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“How’re you doing, pup?”
“Really hot...jus’ wanna sleep…”
“You’re gonna be alright, Maddie. You’re at the peak of it, get some rest and I’m sure you’ll be okay in the morning.”
“Dun’ wanna sleep alone...”
The two brothers gave each other a look. It was the middle of a heatwave in summer and Maddie, John’s daughter and Jay’s niece, was bedridden with a terrible case of the flu and was suffering. She had been more or less quarantined to prevent her sibling from catching it as well, along with John taking over full caring duties until she felt better, which left Jay to manage being the ‘man of the house’ for his older brother. He also offered to find whatever cub at her nursery school had given the sickness to her and ‘make the little shit apologise’, but even Maddie had woken up a bit more to tell him not to in a panic.
Maddie felt atrocious. Her tummy hurt, her nose was full of gunk, her head ached, and worst of all the fever was making her feel delirious. She knew that Uncle Jay was right and she’d feel better soon enough, but at the same time it felt like it had been going on forever and she wanted it over with. That, and the ambient heat around her was making her feel even worse. She had already gotten all of the crying out by now but she still felt like bursting into tears over it, and the instant she sniffled in a way that didn’t seem like she was about to sneeze Daddy was right there with a tissue and a concerned look.
“Well...how about I sit with you until you’re fully asleep?” he offered gently. The pup nodded her head slowly and nestled down into the sheets, gripping on to her teddy bear Skittles tightly and gazing out at her father with groggy eyes. “Promise you won’t go away?” she whispered. John smiled warmly back at her and laid a big paw on the side of her muzzle, letting her press against it and shut her eyes for a moment. Maddie didn’t much like getting touched without knowing it was coming, and there were times she didn’t want to be touched at all, but John had always made sure to let her come to him instead and on her own terms so that she was comfortable.
“I promise, button,” he said quietly and softly. The pup gave a weak little wag below the sheets, stirring them slightly and causing a muffled thumping noise from underneath them. “You want me to read you a story so that you fall asleep quicker?” “So that your dad can watch the rugby?” added Jay with a playful smirk aimed at his brother. The older wolf turned his head and lifted his lip lazily to bare his fangs at Jay. This did nothing to cause the black-furred wolf to fall in line. “Don’t worry, mate, you can watch it on my laptop,” he said with an even wider smile, and John uncurled his paw and stretched it out at Jay in response. “Book,” he grunted, and his brother deposited a well-read if not thin one from the bookcase he was leaning on into his palm.
Maddie blinked at her uncle slowly. “Can you do the voices too?” The smile dropped off Jay’s face as he realised he would be once again having to play a grandmother. “...fine, just because you’re sick…” he muttered, and hoisted himself up slightly to sit on top of the bookcase. John beamed down at Maddie, feeling a little proud of her for being an annoyance to Jay, and opened the book up. “Persephone Brown was tired of being small. ‘All I see are paws and knees, I wish I had a pair of stilts’,” he read, his naturally low and bassy tones slipping into a high and airy voice that was an attempt at sounding like a little girl.
The book was one that had been a favourite of hers ever since her aunt Zena gave it to her, a story about a small kitten who wished to be bigger and got her wish granted by the moon, which made her taller than a house. She’d said that it had been her old childhood copy and one of her favourites when she was little and that she absolutely had to read it because it was great, before joking that if she lost it she’d come round the Singers’ house and eat her up with a flash of her sharp hyena teeth to add to the effect.
That had lead to her taking Zena at her word and panicking because of it, which in turn resulted in Riley telling her off and her aunt grabbing her and pulling her into a hug so tight that it distracted her from crying because she was then more focused on sinking her little fangs into her arm to prevent herself from getting eaten. The scene that John had walked in on was that of his sister being dogpiled by two growling, biting wolf pups and cackling like a witch the entire time, and he had elected not to ask questions about how things got to that point.
The pup found herself already slipping into slumber as her father read from the book, and she struggled to keep her eyes open as he focused on it. Jay started to smile again as he watched her fall asleep, this time more affectionately than before, and stepped over to her bedside to tuck her in. “’Mum’, said Persephone, ‘I’m tired of being small!’” continued John, noticing that Maddie was barely awake at this point. “’You’ll get there eventually, small-fry’, replied her mum,” Jay said in an unnaturally low and husky voice. Normally whenever he went off-script Maddie would cross her arms and bark at him to ‘do it properly’, but this time he was able to get away with it due to how tired she was. “’Now be a good girl and eat your Bean Surprise, the surprise is that it’s all beans!’”
John laughed and shut the book, smacking the side of his brother’s leg with it and telling him to read it properly in Maddie’s place. Beyond that, though, Maddie couldn’t understand what they were saying. Everything was going dark and blurry because of her eyes closing, and every time she shut her eyes she felt herself nodding off deeper and deeper. Finally, trusting that the two of them would still be there when she woke up again and that she’d feel better in the morning like Daddy said, the wolf pup snuggled in close with her teddy bear and finally fell asleep.
