As Sophia joined the hunting party comprised of Donovan, Tarragon, and Tarragon's mother Ayla later that morning, she was still thinking about her dream. The voice had been just like the one in the first dream... but it had been different too.

You were just nervous about what the alphas said about wolf scent, she told herself. This couldn't be real--but why would she have two equally frightening nightmares, and so close together?

Forcing herself to focus on the hunting trip, Sophia listened to what the other dogs were saying.

"Let's head to one of the islands," Ayla was saying. "We might find a nest or at least some birds."

"Hmm..." Donovan's wrinkles deepened as he thought. "What about going ashore and trying for bigger prey?" he suggested. "The Hunter's Moon gave me an appetite for deer again."

"Wait till you have some bigger dogs for that," Ayla said. "Tarragon and I couldn't be much help."

"Well, you have a point," Donovan conceded. "All right, let's go to one of the islands."

The dogs began to paddle to one of the smaller, treeless islands where the water birds usually made their nests. Sophia found herself glancing around subconsciously, looking out for trouble. Stop that, she scolded herself. It was just a dream.

They drew close to the island and, sure enough, there were two ducks on the shore. One, a female, sat on a nest while the other--the male, more than likely--strutted about around her.

"We'll come at them from both sides," Ayla said, lowering her voice. "Donovan, you take Sophia, and I'll take Tarragon."

Donovan nodded and he and Sophia swam to the other side of the island. Lowering herself in the water so only her nose and eyes peeked out, Sophia positioned herself on the bank.

At an unseen signal, all four dogs leaped. The ducks quacked madly and began to fly up, but Sophia leaped and grabbed the male. Her vision obscured by feathers and wildly flapping wings, she couldn't tell if the female had escaped. After wrestling with the duck for a few moments, she snapped its neck and it went limp.

Panting, she dropped the bird and looked around. It appeared that the female had been caught and she lay between Ayla and Donovan. "Good catch!" Tarragon congratulated her.

Sophia smiled. "Thanks." She had always been good at catching birds. Tarragon could have fishing all he wanted; ducks tasted better anyway.

Donovan frowned as he sniffed the duck. "I should ask Jett if he wants to go on a deer hunt," he commented. "All this fowl is getting old."

Ayla rolled her eyes and picked up the duck. "Let's head back," she mumbled through the feathers and began to swim back to the island. Sophia picked up her own duck and followed her.

~

"Ready to go?"

The cheery face of big, burly Sinbad, a red Labrador, appeared over Sophia as she finished her meal. She smiled and nodded, swallowing the last bite.

Jayla, a red-and-white Irish Setter, and Tarragon soon followed after Sophia and Sinbad as they slid into the lake and began to swim to the mainland for battle training. Although Tarragon and Sophia would be hunters, all hunters were taught basic defense and attack skills, just as defenders were taught basic hunting skills.

"What are you going to teach us today?" Tarragon asked as they paddled towards the shore.

"We're going to show you some underwater tactics," Jayla answered. "Since Lake Pack is the only pack that swims, we have an advantage in the water and we want to make sure we use that advantage."

The two trainees nodded and soon they reached the shore. While Jayla shook out her fur, Sinbad began to elaborate on their lesson. "Say we're fighting Wind Pack, for whatever reason," he began. "They're built for speed and agility, not strength. That's not to say they can't be strong, but they're not like Night Pack or Storm Pack. So, it's easier to hold them down in the water."

Sophia's eyes widened. "You mean drowning them?"

"No, no." Sinbad shook his head. "I mean holding them underwater for a few seconds, then pulling them back up. They won't be harmed, but they'll get scared and surrender pretty quick."

"Oh," Sophia said, relieved. She didn't think she was capable of drowning a dog.

"All right, there are other ways to fight in the water, too," Jayla said, stepping into the shallows. "We can launch sneak attacks from underneath because the other packs have no way of seeing us coming."

"Like when we hunt," Tarragon barked.

"Right," Jayla said with a smile. "It's good to use what you know about hunting as a battle tactic. Now, let's say you were fighting something that wasn't a pack dog; something like a heron, that's as competent in the water as you are. What would be the best strategy?"

Sophia thought of the tall, imposing herons, with beaks like spears, with a shudder. She'd heard many times the story of when Jarvis was a trainee: he'd upset a heron's nest and nearly had his eye out. "I'd say," she began slowly, "to run if you were alone. But maybe if you had someone with you..."

"One could distract while the other goes underwater." Tarragon picked up eagerly where she left off. "The one underwater can attack from behind, and the other one can escape."

"But what about the attacking dog?" Sinbad asked, looking amused.

"Uh..." Tarragon looked at a loss now. "Um... I didn't think about that."

Jayla laughed. "Well, you were close. If the attacking dog is very, very quick, he can get away. It's best not to approach herons at all unless you're in a group. If you're alone, like Sophia said, your best bet is to run away. Herons are hard to attack: they're all wings, legs, and beak once you get on them."

Tarragon and Sophia nodded attentively. Herons were always regarded as dangerous enemies to be avoided. Sophia hoped she never had to meet one in person.

"All right, enough of this talk!" Sinbad barked briskly. "Into the water, both of you! I want to see how you move."

Slightly surprised, the two trainees complied. Wading into the shallows until the water came up to Tarragon's belly and past Sophia's knees. She looked at him, hoping he felt as unprepared as she did.

Jayla narrowed her eyes. "Ready... Set... Go!"

Tarragon leaped at her and Sophia barely had time to deflect his attack, swinging her paw and batting it against his neck, knocking him over into the water. Thinking quickly, she pounced on him and the two wrestled, splashing water everywhere.

Sophia kicked backward into deeper water, drawing Tarragon after her. She felt slightly guilty since her legs were longer than his, but Tarragon seemed to have caught on and grabbed her scruff, dragging her back to the shallows.

Sophia flipped around and grabbed a mouthful of thick wet fur that felt like an ear, tugging it and pulling Tarragon underwater again. He jumped up and tackled her, and they wrestled in a wet, splashing, screeching mass of brown and orange fur.

"Okay, okay, that's enough!" Sinbad's commanding bark broke apart the panting, sopping wet trainees.

"How did we do?" Sophia asked breathlessly, blinking her water-sore eyes.

"Well, aside from floundering about like mad ducks and nearly drowning Jayla and me, fine," Sinbad answered, good-naturedly exasperated. "Let's head back. I think that's enough for today."

Sophia lay curled up against Jarvis's flank at twilight, surrounded by the usual, normal signs of day's end. Jarvis was already asleep--and snoring--while Bronze lay nearby, watching the other dogs through half-lidded eyes. The musky, wet scent of her packmates was comforting, as was the murmur of conversation as the long-haired dogs helped each other pick burrs out of their fur.

Sophia's eyelids grew heavy as she was lulled to sleep by the sounds. A vague memory of the nightmare sprung into her mind and she shuddered slightly, sending a silent prayer to the Hunter Dog.

Please, please no nightmares...

The island grew fuzzy and the sounds muted as slowly, slowly, she drifted off into the realm of sleep.

Okey doke! 'Nother chapter done, sorry for it taking awhile. See, the main basis of this book is Sophia's dreams and also some events at Hunter's Moons, but I obviously can't have like a dream or a Hunter's Moon every single chapter so I have to fill in the other parts, which is hard. Right, well, that's the end of my rambling, and I hope you enjoyed.