Gentlesock

As his father got older, the time was coming for him to pick his heir and live the rest of his days in peaceful retirement.

Picking a new leader was difficult. Gentlesock's father, Sebastian, talked to his pack members, his advisors, his mentors. He talked to the other forest animals, too. The bear who teaches his herbalists and the raccoon who helps him keep his pack well fed. In the end, it came down to two candidates.

Gentlesock and Lupin.

Lupin.

Gentlesock wanted to hate the guy. Growing up, he tried his hardest to hate him. He really did. Only, Lupin was a charming creature. Handsome, strong, smart, quick-witted and mesmerizing, he was the perfect combination of muscle and brains to inherit the leader's position.

But as much as Gentlesock always wanted to hate him, he couldn't. Instead, he ended up loving him.

Summer swims in the rivers, first hunts, and conversations under starry nights, with Lupin's playful eyes becoming ever more twinkly as he talked about his passions in the moonlight made him irresistible. How is a young wolf not to fall for these charms? Maybe we could lead together, Gentlesock thought. Maybe we could stay like this forever.

But he always knew it was impossible.

And so the day came when Sebastian had to make the decision.

"Being a leader isn't easy, boys. I want you to know this. This isn't about you, and it isn't about power. This is about your wolves, your pack. This is about making their lives the best they could be", Sebastian said. There was silence in the den. Sebastian approached the boys as the rest of the wolves looked on.

"In the end, boys, the most important thing about being a leader is the ability to make difficult decisions. Sometimes you have to decide who goes hungry in order for a strong hunter to eat, because the next day, the hunter can feed the hungry ones", he continued. "And sometimes, you will regret your decisions. And they'll follow you for a lifetime."

The older wolves in the pack put down their heads. The silence was heavy, and Gentlesock and Lupin could both feel it. There's something they don't know. There's a secret heavy on everyone's hearts.

"You see boys, when I was still a young leader, there was one such decision I faced", Sebastian said, and it almost looked like the memory made him wince with pain. "I'm older now, and maybe I would have done things differently, but it isn't on me anymore. What's done is done, and the best thing I can hope for now is to choose an heir whose instincts are better than mine were back then".

"There was an old farmhouse, not far from where our pack used to live. Or at least it looked like a farmhouse. It's not so uncommon for wolves to live near human settlements. Usually, as long as we don't touch them, they don't touch us. And that was my plan, too. When I noticed the farmhouse being built, I thought nothing of it. I told my wolves about it and we stayed. And for a while, everything looked normal. We continued with our lives and the farmhouse seemed to be coming into its own. Only, a few weeks in, my scouts warned me something seemed odd about it. Something about it smelled sinister, they said. I decided to ignore it and leave the pack where it was, thinking it was just the nerves of young wolves who'd never been near humans before."

He paused there, and the air in the room seemed too heavy for his shoulders. He bowed down his head as if telling this story was taking a heavy toll on him.

"Some days, however, on my walks near the farmhouse, I felt like I could sense it. The wrongness of it. I didn't want to let myself dwell on it too much, despite the fact that there were no farm animals anywhere near the farmhouse. It's been weeks now, and there were no cattle, no chickens, no cats. The only sound coming from the farmhouse was the rare, frazzled barking. And I thought, maybe they're just slow with settling in. Maybe they only brought the guard dogs so far. And I lived in my delusion, until one day, one of my wolves went missing".

"I sent scouts looking for him. I sent out five different groups, though I had a nagging suspicion about which one is going to come back with the news of our missing wolf. And after many endless hours, my scouts returned. And sure enough, the news was what I'd feared. Our missing wolf was chained up at the farmhouse, locked inside a barn".

"I snuck there the very same night. And there he was, beaten and hungry and scared. Dog fights, he said. This is not a farmhouse at all, he said. It's a fighting rink, and there are dogs, dozens of them, fit in tiny cages and starved. Made to fight and only fed if they won. Sometimes, he said, the fights are to the death. I was horrified. But why take my wolves? And then it hit me. If you could pass a wild wolf as a fighting dog, he's far more likely to win a fight against a dog. We were disposable to them, and there was many of us, and we didn't need to be trained to fight. We already knew how."

"I left the farmhouse and I never looked back. I didn't know how to save my wolf, but I knew what I needed to do to save the others. We'll move. I'll take them somewhere else, somewhere far away from here. And so I did. I told my pack about what I'd learned, and I told them about my decision. There would be no rescue mission. It was too dangerous. We needed to leave tonight".

“My time is over now, boys. I’ve done my duty to the pack the best I knew, and now it’s your turn. We need you to prove yourself, prove you’re worthy of being a leader. Prove you’re worthy of the trust the pack should put in you. I want you to go back to that farmhouse and see for yourself. Tell me what you would have done in my position. You have two days. And when you’re back, we’ll decide which one is our new pack leader”.

And so they went, Gentlesock and Lupin, to the old farmhouse. It was still there, surrounded by violent men and scruffy, muscly dogs. Finally, after sundown, Gentlesock and Lupin snuck in. They hopelessly searched for the lost wolf. Surely, bringing him back was the right solution here. But there was no sign of him. After some asking around, some heavy conversations, and some tearing of chains, they finally learned why. The old wolf died of bite wounds not so long ago.

They knew they’d spent some time there, but they had no idea how much. And then they heard it. Heavy boots creeping upon them, the sound of a shotgun. And Gentlesock ran. He saw Lupin behind him, still trying to free a hungry-looking dog of his chains. But Gentlesock still ran. He heard gunshots, and he heard Lupin call for help, but he never turned back. He ran all the way home.

At the end of the two days, Gentlesock was the only candidate left. And Gentlesock was the one who got to be the next leader, even though he knew he didn’t deserve it. Lupin was the real leader. The one who shared his knowledge with Gentlesock ever since they were young pups, the one who stayed behind and risked his life to save someone else. But Gentlesock was the one who became the new leader.