Believe - Chapter 4: The Storm

The next evening Imya woke up from the loud noises of a storm. Even in the den the wind was cold and ruffled the fur of all wolfs. Imya kept pressed against the legs of her mother to have additional wind protection. Her body shivered from the cold air. There was no light visible. The sun already set and the moon and stars were not strong enough to break through the storm clouds. Imya had a hard time to not be blown from her feet by the wind but even in this weather there would be a lesson for the pup today.

"You need to be louder so I can hear you through the storm!" Her father was again lecturing about the moon and had them repeat the laws and prey in a loud voice but even though Imya started to remember the phrases her voice was not strong enough to get through the storm. They all were ducked behind a big rock that gave them a little protection from the storm. All other pups had, even if sometimes just barely, could speak loud enough that all could hear the words through the storm. Imya screamed but even her eyes only rang from the storm and she did not hear her own voice. After her third try she was husky and her father just shook his head with a stern look in his red eyes and turned to the next pup. Imya felt horrible. She was husky, cold and the storm hurt her ears. Her eyes were squinnied because of the strong wind and the snowflakes that was strong enough to hurt in her face. She had tried to get one of the more protected spots near the rock but the others had pushed her to the edge so that she, the smallest of them all, was now shielding them instead.

"You all go back to the den!" she heard her father say and he pointed with his nose towards the sleeping dens. It seems he did not want to expose the pups any longer to the storm. Imya saw him turn around to help the hunting party and patrol the outer borders and Demon took over the command of the pups. He drove them up the hill. The adults had put up a wall of heavy snow, that fell at night, to make a protected way with walls around it through the snow. This way the storm would not blow away the pups. Demon drove them on and went last with two of the other pups. Imya was already weakened and most of her energy was lost from standing in the gold storm for over an hour. She shivered and moved very slowly and Demon was snarling and cursing at her.

"Run you rat. We do not have all night." He bit her in the flank and she groaned from the additional pain. She wanted to answer him but her voice was totally gone now. He pushed her forward and made her tumble over her feet. Then he looked in front where the other pups just went around a corner and a big grin crossed his face.

"You know, rat, I have enough of your whinny stupid behavior. Why should I watch over such a wimp like you? You can't even do what you are told, right?" He snapped at her again and this time it hurt even more. Imya groaned husky and tried to run faster but her paws were ice cold. A look into the face of Demon was enough to know that he did not really want to make her run faster but he wanted to torture her. The pure evil intend was written all over his face and the other two looked at her the same way. They were direct brothers of Demon, not as big or strong as he was but also bulky and mean. Imya did not know if they just did not want to oppose Demon or if they were as evil as him.

"Our lives would be better if we did not have to feed a wimp like you." Demon laughed and snapped at her. Imya barely evaded the last one and stumbled forward. The wind started to growl stronger because they just left the shadow of a rock and the storm roared directly above them. Demon had to crouch down to not be outside the protected path and his fur even got ruffled by the storm. Imya saw her chance to get away and tried to run faster but she knew she failed when she felt his snout at her flank.

"I heard that eagles throw their young down a cliff to teach them how to fly. Let's see if this works with you!" the growling voice of Demon reached her ear. Imya turned to him shivering not only from the cold but also from fear. The last thing she saw were his merciless eyes that looked at her like a wolf ready to kill the prey. Then she felt that she was being lifted and thrown in the air. Her body breached the line of the storm and directly she was taken with him and thrown out of the path. When she hit the snow she tried to run back to the path but the wind was too strong and the snow slipped under her feet. The storm, dashing down the mountain into the valley, pushed her further and further down the hill. Imya tried to scream but even her silent voice was directly shut but the cold air of the storm, which pushed into her lungs and made her choke and close her muzzle directly. From the corner of her eyes she saw something dark flying past her between a thick wall of heavy snowfall. It took a minute until she realized that she was the one flying or drifting past and that this had most likely been the border guards of the inner borders. She tried again to scream and let them know but at this moment the wind pressed her down on the snow again and she tumbled over a few times, rolling further down the hill. Imya did not know where she was or what was going on. The world around her was spinning. She could not see more than the snow that ran away under her and a thick wall of snow and wind around her. She felt her cold paws slip and she tumbled a few times more. The wind played with her like a cat with a ball of wool. It pushed her right and left but always further down the hill. No matter how often Imya tried to get behind a tree or a rock and even to dive into the snow, she was not strong or fast enough to win against the storm. After half an hour of fighting her energy was finally depleted. The dark world around her started to dim away even more into a pitch-black world of unconsciousness and death. Every now and then she woke up again and the storm was still pushing her to the one side or the other. She felt that it started to get weaker. At the third or fourth time that she woke up, already feeling like an icicle, she saw the black opening of a den just a few steps away. The wind gave her a rest for a moment but she already heard it roaring again and preparing for another push. With shivering legs, she pushed herself to the side to roll over again and again and when the wind just gripped at her hind paws and let her swirl around, she was close enough to the entrance of the den. The wing send her flying into the opening and fall hard on rock. She felt that she hit something warm and the last thing she felt was a shifting before it went dark around her again and she fell into a cold sleep.