand that thought. And what of N'hela? What of the child?

He remembered the vision: how his mother had said it would be fulfilled during a great journey of life, what she had showed him, and how he couldn't make sense of the message. It ran contrary to everything he felt, and had learned, but the Great Spirits were rarely wrong. To not heed their advice was unholy bad luck.

The wind was picking up, ruffling his fur and numbing him from the outside in. No matter the failed hunt. No matter his mate, and no matter his visions. He would have to track the buck down again, following his weakening scent until the time was right for another chance to win his adulthood. The fact was, Ario simply didn't know if he would have the strength to last that long. The weakness of his traitorous body disgusted him. A pup of nineteen Hot Seasons had no right feeling this way. Perhaps it would be better to die in the snow instead of at the paws of his elders.

Ario wiped a sniffle from his snout. Another came, and he hit himself hard, yelping in pain. The sobs would not be stopped. With a broken heart, he raised his head to the clouds and howled the frustration of his life to whatever Spirits would give him audience.

* * *

Once upon a time, long before Ario was born, the packs thrived upon the Earth and its lush bounty. At this time they had been little more than walking beasts, at that awkward stage of evolution between quadruped and biped. They used little more than sticks and rocks to hunt; the skills of carving and sharpening had not yet been discovered.

Ario's ancestors of tens of thousands of years past lived in much the same area as Ario's tribe occupied in the present day, but at this time the wild wolves could walk upon a large hill to the north and look upon a vast continental lake, which was the source of all rivers and their drinking water. Prey was plentiful and never wasted; life was relatively calm and there was no reason for rival packs to fight.

In these early awkward years, language was a new and ever-changing thing. The growls and barks and low grunts used in the past were slowly becoming replaced by organized sentences and the old-fashioned ways of pointing and waving now seemed excessive by comparison. It was in these times that the pack started giving names to their pups that described something of their birth and character instead of just relying upon olfactory identification. Usually the names had something to do with the position of the Great Circle or the Silver God which ruled over the night, the time of year or a relationship with another family member. But there were rare times when a tragedy overshadowed the birth of a pup, and the pup itself was considered an omen and bad luck.

For thousands of years, pups such as those were sacrificed to the Spirits so that the misfortune within them would never get the chance to manifest itself in the pup's adult years. It was for the good of the pack, but many a mother wept over the loss of her newly-forsaken child. Eventually, as the wolves evolved, rituals and beliefs changed and so did the barbaric practice of sacrifice. Instead, the pups were cared for and looked after very carefully, but when it came time to step into adulthood their tests were much more difficult than those of their "normal" peers. This was done both so they could prove themselves worthy despite the omen on their heads and be accepted once and for all into the pack. Those who did not succeed were exiled to live in solitude or find a place with another pack. Some killed themselves before they would face such dishonor.

So it came that one winter, not too long ago, a wolf named Feravel (it meant "leaf of grass" in the ancient tongues) gave herself to her mate Yumelo ("one-eye"). Two months went by quickly, and the snow gave way to fresh grasses and bright days, which gave way to a hot and dry season that set the forests aflame and made the rivers recede to almost nothing. By the time Feravel went into labor, many hunting parties had been sent out and never heard from again. Water was at a premium, and the tribe would not move. A shaman and midwife came to her side, and brought her into the council's tent.

The labor was long, painful and difficult. Yumelo was not allowed to see his mate, and he paced about outside, cursing loudly every time he heard a scream. The pup came feet first, a sign of bad luck in itself. When he stopped breathing and moving, the midwife had to pull him the rest of the way; Feravel simply did not have strength enough to push anymore. The little wolf had come roughly into the world, followed by a river of blood which could not be stemmed. Minutes after the delivery, the pup was breathing on his own and his mother lay dead in the shady dust of the tent.

He was cursed from the very start: Yumelo had disowned him outright and assigned the midwife to raise him, he had numerous ailments which required rare herbs and elaborate ceremonies, and he was considered tainted goods. After much deliberation, he was given the name Ario, taken from the ancient tongues to mean "born of spilled blood" and described him very well.

To say the least, he was a troublemaker. Teased by his peers as a pup, he was labeled as weak and stupid and useless. Never invited to games and never allowed to play with the others, Ario developed a sense of inferiority, thinking he would never be good enough to do much of anything. On the other paw, his time alone allowed him to use his imagination to keep busy. Most of the adults left him alone as long as he didn't cause trouble, which forced him to mature much slower than the other youths in the tribe. Unfortunately, there were some aspects of life he never got the chance to mature in.

One day, in his eighteenth Hot Season, Ario was walking along the riverbank, skipping stones and lost in one of his many daydreams, when a scent came to his still-undeveloped nose. He followed it around a bend and saw a female bathing herself across from him on a shallow island. Ario had gone through the physical changes of puberty, but in his mind he was still stuck in the world of thirteen seasons because no one had bothered to take care of him, the runt of the pack in many ways.

Her name was N'hela, and she was a quiet female who also kept to herself. Ario watched her bend down to scoop water in her paws and rub it into her bluish-grey fur, watched it drip off her nipples and run down into the cleft between her legs. He had never seen a female unclothed before, and N'hela's exposure excited him in a way he had never been. The scent reminded him of wildflowers just blooming in the Planting Season, sweet and tangy and stirring something deep within his brain. He sat there, watching from behind a large tree, finally looking down at himself and discovering his maleness hardening like when he went off in secret to pleasure himself.

N'hela turned away from him, and Ario stalked up behind her, the scent coming from her estrus stronger with each step. She turned when he was right behind her, making her yell out and cover herself, albeit with little success. Without a word, Ario bent down, rooting around for the source of the heavenly scent, unmindful that he had taken his loincloth off and let his member continue hardening outside of his sheath. The female protested, but Ario's cold, curious nose on her forbidden flesh froze her to the spot; the male could kill her if he wanted, and she would not provoke him.

Without warning, Ario licked her labia, and when she tried to push him away he responded by growling and shoving her back into the flowing water. He wanted to taste more of that lovely pinkness; even though he didn't know what it was or what it was for, he knew he wanted to lick it and his hips wanted to thrust of their own accord. Ario moved up to the female's breasts, and when he felt himself accidentally penetrating her as he lay there the instinct was born a fiery birth within him. He thrust like mad, not even feeling the resistance as her maidenhead gave way to his lupine shaft.

Like an inexperienced cub, Ario flopped around on N'hela, who cried for him to stop, but knew he could not help himself. All the male knew was the pleasure coming from his wolfhood, and how he must get to the end as quickly as possible. It was clumsy and unseemly; when he came inside her he jerked and fell still, feeling his knot swelling and tying them together. When he finally looked at the female, seeing the fear and shame in her eyes, he knew he had done something very serious and very wrong. Ario tried to pull out, but they both cried in pain. As soon as his shrinking penis was free of her, he plucked his loincloth from the riverbank and ran as fast as his young legs would carry him away from the place of their mating.

For a day and most of a second, Ario did not come home until hunger drove him to desperation. It was then he discovered that N'hela had told her father of the rape, and the council had been alerted. An emergency meeting was called as soon as Ario's arrival had been communicated to the elders, and the tribe gathered to decide the fate of the pup who had never grown up. He was questioned, and admitted that he didn't know what he was doing when he was mating with N'hela. He did, however, know he had done wrong. He was put into quarantine until N'hela's condition could be determined.

It was four weeks later that a midwife had announced the pregnancy, and the council convened again.

"My foolish boy," decreed the tribe's chief, "do you know the full ramifications of your actions?"

The wolf looked at the ground and said in a small voice, "I do. That I have planted a child in the loins of a female, and it will be mine forever to raise and take care of." As much as he tried to act grown up, he thought he sounded like a chastised, indignant puppy.

"You will see nothing of your child!" roared the chief, his fur fluffed out in anger and an almost palpable hatred. "You have been a burden on this tribe for too long. Do you think we would allow a bad omen like you to raise a pup? What makes you think you can do anything?"

There was no answer.

"I expected nothing better. I would banish you now had I the power, but tradition requires that you be given a chance to prove yourself worthy of fatherhood and acceptance into this tribe once and for all. If you can complete the task set before you, the Great Spirits will look down upon you with favor. But I do not expect you to succeed...no one does with a runt like you."

Ario flushed visibly and wanted nothing more than to be invisible at that moment. The chief's words stung him because they made him realize all that he had done wrong in his life. The wolf knew not all of it was his fault, but that didn't make the scathing commentary any less painful.

The elders were silent. The chief spoke: "In order to become an adult, those deemed ready for the change are sent far away into the forests and hills on a journey of self-discovery. Some go together, but most stay alone. During this journey they take no food or water. They must go on a vision quest to connect with their guiding spirit in the beyond, and be told the ultimate purpose of their lives so that they may shape themselves accordingly. You will be required to do the same. But-"

Ario's ears perked up.

"But," the chief continued, "you must do much more to prove yourself in the eyes of this tribe. Tell me, pup: what is the strongest symbol of power?"

There was silence for a while, but Ario couldn't think of anything. He had never been invited to council meetings where such things were discussed.

The chief scowled, his dark grey brow wrinkling. "Blood. Blood is a sign of lineage, of life and death, and of power over others. It is what we feast upon for our life, and it is a sign of a successful hunt. You must prove yourself not only as an adult, but a hunter as well, if you are to raise a family and take care of it. You will come back and present me with blood from a kill...a large kill. I will be able to tell otherwise, in case you are thinking of trying to fool me." Some of the elders chuckled, already having given up on Ario's chances of ever becoming an adult.

"Silence!" shouted the chief, raising his paws high. "Do this, you who have been born of spilled blood, and you will have a place in this tribe, in our pack. Should you fail, and return to plead for your life, we will have no mercy."

"I'll rip your heart out myself and feed it to you before you die, you lascivious whelp!" came a cry from deep within the crowd, and Ario realized it was N'hela's father who had spoken. If he did try to come back without success, he would not live another day.

"You will go now," said the chief to the shaking wolf, his face stony and unmoving. "Good luck."

They had sent him away in the middle of the cold night not empty-pawed. Since the trials of adulthood usually took place in the Planting Season when it was warmer, blankets were not needed. But it was getting close to the middle of the Cold Season, when the Great Circle stayed only a short time in the sky and the darkness brought unimaginable cold even to thick-furred wolves. He had been given pelts and nothing more than the loincloth he wore.

A few hours after leaving the camp, he spied a cave to crawl into. His feet stung from the snow and his muscles twitched from miles of unaccustomed walking. He discovered a few black, shiny stones that were sharp to the touch and, with nothing better to do, started carving them as best he could into sharp points. One of them would become a serrated dagger.

After his paws were aching and bloody, he finally stopped. Laying down on the blankets which did little to alleviate the hardness of the cave's floor, Ario tried not to think of the tasks ahead, and cried himself to sleep.

* * *

Ario awoke nearly frozen to the ground on which he slept. Reeds and grass were pulled out by the roots and stuck to his fur, which had taken on a white sheen from heavy frost. He coughed so hard he doubled over, and for a moment he was sure he would vomit...and then he remembered there wouldn't be anything in his stomach to make it worth the effort.

The two days since losing the buck had passed quickly. Ario had howled his heart out on top of that hill by the boulder, but finally he had come to his senses. Following the scent of the buck, the wolf had used his keen nose to track his quarry for countless miles in nearly every direction. It was clear that the cervine was trying to fool him, but somehow each time he seemed lost some clue would reveal itself. Ario thanked the Spirits for their help.