~
Far across the ocean, and in another universe, the McBride pack whined softly and nosed at the massive wolf pup laying down next to them. Despite her size and despite her unnatural blood making her strong and powerful, 1504F had come down with a summer sickness that both adults knew was dangerous for wolves her age; they had both seen siblings gradually grow weaker and weaker from it until they went to sleep and never woke up, but some had pulled through with luck and with enough food. 1504F glanced at her pack with bleary eyes, holding on to Big Bear tightly and pressing it against her aching belly.
She had never felt sick like this in her life. She hadn’t thought that anything could make her feel bad now that she was Big, but whatever this was had achieved the impossible and made her not want to hunt or explore. Having her pack around her certainly made her feel better, especially since the pups had all gathered by her to nestle into her fur in an attempt to make her recover faster, but she hated that she couldn’t get up and hunt for them. They had to rely on the adults to find food now, which meant 1504F was left to defend the den in their stead. Not much had happened since she had gotten sick other than an unfortunate cougar having made the mistake of trying to catch a pup as an easy meal, which meant that it had become an easy meal for a pup itself.
With a low groan of discontent the giant wolf rest her head down and stared out at the lake. It was late at night and the moon was close to full, meaning that it shone down on the water’s surface and turned it into a bright silver mirror. Sleep would help with her sickness, she hoped. It was all she could essentially do now that her pack was back at the den again and there was nothing for her to do. One of them would wake her up if there was another raid or something that they needed her help with, anyway. Feeling her eyes slowly closing of their own accord, 1504F took in a deep breath and buried her face in to the massive teddy bear and curled up to sleep.
~
A dream of water. 1504F looked out on the shining lake as she took in the hot summer night, a bright mirror stretched across the blue expanse and gleaming like the moon itself had fallen to the ground. The pup stepped towards it until her paws were submerged, the cold water soaking into her fur and cooling her down. She wagged gently with satisfaction as she felt her temperature lowering, her fever seemingly having broken, and bent her head down to lap at the water that was coming up to her underbelly. It had been a long time since she was small like this, but it was pleasant.
A dream of vision. Maddie looked down at the lake she had found herself waking up in and saw another wolf in the water looking back at her...no, it was just her. When she was smaller she would get scared by the little wolf in the bath who would copy all of her movements, but now she wasn’t a baby any more she knew it was just her reflection. She lifted a paw up and gently placed it down on the surface, letting the ripples spread out from where it touched the water.
A dream of surprises. As she watched, the fur on 1504F’s reflection turned sooty black before slowly turning her head separate from her own to look down at the paw placed on hers. The reflection looked back, now revealing an entirely different wolf staring at her. The other wolf yelped in fright and took a step back, looking down at the newcomer. A small and sooty black pup, just as surprised to have had 1504F staring down at her. The older pup sniffed at her reflection warily, watching as the other wolf took a step back, and raised her tail at the interloper.
A dream of doubles. The now brown-furred reflection wagged and barked at Maddie. She began to turn and get out of the water again when her reflection leaned forward and bit her tail playfully, sinking her teeth into it and tugging the cub backwards as the other wolf experienced the dark-furred interloper somehow grabbing her forepaw and pulling her down into the water. The two wolves yelped and cried out as they felt themselves get pulled into the water, looking around the water’s edge for anyone who could help but seeing nobody.
A dream of falling. The sensation of plunging into the lake and plunging but not being able to see what was behind, only knowing that the wolf in the water had caught her and was dragging her down with her to the bottom of the lake. As the sinking pup thrashed about and cried out, before the bottom was reached, light suddenly shone through the surface that was now above them as they were hauled out of the water again.
~
1504F scrambled about in the shallow water with a yelp of fright. She had nearly been drowned by the strange dark wolf, and she had only managed to escape and survive by...swimming back up, maybe? Across from her was the other wolf; smaller than she had expected and with telltale blue eyes that gave her away as being an even younger pup than 1504F was. She looked as though she had barely left her den for the first time. Regardless of her age, she wasn’t part of her pack and she had tried to kill her so something had to be done to teach her a lesson.
The chocolate-furred cub growled savagely, stomping over into the lake towards Maddie who was gasping and spluttering, on all fours and having just lifted herself out of the water. “I-I’m sorry…?” stammered Maddie, somehow having understood it to mean ‘you tried to drown me’. She looked up and down at the pup in front of her; a tall girl who looked to be about five or six with little scars on her ears. Much like the younger cub she was clad in pyjamas, bright yellow with little symbols she only kind-of recognised scattered across them; three hot pink semi-triangles surrounding a tiny circle. The girl’s amber eyes blazed with righteous fury at the newcomer and she kicked a pawful of water at Maddie with an aggressive bark.
1504F snarled, her tail held high, and stamped her forepaws into the water to splash the other wolf who cringed and cowered at her fierce display. She was only a little black cub and no threat to her, but she still had to be taught a lesson as to what happened to rival wolves that came on her territory. She was too big to eat, but she could still be made to submit. Her yips and growls didn't sound right either, which confused her. They were pronounced in a strange way that 1504F didn't recognise; she could understand her clearly but her voice had a sharper and more rounded tone. What she could pick up on was that she had fully believed that 1504F was the one to drag her into the lake instead, and then it occurred to them both how strange that was to begin with.
