Venus

(Flash's sister?)

A beautiful she-wolf, Venus was just a pup when her Pack invaded Flash's, too young to understand the bloodshed her family was causing. Too young to remember the cries of pain and battle, the scents of blood and death, that ran between the families, but just old enough to remember faces, pelts, the scents of those that survived the aftermath. Venus was sheltered from the killings her family committed, hidden in the nursery when Flash's packmates - now hers as well - were killed for rebelling, or being "too old", or a possible threat. She caught glimpses of the newcomers and their fear, but never understood why... Weren't they her new Packmates? Why were they being treated differently?

Flash was one of the adolescent wolves, one of the new-packmates-but-not-really, that Venus was able to observe from afar. Her never noticed her, obviously. She was a pup, and the young male had much more pressing matter at the time. She only noticed him because he was new, and he looked so much like her. For a time, she thought they were siblings, but was quickly corrected - he was not her brother, he was one of them. She understood the relationship, but never understood the difference between "them" and "us".

Time passed, and things only grew more hostile. Her Alpha, encouraged by generations of battle and paranoia, was convinced the Pack he had conquered would revolt and try and overthrow him. In retaliation, he was constantly treating these "other" wolves much more harshly, trying to ensure he remained Alpha.

Flash eventually left the Pack just before Venus reached adolescence: nobody needed to explain it to her, she understood by then the danger he was in, how, despite the two rival Packs uniting, there was still this unspoken divide. How pups from the "other" Pack were treated harsher - especially those descended from the Alphas of the "other" Pack - normally killed if they showed any sign of a threat, that became especially true around Trials, where it could be seen as an accident. She was honestly surprised Flash had stayed so long, he was obviously unhappy.

Venus stayed, not yet having the courage to leave. She made friends with her Packmates - even some of the "others", and had a good life... Until her Trial came. Venus had trained with, and become very good friends with, a wolf from the "other" Pack. Both had trained to hunt and fight - the  equivalent of Sheer Cliffs' Scouts. The Leader, having grown older and much more cruel, demanded that the two hunt each other down and fight to the death, with the winner passing their trial.

The two took advantage of the situation and ran, as the rest of the camp broke out into outrage. Venus unsure if her friend was hunting her or not, she ran for days, until finally crashing from exhaustion.

She eventually found herself on Sheer Cliff's territory, with a very familiar wolf...