TRUTHS  

Icalave decided to stay on the ice island with the other two until morning. He knew it was foolish of them to have used their power to create an island of ice out in the middle of the river, but he knew of nothing else that could’ve possibly saved him, and for that he was grateful. Also he was thankful there was two of them because if only one had attempted such a thing, it would killed him.
  Icalave shuddered at the thought. He knew that with the three of them they could possibly make a bridge of ice over the river, but it would not be strong enough only with their power to sustain their weight, or even last long enough before they recovered and could walk over it. Perhaps with ten or twelve Ice Wolves this would be possible, but not with three.
  The island was big enough for all three but Icalave did not know how long the ice would endure against the water, and in this light he could not tell if they were already drifting off down the river.

  The early morning sun began to rise and with it, the first glimpse of the new day with Genera’s eyes. She looked down at the small Shadow Wolve that was curled up next to her, warm and peaceful. If it wasn’t for his purple markings and shaggy black fur, she would have just mistaken him for some lost little regular wolf pup.
  She spent a few moments in her wonder of thoughts before he too started making signs of finally waking. Genera got up and stretched her legs and back, before giving a shake from head to tail tip to air out her flattened fur from sleeping.
  At the same moment Budney raised his head in her direction, eyes still closed but sniffing the air as if he was in a good dream. He then opened his eyes. Genera was looking into his as she noticed him stirring. He looked away with a slight blush on his face, noticing that the pretty smell had not come from his dream but from Genera when she had shaken herself out. Genera giggled a little.
  “Morning sleepy head!” she teased in a girly voice.
  “Um… Morning,” Budney was still a little confused about her intentions, and noticed that he was a little tense. He eased himself before looking back at her. She replied with a small smile on her face before walking back over next to him and putting her face in his.
  “What shall we do today?” She asked him. He was taken aback at the question. Nobody had ever really asked him what he wanted to do before.
  “Uh?” Was all the reply that she got. She giggled again, this time a bit louder for him to hear more clearly.
  “Maybe we should start looking for Icalave?” She suggested, putting words in his moving mouth with no sound coming out.
  “Um... Yeah. Ok.” Genera looked a bit more satisfied. “Which… Which way did they go?” He looked at her with a confused look on his face. “ I’ve tried to track them already but I couldn’t get a very good sense of direction by that.”
  “Hehe. That’s because you don’t know how to track properly, am I right?”
  “Maybe,” he replied in a small voice.
  “Well I’ll help you, so don’t worry. All I need to know is what direction they went in and then I can do the rest.” Genera cocked her head sideways, and gave another warm smile.
  “South. That’s all I can remember.” Budney tried to sound more convincing, but had a horrible memory of the Death Wolves as he had said it. A sudden tremor ran through his body.
  “What is it?” she asked, picking up that there was something wrong.
  “Nothing.” And they spoke no more.
  Genera went first through the harsh thicket of clawing bushes, while Budney followed occasionally getting whipped in the face with a branch that was to short for Genera to hold. It seemed a while before they reached anywhere. The sun was steadily rising in the east, warming the cold ground, but also raising up clouds from the south. They didn’t look dark enough to be rain clouds yet but Budney thought that in about one or two days, they would be ready to flood the lands. They continued to walk along at a trotting pace and by the time the sun had started reaching the centre of the sky, they finally came across Shamrok River again.
  “I think we’ve come to far south,” Genera said after a long time of silence. It was not usual for Budney to stay quiet for such long periods of time, but he didn’t feel quite comfortable around Genera yet. Her capabilities still frightened him.
  Budney sniffed the air. There was a slight breeze coming from the north and he thought he smelt something familiar on it.
  “I think we have too. I think I can smell them from further up north. Can you smell them too?”
  Genera smelt the air. “Yes, I think your right. C’mon let’s go otherwise we’ll NEVER catch up!” A sudden urgency appear in her voice, as if she was yearning for something, but wasn’t within her reach.
  “WAIT for me!” Budney cried as Genera dashed north up the river bank. His head raced again, she was too quick, already she was 20 yards (19m) in front of him! He didn’t want to be left all alone again! He didn’t know where to go if he was lost. He had no place within Wittsew now. He didn’t want to be a Nomad. He wanted to live a life with lots of friends and plenty of fun and small adventures, but at the pace Genera was running, his dreams were fading too.
  Suddenly as if she had hit a stone wall, she stopped. Budney was glad but was curious as to why. He came panting up behind some minute after her, only to find that she had her nose pressed down onto the ground and sniffing hardly. Budney looked around and also saw a lot of paw prints. One set leading into the water and the other two heading further north up the river.