He had left all his possessions behind, with the exception of the dagger, in favor of the speed of traveling unhindered. Adrenaline drove a renewed spirit within him that the cold couldn't extinguish. Ario was glad for such a strength again; it helped to know he still had tenacity in his heart after such heartbreak. But he knew that, strength or weakness, the situation had not changed or gotten any easier. The scent was there, and it was closer.

Sleeping in a drift of deep snow last night had effectively rendered his own lupine scent undetectable; if he spied the deer and snuck up on him, there would be no warning...one quick swipe of his dagger (which was the only thing he carried now) would kill without trouble and leave plenty of blood. Even better was the fact that he would still be able to track the buck while carrying a temporarily neutral scent.

So often had he thought of killing a squirrel or rabbit, or even cutting himself to get what his chief required of him, but there would be no chance for deception. Besides, Ario wouldn't allow himself to stoop to such whelpish tactics.

He growled, stretching the kinks out of his back. After running in tight circles for a few minutes to warm his system up, he wandered a short distance to a nearby frozen stream and squatted on the shore where the ice hadn't quite gotten thick enough. A hard kick and the water's surface was exposed for him to slake his thirst. His hunger would have to wait until he found food. Already almost a week without nourishment, Ario's body told him every day how he needed something to eat. He ignored it with an effort.

There was a hill just beyond the river, and the wolf ran across the icy surface and up the slope to get his bearings. No wind ruffled his fur and tricked his nose; it was easy to sift out the buck's scent and determine its origin. He was in the forest now, having followed the trail from the plains into the thick trees and rough terrain. It came to him gently, tickling his snout with its traces of earth, elderberries and bread. From what he could smell, the buck was over the next two hills somewhere, where a great rift split the mountains' stone from the trees.

Ario started at a walk until he topped the first ridge. He stopped dead in his tracks, head twisting back and forth, nostrils flaring. Dropping to all fours, the wolf crawled some feet until he found what had excited him so: there, among the soft snow and dead leaves, was a neat little pile of droppings. Deer droppings. Fresh, less than two hours old.

He stood again, this time concentrating hard to pinpoint the exact distance to the buck. Ario couldn't have imagined coming up on his prey so soon; what was even more unbelievable was the fact that he had stayed so close on the trail for so long. It made him proud, but the feeling was short-lived as he tried to gather common sense for his second encounter with the buck. If this failed, he would not have the strength for a third.

Creeping carefully now, moving as slow as he could to avoid detection, Ario went down the gentle slope of the hill, nose raised the whole time. A ditch filled with dead leaves stood in his way, but the wolf used an old tree-leaping technique to sidestep crunching his way through. He would hang onto a tree trunk with his claws and leap to another, digging into the bark with strong hands until his feet got a grip, then line up for another leap. He was across the depression in three bounds, and up the next rise immediately.

The wolf crawled through a grove of aspens, thankful when the ground grew hard and rockier. When he finally came into a clear spot, he found himself only a stone's throw from the edge of a cliff. Small rocks littered the ground all the way to the edge, which was an outcropping of grey stone pockmarked with lichens. The smell of cervine was everywhere.

Ario's heart felt about to burst from nervousness at the thought of being so close to his prey. Without looking over the edge of the cliff he could tell the deer was just beyond it, and had been there for a matter of time. There was something else, something irresistible...food. His stomach growled loudly, scaring him into thinking he would be found out just from that alone. For a moment he thought that even if he wasn't able to kill the deer, he could at least take his food. Kill or no kill, his belly would be filled either way.

He sprawled out and lay his belly to the ground. The edge of the cliff grew nearer little by little. Ears perked, he slowly drew his eyes over the precipice and saw the buck once again, closer than he had ever come. The wolf was practically on top of him; below the cliff about twenty feet was a field of berry bushes that had not yet shed their harvest. The Cold Season had come so quickly, and so extremely, that many trees and bushes hadn't had a chance to drop. Ario could see that the berries had been well-preserved and frozen.

Walking among them, the buck seemed at ease, picking berries by the handful and putting them into a satchel he carried at the side of his waist. He was well-clothed for the day, and probably had left his bedding nearby while he gathered food. His beaded vest and odd loincloth were accompanied by the satchel, a water pouch and a sheath on one hip. He hummed an unknown tune, eating the plump red berries as he picked them.

The wolf almost couldn't contain himself. The sight of the deer made him want to complete his task right away; the sight of the berries got him salivating like a common dog. Not only did he see all that wonderful sweetness down there in the clearing, he could smell something else he thought he would never smell again: bread. There must be some in that satchel, he thought, and it would feel very good lining his belly.

He quickly began formulating a plan. The element of surprise would be best, of course. There was no way he could get down to the buck without backtracking quite a distance and making all sorts of noise, so he determined the only viable way-and the quickest-would be to simply jump down upon the unsuspecting creature.

Ario spent a few minutes praying to the Spirits, asking for their help and guidance in this most difficult of tasks. The sun broke through the thin clouds and warmed his bare body, permeating the thick grey and black fur of his back and giving him strength to move better than he had in days. Today would finally be the day, he thought, and then he could go home and claim his adulthood, his mate and his unborn child. Finally, he could be normal.

He stood, confident and calm. Crouching on strong legs, he leaped high into the air and away from the cliff, judging the correct angle to land ready to pounce. The ground rushed up to meet him, but he was ready. He hit evenly and without the slightest trace of sound; his springlike digitigrade legs sunk almost to the ground. Ario was just preparing to spring forward when he heard the sound like a whip slashing through the air.

There was no time to react; he registered the sound just before his head exploded in pain. Stars danced in his vision but he did not fall. As soon as he could see, the branch was swinging toward him again. Sidestepping it this time, he recovered quickly and darted behind a nearby tree, using its thin trunk as a pivot to speed him around in a circle.

The buck stood prone, with the branch at the ready in both hands, an expression of deadly intent on his face. Ario rushed him, ducking when the branch came swinging again and turned his shoulder to broadside the buck in the chest. He didn't expect that the deer would swivel his body away so he ran full bore into nothing, then deliver a roundhouse kick to the back of his neck. The wolf stumbled and fell into a nearby bush, berries raining down onto him. Already his malnourished body was losing energy.

By the time he turned to look up and prepare for another attack, the cervine was on top of him and shoved the sharpened end of the branch into the center of his neck, rendering him helpless. The wolf lay prone, neck bared in supplication, gagging a bit at the sharp point on his larynx. The buck stood tall over him and gave his naked, weak body a once-over. Ario thought he saw a smile prick the corners of the other male's lips, probably in expectation of the bloodshed to follow.

He tried to kick upward, hoping to catch the deer where it counted, but his footpaw only found a hard knee. His toes popped and he whimpered-a small, adolescent sound.

The buck pressed the branch even harder, kneeling and snarling, their noses touching. Suddenly the branch was gone and a rough-edged blade replaced it, a dark flash in the light. Ario shuddered at the wet coldness.

"Oh no, my puppy...you will not have me so easily," he murmured in a smooth voice. "I am afraid your hunt has ended in failure. My name is Dande, and I am going to kill you."

* * *

The first night away from home had been the worst by far. There were dreams that caused him to sweat and cry out and wake many times, and when the Great Circle finally lightened the sky he gave up trying to sleep and continued working on the obsidian dagger, stopping when the morning shadows had dwindled to dark puddles at his footpaws.

He staggered out of the cave feeling dirty and worthless. There were leaves in his fur, dark circles under his bloodshot eyes, and his mouth felt as if some small creature had used it to relieve itself. He was scared and ashamed, but most of all he was worried about N'hela and his still unborn child. The elders thought him nothing more than a whelp who was too immature to care for a family, but he couldn't help but feel like he had already failed them all. The wolf didn't even know if he had a family now, or ever did. Unsure of how to proceed, the confusion only heightened his hunger and weakness.

On shaky legs Ario slowly set about the only thing he could think of at the moment: gathering fuel for a fire. He would need food and water eventually; he could spend a night without nourishment if he at least kept warm enough to stay alive. It took some hours to obtain what he thought was a decent amount for a few days. The wolf found himself humming a disjointed version of a traditional tribal tune, and he stopped abruptly after realizing it was a cub's lullaby. It was true: Ario had not grown up at all.

Well, said a voice inside his head, if you're so much of a cub, how come you can gather firewood by yourself? Or carve a dagger out of hard black rock? Somehow he knew it was the voice of his mother, although the only thing she had ever said to him was a string of curses as he slowly, mortally, left her womb so long ago. Had she forgiven him for taking her life? It was a good sign, and despite his dire situation the wolf was heartened to think so.

Ario wandered through the middle of the day, following a depression in the land to a small stream of fresh (although leafy and half-frozen) water. He made a game of chasing rabbits and what few squirrels remained outside for the Cold Season, but his heart was not yet in the hunt. When the dagger was finished he could use that to his advantage; his supple wrist was better at aiming than his paws alone.

For the rest of the day and into twilight the wayward warrior thought long of how he should best go about finding a suitable kill for the rite of adulthood. The hard part would be finding a group of deer or elk, or even moose. This late in the year most tribes, or herds, would be to the south of his present camp, where lay a deep valley protected from the harsh winds and temperatures of the Cold Season. Ario's pack, because they took up less space, camped uphill from this valley to take advantage of the view for tracking purposes. Where Ario now was, however, there would be little to no chance of finding a herd, or even a stray. Taking on the whole group would be suicide; maybe he could find food and wait...there were so many options, it would take much patience and scent-tracking to locate prey. But he would watch, and wait, for as long as it took to earn his place as an adult.

* * *

The point of the blade poked into his skin with every beat of his heart. The buck had it placed so that if he moved an inch, the blade would have no trouble slicing directly into an artery. Death would come swiftly and silently.

Dande, as the deer had called himself, sat rigid, ready to strike, his arms and legs quivering ever so slightly. Ario was on his back, panting and trying not to split open any more flesh than was necessary.

The wolf had no idea how prepared the cervine had been for an attack. The only way he could have countered so quickly was if he had known of Ario's presence beforehand...somehow, his scent had preceded him despite his downwind position. Or maybe there was more than a good nose involved...

"Do it then," he muttered, baring his teeth but trying to keep the quaver of fear from his voice. "If it makes you a male to kill a father, then finish me now." His eyes met the buck's, a deep brown that, had he known of it, he would have called coffee-colored. They burned with malice and unbridled hatred, and an intelligence borne of intense living.

Keeping the blade close to Ario's neck, the deer lifted up slightly to ease the tension in his legs. Then he spit in the wolf's face, something he apparently had been saving up for awhile. He did not smile. "You foul wretch," he spoke purposefully, "you lie with every word that comes from that bloodstained maw of yours. You are no more a father than I."

"If you wish to doubt me, I do not blame you. I only ask you to believe what I tell you, hard as that may be. I am not here of my own choice."

The cervine snickered. "Oh, really? And who, dare I ask, sent you here to kill me, one who has done you no harm?"

