The two slowly made their way eastward, their path wandering and meandering. The sun sank towards the west, and by the time that Alika noticed it was getting dark, it had already touched the horizon.

“Tarka, stop!” she called out. He peeked out from behind a tree up ahead. “It’s almost dark.”

“It’ll only be a few moments though, right?” Tarka said, cautiously trotting back towards Alika. “Since it didn’t set last time.”

“Mom wanted us to be back by now,” Alika rumbled. Her tail nervously flicked from side to side. “We’ll get in trouble.”

Tarka looked up in the sky as if expecting Serka’s shadow to be over them. “You’ll get in trouble. You’re the one who pushed me down the slope to begin with!”

“You keep running off!” Alika growled and twitched her ears. “Plus, I couldn’t just leave you alone in the Wulfwoods. You’d probably be halfway to the Emerald Isle by now if I wasn’t here!”

Tarka’s snout curled into a pout, his ears drooping. The sun dipped further below the horizon, and the forest was shrouded in darkness.

“Come on,” Alika said. “Let’s keep going. We’ll find our way back.”

Alika moved quietly, trying to keep her paw steps as light as possible. Shadows flickered beneath her talons, the trees casting odd shapes on the ground. Even the movement of what she was sure had to be small prey animals startled her. She hadn’t ever been in the forest at night before.

The rings above them told her that they were still heading east, but as the cliffside faded from view, she realized she no longer knew where they needed to turn. She’d been hunting here with Serka before, but in the dark, the familiar trees all seemed strange and alien, and she couldn’t see any of the familiar landmarks in the distance.

A strong smell rose from the trees in front of her, and she froze. Tarka yelped as he ran into her, his sharp saber fangs poking her hindleg.

“Quiet,” she whispered. “This is mom’s scent.”

“She’s here?” Tarka asked, relieved.

Alika rumbled. “No, it’s how she marks our territory. It means we’ve reached the edge of it. I knew we went too far!”

A rustling in the brush beyond them made Alika tense her talons, and Tarka huddled up beneath her wing. She slowed her breath, trying not to make any sound. Was there something out there?

“I want to go back,” Tarka murmured, his tail tucked between his hindlegs.

Alika paused. “Maybe we should wait until the sun comes up. I don’t want to get any more lost.” What if they accidentally went beyond the territory’s bounds?

“I want to leave now,” Tarka whimpered.

Alika looked forward past the trees marking the edge. She could’ve sworn she’d heard something out there. Maybe Tarka was right. “Yeah, okay.”

She backed away from the scent-line slowly, not willing to turn her head away from it. Tarka walked with her, keeping himself hidden beneath her wing. A cold wind blew against their snouts. She was about to turn around and begin sprinting when Tarka spoke.

“I smell something weird.”

Alika gulped, her talons trembling. She smelled it too. The scent of a large predator, but not that of a dragon. Her mother had taken her to the edge of the territory before, warning her about it.

“Wolves,” Alika whispered.

Pairs of yellow eyes appeared from the darkness, blinking into existence. Shadowy shapes became clear as they stalked closer to the two. Each of the wolves was as large as Alika, covered in matted white fur, their skin pulled tight against their rib cages. Their ears were tilted back, sharp fangs bared, and low growls emanated from their throats in unison.

The largest of the pack was a white she-wolf with a gray stripe down her back, and a large scar in her fur running from the left edge of her jaws down her neck. Alika instantly recognized where the scar had come from — there were few animals with claws that large. It had come from an adult dragon.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” the she-wolf snarled, the side of her maw nearest the scar unmoving. Her voice was raspy and difficult to make out, and it took a few moments for Alika to realize she was speaking instead of just growling. “Two dragon cubs, all alone in the midst of the night? Where is your mother, cubs?”

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Tarka whimpered, hiding behind Alika. She raised her wings to block him from view, lowering her head down defensively. It couldn’t be that long before the sun came back up, right?

The wolves continued walking forward, spreading out.

“We don’t want any trouble,” Alika replied. “You can’t go beyond the trees. This is our territory, and we haven’t left it.”

A few of the wolves began to make snarling noises. Alika ducked her head down further, trying to make herself seem as small as possible.

“Really? We can’t go past these trees?” the she-wolf asked. She stepped unflinchingly past Serka’s scent-line, her tail sticking straight out from behind her. “Oops. I guess you were wrong.”

Alika pushed Tarka with her wing, stumbling as she tried to back away further, not wanting the she-wolf to get any closer. A growl from behind caused her to leap around in alarm. Yellow eyes glimmered. They’d been surrounded.

