Howling Thunder Chapter 1 A New Life

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Darkness, all I see is a horrifying darkness.

A crushing pressure, as if I'm slowly being pushed upward, a freezing chill stings my body. With a gasp, a rush of air fights its way into my lungs.

I feel as if I'm being held upside down now by my spine. Something smells awful and I think it’s me. I still can’t see anything, this sucks, I start to whine.

A muffled voice, “A black tail madam, this will not please the Fenrir”

Someone screams, “Would you shut the hells up, get these pups out of me! I swear to all the gods I’ll haunt your dreams for years if you take a moment longer!”

As I'm dunked into something wet and warm I hear a whine similar to my own from somewhere.

“A red tail girl, at the very last you may have an appropriate heir, Madam Inari.” The same voice slightly more clearly.

I’m being swished about, I'm dizzy I think I'm going to puke, yup there it is.

Great, I’m back in the wetness again.

Dammit quit pulling my spine whatever that is.

I can now hear two whines similar to mine as I'm wrapped in something warm and soft. Hey, this isn’t so bad.

“At least the first one is a grey, praise the gods he matches the Fenrir!”

A now exhausted voice, “Didn’t I tell you to shut up. The Fenrir will be pleased with his pups from me regardless of their blood trait. Get out. Patra, pass me my black fluff ball, and quit grabbing their tails, are you an idiot?”

A high pitched voice from very close, "This is so gross, they're covered in ...your stuff, I'm never having pups."

Another woman's voice, "keep being rude to the Inari and I'll declare you concubine to that black pup here and now."

A moment of me being lifted and spun and nearly puking again. Someone make it stop!

The younger voice, "but mother the red one is cuter."

The original angry woman, "hand him over already and go get packed, you two are leaving first thing in the morning."

After a moment she continues, "funny you said that, I suspect this one will be a rather good match for that girl."

"It would be an honor.... congratulations Vulpi, I better chase her down. She'll just toss everything in a pile if I don't watch her."

The voices all go quiet, I'm slowly being rocked against something warm.

I’m tired.

"Me too my darling pup, me too."

While my eyes are still locked shut, I quickly drift to sleep.

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Once I can finally open my eyes, I can’t make heads or tails of anything I'm looking at. Well, aside from the heads and tails of the other two whiners in this large woven basket with me.

The three of us have clean white skin, two arms and two legs. My tail, the source of my spine feeling yanked, is frizzy and black. The other two have pointed, furred ears that match their tails so I assume I'm the same. Their tails are different, combed smooth, one grey and one red.

The red one is currently hugging my frizzy tail while the grey one is pulling on it, this sucks. But there’s nothing I can do other than slightly shuffle.

Maybe I’ll get lucky and the grey one will fall out the basket.

Red sneezes in my face, ok, maybe I had that coming.

“It’s time to eat, my darling little pups.” This person has the voice that matches the angry one from before.

A big red tailed person lifts me from the basket. I have a brief look at the rest of the room, it’s a torch lit room made of some dark wood. The round nub is placed in my mouth, I now notice it’s attached to one of the mounds of this big red tail, I’ve come to call these mounds of food and glory, boobs.

No idea where the name came from, it was really just sudden inspiration, I must be a genius. The glorious boobs come in a pair and I find it a great injustice that I can only have one at a time.

Some other woman speaks, "Red eyes, and those longer ears, surely this black one is a bad omen."

Mother lowers her voice, "Ragna, I have red eyes... anymore superstitious nonsense from you and I'll throw away Hyndla's recommendation of you to succeed me here in the den."

With a slight burp I announce my full stomach.

Again, all is right with the world and I’m happy to fall asleep.

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I can now shuffle my way about the basket, this much at least was necessary given the behavior of my siblings.

Grey seems to have a constant need to grab mine or Red’s tail, while Red has discovered great joy in hitting us.

The large red tail with the glorious boobs calls herself our mother but she seems to do nothing to stop these little monsters, in fact, I think I see a look of pride in her eyes whenever Red hits us.

Whatever, I will be the first to manage this crawling movement I’ve been working on, then we’ll see if Grey can grab my tail. Mother has also stopped presenting us the sacred boobs. Instead, we have these shitty leather pouch things, it's sour, I’m not happy.

I kick Grey while mother isn’t looking.

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I’ve mastered crawling about, but that clever bastard Grey was quick on the take up after seeing me move about and Red was only a day or two after that.

Grey, beginning the other day, has stopped touching my tail, sure he still chases me around but he seems to avoid my tail. His fur on his ears seems to stand up when he approaches it.

Red seems unfazed and still uses the frizzy thing as a hug pillow every night, and continues to hit me during the day.

