Sam could see multiple things moving in the shadows. It was not very clear as they were nowhere near the fire. In the moonlight, they were hard to make out and the trees made it hard for Sam to count accurately how many there were. Sam waited for the things to come close so that he could see in the light that the fire gave.

Closer and closer they came to the fire, headed straight for the fish. Just before they broke through the tree line, they stopped. They just stood there as if waiting for something to happen. Seconds ticked by and then they finally moved forward.

Sam finally made out how many there were. There were 18 individual shadows moving towards the pile of fish next to the fire. They were moving slowly, almost as if they were crawling forward. They were all close together as if they were afraid of something.

They got close to the fire and Sam could finally see what they were. Wolves. A whole pack of them. They sniffed the fish, checking to see if there was anything wrong with them. After a few more sniffs, it looked like they decided the fish was fine and they started to eat.

The wolves, all together, look in a direction. They stopped eating and everything else. They didn't even move a muscle. As if their spell was broken, they moved, away from the direction that they were looking. They left, much faster than they entered.

Sam saw this and was getting excited. There were eighteen wolves and they didn't even resist.

It was almost as if the wolves were bullied into giving up their lunch money. Whoever the bully was, they were the top dog. The one that Sam really wanted to see.

Sam looked around to see if he could spot anything moving around in the darkness, but he couldn't. He turned his attention back to the fish so that if anything came, he would at least see it take the food.

Sam waited. He was getting more and more excited. He remembered back to the black creature that attacked them before and thought about different creatures that could hunt that.

Sam finally noticed a shadow that the fire cast. He didn't know when it got there but when he looked closer, he saw that it was moving. It took him a few moments to realize that it was just like the black animal that attacked them.

The shadow was moving slowly so it had all the time in the world. It was very different than the way that the wolves walked. Sam could tell that this creature had no fear and was going slowly just because it could.

Behind it, Sam could see smaller shadows. Around four of them, all following the bigger shadow.

'The mother and her pups,' he thought to himself. 'This is not enough to scare a dozen and a half wolves off.'

He had to admit that the black creatures were fierce but there was no way a mother and their cubs could go against an entire pack of wolves.

The shadows finally reached the fish and started to eat. Sam thought that he could have imagined it but, the thought that the mother looked straight at him, before starting to eat. Sam panicked and made sure he was high enough so that it could not reach him on the tree.

Sam took deep breaths to calm down and looked back towards the fire. He began to think. If there were a lot of the black creatures, what if they could completely deter the wolves in some way. Or there could be some balance between the wolves and the black creatures. They could mutually agree to not attack each other and they would not fight over food. But if that was the case then why would the wolves give up the food so easily, they got here first.

Sam thought that it was most likely the first case. After watching for a little bit longer, Sam decided to go to sleep. The fire was about to go out, the black creatures weren't eating very fast, and there was a lot of food to eat. This would take a long time and by the end, they would most likely not be hungry for a while and so probably not be hungry for anything else.

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Sam opened his eyes. It was still dark and he tried to figure out what woke him up. He looked around and tried to find Xander. He looked up and he could barely make out the figure of Xander sleeping. Sam looked around to find anything different.

He looked towards where the fish were and couldn't see anything. The fire had died long ago and the moon didn't give off enough light. Sam couldn't see anything or hear anything so he decided to go back to sleep.

"Scratch"

Sam heard a scratching noise coming from below. Sam looked down. He couldn't make out much but he could see something small moving around.

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"Is this supposed to be a joke? You think I'm really going to come down and get myself killed?" said Sam. He felt insulted. If someone wanted to get him down, they should at least try to put more effort into it.

Sam closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep. The scratching noise continued and Sam tried to ignore it. After a few minutes of failing to go back to sleep, he gave up.

"Xander, get up." Sam tried to wake up Xander. If he was not going to get any sleep, it was only fair that Xander didn't get any sleep either. "Xander. Xander!" Sam sighed. "Someone is going to kill you in your sleep one day and then you'll regret being such a heavy sleeper."

Sam sighed again and gave up waking Xander up. He was going to have to do this all alone. He looked down again, his eyes were more used to the dark and he could make out a small animal scratching the tree.

'A puppy in the middle of a goddam forest?' He thought to himself. Sam sighed for the third time. He didn't want to go down, it seemed like he didn't have another choice if he wanted to get any sleep tonight. He realized that this could be an elaborate plan to eat him but at this point, Sam was too annoyed to care.

