Mister Ōkami

“Actually, you know what. No. I’m still not ready to die,” Bat says. “I just wish someone would bring me like an apple or something.”

“Incoming!” Clementina’s voice calls out at the entrance of the den.

Presha, Frostt, Ziff, Hash, Clementina, Ava, Ellie, Vicious, Ivory, and Bella have all returned! Vicious didn’t bring back food, but she did find a new blanket presumably for Alpha. Clementina has brought a single mouse (luckily not Sage). Hash has four rabbits, but Ziff out did her and has brought four hares which are considerably larger. Frostt has four groundhogs.

Bella has four lambs. Presha has one goat. Ivory has two young deer. Ava has three antelope. Then there is Ellie who managed to catch two zebras.

That’s enough food to feed 136 wolves! I can tell that some of these hunters went out a bit further to catch the plains animals. Alpha will be pleased for sure even if Vicious only has a blanket to offer. I know Alpha likes comfort…and maybe he’ll share one of his old worn out blankets with us now that he has a new one.

“I didn’t have too much luck today. I felt like my legs were a bit wobbly today. But I got what little I could. One single delicious mouse treat,” Clementina says, pushing her dead mouse into the meat pile.

“I feel weak, too,” Gold says, nodding her little head.

“Oooh, I can’t wait to eat. I’m starving…” Springy says, stretching and yawning.

“Yeah, me too!” Jell says from behind Springy in the nursery.

“Now we just gotta wait for Alpha to return,” I say.

“We’ve lost Yola!” Alpha announces as he returns with border patrol.

Yola was never a favorite of Alpha’s. He kept calling her ugly and slow. However, he does seem genuinely distraught. That makes three wolves who have fallen in my time at this pack.

X, Lucy, and Yola… What could have happened this time? There doesn’t seem to be a body this time as there was with Lucy. There are, however, four new pups and one new adult.

“I should have kept a better eye on Yola, I’m sorry. We suspect she got eaten by another predator, perhaps a bear. Nobody knows where she went even though she was at the front of the line,” Alpha says.

“I was right behind her, and then I wasn’t,” Edge says. “Whatever happened, happened so fast…”

“I suspect a Gryphon captured here. A fast swoop from the sky is usually undetectable,” Alpha says. “Or maybe it was an Eagle. Either way, we must watch out for danger from the sky now, too.”

“Ah gee! Imagine if it was an entire flock and none of you guys came home!” Noise pipes in, “Who would take care of us?!”

“We didn’t bother check the city, as I said awhile ago, it’s dead. We checked the outskirts, however, and found two 4 month old pups. One’s nearly dead and the other one is bleeding,” Alpha announces.

“Alpha, can I take the pup? I’ve successfully rebirthed a few pups at my home pack,” Umi offers.

“Okay, go for it, Umi,” Alpha says, passing the pup to her.

I can tell Umi’s done this before because she quite easily follows the procedure without much struggle at all. Alpha’s letting his top wolf take a pregnancy break. This might be an issue later. Crisp takes notice of the little white pup who was with the nearly dead one.

“That one has got to be my relative. He smells a lot like me,” Crisp says. “And my mom was pregnant when the new rules started, before we fled. I lost track of my mom, but what if that’s my little brother?”

“It’s a possibility,” Jell says. “Either way, he’s our brother now that he’s part of the pack.”

“The beginning of The Feral Lands is pretty desolate, but we still found one guy there. Here we have a 4 year old male. He’s not injured, but he insisted on coming with us,” Alpha says.

“Bread!” Crusty cries out, running to greet the guy.

“Mom!” the guy cries out, licking her.

“Oh, that’s why he wanted to come with us so badly,” Alpha says. “Ew, more feral interactions…”

“I thought I lost you!” Crusty cries, licking Bread.

“They caught me, but I escaped!” Bread announces.

“We went really deep into the Feral Lands this time. All the way to the Feral Sea. There we found two more pups who were injured. Here’s a 6 month old female and a 5 month old male,” Alpha announces. “They call themselves Argh and Awoo.”

“Arrrrgghhhhh,” Argh growls.

“Awooo!” Awoo adds.

“After we eat, we’ll sing our laments for Yola,” Alpha says. “Man I’m starving…”

I’m hungry too, but…something doesn’t quite smell right… I think one of the dead animals might have been sick when it was killed. Hopefully it’s nothing contagious… I feel a bit sick to my stomach, but nobody else seems to notice anything wrong.

“Wow, you hunters did a great job today,” Alpha says.

“I got something extra special for you, Alpha,” Vicious says, presenting the stolen blanket.

“Oh! You know how I love blankets!” Alpha says, accepting the blanket. He licks Vicious’ head. “Thank you.”

“I don’t know if I can eat knowing I failed to prevent Yola’s death…” Edge mumbles, lying down with her face on her paws.

We all eat and there’s enough leftovers for 74 other wolves. I found the source of the weird smell. One of the zebras is infected. Unfortunately, I ended up consuming a mouthful of it.

“That zebra meat tastes funny,” Pip comments, licking her lips.

“I agree,” Wall says.

“Huh? I didn’t eat any. What did it taste like?” Lost asks.

“I never liked zebra meat so I didn’t bother,” Crusty comments.

“What are you guys going on about? Come. It’s time to sing our laments on Yola’s death,” Alpha beckons.

We sing our laments. However, I can’t help thinking something isn’t right. My stomach hurts…rather than feeling satisfied after eating, I feel worse. I belch, but not even that seems to help.

“Alpha…I’m not feeling well…” I complain as we are heading back inside.

