Extinction: The Will of the Protectors

by Jay Korza

  The alpha gave a low growl and the runt just turned his head farther and presented his back to the group. No.

  With a low sigh, the alpha took two bites of the animal and passed it to the next cub, who also took two bites and passed it along. It wasn't until everyone had taken two bites that the runt took his share. The two hunters ate their kill without sharing. No one thought less of them for it: it pays to be a winner. Rewards were given for a reason. They had eaten more than anyone else, so they decided to take guard duty without even being directed to.

  With the front of the cave protected and the interior scouted out, there wasn't much left to do but wait for morning. Some rocks had been brought with them and a few more found in the cave. The rocks were staged for quick use in case of an attack during the night. The pack laid down together for warmth and comfort and quickly fell asleep. The final stage of emerging from their sacks was very tiring and the group didn't get as much food as they should have on their first day. Tomorrow would have to be different.

  ~

  The predator had been watching and waiting. A cave full of cubs would be a good meal, even if she only got one of them. The two on guard duty were strong and alert. Eventually they would tire and either fall asleep at the mouth of the cave or get replacement guards. The predator's primal instincts hoped they fell asleep at the mouth of the cave so she could just run by and grab one, absconding into the night with her dinner. She settled in as close as she dared and waited. Patience is what keeps you fed in the forest.

  The cub felt himself nodding off more than once. He looked at his sister and she seemed much more alert than he felt. He nudged her and motioned to the mouth of the cave and then back to the sleeping pack. You stay here. I'm getting us replacements.

  She chuffed in agreement and went back to scanning the forest.

  The predator saw the exchange and began her short stalk to the entrance of the cave. She didn't have the higher intelligence to know exactly what was happening but her primal instincts told her that something was changing and she needed to take advantage of that change.

  As she got closer, she saw the male cub leave the mouth of the cave and the female repositioned herself just a tad farther back. Guarding the cave by herself now, she wanted to be a little harder to get at if something attacked her. But the predator was bigger and her reach wouldn't be hindered by the cub's adjustment.

  Her instincts didn't let her ponder how long the cub would be alone or understand that a change of guard was about to happen; it just told her to move now and quickly. She went from a stalk to an all-out sprint in less than a second and was cresting the lip of the cave just a couple of seconds after that.

  The female cub was startled but ready for an attack. Unfortunately, no matter how ready she was, the predator was more than she could handle on her own. The first swipe of her powerful paw opened the cub's face up and knocked her almost unconscious. Had she been even a millisecond slower in dodging the attack, the predator's claws would've hit their intended target of her carotid artery and killed her.

  As it was, she was in no shape to fight and was dragged from the cave with ease. The much larger predator had the cub in her mouth but was unaware that her blow had not hit its mark. When she saw the spray of blood and the cub go limp, her instincts told her that the job was done. Time to take the cub to a tall tree, hide her kill high up in the branches, and see whether she could come back and grab one more cub before the night was over.

  ~

  The has-been woke from sleep at the rough nudge from his brother who had been on guard duty. One eye opened and he looked to see the cub standing there, deciding who else was going to get woken up. With a second cub picked, he nipped her rump because a simple nudge didn't seem to work too well on the last cub. She gave a small yelp and quickly got up to face him with her teeth bared. That worked much better.

  The two newly awakened guards started to walk towards the mouth of the cave and had gotten close enough to see a huge predator grab their limp and bleeding sister. Without hesitation, the has-been took off at a dead run towards the attacker. The predator was normally faster than the Shirka cubs could hope to be but she was slowed by having one of them in her mouth.

  The has-been's sister was faster than he was. She passed him and slowly began gaining on the predator. As they ran through the forest, the has-been was vaguely aware of the fact that they hadn't sounded an alarm at all. The rest of the pack was probably still back in the cave sleeping. He couldn't stop now and go back; he would be leaving his sister without help and there was no way she would win the fight they were about to engage in. His own breathing was hard and fast so he couldn't let out a good loud howl for help but he did the best he could do between ragged breaths.

  The cub that had woken his reliefs had already joined the sleeping group and was trying to stay awake to wait until his sister joined them. She was taking forever. Did she decide to stay with them for added protection? He would give her a few more minutes before he dosed off.

  As his eyelids got heavier and barely still open, he heard a faint howl. At first, he thought it was a cry for help from another newly emerged pack because it was coming from so far away. But the second, even fainter howl, struck him as familiar and he knew it was his brother, the has-been.

  All fatigue forgotten with a surge of adrenaline pumping through his body, he jumped up and gave several loud and commanding barks. Get up! Danger! We need to go!

  Without waiting for a response, he took off towards where he thought he had heard his brother calling from. The rest of the pack got up and followed without question. The runt was tired but the food he had and the rest, along with the shared adrenaline surge, was enough to get him up. For being so small, he was actually one of the pack's faster runners and was close to the lead in no time.

