Wild Spirits

My forepaws dangled loosely from my shoulders and I stared down to the earth, staring in between my back legs by the curled position I was in. I felt her jaws clamp tighter around the loose fur of my neck, but not piercing skin, and I huffed. I trained my eyes upward, seeing the dark profiles of trees bouncing up and down, with the immobile shape of the waning quarter moon secure behind the leafless branches. I saw better in the dark than others, but I was still young. Weak.
My legs bounced softly beneath me, and I examined the earth below me; a vast sea of lightless soil that attacked me with its large grasses. I sneezed as I felt a blade brush my nose. The wolf carrying me veered around an old gnarled tree, and trotted forward into the shallow forest. I could feel her warm breath whisper through the fur on my neck, and I could smell the fear in her soul. This wasn't somewhere she traveled often, apparently.
At last the moon became visible as the labyrinth of autumn branches vanished to reveal a starry sky. The stars twinkled brilliantly, reflecting off of a puddle quickly passed over. They sat there, as motionless as the moon, but glowing and giving off an air of hope knowing that they would always be there when nothing else was. My ears perked forward as a saw a blaze of white gleam across the sky, and vanish. I yipped.
From above me I heard the wolf release a tired growl. She had traveled long from the Goldendusk pack grounds, and with the extra burden she carried, it must have worn her out substantially. I heard her powerful heart beating in her chest, the vital blood it pumped throughout her body. So powerful, yet so powerless. I thought of my own heart. Tiny, but strong.
My carrier's breathing become more strenuous as we progressed. By the sound of soft clacking from below, I assumed that we had reached some sort of rock formation. Her pace picked up and the moon bounced to the right of my vision. Ahead, I could make out a crevice in a corner of the boulders that came closer to me until I was set gently atop it.
I turned around, my red and purple eyes boring into the wolf's green eyes. I blinked and sat down, looking around. Examining my surroundings with the help of silver moonlight, I could make out the rocky cliffside I had been deposited on, and the precipice that rose above me. From stories I knew that the horizon promised endless desert for hundreds of miles. I sighed and looked back to the wolf.
Her fur was a nice tawny brown color, speckled around her eyes with beige and her tail with the same. The wolf's toes were white, and from her weak posture I could tell she was crippled with age. I had not noticed before, but she walked with a slight limp in her back right leg, and I could barely make out a small tumor from her haunches of the same leg. I turned my head at the strong weakness I now detected from her.
She followed my gaze as her lips peeled back into a snarl, but suddenly she fell to the ground submissively onto her stomach and looked up to me, the whites showing in the edges of her eyes. "Please, small child. End my misery." she whined.
My stance became instantly aggressive and I snapped open my jaws, baring my fangs. "How dare you ask me to perform such a sin! I would not sink so low to murder! What a despicable thing to ask of me!" I growled ferociously.
"I am old and weak," she begged."My time is near gone, and I fear I cannot make the journey back with my cursed leg. Please, Satori. You do not have to kill me cold-heartedly, but the other way." she eyed my chest were the outlines of my ribs were prominent and my belly was far too thin.
"No." My already slit-shaped pupils narrowed.
"I trust you, Satori. I do not appreciate nor believe in what you are, but your spirit is true and your intentions are honest. I am asking no small favor. Is it not honorable to ferry someone's soul to the Mists?" she looked at me, her green eyes twinkling in the starlight.
"I have only tasted that despising satisfaction once... and I refuse to experience it again for much longer." My ears swiveled backwards slightly as my stomach growled quietly. I looked down in dismay and closed my eyes.
The wolf looked at me with a bigger confidence. "Please. I would like to allow myself to live on for many years. I can bestow upon you my strength and wisdom, but end my suffering... please."
"What is your name?" I asked, calmly.
"Leila."
I looked down at the pitiful dog staring at me with pleading eyes and a wary soul, one of lost hope. "The stars still shine as a life travels on." she added.
