Stars shine on new moon
The largest and older of the brothers headed the elk off and jumped nearly in front of it from its left side, making her stumble. She was the slowest in the herd their pack had startled and set running and the one the three middle brothers pursuing her had picked. The youngest, whose left eye still hurt from a branch he had poked in it and whose fur was a slightly darker shade than his brothers, took the opportunity to jump at the side of her neck and held on shaking his head to rend the flesh more with his teeth while the middle brother ran slightly ahead and then under releasing a red fountain from the neck that was already drenched in blood that had just slightly grown tacky. They released and then jumped from another angle, the youngest brother barely avoiding a kick from her back left leg and then jumped again upon her near simultaneously, releasing her entrails as she fell down and the last strength left her body with the killing bites. The three joined in a howl of success alerting the rest of the pack of their kill, tempted to eat alone and the older brother the last to join in but not wanting to take the risk of being bitten if they were discovered hoarding the carcass.

The small grayish black wolf approached his older brother and sister from the same litter from their side, tail held high and head slightly down he licked his muzzle nervously a couple times and swallowed. Crouching down in a short bow, hoping to get their attention but not looking directly at them he gave a short yelp. Getting up with an exasperated 'umph', exasperation that his younger brother was still barking which he would have thought he would have grown out of by now as well as that he wanted to play yet again today, the medium gray brother dove at his younger brothers side and used his unusually large paws with unusually large claws to push his younger brother, jump down and coil his haunches and then jump again knocking the younger down and holding his neck in his jaws, tail raised upright and wagging slightly while pressing down with his paw. The younger brother whined and tried to wiggle his way out but the older pressed downwards harder. "YELP! YELP! YELP!" cried the younger brother and tried to look imploringly up to his sister who had been watching the proceedings from where she had originally lain though now sat upright head cocked to the side with interest. In response to her brothers look and cries, the latter of which was beginning to get on her nerves, she went and sat across from the eldest with the youngest between them, head low, licking her muzzle and alternating between looking at her older brother, looking at her younger who had fallen silent but continued to look at his sister imploringly while trying to make himself look as small and
'puppyish' as possible and looking around the trees-it was a nice fresh day. Finally she dragged her paw gently across
her older brothers shoulder and gave a short tentative growl. The older brother released his younger brothers neck but
arranged himself so that he sat on top of the smaller wolf with matted patches of fur on his side. He stared at his younger
sister and gave a short growly "huff", his sister responded by making a quick lounging bite which the older brother moved aside to which made him lose his balance and fall off his younger brother unto his back which he quickly recovered from rolling unto his feet
and lunging forward with a relaxed low playful posture to nip at his younger sister and then took off his younger sibling giving
chase.

The middle brother with a long dark streak on his flank sniffed the air looking for something to occupy his attention on this
pleasant but rather dull day his younger brother throwing a stick into the air for their elder brother to chase. They
were engaging in a combination of relaxing and standing guard on their territory and the middle brother almost wished
that some strange animal would come just to break up the monotony of the day. He was not usually a thrill seeker, in fact
always being the most calm though reserved of wolves, but something about his younger brothers scent lately had him on edge
though he tried to put it out of his mind and relax even though he could see his younger brother pawing at his eye which was besides the scent another change. He loped off to his younger brother hoping closer contact would assuage his worry and was greeted by his younger and older running towards him, when they met they gave each a vigorous sniffing first the younger licked the muzzle and then
the younger and middle sat down all three huddled together. The middle brother continued to carefully and worriedly sniff at his younger brother as he came to lick his older brothers muzzle, the older was slightly but not at all seriously annoyed with his younger
middle brother for not being the first to be approached-he always thought he should have precedence as the older and larger though
had learned not to lord it over his younger siblings too much through the lessons learned from interacting throughout their lives together-and so slightly nipped at him, a gesture that was more symbolic than anything as no flesh nor even fur closed between his
jaws. After accepting the licks from the middle brother the elder play bowed and ran off "we should go for a run" suggested throughout his every action. The youngest and middle brother were left staring at each other, one curiously and one with concern. The middle shook himself and then bumped his body against his smaller brother before taking off on a run following. His younger brother close behind on their run he was grateful to his larger brother for providing a distraction from his worries.

The younger brother whined and staggered, his three siblings worriedly looking on giving short, helpless quiet whines. All their senses told them how deeply the condition of the youngest had deteriorated. His eye swollen shut he shook with fever, for a week he had progressively lost any desire to eat and his whines had become more desperate and in the past few days quieter. He could barely walk and had gone and in his progressively less frequent moments of strength gone further out into the forest in avoidance of everyone but his three closest siblings who frequently and with increasing concern that first went near panic and then reached and exceeded it visited him, sometimes bringing bits of meat and trying to nudge him to eat. This was to no avail however, the youngest brothers breathing grew more ragged and shallow with each day and on this day it finally stopped and no matter what they tried to do he could not be roused again. His scent changed with the hours of the passing day, a change in scent they hated to acknowledge but could not avoid. They dispersed the next morning, each very quiet, subdued and bearing the mark of the loss for the rest of their days each in their own way. The oldest became shorter in temper and refused any longer to join in any play with any others and eventually was driven off from the pack. The middle brother became withdrawn for awhile too but eventually came to associate even more tightly with the rest of his family; though never showing half as much of his former desire to assert himself, instead seeming to have an increased need to reassure himself with the constant presence of his compatriots. The youngest of their original group that had fallen apart and the only sister went to the place where her brother had died every evening trying to hold on to it as much as she could; it was not a bad spot to hunt for small game either. The life of the pack went on but was always somewhat sadder and lessened for the death and the three who were part of their close-knit group always seemed somehow faded from that day on.

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