Moon's Choice by Erin Hunter

Author:Erin Hunter
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-03-22T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

Moon’s muscles still felt as weak as a pup’s, but she grimly kept digging, her claws raking a shallow trench into the soft earth. I owe it to Pebble. I was lucky, and she wasn’t.

I lived, and Pebble didn’t.

So many of my Pack didn’t live, she thought with a wrench of grief. I’m lucky. Because the Sky-Dogs blessed me, and sent Fiery.

The awful heat and the freezing cold were gone from her bones and muscles. The sickness had passed a day or two ago, leaving her feeble but alive. And the same, it seemed, was true for her whole Pack—what was left of it. Mulch and Omega had recovered, just as she had.

But not Pebble. Moon glanced at the limp body beside the grave, and swallowed hard. The hole Moon, Mulch, and Snap had dug for their Packmate was next to Star’s, and close to the places where Alpha and Beta lay. And Fly, too. At least they’ll be together when they meet the Earth-Dog.

I’ve lost so much, but what I have left, I owe to Fiery.

She remembered waking that morning, every muscle in her body feeling as if it was made of fragile twigs. But the heat and the sickness and the pain had been gone. It was Fiery who had brought her through the sickness, Fiery who had given her the will to carry on. And it had been Fiery’s face she had seen first, his eyes bright with happiness as he realized the danger had passed. He had licked her face, nuzzled her neck, then trotted out into the forest to find her food and fresh water, a spring in his step that she hadn’t seen in days.

But when he’d returned, bringing tender chunks of rabbit-haunch and a new bark-segment brimming with spring water—No more leaves for you, Moon!—he had sat down solemnly to watch her eat. And when she’d finally satisfied the hunger cravings that gnawed at her thin stomach, he had broken the news.

“I must leave now, Moon,” he’d told her, sorrow in his eyes. “I’ve neglected my duties to my own Pack for too long . . . I’m sorry.”

She’d wanted to protest, wanted to beg him to stay with her for just one more journey of the Sun-Dog—but she couldn’t. She understood now, more than ever, that Pack was everything. Fiery had done what he could for Moon—I owe him my life—but he had responsibilities that he couldn’t ignore any longer.

“I’ll miss you,” was all she had managed to say.

“I’ll come back,” he had promised her gravely. “As soon as I can, I’ll return and see how you’re doing. You and your Pack, of course,” he’d added hurriedly, looking a little embarrassed.

Moon was eager for him to return. When he comes, she thought, I won’t hesitate, I won’t waste time. I’ll tell Fiery exactly how I feel. The thought made her ribs shrink with nervousness, but it had to be done. I need to thank him properly for what he did. Anyway, I can’t just let him go, not now.

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