Chapter 87: The Jungle Trembles
Back in the Silver-Grey camp, the entire pack was fiercely pulling their weight, unified by a silent, burning hope.
Koda took his duty as the guardian of Nuan’s pottery with absolute, dead-serious precision.
Every single morning, he carefully carried the wet clay pieces out onto the flat rock, letting them dry under the baking sun all day.
The second dusk fell, he wrapped them gently in thick, protective leaves and moved them safely inside the den so they wouldn’t crack in the night air.
"Witch must be happy when she wakes up," he would tell himself.
The elders kept the anxious pack anchored, meticulously applying the Whiteclaw herb paste to Nuan’s deep wounds every single day to keep the infection at bay.
The hunters ran themselves ragged, bringing back meat daily and leaving massive, aggressive scent-howls along the borders every single night, sending a deafening message to the rest of the jungle, The Silver-Grey territory is still alive, kicking, and heavily guarded.
And inside the Alpha’s den, Kael was a tireless protector. He never left her for long.
He administered her daily sponge baths, kept her warm with the system’s blanket and the burning heat of his own body, cooked the rich liver broth, and painstakingly fed her drop by drop.
Whenever the fever flared in the dead of night, he was right there, pressing a cool, damp cloth to her forehead, murmuring promises into her hair.
Through every waking hour, every wolf in the clan kept their ears strained to the wind, praying for Selka’s safety and her triumphant return.
(Two Days Later)
It took Zuri and Amara two full days of heavy, relentless marching to navigate the thick terrain from the Gray Langur woods straight into the borders of the Red Claw Pack.
The moment the two colossal giants crossed the boundary line, the jungle erupted.
Around 150 restless, young Red Claw wolves swarmed out of the thicket like furious locusts, aggressively surrounding the two moving gray tanks.
Selka, perched high on Zuri’s back, looked down at the massive sea of snapping jaws, furious barks, and vibrating growls.
Zuri and Amara didn’t even break their stride. They paid absolutely zero attention to the posturing, treating the wolves like minor bugs in the grass.
However, a few hot-blooded, incredibly stupid young wolves mistook their calm for weakness. Snarling, they lunged forward, trying to bite the giants’ thick ankles and hind legs from behind.
That was a fatal mistake.
The two massive sisters instantly lost their patience. With a synchronized, earth-shaking trumpet of absolute fury, they charged.
They stomped, kicked, and plowed straight through the dense pack like living battering rams.
Massive trees splintered, the ground groaned, and heavy elephant feet crushed anything in their path.
After a brutal, brief display of absolute dominance—leaving 12 to 15 wolves completely dead and over 30 heavily mangled and injured—the reckless bravado of the Red Claw Pack completely shattered.
The sight of their strongest fighters being crushed in mere moments shattered the courage of the remaining wolves.
Panic spread through the pack, and within seconds, the survivors youngsters scattered into the deep brush, fleeing for their lives.
With the path cleared, the journey continued smoothly. By noon the following day, the heavy thuds of their footsteps crossed into the Black Wolves’ territory, pushing deep toward the heart of the woods.
Suddenly, two bright, hesitant eyes peeked out from a dense wall of bushes.
Frieza and Draven stepped into the clearing, their jaws dropping in absolute shock as their eyes tracked up the towering eight-foot frame of Zuri, landing directly on Selka sitting on her back.
"Mother!!!" Frieza called out, her voice cracking with pure disbelief.
Selka let out a warm chuckle. "Oh, I finally found you! I was starting to think you guys had moved somewhere else!"
Zuri and Amara came to a smooth halt, the ground vibrating slightly under their weight.
"Is this your pack’s territory?" Zuri communicated to Selka.
"No, this is my daughter’s pack! It’s her territory," Selka answered warmly. "Can you help me get down, please?"
"Sure. Climb up to my head," Zuri said gently. She raised her long, powerful trunk, creating a secure, solid platform right below her brow.
