Storm of Dogs (12 page)

The Pack had vanished. Although the Endless Lake still crashed in the distance, an eerie silence fell over the valley. Lucky barked sharply, then barked again, listening for a reply, but none came.

Lucky's trembling legs gave way beneath him, and he slumped onto the ground like one of the fallen trees.
Sweet
. . . He should never have left her to go to the town, not when he sensed danger. Unbearable anguish swept through him.

Sunshine was the first to start whimpering. Soon Mickey, Snap, and Bella were whining and yelping. Then Martha threw back her black head and howled.

“Listen!” yapped Daisy, cutting over the frantic dogs. “Can you hear something?”

The others fell silent, and Lucky's ears pricked up. Someone was barking in the distance, on the far side of the pond!

Daisy burst forward, her tail wagging frenziedly.

“Wait!” ordered Lucky. “We have to be careful. The Growl has moved things about. Take it slowly and keep away from the trees; they could be unstable.” He led the way over the curving landscape, careful to test the ground before setting down his paw. But inside, he
was just as desperate as Daisy to run to the sound. Hope burned in his chest.

As they skirted around the pond, the yaps grew louder.

“I can hear Storm!” yelped Martha, her tail thumping.

“And Bruno!” added Sunshine.

“Where are you?” barked Lucky.

“Over here!” Bruno barked back. “Under a tree trunk at the edge of the pond.”

Lucky sniffed along the ground until he could scent his Packmates. All at once, he saw them. They were sheltering amid the knotted roots of a fallen tree. The trunk had fallen into the pond itself and was half-submerged under water. Lucky dipped his head to peer beneath, and a series of snouts greeted him. Among them, Lucky spotted Sweet's pale muzzle, and he panted with relief.

“We rushed under here when the trees began to fall,” she explained. “The roots protected us. But then the ground shook again, and the tree rolled, trapping us. We were waiting for things to feel calm again before we dared to start digging our way out.”

Mickey sprang down to the side of the tree. “The Growl seems to have passed now. We'll help you.” The Farm Dog started kicking away the sodden earth and Snap hurried to help him, digging easily with her short, powerful legs. Daisy helped Mickey and Snap by pushing back the dirt, and Lucky, Bella, and Martha cleared a path while Sunshine yipped encouragement.

“You're nearly there!” shouted the little Omega.

A moment later, Beetle scrambled out from under the tree trunk. “Lucky!” he yapped. His thin tail lashed the air, and he bounded around his Packmates ecstatically. “Don't you think that was a clever place to hide from the Growl?”

“It certainly was,” said Lucky, his tail wagging with delight.

“It was all my idea!” the young dog said proudly.

“That's true,” said Thorn, following her litter-brother out onto the wet grass and shaking out her fur. “He said it would be the perfect shelter—that this big tree would stop other trees from hurting us if they fell down. And Sweet agreed!”

“Yes, I did.” Two lean forelegs reached through the gap beneath the tree, and Sweet shook herself free. Lucky rushed to her side, growling gently with excitement.

“You were clever to avoid the cliffs.”

“What happened?” Her dark eyes met his.

“Part fell into the Endless Lake. But we're all okay. We saved the longpaws by warning them of the danger—they escaped into those giant birds.”

Sweet tilted her head. “We saw them high overhead, but there was so much chaos we didn't know what they were.”

“The Leashed Dogs worked quickly,” Lucky told her. “They proved their loyalty to the Pack, especially Mickey.” Lucky thought better than to say more about what had happened—Sweet probably wouldn't understand Mickey's insistence on saving the longpaw from the pit. Mickey's eyes glittered, and he dipped his black-and-white head.

“I am glad to hear it. We are all well too,” said Sweet as the rest of the Pack shuffled out from under the tree trunk. Their pelts were wet and covered in soil and grass, but no dog was injured.