The pup let out a quiet groan, tilting her head a little and looking confused. Maddie looked over her shoulder. She certainly wasn’t in her bedroom anymore; all around her were rolling hills, pine trees, and a massive lake lit up silver by the moonlight. It didn't look anything like anywhere she'd been in her home country before. It was like something out of a fairy tale. "It's so pretty," she whispered, drawn to a hush by the stillness of the environment around her. "Where are we?" A series of barks and growls that made sense to Maddie even though they weren’t words. “Twoleg?” asked Maddie. “But...we’ve both got two legs.” The older wolf looked confused. The black-furred pup gasped as she realised something. “Wait...Yellowstone? Like in the nature shows? In America?!”
The black cub turned back to her with wide eyes and folded ears. She had clearly picked up on it being strange territory and it was unnerving her, so much so that she couldn’t even seem to remember she was a wolf and not a twoleg. On top of that she kept whimpering about something called ‘America’, which 1504F had never heard of but she presumed it was some other rival pack. Feeling a sense of pity since she was so small and so disorientated, the older pup padded over to her and stuck her nose in her dark fur, sniffing deeply in order to work out where she had come from.
"Heyyyy, that tickles!" giggled Maddie as the girl grabbed her shoulders and dug her snout deeply into her neck fur. The older wolf held her in place as she ran her nose up and down her neck and shoulder. Normally Maddie would have reacted badly to getting grabbed like this without asking first, whether it was having a meltdown or biting reactively, but a little part of her mind kind of enjoyed it. The older wolf's tail gave a little wag, and she growled something about her not being ‘one of those Lucky wolves’. “Wait, where’s Skittles?” said the younger wolf suddenly, looking behind herself and spotting her teddy floating face-down in the water a little distance behind her. “They’re all wet now…I hope they still smell pineappley...”
1504F watched as the black cub ran behind a tree and lifted up a rainbow-coloured plushie that looked a lot like her own. She suddenly realised that Big Bear was nowhere to be found and glanced over at the lake, spotting a small drenched lump bobbing just outside of the shallows and drifting towards the shore. She sprang after it and leapt into the water with a dramatic pounce, snatching her toy up between her teeth and lifting it out of the lake. She gave it a hard shake to get the water out of it, making sure not to tear it up any more than it already was by accident.
Maddie growled as the girl violently shook the dirt and leaves off of her own teddy, spraying her with little stones and bits of mud. The older pup wagged, seemingly completely unbothered by Maddie getting pebbledashed, and held out a teddy bear that made Maddie reflexively take a step back. It looked as though it had been run over with a lawnmower and somehow miraculously stayed in one piece; teeth and claw marks covered it along with a variety of tiny brown and dark red stains that she got the feeling she didn’t want to know about. It smelt like pine needles and fresh water and dry earth. “Um, hi, Big Bear,” she said, the name falling into her mind along with the scent. “This is Skittles, they’re my one!”
The black cub wagged her tail happily as she lifted her muzzle and presented the teddy bear. It was in startlingly good condition for one that belonged to a wolf like Big Bear belonged to her, not a single strand of fur was misplaced and aside from being wet with lake-water it looked almost as good as 1504F’s one had done when she first found it. She leaned in to sniff it. There was a strangely fruity scent coming from the thing, which along with its unnatural fur colour and gold sparkly pawpads made 1504F feel intrigued by how human it was. She took it gently from the other wolf between her teeth and set it down lightly on the grass.
The bigger wolf woofed a greeting quietly at Skittles with a tone of amazement. She looked as though she had never seen anything like it before, which made Maddie giggle a little. “You like them?” asked Maddie, feeling a little happy on Skittles’ behalf. The chocolate-furred cub nodded enthusiastically and held her teddy up next to Maddie’s, comparing the two of them as her tail wagged hard. “I like yours too, it’s really…” Maddie searched for the least offensive way to describe the battered plushie. “...yeah!”
There was something charming about this weird, know-nothing little pup with the strange accent. 1504F had been the youngest of her siblings and the smallest of her litter, so she was used to being the one that was getting trampled over by bigger pups or given more attention by older packmates, but something about the newcomer made her feel somewhat protective of her. She looked the other wolf in the eyes and barked quietly, setting Big Bear down at her forepaws and nudging Skittles with her snout to motion for her to do the same.
~
“They haven’t said hi to each other! Yeah!” said Maddie, tail wagging at the older pup’s suggestion. The cub took the two teddies and walked over to a dry patch of grass under one of the pine trees, setting them down and laying down on her stomach in front of them. The other girl came over quickly and sat down as well, taking her grisly-looking plushie back and waving an arm. What pack are you from? she said with a gesture from the bear and a slight tilt of her head, pointing at Skittles. “My pack?” Maddie thought. “...oh, my pack! We’re called the Singers!” The bigger wolf grinned happily. McBride. The lake and my pack share a name.