Selka carefully stepped onto Zuri’s broad head, then down onto the coiled trunk, sliding smoothly onto the mossy dirt below.
"Where are all my little cuties?!" Selka asked immediately, throwing her arms out as Draven and Frieza walked closer, still looking up at the two massive mountain-like elephants in awe.
"Well, we kept them completely locked inside the deepest dens," Frieza explained, her ears finally relaxing. "There was a massive, terrifying rumbling vibrating across the land, so Draven and I came to sniff out the source. I caught a faint trace of your scent, but I wasn’t entirely sure. Mother, it is absolutely amazing that you actually got help from the all-mighty Elephant Clan!"
Draven looked at Selka, letting out a massive, heavily relieved sigh. "I am incredibly glad to see you safe. After you left our borders few days ago, we heard very distant, chaotic chasing, furious growls, and attack barks echoing deeply from the Red Claw territory. We were deeply worried."
Selka shrugged with a witty, battle-hardened smile. "Yeah... a few of their scouts noticed me, and I had to break a few jaws to make it across the border."
Just as the three of them were talking, the bushes surrounding the clearing suddenly began to rustle violently.
Dozens of tiny, glowing eyes peeked out. Zuri and Amara instantly tensed, defensively raising their massive trunks to protect Selka from a potential ambush—but they froze when they saw what came tumbling out.
A massive, chaotic swarm of dark, furry wolf pups—all looking like miniature versions of Draven—came rushing out in their beast forms, their tails wiggling so fast they were practically a blur.
"Grandmother!!!!"
"Grandmother!!! It’s Grandmother!!!"
The twenty pups chirped and yipped in a tidal wave of joy, completely swarming Selka.
The sheer force of their tiny, enthusiastic bodies made her stumble backwards, laughing as she sat down hard in the dirt.
The pups immediately piled onto her lap, frantically licking her cheeks, rubbing their furry ears against her neck, and demandingly hugging her from all sides.
"Ahhh!!! You wild bunch!" Frieza yelled, her inner Alpha flaring as she put her hands on her hips, her face flushing with motherly exasperation. "We explicitly told you not to leave the den! There could have been danger out here!"
Little Vesper, who was currently squirming like a happy, rolling puppy right in Selka’s lap, peeked up at Frieza with a mischievous tilt of his head. "But Mother, we wanted to come out and help you fight the danger! And then we smelled Grandmother’s scent, so we obviously had to come!"
Draven burst into a loud, booming laugh, his chest swelling. "Haha! See? My kids are completely fearless!"
"They are idiots!" Frieza groaned, shaking her head.
Up above, Zuri and Amara shared a warm, gentle elephant smile, deeply touched by the rowdy but loving family moment.
Selka looked up at the two giants from under the pile of puppies. "Is it alright if I quickly hunt and eat something before we head out for the final stretch?"
Zuri and Amara nodded their massive heads in unison. "Go ahead. We will take a slow stroll around the perimeter while you eat."
"Thank you," Selka nodded. She looked up at Frieza, dusting some dirt off her arms.
"So, where is the best place for me to hunt around here?"
The moment the words left her mouth, Vesper violently scrambled up from her lap, his silver and green eyes flashing with intense pride. "I’ll hunt for you, Grandmother! I’ll bring you the best meat!"
He whipped around, puffing his tiny chest out as he barked orders to his older brothers. "Noctis! Corvin! Zevran! Nyxen! Voren! Malrik! Kaelen! Darok! Varok! Draeg! Korvak! Zekar! Come with me right now!!!"
With a synchronized chorus of excited yips, the older half of the puppy pack spun on their heels and frantically rushed into the deep bushes to catch a meal for their grandmother, leaving only the youngest siblings behind with the three adults.
Frieza watched the bushes swallow the chaotic blur of black fur and let out a long, dramatic sigh. "Sigh... these kids are going to be the death of me," she murmured.
Selka just sat in the grass, thoroughly enjoying the warmth, knowing that with every passing minute, they were getting closer to bringing the sleeping Witch back.