Sweet broke away from Lucky to pad farther into the valley. She gasped, glancing back. “It's unbelievable. I thought the cliffs were solid, like a mountain, but they fell apart when the Earth-Dog shook her fur.” She started farther across the grass, but Moon called her back.

“Alpha, be careful! The ground could still move. It's better to stay away from the cliffs. We need you alive and well!”

Sweet turned and trotted back to the Pack. “You are wise,” she murmured to Moon. Then she turned to nudge Beetle and Thorn. “Just like your pups.” She ran her shrewd brown eyes over the Pack. “And we will need plenty of wisdom and intelligence in the days ahead.”

Lucky watched the Pack too. The dogs who had emerged from the pond were licking the dirt from their coats and rolling in the grass to get clean, but their eyes stayed fixed on their Alpha. Storm was shaking out her short fur, her head cocked and her ears pricked.

Sweet looked out across the valley. “We will have to rebuild a camp, something that we
can defend. Now is the time we need to stand together. The Growl returned, and we survived. If it has passed, it means the Fierce Dogs are also getting to their paws and shaking off the dirt and destruction. Blade knew about this Growl, she
saw
it. Now she'll be convinced that her prophecy is true—that Earth-Dog is angry and needs a sacrifice. She'll be coming for us soon, and we need to be ready.”

Lucky lowered his muzzle, gazing out toward the cliffs. He didn't want to think about Blade and her disturbing visions, or how they strangely paralleled his own. But Sweet was right: The Growl would make Blade more determined than ever. She would come for Storm and any dog who tried to protect her.

Lucky shivered.
We don't have much time.

The Pack turned to one another
, heads cocked in confusion.

“What does the Growl have to do with Blade?” asked Moon.

Bruno sat heavily and cleared his throat. “She's right, you know, Alpha. You are very wise, and we all agree that Blade is a menace. But there are limits, even to her power. She cannot control the elements—no dog can!”

The dogs started barking in agreement, and Lucky realized that Sweet hadn't told the Pack what the four of them had heard Blade ranting about—how she was convinced of Earth-Dog's wrath, fervently believing that worse was to come unless the Spirit Dog was appeased by Storm's death.

The fur rose along Lucky's back. He padded up to Sweet and nudged her gently with his nose. “Are you sure you want to tell them?” he murmured. “They don't know about the
dreams. It could scare them.”

He heard a rasp and looked down to see Whine. The small dog's eyes bulged and his tongue hung out. “
What
could scare us?” he panted. “What don't you want us to know, Beta?” He turned to the Pack with a malevolent glare. “Our Alpha and Beta are keeping secrets from us. Always whispering to each other . . .”

A ripple of suspicious yaps ran through the Pack.

Sweet glared at the stumpy little dog and he shrank back, hiding between Bruno and Martha.

“It isn't like that,” Lucky insisted.

Mickey looked at him thoughtfully. “Did Blade say something when you were trapped in her lair?”

Storm stiffened and gave a low growl.

Sweet sighed. “Mickey, you are clever. I didn't know how much to tell you all. Lucky's right; there's no point scaring you.”

Moon's eyes widened. “If you want us to work together, we need to know what's going on.”

Sweet reached out a pale paw and licked off some dirt. “It is probably for the best . . . if Lucky doesn't mind?”

Lucky drew in his breath, his tail flicking nervously to his side. He didn't like the idea of all the dogs knowing so much about his dreams. It made him feel exposed.
It isn't just about you,
he told himself sharply. Swallowing back his fear, he dipped his head in agreement. The Pack became quiet, waiting for Sweet to speak.

“Do you remember that night during the Great Howl, when Lucky collapsed?” she began. “He saw images during the Howl, and they overwhelmed him. . . .” Her voice softened. “There have been dreams, too.”

There was a murmur from the assembled dogs, and Lucky sensed them stiffening, their ears pricking up and their tails straight behind them. He didn't want to look at them directly. He gazed at the distant, broken cliffs, unable to meet the curious looks of the other dogs.
What if they think I'm weak?
He turned back to watch Sweet from the corner of his eye.

