Mudminnow River It's a good thing I like fish

"A pack...", Thorleif wondered out loud.  He paused, tasting the words in his mouth as if were a morsel.  As if he would turn down any sort of object he found in his mouth, regardless of origin.  It had been ages since he had last seen any wolf, much less a pack.

Thorleif remembered the last time he saw a pack.  He was young.  So innocent and full of life.  His family, his entire pack had been slaughtered by a deer.  It was such a fearsome deer, unlike any deer that he had ever seen before.  It was huge, brown, and had huge fangs, but bore no antlers.  It had a thick shaggy coat of fur, unlike the other deer that he was familiar with.  It had huge paws with giant claws instead of hooves.  Had Thorleif been born first of his litter and strong, he probably would have realized it was a bear, not a deer.  But he was born a runt and oft found himself digging through mud and eating mushrooms rather than fighting for scraps of meat at the kill.

The thought of the deer from his nightmares brought him a shiver and jolted him back to reality.  "Yes," he thought out loud. "A pack would suit me fine... With that deer still out there...".  Thorleif knew the benefits of being in a pack.  It brought a sense stability and community.  Things Thorleif had long since thought that he would never experience again.

"Yes", replied Thorleif.  "I accept your invitation.  I will join your pack."