The Rage (Very rough, rough draft) Chap. 4

The Outer Patrol looms ahead, only a mile away. Dake slows his pace to a steady trot, his sleek pelt rippling in the cold wind. He raises his tail to caution us, and we fall behind him in a single file line. My eyes widen as we near the Outer Patrol. It never ceases to amaze me. A huge wall made of specifically-placed trees, and stones and bricks from the Ruins stands before us. The wall itself stands ten feet up, and towers, shorter than the Towers back home, but equally amazing, stand along the wall, one every mile or so. The wall surrounds the entire territory, guarded by the towers and our highly-trained soldiers. The wall is three feet wide, and wolves stalk along the top of it, moving between the towers. Dake howls a warning, like the wolves at home did to warn the Guards in the Towers they were approaching. A second howl answers Dake’s, followed by several more voices, ringing in my ears. My pace slows further, and Glass bumps into my haunches. I start to speed up just as Dake stops in his tracks. It could have been a domino effect had I not hopped out of Glass’s way. Glass creeps up beside me, clearly nervous. Three wolves are approaching, their heads high, powerfully built, and I can hear a growl echoing in the leader’s throat.

“Heads up.” Dake murmurs the order softly. “You’re Pure Warriors.”

The four of us obey, puffing out our chests and lifting our heads. The wolves stop just short of us, their fur bristling.

“Your business?” the leader demands, his black and white fur bristling.

“We are Pure Warriors, heading to the East Mountains as requested by the Healers. Surely, you have been informed?” Dake says, sounding quite calm and confident. The leader bares his teeth.

“And you’re bringing puppies on this mission?” he sneers, reaching a paw forward to flick the still-silver cross around my neck. Dake moves so suddenly, I barely have time to register what he’s doing before he has the leader’s paw in his jaws, clamping down firmly. The leader snarls, eyes widening. Dake hasn’t drawn blood yet. I’m stunned.

“I would recommend you let us through. The General is a good friend of mine, and I’m sure she’d be none too happy to see you messing with my teammates - and your packmates. Besides, one of these ‘puppies’ could take you on any day, Shreek.” He growls, his words only slightly muffled by the paw. The leader, Shreek, jerks hard on his paw.

“Let go of me!” he snaps furiously, eyes blazing. Dake cracks down, and I hear an audible snap. Shreek howls and stumbles backwards, Dake releasing his paw.

“Let that be your warning, Shreek. Don’t mess with me, or my team. Are we clear?” Dake’s posture is that of an Alpha Male. I didn’t know Dake was usually violent, or aggressive. Shreek backs away.

“Go through.” He hisses through clenched teeth, his paw tucked up to his chest. The other two nod respectfully to us as we pad past, sticking close to Shreek.

As soon as we’re out of range of the three, I shoot a look at Dake.

“Like I said: Do what you must to survive. Shreek is lower position then us; he has to learn that. It’s just the way of things our here. It’s harsh, and you have to stake your claim and keep it, or face the consequences. Which means, if they poke, you bite, and not gently. Understand?” Dake growls, not looking at me.

“No. I don’t.”

“You’ll learn.”

I drop back beside Glass, Crow, and Lane. Glass rolls her eyes at me like it’s after a trainer’s scolding at home, and I feel slightly better, out here in this strange world. We reach the tower gate, and five wolves eye us up and down, sniffing for any sign of the disease. We pass, and they open the door. We follow Dake up the wooden stairs, scenting the non-familiar air. I notice several different floors in the tower, but Dake keeps heading for the very top. Five more wolves check us through, and we enter a wide, wooden, circular room. Seven wolves line the walls, bearing the gray soldier armor. Metal sheathes around their legs, a jacket of metal covering their back and flanks, with a metal cross settled on their foreheads. A smaller white wolf is speaking quietly to two of the soldiers, but she turns quickly when she hears us enter.

“Dake?” the white she-wolf asks, brightening. Dake nods.

“Good to see you, General.” He rumbles.

“You’re going on another mission already? Didn’t you just get back?” the General asks suspiciously.

“We have urgent business in the Eastern Mountains. Has the message honestly not reached you?”

