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Chapter 2: The Outlanders

Garth and Kate stepped with ease, listening for the strange sound. Joined by a group of a dozen alphas, they crept through the forest trees that obscured the bright light of the clear morning. Kate put her nose to the ground as she walked to the left. She sensed nothing suspicious. Garth did the same, going to his right. Likewise, there was nothing out of the ordinary. It bothered the two of them that something so abnormal could be so subtle. The strange noises were not the only thing keeping the alphas on the ends of their paws. There had been sightings of Northern wolves trespassing through the valley.

Suddenly, they heard it again. The beating of something against a soft surface; the rhythmic articulation of static clamor; and blaring and howling of something that made the alphas quiver. The sound continued for a few more seconds, and then ceased as abruptly as it began.

"There," shouted Iago, Garth closest friend, "I heard it on top of that cliff over there." Iago pointed toward a cliff that could just be seen through the trees, overlooking them. But no one could see what was on the peak from angle that they were standing.

"Come on," ordered Kate as she sprinted away. Garth quickly followed with Iago close behind. Iago had been Garth's right hand alpha since the two were pups. His loyalty was unceasing and Garth trusted every fiber in his being with him.

When they met Kate, who was standing at the base of the peak looking up, the sight of the top still obscured, the alphas paused.

Garth turned to Iago, "you sure this is where you heard it."

No sooner did Garth speak, the obscene symphony sounded again, echoing from atop the cliff. With Kate leading the way, the alphas charged up the grassy path that led to the peak. Once they ascended to the top of cliff, there arose to their sight a pack of the most awkward kind, which made the alphas stop in their tracks in shock.

It consisted of five...dogs. They were holding the most peculiar things. One towards the back, a rather large, heavy dog, held to wooden sticks, which were smooth and not covered in rough bark, and sitting behind a set of rounded rocks assembled before him. Standing to his left was a scrawny, black dog, with a shiny black thing that was slung over his body and had four, what looked like thick, silver vines tightly stung from top to bottom of the strange device. Across from the right of black canine was another dog, this one female with reddish fur from her hair down to her tail and her four legs, with dark pinkish fur from her face down to the lower body; she had wide green eyes. She was standing in front of a black platform that looked like it had smooth, white stones lined up perfectly symmetrical before her. Standing next to her was a short but strapping gray canine with long, floppy ears. Unlike the rest in his group, he held nothing too spectacular; only a black, short stick that had a strange bulb on the top.

But the dog standing in the center front was the most animated of them all. Like the black dog behind him, he carried a strange thing that slung over his body, with tight, silver vines from top to bottom, only his had six vines that were thinner. He rather tall standing on his hind legs, very thing, short ears that flopped to the sides, and his fur complexion was very much the same as the female dog behind him, as the fur on his muzzle and down his lower body was pinkish while the rest was red. And his eyes were the same: wide, deep greens. And when the pack of the strange dogs looked with shock at the approaching alpha wolves, he was the only one not to abandon the large grin on his face. He only stood upright on his hinds, which made the alphas uneasy, confidently eying each of them as they began to inch closer, some bearing their teeth and hunkering down ready to pounce at a whim's notice. Kate could not help but think that the strange dog in the front somewhat resembled Garth with his red fur and green eyes, only a lot thinner, without a head full of long fur, and a lot lighter in the face.

Once the pack was in striking distance of the anomalous pack of dogs, Garth signaled for them to stop, and he approached the dog standing in the front. Glaring into his wide green eyes, Garth snorted, "Who are you?"

The dog did not answer. He only stood there, still grinning and gently stroking his strange device with the ends of his paws.

"I said who are you? Are from the North?"

Still, the peculiar canine standing before Garth happily said nothing, only looked up to the sky towards the sun, which made his eyes glisten all the more, then turning back to star Garth in his eyes again. Garth did not like him one bit. His father had always told him that dogs were lower than omegas because they were...humanized. Yet here was one standing before him, cockily smiling at him. His arrogance made Garth cringe in fury.

"Talk!" demanded Garth, "I know you can!"

The strange dog's silent mouth stretched into an even wider grin. Garth grinded his teeth, and slowly bended his forelegs.

"I said..."

But just as he was about to lung toward the cocky dog, the dog took his right paw and sent it through the silver veins, making a loud, horrifying sound. It made Garth collapse to the ground, paws over his eyes. The other alphas, including Kate, joined him as the red dog continued to strum the veins with all intensity. The sound was joined by the other dogs with their respective devices. The female dog pressed down on the whites stones lined up on the platform. The black dog who had the device that was similar to the red dog's began to hastily pluck at the silver veins on his. The large dog in the back began to bash his sticks against the smooth rocks in front of him. And the dog who had nothing but a strange, short black stick began to scream into the blub on the top. As if my some black magic, his screams were amplified to a terrifying extreme.

As the alphas tightly cupped their ears with their paws and pressed their heads against the grounds, Iago was able to notice something through his squinting lids. All of the strange things that the dogs had at their disposal seemed to be interconnected. Each had thick black vein that extended from the device to a box like thing that was black and yellow and sitting close to the edge of the cliff. Almost by instinct, Iago jumped from his crunched position toward the ominous black and yellow box. Putting all his weight into the thrust, he crashed into the box. The weight of the box was expectantly heavy, but it wobbled enough for Iago to pushed against it one last time, which was all was needed for to sending it tumbling down the cliff, the black veins braking from it and dangling over the side.

Then there was silence.