The Black Wolf

"Where did he go?"

"I don't know, leader, we're all still together when hunting the boar, but when we were dragging the boar back, he suddenly disappeared into the forest.'

"Alright, for now, you guys can eat the boars first, I will be waiting around the area to wait for him."

"Thank you, leader!"

Back in the wolf's den, the pack of wolves is currently eating the boar that they just hunted, and the alpha white wolf is currently waiting for the light gray wolf who is missing at the moment.

'That youngling is really hard to handle, I will give him a proper beating when he gets back.'

He tried sniffing around the area to try and find the missing wolf's whereabouts, but he failed to find any traces of him. And the white wolf tried to think of the possibilities where the light gray wolf might go.

'We've already drunk at the lake so he must not have been thirsty, as for food, we took the boar back to the den so if he is hungry he should go back to the den as fast as he can since it's not possible for him to hunt on his own yet. Unless he found some easy prey that might tempt him to hunt it alone, but in this part of the forest, there should be no such things. Don't tell me he invaded the insect's territory…'

'No, he shouldn't have been that stupid, I've warned him a lot of times not to go near the insect's territory at all and the lake is as far as we can go.'

'Wait the lake..'

'Don't tell me he went back to eat those poisoned deer!? Those deer meats are already contaminated by those cursed spider venoms! I don't know how it happened but that's what the deers get from trespassing into the insect's territory. I hope that he won't be that foolish, but just in case he really did eat those poisoned meats, then we have to hurry and come pick him up.'

'Those venoms are ruthless and they can enable the spiders to kill creatures way bigger than themselves! Even I can only stand against one of their bites, if at least two of those spiders attacked me, I would rather run away rather than risk my life.'

"Everyone, stop eating for now!"

Hearing their alpha's command the other wolves then hurriedly stopped eating the boar that they just hunted.

"We need to go back to the lake, there's a high chance that the lost one is there."

"Yes, Leader!"

The wolves then move out from their dan and start running back in the direction of the lake. Suddenly, in the middle of their journey, they heard a familiar howl that they recognized as the lost one's howl, and the howl is different from the usual howl when they start their hunt, but instead, it's a howl that signaled that he needed urgent help.

Hearing the cry for help, the pack then ran more swiftly scouring the forest in the direction of the howl. And when they arrive, they find the lost one is already laying limp on the ground. With his four legs unmoving on the ground and his breathing seemed very disorganized.

"What happened to you?" The white one asked while he got closer and sniffed the light grey wolf body all over. When the white one gets close to the light grey's mouth, he smells a trace of raw meat and a slight hint of something else, something familiar that he has seen for himself back when he was a youngling himself.

"YOU!" The white one called the black wolf

"Yes, Leader?"

"Hurry up and find a plant that has leaves with rough edges and it smells unnatural and different from what plants are supposed to smell like. Bring a stalk of it here and hurry up!"

"Which direction should I go, leader?"

"It's about a 6 minutes run in that direction." The white wolf said while pointing in a direction with his snout.

The black wolf then hurriedly run in the direction the alpha pointed at him, and the white wolf turned to look at the other wolves and said,

"For the rest of us, we need to stay here and defend the area. If any creatures ever get close, notify me and get yourself ready for a fight!"

"Yes, Leader!"

Then the wolves go into a circular formation where the injured light grey wolf is at the center of the circle.

The white wolf wanted to go and fetch the antidote herb by himself, but since he is the alpha, and his absence in a fight is really disadvantageous for the pack since only the alpha is capable of using the aura ability for the pack, he decided to stay here and tell the black wolf to fetch the herb instead.

"I already told you to just leave the deer alone, and now see what you got yourself into. If we come a bit later, you will be dead for sure. And after you recover, don't expect that you won't be getting any punishment for your disobedience." The white wolf said to the light gray wolf.

But since even keeping himself conscious and awake is already a hard task for him, he couldn't hear what exactly the white wolf said let alone give a proper answer to the white wolf's words.

How his body is currently feeling right now is something that he can compare to anything. The painful feeling that he felt every time he moves a muscle and the intense heat he felt from deep his own body feels like he was cooked from the inside, and the light-headedness he felt is really tempting him to just sleep, but he got a feeling that if he dared to close his eyes even for a few seconds, he won't be able to open them again, so he decided to hold on and withstand the unbearable pain.

Fortunately, it didn't take long for the black wolf to come back with a stalk of the correct plant that the white wolf mentioned. The black wolf then gave the stalk to the white wolf, before the white wolf chewed the stalk without swallowing it, and when the stalk had turned to paste, the white wolf told the light grey wolf to eat and swallow the paste.

The light grey wolf who is barely holding on to life, didn't think about anything further and just trusted his alpha and swallowed the weird paste that was given to him.

When the paste entered his stomach, he felt a cooling feeling slowly spreading all over his body and easing the intense heat that he felt earlier. And soon, although his limbs still felt weak, the light-headedness was starting to fade away and he could feel his body slightly relaxing.

"It seemed to work, but I think he ate a huge amount of venom and a stalk is not enough to neutralize it." The white wolf said.

"You, go back and bring some more." The white wolf once again said to the black wolf.

"Yes, Leader!"

"Now that your life is not in danger anymore, please prepare yourself for some questioning after this." The white wolf said to the light grey wolf.

"Y..Yes Leader...Thank you for saving me…" The light grey wolf said with a weak voice.

---

"Why me again? Does the leader dislike me because our fur has the exact opposite color?"

The black wolf mumbled to himself while he ran through the woods in order to find the medicinal herb that his friend needed.

"But this is because of that foolish and gluttonous wolf! Why did he even think of disobeying the leader's order! He is lucky since the leader knows the cure and he is willing to forgive him for his disobedience. But why me though? There are others besides me yet why am I told to get the plants again right after I come back!"

Because he knew where to find the plant earlier, the black wolf soon found the plants that the white wolf mentioned, and this time, he took three stalks with him just in case they needed more and he didn't want to go back there again. The black wolf then hurriedly ran back to where the rest of the pack was.

But when he was running, suddenly a small-sized pebble was thrown at his face. Although it's not big enough to actually hurt him, it certainly is enough to make him feel annoyed.

"Who the hell just threw a pebble at me! I'm pissed off right now and I won't mind biting something to vent my frustration!" The black wolf said.

Although he said that, the black wolf knew that if whatever attacked him was a larger creature or a creature that he knew he can't take on alone, he would call for the others' help. So the first thing that he does is to look at the surroundings and find whoever is responsible for throwing the pebble at him.

The black wolf looked left and right but he couldn't find anything or anyone who was responsible for throwing the pebble. Just then, he heard a loud knocking sound from above the trees. Because he is on high alert right now, any sound that stands out or unusual can make him very wary. And the knocking on the wood sound coming from above the trees is enough to make him look up to the trees and focus his eyes searching for what things just caused that knock.

But he failed to realize that a small creature only a fifth of his body is currently sneaking upon him, and before he realized it, he felt severe pain in his neck, and blood started to burst out from his neck. The attack startled him and made him jump backward, but when he wanted to see who his attacker was, the attacker was already long gone. He tried to howl to warn the others and to ask for help, but when he opened his mouth and tried to howl, the blood that flowed out from his neck blocked his throat and prevented the howl from coming out. And soon, he felt lightheaded from the blood loss and his body fell lifelessly on the ground.

After seeing that the black wolf didn't move anymore, a small creature that has the same color as the grass is dragging the wolf away from the pool of blood that was created by the wolf's open wound.