Audla

"I think I figured it out... You're all crazy."

This young male, surrounded by several other wolves his age, keeps looking back to the leaders' den across the hollow. The other wolves laugh at his words as if he is joking, and go on with their compliments and smiles. Judging by the look in his eyes, you get the distinct impression that he was dead serious.

When he hit his young adulthood, Audla quickly began to attract the attention of the pack's single and unrelated wolves. While he appreciated the attention, he had too many concerns of his own to even consider courting or taking a mate.

For one thing, his three eldest living siblings -- Tikaani, Tiriaq, and Aqissiaq -- were all dysfunctional in their own way, at least in Audla's eyes. Two of his littermates, Alashua and Shuvinai, decided to go off to found their own packs. Adding to his grief, his mother and father both fell ill during a rough winter when Audla was barely a year old. While they pulled through, it was a peculiar time. If they hadn't lived, who would take charge of the pack? The former second-in-command, Falcon, was dead. No successor had been named, and Tanana never seemed to be in the right frame of mind to address the issue.

Audla's biggest fear was of Tiriaq claiming leadership of the pack. If he managed to gain such authority, it would prove disastrous for Shenandoah. Tikaani had no interest in becoming a leader, as she was preoccupied with her love from another pack. And Aqissiaq... He was too gullible, and even he knew it. Audla himself was more of a planner than a leader. So, he took it upon himself to nudge his remaining littermates, Kenojuak and Sitka, into thinking about leading the pack in the future.