I howled with my brothers and sisters at our success. This moose had been a tough hunt, but she'd eventually succumbed to the pack. We almost never lost prey. I began to devour our kill. Jaggedfang tried to bully me away from my spot. I bared my teeth and growled. I may not have fangs like the rest of the pack, but I was just as fierce as our alpha, Browneye had pushed me to be. Jaggedfang would have to find someone weaker to annoy, or wait her turn. I was higher in the pack than she was, and she knew it.

    "Stupid, arrogant pup! You don't even belong here." She snarled as she slunk away.  I growled in response and began to eat my portion of the kill again. Once I was full I moved away. 'A wolf should only take as much as she needs.' Browneye had always told me. I found Silverstreak washing her bloody muzzle in the stream. She greeted me with a nod. An acknowledgement from one equal to another. 

    "I heard Jaggedfang just now. You should just challenge her and make her leave you alone." She said as I washed my own mouth.

    "Browneye says to never challenge your lessers. It makes you seem cruel and foolish. I have a feeling Jaggedfang will challenge me in her own time." I said. I had no real interest in fighting Jaggedfang anyways. She was a terrible fighter, and because of her low rank in the pack, she  was usually underfed and weak. 

    "She should stop insisting that you do not belong. You've been here just as long as the rest of the omegas."

    "I know, but I have no fur or tail. I am strange to her. I am strange to all of the elders. They cannot figure out why Browneye did not just kill me when my original pack abandoned me. It is not hard for me, or anyone to imagine why she hates me; I have higher rank and I am defective." I said matter-of-factly.

    "But you aren't defective! Without your help, it would have been a lot harder to make our kill tonight." Silverstreak insisted. "She needs to respect you as a contributing member of our pack." She snarled.

    Browneye stood and barked, "Wolfsong! The elders call you to Deadtree."

    I looked at Silverstreak questioningly. "Do you think I am in trouble?"

    Silverstreak's lip curled in uneasy confusion, "I would not think so. I have never known you to get into trouble--well, not since we were newborns." She licked my cheek in reassurance as I stood to leave. Dead tree was not far from where we'd made our kill. Browneye met me before I reached it. 

    "Wolfsong, I want you to know, no matter what happens, I am not sorry for saving you." She said solemnly. 

    "Wolfsong!" Jaggedfang snarled, "You have been brought before your elders because we believe you to be bad for the pack." 

    I bared my teeth and snorted, "Only Browneye can decide who is and is not good for the pack."

    "We believe Browneye has too much involvement in your case." Snowpaw said.

    "Wolfsong, you are slow, you are bald, and you have no fangs or claws. In short, you are as defenseless as a newborn, though you have seen five winters now." Jaggedfang said, not without satisfaction.

    "I am not defenseless! Are you all blind? I helped bring down the kill in the last four hunts! I made the killing blow in at least two!" I argued.

    "Yet you could not defend any one of us from a bear or another wolf pack." Foxtail said gently.

    "It is by the decision of the elders here, that you, Wolfsong are to be exiled from this pack until the end of time." Jaggedfang said. It felt like someone had ripped my heart right from my chest. There was no point in trying to defend myself or appeal. The decision of the elders was final. My eyes grew  hot, and they began to sting as water dripped down my face. 

    I turned to leave and Jaggedfang rushed behind me, biting at my heels, forcing me to run. I kept running, even after she stopped chasing me. I ran until I collapsed, but I never outran the pain of my broken heart.

    The next morning, I woke in an enclosed space. The ground beneath my feet was solid, and appeared to be made of stone. There was a large thing with soft fur-like coverings on it. There appeared to be only two other things to note about my prison: the thing on the floor in one corner and something that looked like it might open. I ran to the opening and began to scratch at the flexing slab of tree. Whining and howling, then snarling to try to open it. I stopped only when I heard footsteps on the other side. 