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I’ve had enough, as she’s grabbing my tail and is about to hit my leg I swat her hand and punch her ear. She cries, and mother looks angry. Red is her favorite after all.

“I’ll be sure you learn early to treat your sister well!” she seems a little huffy.

Mother picks me up by my tail and plops me into the wash bucket filled with cold water. I’m now freezing, and panicking.

For some reason the cold reminds me of a nightmare of a gloomy darkness and white flakes falling from above. I start howling like my life depends on it.

Mother sees this may have been a bad choice for me and tries to quickly dry me off.

When she reaches my tail there is a sudden spark of light. Mother is surprised; I spot Grey and Red peaking over the basket. She goes to touch my tail with the drying cloth and again there is a flash of light.

My tail is noticeably less frizzy for the first time.

Nothing more happens however, and so while a tad curious, its set aside as something weird and random.

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Red, Grey and I have now been moved to another room in our apparently large home. All the walls are the same dark wood. The hallways seem to go on forever with endless doors.

As we go down a floor I get a look at a grand pair of opposing curved stairways in the largest room I’ve seen yet.

Massive doors are at one end surrounded by the first windows I’ve seen. Each pane is framed in smoothed, knotted, wooden branches. No light enters however, only the ever present candle light.

The new room is further into this floor. Interestingly this room has dark stone walls and a large area blocked off by a short wooden railing. Mother leads us into this area.

Shortly after, more pups are brought in. They all look about the same age as us.

There are a couple dark grey tails, a few orange, and the rest are some shade of brown. There are no other black tails, no other deep red tails like sister or mother, and none as bright a shade of grey as brother.

I tug at mother’s red silk robe. I point at my own tail, then at the others.

She smiles at me and gives a proud look, “You are the pups of two powerful Alpha bloodlines. Don’t bother comparing your coats to the other families, even in our own pack.”

I get a feeling of superiority, but really I have no idea what she means.

Mother seems to notice my expression, “Don’t let it get to your head pup, bloodlines and power don’t make someone a better man.”

My right ear twitches; I don’t like the word pup.

The playroom is now a daily event, Gray has many tails to chase and the occasional flying insect, although he still spends most his time attached to Red’s side.

Red has now come out of her shell as a true bully. She likes to hit the other kids when they have a toy she wants.

I am determined to stay ahead and am trying to walk while holding the wall. Grey being always mindful of me comes over.

I accidentally brush him with my tail as I stumbled about and he let out a rather loud yelp. He seems fine, clearly confused, but fine.

Mother had rushed over thinking I hit someone again. Come on, its fine when Red does it?!

Anyway, while she’s looking at me angrily, I hold up my tail and tap it on the nearest idiot brown tail. The poor dumbass yelps as a bright spark hits his arm.

I poke the tip of my tail myself and watch the small spark ark, it didn’t hurt me, and instead it just felt warm.

Mother seems completely thrilled and thrusts me in between the majestic boobs, unfortunately, there was some frizz left in my tail and with a bit of a yelp she put me back down quickly yet carefully.

“My darling little fuzz ball I was wondering when you’d begin showing your blood traits. This is so much better than the other mothers thinking you just the ornery pup!”

Who dares call me such a thing? I’ll thrust this fuzzy black thing down their throats!

I swear I heard a feminine giggle from somewhere. I spot a small black cloud hidden in a dark corner.

After that day mom no longer hugs me or picks me up without a cautionary look at my tail.

Meanwhile, Red still seems completely immune to the spark and finds incredible joy in dragging me about the room by my tail and using me to threaten the other pups for toys and snacks.

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At night when all the torches are put out, our room seems chilly. A small candle barely gives any light. Grey is happily snoring and Red is kicking me in her sleep.

As I shuffle out of range of her legs I’m pulled back by her yanking my tail. Someday this has to stop.

From somewhere in the room I hear a high pitched cackle, “Not so smart mouthed now is he?”

A pair of yellow eyes floats over our basket.

A green pair joins and a smooth, feminine voice is heard “Awe he’s so cute.”

The two sets of eyes glow from a pair of black clouds swirling above me. I feel someone tickling my chin, I can’t help but crack a grin.

The male voice, “Yes, adorable when he's not a human trying to sleep with the mistress.”

I try to grab the clouds, for a moment I seem successful, only to have them slip away.

The female voice, “Oh, seems he’ll take to the mistress’ gifts quite smoothly.”

“As long as he’s not an idiot."

A soft giggle, "That didn't hold you back Mauggy dear."

A slight growl, "come, let's leave before the Inari notices us.”

The black clouds fade away into the dark room. So awesome!

Ouch! Red kicked me again!

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