Sweet air had me grinning, playing basketball in the gym with my best friend. Most of the pack was working out, and even McRaze was in there with us, watching the game.
"Who's winning?" Bruna asked her. I was catching my breath while she was dribbling circles around me with her back to me, shuffling sideways in a circuit.
"Atanarjuat gets fifteen points per basket, so he's winning. It's 30 to 29." McRaze told us.
"I'm winning?" I asked.
"With a handicap, otherwise it's 29 to 2." Bruna giggled.
"No, no. I'm winning." I insisted.
She shot a hoop from where we stood as McRaze called time and the ball made it without hitting the back. "Swish, I win."
"You always win." I complained.
"You're not going to quit playing with me, are you? Everyone always does. Not you, though. You like it when I'm happy." Bruna lowered herself and looked up at me. "Tired?"
"Yeah. I don't have your energy."
"I need a shower, will you stand guard outside the shower room so I can have privacy?" Bruna was walking away and McRaze went with her. She had asked me, but McRaze had beat me to it. I usually stood out there while she showered since the gym only had one locker room.
I went and sat on the bench and suddenly there was a stillness in the gym. I looked and saw that Halo had come in. Everyone was looking at him, and I sensed the pack had not welcomed him back.
"I just need some exercise." He held his hands up, noticing everyone was looking at him, and some were glaring.
"Do pushups in your quarters. This is our den." Treach got up and walked right up to him, pushing his chest against Halo's trying to intimidate him. Halo knew better than to stand up for himself. Treach wanted him to make that mistake and bring half the pack down on him at once. If he got into a fight, he didn't stand a chance.
"I think I'd better do that. Pardon me, I've made another mistake, it seems." Halo tried backing away, but it had the effect of encouraging more aggression. The other pack members were getting up and starting to surround him. They were growling, and I saw in their eyes they needed no excuse to jump him. If one of them struck him, they would descend on him.
Halo looked worried. It was a strange look on such a wild and carefree man, but he realized he was about to get a severe beating, possibly even beaten to death. With so many men pummeling him, he might get killed.
"Leave him alone." I heard myself speak up. I instantly regretted it, realizing I wasn't enough of a pack member to give orders.
"Don't defend him Atanarjuat. He isn't worth it." Abbot advised me.
I gulped. I couldn't stand there watching and do nothing, I had to stick up for him. I recalled a time in my life when some older boys in school were bullying a new kid, and I was too afraid to intervene. I had let them hit him. When they were done with him, I went to him and helped him pick up his things, but it was not enough. I should have fought them, but I was too afraid. I had hated that part of myself and that moment for my whole life. I wasn't going to relive that moment. This time I would do what was right. I trembled, sweating from fear, not from the game.
"I said 'leave him alone'." I stepped into the circle and stood beside Halo.
"Atanarjuat, step aside. You don't know what you are doing." Treach scolded me. My presence had made them hesitate. None of them were willing to hurt me, and I was in the way.
"Yes, I do." I said. "If this happens in front of me, I am going to pick the underdog and step in. That's how it must be. You want him? You have to go through me." I growled, baring my teeth. I had my fist balled.
"Sorry, little brother. I respect your choice, but you are not the pack." Slate stepped up to me and gave me a test shove, making sure I meant it.
Halo caught me and said in my ear, "Just go get help. I'll be fine."
"No." I snarled and sprang back and gave Slate a punch to his solar plexus. His eyes widened and my uppercut made him bite his tongue and his sudden exhale sprayed blood onto all of us. The smell of blood was like a starting gun. Suddenly it was on.
Punishment came from every direction, blasting me in my face and sides. I couldn't defend myself against multiple attackers who specialized in coordinated attacks. I went down and wheezed, coughing out blood. I fought to remain conscious. Someone kicked my head, and everything went dark.
When I opened my eyes, I was still on the floor of the gym. I glanced over and saw someone lying in a pool of blood. I wasn't sure who it was, my vision was blurry. I moved my head slowly, feeling the bruising and cracked bones in my body. I saw Halo too, sitting there on the ground, holding his head, staring at whoever else had fallen.