“Get some sleep. You’ll probably feel better in the morning,” Alpha prompts, licking my face gently.

“I hope so…” I groan.

“Hmm, maybe you ate a bit too much,” Split suggests, gently prodding my belly.

“That might be it, yeah!” I say and belch again.

It’s early morning and I feel worse now. My stomach feels like it’s stretching; in fact, it looks like it’s inflating like a balloon. I wake up, groaning in pain. Kurai opens her eyes and stares at me, concerned.

“Suisen, what has happened?” Kurai asks.

“I’m sick…” I groan. “I think that meat I ate was infected…”

“Oh my!” Kurai says. “Gee, I wish that were me…”

“No you don’t…this hurts,” I argue.

“But look! You’re so perfectly round! I wanna be round too! Not fair!” Kurai yells, pouting.

“I’m going to go see if Ichigo can cure me…” I say, slowly trudging towards the healing room.

“Hey, good luck, but I still wish I were the round one!” Kurai calls out.

I get to the healing room only to find Ichigo is also bloated. Right…she also ate some of that zebra… Also in this room already are Presha, Ziff, Bread, and Bound. I wonder, then, how many others ate that infected zebra.

“Another patient!” Orenji says, seeing me enter the room. “This is a pretty serious case of bloat!”

“Please tell me you’ve got a cure…” I beg.

“I think this must be a bacterial infection of the gut caused by some bacteria in the meat we ate last night,” Orenji says.

“YOU think? That was MY guess,” Ichigo says and groans.

“That sounds about right. I don’t know anything, but that sounds right,” I say, nodding my head.

“So then you can cure us, right?” Presha asks. “You…you CAN cure us…right?”

“Well…I know two cures, but we don’t have either of them,” Orenji says. “Back at MY pack, we always kept a supply of Turmeric and Manuka Honey for emergencies.”

“…then we’ll need to send some wolves out to fetch some…” I say.

“Yeah, well… Turmeric is found in Deep Feral Lands and Manuka can only be found across the sea…and it’s rare!” Orenji says. “We built a ship just for transporting supplies from across the sea.”

“I’ll get Alpha and tell him the news…” I say.

I trudge out of the healing room. I hear more voices, groaning in agony. This is serious… Some of us might not make it. I break into Alpha’s room and he lifts his head, suddenly alert.

“There’s been an emergency,” I say.

“The guards found us?!“ Alpha asks.

“No, not that…” I say.

“Did someone die?” Alpha asks, raising an eyebrow.

“No, but there could be death if we don’t act fast,” I say.

“My goodness. You look like a balloon,” Alpha says, getting up and stretching. “Is this what you are going on about? Gee, how about you just fart or something?”

“Sorry, but, Orenji says we’ve gotten a bacterial infection from something we ate last night,” I say.

“Well…” Alpha says, walking to the exit of his room. “Let me speak with her.”

I follow behind Alpha. My stomach groans loudly and I gasp, the pain intensifying. Alpha walks to the healing den and stands before Orenji who is massaging Ichigo’s swollen belly. Orenji looks up, half startled.

“What is going on?” Alpha asks.

“Your wolves, sir, and one of my packmates. They’ve contracted a bacterial infection and are afflicted with intense bloating,” Orenji reports.

“How many?” Alpha asks.

There’s a lot more wolves present in the healing den. There’s me, Presha, Ichigo, Ziff, Bounce who is pregnant, Clementina, Hill, Jewel who also is pregnant, Dollop another pregnant wolf, Rip, Cobra, Kibby, Wall, Pip, Bound, and Bread. That makes 16 sick wolves. Quickie is in danger and she hasn’t even been reborn yet. If she dies now, we can’t save her.

“I can’t let this many wolves die. Even one would be too many,” Alpha says. “Where do we get the cure?”

“I know where it is, but if I go, who will look after these sick wolves?” Orenji asks.

“Frostt can watch them. Take Snotty, Earless, Peppy, Crisp, and Boogerbum with you. They need some training anyhow,” Alpha prompts.

“Yes, sir,” Orenji says.

Frostt shows up to take care of us. Ichigo demonstrates how Orenji was massaging, but warns not to press too hard, especially on the pregnant wolves. Alpha sends off our heroes. As for the leftovers, any meat touching the zebra carcass and the zebra carcass itself are disposed of.

“What am I going to do?” Alpha wonders, pacing anxiously. “I promised to protect you, and now I am helpless to save you!”

“It’s not your fault, Alpha,” Divide reassures the anxious Alpha.

“Yeah, who caught the zebras?” Vicious asks.

“Me,” Ellie admits.

“Why did you do this?!” Alpha asks.

“I didn’t know they were infected! I saw them in the plains and attacked!” Ellie cries out.

Alpha bites her roughly in response and she lets out a yelp of pain. Poor Ellie. She couldn’t have known. Alpha grumbles and stalks away.

The wolves who were sent out are literally the slowest wolves in the pack. Aside from Snotty. He runs faster than his boogery nose. What would normally be a 6 hour trip (3 hours to The Feral Lands and 3 back) might take a lot longer.

“Suisen,” Frostt says, pressing her paws into my swollen belly. “I’m sorry. I’m ready to admit that I cannot handle these kinds of situations on my own…”

I stare at her. She looks frustrated, a few tears slipping out of her eyes. My stomach lets out another terrible groan and I belch. A little pressure relieved, but I know it’s just going to build up again.

“I would help you if I could,” I say to Frostt. “I haven’t the strength.”

“Me neither,” Frostt says.