Chapter 5: Pack, Territory
Pack
It has started getting colder, the leaves have yellowed and are now starting to fall. Fruits and berries have started to ripen and are now being feasted upon by different kinds of animals.
Squirrels and chipmunks have begun eating and storing mounds of nuts and seeds on different hiding places. some birds have started to migrate to God knows where. Snakes and other cold-blooded creatures have started occupying caves, hollow logs and burrows in order for them to keep away from the oncoming cold.
It has been a month since IT met the lone wolf. IT was now a juvenile wolf, not too big of a difference between a pup but IT has grown quite a size compared to a month ago, and the apparent hair patterns of IT is becoming more and more similar to a complete adult wolf.
Right now IT is in the middle of the river playing and trying to catch a fish with its mouth, IT was accompanied by an adult wolf which was closely watching for any danger that might occur. IT resembles the wolf in almost all aspect, except for the large size and sharp features that IT has yet to acquire.
The wolf has apparently taken in a mini-version of itself, they had the same fur color, the same scent, the same eye color, which was grey, and even the unique white fur tip of the grey wolf's tail, seemingly the only difference between IT and the grey wolf was its age. This was, even if it wasn't on purpose, an advantage on which IT had. The same scent alone makes the grey wolf's paternal instinct kick in, causing the wolf in question to protect his progeny, which IT actually is part of. {in terms of same DNA}
IT catches a small fish and immediately gulps it down. On the way back to the riverside IT could feel the fish weirdly wriggling inside but decides to ignore it and continue to go towards the leader of the pack.
A wolf pack usually consists of family members, a breeding male{pack leader, father, alpha male, etc}, a breeding female (alpha female, mother etc.), and their kids (the female and male breeders offspring}, and there are also uncommon cases where different wolves from outside the pack join in. Usually for a pack to grow an alpha female needs to produce offspring's, and from there the offspring's grow and becomes part of the pact, they will either stay or hang around for a couple of years and then leave the pack, usually male wolves, to find female wolves to mate with, and there the cycle begins again.
The alpha wolf before having come across IT was an upstart wolf {having left an old pack consisting of relative family members in search of a mate and new territory}. The grey wolf has been traveling downstream since the beginning of its journey and hasn't stopped ever since. The territories between the sides of the river were always already taken, usually by large packs. IT notices that the river is a natural border between the two packs, the reason why IT knows this is because of the scent and tracks left by the pack wolves around this area.
Since the current pack only consisted of IT and the grey wolf, it would be unwise to challenge the current holders of the territories, so the search must go on, and so they continued to travel…..
Territory
It was around mid-afternoon, IT and his companion were at the edge of a wolf territory, the territory, in particular, encompasses both sides of the shallow river. The gray wolf hasn't come across a territory that occupies both sides of the river until now, and even if the case was related or not the scent of the mark was that of a female wolf. The gray wolf decides to continue on and follow the river, thinking that since the territory they're passing is big enough, they wouldn't be detected by the territory holders.
As they traveled for a short time, they came across a small mound, somewhat close to the river but not close enough for water to go inside the hole that was strangely dug underneath it. The scent of the female wolf here was extremely concentrated, this causes the gray wolf to tense up as he realizes this was a wolf's den. Usually, wolf dens are built at the center of the wolf territory, this gave away the information to the grey wolf, that the territory was unusually small. As soon as the grey wolf finished his thoughts, a wolf immediately rushes out of the Den.
The wolf was quite thin and starved looking, The fur on the wolf was brown, the fur on her forefeet had the color of white snow, and Judging by the scent, this was the female wolf that had her mark everywhere. She by the looks of it was completely agitated.
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To the eyes of the female wolf, two intruders have trespassed on her territory and are now coming towards the den to kill her children, a misinterpretation on her part. She curls up her lips and starts to growl, her tail was down and her ears back, she started to crouch, judging by her stance she was frightened and wanted them to leave. This stance gave a clue that she was clear on defending her den, she won't attack but will be forced to do so unless provoked by the intruders. Seeing this the grey wolf and IT slowly backed away from the hill and then moved close to the side of the river in order to cross the river and separate themselves from the den.
