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Aurora Sitka

Chapter 1

Copyright © 2013 FarmWolf's Player. All Rights Reserved

Senior Fleet Admiral Aurora Sitka (Retired) sat on a cliff overlooking her pack's territory and wondered how the fleep she had gotten into this mess . . .

No, no, no . . . that's no way to begin a story. You readers need to get to know me before I burden you with my problems. And in any case, I usually prefer writing in the first person. Let's try again . . .

The dawn was just beginning to break as I peered over the edge of the caprock. With it came a breeze that ruffled my fur. I could see the game trail about three paces below me, and the scent of my prey soon reached my nose. I held still as a shadow as I waited for them to arrive. Not even the tip of my tail betrayed my presence.

Presently, the leader passed beneath me and I scanned the herd for the animal I'd selected yesterday. Before long it was where I wanted it and I silently leapt over the edge. My weight crumpled its legs and at the same instant I slit its throat with my knife. The rest of the herd stampeded around my kill and me. Soon I was alone.

I hoisted the grazer to my shoulder and set off, my eleven-year-old body staggering from time to time under the weight. Fortunately my destination was close and I had exhilaration to help me. My first kill of one of our pack's major prey animals! And two years before I had to prove myself to the alphas! When I reached my destination I laid the kill out on a sloping rock under an overhanging slab. I removed my toolbelt - the only thing I was wearing - and laid it aside. I'd helped process kills and I knew how messy they could get. As my claws were not yet large enough, I used my knife to cut open the hide in preparation for skinning. I stood on the grazer's back feet and pulled the skin up and off of it, then folded the skin and laid it on the rock beside the carcass.

I ate the liver before it could spoil, then used my knife and my claws to process my kill, cutting muscle away from tendon and then pulling muscle groups apart and separating organs into their lobes. Whenever I wanted, I gulped down pieces of raw meat - small muscles or organs or else scraps I'd cut off large ones. When these were gone, I cut up some larger pieces of meat and ate them. By the time I was full, there was less left than I'd predicted there would be. In my excitement, I'd underestimated my hunger. After I finished cutting everything up, I wiped my knife on some grass, wrapped the meat in the hide, stacked my equipment belt on top, and carried my processed kill to a nearby cave. There, I hid it in the back under a pile of rocks - where it would stay cool as well as (hopefully) be safe from scavengers until I returned this way later in the day.

I made my way to the stream below the cave, where I washed my knife and laid it on the bank next to my belt to dry. Next, I cleaned myself thoroughly. The skinning and processing had involved my hands, my feet, and most of the rest of me. I'd even gotten blood on my tail somehow.

After a short nap, I set out to work on what I was SUPPOSED to be doing that day. I'd taken a school assignment to research food webs and it was due tomorrow. I wasn't worried, as I knew most of the material. I looked at nature a little deeper than food and supplies. So I was well prepared to observe and report on not only the interaction of beings in nature, but the relative size and health of their populations.

And thanks to this morning I would have an additional part for the report. I reduced the southern herd by one, I composed in my mind. An advanced juvenile calf with a slight limp from a birth defect, but no less delicious for it. I could add to the report how the health of our pack and of our prey's herd had been maintained by my action.

As I made my way through the prairie below the caprock, identifying and comparing information for my report, I noticed suddenly that the sun had gotten quite high and hot. Dwelling on my first kill had reduced my range of observation. I forced myself to use my full situational awareness.

Stopping to take an overview of the area I was observing, I realized the nearest cliffs were over two kilopaces away. The sun was really beating down on my black fur. At least the grass was still long and thick enough to give the ground some shade - my feet were staying relatively cool. Days like this made me briefly consider wearing clothes like some of the adult pack members did, as an attempt at a heat shield. The fabric contained microscopic heat pumps and they came from the techworld beyond our pack's boundaries. They had kept me cool, but uncomfortably so, and they simply felt strange. Besides, none of the cubs in our pack wore clothes in the summer anyway. I shook all over, ruffling my fur and making myself just a bit cooler. It was time for a break and I thought there was a large rock in the vicinity. Yes, there it was, and it would take only a couple hundred heartbeats to get there. I slow-jogged to it and curled up at the base in the place where the shade would last the longest. Before long I was comfortably cooling and falling asleep.

I returned to the pack shortly before sundown. Sniffing out my friend Australis, I found him repairing his knife belt.

"Aurora, where have you been all day?" He sniffed once, then again, as if he didn't believe his nose. "And what have you got with you?"

"I was finishing the research for my school report. And this," I offered a piece of meat from my bundle, "is my first kill."

"You took down a grazer at eleven? I'm impressed. That must be a pack record."

"I don't really care about the record; I just wanted to prove myself, to myself."

"You've proven yourself to me, too - yet again. Now, let's finish that up, to celebrate."

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Remember, send ideas for more story developments. This is a story I would love to write, but my muse isn't speaking to me on it right now. If I use your idea, I'll credit you in the relevant chapter, and in my journal.