Lidiya stayed in the cover of the bushes on the far left of where all the fighters were gathering. It was... honestly a bit surreal.
The last time such a thing had happened, she was still a juvenile and still looking after little puppy Dev with the elders. She hadn't heard what had happened, but... it hadn't been nice. At all.
And Lidiya could still remember it. What had happened that time last year.
---
"It's alright," she whispered to her younger brother - still only a few months old - as they crouched in a little sinkhole behind some bushes. "It'll be alright."
Deverick couldn't stop trembling as Lidiya, still a juvenile, licked his muzzle reassuringly - as if she herself wasn't one step away from collapsing in fear at the sounds of battle that could be picked up on the wind.
The stench of battle. Blood. And death. And the sounds that it came with.
Horrible noises. Ones that she hoped she'd never have to hear again.
Hiding here, with the rest of the pack too old or young to fight, listening to the battle slowly die down, with absolutely no knowledge of who won - it was torture. Maybe not as bad as if they were in the heat of it, but it might have come quite close.
Dev wouldn't stop trembling, and Lidiya couldn't blame him. he was only a few months old, and she herself wasn't too far from doign the exact same thing. But she was his older sister, and she had to stay strong - for both of them.
It felt like hours, but probably only a few minutes later, when Alpha Cooper came to get them. He had a nasty scratch along the right side of his jaw, one that looked like it was still bleeding freely - and that it would scar as a permanent reminder.
Flanks covered in blood - she had no idea if it was his or not - he wearily announced to the elders and the younglings, "It's over."
Two words, and everyone silently rose to their paws, afraid of what they would find once they returned.
"Lidiya? Dev?" Alpha Cooper, in her memory, was the perfect alpha in shining fur. He never did anything wrong. never showed any regret. He never even looked uncertain.
But here he was. He looked uncertain, for the first time ever in Lidiya's memory.
"Yes, alpha?" Lidiya looked up to him. Both physically, right now, and mentally. There wasn't a leader more perfect than what they had right now, in her opinion.
"I... I'm sorry." He looked away, and Lidiya's heart dropped.
"Nina's dead. Your mother was killed in the battle."
~
[Mods, if this isn't allowed I'm sorry, please delete the next section if it isn't]
(Wolf Pride, same thing here, if you don't like it tell me to delete the next section)
(redacted until I get mod approval :P)
"No. No, no, no." Lidiya couldn't believe it. Abandoning Dev, she raced for the den site, passing all the elders and her playmates along the way, refusing to believe the Alpha's words.
There was no way. Her mother was immortal. She was the best wolf she had ever known. She was everything Lidiya aspired to be.
She was also lying in a pool of her own blood right in front of her eyes, as she looked down at the den site from her vantage point on the hill.
He mind refused to connect the dead wolf in front of her paws - when did she go from the hill to right next to her? - with her mother. Her powerful, indomnitable mother.
"Mom. Mom, no!" Lidiya nudged the prone body in front of her, not caring if her paws got blood on them from the abundance of blood around them.
There was so much blood.
"I'm sorry." Alpha Cooper had somehow caught up to her as she stood in a puddle of her mom's blood - something her brain just couldn't comprehend.
"It was a white and brown wolf. White underside. Brown saddle. He's unmistakable - if you ever see him." The alpha's words went right over her head, and at that point, she didn't understand his words, or what they meant, or what the alpha was implying.
All she could do was sink to her haunches, still next to her mother's body, paws covered in blood, and howl in sorrow at what had happened.
Her life was never the same again.
[end of section]
---
As Lidiya watched their fightes mill around waiting for the attacking wolves to come to them... that was all she could think about.
Her mother had died in one of these battles. And here they were, ready for another one. And - there they were. Cresting the hill, and sh*t Kodak was on the far right. Essentially, almost as far away from her as he could be.
She could see Kodak lead the charge against her own pack, and while her heart ached for him, she also worried for her own pack.
She just couldn't decide which one she wanted more to survive.
Keeping to the shadows and the undergrowth's coverage, she dashed in a wide loop around the den site to the other side, where she was a lot closer to Kodak. However, the movement cost her time - circling in a wide loop to make sure no-one saw her took time. Which meant, when she finally got to the other side - Kodak was fighting the alpha Cooper.
Sh*t. Just when things couldn't get any worse... couldn't he have just picked anyone else to fight? - he had to pick a fight with the one that, in fact, was winning against him.
It was at that moment that alpha Cooper managed to get his jaws around Kodak's neck.
In that moment, she had a choice. In one, Kodak was yet another faceless wolf from the other pack. Not the one that she wanted to seek out for the death of her mother - and honestly, she had no idea how she'd ever go about doing that - and the attacker wolf would die at the alpha's hands.
But on the other choice, it was Kodak. And he was going to die right here, right now, if she didn't do something.
Alpha Cooper's jaw-muscles bunched, as if he was about to end Kodak's life. That was how observant Lidiya was in that moment, when all she could think about was that Kodak's like was literally about to end right there.
"STOP!" Lidiya couldn't help it as she raced over to the two of them. Alpha Cooper, as typical, completely ignored her, and it didn't escape Lidiya's attention. Even though they were in the middle of a battle, Cooper was still ignoring her like always.
Carelessness had her ramming into Cooper's side. Carelessness, in this situation, however, had helped her - by taking his attention off of Kodak for the briefest second, such that he was aware of her.
"We can take him prisoner. Question him about the East Mountain pack-" it was well known that they didn't know much about the pack they were battling anymore, "- but... I can't stand to see another wolf die here."
Given her past, it was understandable. It was also all that she could think up of at a moment's notice, given the circumstances. And Alpha Cooper, for once, could relate to her - for obvious reasons.
In that moment, it wasn't just Kodak with their throat enclosed in Alpha Cooper's jaws. It was her mother, whose neck was enclosed in some faceless wolf.
"... please." It was Kodak, right now, whose life would be ended if she didn't do anything. And, for some reason, that bothered her the most.
She didn't want Kodak to die. Why, she honestly didn't know. But they were here, right now, and she could do nothing except beg her alpha not to end his life. Even being a prisoner would be a better life than dying right here.
She just couldn't allow it.
Fall 
Night 
Clear Moon: 