  “Which ones do we follow?” asked Budney. The question seemed to have taken her off guard.
  “Which ones of what?” Her face was eager but she never looked up to reply, her voice muffled into the mud.
  “The paw prints here.” He pointed them out for her, but she still continued to look downwards, he gaze fixed at one point on the ground. She moved her body around it but her head remained in the same place. Only after a few minutes did she decide to look up again. Budney pointed in the direction that they were leading. She came over and sniffed them.
  “There not Icalave’s tracks,” he voice sounded worried as she looked at the tracks leading into the water.
  “How do you know his scent so well?” Budney questioned her. He still did not know how she knew him.
  “Just because I do alright!” She snapped. Budney didn’t question her any further. Her sickly sweet scent may have made him trust her but he didn’t want to provoke any more vine strangling. “What were they doing here?” she asked herself.
  “There trying to get to No-Manns Land. I think I told you already.”
  “Oh that’s right. You did too. Last night.” She smiled at the memory. “Sorry about the odd meeting. If I had already known that you were Icalave’s friend I wouldn’t have been so nasty, but you can’t be too careful when it comes to Shadow Wolvians”
  “Yes, I know,” was all that Budney was willing to reply. He knew perfectly well what a Shadow Wolvians nature was. He remembered it was the main reason why he ran away, how he was never accepted by his parents or by any other Wolvians. Genera was the closest thing that he had to a mother now.
  At this thought he realised how lucky he was now. The train of thought took him through his time of finding the three Ice Wolves and going on the small adventure with them, and how Rossmend had disliked him so much, but he didn’t understand why, because he was so fond of him. He looked like he could’ve been an hero in his eyes, like nothing would stop him from his determination.
  “Why did you leave Tredwood?” The question caught Budney off guard.
  “Oh.” He swung his head around to face the glistening water. The shine of the sun bounced off in pretty patterns across the river. The cliff on the other side off the river rose no more than twenty metres high. The sun cast a warm light onto its brown, bumpy surface. There were no trees along its edge, but smaller hills could be seen further on top of the cliff in the east. He then sighed and began his tale. “It was because everyone hated me. Everything hated me. My parents, my supposed friends, the trees, the animals that lived in the trees, everything in Tredwood Forest. I don’t know why they hated me. I was just like every other Shadow Wolve; black fur, purple markings. There was nothing physically different about me. But it was from the moment that I was born that everyone didn’t like me. I was the ‘Runt’.” Tears started in his eyes, but he continued on. “ I tried to play with other pups, but they were always nasty to me. I tried to talk to my parents, but they wouldn’t listen. They would always make me walk at least 15 yards behind them if they ever had to take me somewhere. If they had friends around, they would make me leave the den, and I wasn’t allowed back again until they came and found me to tell me that I could come back, which they never did. I would always here them whisper things about me, just loud enough so I could hear. They were always nasty things like, “Why is he so different. Why couldn’t he just stop hanging around here and leave? Why couldn’t he just go and kill himself to save us the embarrassment? So one night,” Budney’s tears started breaking through and Genera came up next to him for comfort,”So one night… I did. I didn’t care anymore. If they didn’t want me, then they didn’t have to have me. I was ‘different’, but I don’t know how or why. Why am I ‘different’?” The last question was directed at Genera.
  “Because your so much nicer. I have never met a Shadow Wolve as nice as you. I can see it in your eyes. Your eyes sparkle no matter what light is put in them.” Genera gave Budney a warming and motherly hug. She had never been a mother to anyone before, let alone a Shadow Wolve, but it came naturally. Budney plunged his face into her fur on her chest and a long burst of tears came streaming from his scrunched up eyes. She could feel him quivering with the sadness, but the pushing against her as if she was his own mother. She felt heartened at the gesture but felt herself also starting to cry as he continued to push harder into her fur.
  She looked around at the afternoon lit land. Something in the river caught her eye. It was further downstream and seemed to be sitting somewhat in the middle of the river. It was too white and bluish to be a rock, because the surface of it was flat. It looked large enough to fit herself onto it and possibly one other Wolve. She moved her head a bit and the sun reflected brightly off the surface and into her eyes. It looked like a lump of ice.
  This reassured her that the three Ice Wolvians had passed this way. But the nudge of Budney’s nose brought her back to the current cause of her tears. Soon she had forgotten about the piece of ice as it slowly melted away in the sun, and her and Budney lost track of time as the sun moved further and further into the west.