McBride lifted Big Bear up and gently poked the side of Maddie’s muzzle playfully, asking her more about her pack. “Uhm…” Maddie replied in a high and scratchy voice, lifting Skittles up in front of her face and trying to channel Middy. “I’m from a place called Britain. S’very very far away, across a ton of water and stuff. My pack is my sibling, Riley, they’re six ‘n’ I’m three but they’re kinda short…” McBride tilted her head. A runt? Maddie giggled at McBride’s bluntness. Riley would have bared their teeth at that if they were here to hear her say it. “Kindaaa? Don’t ever call them that though, they’re touchy!” McBride leaned forward, stretching her paws out into the grass, and raised a questioning eyebrow.
“Don’t be mean!” laughed Maddie, switching back to her normal voice. McBride rolled on her side and wagged against the ground, panting a little playfully. She claimed that she wasn’t being mean, and that she was a runt herself. The black-furred pup eyed up the other wolf. She most certainly was not, going by how tall she was and how stocky she was. Riley was stocky as well, which they had gotten from their dad, but McBride was even closer to her dad’s build. “If you say so,” she giggled. She cleared her throat and switched back to the impression of her cousin. “Anywaaayyyy...there’s Riley, and Uncle Jay, and Daddy.”
McBride stared at her for a moment and suddenly looked sad, her ears folding down and out like the wings of a plane. Only four? Maddie tucked Skittles under her arm and rest her paw under her chin for a moment, thinking about something. “I mean. Only if you include us wolves, if you mean like...my whoooole family and not just my house then there’s also Auntie Tessa who’s a fox ‘n’ Auntie Phoebe who’s a cat ‘n’ Auntie Katja who’s a bird ‘n’ Robin who’s another fox ‘n’ Zena the yena ‘n’ Paint ‘n’ Mi-”
The pup stopped herself from outing her cousin as being plural. She knew that Paint wouldn’t have wanted her blurting that out to a random stranger. McBride might be living in Yellowstone, which she knew was a long way away from the east coast, but the chances of Paint’s dragon friend from America knowing her wasn’t zero. She got the feeling that even though it was a dream, she was actually out there somewhere and that meant that there was good reason to let her find out about Middy for herself.
~
What 1504F was hearing was tragic. This poor little cub was separated from her pack by a stretch of water even bigger than McBride Lake, there were only four wolves in her pack and going by the oldest of them being brothers it meant that their parents had died or been captured by humans, and they had to resort to treating a bunch of other animals as pack. Her heart broke for the sooty-furred pup before her, and she made a mental note to try and integrate her into the McBrides. Surely her pack wouldn’t reject a second pup, even if she was way smaller than she was and looked to have barely left the den for the first time.
She let out a soft whine of sympathy and Singer shook her head like she was trying to dislodge a flea, beginning to explain that it wasn’t like she made it sound, but 1504F interrupted and explained her pack’s situation. She realised that she’d have to dive deep into her backstory as well, and so she decided to build up to it to turn it into a fun story that might make her feel better about her tiny fractured pack from ‘Britain’. Wherever that was. The pup sat on her haunches as 1504F got back to her paws and began explaining how she had gotten separated from her original pack far to the north, and how it was a warm summer day and she was super thirsty, and then her life changed when she stumbled on the river.
The brown-furred wolf opened her mouth slightly in a grin and gave her tail a wag, lifting it slightly so that it was raised over her back as she growled and whined about seizing up with blood spraying from her maw as the Painwater changed her from the inside. The British pup began to look uncomfortable, leaning away from her a little without getting back to her paws. You wanna know what happened next? she growled. Singer leaned back in curiously. 1504F’s grin got even wider. You reeeeally really really wanna know what happened next? Singer barked out an affirmation impatiently, annoyed with the weird American’s hesitation. She got to her paws, loomed over the smaller pup until their noses were nearly touching, and then barked in her face at full volume. IT HURT REALLY BAD AND I FELL ASLEEP AND WHEN I WOKE UP I WAS HUUUUGE!
Singer yelped in fear and leapt back at 1504F suddenly turning the volume way up. The older pup wagged hard as she whined, growled, and barked through her life story up to this point – becoming big, finding the human den, getting her prey drive triggered and eating her way through them all, finding Big Bear, chasing down the human hunters one-by-one before becoming a McBride wolf. The other pup looked increasingly more nervous as she went into great detail about all of her exploits, tail tucking between her hindlegs more and more as she described smashing up all of the humans’ cars in search of the hunters’ last packmate.
The younger pup didn’t seem to fully believe her story, but she also seemed as though she didn’t want to challenge it between how much larger she was and some of the details that she had mentioned. She padded closer to 1504F and cautiously sniffed at her fur, checking it over intently before letting out a yip of shock and quickly backing off from the Yellowstone pup. Singer seemed to have been spooked by the scent of the tainted river water running through her, and her body language and fear-scent spoke volumes as to how much it had rattled her. The black-furred wolf was even trembling slightly.