Ario ignored the snide sarcasm, but was relieved that the deer was relaxing bit by bit. He no longer considered the wolf a threat. "As soon as your blade moves, my packmates will make sure you never leave this place." He allowed a little confidence to sneak into his lie. "I'm sure you will make a decent enough dinner for-"

In a flash the deer was on his hooves, the dagger gone. He whirled around in a tawny blur before something struck out and connected with his ribs, the sound of breaking bone and cartilage raucous in the cold, still air. The wolf uttered a wet cry and curled up on the thin snow until the blade forced his head back onto the ground. His lungs felt as if they had been set aflame and he fought the urge to cough up what would surely be blood.

Dande was smiling coldly. "I am offended, pup. Do you honestly think I would fall for such a weak ploy? You may think you've been tracking me, but I have been doing the same. I know you discovered my trail no more than a week ago. I knew exactly how far behind you were, but despite my best attempts to throw you off my scent you stayed on me. I will give you that much. You have no packmates, and you have been alone for days and days now. Your nose may be keen, but so is mine."

"They'll come looking for me."

"And what then? By the looks of you, they won't want you anyway. What good is an injured puppy such as you?" Dande nudged Ario's broken ribs, gaining a gasping half-scream from the lupine.

"Others depend on me. My life is theirs." The wolf reached a paw up to the deer's ankle, but it was warned away by the dagger. "You would not understand." His ability to speak was almost gone, as was his spirit. What had been a brilliant plan before had utterly failed, his own tactics turned against him. As much as he hated it, Ario would have to either reason with the cervine or beg for his life...and the latter was, in his opinion, akin to death. But he would be no good to his family dead.

"I do understand," Dande uttered, his face set. "All I have to do is take one good look at you to know you do not belong to your pack anymore. You've been out here for more than it takes the Half-Night Circle to disappear. I know about hard journeys. You have had no food and little water. You would easily have enough strength to kill me outright were you well-nourished, but from what I can see neither your elders nor the Great Spirits think you're worth anything."

Ario remained silent. The words were too true and hurt too much.

"In all my years I've never seen such a sorry excuse for a wolf. I have no pity for you...I'm surprised you were able to sneak up on me like you did." The buck stood now and circled the prone wolf, always keeping the dagger aimed at his neck or his groin...either wound would bleed most painfully if inflicted. "No matter, you won't get the chance to tell your pack, or anyone else, of your harrowing encounter and victory over the helpless little deer. Would you like to offer a prayer or apology to your invisible gods before I skin you alive and take home your fur as a trophy? I would love to sleep on something soft for a change."

There was something in Dande's voice...maybe it was his haughty confidence, maybe the calm way he talked about killing him...but a seed of fury sprouted in the lupine's mind. There was no reason for murder of this caliber; the buck could clearly see he posed no threat at all. Ario had a reason-no, a noble purpose-for hunting Dande, but prey was not supposed to kill the predator. He would not be subject to such atrocious dishonor.

He had to wait only a few seconds until the cervine stepped behind his head and he rolled forward in a flash, almost with enough effort to send him into a somersault. He used the extra momentum to launch into an all-out run out of the berry patch, brambles catching and ripping lines into his thighs. A shout of anger came from the stunned deer, but Ario did not look back. If he had, he would probably have been able to avoid the dagger as it tumbled end over end through the air, covering the distance to the wolf much faster than he was running.

Its aim was true, and it sunk into his left shoulder with such force the lupine was thrown to the ground, further hurting his aching ribs. A hot, dull throb spread throughout his shoulder quickly, rendering it useless; a strong burst of iron in his mouth told of a split tongue. He had only one chance to pick himself up, but his upper body had gone almost totally rigid. Then a hard hoof slammed into the small of his back to pin him to the snowpack; a high-pitched growlyip of frustration signaled Ario's physical defeat.

There was rustling from above, and the wolf's paws were forced roughly behind his back and bound with a thin but painful rope. Without so much as a warning, Dande pulled his feet up to meet the captive wrists, and soon he was rendered completely immobile. His back screamed from the unnatural position; each move he made only served to force more blood from his open shoulder wound. He moaned weakly.

Dande knelt down close to the wolf's head, which was half-buried in snow, his flaring nostrils sending out ragged clouds of steam. "I must admit," he panted lightly, "I didn't expect such quick action from you. Appearances can truly deceive; I shall not make that mistake again. You have made your execution that much longer and more painful. Would you like to see your entrails before I cut your throat, or would you like to watch your own body convulse as your head tumbles to the ground?" The deer was grinning mercilessly, his eyes pools of emptiness.

"You monster," Ario replied through gritted teeth, trying not to get a muzzleful of snow. "Nothing...nothing but a coward hiding behind your awful words." He waited for another hoof to the side, but when none came he continued. "Have you no honor? I am willing to die for my cause, but what will it prove if you dismember me, or slice me open, or skin me? Honor is about fighting for your side, and what you believe in. Tying me up and torturing me will not gain you respect from the Spirits-"

"How do you know that?" asked the cervine, impatience creeping into his voice. "I do not worship the same gods as you. Yours would smile on the killing of innocents, and the plundering of villages. You are not hunters; you're opportunists who will do anything to make the lives of others miserable whether it benefits them or not. Not even the most gracious god would allow your survival in this world. A curse on your kind, now and for always."

Now Ario was perplexed, and angrier still at the buck and his apparent death-warrant on lupines as a whole. He could not do much tied up on the ground, but he had to try and talk his way out of his ropes. He would not beg, no matter how bad it became...he must retain his honor above all else. Maybe there was something he could offer Dande that would soothe his hate and alleviate his unfound fear of wolves.

He tried to steer to a new subject, speaking in even, measured tones: "The circle of life should be maintained. It is the job of the predators to keep others in check. We prey on the weak and sick, only those who-"

Dande was on him fast, his hoof a mere blur as it connected squarely with the top of the wolf's muzzle. Ario's words ended in a wet grunt punctuated by a loud snapping sound that seemed to fill the forest around them. The wolf's neck stretched forward so far and with so much sudden pain that he was sure the numbness he felt would be permanent. But his body regained feeling again, and as his vision cleared he could see the new dent in the top of his muzzle. He dared not move his ruined nose.

"My sister and niece were not weak!" cried the buck, drawing the poor lupine off the ground and holding him face-to-face. He shook Ario as he spoke, fairly spitting out the words, his fingernails digging bruises into his shoulders. "They were not sick! They did not lag behind. They were murdered." Ario had time to see the beginnings of tears brimming in his eyes before Dande let him drop hard on his side. The lupine stared up at his captor with fear-filled eyes: he had stumbled on something much more serious than he knew.

Clouds had started to build and cover the Great Circle. The clearing was cast in dull grey shadows that seemed to drain color from even the berries. Ario lay on his side, breathing laboredly and wheezing. Dande was now pacing back and forth, his fists balled and shaking, staring intensely into space. White plumes jetted from his nostrils. Suddenly he pointed a stiff finger at the wolf.

"How dare you say you are innocent of murder! It matters not who killed them. You all think alike and act alike. It is nothing if you lose one of your pack, but for us...for us it is more than that. We lose family, friends, parents...all the time, it seems, we are surrounded by death. Separation is the ultimate torture. Keep us away from our kin, kill one of us...you can't possibly see the anxiety that causes. We're not weak creatures, but unlike you we feel emotions, and they control us."

"That's not true. We feel-"

"Shut up, wretch," muttered the cervine, tapping the side of Ario's ribcage. "It was three months ago that I lost my sister and niece to a pack of bloodthirsty bastards like you. We were foraging for the last harvest before the cold winds swept in. Suddenly we were surrounded on all sides, but we fought them off bravely and easily with our number. They stood watch in the hills above us until we were almost gone, then..." Dande's voice took on a more emotional tone. That baritone quaver didn't fit his character. "My niece coughed. She coughed, damn you! The wolves thought she was sick, an easy kill, and swarmed around her and my sister. They were too fast to stop; I saw them taken down and their throats...ripped out right in front of me."

Ario winced. He knew what Dande spoke of; a neighboring pack had boasted of the easy kill that yielded such young, sweet venison. Thinking back on that night, the wolf's stomach rolled as he watched the buck pace before him, tears of rage and pent-up mourning streaming down his cheeks and staining his tawny fur dark. He could do little more, he was in so much pain. His shoulder felt like a large lump on his back, and his muzzle throbbed each time he took a breath.

"Please listen to me," the wolf said, cringing when Dande turned to him, his muscles so taught his whole body shook like a nocked arrow. The buck stayed silent, waiting for him to continue, and he sighed gently. His voice was ragged and wet-sounding. "I had nothing to do with that. But I know those who committed the act. They violated natural law by preying on the healthy, and even more so by taking a female and child. I don't condone it. My pack doesn't condone it. But I am afraid that nothing can convince you to spare my life."

Dande looked away briefly, and when he turned back his face was normal again. In fact, he was smiling slightly. The wolf took no comfort in this. "Do yourself a favor and stop begging. It does not do you justice. Now, tell me-if you can-exactly why I should let you go instead of murdering you like my family was murdered?"

"If I die," said Ario slowly, conviction behind every word, "you will be responsible for three lives, not just one."

The buck scoffed. "And I'm supposed to believe that. And you'll scamper home to your pack, and tell them where I am, and bring the lot of them back to kill me for bloodying your pretty fur. A curse on you, I say."

The lupine never missed a beat. "I don't ask you to believe me at all. If you let me go, what good would it do to tell my pack about you? You would be long gone by the time we traveled back here. I wouldn't be able to return to my pack anyway...my wife and child will die without me."

An eyebrow raised. "You never told me you had a family," Dande said softly but dubiously.

"You never asked."

"How-" started the cervine, but instead he thought as he paced. His face worked; Ario could see him struggling with a difficult decision. Silently he prayed that the buck would decide not to kill him. All he could see were two faces, one female and one very small with big, still-blind eyes. He hoped they were safe and alive.

At length Dande stood facing him at the edge of the clearing. "Someone must pay. Their blood is on your paws."

"So will the blood of my wife and child be on you!" the wolf yelled at the top of his lungs, enraged. "They'll die without me, you murderous scum!" He writhed on the ground, the bonds cutting into his wrists and ankles. His shattered muzzle burst into an agony-filled grimace.

"Then why did you leave them and come on a pointless quest for me?" Dande shot back.

"Pointless?" sneered Ario, no longer caring how much he angered his captor. "I will tell you how pointless my hunting you was. I have a bastard child, conceived out of a lust I could not control. My pack already sees me as a burden, and now I try to bring another mouth to feed without consulting the elders or the spirits. Nothing could have prepared me for these new responsibilities...I'm still considered a child in their eyes!" The wolf felt his spirit rapidly diminishing, and the first tears of regret began to form.

"I must prove myself worthy of adulthood by bringing back blood as evidence of a hunt...I tried my best for as long as I could and it still wasn't good enough. I tried, damn it, I tried." He sniffed back the oncoming rush of sobs, but only temporarily. His embarrassment was already too great without having to cry in front of the buck. To his surprise, and utter relief, Dande sat upon a short stump and sheathed his blade.

"I'm sure your wife and child will be well provided for." Dande was still trying to maintain his vengeance, but the conviction in his voice was markedly diminished. When the bound wolf rolled his head back to meet his gaze, two thick, shining tears rolled backwards up his forehead and into his dirty headfur. Even upside-down, the buck could see the fear-a pup forced into the real world before he was ready, unadulterated love and a commitment to that love, and the heart of a great warrior that seemed too big for its host.