“No, I’m afraid not.” The General sighs, flicking her tail. “But go ahead through. I trust you, Dake. First thought, who are these?” she directs her piercing yellow gaze to us.

“My team. Crow, Lane, Katya, and Glass. They’re newbies.” Dake says, with a faint grin.

“Ah. Still silver-crosses?” The General asks, sounding mildly surprised.

“Yeah. Alphas’ business.”

“I see. Take the bottom route, Dake.” The General instructs. “And good luck.” Then she turns back to her business. Dake trots back towards the stairs.

“Oh, and sorry about Shreek’s paw.” He apologizes, and then quickly scurries down the stairs, us hot on his tail.

“Wait-what?” I hear the General’s voice ring behind us. Dake hurries us down the stairs, stopping partway down. He barks loudly at the door, until it swings open.

“You? Pure Warriors? Go ahead.” A ruffled-looking wolf mutters, motioning us in. The five of us file in, and my eyes widen when I realize where we are, because apparently the wall has pathways inside.

“Whoa.” Crow mutters from behind me.

“Come on.” Dake barks, trotting forward. The rest of us follow, trekking as though the floor could crumple beneath us. It could. I wonder how thick this floor is. Dake speeds up, the sticks and stones under his paws crackling, making the four of us terribly nervous. When we finally reach the end, or at least the exit inside the wall, the four of us eagerly poke our heads out and look down. We’re on the fourth floor of the wall, if there are floors below us. Jumping is definitely not an option.

“How do we get down?” Lane questions aloud what the rest of us were thinking. Dake lowers his muzzle to the ground, as though trying to find something, then places a testing paw on the ground. He drives his claws into the wood and brick, heaving backwards. A little door in the ground flips open. I stare at it. I hadn’t even had any idea it was there.

“Pretty cool, right?” Dake asks, looking down into the square hole.

“Yeah.” I murmur, pacing forward to look down. Another set of plank stairs trail down to the bottom floor. We’re completely alone inside the walls, except for the guards posted around.

“More stairs.” Glass sighs. Dake hops through the small square, moving down the stairs. I trail behind the others, my claws clicking on the hard wood, thinking. When we finally got to the outside of the Outer Patrol, like, the outside of the outside, I hesitated, peering out towards the Ruins. We were so close, and now I realized there was nothing to guard us from Rages out here. No pack, no Patrols, and no Guards. We were on our own. My heart sped up, and my fur bristled anxiously. Dake was quietly talking to a soldier that waited outside of the wall door, the only way in or out. Crow stretched, and his eyes shone nervously. The sun was hovering just over the plains to west, opposite of where we were headed. The sky was darkening, with just a few scattered stars. I took a deep breath and looked over at Glass.

“Well, here we go.” I say, swallowing hard. Crow circles and I’m tempted to do the same, the nervous energy making my paws tingle.

“Alright you guys, let’s go. We have about an hour until sunrise. If we can reach the stream by dark, we’ll be making good time. Now remember-“Dake says, sounding wise and confident and everything us silver-crosses, as the General called us, aren’t.

“There’s nothing between us and death out here.” Lane finishes Dake’s sentence, licking her apprehensively at her own words.

“Exactly. But the Rages aren’t as bad as the stories make them out to be.” Dake barks.

“They’re worse, right?” Glass sighs.

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            We made it to the stream by dark, without even a whiff of Rage.

“I thought it would be a lot more terrifying out here.” Crow murmurs, padding beside me.

“So did I.” I say, and then look up as Dake barks for our attention.

“Alright you guys. See, made it to the stream before dark, and did any of you see a Rage?” he asks loftily.

“Nope.” The four of us answer together.

“It’s not that bad now is it?” Dake woofs easily. Before any of has a chance to answer, he continues, “Now, just because we’ve not seen one yet, this is Rage territory, and we’re camping inside it. And Rages don’t need anything but a whiff of Pure to provoke them, so lay low and step carefully. Who wants to guard tonight?” No one, of course, but Lane and I get duped to take shifts. Lane will watch the first half of the night, and I’ll watch the second half. Dake patrols our little camp and then instructs Lane on how to circle the camp every ten minutes and move quietly as possible, then wait by the stream for the next ten minutes. After doing that, he pads up to me and starts to lecture, but I say “I heard,” and he looks skeptical.