The others were still around us. Two of them went to whoever had fallen and were trying to wake him up. They felt for a pulse. "Let's get him up. It's just a scalp wound. He'll be fine."
They took away the injured pack member and left me and Halo where we sat, beaten and humiliated.
"Why'd you do that?" Halo sounded like he was worse than he looked. He had made himself sit up, but he seemed to be about to pass out.
"Atanarjuat!" Bruna ran to me, dressed in her pajamas. She smelled like the new shampoo she had gotten when her hair had started getting a little longer. I smiled for her and claimed I was okay.
"What happened?" Her eyes watered and she looked very worried. She looked over at Halo and I felt the growl inside her vibrating. "What did you do?"
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"He did this. I told him not to." Halo winced. "I meant to say thank you, but you should not have protected me."
"You're welcome." I coughed. I felt and tasted blood from my cough. I wondered if I had ruptured something important. I hoped not.
"Your boyfriend, he is the biggest man I've ever seen. Stepped into my hell and took it away - just because he felt like it." Halo laughed strangely; I wondered if he had a concussion. I wondered if I had a concussion, too.
McRaze brought over a first aid kit.
"I couldn't interfere. I don't know what I could have done." McRaze apologized and daubed at some of the blood on my face. She reached in and cracked a cold pack and tossed it onto Halo's lap. He picked it up and held it to the side of his skull.
"You should have told me something was happening out here." Bruna admonished her.
"I'm sorry. I didn't think I should. I don't know what you could have done." McRaze was right, but she apologized anyway.
"What? I could have stopped this!" Bruna sounded upset with her friend.
"No. I didn't want your help. It was bad enough." I said sternly. "McRaze was right to do nothing. It's probably what I should have done, but I couldn't."
"About that, why'd you do that? You got a death wish?" Halo asked me. He had a weird smile on his face, and I recognized the wild wolf was smiling at me. Something in me felt very proud of my actions. I could hear the echo of the howl of the pack in my heart and knew they were all secretly proud of me too, although they had beaten me up.
"I'll have them disciplined for this. They'll all wear collars!" Bruna was angry, looking for someone to blame for my injuries.
"You should be proud of me." I told her with sincerity. She took a deep breath and blinked. I could tell she was calming herself down and I admired her in that moment, seeing that she was growing as a person. Months earlier, she would have retaliated. She was listening to me, choosing to adhere to the path I had chosen, by my side.
"Fine." She said quietly. "But this isn't entirely over. They are going to stand and account for what they did to you."
"No. It is over. That was it. Now we move on." I argued with her.
She didn't like it, but she respected my strength and frowned, deciding to do things my way. I looked at Halo and he nodded, agreeing with me. Then the voice of our chief asked loudly:
"What happened here? I was busy with our new arrival." Lieutenant Colonel Rose found us all sitting on the floor of the gym with a nearby puddle of blood and the smell of anger lingering in the air.
"Basketball game got a little out of hand." I tried to joke. He took one look at me, and the way Bruna was cradling me and didn't say anything.
McRaze sat up and looked around like she sensed something.
"He's awake. Alone. He is confused." McRaze said strangely.
"See, this is what happens every time." Lieutenant Colonel Rose muttered in frustration and left us there.
"Let's go see." I tried to sit up, feeling the fractures and damage. Bruna didn't like it, but she was showing me a new side of her where she let me do things my way. She helped me up and I limped after McRaze, who was slowly following Lieutenant Colonel Rose somewhere.
We reached number 261, the last of the cell-quarters in the tunnel. Lieutenant Colonel Rose was standing outside and McRaze was standing beside him.
Nobody was speaking, but McRaze was obviously communicating somehow. Then she said, as we neared them:
"He accepts. He understands why wolves would help him, and he wishes to be helpful. He says he was always meant to be a warrior. This is the life he had intended before; he used to dream of this place. He accepts and will join the pack."
"Excellent. Can he understand me?" Lieutenant Colonel Rose asked.
