On the way to the back entrance of the cave, they passed by one more alcove. It was the gathering room for the pack where they assembled for meetings that were meant for everyone, or it could also serve as a resting place for a wolf to retreat to if they ever felt cramped in their den. The gathering alcove was the largest chamber in their home, and it had a large entrance to boot.

A few paces after, they reached a fork in the tunnel. One led to the other end of the tunnel through the mountain, while the other curved and ran deeper into the mountain. The latter was where the other ranks resided, in dens farthest from the main cave entrance and prey stockpile. It was where Gail used to sleep with the Thetas for a few moons before Terra took her in to live in the Alphas’ den. Gail could only imagine how gloomy it must be for Sierra to sleep by herself in her den, having no other Iotas to keep her company.

The two padded onward, where they eventually met Quibs. He wore a friendly face beneath the skull headwear, almost always smiling tenderly with a warm heart to go along with. He was the sole Omega of the pack, and it was his duty to guard the rear entrance of the cave as well as care for the low-ranking wolves.

When he spotted the pair, his eyes quirked. “Where are you two off to?”

“We’re going out to get some fresh air,” replied Sierra. “Staying in my den is just boring my mind off, and Gail here wants to keep me company, so . . .” She gave a sheepish smile.

Quibs chuckled at her display of cute innocence. He looked skeptically, however, at Gail and said, “I’ve been told to especially keep you inside since you’ll inevitably try to sneak out again so soon.”

“So soon?” Gail echoed. “Has that news really reached you already?”

“Unfortunately for you.” Quibs nodded, though the corners of his maw rose in amusement. Gail pouted at that.

“Come on, Quibs,” Sierra pleaded. “We promise we won’t go far. We’re just going to head for the hideout I’ve been hanging around in lately. Besides, we’re two strong wolves who can handle ourselves. Isn’t that right, Gail?” With a playful jab to her ribs, Gail uttered a pained howl. Sierra put her hands to her maw and said repeated apologies.

Quibs looked even more unsure of letting them through now. “Hm. While I’m not doubting your combat capabilities, I’m still worried about you two getting hurt out there by who knows what, and that includes threats like yourselves.” He smiled. “Though, I’m pretty certain I won’t get in trouble if I let you through at this time.”

“How come?” Gail asked, clenching her teeth slightly still from Sierra’s jab.

“Frost went out to go hunting, and the reason I knew you were sneaking out was because Terra told me personally. She said she’s working on something intensively in her den.”

Sierra’s eyes sparkled. “Does that mean you’ll let us through?”

“Only if you keep to your word of staying in your hideout.” He stepped aside to allow the pair to walk past. “And be sure to return quickly. Knowing Terra, she’ll want to check on Gail in a moment.”

Sierra wrapped her arms around Quibs’s hips, and Gail gingerly did the same, both due to the pain and the awkward sign of gratitude. “Thanks so much, Quibs!” She then dashed off with Gail on her heels.

Much like when Gail left earlier, the weather was calm. Snow steadily trickled down from the sky; Gail could spot a snowflake dancing as it’s whisked away by the gentle, frigid wind. To her surprise, Sierra immediately turned left, keeping to the walls of the mountain that served as their home.

“So . . .  you’ve been keeping secrets from me, huh?” Gail said accusingly. “I didn’t know you had a hideout!”

“Well, I needed to hide the fact that I have a hideout while I was working on it. But now that it’s ready, I want to share it with you!”

“Does anyone else know about it?” Gail couldn’t help asking.

“Aside from Quibs and you, nope! Not even my father knows of it, but there’s a lot he doesn’t know about me anyway.”

Gail expected that answer. This seemed like something the Alphas and Betas would never approve of, even if it was well within their territory. Though, Gail felt furious about the fact that Sierra’s father, Zane, never made much effort to be close with his daughter. Eaten up by his Beta responsibilities, I suppose. If Gail were in his position, her first duty would be to make Sierra’s rank the most important out of all the others, even greater than the Gammas and Deltas.

My ritual’s coming up. I might have the chance to make that a reality.

