Mister Ōkami

We train for a few hours, actually. I’m having so much fun; I’m not keeping track of time. After awhile, though, Kurai gets exhausted and lies down, panting. As silly as that whole activity was, I feel like there was some actual strength training involved.

“Man, I’m tired,” Kurai moans.

“Would you pups be interested in some milk?” I offer.

Kurai, Pip, Quickie, Ressa, Mouth, Ivory, Noise, Dilly, and Toosh gather around. I can only feed eight at once, though. Kurai hangs back, not wanting to get in the way. She yelps in surprise when I lick her face.

“Ah! Suisen!” Kurai wails.

“I love you, Kurai,” I say. “I love all of you, pups.”

I feed all the pups until they are full and then nuzzle Kurai close. Maybe I’ll still have some milk for Chain as well. The pups settle down for a nap, their adorable chubby bellies in the air. I feed and clean Kurai, then, I head off to find Chain.

Using my amazing sense of smell, I track down Chain, all by himself, in a dark room. I approach and nuzzle him gently. He squeaks, clearly still pained and weak from last night. I lick him, keeping his healing wounds clean.

“Chain, are you strong enough to nurse?” I ask.

“Mmmph…” Chain moans.

“Can you speak?” I ask.

There’s no response. I sigh and lie down beside him. He shouldn’t have been left in here alone. One of the Omicron should have remained behind to take care of him.

I lie there, keeping the child warm. Eventually, he is tempted by my warm milk smell. I lick him gently and he slowly moves his head to suckle. He’s starving, the poor child…

“Drink as much as you can get,” I prompt.

“Thank,” Chain mumbles, letting go.

I should have fed him first. I feel a bit embarrassed. At least he got a little. I throughly clean him; he wasn’t able to clean himself and had made a mess of himself.

“I’m so sorry…” I whisper.

I continue to lie there with him for awhile. Silence and the smell of old blood weighing heavy upon us. After some time, I hear a commotion in the main room. I don’t dare move the injured child, that might reopen the wounds.

“I will return,” I whisper and head to the main room.

Border patrol has come back first. Some members are injured, but, counting them, nobody died this time. Hash, the puppy, of course, is the most injured and I’m honestly surprised she can stand with her guts hanging. She has proven she is the strongest pup of all.

“We ran into quite a bit of trouble in the city, Hash barely made it out of there with her life,” Jewel reports. “I’m not sure if we can save her without magic, but we’re going to try our best.“

“Worst comes to worst, I can unbirth and rebirth her, but she’s going to lose all her memories if we do and we can’t guarantee she’ll be as strong,” Bounce says. “And also I’m a lot smaller than her, even though she’s a pup, so it might be extremely hard to pull off.”

“Rebirth?” I inquire. “What is that and how come we couldn’t save X using it?”

“Well, first off, we couldn’t even get X’s body off the antelope’s horns. We’d need the body. Second of all, the patient needs to be at least slightly alive. Fully dead bodies can’t be revived that way,” Frostt says. “Basically, you put the dying patient into your womb to preserve their self or soul if you will. Their dying body melts away and reforms into a new body, a fetus, and then it grows into a new pup. You birth them back into the world and raise them all over again. They retain no memory of their past life, as far as we know.”

“Oh…” I say. “So we could use that to save Chain if we need to?”

“Theoretically, yes. I do believe he should heal on his own, though, thanks to my care,” Frostt says.

“Right, right,” I say, lowering my head.

“Give Suisen at least a little credit. Sure, you did most the work, but she breathed him back to life,” Mr. Ōkami says.

“Fine. Suisen, you helped save the pup. Maybe, just maybe, you can help us save Hash. If we have to rebirth her, you get to raise her for us,” Frostt says.

“Guys, all this talk about unbirthing me is scaring me,” Hash whimpers.

“All in all, the city was empty of wolves or any other carnivores. We were attacked by rhinos,” Bounce reports. “We’ll keep checking just in case, but I personally think the city is dead.”

“The outskirts were barren as well,” Hash says. “Further proving that we are close to the end of an era.”

“However! The Feral Lands are still actively under siege!” Bounce says, dramatically before unveiling TWO MORE wolves that we DEFINITELY have the resources to feed.

The set appears to be an injured pup and his father. Like Chain, the pup is barely alive. Part of the pup’s face is missing and his brain is visible. He’s not going to make it, there’s no way!

“I told this crusty old man to stay in the Feral Lands because he can’t be trusted with my ladies. He said he HAD to come to watch his son. We can’t repair his head. Part of his skull is missing,” Mr. Ōkami reports.

“I’ll leave once he dies, then. At least give me that,” the old wolf pleads.

“Sure, whatever,” Mr. Ōkami says.

“Wait! Didn’t we just say rebirthing is an option?!” I object.

“Suisen…” Mr. Ōkami says with a groan.

“We can save him!” I cry out.

“He’s not worth the effort, Suisen,” Mr. Ōkami says.

“He is, to me. Heck, I’ll take him if I have to!” I yell.

“No, I’ll take the child, Alpha,” Jewel says.

“Do you guys really want to save this random scrap of a pup?” Mr. Ōkami asks. “We can barely feed the wolves we have.”

“Yeah, because you eat everything,” Kurai says.