“You are the ones in our territory,” the she-wolf growled. “Since your parents stole our hunting grounds, my pack has been going hungry.”

Alika froze, Tarka hiding beneath her wing. Her breath became quick, and it felt like her blood had turned to ice. There would be no escaping, and there would be no hiding. Her stupid mistake was going to get them both killed.

“What should we do with them?” the she-wolf asked, tilting her head at one of her pack-mates. “I was thinking we could bargain with Serka. Make her stay off her hunting grounds.”

The smaller wolf next to her licked his jaws, staring at the two cubs. “We only need one of them for that. The pack is hungry, Mom.”

“That’s true,” the she-wolf said. “I’ve heard that dragon flesh contains much magic. Just the small one might fill our pack through autumn.”

She walked closer to the cubs, her scent wafting off her fur. Alika could tell how much she and the others reeked of hunger. Given the order, they would tear the two apart. But, there were also hints of fear. The wolves had encountered dragons before and were nervous even of the two of them.

“S-stay back,” Alika stammered, letting out a pitiful growl. “I won’t let you hurt Tarka.”

Alika yelped as felt a sharp pain in her tail, looking back to see that one of the wolves had bit her. She pulled her tail in, snarling and snapping at the wolf, who jumped away before she could land a bite.

“And what will you do to stop us?”

Alika whipped around to see the she-wolf snout-to-snout with her, her fangs so close that Alika could barely feel them. The wolf’s yellow eyes stared into her own, a growl caught in her throat.

Alika’s talons tensed, and she did the only thing she knew to do in a situation like this. She opened her jaws, tensing the muscles in the back of her throat, and spewed forth flame from her mouth.

The wolves began howling as fire burst forward, lighting up the twilight woods. They rushed back. Alika shut her eyes from the sting of her own smoke. When she opened them again, the she-wolf was a tail-length away, now to Alika’s left. The wolf had expected firebreath. Alika had barely singed her fur.

“Your flame is pitiful,” the she-wolf growled. “Is that all that my pack’s prey has gone to feed?”

Alika coughed up smoke, tucking her tail. She squeezed the muscles in her chest, trying to build up her fire reserves as fast as she could.

“Spare the small one,” the she-wolf commanded. “The large one, we feast upon.”

Alika lifted her talons, preparing for the worst. The wolves surrounding her began stepping forward in unison, and she twisted her neck from side to side, trying to figure out which one would attack first.

One from behind lunged while she wasn’t looking. Tarka squealed, while Alika whipped her tail as hard as she could. It hit the wolf square in the snout, causing him to whimper and leap away as another took his place. Alika snapped at that one to scare him off, while a third and a fourth pounced simultaneously with the she-wolf.

Moments before they could reach her, a great roar broke through the sky. Snow spilled from the branches of the trees as the first rays of sunlight lit up Serka’s blue fur. A column of orange flame poured from her jaws, incinerating one of the attacking wolves and catching the fur of others alight.

“Stay away from my cubs, Seluk!” Serka roared, landing on top of Alika and Tarka, forcing the two beneath her underbelly.

The she-wolf yelped as she rolled in the snow, putting out the flames in her coat. A large section of the fur on her right side had been scorched away, the skin beneath a bright red. It didn’t delay her more than a moment: Seluk lunged at Serka’s throat with a snarl, more of the wolves following her lead and attacking the dragon together.

Serka lowered her wings, using them to block the wolves from getting at her cubs. Alika struggled to see out from beneath her as more wolves pounced at Serka’s neck. Her mother let out a squeal of agony like Alika had never heard before, and yelps came from wolves as Serka threw them back against the trees.

Serka roared again, and Alika tried to bury her head in the snow from the horrendous noise ripping through her. Bursts of light and heat made her fur feel like it was burning, and she could smell the scorched flesh of wolves as they whimpered.

Please, Dreamer, make it stop, she prayed. But a sleeping dragon could only dream, and instead, it was her mother who answered her.

Serka’s talons grabbed a hold of her cubs’ midsections, and her wings spread open. The wolves bit and tore at her wing membranes, trying to keep her from taking flight, but Serka opened her jaws once more, and a column of flame forced them away. She flapped her wings and slowly rose.

Alika’s eyes fell to the battleground. Charred and burned wolves lay strewn around, and the snow beneath where her mother had been was stained red. Seluk stood beneath Serka’s shadow, her yellow eyes piercing as she stared furiously at Alika.

Seluk let out a mournful howl, and the remaining pack members picked up in the chorus. Alika shut her eyes, but the sound wouldn’t leave her ears, only becoming a part of the wind.