Normally 1504F took pack hierarchy very seriously, especially because nobody was more Big than her and everyone else had to be aware of that, but she figured that a weird cub from a place she’d never heard of before would probably be unaware of how to behave as well. She padded over gently to the younger wolf and gave the side of her muzzle a gentle lick, resting her chin across her shoulders as well to show that she meant her no harm and that she saw her as a friend. Her hunch was right; the pup seemed even more confused by what was happening.
~
A smooch on the cheek followed by a tight hug was the last thing that Maddie had expected the non-verbal radioactive pup to do – she had finally recognised those symbols on her pyjamas on closer inspection and panicked at McBride both telling the truth about her backstory and also the thought of getting irradiated by her as well – but it felt super nice anyway. It made her feel warm and fuzzy in her heart. She chose to believe that it was affection she was feeling and not radiation. Maddie hesitantly put her arms around the American girl’s back and hugged her in return. I’m not gonna hurt you. You’re smaller than me and you’re a friend.
Maddie pushed away from the bigger pup gently, looking up at her. “So...what do we do here in Yellowstone?” It was McBride’s turn to look confused at the question, and she tilted her head with a slight squint. Hunting. Marking territory. Defending it. Having pups. The older wolf’s ears suddenly perked up as a realisation came to her, and she grinned down at Maddie. ...but if you came out of the lake and you’re not from here… “...then that means we’re both dreaming, and that means we can do whatever we wanna!” finished the British pup excitedly. McBride began bouncing from paw to paw excitedly, realising that the two girls were entirely free of limitations or obligations.
Why don’t we be Big together? asked McBride. Maddie’s eyes widened. “Just like the story…” The girl clapped her paws together, resulting in a muffled whump as her pads collided. “How big is Big?” she asked, noticing the little inflection that the American put on that word as though it meant something other than just ‘super huge’. McBride looked up at the trees above her and pointed up beyond them, gesturing to a point just above them and causing Maddie’s eyes to follow where her finger was pointing.
She turned her muzzle upward to face the night sky, jaw dropping as she took in the sight of the carpet of stars above them. The pup had lived her whole life in a town, and while there were some stars visible at night along with the moon she had never been out somewhere as free from light pollution as this. It was as though the entirety of space was just a few feet above their heads, close enough that the trees were almost leaving the stratosphere. McBride wagged slowly as she watched her companion be completely enamoured by the stars and the moon, enjoying the sight of Maddie staring up at them with a vacant expression of total awe that she had never seen in a wolf before.
The younger wolf reached her paw up towards the stars. McBride woofed softly at her. Wanna be that big? With me? The dark-furred pup tilted her head back down and looked her new friend directly in the eyes. It was kind of scary to imagine her naturally being that huge, but given that this was a dream and they could do anything in a dream… “...yeah. Yeah I do.” The older wolf held her paws out in front of her, offering them to Maddie, and she placed hers down on top of them with an excited wiggle of her tail.
“Because that night it was a Wishing Moon…” recited Maddie, breaking her grip on McBride’s paws briefly to pick Skittles back up before looking back up at the night sky above them. The trees around the two girls began seeming to rapidly shrink as they quickly grew in size, McBride’s smile widening and tail wagging faster and faster as they ended up with the tops of the pines around them at chest-height. “...she got her heart’s desire!” McBride threw her head back and let loose with a loud howl that made Maddie flinch and cover her ears, not expecting the sheer volume that she was capable of and being taken off-guard by the sound.
~
1504F waved her tail at Singer and took off through the trees with a bouncy gait, signalling to follow her closely. She was going to show her how Big wolves played, since she clearly didn’t know how and it was important for pups to learn that. Something felt good about acting as a mentor to this lost, confused little ball of black fur. It made her feel like she’d truly come a long way as a wolf even though she wasn’t even a yearling yet, like she was becoming a pack leader in her own right. The two wolves frolicked through the trees, 1504F smashing through them and sending them crashing down to the forest floor while Singer lightly brushed through them and barely made them move.
As the two ran it was as though the land stretched out and expanded before them, making room for the two giant wolves and letting them move through it freely instead of the cramped spaces 1504F was used to. Singer picked up the pace as she saw the ground moving away from her, sprinting ahead of her companion with her teddy bear gripped firmly between her teeth and into an open field on the other side of the pines. She dropped the stuffed animal in front of her and sat down, sticking her forepaw up into the air and waving it around in a slow circle.
The stars swirled and spun around her paw as she moved it as though they were water, causing her to squeak in surprise and poke at one of them with a claw. Space itself seemed to ripple like the surface of the lake and she wagged hard at the sight. 1504F padded up next to her and leaned against her gently, pointing her muzzle up at the night sky and letting loose with a howl to assert her claim over the territory. Singer seemed to understand what to do and joined in with a squeaky, yippy howl of her own.
