Find out what happened to the pups of the wicked murderer Aranck.

I could do that. That is what I told Pine anyways and I was certain I could - tracking was my expertise. It had always been. My nose was the stuff of legends and yet I felt a sort of sick twist in my gut. The last time I had been told to track a wolf it had been by a gruff Alphess named Aithne and I had led none other than her killer to her doorstep. Granted, we had a contract, Aithne and I. I was to bring her Aranck, rapist of Maeve, and she would furnish me with food and tell the world about my prowess as a tracker. Only things had went to hell in a handbasket quite swiftly and I had been threatened into silence.

It wasn't fair to call me a coward. I wasn't incredibly large nor was I skilled at fighting and Aranck had been a beast of a wolf. Savagery had glittered in his calm eyes. Should I have died for a secret? No, but it sure ate at me. After I did what Pine asked I would tell her. I had unloaded my burden on the father of my friend, Israfel, but he was the only wolf that knew about it. It seemed only... right, that I should join with Pine, that I should atone for the sins of silence.

I had sniffed around the big brute's den for hours, then that of his missing mate (I wasn't quite sure where that wench had gone), before setting out. The trail was surprisingly cold so I assumed his pups had been gone for quite a bit of time. I hadn't scented more than a few droplets of blood around the den, likely from disciplinary bites. The path wavered only slightly and the scents, stale as they were, were feminine, although as I came closer and closer to the grotto I found sudden spurts of a blatant male scent mixed with another scent that was familiar. Family?

Still, I focused on the females, so focused on my task that I didn't even realize a wolf was nearby. Brush separated us and I was quite, my smaller paws stepping gently so as not to disrupt my concentration. It was then that I came to the source of the sudden stench. Ripe with weeks of rot I found the first portion of a leg... well, what was left of it. Bone and some fur and skin that clung hopelessly. There were a few scattered bones nearby but the majority of the carcass had been consumed and taken away. The world was a savage place.

I sit back then with a heavy sigh, audible, as I stare at the mess. "What a disaster." Everything Aranck touched was, I think. Only then does my silver blue eyes snap to the head that I see now, peering at me over the brush. Another male. I simply stare now because I am not sure what else to do - I wasn't in the mood to chatter with some passerby after finding the carcass of a pup. How was I to know that our paths were for the same intent?