Big Salmon Lake Pride

There had been many opportunities for this wolf to die. Many days and nights of hunger and thirst. Many fights for scraps that even the vultures had left behind. He had crossed so much terrain that his feet hardly knew the difference anymore between rock and grass. He had been faced with more opposition than he cared to admit, and he had certainly seen much death and pain—so much so that he no longer feared the coming of either.

Pride kept him going. The will to live and not die a tragedy like most of his family. He searched the wild for peace, for a paradise that wouldn't demand he always be worried, agitated, and alone. He didn't want to be alone anymore. Thousands of empty, lonely miles had taught him this much at least. But he would be alone for as long as it took for him to find what he was looking for...

The grey stranger took to an abundant lake area for a few days, finding his fill on fish, small mammals, and some larger game when he could. He had gained back much of the weight he'd lost during the last stretch trekked, but it would be a few days more in this place before he'd feel good enough about moving on.

It was a blazing mid-day and he was in the lake now, standing very still in the shallows, waiting for some unwitting fish to float close enough for him to snag.

The day had a hot and lazy feel to it, like a summer day when the sound of a guitar drifts out over a street, a day when the the warm pavement would lend the scent of tar to the air as a mirage of water in the distance danced. Even in the wilderness there was a sort of closeness to the humid, hot air that chased creatures into the shade where they could avoid the sun's rays but not the dense heat. Having been interested in patrolling the pack's borders, Lawless had gone out even in the heat of the day, only to find himself wandering away from the pack's territory in search of some sort of salvation from the heat.

A horsefly flew along with him as he moved at a rangy trot, making dives at his ears not and again, hoping that the brute might stay still long enough to sneak a bite. Lawless snapped at the buzzing black insect as it came too close but the warning wasn't heeded. Still it followed him, even when joined by another. It was a pest, but Lawless knew that the more horseflies there were, the closer he'd be to water. The nuisances loved water, and wet pelt. He'd have no chance at evading him then, but at least he'd be cool.

The lake wasn't his first choice but it would have to do. Taking a quick look left and right, he slowly and quietly waded into the waters, trying not to make a bit disturbance and attract more horseflies. The two which had been following him buzzed in circles around him like horses racing around a racetrack. He waded in up to his elbows and lay down so that the water rose up, over his back and nearly to his chin. He closed his eyelids for a moment and breathed a sigh of relief. The glare from the sun on the water's surface was a bit too bright, but at least he was much cooler now. One of the horseflies landed on his snout and the male snapped his jaws with such deft swiftness that he cleft one of the fly's wings from its body and he didn't even blink as the pest fell into the water and drowned. He couldn't hear the other any more, and assumed that it had taken the message and left, or had found someone else to bother. Since that was a possibility, Lawless opened his eyes again.

Squinting against the glare, he saw no one at first. But there, probably 100 meters away, was another wolf standing still and quiet in the waters. He felt glad, then, that he'd entered the water as quietly as possible, as it seemed the man was fishing- but a pang of guilt hit him too- the horsefly that had left him had more than likely gone after this new potential source of food.