Blacktail Deer Plateau I will remember your face

Strong wind buffeted the plain and a heavy darkness fell upon the land. The soft glow of the sun was replaced with intermittent bursts of light and rumbles deep in the pit of the sky. Malachi pressed himself closer to the mountain wall and flattened his body to the ground. The weather had graced him with fair travel during his five-day trip throughout the flatlands. He felt no surprise things would shake up now that he was only stretches away from the confines of the Plateau.

His folded ears rang with each boom of thunder, and the blue of his narrowed eyes glowed with each streak of light. He felt no relief even when his paws passed the invisible border marking the end of free land, and any comfort he gained was swallowed by what happened next.

A shock of light, a vicious crack, a peal of thunder that shook the earth. His paws stuck like rocks, but his flattened ears pressed forward and his eyes widened despite the biting wind. All senses locked in the direction of the noise: there was something wrong on the horizon. The clouds seemed to have fallen upon the forest and draped the land in darkness. But there was something else, and the sharp tang of smoke met him only seconds after a curling cry chilled the air.

Malachi launched forward, paws abuzz and mind numb to the time that passed. Grass blurred in his peripheral, and adrenaline pushed him on to where a raging sea of flames swallowed a corner of the land. Another voice filled the air, and Malachi barely recognized the scratching call as Dante's. His eyes landed upon the scouring man a moment later and though his leader's call had been to alert them of this danger, Malachi let no hesitation prevent him from running up to where his leader paced. "Dante!" His voice spluttered to a cough against the heavy smoke, but he sealed his watering eyes on the Alpha and his brow creased. There was a desperation in the man Malachi had seen in others before, and his fur rose when he remembered the cry. "Who's in there?"