Almost a whisper, Ario said, "They will be killed. N'hela...my wife, or partner...we haven't gone through the marriage ceremony yet. Without me she is illegitimate, as is my pup. They will be sacrificed to the great Spirits as a fertility offering for the rest of the pack. Without me they are tainted. You see, now, why I can't die? This is not for me. But all you want is revenge for something with which I had nothing to do. Will it really make you feel better?"

"Did."

"What?"

"Did," the deer said. "I did want revenge for my sister and niece. I was determined to make someone pay as long as it was a wolf who got punished. Yes, it probably would have made me feel better, but only for a short time, and it wouldn't have brought them back to life. Anger makes us blind, don't you agree?" The wolf allowed it did and nodded, his spirits lifted a bit as he began to see a side of Dande completely hidden from him until now.

"What are you suggesting?" asked Ario.

"A truce," said the cervine, standing and approaching the curled-up wolf. "Not between our species, of course, but between us two. You have a family to protect and I have better things to do than look for a fight. I admire you, actually. You may think you're still a pup, and you are in many ways...but you have heart full of love in you, and I respect that. You'll make a great husband and father." There was sincerity, but also some contempt in his voice.

"But I can't go back...not without proof of a hunt."

"You hunted me, but you did not succeed. You can't very well bring me back alive, can you? I'm sure you can find some other small creature to chase down and kill to please your pack."

"They'll know!" the wolf cried desperately. "Don't you think they can tell the difference between a squirrel and a moose? Blood is our life!"

"That is not my problem." Dande began to walk from the clearing. "You should be able to find your way out of those ropes before nightfall. Wouldn't want you following me, would I?"

"You can't leave me here like this!" Ario shouted, his voice cracking. There must be something I can do! I will die without your blood!"

"I will not wound myself for you, pup. I wear only battle scars."

"No! Come back! I..." The lupine hesitated before finishing his sentence, afraid to say the next few words. It was against his nature and every instinct, but he was truly out of options. "I beg of you, Dande. I will do anything you ask. The only thing that matters now is my family."

The cervine was out of the clearing and walking down a path away from the raucous wolf when he stopped, just his antlers visible above the bushes. Slowly they turned, and when Dande came into view again, walking toward him, there was a smile across his muzzle. It was genuine, but immediately Ario could see an ulterior motive behind the expression. He swallowed hard.

"Anything?" he cooed as he approached, kneeling down by the wolf's legs. Those dark brown eyes traveled to and fro, a long tongue licked his lips. "Were you serious when you said that?"

"Do you think I will leave here without what I came for?" Ario's heart seemed to be gaining weight with every beat.

"No, I don't suppose so."

"What do I need to do to get your blood?" The wolf's neck was cramping from being held up while he was tied, so he let it drop back down. The sky was deceptively blue again, with a few silver clouds traversing its space but none of them daring to block the Great Circle's light.

His legs were lifted a bit, and the wolf thought Dande was going to undo the knot holding them together, but instead he felt a rustling of his loincloth and a sudden heat as a hand alighted over his genitals. The touch made him jerk and sent a shiver of momentary pleasure bolting up his spine. The hand contracted and moved up to his sheath, cupping its length and stroking a few times until he could feel his cocktip emerging against the leather loincloth. Then down, over his testicles and into the cleft of his buttocks, deep down to the base of his tail, which curled up and tried to cover him as best it could. It was moved out of the way as a finger traced circles around his exposed hole, pressing in a few times and eliciting gasps from the lupine...but from pain or pleasure he couldn't tell.

The finger moved back up to the tip of his cock, and then there was no more heat. Dande's face appeared above him, blocking out the sky. The buck smiled like a youth at play, his eyes shining, and when he brought a finger to his mouth it was glistening wet. Finally the cervine's intent registered to the confused wolf, and his heart felt about to explode.

Dande licked his lips, savoring Ario's taste. Finally answering the wolf's question, he said, "I can think of one thing."

* * *

One of the first lessons Ario learned out on his own was that hunger has a way of ruling the body and tricking the mind. For the first week or so the few meager berries he could find sufficed to keep his rumbling stomach's protestations to a minimum, but as the days dragged on with still nothing to hunt his muscles grew painfully sore from the lack of meat in his diet. As he wandered in search of the scent of prey, food became scarce. Even the berry bushes, seemingly so plentiful where his pack lived, had little to offer. Small game was out of the question as the wolf tried, and failed, to catch the odd chipmunk or bird. How he would down a full-grown deer was currently beyond the grasp of his thoughts.

Thankfully, the weather had cooperated and the Great Circle gave him energy with its bright, heatless warmth. His bushy coat soaked up the light and kept him comfortable as he trekked, keeping close to a mostly frozen river to slake his ever-present thirst. However, something was in the air; he could smell it coming towards him, building up slowly like a drift of snow in a driving wind. Little did he know the accuracy of that analogy.

He hummed to himself, not a lullaby this time but a song of praise to the Great Spirits. Normally the song was reserved for the rites of adulthood, but since he was out here trying to earn his wife and cub back he didn't think anyone would mind.

The thickly forested flatlands of his home territory had given way to rolling foothills cut by intertwining streams gurgling with cold water from the snow that fell on higher elevations. When Ario reached a high point clear of trees he could look down and see the vast whiteness below, spreading as far as the mountain ranges to the east. To journey that far was months' and months' worth of travel, and usually half of those who started never returned.

It didn't seem so long ago that he was in his shelter-cave on his first night out, curled up within his own fur and a few pelts for heat. He could almost feel the flames as they danced along the stone walls, caressing him into dreams...

Ario blinked away the image. To wish he was back there would only serve to make him feel worse and increase his hunger. Until he looked up he didn't realize that before him lay the peak of a particularly steep hill, and it looked like a plateau where he could get some well-deserved rest before moving on. A few more minutes and his footpaws hit bare stone, lifting him up to the flat, snowless surface.

A groan escaped his muzzle as he took in his surroundings and the ground that lay before him. So caught up was he in daydreams that he had never looked up to the rocky peaks spearing the sky. Two massive mountains wrestled for dominance of the horizon like beasts with arched backs and patches of splotchy-white fur. Directly in front and below the lupine, the hill angled downward toward a waterfall at the bottom before angling steeply up again. The brown grassy hills gave way to outcroppings of rock that eventually overtook the flora and the only good place to rest for the night would be right where-

Ario trained his eyes on a patch of tall brown grass that covered the only flat place near the top of the cliff face. Something was moving, and the only reason he had spotted it at all was because it had been the only large living creature he had seen that day. Standing tall on his footpaws, he squinted, trying to shorten the distance. The Great Circle appeared from behind a cloud and the wolf almost jumped in excitement, drooling instinctively just at the sight.

Though very far away and much higher than Ario, the deer was still visible, male by the chest-covering he was wearing. The wolf saw movement and little else, but the coloring and antlers were a dead giveaway. Regaining his aplomb, Ario immediately sank to his knees and raised his paws to the sky, talking hurriedly: "Oh Great Spirits, I thank you for listening to my song and granting me the sight of this creature so that I may fulfill my duty to you and to my pack." He sang the song once again, just for good measure, making sure to keep his upwind voice low. After a brief sit, all the time watching the deer across the gorge, he started off with renewed vigor.

He fairly bounded down the hill, sidestepping small stones and just plain jumping over others in his way. Sweat emerged from his head and groin in small beads, then rivulets, making his fur shine and cooling his journey. It was a long journey, though, longer than Ario had thought, and by the time he reached the waterfall's edge and plunged into its cooling depths with gratitude he realized the Great Circle was nearing the horizon, almost below the hills he had left behind. All smiles, he wolf-paddled around, not minding the freezing water one bit, drinking his fill of the crisp, clear runoff.

At length, and reluctantly, the lupine emerged on the opposite shore, shook vigorously, and sat on a rock to sun-dry. There was a patch of berry bushes on this side, but they were a bright red, and mottled with white. The wolf's stomach was louder and much more persuasive than his brain, and he stuffed his gullet until he could barely breathe. With a long belch of satisfaction, Ario caught a scent on the gentle breeze wafting down from above. It was fresh, a white kind of smell, the scent of snow.

The wolf looked up.

What little blue remained in the sky was quickly covered up by dark, heavy-looking clouds. A storm was coming...a big one, and with dread Ario knew he should have been aware of that earlier in the day. He should have stayed where he was, but the need to climb up to that ledge and get the job done, the need to eat some fresh meat, was nearly overpowering. One more look at the threatening sky and he was off, sprinting up the hill toward rocks and slick cliffs. He never looked back.

The first third was easy going, the sheltered ground bare in many places. Ario panted, literally feeling the berries in his stomach burning away, fueling his muscles for adrenaline. When the first rock approached, he leaped, hearing a feral growl emerge from deep within his throat, and landed, bounding onto the next in line. This was short-lived, however, as each boulder was bigger and harder to cross than the last.

He was scaling up a section of loose rock when his footpaw suddenly sank into the side of the hill, triggering a miniature avalanche all around him. The wolf scampered and sidestepped out of the way just in time as a torrent of water burst where he had been. Sinking all eighteen claws into the pliable ground, Ario stopped, his body heaving, heart pounding as he realized how close he had come to being swept to a bone-crushing death.

As he rested, the lupine could take in, for the first time, his precarious position. His fingers and toes were chilled, wet from more freezing water lurking just beneath the rocky soil to which he clung. The refreshing breeze down near the waterfall had turned into a gale, whipping his tail to one side and biting its way through his fur. Bad things were happening far above him...snow and freezing rain, falling so fast the runoff had no time to soak in. The sky was menacingly dark, with the first traces of flurries making frantic circles around the rocks.

Ario steeled himself and raised his head. There were precious few spaces between boulders through which he could squeeze even his lithe body, so he would have to crawl to the base of the cliff. The cliff itself, foreboding in the grey light of the dying day, was covered in lichens and would be slippery unless he could find pawholds. The wolf's head felt light, his muscles oddly liquid and warm. His mind seemed on edge, honed to a point, but there was also a thin sheet of opacity...the kind that clouded his judgment just slightly. But he couldn't stay here.

Thoughts of the past occupied him as he climbed from the scattered boulders to bumpy outcroppings to the nearly-vertical slab of rock. He thought of N'hela, the young sweet beauty that had first attracted him on such a primal level as it started to snow and flakes flew into his eyes. Of his child, not yet named or brought into the world, who would undoubtedly be kicking N'hela's belly by now, when his footpaw slipped on a patch of moss and he yelled out. Of his mother, that great faceless matron whose strength somehow kept him going when the world started to spin.

It hit him without warning: a great swirling in his stomach that turned to a heat radiating out through his veins, numbing them. His head pounded; the wind roared in his sensitive ears. The sky was dark but a brightness formed in front of his eyes, a kaleidoscopic rotation of prismatic colors.

"Ohhh..." moaned the trapped lupine, "those damned berries. Why didn't I wait?" Even as he cursed his overzealous appetite he knew the energy, tainted or not, was needed to get up this cliff. Ario elected to look at the wall in front of him and go one step at a time; looking anywhere else would surely get him killed. Cold and wind pinned him close; he was beginning to lose feeling.

