Chapter 13: Hierarchy,  familiarization, last days of winter and the beginning of spring

Hierarchy

Both wolves stare at each other, not backing down and at the same time unsure whether they should proceed with it or not. On one side we have a mean looking wolf, he has grey rough patchy fur, if one were to look at him one would notice that he went through a brutal fight, half his left ear was missing, something is a little off with his eyes, his right eyelid seems to droop a little more than it should, his right eye were a little murky and clouded and this gave the wolf a very uncanny appearance which amplifies the intimidation of his glare, but the wolf's right eye can still see well but not as well as before. But it did little to decrease the grey wolf's battle prowess, one could see that this wolf is older than the one that is challenging him.

The challenger, on the other hand, is another gray wolf but younger looking. Though young and still growing the challenger is a lot bigger than the old grey wolf, if one were to remove the scars and the size they would look completely identical. The challenger due to any lack of scars had a sleeker and more orderly grey fur and this wolf is IT. IT in just 6 months of being a wolf has challenged the alpha for his position. This was unheard of in a normal wolf's behavior but IT is not a normal wolf.

There is a reason why they have to fight, the main reason would be the large risk of the pack splintering and splitting. The new pack member’s recognizes IT as the alpha male while the rest identifies the grey wolf as the alpha. They could, of course, separate but a problem would occur  from doing so. They would have to fight on who would have the Territory, they could solve this by splitting the territory in half but the same old problem will rise again, who gets the bountiful territory and who gets the one with the place with no game? At some point, the holder of the less bountiful territory would have to invade the other, turning it into a more brutal clash. So they had no choice.

They start circling each other, no one has yet uttered a single growl or bark. They were just silently circling each other while the other wolves watch. They went in circles for a while and little by little they started making assertive actions. Trying to display their dominance to one another, they began circling a little faster, bold movements, like leaping close as if to pounce and then backing away immediately after, at first glance they look like they were playing, but then both wolves began getting agitated at one another. Small short growls were now being voiced, then growling turns into aggressive barks.

It starts escalating and the forest were filled with aggressive barks and growls, even the watching pack members started howling and barking. It is turning into a ritual combat, it's what wolves do when there is dispute inside the pack, whoever is the most dominating wins, whether it'd be fighting for food or climbing the pack hierarchy the most dominant one will have his way.

But strangely enough, before the aggression rose any further, the grey wolf suddenly recedes and steps back, the whole pack becomes silent and IT tilts his head, did he just win? his thoughts were swirling in confusion, to him it did not seem like he won, the fight hadn't even began. The grey wolf turns away and heads towards the mother wolf's direction. The grey wolf nuzzles the mother wolf's nose and then he glares at IT. The message was clear 'You can have the alpha status but she is mine.' that was the message the grey wolf portrays and without further adieu  IT complies.

familiarization,  last days of winter and the beginning of spring

There were 3 new member’s in the pack, one would notice a difference between the new members and the original younger members. Although IT and the two wolf siblings were around the same age group with the new members one would notice the smaller size of the new pack members, the reason for that would be malnutrition.

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The first wolf IT began familiarizing with was the young muddy colored wolf, he was male and is a little larger than the rest of the new pack members, the second wolf he got to know were a pure white snow colored female, she was smaller than everyone in the pack, she was the second wolf to submit to IT after the muddy wolf. The last wolf IT got used to is the brown colored female wolf, she was a feistiest of the three of them.

During the time when the two wolves have just submitted, the feisty wolf in her insane hunger charges and attacks IT, she was already so weak from starvation IT didn’t even took a dent at any of her attacks, since she is also extremely light IT were easily able to push her, back first into the snow. She gave an aggressive thrashing while IT pinned her to the ground, she started growling and snarling trying to take a bite out of her oppressor. IT gave her none of it and bit her hard near her neck, she yelps and began whimpering constantly, she continued to thrash but the more she did so the tighter IT clenched his jaw, she contorts uncontrollably from the pain and her contortions led to even more suffering. In the end, she gave up due to lack of strength and submitted but, not completely, even now she shows her pacified defiance at IT. Although her full body language screams submission her lips were always curled whenever IT passes, it is a sign of resistance.

Weeks pass and slowly but surely the new members began familiarizing with the older members, at first, hunting along with the new members were problematic, they were extremely inexperienced mostly due to living in a bountiful area, another factor to add is that they were also young and wasn't taught enough by their former deceased alphas. Time begins solving the problem, the more they hunted together the more they began familiarizing themselves with one another, they learned quickly along with IT and the two young original members who also continued learning from the older members. It paid off and they were finally able to catch deer.

Days got easier and all the young members were growing even more. Days got a lot less cold, IT relishes at the rising temperature. As the snow melts, the ground was exposed, plants start sprouting and leaves began growing. The promise of life starts rousing small animals and birds from their sleep.

But close to the packs new territory, the remains of an old wolf's corpse was released from the grasp of the snow.

 Near the vicinity of the corpse lies a cave. Inside a beast roars as he awakens from his long slumber.

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Info Section

{Killashard mentioned a reduction of quality, if it wasn't for his mentioning it I wouldn't have noticed it. I would like to thank him for reading and keeping a close watch on my writing. This made me also notice that the moment I sped up the plot the quality took a blow.  I would still try speed up the plot but I would also keep in mind the quality from now on. So I apologize for this, but the wolf arc would would still continue for a little bit more.}

{ Last Note For This Chapter: if there's any grammar, criticism, mistakes or any other confusing stuff in the story let me know in the comment section below and I will answer it there in the comment section or on the next Chapter of the info section and do the fixes on the current chapter.I'm kinda blind to seeing any horrible sentences that need some rephrasing or any other info that I might be confusing, so I'm looking for any help I can get. }