“Just be careful, okay Katya?”

“No prob., big brother.”

Dake frowns but trots back off to talk to Crow. I stretch, and take a moment to look around. It really is beautiful out here, with no walls, or borders. I feel a pang of anger that the Rages had to take all this from us. Glass appears at my side, her silver fur fluffed up against the early winter chill.

“Pretty sweet, right?” she asks.

“Yeah.” I murmur, than curl up on the ground, deciding to catch some shut-eye before my shift.

“You’re so boring.” Glass complains, but sprawls out next to me. I drift off to sleep, but am kicked awake much too soon.

“Get up.” Someone hisses next to my ear.

“It’s not my shift yet.” I groan, swatting at the muzzle next to my ear.

And Crow steps on my tail. I yowl and spring to my feet, whirling on him. I’m about to start my rant on how I’m going to bite his face off, then freeze as I see the flash of red eyes in the forest.

“Crow…?” I ask quietly, nervously.

“Rage.” Crow answers. “Dake thinks that perhaps it’ll move on -fat chance-  so for now we’re just going to wait.”

“Wait for it to kill one of us?” I demand. Crow shrugs.

“Katya, Crow, over here.” Dake orders softly. Glass and Lane are crouched beside him, fur bristling. “Slowly.”

Crow and I creep forward. I’ve never seen a real-live Rage, not since I was a pup.

A low growl comes from our left, and we both freeze. I hear the clack of deadly teeth and stretch my neck a little to see over the top of Crow’s head. My nostrils flare. I can smell the disease. Metallic, like blood, with an underlying, darker smell, somewhat like a wolf with rabies would carry. My heart thunders in my chest, my hackles rising. The Rage is standing only ten feet away.

Its cream-colored fur is scruffy, its lips lift off its fang in a permanent snarl, and I can imagine how many throats those fangs have torn. Its paws are braced, claws digging into the moonlit grass, ears shoved forward aggressively, eyes blazing a bloody red. A low growl rumbles in its chest, sending a shock of cold fear through me. Crow flinches. I hate it, but some part of me is glad he’s in front of me. I violently shove the thought out of my head and stalk around him, lowering my head and baring my own fangs back at the Rage, now standing beside Crow. If we fight, or die, we do it together, as Pure Warriors, I decide. Crow doesn’t look away from the Rage, but flicks his tail gratefully. Dake moves forward, standing in front of us. We’re going to have to fight. I swallow hard.

“You four. Get back.” Dake orders, watching the Rage with his piercing green eyes.

“But Dake-“ I start to protest, and Dake snaps his jaws, still not looking away from the Rage.

“Now Katya!”

Crow and I back away slowly, and the Rage snarls, bounding a step forward. Dake drops into a battle stance, weight spread evenly, head lowered, teeth bared, close to the ground. The Rage cackles, its red gaze mad. Then it lunges, moving with terrible, terrible speed.

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He paced the dark room, hackles raised. The floor was stained with his blood, and his ragged claws clicked eerily in the silence. He swiped his tongue around his muzzle, cleaning the blood from tender gashes on his mouth. His cage sat in the back of the room, snags of his fur caught on the metal. Anger surged within him, and he bore his teeth. How could they do that to him? He shook his head as red spots danced in his vision. Now wasn’t the time for this. He stretched, working the kinks out of his aching muscles, and circled the room anxiously. He had to leave soon. It didn’t take long for them to execute a plan, especially with their brothers’ help. He had no brothers’ help. He had only himself, only his claws and fangs, and the darkness.  And that was all he needed. He crept towards the door, gathering the courage to finally make a move. Voices echoed outside.

“But Sergeant-“a young wolf protested.

“But what?!” a clearly higher-ranking wolf snapped back angrily.

“Nothing sir.” The younger wolf mumbled, and he could just imagine the pathetic creature bowing to its master. His fur bristled. Pawsteps rang on the stone ground outside his room. A click came from the other side of the steel door, and he held his breath, red flaring in his vision. The door creaked open. He pounced.