The visions of his family and what had conspired to bring him to this precipice grew more colorful and intense with each passing moment. He was in a field, yellow with ready-to-harvest wheat, rolling, happily tied to his love in the throes of passion as it should be, not a mating but two beings enjoying their bodies. He watched his son (he was hoping for a male, at least) growing up too fast before his eyes, passing into adulthood and hunting on his own, strong with his father's courage and tenacity. His heart swelled with pride, despite his numb body. But then...

The vision changed. Colors became darker and dire, and all he could see was the tribal council circled around a funeral pyre, flames orange and smelling of death and charred fur. Somehow the wolf knew what it was, and he did not wish to see it, but his legs carried him unwillingly closer. He shut his eyes but he could still see.

"No...why are you showing me this?" he screamed above the wind, claws dug in so tight his fingers and toes bled without pain. "What do you want from me?" There was no answer, just more whistling in his ears and the clearing image of two corpses engulfed in flames. The smell hit his snout and Ario almost retched. He knew burning flesh well. And he was looking at his wife and child, now just masses of black tissue peeling away from bone. Tears flowed and froze on his muzzle, in his whiskers.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!?" he pleaded to Mother Nature, to the Great Spirits, to any god or demon who would listen. His voice rose, cracked and fell in a failed howl of desperation. The dagger came to his mind then; strapped right to his waist, it would yield a deep wound that could kill him long before he hit the jagged rocks far below. Just one good swipe across the throat...

"Noooooooo! Unghgnh...not for you...not for anyone...but me," Ario whispered. And then his right paw left its hold and lunged upward, searched blindly, found another place to hoist him up. His legs, heavy as if turned to stone, followed and pushed, shaking hard. There was nothing in his vision now but a mass of colors...at least he thought they were colors. There could be no sane explanation for what his brain was telling him to see at that moment.

Time passed agonizingly slowly; the lupine did not count his steps for fear that he would give up after a certain point. When his left paw reached up, ragged and raw, and found nothing but a clump of grass on a flat surface, a deep exhalation left him and he stopped. A great brightness stabbed at Ario's closed eyelids, and finally he gathered enough courage to open them.

The sky still boiled blackly with cold fury, still pounded his body against the cliffside, but there was a streak of light seeming to form right in the middle of the maelstrom. It parted the clouds and Ario found himself preparing to be taken up to the Great Spirits after all. Oddly, he didn't feel regret for failing his family...but what he saw next brought him back to reality. One last push tumbled him limply into the dry grasses on the ledge, and while he lay on his back, wheezing and stiff, his mother came to visit.

How he knew the wolfess in the sky was his mother he could not discern, but Ario could smell, hear and taste her somehow. Perhaps the few moments after his birth he had memorized all of these, but most of all he just knew. The lupine reached out one dirty paw to her, and nearly bawled like a cub when she smiled dotingly down at him. Suddenly he was very, very warm.

"My son," came a voice so smooth and creamy it could never have been terrestrial, "I am very proud of you. I will let you know that the hardest physical challenge of your journey is complete."

"Mother...mother, it's you? How do you know me like this? Is this a vision?" There were so many things he wanted to say, so many unanswered questions to ask, but he could manage little more than these.

The regal female laughed gently. "Yes, I suppose this is a vision. But do not be troubled by these things, child. There is one, more difficult, task you must complete before you can become an adult male. It has not to do with physicality, but mentality and pride. You must set aside your own self-thought to save your family. I tell you this now so you are prepared when you are faced with the decision."

Ario was a bit dismayed, but seeing his mother overrode any feelings of disappointment. Right now, he would do anything she said. "What? What is it I must do to finish this wretched quest? Please, just tell me and I will obey you!"

"I am sorry, Ario. It is not me you will have to obey, but one other. The opposite and the same, child. You will know when the time has come. I am sorry, my time is short here and I must go now." She turned her head in slow-motion and started to fade, and Ario thought he heard the words such a beautiful boy barely audible above everything else.

The wolf reached out as far as he could to the sky. "Mother! No, wait! I must understand! I must-"

As quickly as the wolfess disappeared, another figure took her place. Its form was nothing more than a blur, but a pair of intense dark brown eyes stared at him from the shadows. It approached, dropping like the prairie-funnels that could destroy an entire pack in the Planting Season. It snorted, a definitively cervine noise, and covered his body. Immense heat wrapped around him, melted the snow from the ledge, and there was pressure between his legs. His tailhole was caressed by a feather-light something; his sheath squeezed and stroked. Something snuck inside him and drew him out, already fully engorged. Sensitivity seemed to drain from the rest of him and directly to his member. The air swirled around his cock, rapidly bringing him to a climax so hard the backs of his eyes hurt. As he emptied himself to the ghostly apparition and screamed, high and airy, a foreign muzzle clamped down on his; a tongue explored his throat, making him choke. As the invisible lover snorted again, Ario inhaled the strong scent of male...

He opened his eyes and nothing was there, except for a calm, clear night and his own exhausted, trembling body. The wolf's tortured brain finally gave out and he welcomed the embrace of unconsciousness.

Dawn broke coldly and drearily. A thick ground fog clung to the ledge, and when Ario finally woke he believed he had actually died after all. He looked up into greyness, waved an invisible paw in front of his muzzle and clipped his snout for his trouble. Groaning, the lupine turned over onto all fours, stretching each limb in turn before standing. He had slept deeply, but his mind again raced with images from the previous night.

Night? he thought. Was it night, or was I just dreaming that? Did I dream the whole thing? There was only one way to find out: he looked down. Sure enough, he was nude, except this time (the thought struck him as both silly and relieving) his penis was safely flaccid and hidden away. He patted it reassuringly, making a mental note to masturbate later and lose some tension. But as he touched himself, he felt the crusted fur around the opening and followed the trail up to his navel. Similar drops were on his shoulder, neck and right ear. So he had come last night...or whenever. But how, and who had done it? Already the memories were vague.

The Great Circle had begun to break through the fog, and Ario judged the time to be later than he had thought when he first woke up. A few moments of crawling yielded his loincloth, with the dagger still attached. He donned the cloth and fastened it just as shadows burst forth, made by the surrounding trees. The mist lifted from the clearing, which was somehow devoid of snow, and something hit his nose...hard. The wolf sneezed three times in rapid succession, breathing in the strange scent. It was so strong, in fact, that he couldn't tell what it was until most of it had evaporated with the fog.

It was deer. This was the spot where he had seen his quarry yesterday; it fairly reeked of fur, urine, droppings...and semen? Was that the unfamiliar woody odor underneath everything else? Maybe it was his own seed, but either way it didn't matter. It was evident the buck had made this his bed for the night and moved on before Ario finished his climb.

The wolf could now see the valley before him and the long, sloping hill he had loped down to the waterfall and its crop of hallucinogenic berries. At least that's what he thought had caused that insane vision last night. But it couldn't have all been in his head, could it? There were too many real clues to make that true. Besides, he had the buck's scent, and the direction in which he was traveling. It was only a matter of time before they met muzzle-to muzzle, predator-to-prey, and Ario would claim his prize and go home...finally.

His stomach, now empty, told him he should move on and find something to eat. Ario thought he should also find a stream in which to wash his bloody paws. After one last stretch and another bout of sneezing, the lupine set out, his nose keeping the trail.

* * *

Helpless claustrophobia wrenched the poor wolf's gut as his body fought between the pleasure from Dande's touch and the disgust at being fondled by another male. He kicked out fast, but the footpaw was caught and twisted at an unnatural angle. Every other wound on Ario's body seemed to ache along with the sprain.

The buck removed his hand and scooted a few feet away, the superior smirk on his face replaced with a lustful grin. It was that same grin the wolf had seen when he was first immobilized. Now those eyes roved up and down and across his bound form, heaving chest, and half-hard wolfhood. Dande's hand went to his own groin as he appraised his captive, rolling the cervine cock around until it was noticeably visible underneath the leather shorts he wore. Then they met the wolf's, and it all came back to him: the shadow-figure swooping down and ripping an orgasm from his body, the heady scent of its breath...the scent which, he now knew, had dominated the grassy ledge.

"The opposite and the same," he mumbled. "The opposite and the same. Oh, great Gods no..." His voice trembled with the realization of what he must do to return to his pack victorious. It wasn't about physical exertion, it was about mental strength. He didn't know if he could do it. Just the thought...

"You seem to be ill, puppy. Why is that? You looked as if you liked what I was doing just then," Dande said innocently. "Didn't you?"

Tears of frustration, anger and fearful resentment left Ario's eyes, flowed down the sides of his head to pool in his ears. He was blushing, grateful his winter coat hid the redness. "You...can't do this to me," he growled. "It's unnatural."

"The only unnatural things," said the buck matter-of-factly, "are those which cannot be done. And I'm pretty sure that what I have planned for you is very doable." He sat cross-legged, haughty and sure of himself. He had the lupine by the balls, literally and figuratively.

"You are a sin and a deviant to Mother Nature."

Dande was put off. "Oh, really? I seem to have done well for myself, on my own, with no interference from Mother Nature. I don't think She cares much. In fact, I've probably done more to help Her than to hinder Her. No young to raise and forage for, no extra mouths to feed."

"I thought your family were killed by wolves."

"You didn't listen. My sister and niece were killed. I have no family, and never will. The thought of mating with a female disgusts me. Of course you don't understand at all; I didn't expect you would."

"How can you be attracted to other males?"

"How can you be attracted to females? Ask yourself that question and you'll have your answer."

The wolf started three separate sentences, but dared not finish them. The answers were true and undeniable for both parties. Still, he would never give his consent...

"I was exiled from my tribe because of my 'deviancies,'" Dande said sarcastically, answering the question Ario hadn't yet asked. "I grew up never liking females the way I liked males. All those strong bodies, sweating in the light as they played and fought and gathered crops..." The buck shrugged: "As far back as I can remember it was like that. But my elders wouldn't have it. I was caught with another male, a younger male. He was spared because he was still technically a child, but somehow I was supposed to have 'known better.' I was sent away that night, never to be heard from again," he finished with a flourish of his hands. "I haven't died yet."

"Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?"

"No...but I won't be as gentle with you as I am with other lovers. Your lack of cooperation will be painfully reciprocated." At the look of abject shock on the wolf's face, Dande continued: "We are everywhere, puppy. More than you know. And just think: for every one that does not hide who he really is, there are ten more who still fear for their lives. Speaking of which-" the wolf's crotch was cupped again, his sheath slid up and down delicately "-if you value yours, and those of your family, you'll sit there like a nice obedient wuff and do as you're told."

Ario snarled as menacingly as he could, but his penis continued to get harder.

"Oh wait...you don't have much of a choice now, do you?" The cervine squeezed Ario's balls together tightly, eliciting a yelp that made him smile. "Good boy. Now let's get you situated."

Ario couldn't believe what was happening. He was rolled over, wincing at the pain of his open wounds, until he sat on all fours. Dande pulled him through the snow to a tree stump about two feet high, where his paws were set upon its top.

"Hold still or your balls are mush," he heard the buck sneer from behind him. The wolf wanted to curse Dande, to turn around and smash his face in somehow. He could kick him in the groin, he could turn and bite...but despite his brain's refusal to let him be raped, he knew there was no choice, not if he wanted N'hela and his cub to live. And struggling futilely would only injure him further, possibly rendering him incapable of returning home. He could not suppress a rather loud whimper of defeat.