I walked up to her, black tendrils of smoke wafting off of my fur, my eyes glowing brightly. I stood tall and stared deep into her. Slowly, her mouth opened, full of a wispy silver-blue smoke. It drifted from her mouth in a small glowing plume, a tendril with the cloudy shape of a wolf's head at the end. It drifted to me, and into my gaping jaws.
As the soul flowed through me, I felt rejuvenated, and my heart felt more willing to exist. I gasped, surprised by myself for how much I had enjoyed murder of an innocent wolf. I did not know anyone in the Goldendusk pack. No one had dared introduce themselves to me. Had Leila a family? A soft breeze tickled my nose and I walked around the body of a wolf in eternal slumber. A being who had gone peacefully and willingly, but against the natural order of life. I was the unwanted link in the chain of reality.
I walked around her, padding softly, the only sound to be heard was the soft breeze whispering through Leila's fur and the sound of my claws tapping on stone. I panted softly and sniffed at her tail. She smelled strongly of pine and raspberry. I yawned and walked over to the rocky cliff over looking the expansive desert; an open, arid, land full of poisonous shrubs and watery cactus that could be beneficial if you could tell the difference. I had heard tales of quicksand and giant serpents that traversed the sandy depths. Many wolves had rested on giant plateaus of reddish rock, or mesas as they starved searching for meager lizards to satiate themselves.
I would never forget Leila's name, just as I would never forget Shiso's name. Two wolves, two souls. I would be haunted by the names of those I had stolen their lives from. Would souls really empower me, or weigh me down with guilt? I strongly did not want to kill anyone, but I did not want to experience starving myself to death. There is something in that essence that fuels demons, that keeps them alive.
I heard a soft padding on the rock to my right. My fur bristled as I snapped my eyes to the shadows. I crawled behind Leila and sat down, awaiting the being. I kept my ears trained forward, listening. When I strained my eyes hard enough, I could make out a fuzzy outline of a wolf. I started to growl and back up towards the corner as the animal came closer. Hopefully not someone seeking revenge upon Leila.
As she came into view with the little light I had to see her, I saw that she was a young wolf, but mature. Old enough to mate. Her forehead was patterned with a yellow color that splashed all down her back to the tip of her tail. It stretched down to the strong muscles of her thighs and shoulders, then ended to reveal a white underbelly, chest, face, and legs. In the right reflection, her eyes glowed dark gold, a bronze hue.
She stopped and made a gasping sound as she looked from a recently deceased body to a small black wolf huddled behind. Leave me alone. I thought, still growling softly. The tall wolf walked over to the body and sniffed her face, rubbing her nose on Leila's cheek. Then her eyes looked to me and she turned her head. Go away. I screamed in my head. I turned around and walked away onto the narrow cliffside.
Yet she was on me like lightning. The wolf had suddenly hoisted me up by the scruff of my neck and turned around to run back down the rocky slopes. I growled while I bounced harshly up and down. However she was ignoring me entirely.
We came to a leafy green forest concealed by darkness and difficult to see in. The moon barely filtered through the canopy, and I was surprised we hadn't tripped on an uplifted root. The scent of walnut floated secretly through the air, and my ears swiveled in all directions, taking in the new sounds of a deciduous forest. I had grown for the few months of living in a more coniferous area full of pinecones and the strong scent of the firs.
She took me to a clearing in the woods with a dugout den in the middle. The forest sloped upward to the left into rolling hills and small swift creeks. The entrance was surrounded by rock and the floor was mostly soft earth and stone. Her footsteps echoed as we walked in towards the back. She set me down gently, then turned and sprinted towards the cave mouth, towards the large central clearing ahead.
This must have been the pup's den, within sight of the central pack grounds. I had been set on a surface made of grass and and other vegetation. I looked around in the darkness and saw a few other squirming bodies. One looked up at me with droopy eyes, blinking slowly. It yawned and went back to sleep. I groaned and rested my head on the floor and succumbed to slumber in this foreign area.