Sutka looked around; breathing in the air of excitement that encased her and her fellow packmates. She anxiously pawed at the ground, testing the earthy soils on her pads. This is it. She though, smiling to herself, despite the gnawing fear she felt. The big day.

"Go, Sutka!" One tiny gray-speckled pup cried, fighting away from his mother. "Show those Cloud Pack wolves! Get 'em! Fight 'em-" The pup tripped over his feet and was shushed into silence by his mother. Sutka suppressed a chuckle and turned to look at Neo. His eyes were still a stony yellow, and he starred through her as if she was not there, his eyes narrowing into thin slits. He barred his teeth and Sutka looked away, her hair rising. Not now, not when I'm so close to helping Rollin…She paused to chew her lip thoughtfully.

There was a poke at her side, and she turned. Standing there in a tense position was Rollin's mate, Kinla. Everything about her seemed to be plain. Her beige fur was in line, not a hair out of place, and her nose was the kind of pink color that blended in naturally to the rest of her face. Her eyes told a different story. They were filled with hurt, grief, and a sad longing to be with her dead mate. She bowed in respect, and Sutka returned the bow.

"I thank you for doing this," Kinla said quietly, tilting her head towards Sutka. "I'm sure Rollin would be respectfully proud." At the mention of her mate's name, Kinla's eyes clouded and began to water. She looked at the ground and closed her eyes. Sutka licked her shoulder comfortingly. "Thank you." Kinla whispered again, and there was tremendous emotion behind those words. Her nose quivering, Kinla bowed again and backed away, her tail slightly tucked.

Everyone was suddenly crowded around Sutka, crowing out good-byes and shouting farewells. Sutka did her best to acknowledge them all, with a nod of the head or a quick thin smile. One good-bye stood out from the rest.

"Take care," Gylor said, standing proud in front of Sutka. "The fate of our pack can only lie in your paws. Be respectful, as you have proved to be here, and make a peace treaty. Otherwise…" He didn't say anymore, and nodded his head respectively. "And, above all, be brave, proud, and true to who you are."

Those last words echoed in Sutka's ears as she walked down from the hill she had known so long as home.

Be brave…

Her paws lead her to the bottom, slipping only a few times on the scattered pebbles askew. She held her head high, knowing it was the right thing to do in her heart.

Be proud…

Sutka was proud of herself, how far she had come in her life, how she had done. There were no regrets, no doubts. Smoke a few miles northeast told her The Pack of Clouds were near.

Be true to who you are…

Sutka pondered this last statement, wondering if Gylor had meant to stay true to her birth pack. Maybe he said it to remind her why she was leaving on the trip. It didn't matter. She knew she was just doing to be who she was, and hope that it would be enough.

The sun melted, as did her spirits as the day passed. She no longer felt free and brave, her spirit had been harshened by travel and the growing weight of helping to save her pack. Sutka's paws were caked with dirt, and sand wedged between her toes. Her throat hurt from the heat swelling around her, and the lack of drinking. It's for Rollin, she kept reminding herself. So grudgingly, she pressed on.

The wilderness of hills eventually cleared, leading her into thick sagebrush. A rotted tree stump sat alone to Sutka's right. A small bird perched on the side of the stump took off in a burst of feathers at her arrival, and Sutka watched the bird fly until in disappeared into the sun's fading rays. To her left there was a small rustle, and Sutka instinctively crouched, ready to spring on any attacker.

With a furious scream, a wolf launched from the sagebrush, claws out, prepared to bury his fangs into Sutka's throat. Sutka rolled aside at the last second as he brushed her side, feeling awkward and heavy compared to the other wolf, who was thin, bony, and seemed to have total control over all of his movements. The foe wolf landed on all fours, spun to face her, and lashed out again, this time striking out with his claws. Sutka ducked, but again was too slow. Her closed eye and left half of her face were torn, stinging and throbbing. She wobbled on her paws, unable to get even footing. Sutka swallowed, and baring her teeth and summoning the last of her strength, charged at the foe male wolf, snapping and snarling. She caught his right shoulder, biting down hard and tearing away as much flesh as she could take. The male grabbed Sutka by the scruff, flipped, and pinned her to the ground. She struggled for a moment, and wiggled out of his grasp, panting for air.

"You can't win," the foe male said, his voice sending razors down Sutka's spine. He shifted his weight to his other side and snarled, letting it roll from his throat to echo around them. Sutka growled, but even to her it sounded weak and forces. She knew she wouldn't have long before collapsing.

"I can beat you!" Sutka panted, still feeling woozy from the loss of blood. A fat drip of ruby rolled from her cut eye like a tear, dropping at her feet and coloring the sandy ground.

The foe snorted. "As if. I've been trained only by the best of our pack. The ultimate warrior." He crouched, and started circling her again, looking for a weak spot to attack. Sutka instinctively mocked his movements, crouching and trying to predict her opponent's next move.

A breeze rolled quietly by, and the male suddenly stood, ears up, testing the air. His face broke out into a wide grin. "Good luck! You're gonna need it!" he yelled, sprinting away, kicking up dust. Sutka spat blood from her mouth and raised her head, tasting the air.

She found what the male had run from. In the air, there was a scent of cougar, approaching quickly. Her blood ran cold and the desert became still. Blood pounding in her head, she turned to flee.