"He knows the meaning of your sounds, but his kind to not speak out loud. They just know the intentions and the meaning of what others want. It is their way." McRaze was translating the thoughts of something inhuman.
I peeked inside and saw a hulking monster with reddish-brown fur, except its shoulders, which held a glistening white sable. Its face reminded me of Bluto, a character from the Labyrinth, and it even had horns, that instead curled straight up. There was a gentleness and wisdom in its gaze.
"He senses you are injured from preventing an injustice. He admires that about you already and is proud to become a brother to a man who shares his spirit." McRaze told me.
"What is he?" I asked. I stared in disbelief at the creature. "Some kind of Bigfoot?"
"Not really. He is from an ancient and holy tribe that lives high in the mountains of Asia. They are unrelated. Unfortunately, he is the last of his kind. It is a tragedy that he lives to address. He knows the future, and he says he looks forward to the time when he may spare his enemies and prove that peace will prevail. But until that time, he will battle fiercely against the forces of darkness that are gathering right now." McRaze told us of the creature's thoughts.
"What is his name?" I asked.
"He has no name. His people identify their spirit from one another as different notes of the same song. Each is part of the whole, a single chord. Alone, this kind of name means nothing." McRaze explained.
"That's beautiful and sad." Bruna said, feeling sorry for him. I could hear in her voice that the implications of his story haunted her. It did feel awful to realize how alone he was, without his people.
"What happened to the others?" I asked, my voice subdued.
"He will not remember it. It causes him too much pain. When he sees those responsible, he will recognize them. He says we will all soon have this common enemy. Violence is not the way of his people, but he doesn't believe in that anymore, because they are all gone."
"Fair enough. Welcome to Ravenrock, soldier. Let's get you fitted with a name and a new song." Lieutenant Colonel Rose decided.
There was a day of rest for those who needed it. Lieutenant Colonel Rose and McRaze had spent more time with our new friend, feeding him and showing him around Ravenrock. When it was time he went and gathered the entire pack.
When we were all seated the creature was brought among us and stood before us.
"We are one people, one breath, one moon, one path. Among us there are divisions, but those are to be put aside. None of us is better than the others, none of us knows more or has a higher moral compass. We are equals, brothers and sisters, one pack." Lieutenant Colonel Rose reminded the gathered pack. Some of them looked guiltily over to where Halo sat. They couldn't look at me.
"We have all lost something, a faith we had, a life we lived, or someone we loved. Among us today, joining us, this one who lost all of those things. In spirit, he is the same blood as us, the same kind as we are. Are we human? Should we not welcome one who is not? His name was part of a song, and each of his people was included. His people are gone, and he has brought news of the enemy that took them from him. He says we have this enemy in common, and he has sworn to fight alongside us, if only we would unleash him upon them."
There were a few knocks of approval, but the lieutenant colonel wasn't done speaking.
"He needs a new name, a new song. Will he answer to these? In his own way he shall, but he speaks only from his heart, and says nothing."
The creature seemed to somehow understand everything that was happening and waited patiently.
"Frosty?" Lieutenant Colonel Rose offered the creature a name. I smiled, feeling it was a sign of affection to give him a pet's name. It contrasted his wisdom and ferocity but showed how we saw him among us.
The creature stood up, its horns nearly brushing the ceiling. It was waiting for its song and when the haunting and melodious howl arose there was a unity to it. I could hear my own voice in it, I could hear Bruna beside me, and I heard the remorse of the pack members who had attacked me. I could hear Halo's voice above all, despite the pain in his chest he sang too, and I realized how much a part of the pack he was before he had left and how much pain he had caused. It was all there, in our song. Mostly we all sang to Frosty, telling him of our love and acceptance and our promise to call him one of ours.
His eyes closed at the sound and a tear escaped his closed eyes. He was deeply moved by his new song. When it was done, he air-hugged all of us. Bruna and McRaze went to him and gave him deep hugs.
That is the moment when I looked around at the gathering that had fallen silent, and I knew that our pack was complete. We were all gathered, and this was our whole family. I somehow felt glad to be there, as Atanarjuat. My old self lay peacefully resting beside those I had loved before.