If she were being honest, though, she doubted she would succeed challenging Zane for the position of Beta. While she hated his guts and all he stood for, she had to admit that he was burly and would smash her against a boulder and shatter both. Gail found herself to be strong too, but not to the levels of Zane or the Alphas.

Sierra led Gail through a clustered group of trees. The mountain remained to their left, its slope getting steeper. Gail wondered what Sierra’s hideout would look like when they emerged into a glade. The pale sunlight shone on the clearing. Pines trees surrounded them, and the mountain face has sloped so greatly it became a wall. It was incredibly smooth that it couldn’t have been natural. Gail turned to see Sierra beaming at her, brimming with pride.

“Welcome to my Sanctuary.”

“Sanctuary,” Gail repeated. She smiled. “I love it here.”

“Daww, come on.” Sierra jabbed Gail, aiming for her arm instead of her ribs this time. “You’ve only set foot in this sacred place of mine and you’re already making me blush.”

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Gail giggled with her as she followed her toward the wall.

It turned out that it was, in fact, too smooth for it to have been naturally formed. It was artificially smoothened and polished to act as some sort of stone canvas. Gail couldn’t help looking at Sierra’s bandaged hands. That would explain the blisters and scratches she got.

Above the expansive canvas, an alcove dug into the wall. It looked like Gail and Sierra would be able to sleep in it shoulder-to-shoulder, which was a weird thought to pop up in Gail’s mind. She wouldn’t feel right sleeping here, out of the cave and in the icy mercy of nature.

Related to that thought, she asked, “Did you sleep up there?”

“Oh, no, but I almost did one time! I only stopped from dozing when I rolled off it.” She laughed, rubbing the back of her neck. “It does serve as good storage, though.”

Sierra padded to the side of the canvas where stones jutted out of the wall. Sierra clambered and stepped on them one by one, making her way up before leaping onto the alcove ledge. She scrambled up and crouched as she waddled a little farther into the recess until only her tail was poking out. A moment later she re-emerged, shaking two fat, elongated stones. She tossed them both down, which Gail was only able to catch one of, before she heaved out a broad piece of stone.

Gail looked at the stone she caught. It had a split circling near the top, and upon removing that upper piece, it turned out to be a container for writing materials—a stick of charcoal, bone styluses, and a rock sharpened by its tip. She returned the lid and picked up the other piece of stone; she could only assume it stored similar contents.

Sierra dropped back down with the broad slab on hand. It was another container, this one holding fibers, bone fragments, and some completed charms. Sierra looked at Gail with an eager smile. “To celebrate this special moment, we’re gonna make something!”

“Excuse me?” Gail said, slightly taken aback. “You’re more experienced in crafting than I am. I’d just be making something you’ll laugh at!”

“Don’t be like that,” Sierra said as she set the charms container aside. “I already taught you some basics back in my den. I promise I won’t laugh at whatever you create!”

Gail narrowed her eyes. “Why do I feel like I walked right into your trap,” she muttered, to which Sierra giggled at.

“How about we braid your hair like your parents?” Sierra suggested. “Yours is long enough for that, I’m pretty sure.”

“Okay, now you’re crossing the line, missy.” Gail folded her arms. “There is no way I’m letting you braid my fur. Couldn’t you like, I don’t know, give my tail a ribbon like yours instead?”

“I could, but this tail ribbon was a sorta celebration that I’ve been through my Cubbing. Besides, I want to braid you first!”

“I’ll look ridiculous if you braid me now!”

“Well . . . if you don’t let me braid you, I’ll have to revoke your entry into my Sanctuary.”

Gail gasped. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Oh, I very much so dare.” A devious smile spread on Sierra’s face. Her skull mask made her look all the more malevolent, which Gail thought was impossible. “I can braid your hair while you work on the wall, and I swear I’ll make you more beautiful. How does that sound?”

With a pout, Gail stared her down. There was no escaping this—Sierra had her right in her paws, and she had no other choice but to go along. She sighed. Maybe braids won’t look that bad on me.

“Fiiine,” she said, making her reluctance annoyingly obvious. “But you better guide me while I’m painting whatever on the wall.”