Dande stroked the lupine's back from neck to tail slowly, placating the visibly terrified creature. "Good boy," he said condescendingly. "It won't hurt too much." He reveled in his superiority over the carnivore, but at the same time seeing Ario-trembling, scared nearly to death at something he himself didn't regard as a big deal at all-told him of the wolf's true dedication. The comment he had made earlier about respecting Ario had been a statement of fact; now the buck admired such spirit. As if to justify himself, he muttered, "Who knows? You may even like being mated by another male. Maybe it's something you've been wondering your entire life."

In a flash the wolf strained against his bonds and the stump, clipping Dande's thigh and snarling ferally. He was beyond words.

Dande looked down to see a deep cut beginning to bleed to his knee, staining the snow an odd pink color. "Okay, then," he snapped right back. "You just lost your chance for pity, puppy." He took the wolf's arms and stretched them forward over the opposite end of the stump so escape was impossible. Ario's knees butted right against the roots and did a good job of spreading his legs automatically. Of course, a tail was tucked securely between them in a useless attempt at chastity.

"Raise it." The words, cold as frost, in his ear. Ario refused to be exposed, resolutely keeping himself covered each time his tail was pulled. "RAISE...it." The serrated blade on his throat, its tip pricking just into the surface but not far from his jugular vein. He finally released, and grimaced in shame as his tailhole was exposed to the air. The dagger was removed, shortly followed by two soft snaps as his loincloth slipped away. The wolf could feel his semi-hard sheath penduluming below his belly with his ragged, panicked breaths.

"Thank you," said the deer, stroking his sides in a soothing manner that didn't soothe Ario at all. He stared straight ahead; just a few feet away was the edge of the clearing, and he spotted a few birds and small mammals watching the morbidly erotic show with dumb interest. The lupine thought he heard derisive laughter.

There were rustling sounds from behind him: Dande's loincloth being removed, the cervine's increasingly deep breathing, the soft swish-swish of flesh on flesh. Then hands were on his sheath again, appraising, patiently and progressively moving the fur back from the member underneath as it filled with blood. Ario knew the touch well, knew it was pleasure, but could not understand how he was being aroused by another male. When his knot slid through into the open, steaming and purple, Ario felt aroused in mind as well as body. Suddenly there was an end to be met, an inevitable end, and the only person around was Dande, who was preparing to mount him like a weak bitch in heat. Confusion reigned within him.

"My my, puppy," said the buck, smiling at the wolf's reaction to the usage of the word, "I'd say you very much like the attention I am paying to you. You look like you need something. Can you tell me what it is?"

"What?" stammered the wolf, unbelieving. "I...I don't need anything, you monster."

"Oh? Then the little wolfcub will have to do without, won't he? It feels a lot better if you paw at yourself when being taken. Takes the edge off the pain. I guess you don't need my help then..."

"No!" A desperate cry.

"Then what, puppy?"

"I don't know, I d-don't know, please just do it and get it over with, please..."

"Do what?" asked Dande, slipping a random fingertip into Ario's tight, twitching passage. The lupine screamed unintelligibly, sucking in muzzlefuls of air.

Ario blabbered, trying to make words amid the sharp pain under his tail. "Touch me just stroke me do anything I don't care just do whatever you want just make the pain go away!" He struggled forward as far as he could, but the finger only followed. He jerked as his cock was enclosed and squeezed; a copious string of precum shot onto the ground. The wolf sighed; Dande had been right. There was almost no pain when his cock was being stroked. In fact, the pleasure almost seemed to increase...nevertheless, when he thought again of what was to come, his stomach turned circles.

Dande spoke low now, in even tones, mumbling baby-words of encouragement. The wolf felt the buck settle onto his knees, inside his straddled thighs, and the finger twirled a bit inside him, making him squirm. All the while he was fondled and touched; part of him was glad for the distraction, another part called him a traitor for giving in. The finger was removed, but was shortly replaced by something else, something with a more sinister agenda. It poked restlessly at him, forcing his tail to try and move but he found no success.

"You had better relax, my friend. I only tell you this for your own good. I take no pity on stupid little puppies like you who can't even obey simple orders." The buck's thin head prodded at his entrance, each time going just a little deeper before meeting Ario's resistance. He intended to put up as much of a fight as possible.

"How dare you call me a fr-aaaughhh!" His words were interrupted as his tailhole relaxed and all the pressure from Dande's pushing abruptly shoved half his length into the wolf. There was a painful stretching, as if a molten stick were being inserted into his rear, followed by an intense burning as the deercock passed his inner ring and slid, without lubrication. The buck leaned forward and over his back, grasping the fur below his ribs and clenching it as his pleasurable moan overrode the lupine's scream. Ario's muzzle remained open, mouthing silent words and wheezing, then before he even knew what was happening his body convulsed and there was more pain and burning as his stomach rejected its meager contents. Dande smiled, watching the lupine retch until he lay dry-heaving on the stump, trying to avoid his own fluids.

The wolf felt completely open now, and violated. The pain and heat were unbearable, true, but even worse was the shameful helplessness of his position: unable to move or retaliate, nothing was left but to count the minutes until he was marked forever with Dande's seed. The odor of vomit was right in his face, but at least his stomach had finally stopped cramping. Unable to clench his tailhole any longer, he relaxed and felt the buck inch forward until testicles nestled on top of testicles. He was vaguely aware of his cocktip rubbing against the bark of the stump.

Already sweat dripped from Dande's armpits and head onto Ario's back, steam rising from them both. "I bet that was quite painful," said the cervine huskily. "To incite such a reaction takes a lot of nervousness, intolerance to pain, and fear. Mostly fear, but I think it was a combination of all three. Don't you, puppy?"

"Yes," came the whispered, ragged reply. Dande reached around and handled his cock for a few moments and, to the wolf's disdain, the pain was almost gone again. How could his own body, weak though it may be, give in so easily? His back already ached from the buck's weight.

Dande flexed some muscle, flaring his member and putting more pressure on Ario's already torn hole. The wolf gritted his teeth, trying in vain to suppress his pathetic whimpering. His entire lower torso was aflame with feelings coursing from cock to anus in a mixture of ecstatic shocks and dull, heavy throbs. He was sure he had never been as erect as he was now, and all he wanted was the sweet release of climax, but Dande knew how helpless he was and would not satisfy the urges. Instead he withdrew slowly, making the lupine cringe and think he was about to void his bowels; then reentered. This time, however, the only thing Ario felt was a smooth and tactile bolt of pleasure somehow connecting those two very different places on his body. Another long, thin shot of pre fell into the snow.

"I knew you would grow to like it very quickly," said Dande, apparently able to read the lupine's body with no trouble. "You see," he continued, making a second, slightly faster thrust, "there is a point within all us males, some place that sets your senses afire when touched. The only way to reach this place is by giving yourself to the whims of the same sex. Now aren't you glad to be taken by such a special creature as myself?"

There was no answer, save for a few puffs of steam.

"Aren't you glad," repeated the cervine, burying his hips into straining, lupine buttocks and circling Ario's knot with two fingers, "that you were spared the pain and torture of rape by having someone as patient as me show you the ropes? You should be grateful, you little whelp, I haven't killed you yet."

"Yes..."

"What you are experiencing now, puppy, is the broad extent of my mercy. You can go back to your pack, like I promised, but you will bear the scars of my vengeance. You will be a walking, talking reminder not to toy with the laws of the cycles of life. You will have your life"-thrust-"you will have your family"-thrust-"but not without certain sacrifices." Dande lengthened this last word as he drew his circled fingers to the tip of Ario's cock, so oversensitized from the beating on his prostate (he would never know it as more than "that special place") he nearly drove himself into the rough bark of the stump. Noises, unmistakable as feral want, crept eagerly into his throat.

Ario forced his eyes open to a bright world of severe colors; he could see the surrounding forest and the audience it had collected in the last few minutes. Small creatures looked on curiously, and he could make out various larger shapes farther off in the gathering shadows. Everything had taken on an orange-red glow, the color of old dried blood, the color of Harvest Season twilight. The lupine's tailhole had become more than just an orifice invaded by a (seemingly, at least) inferior male's penis; it was a connection through which he was now experiencing feelings incomparable to anything he'd done before. His vision was reduced to a tunnel, and at the end of that tunnel was the glory of a climax he expected to overshadow all others. Nothing else mattered. Once again his mind felt clouded, not by bad berries but instinctual pleasure. The wolf's member swelled, nearing release.

As he plunged himself deeper into the now-docile lupine below, Dande shifted forward to cover Ario's back and show him the true meaning of being mated. This was not just about sex; this, for all intents and purposes, was also about revenge: for his sister and niece, for all the carnivores and opportunists in the world who had ever unfairly preyed on weaker creatures because of convenience instead of sickness. Unbeknownst to Ario, anger from his years of exile and lone survival, anger from intolerance and ridicule, bottled up in his soul, now bubbled rapidly to the surface. Despite his respect for the wolf, the moment was his to take control over the demons plaguing his mind. There would be time for reparations later; for now, he had a task to perform.

"Aaaghh, stop it!" came the desperate cry from a muzzle gritted shut. Ario's loins were beginning to boil too quickly for his system to keep up. Those fingers squeezing behind his knot were relentless, somehow bypassing the normal plateaus of masturbation and instead allowing a near-constant stream of fluid to drip out of him. As Dande's thrusts increased and he found a better angle, the special place deep inside him was pounded repeatedly, pushing him to a height of sensual awareness that had somehow not overloaded him yet. Pain and pride forgotten, the bound wolf actually found himself moving backwards to deepen his penetration, enjoying the submission and opening a hidden door in the back of his brain. There was a part of him after all that preferred things this way, and that part had been let loose.

"Oh no, puppy," breathed the buck into one ear as Dande went faster, feeling the wolf's broken body respond with sudden and amazing vigor. Ario tried to hunch forward onto his fingers more, but they would not budge and the lupine settled for as much travel over his flesh as the cervine would allow. The wolf would pop much sooner than he had thought, but that only meant he would have to sit and wait until the cervine finished himself. It would not take long, in any case.

Something very odd was happening to Ario. His loins bathed in a building orgasmic inferno, his wolfhood started to pulse without the accompanying peak of climax. Hips thrusting against Dande's fingers, trying for any friction whatsoever, he felt trapped just short of some final destination, as if he were being kept inches away from his goal. He bore down lewdly onto the buck's cock, going for that one special place again, that one final push that would end it all.

A few humps later he found that push, quite surprisingly, and dug his claws into the ground to keep the world from falling away. Without moving or touching his cock at all, climax crashed through his already weak body, canceling out the pain from his shoulder, ribs, muzzle and paws. The lupine lifted his head and tried to howl, but what ended up emerging from him was a choked, savage, grating noise of a creature given up to outside control. Dande continued to work himself inside the wolf, pounding through his clenching hole and sending uncountable ropes of thick white seed into the already melted snow beneath Ario's belly. It seemed as if he would never stop coming.

But he did, and the taken wolf's mind cleared abruptly, as did his afterglow. Reality came crashing down; he was spent, weak, and the pleasure coming from his abused rear end was rapidly turning to burning pain again. Ario suddenly wished he hadn't shot off so easily.

"Now what are you going to do?" said the buck evilly between pants.

"Gods...it hurts! Now can't you stop?" these were weak questions, of course, not even deserving of an answer, and Dande didn't bother to.