Above Sutka, she heard a bloodthirsty scream, one it seemed could have only come from the deep pits of hell. A paw armed with four razor claws grabbed at her flesh and tore open her side right side, matting the sand with the stench of rust. Sutka struggled, the cougar towering over her. The lion screamed again.

I'm going to die, Sutka realized. The thought acted as a medicine, one rational thought in the curses running through her head. It gave her a simple goal. The pain would leave when she was dead. With another quick swipe from the cougar at her head, the pain was gone, sand Sutka sank into blackness.

"Sutka."

A voice, strong, but quietly intense, rang around her ears. Sutka rolled over, trying to block the voice. She was happy in the painless area she was in.

"Sutka."

"Nooo," Sutka mumbled indistinctly. She rolled again to her other side and twitched her nose. The air had a dry chemical smell, and it stung to breathe in. Moving in an almost dreamlike state, she sat up, opening one bleary eye after the other. A ruffled looking wolf sat infront of her, smiling so it reached his eyes, a warm cream brown that was calming to look into. They seemed to have depth rippling behind the pupil.

"Good evening, Sutka. Do you know where you are?" The young male studied her in an interested manner, raising his snout slightly at the end of his examination.

Sutka shook her head quietly, not trusting herself to speak. She noticed the male lean foreword a hair, and his smile drooped slightly at the corner.

"You're dead. Or, as some call it, passing on."

"I'm…dead?" The words sounded funny on Sutka's tongue, and she could almost imagine Neo jumping out from somewhere, then laughingly tell her it was all a joke, Rollin would be fine, there would be no gash along her side, and everything would be okay.

The brown wolf nodded. "Oh, yes. The question is, however, what you can do from here." He chucked slightly at Sutka's confused face. "There's no way you can go back now. Sutka, or the soul you know as Sutka, is dead. Come over here…" He stood and turned to a small window, outside was a think sagebrush area that Sutka recognized with a jolt. This was where she had died. She peered into the tiny window, and it seemed to shut around her eyes. Sutka yelped and jumped backwards.

"Come now," the old brown wolf said crossly. "Look in properly, there you go, that's the ticket." The window again was shutting around her eyes, but this time she didn't squirm away. A fine mist gathered around her eyes, and suddenly she was in the sagebrush.

"That's me," Sutka said quietly, sitting next to her unmoving dead self. She curiously set a paw on her dead self's back, and her paw started being sucked into the body as though thick mud was pulling her it.

The brown wolf came hustling over and growled. "Stop that!" He yanked her paw out from the body, and pierced her with a hard stare. "You can't return to that body. I have only brought you to listen."

Sutka snarled and barred her teeth, crouching low, spreading her tail protectively over her past body. "I need to go back, you don't underst-"

"No, you don't understand!" The brown wolf cut across her and openly snarled, any shadow of his smile before had vanished. His eyes seemed to be sinking back into his head, creating a dead, gaunt face. Long shadows under his eyes formed as he glared at her.

"You stupid mutt, what do you think would happen if a wolf could return from the dead? There would be almost everlasting life for everyone, there would be no more pups because of the packs' expanding souls returning, families would be torn!" The male struck her away from the body with a single blow from his paw, leaving her freshly cut side throbbing strangely, but there was no pain.

"I can go back!" Sutka stood again gingerly, testing her weight on her legs, then hobbled to her body again. "I need to, please, to stop the war…Please, sir."

The other wolf curled his top lip into a light sneer. "Call me Farr."

"Farr, then." Sutka nodded, resting her tail lightly on her dead body. The curious sucking sensation ticked at the tip of her tail, and slowly began crawling up to the base of her tail.

"Hm, yes. And why should I let you go?" Farr sat, still sneering, and waited for her answer in a mockingly polite fashion.

Sutka swallowed. "I'm needed on earth. I have a job to do. If I don't go back,, a lot of lives could be wasted all because," she took a deep breath, "You were too selfish to let one wolf finish her job!" The sucking motion was well past her tail, and crawling up from her toes. She knew she only had a matter of minutes left.

Farr frowned. "How funny. You know, I had a wolf in here a few days ago, saying about the same thing, something about a war…" His eyes turned to a new level of coldness. "And this wolf mentioned your name."

Sutka's heartbeat quickened.

"Yes, he had a most absurd name, something I never would have named by pups…Rol…Rollin, I believe?" He laughed loudly at the expression on Sutka's face. "He was very easy to take down, very weak, it seemed all of his will to live had been sucked from him. Bloody mess, he was, yes." Farr mussed, still smiling with relish at the look on Sutka's face.

"He was easy to destroy, too," Farr grinned widely, picking in his teeth with one long claw. "Your precious hero's soul is dead."

"You're lying!" Sutka cried, her vision blurring drastically. "He's still watching over his pack, I know it! You-!" No word could describe the anguish she was feeling, and no insult she could throw that could make Farr understand. With one final sucking motion at the tip of her nose, Sutka began to disappear. Farr finally seemed to notice what was going on.

"NO!" Farr screamed, grabbing at her with his claws, searching for any point he could grab onto to pull her back. "You're NOT LEAVING!" He snatched onto the base of her chopped tail, digging his claws into the soft flesh and ripped back with all of his might. The wound ripped open again, splattering blood onto his paw. With another furious scream, Farr grabbing at her tail again, only getting a handful of her bloody fur.

And with a final shimmer in the air, Sutka was gone.