“Of course I won’t be guiding you, silly. There’d be no point to it. We need to see what your heart wants to express.”

Gail tittered. “Okay, let’s get to work.”

While she decided on the charcoal stick from the tools, Sierra went over to the larger charms container. Gail hadn’t even pictured what she wanted on the stone canvas when Sierra had already begun bundling her hair. “Are you really not going to help me with this? Not even suggestions on what to sketch out?”

“Nope,” Sierra replied pointedly. “The only advice I’ll give is to let your hand drift freely across the wall. In other words, just do whatever and something’s bound to appear.”

Gail did just that. An image popped up in her mind, and she idly started tracing its outline. Her mind was mostly focused on questions, ones that made her stomach churn with contrasting anxiety and exhilaration.

“What was it like during your Cubbing ritual?” she finally asked after moments of silent stroking with the charcoal. “I know I already asked you this about a moon ago, but . . . I want to make sure I know what’s waiting for me next week.”

“Want to be prepared, huh? It blows that not a lot of people got to watch my ritual because of the blizzard and disease that coincided. Well, the first thing that comes to mind is terrifying. I mean, going to a place called The Forest of Shadows and during a blizzard?  Just saying its name gives me the heebie-jeebies! You’re alone, no one to guide you, you can barely see your own feet, and you hear all these skittering and creaking in the dark woods.”

“You’re not helping!”

“Sorry, sorry.” Sierra couldn’t suppress her titters. “Finding a feral wasn’t as difficult as I imagined, though. The storm was weaker deeper in the forest. Then once I got used to the foreign scents of the place, the wolf practically came toward me. I guess they were hungry, because their mouth was watering when it saw me. After that though, it was just . . . over in a flash. I brought the dead wolf back, I got my mask, then made myself an Iota.”

“The only Iota . . .” No matter how happy Sierra seemed to be the only Iota, Gail pitied how condescending everyone acted toward her for it. She would happily accompany Sierra in her journey as an Iota, upholding the pack’s culture through the arts and crafts, but if she were in a rank of authority, she could change it all.

Almost as though reading her mind, Sierra asked, “What rank are you going to challenge for?”

“I’m not sure,” Gail answered. It wasn’t a lie, at least not entirely.

“I’m sure you’ll figure that out soon enough.”

Gail glanced over her shoulder to see Sierra smiling warmly. On top of that, her braid was coming along nicely, aside from the fact that it felt like her scalp was on the verge of being ripped off.

“I think a single hanging braid’s enough,” Sierra said, stepping back. “I wish you could see what I see; you look like a true warrior anxious to earn her rank!”

Anxious might’ve been a poor choice of word. Or maybe it was. The braid certainly made her feel anxious about how her packmates will feel about her new look.

“I wish I had some precious stones to fix onto your hair. Something to match your colorful eyes.”

Gail had always been self-conscious of her heterochromic eyes. It garnered her more attention than she wanted, and for the wrong reasons. She’d been called creepy, confusing to look at, and that her mixed eyes were an omen. Few genuinely admired her eyes for their beauty. Sierra and Quibs were among them, and surprisingly Terra found her eyes to be “a sight to behold”.

She stepped back for them both to view whatever she had been idly painting on the wall. She had to squint her eyes as she could barely discern what she created. It looked to be the head of someone from the pack with the skull mask, having an adorably friendly expression

“That looks good!” Sierra said, making Gail wince. “Not bad for your first— Oh, wait . . . Is that . . . supposed to be me?”

Gail rubbed her arm to brush the awkwardness off her fur. “I guess . . . Sorry that I tarnished your face.”

“Nonsense! It’s not perfect, per se, but I love it! Not because it’s me, but because it’s from you!” She leaped to give Gail a tight embrace.

The sting from Gail’s earlier wounds returned faintly, but she didn’t complain about it apart from the abrupt whine. She returned the gesture, wrapping her arms around Sierra, basking in her warmth and scent. They could stand like this forever and Gail wouldn’t mind it a single bit. She wanted that to become their reality. She felt safe and happy this way.

Then the sound of howling roared in the air.