"You can't...possibly expect me...to stop now, when I haven't...claimed my prize," Dande huffed, speeding up slightly and causing Ario to try and pull away, strings of cum still dangling from his cockhead. Somehow the buck had pressed even deeper now, beyond that pleasure center and was hitting a bend, sending shivers of pain rifling up his back. His yelps of helpless restraint went unheeded. The forest was conveniently blind and deaf.

Dande stopped just long enough to get to his feet, holding himself inside of Ario so as not to give him the impression he was getting off easily. Bent at the knees, he resumed mating the lupine in long, agonizing movements that gained an uninterrupted groan from below. He gripped Ario's shoulders and lowered himself onto his back, perspiration matting their combined fur. This position was much easier and gave the buck more pleasure and an easier path to the finish.

"Won't be long now, puppy," he grinned into one laid-back ear, "until you become mine." Ario tried to form a reply but only succeeded in gasping aborted curses in his ancestors' tongue. The buck's regulated thrusts became steadily ragged and marked with sudden jerks and airy breaths. "You really should have held off." With that, he started to nibble on the lupine's right ear erotically, making Ario wince and try to shake him off, which only resulted in a blinding pain in his head.

Ario's cock ached. His wounds throbbed again; his entire body felt like a used doll discarded on a trail by a disinterested child. The mantra of "It's all for N'hela, all for the child" echoed in his empty mind without meaning. No longer did he try to resist, or even try to cancel out the burning in his rectum; now, he just waited, emotionless tears flowing down the sides of his muzzle and pooling on the age-rings of the stump. He thought about what would happen when he showed up back home with Dande's blood as evidence. All would be well: he would have his family to care for, he would finally be an adult, but he knew he was changed forever. Despite the pain he was enduring now, the pleasure he had felt before still confused him. He couldn't help thinking: what if the circumstances were different? What if it were making love, instead of being raped by another male? Where is the physical attraction for people like Dande? The wolf's mind started answering these questions, but the answers scared him so much he shut them out immediately.

The nibbling on the lupine's ear increased, and Dande's thrusts became longer and more delayed. Every inch going in and out of him seemed to scrape like a dry piece of kindling now that Ario had lost all sexual interest in the matter. His tail hurt from being pinned to his back for so long (how long? he thought, but couldn't tell in his position).

Suddenly the buck grunted loudly, irreverently, in the clearing, and a flock of birds took flight from the barren trees. His hips moved like lightning, fingers clenching furrows in the lupine's shoulders, and Ario screamed in agony as he felt Dande's teeth meet through his ear, and the flow of blood down his head. Then a great sigh of relief escaped them both as Dande powered through his long-sought after climax and flooded the wolf's tailhole with spunk. Through the searing pain of his ear, Ario noticed the deercock floating away from his passage and the almost cooling effect the seed had on his now-throttled tailhole. A wave of total shame descended on his mind, and he just waited until his marking was completed.

After a short eternity, the cervine finally pulled out with a dull pop and a flood of white and red from Ario's loosened bowels. The wolf heard crackling snow and then Dande appeared in front of his prostrated form. He somehow mustered the strength to raise his throbbing head just in time to see the buck spit something into the snow. He realized with diluted horror that he was looking at the top half of his right ear.

"Oh...oh great Heavens that was good," Dande commented after clearing his mouth. "Had you been taken willingly you would have made a great lover." He idly scratched his drained testicles. "Oh well, sometimes it's better when they fight," he said as casually as if he were merely discussing the weather. Bending to retrieve his dagger, he quickly undid the ropes binding the defeated wolf's paws. However, Ario did not move. His body was simply too weak. He looked at the chunk of ear on the ground, the ragged bottom edge already crusted over.

"You bastard," he managed in a gravelly whisper.

"Me?" Dande chuckled. "You owe me your life. You should be praising me right now."

"For what? For forcing me to be your lover? Raping me for revenge? I might as well be dead, you merciless devil."

"Devil indeed. I believe we've already had this discussion." The buck took Ario by the scruff and rolled him roughly onto his back. "And we agreed to disagree and call it a truce. You wanted a convincing show for your pack, and you got it. I wouldn't be surprised if they elected you to the council, or whatever it is you have." He looked down at the wolf, whose eyes were bloodshot and barely open.

"Speaking of convincing, I have my end of the bargain to fulfill." Dande knelt next to Ario and began to inhale and exhale deeply. The lupine could only watch as the buck sank into some sort of trance, quiet punctuated by sharp intakes of air. After hyperventilating and filling his lungs to capacity, he held his breath and brought the dagger around his body and to his forehead. Closing his eyes, he dragged the black blade across and into the skin, parting it deeply. There was a momentary glimpse of inner tissue before blood rushed to the surface and down into the buck's eyes.

"Get up," Dande said, bending his head and letting the first drops stain the snow. When Ario didn't obey, the deer uttered a curse under his breath and moved over the wolf's body, taking his useless paws and running them over the wound. They were soaked almost immediately, and Dande rubbed them over his body wherever they would go, paying special attention to his muzzle and neck. When he was satisfied with the coverage, he let go and wrapped his shorts around his head to stem the bleeding.

Ario stared after him in awestruck wonder. He wished he could just take pain like that. Then again, a voice inside mused, you've probably taken more abuse than a whole pack of wolves could stand. He smiled inwardly at that. Maybe. With groaning, shaking difficulty he rose to his footpaws and gathered what was left of himself: a penetrated, broken, bloody mess.

"I suppose I should thank you," the wolf said cynically.

"No need. There are no thanks in order here." Dande was already headed out of the clearing, opposite the path Ario would take to get home. "We are pretty even. But I will tell you this: take care of yourself, and your family. You have earned my respect, and I won't be taken lightly. Be humble. I believe we both have a lot to think about on our journeys home."

Ario nodded. He did not know what Dande would need to think about, but his mind still reeled with everything that had happened this afternoon. He envisioned himself again, prone on the ground, pumping cum as strongly as he could without having had much contact, if any. It had all been from behind...what did that mean? The wolf shook his shaggy, clotted head; now wasn't the time.

The buck nodded back once, snorted into the cooling air, and was gone over the edge of the clearing. Faint crunches died away to nothing, and Ario found himself feeling like no time had passed at all since he had jumped Dande for the first time. The failing light told a different story.

The lupine tied his loincloth in a rudimentary knot around his waist, checked for his own dagger and limped crookedly out of the clearing. Night would fall soon, and he was glad, because he doubted there would be much time before both his mind and body gave out completely. He figured that if he could survive what he had just been through, sleeping where he fell would be a mere trifle.

* * *

Ario traveled much farther than he would have thought, walking until long after darkness overtook the forest. His night vision was still as good as ever, and he moved relatively pain-free, most likely due to the excess adrenaline in his system. When that was gone, however, he gave in willingly and sprawled under a rocky overhang to sleep.

And sleep he did, for over a day. When he finally came to, he could hardly move. He swore he could still feel a slick substance in his tailhole. The pain was mostly gone though, and his experience with Dande had already begun to fade as a distant memory. The wolf was grateful for that.

His spirits lifted, the wolf made quick work of the journey home. It was much easier to track his own scent back the way he had come, and he even found a shortcut around the sheer cliff he climbed before. He stopped at the bottom to drink his fill at the waterfall, but he cautiously avoided the berries; there were plenty of things he could find elsewhere. His wounds were sore and coagulated, but he dared not wash himself for fear of losing Dande's evidence slathered all over his upper body.

One day, roughly half a week after he'd started back, Ario was crossing a long, sloping barren hillside when he realized his mind was wandering. It seemed like it had taken forever to cross a short distance, but he was not fatigued. The lupine sat down to think and rest his legs, and suddenly he found that his mind was unusually clear. It was as clear, he thought, as it had been before he had taken N'hela and impregnated her. It was the clear mind of someone whose life is on track, with direction and purpose. And for the first time in countless weeks, he was happy and unburdened.

Inevitably his thoughts turned to Dande. Once again he played the memory over, each time feeling less hurt and violated. It started to take on a rosy tint, like when a bad memory is trying to turn into a good one. He knew he was just trying to selectively forget parts of the encounter, but at the same time a part of him was still asking those same questions.

What if we had been lovers?

Was it pure reaction, or did I actually enjoy it?

It scared him to ponder such deep questions, and he feared he knew the answers to them. He could not talk to anyone about this, especially his elders. No one would be able to understand, and of course his faux pas would be unveiled. Ario wished he could have stayed just a little longer to discuss things with the buck, but he had been too worn out and afraid. Still, when he came out of his reverie he was welcomed with three inches of pink cock staring needfully up at him.

"Just for a little while..." he said aloud to no one in particular, and stretched out on the dead grasses. It felt so good to have his cock in his own paw again; the familiar feelings calmed him. Pulling his sheath the rest of the way down, he began a slow stroking and found that he wouldn't need much time. Eventually his eyes closed and he was left to his imagination. He envisioned N'hela, legs spread and waiting for him. In his fantasy he covered her with ease, sliding through her tight labia and making her moan, smiling, with each slow thrust.

This was a typical fantasy for Ario, but he let his mind wander a bit. He pounded into her with regularity, each time forcing more of his knot through into her depths. This time, however, he felt a pressure on his tailhole as he moved, and he looked up to see his wife's grinning muzzle just before she shoved a claw-tipped finger up and into him. The wolf tensed and pushed hard, tying N'hela with enough force to make her scream. She crooked the finger and hit that special spot dead-on, and Ario literally felt the seed forced from his testicles and out into her.

The vision dissolved as the lupine felt warm splatters on his face. He opened his eyes to watch his member spurt and cover his chest with yet another layer of fluid, adding to what already sullied his winter fur. Licking cum from his muzzle as the last bits ran over his paw, he moved his left arm and was surprised to feel a finger slipping from his hole that he never realized had been inserted. He sniffed it out of curiosity, and found the mingled scent of wolf and buck pungent but interesting. Ario sat under the passing clouds for a long time, watching himself resheathe and just thinking.

It was only a few days later, when crossing the last low mountains before descending to his pack's camping grounds, that a sudden snowstorm took him by surprise. A cruel leeward downdraft drove at his back, threatening to push him that extra bit to make him lose his footing and fall to even more injuries. It was not nearly as bad as his climb up the cliff, but by the time dawn broke through the driving white his body was mostly numb. He couldn't remember the last time he had eaten.

Unbelievably, through the whipping wind and snow Ario could still track his own, weeks-old scent. Humming to himself to keep his wits, he kept his nostrils flared and tried to crawl as low to the ground as possible.

It was like a wall of granite.

The odor hit him as a solid mass of assorted scents; numerous colors and shadows erupted in his mind, forming into familiar faces. The wolf tilted his nose up, inhaling deeply...even more scents, some new ones he couldn't recognize, but after some concentration he found what he was looking for: a semi-sweet flowery smell, combined with birchbark and traces of clean, crisp water.

"N'hela..." Sweet heavens, she was still alive! The reaction from his brain and body told him all he needed to know. Ario strained hard to find the scent of a pup among the others, but his search was fruitless. Even though the cub had weeks yet to be born when he left, there was a small hope that he would be able to find some recognizable trace. Ario picked up the pace, now on a clear and direct course home.