“What sort of dreams?” whined Dart, her voice quivering.

Sweet lowered a slender paw. “He has seen a snowstorm, and a ferocious battle between Packs of dogs.”

“The Storm of Dogs,” murmured Snap, her ears flicking back. “Are you still dreaming about that, Lucky?”

“Like those horrible stories my Mother-Dog told me about long ago,” whimpered Dart. “The Spirit Dogs turned on one another. Lightning fought the Sky-Dogs, Earth-Dog fought River-Dog, back in the Dawn of Time.”

Snap crinkled her nose in concentration. “I remember something too . . . but wasn't it a fight between dogs, like Sweet said? A fight to the death, where only one Pack was left standing?”

Moon lifted her muzzle authoritatively. “Yes, a battle between Packs.”

The sharp smell of fear-scent caught Lucky's nose.
So many of them have heard about the Storm of Dogs from the stories of their puppyhood. It scares them.

“That's the trouble,” said Sweet. “Most of us have heard of the Storm of Dogs, but we're not sure what it means. Lucky's dreams keep returning to it.”

“They're just stories, aren't they?” asked Martha. “Tales that Mother-Dogs tell their pups to stop them being naughty. ‘Don't fight, pups, the Spirit Dogs are watching. You don't want to bring on the Storm of Dogs.' That sort of thing.”

“I thought so too,” said Sweet. “But now I'm not so sure. . . . When Lucky was trapped with the Fierce Dogs, Blade told him something . . . something incredible.”

Lucky risked a look around the Pack. The dogs were stiff with tension.

Sweet licked her lips. “Blade said that she had seen a vision of fighting dogs . . . and it matched the images Lucky had seen in his dreams.”

There were gasps from the Pack. Sweet cleared her throat and went on.

“Lucky didn't share his visions with Blade. He stayed quiet, which was the right thing to do. Blade told him that Earth-Dog growled because she was angry, and that she will growl
again and destroy the world. And that there is only one way to stop her.”

No dog spoke. Their fear-scent still drifted on the air.

It was Storm who broke the silence. “This is because of me, isn't it? I always thought Blade killed Wiggle because she thought he was weak, and maybe she wanted us dead because she hated our Mother-Dog, some old fight or something. Then I thought she must be mad because I escaped her Pack. But everything you say . . . is
that
why she killed Fang? Why she wants to kill me? Because she thinks—” Storm's voice rose. “She thinks I'll cause the Storm of Dogs?”

Sweet hesitated, and Lucky finally spoke. “Yes, Storm. She believes that pups born to her Pack after the Big Growl will bring about the Storm of Dogs and the final Growl. That's why she killed Wiggle when she discovered you'd survived being abandoned. Fang only survived as long as he did because she was trying to use him to catch you.”

Storm's muzzle wrinkled with sorrow at the mention of her littermates.

Mickey's whiskers flexed, and he gave a long whine. “And the pup . . . the one we found in the Dog-Garden?” He gave Storm a quick look.

“That was Blade's own pup,” Lucky said quietly.

Sweet thumped the damp earth with her forepaw. “Which means she's serious. If she's prepared to kill her own pup to save herself or her Pack, or dogs in general—whatever it is she believes she's saving—she'll stop at nothing to kill Storm. That's why Blade captured Lucky—to get to Storm. We only escaped because Earth-Dog trembled. Once Blade thought she had Storm in her grasp, she killed Fang without any remorse. Whatever else you could say about him, he was loyal to her. No dog can deny that. I watched her tear that pup apart with my own eyes.”

It was a while before any dog spoke.

Finally Moon crept forward, her black ears folded back. “If Blade's coming after us, we should run. She's even got our old Alpha on her side.” The Farm Dog shuddered. “We're completely outnumbered, and we've lost enough Packmates already. We can't hope to fight all those Fierce Dogs. Running is our only option.”

“Running where?” said Mickey. “She'll find us . . . you know she will.”