"ATTACK!"

Coriander was startled out of her dozing as a furry body suddenly plowed into her. She was prepared to retaliate when she saw a pair of mischievous brown eyes in a furry sable face. "Ranger!" she growled in annoyance, pushing her "attacker" off.

The collie pup pranced around her proudly. "You didn't see me coming, did you?"

"No, I didn't, because I was trying to sleep!" Coriander stood up and shook the dust out of her coat. The Shetland Sheepdog glared down at her young packmate. "Don't you have something better to do?"

Ranger sat down. "Nope. Grace told me to leave Mama alone. She says I wear her out. I'm bored."

"Then why don't you play with Desmond and Kye?" Coriander asked, flicking a string of dry grass off her black fur.

"Their dad took them outside of the hollow." Ranger frowned. "Why don't I get to go outside the hollow?"

Two months old, and already a living terror, Coriander thought, exasperated. "You've been told a thousand times. You're too young. You'd get carried off by a hawk the second you were out of the tall grass."

"I can take on some silly old hawk!" Ranger insisted. "I'm strong."

Coriander snorted. "Right. Why don't you ask Remiel to tell you a story?"

"I don't want to hear some boring story. I want to do something fun!"

"Won't anybody else play with you?"

"No. Show me some battle moves, Coriander!"

"I'm a hunter, in case you've forgotten."

"Then show me some hunting moves!"

Coriander gave an exaggerated sigh. "Oh, all right. Anything to keep you from being underpaw." The two year old hunter padded to the center of Wind Pack's hollow. It was almost empty; most dogs were out hunting or patrolling. "Do you know how to stalk?"

"Yeah!" Ranger barked eagerly. "Like this!" He dropped into a disproportionate crouch and waddled across a short distance, his tail wagging madly in the air.

Coriander raised her eyes skyward, sighing again. "No. The prey will hear you coming from a mile like that."

Ranger frowned. "Like this?" He laid on his stomach and crawled forward like a worm.

Coriander couldn't resist a chuckle. Ranger glared at her and she walked over to him, shaking her head. "No, you do it like this." She lowered the front part of her body, splaying her front legs out while raising herself up on her back legs. "Then you slither forward, like this." She crept forward, crawling on her front legs. "See?"

Ranger's eyes brightened and he attempted to copy her position and movement, but his clumsy young paws crossed over each other and he tumbled forward in a ball of sable and white fur. "That's hard!" he complained.

Coriander laughed. "I know. It'll be easier when you're older. It will come naturally then."

Ranger huffed, shaking out his puppy fluff. "Can we do something else?"

"Oh, all right," Coriander relented. Ranger could be a hyper, cheeky pest at times, but she had to admit she had a soft spot for him. She got on well with his mother, Sadie; she had even been a mother figure to Coriander herself at times. She certainly knew how to keep her exuberant son in line.

"What are we doing?!" Ranger bounced in place, his tail whizzing back and forth.

Coriander thought for a few moments. "We're going to see how well you track," she decided. "I'll hide something and you find it by scenting it out."

"Okay!" Ranger promptly flopped down, covering his eyes with his paws.

"No peeking!" Coriander warned, heading towards the cave in the back of the hollow where Grace, the pack's healer, kept supplies. Guessing Ranger would be able to discern the scent of flax, she grabbed a few stems and headed back out. She wafted the scent in front of his nose so he'd know what he was looking for, then hid it in a clump of stiff grass in a corner of the hollow.

"All right, open your eyes!" she barked, sitting down.

Ranger jumped up and immediately began spinning in a circle with his nose to the ground. His eyes lit up and he bounded towards the hiding place; he had to be on the trail now.

He dove into the grass and quickly emerged again, the flax tight in his jaws. "I found it!" he yipped. He started running back towards Coriander but tripped over something and fell flat on his face. "Ow!"

Before Coriander could react, Sadie had jumped up and raced to her son's side from across the hollow. "Are you all right, sweetie?" she asked concernedly, sniffing him all over.

"I stepped on something sharp," Ranger mumbled, holding up his paw. "It hurts."

Grace, a light brown Cardigan Welsh Corgi and the pack's healer, hurried over and inspected his forepaw. "It's just a small thorn," she woofed. "Come with me, we'll get it out."

Coriander followed after the two as they headed to the healer's cave. She had always been fascinated by Grace's work. Grace quickly pulled the thorn out. Ranger flinched, but he set his jaw, trying his hardest to not show how much it hurt. Coriander watched closely as Grace slit open an aloe leaf and rubbed the juice on his paw.

Ranger jerked back. "That stings!" he complained.

"I know." Grace gave him an encouraging nuzzle. "That means it's working."

Ranger sniffed. Sadie looked down at his paw-pad. "Is he okay, then?" she asked.

"He'll be just fine in no time," Grace assured her.

Sadie smiled. "Good. Come along now, baby. I think it's time for your long-overdue nap."

She picked him up and carried him back to her nesting spot, heedless to his insistence that he wasn't tired. Coriander turned to Grace as their conversation faded away. "How do you know what plants and herbs to use?" she asked. "How do you know they won't hurt the dog rather than help them?"

"The knowledge has been passed down for a long time," Grace explained. "I learned it from the former healers, they learned it from the healers before them, and so on. I assume the first healers had to learn by trial and error."

"Isn't that kind of... dangerous?"

Grace nodded. "Yes, but there was nothing else they could do. I don't know how they discovered that plants had healing properties, but I've heard that wolves were the first to use them."

Coriander tilted her head. "Wolves? Aren't they supposed to be barbarians?"

"Not necessarily," Grace replied. "Besides, they probably think the same thing about us."

Coriander wasn't sure how to respond to that, but just then a hunting party of Harbor, Levi, Speedwell, and Splash returned, dragging a deer with them. She headed out to join the pack for the evening meal, barking gratitude and congratulations to the hunters on their catch.

Gabriel, a red Kelpie and also the alpha, stood at the deer's head. The other dogs were also returning and taking their seat as they waited for Gabriel's permission to eat. Unlike most of the other packs, who ate whenever they were hungry and there was prey, Wind Pack had two meals each day attended by the whole pack. There might be snacks in between if prey was plentiful, but otherwise they only had the two meals.

At Gabriel's side was his brother, Remiel, the preceptor. When everyone was settled, he cleared his throat and began to speak. "Thank you, Speedwell, Levi, Splash, and Harbor, for your hard work in bringing down this food for the pack." He then raised his eyes upward. "Great Hunter Dog, we thank you for the glorious abundance you have blessed us with. May we remain in your favor always, until the final hunt."

"Until the final hunt," the dogs echoed.

He then dipped his head to his packmates. "Let us now partake of the sacrifice."

That meant they could eat. Each dog stepped forward, according to rank, and tore off some of the meat to take to their families. Coriander had no family left after her father had died, but she knew Sadie and Gideon would welcome her, so she took her part and went over to them.

"Do you mind if I join you?" she asked, but it was merely a formality. She almost always ate with them.

"Of course not!" Gideon barked, scooting over to make room for her. Ranger was in a rare state of quiet as he gnawed on his chunk of meat, his still-developing teeth making it slightly difficult.

"How were the patrols today?" Sadie asked her mate. "See anything interesting?"

"Nope, just the usual," Gideon answered. "Nothing but some Lake Pack dogs fishing and some Night Pack dogs training close to the border. I guess they wanted to show how tough they were or something."

Coriander had nothing to add to the conversation, so she ate quietly, content to listen to the mates' small talk. She was glad to feel content. As long as the present was good, she didn't have to think about the past.