    "I will open the door if you promise not to try to run." The strange voice said something in an even stranger language. I whined in uncertainty. Perhaps if I moved back, the voice would feel less threatened and would grant me the chance to escape. I backed up and waited. After a few moments, the movable part of the wall swung open and a human walked in. I growled and backed even further away.

     "Hush child, I am here to feed you." She said. Her headfur was a reddish grey color, and her eyes were blue, like Snowpaw's. She sat down a flat slab of wood and I could smell meat.

    "Let me look at you." She spoke again. I growled and pressed myself into the wall behind me. She sighed. Then she pointed at herself, "Mother." She gestured at the flat thing with the soft coverings, "Bed." The wooden slab that smelled of meat, "Tray." She lifted the tray and tilted it so I could see what was on it, "Food. Ham."She picked up a piece of meat from the wood and gestured to give it to me. I crawled to her, but just before I could snatch it, she pulled away and waved it in my face, "Haaaaaammmmm." She said, drawing out the strange word.

    "What do you want, a show of dominance?" I asked her, speaking in wolf. I dropped to the ground and showed my belly, rolling my eyes at the same time. She sighed again and left, leaving the meat behind her. Once she had shut the moving part of the wall I ran to the food and gobbled it down. It tasted strange, and it was hotter than any fresh kill I'd ever eaten, but it was good. 

    But as soon as it was gone, I became tired again. Sleep became an unbeatable enemy. I fell asleep before I could make it under the covered thing. I had strange dreams during this sleep. Flashes of the human scrubbing me with cloth, of cutting the fur on my head, and lastly of putting me in the covered thing and pulling the large cloths over my body. 

    When I woke again, it was dark. She was there with another wooden slab and a small stick with fire on the end of it. She spoke again in her strange language, "I had to drug you so I could clean you up. You were filthy." She showed her teeth, but there was no aggression in the rest of her stance. "I tried to save your hair, but it was too matted. It will grow back." She reached out slowly and stroked my head, "Such a pretty color." She whispered. It was calming to feel her stroke my head, and I closed my eyes and allowed her to continue. "Do you trust me enough to eat again?" She spoke as she put the wooden slab on the bed. There was less meat this time, but in its place was a strange white thing. She picked it up and pulled a piece off, "Bread." She said as she ate the piece she'd torn. I eyed her as I took a bite. It was soft and fluffy. I liked it. 

    She smiled as I ate. "I'm glad you're still willing to eat. I don't know what I'd do if I went to all this trouble and you refused to eat. I..." I began to tune her out as I devoured the meat. "Oh my, you must really like ham. Rhoswen was more partial to grains and bread..." Then the human's face began to leak from her eyes. "I'm sorry. The wound is still fresh in my heart. She was all I had. Such a delicate thing, but a terrible fever took her last spring." The woman said as her eyes leaked more. 

    I was not sure what to do. Then there was a loud thump. We both jumped as she ran to look into the rest of her den. I growled and climbed out of the covered thing. I followed the human past the opening and into her den. A large male human had broken another part of the flexible wall and was trying to grab the woman. I snarled and showed my teeth.     

    "What's this? You got one a them wild children to protect ya?" He spoke to her as he looked at me. "Is it a boy er a girl?"

    "Leave the child alone." The woman said. Her voice sounded strong---she was trying to establish dominance. But she wasn't doing a very good job. He began to walk toward me, staring me in the eye in challenge. I jumped from the den floor to his face, scratching, biting, and clawing.

    "Aaaagh!" I heard him cry. I snarled and bit his throat, trying to get him to submit. He began to hit me, but I was caught in the thrill of challenge. He tripped over something and fell on his back, leaving his vulnerable stomach exposed. I slid off of his chest and stood snarling at him as he got up and ran out yelling "Witch! You're a witch! You've possessed a child and you're a witch!" 

    "Come child, we must leave. The village will be here to burn us within the hour." The woman said, taking my hand. She grabbed many strange things and tied them into a large cloth. Then she urged me through the opening and outside. I licked her hand and we ran into the forest.