“SHUT UP, KURAI, THIS DOES NOT CONCERN YOU!” Mr. Ōkami snaps. “You know what? Fine… Go ahead and unbirth the scrap, as long as his father agrees.”

“If it’ll save him, please,” the old wolf says. “He may be my last child ever because I am old.”

The child is starting to gasp, his final breaths are near. He lets out a terrible cry as Jewel gently takes him. She lies down and, with careful precision, maneuvers the pup up into her womb through the…well, you know…the opening… The pup was about as old as Kurai, but a bit bigger, because Kurai is tiny.

Jewel struggles a bit, panting, but, at last, the deed is done. Her abdomen is now swollen, holding the body of the child. I can only hope it isn’t already too late. The father wolf approaches, gently resting his face against her belly.

“I love you, son… I’m sorry we have to do this in order to save you,” the father murmurs.

“Okay, now stop touching my woman. It’s enough that she’s forced to carry YOUR child in her womb,” Mr. Ōkami grumbles.

“I can feel it. The magic. He’s going to be alright!” Jewel says, her voice suddenly taking on a higher pitch.

“It is done,” Mr. Ōkami says. “That may be you, Hash, if we can’t heal you normally.”

Hash stares, wide-eyed, at Jewel. The lump inside of Jewel shifts a little and settles into place. I can’t believe any of this is actually happening, and yet, it is. As long as we have a body that isn’t fully dead…we can save their life…

“I need to see that my child is reborn safely,” the father, Wall, says.

“That won’t be for another 1-3 months, mister!” Mr. Ōkami exclaims.

“He’s my son…” Wall whimpers.

“He might not even emerge the same as he went in,” Mr. Ōkami presses.

“I- I understand… Please do not throw me back into The Feral Lands, I’ll be killed for sure!” Wall pleads.

“Why do you ask so much from me? I could easily kill your here and now and feed your body to my ladies,” Mr. Ōkami says.

Wall shrinks so low to the ground that he almost appears flat, “I am aware of your power, Alpha. I’m not even a threat, I’m too old to have any more pups.”

“Fine, you old hag, but don’t expect top tier treatment from me,” Mr. Ōkami says.

“Oh thank goodness! I love you!” Wall wails.

“Congrats on your pregnancy,” Crusty says to Jewel.

“Wait a minute! Crusty?! You’re here too?!” Wall exclaims, standing up abruptly.

“Glad to see you again, Wall…though I suppose your mate didn’t make it? I don’t see her,” Crusty says, lowering her head.

“Oh gosh! Now the ferals are interacting!” Mr. Ōkami exclaims, rolling his eyes dramatically.

The hunting patrol enters the den! My mouth waters as I smell the delicious meat scents. Ah, but it’ll never be enough to feed everyone… Viper has a sheep, Walk has a yearling deer, Presha surprises us by struggling to drag a giant boar into the den (no way could she have killed that on her own! Also, that’s an omnivore that easily could have eaten her).

Oil has a rabbit, Edge has a monkey, Vicious has 5 chickens, Ziff has 4 mice, Hill has an elephant baby (Okay, I feel bad for the little elephant, but we need to eat…). Moov doesn’t have anything so Mr. Ōkami bites her roughly. Ava has a baby hippo! Yola has a turkey, but it’s not quite as big as the one Kurai caught the other day.

Lucy has a goat (unfortunately it’s not the evil President… HAH HAH HAH), and three more chickens, and Gargle has two really fat nutrias. That’s PLENTY enough to feed everyone! We could feed 53 wolves with that! Even with Mr. Ōkami’s usual overindulgence, I watch as every single wolf present (well, aside from the little boy that we are rebirthing…) gets to eat. Even Chain is escorted out and he nibbles on some meat.

We’ve been blessed! I can only wonder if this is a gift from that unseen being that helped us last night as well. There is so much food that portions enough for at least 14 more wolves lies unwanted on the ground. Everyone’s bellies are full, even Kurai!

“We’ve finally got enough food,” Mr. Ōkami murmurs, shifting uncomfortably on his overly filled belly. “No wolf had to go hungry… I guess I was wrong to doubt…”

Chain is returned to his chamber and Viper looks after him. Despite having the strength to eat, I can tell his health is still failing. We may need to unbirth him, as well…maybe it would be better if we did because he’s in agony. If we do, though, Pip will lose her littermate.

“Suisen, can we talk?” Mr. Ōkami asks.

“You’re the Alpha, if you want to talk with me, I’m all yours,” I say, submissively.

“Come along to my chamber, then,” Mr. Ōkami says.

I follow him down a hall I have never dared tread. It’s warm, cozy…everything a wolf could ever want. He leads me to his room. There are blankets, pillows, even an old mattress down here.

“Eh, excuse the mess, I don’t normally let anyone come in here with me,” Mr. Ōkami says, shoving some blankets out of the way.

“What did you need me for?” I ask, standing in the doorway.

“Come in, don’t be shy,” Mr. Ōkami prompts.

I step carefully into the room. (I don’t want to accidentally touch the doorway because I now know he rubs his butt against it…ew…) The soft bed material on my paw pads feels soooo nice. Mr. Ōkami watches me, smiling gently. Oh, I guess I shouldn’t look so pleased. This is strictly business!

“Suisen, I just wanted to tell you…I’m madly in love with you,” Mr. Ōkami says, sheepishly.

“Ah, I- I see,” I say, my heart fluttering again.