The older wolf walked in front of her and dipped into a play-bow, stretching deeply with her claws digging deep trenches into the grass and dirt underneath her, and wagged quickly. Now that they made sure that rival wolves knew they were there and that this territory belonged to them, they had to go and hunt. She wasn’t hungry, exactly; she hadn’t been in the mood for eating as much since she had gotten sick and she figured that dream-prey wasn’t going to be as filling as real prey. The massive pup scented the air for any signs of prey and immediately picked up on a trail, eyes widening and tail curling slightly over her back.
Ahead of the two of them, at the base of the huge but gently sloping hill they were at the top of, was a herd of moose bigger than 1504F had ever seen. There looked to be several hundred all gathered close together, more than enough food for both wolves to gorge themselves on and plenty enough to let them chase them. As Singer’s eyes met the tiny creatures 1504F sprung down the grassy bank towards them, causing them to let out a collective bugle of panic and begin stampeding off in the other direction. The smaller pup began to give chase as well, trailing behind her mentor-of-sorts as she sprinted at her prey.
A section of the herd began to slow in time for the huge wolf to catch up with them, diving into them with a lunge and scooping them into her waiting jaws in an instant. The dark-furred cub behind her slowed to a stop as she watched the scene in front of her; 1504F was making the most of it being a dream and kept causing new moose to appear from seemingly nowhere in time for her to either chase after them or eat them like candy. She seemed hesitant to join in, which confused 1504F somewhat. Surely she couldn’t be squeamish about hunting as well? She acted more like a human who had ended up wolf-shaped than an actual wolf.
The older wolf snatched up a mouthful of panicking dream-moose and padded back over to Singer, who looked uncomfortable. She dropped them at her feet, making sure that all they did was flail about helplessly instead of getting up and running away like they would have done while she was awake, and looked expectantly at the little pup. Singer’s ears flattened and she pulled the corners of her lips back, keeping her teeth covered, and quietly whined something about not being hungry. The bigger pup gave her a confused look, feeling a little rejected at having hunted for her and having it turned down, and let the moose get up and flee the scene.
An idea came to mind immediately after, though, and 1504F turned away from Singer and took a couple of slow, deliberate steps away from the younger cub before pivoting with a playful snarl and pouncing on her. The black-furred pup let out a yelp of surprise at getting tackled and started growling and pawing at her, lips curling back and trying to bite at her neck and shoulders as the two crashed down to the grass. The ground shook violently as the two giant pups began play-fighting with each other, yipping and growling and barking as they wrestled and tried to bite at each other’s scruff.
Singer’s tail thumped hard against the floor as she managed to ram the top of her head into 1504F’s chest and dislodge her from on top of her, sending the bigger pup to the ground and causing her to fall back into a line of trees behind her that came crashing down on top of the wolf. She scrambled back to her paws and barked roughly, charging at full speed back towards Singer and attempting to headbutt her before she side-stepped out of the way and let 1504F scramble to a stop against the hill.
With a flash of dark fur that looked as though a shadow was attacking her, Singer leapt on the older wolf’s back and howled with delight as she sunk her little fangs into her scruff. The two wolves wagged hard and bounced around the grassy plain as they fought and wrestled, both trying to be the winner of the bout and losing themselves in how fun it was. 1504F rolled her shoulders to the side as though she was shaking her fur dry and caused the little cub to tumble off her back, hitting the grass with a yelp before taking off into the trees with her tail lashing back and forth violently, inviting the older wolf to give chase and catch her.
~
Maddie sprinted through the trees as fast as she could, fully aware that they were both too big to not see where the other was, and glanced over her shoulder at her pursuer. “Can’t catch meeeee!” she giggled, drawing a laugh from McBride as she ploughed through the pines and gained on her. As she turned back to face what was in front of her the grass and trees gave way to a vast expanse of water, causing her to dig her heels into the ground and skid to a halt. “The sea!” squealed Maddie excitedly, running into the waves and splashing about as McBride caught up and stared at the water ahead of her in surprise.
The brown-furred pup cautiously stepped on to the sand and looked around at the place, her natural habitat having given way to a sandy beach that looked nothing like anything she had seen before. She dipped a hindpaw in the water, feeling that it was warm despite the night sky still hanging above them, and slowly eased into the waves until the water came up to her knees. Maddie wagged her tail and playfully splashed her new friend with a pawful of water, drawing a growl from McBride and getting her to slam her paws down against the surface to splash her back.
“Heyyyy, that’s rude!” Maddie laughed. She loved going to the beach when she was awake, and even though it was in a dream with a strange American girl it was still fun. The pup stomped through the water towards McBride and made sure to kick at it as she went, the two girls trying to get the other completely drenched in seawater while laughing and wagging the entire time. McBride turned around and began wading back to shore so that Maddie wouldn’t catch her, and as Maddie looked up she saw that the grassland and forests of Yellowstone had given way to the beach not far from her house.
