© 2002-2024 Ruth and Heidi
Part 4

A small voice of reason, perhaps that bit of something his sister had inherited the alpha wolf's portion thereof, told him that the elder had acted wisely that night. Wildlight had been near-crushed by the bear creature, had been hurt inside, and had suffered serious burns as a result of a lightning strike. But he quickly shoved that aside. What bothered him now, however, was Snapjaw's attitude. The seeming dismissal of a defiant act.

The wolf in him was alive, and he nearly leapt to stand a hair's breadth away from Snapjaw. A moon's dance worth of frustrations had finally come to a head.

"You...You choked me? You defied your chief during a time when this tribe needed me the most?" he snarled as he glared at the old wolf. "Of all elves, I would least expect such behavior from you. This past moons' dance I kept wary of you, wondering why I should. But I see my instincts are still as sharp as they should be..."

His last statement ended with an exhalation that stirred the hairs on Snapjaw's beard. Wildlight's emerald gaze was unwavering, though his eyes narrowed as he anticipated the eldest elder's next move.

Snapjaw stiffened when Wildlight lunged at him and snarled in his face. The elder, his arms still folded over his chest, didn't move save to tilt his head to the side and regard his angry chief with half-hooded dark green eyes without actually looking Wildlight in the eye. The response didn't surprise him, but he was not going to rise to the challenge. **I am sorry I had to do what I had to do. But I would do the same again. You being chief does not mean I will stand by and let you risk your life needlessly and leave this tribe without a chief,** he sent.

It would have been easier to act if Snapjaw had acted differently. Wildlight knew how to respond to a challenge, to something primal, wolfish. But the fact he was so easily deferred both relieved him and puzzled him at the same time.

The challenge wasn't accepted; Wildlight stood down and took a step away. And, with that motion, the wolfsong lessened, things other than pure instinct bubbled to the surface. Not to say that he still wasn't angry. He couldn't decide what he was the most angry about--the fact that such a thing had been done to him, or the fact that such a thing had been done and had been kept from him. Still, the snarl had melted off his face.