After they crossed the river, the grey wolf then began traveling downstream near the riverside. but before following the gray wolf IT turns around to take one last look at the female wolf, IT then sees the heads of two pups coming out of the den and peeking curiously at them.
As they walked for a short distance downstream, they were almost at the edge of leaving the territory. The grey wolf was planning on leaving the territory immediately but suddenly his companion started to bark repeatedly, signaling hunger and thirst. The wolf shows a look of tiredness at his needy companion but then decides to follow his wishes. since learning from the scent that the female wolf and his pups were the only wolves occupying this territory, the grey wolf decided that they will be safer here since the female wolf would most likely stay at the wolf den to watch out for her pups.
They turned around, back to the river to begin hunting fish since it was the easiest and nearest place to acquire food and water. They arrived at the riverside and immediately IT started jumping around in the water looking very playful
Before a month ago IT had a hard time catching even the slowest of creatures in the water, now IT was able to easily play with the fast moving fishes and was able to catch large fishes with his mouth in a single attempt. Due to this IT, having been well fed was much bigger than any wolf around his age.
IT in his current form, even if he was still a juvenile was able to hunt and kill small animals easily, like rabbits and squirrels. The problem with hunting them is that it was hard to find a place that was not marked territory, so hunting in a large area risks coming across the wolves who own the territory. Also, they couldn't hunt bigger animals like elk or deer since their pack was still so small, but miraculously the river helped them by giving them a constant supply of fish. This makes it effortless for both IT and his companion to easily fill their stomachs on a daily basis.
Once they were full IT still continued catching fish. IT caught a big one, big enough for IT not to have enough room to close his jaw. IT then proceeds to cross the river running back upstream, towards the wolf den that they have encountered a while. This alarmed the grey wolf, he stopped what he was doing immediately tried to follow IT.
Before the grey wolf was able to catch up to IT, IT was already at the entrance of the den and already, in front of him was the looming figure of the mother wolf with her teeth bared ready to take off the head of the impudent intruder in front of her. IT was quite small compared to the mother wolf, she could easily kill IT which made the grey wolf fear for his companions life, so he slowed his movements in order not to stimulate the mother wolf from attacking.
But what IT did next was unexpected, IT lowered his head and nonchalantly dropped the fish in front of the mother wolf, and then turned around and proceeded to walk away. unable to process what the juvenile wolf has done, both the mother and the grey wolf stood still.
Then IT, wagging his tail like it was all a game, proceeded to go back downstream to the place where they caught the fish and proceeded to catch another one. IT then went back and dropped another fish in front of the den, and repeated the action, again and again while the mother wolf just looked at him filled with suspicion for the weird cubs behavior but also with a hint of curiosity. During the time IT was catching fish, the grey wolf was just sitting on the exact place where he was before, watching his strange companion doing what he was doing.
Finally, night came and IT dropped his last catch in front of the den, two wolf pups have so long ago, peeked out from the entrance, attracted by the smell of food.
As the last fish was dropped, IT heads back to the direction where his companion was sitting. When IT arrived by the grey wolf's side, IT casually nudged his companion, telling him that he was tired and wanted to sleep somewhere nearby, and so they slept inside the border of the territory.
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INFO SECTION
{Note 1: grey wolves are territorial, they will kill any lone wolves when they encounter them in their territories, to counter these lone wolves howl less often in order to prevent them from being detected. }
{Note 2: sometimes wolf territories can overlap with other wolf territories.}
{Last Note For This Chapter: if there's any grammar, mistakes or any other confusing stuff in the story let me know in the comment section below and I will answer it there on the comment section or on the next Chapter of the info section and do the fixes on the current chapter.}