  The cub in the lead was just running on instinct; he didn't quite understand what it was telling him but he didn't stop to argue with it or think about it. He was rewarded with a strong scent of his pack members who had passed through this area before him. The scent had blood mixed in it along with another he hadn't smelled before.

  His instinct gave him another nudge, this one in the opposite direction. His instinct told him that the new smell was bad, something big and strong, something that would surely kill him. This time he ignored his instinct and listened to his heart instead, that told him to keep going no matter what.

  As the cub closed the distance to her much larger target, she began to realize that she would have to do something once she reached it. She faintly heard the barks and howls from the rest of her pack, so she knew backup was on its way but still not all that close. She would need to slow the predator down so they could catch up with her. Alone she wouldn't win, but the pack should be strong enough if they could only get there in time.

  The predator didn't have a tail, so she was aiming for one of its legs. She just needed to close the gap by a meter and then she should be able to grab it. The plan was simple: bite and hold, don't let go no matter what. Her brother, the has-been, was close enough behind her that he would be able to add his teeth and claws to the fight within seconds as long as she didn't let go.

  She felt the foot of her target graze her muzzle as she closed the distance. Add just a little more speed, she wouldn't have to maintain it but for a few meters and she knew she could hold out that long. The gap was closed and when her head was directly alongside the striding leg of her opponent, she adjusted to her right and closed her already gaping jaws around the upper part of the predator's leg.

  It took a few strides for the much larger animal to realize that she wasn't going to be able to shake the cub from her leg. Those few strides had moved them close to five meters farther and her passenger was hanging on through the pounding it was taking.

  The predator had two choices at this point: drop her food and run away or stay and fight. Hunger and safety were two very strong instincts that often conflicted with each other. Both were directly related to survival,
which was the strongest instinct of all and impossible to fight in and of itself. Hunger was the winner today, even if by only a small margin.

  The predator dropped her food and whipped her body to the right, nearly avoiding the trunk of a large tree. The cub attached to her left leg was not so lucky, as planned, and was thrown into the tree so hard that a piece of its fruit fell from one of the higher branches. That should take care of her passenger. But to her surprise and regret, it hadn't.

  The has-been saw his sister clamp down on the beast's leg and a smile crossed his muzzle. He let out a short but supportive bark to let her know that he was right behind her. When the predator swung right, the has-been saw her drop the injured cub to the ground in a heap. The has-been passed over his sister without checking her; she was either dead, dying, or not and that wasn't going to change so he pushed on towards the known threat.

  As his other sister was slammed into a tree, he saw the predator look back towards her own leg to look at the clinging cub. That moment of inattention to the has-been gave him the chance he needed to choose exactly where he wanted to bite. The neck wasn't an option as it was turned away from him, so he went for the soft underbelly and bit down. At the same time, he raked his claws across the animal's chest.

  The bite barely broke the skin of his target and didn't cause nearly as much damage as his instincts told him it would have. Later in life, the cub would learn that in this particular animal, females had extra bone structures in the abdomen in order to protect the womb from attackers. The bone structure did its job well, though the bite did cause pain and reminded the predator that she needed to divide her attention among her threats.

  The predator reached back with her front leg and swiped the cub away from her abdomen, causing only minimal damage to him. She turned and snapped at him but missed. The dazed but ever vigilant cub on her leg refused to let go and stayed on through all of it. The predator tried shaking the cub off but that only caused her teeth to do more damage as she was shaken back and forth.

  The predator changed her mind; safety was now more important than hunger. She might still win against the cubs but she was definitely going to take more damage in the process and no predator can afford to take days off from hunting in order to heal. She just needed to get that damned cub off her leg. She turned to bite the cub anywhere she could get to.

  The pack was arriving with the runt almost in front now. He could see the has-been circling for an advantage and his sister hanging on to a leg as she got bit repeatedly by the predator. The overconfident beast was losing to only two cubs; the runt knew the pack was going to win this but he wanted to prove himself, prove he had been worth saving.

  The lead cub started to slow so he could take a more coordinated attack with the has-been, who was reevaluating his strategy as his instincts had been wrong on his first attack. The runt sped by the lead cub and barreled full-bore into the predator, using his shoulder to knock the beast off balance.

  As the predator fell, the runt stood fully on his two hind legs and jumped onto the predator's chest. The beast was already so much larger than a regular-sized cub that the runt seemed impossibly small in comparison. The runt yelled out a battle cry, the first semi-sentient vocalization anyone in the pack had made yet. It was the equivalent of a human child's first word.

  The beast snapped towards the runt's face so he tucked his head into his opponent's chest. The runt then began using his hands to swipe at the predator's throat. The Shirka's retractable claws were a completely voluntary action so they stayed sheathed unless the Shirka intentionally deployed them. Inexperience and bloodlust kept the runt from deploying his claws so his slashes did no damage to their target. In hindsight, if his claws had been out, he probably would've killed the predator in short order. As it was, that didn't happen and his error would become a lifelong cause of teasing from the rest of his pack. The teasing was always with the respect that came from a family's love, but still teasing regardless.