Sam got up and started to climb down the tree. Once he got below the first branch, he noticed that the scratching noise stopped.

"If you're going to eat me, hurry it up will you," Sam said. He thought that there could be one of the black animals here, waiting for him to come down just to get revenge for its brother. Or sister, Sam wasn't sexist.

Sam waited for a few seconds to see if anything would happen and when it didn't, he continued to go down. He landed on the ground and looked around. He couldn't see anything that wanted to kill him so he looked down at his feet where the puppy was.

He kneeled down to get a better view, but all he saw was a blob of white. He couldn't make out exactly what it was.

"So are you going to lead me to a treasure or something or do I have to take you in and feed you for the rest of your life?" Sam asked. He wasn't expecting a reply but when one didn't come he was a little disappointed. Talking dogs were Sam's once greatest wish. He had a dog when he was little and talked to it all the time. Sometimes, he imagined his dog would share its doggy wisdom.

Sam looked around trying to figure out where the puppy came from. It could be a wolf pup from the wolf pack or it could be a lost dog from a human village, wandering the forest, trying to find a way back to its owner and when it smelled a familiar scent of a human, it came running.

'An entire dog movie could be made from that' Sam thought to himself. 'I wonder if it would be a happy ending or a sad ending. I kinda want to know now if sad dog movies are popular or happy dog movies.'

Sam shook his head, clearing all of his thoughts. He got a little sidetracked. Now back to the main issue, what does he have to do to be able to get some sleep?

Sam thought of an idea that he would probably regret in the future. He grabbed the puppy by putting his hands underneath its front legs and lifted it up. He put it over his shoulder like it was a baby and began to climb up. When he got to the second branch of the tree, he put the puppy there and climbed up to where he was sleeping before. He pulled himself up and lay down.

Sam waited for a few seconds, watching the puppy below him see if it would stay quiet. Sam saw that it curled up and began to sleep and, satisfied, he went back to sleep.

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"Sam, Sam, wake up." Xander shook Sam awake.

"What Xander? I already told you I don't being woken up this early," Sam said in a sleepy tone.

"The sun's like in the middle of the sky, but that is not the point. You know the Soul Eaters" said Xander in a nervous tone. He named the black creatures as Soul Eaters. Xander said that they tried to eat him and Sam and they were all black so Soul Eaters. Sam didn't really know where Xander got the Soul part from but suspected that Xander added it in just to make it sound cooler. Sam didn't really think such smart and powerful creatures deserved such a terrible name so he never accepted that.

"I don't know of a thing called a Soul Eater but I feel like there's more important stuff than arguing about that so let's hypothetically say I said yes."

"Well, there's one below us, sleeping on a branch," said Xander.

"What!?" Sam's eyes instantly flew open and looked below him. All he could see was the white puppy that he put on the branch last night. Now that he had enough light, he could make out the features of it. It was most definitely the same species of the beast that attacked them last week. Except this one was white instead of black and a lot smaller. "This one's one me. It was annoying and woke me up in the middle of the night and so I put it on the branch. Didn't know it was a So-, I mean one of those beasts." Sam looked at Xander to see if he noticed his slip. Xander didn't, he was too focused on the puppy.

"Can we keep him?" Xander asked. He was like a little kid asking if he and his friend could have a sleepover. Definitely excited but trying not to sound too hopeful. "I take care of him. I'll feed him and take care of his poop. You wouldn't have to do anything."

"Umm... Sure" Sam was not used to acting like a parent so he was unsure what to say when Xander treated him like one. Sam didn't know when it started but a little bit after the beast attack incident, Xander let him make more and more of the decisions. Whatever Sam said, Xander would usually go with it without questioning it.

"Then I will name him, Soul eater Junior," Xander said. In his head, he was imagining all of the different adventures they would go on together. They would be like Ash and Pikachu.

"That's not happening. I found him first so I get to name him. He's going to be Stratus, like the clouds." Said Sam. He said the first thing that came to his mind. He didn't really care about who gets to name it but he thought that he would show it some kindness and save it from a lifetime of being called Soul Eater Junior.

"Fine." Xander thought that Stratus was a cool name so he let it go. 'The next Soul Eater I find is going to be Soul Eater Junior, that I guarantee.'