“WE’RE BACK HOME!” she squealed, pointing at the curved concrete wall that separated the beach from the promenade above it. At their height the beach huts that lined it looked like dollhouse furniture, once having towered over Maddie whenever she and her family went down to the seaside but now small enough to pick up and hold in one paw. This is your territory? asked McBride. “Yeah! Daddy ‘n’ Uncle Jay ‘n’ Riley ‘n’ me all live up the road!” She gestured to the street leading away from the beach. In the distance she could just about make out the house where her family lived, and a little part of her wanted to stomp over there and see if she could say hi to them.
McBride barked happily and ran up to the little huts, crouching down and staring at them. She looked around for anything moving, and sniffed at them, but found nothing. Maddie padded past her and reached down to snatch one up, feeling the size of it change in her paws until it became roughly the size of a football, and wagged excitedly. “Let’s make sandcastles!” she said, running back down to the sand and throwing herself down against it knees-first. As the older wolf watched she tipped the beach hut on its side and began scooping sand up with it, filling it entirely and then planting it back down on the beach before lifting it carefully to reveal a perfect imprint of the hut in tightly packed sand.
I wanna do that too! McBride grabbed a beach hut as the row of them slowly swelled to the size of the one Maddie had and made her way over to the black-furred wolf, piling sand into the hut with her paw and slamming it down roughly to create a quickly crumbling sandcastle next to hers. “Yeah, you got it!” Maddie smiled. The two girls quickly began putting together a few more before sculpting and shaping them with their paws, starting by making a couple of little turrets but soon developing into fantastic physics-defying castles of sand that moved and twisted themselves into place like fractal images.
As the two constructed their sculptures, the light began to change from the silvery blue of a moonlit night to a light purpley twilight. Morning’s coming, McBride said, a hint of sadness in her voice on realising that they were coming closer to waking up. “Then we get to watch the sunrise too!” replied Maddie, not picking up on the tone of her voice. “Wanna eat some ice cream while we watch it?” McBride once again gave her a mystified head tilt. What’s that? Maddie gasped and threw her paws up against her face. “You don’t know?!” She took the older girl’s paw in hers and began pulling her away in the direction of the kiosk that she knew was further up the beach. “C’mon, let’s go get some!”
The two girls ran towards the ice cream stand up by the slipway, and when they got there it was larger than they were with their muzzles just above the counter. Maddie’s shyness suddenly came back to her as she arrived at it, and she looked away from the kiosk. “Uhm...hi...can we…” McBride yelped in shock, causing Maddie to look up. Behind the counter were Skittles and Big Bear, now adult-sized and moving by themselves. The grisly-looking teddy bear reached over the counter and gently pat its owner on the head, causing McBride to nuzzle at its paw and whine happily.
The anxiety about talking to strangers drained out of Maddie as soon as she saw them, and she looked up at Skittles with a big beaming smile. “Can I have a vanilla ice cream please?” She looked at the display of chocolate sticks on the counter, remembering that she was dreaming, and her smile widened. “...and a Flake too, please!” Skittles gently took one off of the display and turned around to use the ice cream machine behind them, a feeling of warmth coming off of the giant teddy bear. McBride asked for something blueberry flavoured, and Big Bear reached underneath the counter to present an ice lolly with whole blueberries frozen inside it.
The older pup yipped happily as she took it from her teddy bear’s paws and began lapping at it, tail wagging the entire time, and Skittles turned back with a little cup of ice cream covered in sprinkles with a Flake embedded in it. “Thank youuu!” Maddie squeaked, holding it in both paws and joining her friend in licking at it without using the little wooden spoon that was tucked into the side of the cup. The two girls began walking back down the beach towards their sandcastles, which had shrunk back down into something more naturally shaped and crumbled somewhat as the tide was coming in closer towards them, and sat down on a dry spot of sand.
“S’been really nice playing with you, you’re really fun,” said Maddie as she looked out at the horizon. The sky was beginning to fade into orange as the sun drew closer, and in the distance she could hear the dawn chorus beginning to strike up. McBride seemingly didn’t hear her at first, still dedicated to chewing and licking at the nearly-gone blueberry ice lolly, but then turned to look at her with dark purple stains all around her muzzle. You’re super fun too. I like you a lot. The dark-furred pup growled softly and scuffed at the sand with her hindpaw, avoiding her gaze.
At her feet was Skittles, back to their normal size. She picked the teddy bear up and held it in front of her face, turning to McBride with it and gesturing with their arms. “You wanna be friends?” she asked in a high, scratchy voice, once again trying to do what Paint and Middy did. As she pulled it down to see the response McBride’s tail thumped against the sand and patted it flat, grabbing an equally small Big Bear from her side and holding it up in front of her. Sure do! she growled in a low and gravelly voice, and the two erupted into giggles.
~
The sun breached the horizon and bathed the two wolves in golden light, stretching across the beach and making the brown-furred wolf’s fur look as though it was shining bronze. A huge wave of tiredness overcame Maddie, who put Skittles back down against the sand. "I think...I'm gonna wake up now..." she said, yawning and rubbing her eyes with a paw. McBride yawned hugely as well. I gotta go too but I don't wanna leave you... "Maybe we'll see each other again tomorrow night!" yipped Maddie. The older wolf gave Maddie a tight hug and rest her muzzle on top of hers, wagging gently as the younger wolf buried her snout in her fur and squeezed her new friend tight.