  As the alpha approached, he actually chuckled to himself as he saw the runt uselessly slapping the much larger and deadlier opponent. By now, most of the pack was tearing into the predator and the alpha joined in as soon as he was able to find an open spot on the dying animal.

  They tore with teeth and claws, and blood was flung all around them. When the predator stopped fighting back, the pack's bloodlust began to slowly ebb away. When it was all over and they stood back looking at their first pack kill, the alpha looked around the circle at his siblings and felt pride.

  The has-been was the first to go back to his sister who had originally been the prey in this fight. He found her still unconscious and bleeding from the face but it wasn't that bad. Her fur had done its job and matted around the wound while adding its anticoagulant outer cells to the mixture, helping the healing process.

  With help, he brought his sister to the pack's kill and laid her next to her sister, who was still dazed from being bashed into the tree trunk more than once. In all, the pack had suffered very minor damage and achieved a great victory. They were all proud of one another and exchanging nips of congratulations.

  The runt saw the new threat first. Out of nowhere, two more of the predators emerged from the forest and took up positions on either flank of the pack. Their kill was either a part of the newcomers' pack or the two were just opportunists and saw the already dead easy meal and the other potential meals standing around it.

  The alpha was filled with confidence at their victory but he wasn't going to let that be their downfall. Two skilled predators with a planned attack could do a lot of damage to his pack. The alpha moved to stand in front of his two wounded siblings and motioned to the rest of the pack to do the same.

  Shirka cubs used all four limbs as legs more often than not and as they grew and their structures changed, they would switch to a more bipedal lifestyle. For now, the pack followed their alpha and stood as tall as they could and puffed out their chests. The seven cubs seemed more formidable than they probably were, but they were willing to back it up with everything they had left in them and that was obvious.

  The formation that protected their injured pack members left their latest kill unprotected and available to take away. The alpha looked at the predator he assumed was the alpha of the two and then looked at the carcass. It's yours, but leave us alone or else. He punctuated his offer with the deepest growl he could summon and his pack joined in.

  With the entire pack of cubs growling and baring their teeth, the alpha predator looked to the fresh kill and decided that a fight wasn't worth it, especially when at least two days’ worth of food was waiting to be carried off. The predator shifted towards the offer but never took his eyes off the pack. When he reached the carcass, he stood by while the other predator grabbed the prize and dragged it into the forest. The transaction complete, the alpha predator backed into the shadows and left.

  The pack relaxed a little but each one was arguably a little disappointed that they didn't get to fight a second time. With the latest threat gone, the pack gathered up their wounded and started back towards the cave. On the way back, they scented some prey animals and three cubs broke off to get some food. The small hunt was successful and each member got a couple more bites to eat before settling down in the cave for the rest of the night.

  The next day, they found water and more food. Over the course of the next month, they set up a camp around their cave and made defensible positions that they had to use more than once during that time.

  They increased their size by at least twenty-five percent each. With a much larger than normal pack size, they were able to take down much larger game and eat more per cub. Most cubs only gained fifteen to twenty percent mass before their mother came back for them. The runt had actually grown to the size of a normal Shirka cub, though he was still much smaller than the others in the pack.

  They also ran into a couple of other new packs and had the chance to practice their socialization skills. The other packs were much smaller in number a
nd physical size but they were still doing well for themselves in the forest. Without the need for the packs to compete for resources, they got to engage one another in positive ways: wrestling, racing, climbing, and grooming to name a few. Early socializations such as these tended to foster lifelong friends and bonds that often led to the pairing of mates.

  ~

  On a particularly sunny day, the runt was basking in the sun while lying atop a warm boulder. One of his sisters was near him, their heads touching at the ears. They still didn't have advanced language skills and didn't know any words, but each pack developed its own basic style of growls, grunts, and barks that meant something to them.

  The runt grumbled and sighed. This is the best.

  His sister silently replied with a smile and snuggled closer. Pack-mates that stuck together after emerging were almost always extremely close to one another and absolute best friends for life. The runt was and always would be closer to his alpha brother than anyone else, but no one minded their shared bond.

  The alpha walked up and took the spot between his brother and sister. The pack was big enough in number and physical size that they were almost never bothered anymore by other predators. They never let their guard down but they did get to enjoy more relaxing times than most cubs did.

  As the three napped in the warm sun, a new scent floated to their noses. They each stood immediately and inhaled the deepest breath they could to make sure they got as much of the scent as possible. They looked at one another in unison and then took off on all fours towards the scent.

  The rest of the pack was already on the move and the three caught up quickly. The runt was now the fastest in the group and he passed his brothers and sisters with ease. As they reached the nest they emerged from over a month ago, the scent became overwhelming.

  The runt saw her first and let out an excited bark as he slid to a stop in front of her. More frantic barking. Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!