As I lay on my side, I wondered why I was still alive... Sandi had had me in a death grip which should have ended my life and yet I could still hear and smell everything around me. I moved my front paws and by some miracle they moved even if ever slightly. Sandi's howling was getting on my nerves so much that I gathered all my remaining strength and what was left of my energy and flung myself up and latched onto his throat and jerked back ripping it apart, while doing this all I remember thinking was 'shut the hell up'. I spat out the chunk of flesh in my mouth and slumped down and closed my eyes, ahh silence at last. Some time must have passed, as when I woke it was morning and my neck was killing me, but it had been tended too. I knew this because Nurse lay beside me, snoring softly. I slowly got up and stretched, my right shoulder protested painfully and I winced, but didn't make a sound so as not to wake Nurse.

Tank was on watch and saw me up and around, but didn't make a sound and turned his attention back to keeping watch. I wandered off to find some water and ran into the remaining brown pack members, they suddenly pricked up their ears and turned their heads my way. The second they saw me, they all shook with fear, the head female took one step towards me, but I was in no mood to be friendly. I slowly and painfully put my head down and growled, making the female back off and sink to the ground, not looking at my head but more my paws. I knew what she was doing. She was hoping I would take them all into my pack, and that wasn't going to happen.

I shoved my nose in the air in rejection and was replied to with a whimper. I growled again and then there was silence. As if I would let these mangy mutts into my pack and this female just didn't get the message. I may have only been one wolf, but I killed their alpha, which meant to them I was the most dangerous thing around. I rushed the female, who jumped up and whimpered and ran off with her tail between her legs with the rest of the brown pack close on her heels. I snorted. Geez, about time. But to my dismay they didn't keep running but ran back towards our home. I would not stand for this, it was our home, not theirs. Once I was strong enough we would drive them away, far away.

I went to the lake not far from our home and took a long drink, it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. I waited until the water stilled and then got my first real look at myself in the reflecting water, god I looked wrecked. I saw my neck wound wasn't as bad as I thought it was, Sandi must have had blunt teeth as there was no actual holes in my neck only scrapes. My shoulder sadly was a different matter, there were large gashes from the top of my shoulder to half way down my leg. I hoped it wouldn't scar, but it most likely would.

I shrugged and thought it would just prove to others that I had lived through a battle...one of many to come. Knowing now that my wounds had been taken care of I could return to our group and would rest for the remainder of the day to get my energy back and plan out an attack. I wandered back and found everyone awake, I got back to my resting place and stiffly laid down. Gash took it upon herself to lead the hunting party. Gash, Scar, Nurse and Shaggy left on the hunt and Tank stayed with me. Tank snuggled up behind me and placed his head on the top of my neck and huffed softly.

After a long time Tank and I both heard howling and it sounded panicked, Tank stood up and looked at me and I gave a small nod and he took off kicking up dirt with every step. I slowly got up and started to head towards the howling. Soon I heard Tank howling along with everyone else, my stomach dropped and I was suddenly filled with dread. I sped up, which caused me great pain but I kept going. After what seemed like forever, I finally caught up with the others, but something wasn't right. I saw Tank who was next to Nurse, who was next to Scar, who was next to Gash and they were all in a semicircle... oh no... where was Shaggy?!

I walked up behind everyone and once they knew I was there, they all stepped aside which still confused me, but I couldn't think about that right now. I stepped closer and saw Shaggy on his side, he wasn't moving but he was still alive. I walked around Shaggy and nudged him with my nose and gently pawed at him. I didn't understand why he wouldn't get up or even respond to any of us. The others were getting nervous and I didn't know what else I could do for Shaggy or the others.

I walked around Shaggy again and noticed something that was out of place. I took a closer look and whimpered and backed up, I started pacing and whining. The others became edgy, confused and worried, the scent of fear mingled with my own. I went back to Shaggy and went closer to his rump and there sticking out of his skin was the dreaded stick thing, but this one had a yellow tail on it. I nudged the stick with my nose and that caused Shaggy to whimper.

I had to get the stick thing out of him and fast, who knew what this human creation was doing to our pack member. I gently placed my teeth around the stick and dragged it out of his flesh and spat it out and growled at it. It was pointless to growl at the stick, but it made me feel slightly better. Even though I took the stick out of Shaggy, he didn't improve. Something was wrong and I couldn't fix it, I felt completely useless as a temporary leader.

We all sat with Shaggy until we heard a loud rumble in the distance and as it got closer, a large blue square shaped creature burst though the tree and grass and came to a halt not far from us. We all stood and growled at the creature and it roared in return, making us all back down. This creature smelt horrible and with a hint of human which the others seemed to have picked up also. We were all angry at this creature but then something strange happened, it sprung wings!

Then something really bad happened, humans came out of the creature holding long shiny things like I saw in the place I was in when I had the rock on my leg. I knew this was bad and we should run, but we couldn't leave Shaggy behind, but we weren't given much choice as the humans started to move towards us and no matter how much we growled and howled, they kept coming. With a heavy heart I whimpered and started running towards the trees, soon the pack followed. Leaving Shaggy behind.

We stood at the trees and watched as the humans picked up the stick and Shaggy and slung him over one shoulder, then walked back to the blue creature and put him in the rump... that didn't seem natural... the humans got back into the creature and refolded the wings down with a loud crashing sound and the creature roared again and then took off back though the far trees and grass. The creature would not be hard to track, its paw prints were like nothing I had ever seen and the smell was forever lingering. We left the safety of the trees and started to follow the blue creature. This strange creature never seemed to need to eat or sleep or have to find a tree or bush to relieve itself.

It never stopped and seemed to run very fast. We tracked the creature for many days and nights and finally found it sleeping surrounded by human caves. We approached the blue creature and surrounded it and growled and yapped at it, but it didn't move or make a sound. Once we knew the blue creature wouldn't give us away we started to investigate around the human's dens searching for Shaggy. We got a slight scent but everything about the human world was confusing us, the sights, sounds and smells were a mix of pleasant and horrible smells that kept us going in circles. We would have to rely on our eyes and ears to find our pack mate.

Each human cave had a fenced off area, we walked around each one. In each area was a dog, but none were of pure breed. Each mutt eyed us but didn't make a sound and stuck their impure noses in the air like they were king or queen of this human pack. I snored my disgust at these stupid animals. Seriously, who would want to live like this, stuck in one place, no freedom or space to run and jump and chase prey. What was worse was they all smelt of human, like they had rolled in their scent. It was just horrible. But they seemed happy with where they were and we didn't have time to tell them that this was no way for any canine to live.

If they were stupid enough to be tamed by humans, then so be it. We wandered around each and every human cave until we were at the very last, the smell of human was strong here but a scent lingered in the background, it was faint but it was wolf not dog. Which meant that Shaggy was here. I growled and the others all took turns smelling the area. We came around the corner and there sat a dog, prim and proper like all the others, only this one was different. It was Shaggy, only it didn't look like Shaggy. His fur was now short and washed and he had a bright red collar around his neck and worse still, he was chained to a tree.