The smaller cub bumped her snout into 1504F's chest softly as she put her paws on her shoulders and embraced her. She didn't want to let go of her new playmate; she had no idea if she would ever come out of the lake again to visit her, but she hoped that she did. Even if she didn’t, she’d never forget the weird little pup called Singer who met her in a fever dream. She hoped that her pack would be able to overcome everything they had to deal with and that she’d maybe be able to find a good pack of her own, not realising that they were doing better than she thought.
The two girls eventually broke their embrace as the sun rose over the horizon, McBride giving Maddie a beaming smile and barking a farewell to her. The American girl got up on her paws and turned around to face the sea, stepping into it and wading out into the water towards the sun as it rose in front of her and silhouetted her form. Instinct pricked at Maddie’s mind, something deep within her that had been unearthed by being around McBride for so long, and without thinking she threw her head back and let loose with a loud and long howl to see her off with.
1504F looked back over her shoulder at the little pup on the sand, who was howling as best as she could. The bigger pup’s tail wagged proudly as she watched her, sending massive waves of water back and forth with each swing into the tide, and she responded with a howl of her own. The two girls stood there for a moment simply howling back and forth, rallying each other into action much like her pack used to before they went out on a hunt, and she kept padding deeper into the water until her paws left the seabed and she began swimming. She could see a shoreline ahead of her, a familiar pebbly one, and she wanted to reach it before the sun came up completely.
Maddie yawned hugely and waved to McBride as she disappeared over the horizon and into the golden light, laying down against the sand and pulling Skittles in close against her. She shifted a little uncomfortably against the beach until she remembered that the dream hadn’t ended yet and she could do what she wanted, and so she reached down past her waist and dug her fingers into the sand. The beach itself solidified into the texture and shape of a duvet as she grabbed it, allowing her to pull it up over herself and bury herself up to her shoulder in warm sand as she fell asleep. She hoped that she saw her new friend again soon; she didn’t want to get sick again so quickly, but maybe she’d see her in another dream.
1504F finally reached the shores of McBride Lake again, glancing back over her shoulder to see if Singer was still there but only seeing where the creek met the lake. She had gone back to being small again once she reached the lake as well, as it seemed just as huge and expansive as it did when she first woke up in the dream, but that was fine by her. She looked into the water below her; the sunlight was turning it golden and hard to look at, but she could vaguely make out the image of her pack and her Big self curled up together on the shore. She knew what she had to do to wake up, and so she plunged herself deep into the water.
~
Maddie’s eyes opened as the sun shone in through her window, filling the room with the same golden light she had seen in the dream. Her head no longer felt hot and achy like it did before she went to sleep and her stomach was no longer a pit of horrible noises and agony, and she felt much better for it. She yawned widely and stretched as she shuffled herself up into a sitting position, looking around her bedroom. Daddy and Uncle Jay were both seated off to the side chairs they had dragged in from the dining room and were sleeping peacefully, the older of the two wolves resting his head against the wall with his mouth open and snoring loudly while his brother drooled on his shoulder.
The pup wiggled her tail under the blankets, making sure not to wag too hard and wake them up, and thought back on her dream. She had never had such a vivid dream before and it all felt real even though it couldn’t have been; she went to America and met a radioactive wolf pup who she could understand even though she didn’t talk and they both turned huge? It was too good to be true, but something about it seemed as though it really happened. Maddie pulled Skittles in close, hugging the teddy bear tightly and settling back in for some more rest. When her family woke up she was going to tell them all about her dream-friend and the adventures they had together.
It may have just been a dream, but McBride felt like a true friend, and she was never going to forget her.
~
A nearby howl woke 1504F from her slumber, causing her to panic a little for a second until she realised that it was just a rallying howl from one of her packmates. Her adopted siblings bounded up to her when they noticed she was awake and set about yipping and licking at her muzzle, tails wagging hard enough to unbalance them and make them fall over with excitement. Her muscles no longer felt weak like they had done and her lungs felt clear again; she had overcome the summer sickness and survived it. The giant wolf pup wagged her tail carefully in response and slowly got to her paws, stretching out into a play-bow and lightly batting the ground around the pups in front of her.
Singer had been a really weird little pup and not a lot about her made sense, but she felt like pack even though 1504F had only met her once. Even though it was just a dream she wondered how she was doing back in the dreamworld; had she gone back to her pack and told them all about her new friend, about Yellowstone and the McBride pack and being Big? Part of her reminded her to not be silly since it was just a dream, but something about it felt more real than any dream she had experienced before. As her pack leader howled again to get them together for a hunt, 1504F slowly got to her paws and padded up to the other McBrides with Singer still playing on her mind.
She didn’t know whether she was going to see her any more, but another little part of her told her that she would, and she looked forward to running with her dream-pack once again.