Darkness fell, and the wolf was forced to bed down when he kept stumbling over roots and rocky ground. He slept little and lightly, waking numerous times. When morning had just started to give depth to the failing night, he continued on, noting that the snow had decreased to the point where he could see a few feet in front of him. His pace quickened.

As Ario moved, more scents came to his nose: the heady scent of a recent kill, probably two or three days old, sharp wood smoke and fire, medicines and salves commonly used to treat Cold Season illnesses. The snow had softened into mere flurries when he came down through the trees of a hillside and entered open ground, almost on top of a shelter-hut.

The sight of it, familiar and alien at the same time, was a welcome one. He was finally home, although that thought had not sunk in yet. The lupine, beaten and cold and limping, made his way through the maze of huts, noting that there were more than when he had left. Still early in the morning, the camp was barren of life; sounds of rustling and snoring emitted from closed flaps of leather.

Ario smelled meat; his mouth, devoid of saliva for lack of water, started to drool uncontrollably, dripping onto his footpaws as he came into view of the central campfire and its lone attendant. The dark brown wolf was roasting a rabbit on a spit, turning it this way and that, poking with a claw every now and again to test for doneness. He started when he caught Ario out of the corner of his vision.

The two stared at one another for a moment, then the other wolf's lips lifted up in a snarl of warning. Ario held out his paw in greeting, his face weary and soft.

"Belrahi," he said, startling the lupine at the recognizance of his name. "Ne kones pa amitri, Belrahi?" The darker wolf crept forward warily at the use of the ancient tongue, sniffed at the proffered paw, recoiled but did not attack. He knew.

"Ario? Is that you...really you?" Ario nodded. "They told us you were dead long ago."

"They didn't bother to ask me. Now, Belrahi..."

"Yes?"

"Could you spare some of that delicious-looking meat? I haven't had a thing to eat in days."

Belrahi backed away from the spit, almost in disgust for looking to selfish. "Please, please! Eat your fill; I'm going to wake everyone up and tell them that Ario's back from the dead!" Ario thought about stopping him, but figured he could use a little attention after all he'd been through. He ripped into the rabbit with abandon, literally wolfing it down. His stomach quickly rejected the first two bites, after which Ario slowed down to give his body time to adjust to solid food again.

He was so busy eating, in fact, that he didn't notice the crowd gathered around him until there were nearly fifteen wolves surrounding him, some with menacing half-snarls on their muzzles at the filthy newcomer. Belrahi tried to explain who he was, but they all would have to see it for themselves. Ario stood in the center of them, still a bit shaky but better then he had felt for a long time. He turned and found who he was looking for.

The chief stood a good four inches taller than Ario, his traditionally-patterned fur lightened with his old age. He regarded the skeletal wolf with little more than disdain, and when utterances of "Kill him!" and "Sacrifice the foreigner!" circulated throughout the crowd he put up his paws to silence them. His deep blue eyes narrowed, studying...

"Your paw. Give it to me." Ario raised his right paw and it was taken by the chief. All at once he felt like the same old, immature Ario who couldn't keep his cock sheathed around a female. On the other paw, he sure felt older than his years at the moment. The larger wolf examined it, sniffed it, his nose wrinkled in repugnance.

"Down," came the command, and the younger lupine dropped to all fours in a presentation stance like he had seen other males-in-training do. The chief did the same, walking around him and appraising every inch of his soiled body. Paws roamed over his half-ear and bent muzzle; traced along his sore ribs and the still-swelled gash in his shoulder. A cold nose sniffed under his raised tail carefully and at length, and even his sheath was inspected...for what he didn't know. At last the chief stood up and instructed Ario to do the same. When they were eye-to-eye, the larger wolf put a paw on his shoulder. Everyone around them went silent. Ario thought he saw the beginnings of a smile twitch his leader's muzzle.

"I believe you have a visitor," he said, glancing to the left. The wolf's head turned and for a moment his brain could not process what he was seeing. Pushing the crowd aside gently, N'hela stepped dreamily into the inner circle, rubbing sleep from her eyes. Ario let go an emotionally-choked bark and she came to attention, staring down at him in shocked recognition.

"You came back." The words were unbelieving, faltering. Ario stood up, his broad smile turning quickly to a groveling rictus. He took two steps toward her and fell to the ground, screeching in incoherent sobs loud enough to wake the rest of the camp. N'hela came to him. His love...the wolfess who, despite the opinions of everyone around her, had refused others' advances and appeals for marriage and who had raised her son alone and waited every day for Ario's safe return, held him and petted him as he wept like a newborn in her arms.

* * *

Today was supposed to have been a day of rest for the pack, but the return of Ario after nearly two full cycles of the Silver God made for a special occasion. First, though, Ario's body was tended by three thorough females who took him to a nearby stream and spent much of the morning washing the collective fluids from his fur and treating his wounds, none of which were infected, miraculously. After shaking himself and laying on a rock to dry, the wolf felt light as a feather. It helped that he only weighed ninety pounds anyway.

Ario was led to N'hela's hut, where he beheld his young son for the first time, now covered in a fine coat of fur with bright, intelligent eyes and an ornery spirit that made him laugh as he held the squirming cub. After a short talk, N'hela suggested that they perform the marriage ceremony that night, with the permission of the pack council, now that he was an adult. The quicker that happened, the quicker they could settle into a proper life among the pack as a family. Ario agreed enthusiastically and went to the chief to ask his blessing.

The wolf never asked why there had been no rite of adulthood ceremony performed for him; there seemed to be an all-around consensus that none was needed. The tasks he had completed far outweighed any menial competition cubs went through to get their ceremonies. It wasn't celebrity Ario sought, or to be any kind of hero. He just wanted his family back.

"Welcome, my boy," waved the chief in a tone completely different from the one he had heard send him away to almost-certain death so long ago. "What is it you require of me?"

"I came to ask you, sir, if you will give your blessing for my marriage to N'hela, and if we could have the ceremony this evening."

The chief looked flustered. "Well, I see no problem in giving my blessing, but it's much too short notice for the ceremony to be tonight. Decorations will have to be arranged, garments made and pigments mixed. And those are just a few-"

Ario silenced him with a paw. "We won't need any of these things. We just want a small ceremony to make it official. It's been long enough in coming already."

"But, it's tradition..."

"I know, but won't you make an exception? N'hela wants the same, and I am sure her father will be pleased to know I followed through on my promise to him."

The large, foreboding wolf pondered heavily on his ground-blanket for a minute, then nodded: "Granted. Gather yourself a party and we will have the ceremony with our evening meal, by the light of the fire."

Smiling and looking every bit the groom-to-be, Ario thanked him and turned to leave.

"Just one more thing, ch-I mean, Ario."

The wolf turned back. "Yes, my leader?"

"How did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"How did you manage to down a full-grown buck on your own? When I inspected you I smelled traces of...seed. What did you do with this buck?"

Ario began to sweat underneath his fur, but the chief could not see the moisture on his skin. "He was a fighter. Tracked him for days, until I was nearly starved. He pulled a dagger on me, kicked me around with those hooves of his. I eventually had to chase him until he tripped and broke a leg. After that, it was only a matter of getting to his neck and severing the arteries." He lied well through his teeth; he had seen the same tactics hundreds of times as his friends earned their rites of passage.

"And what of the seed?" The question was dubious, as if the chief had given a show to the pack in public but still didn't believe Ario in private.

Without pause: "I admit I was a messy eater, but I ate everything. Afterwards, I desecrated the carcass with my fluids to prevent other predators from interfering with my kill." He said this with mock assurance, the icing on the cake.

"What about the buck semen I smelled, hmm? How do you explain that?" The chief was confident, but not the kind of confident that indicated the truth would set Ario free.

"Like I said," Ario smiled, "I...ate...everything."

"You know more about hunting than I thought, boy. Or should I say male? I commend you on your particularly...thorough tactics. You've earned your place in this tribe. Have your wedding, and leave me to my business." The chief shooed him out with a wave of his paw. Ario had to stifle a giggle as he left.

The rest of the day was spent preparing for a modest but happy wedding; Ario and N'hela donned humbly decorated garments and stood before the pack as the Great Circle fell beneath the horizon, casting golden bars of light onto all present. N'hela's father took a moment to pat the wolf on the back in a show of hearty congratulation, boasting to anyone who would listen that his daughter was marrying the most capable predator since the dire wolves of the past. The chief presided, promises were made, and the pack sang the song of bonding, followed by a group howl of celebration. Even Ario's son joined in his own, squeaking voice.

Afterwards there was much revelry and dancing. A veritable feast was set out, including two fresh kills from that afternoon. The entire pack was able to fill their bellies, and after the meal some retired for the night while others stayed to join in the fertility dance.

Ario and N'hela were placed in the middle of a circle of dancers, and as they gyrated and sang for procreation, Ario took his wife again as a lover, in a more proper and traditional way. They mated furiously within the circle, both secure in the knowledge that since they already had a child, and N'hela was nowhere near estrus, this was just for pure pleasure. The male howled as he climaxed, wrapped around his wife who followed soon after, and the song ended with the couple sweating and tied together. Afterwards, Ario watched with proud interest as some of the males, still a few years away from adulthood themselves, quietly exited the firelight to the surrounding shadows to quell the obvious arousal beneath their loincloths.

Finally Ario pulled out and they cleaned up a bit before heading back to their hut, repeatedly refusing requests to stay at "their" party. The truth was, they were both exhausted and wanted to get back to their son. N'hela went to a neighboring hut and brought him back just as Ario was adjusting the bedding for three. She closed the flaps just enough so there was light to see by.

"Hand him to me," said Ario, and took the cub with gentle paws and the enormous grin of a new father. In fact, that definition was almost the truth. He held the energetic little lupine and watched his short muzzle coo and babble.

"You know, you never got the chance to tell me what happened out there. How you came back with all that blood on you," said N'hela softly.

Ario shook his head. He wouldn't be able to tell her now...maybe never. But he wished that someday he could at least tell her the truth and make her understand. The wolf thought of Dande, and wondered idly if he had someone to love and sleep next to tonight. He figured the buck had no one, because he had spoken of no one, and felt a twinge of sorrow for the cervine. Someday, he thought. Someday he would find him again, and Ario could find answers to his questions. Or maybe someone in his own pack felt the same way. We are all around you, Dande had said...

"I'll tell you later," he said curtly, and as if on cue a thought popped into his head. "N'hela, what is our son's name?"

N'hela smiled. "He does not yet have a name. I wanted to wait until you returned, so we could name him together."

"What if I never returned?"

"I doubt we would have survived long enough for it to matter." Ario shivered at the honesty of her voice, but he had to agree.

There was silence as Ario thought long and hard about a name for his son, his legacy to the future. What could be a fitting name for all the circumstances that had conspired to make a life for this child? Finally he set the cub down and put his paw on the scruffy little head tousling the fur there.

"Doneki."

N'hela closed her eyes, mouthing the word until she smiled around it. "I like it; it's very pretty. What does it mean?"

"In the tongues of the past, it means 'second chance.'"

"It's beautiful," N'hela said, hugging her husband and letting Doneki crawl over them both to nibble on Ario's good ear. "I couldn't have come up with a better fitting name if I tried for years and years."

Ario pulled Doneki from his ear and put him on his chest, where he led the cub's eyes around with a finger, watching him grab for it with his own stubby, claw-free digits. "Neither could I," he replied as he played with his son.

FIN

2/3-4/29/05

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