I missed writing ... so here's another story.
~M.

I.

Oh, I just can't wait to be king!
~ from The Lion King

“Eclipse! Eclipse, where are you?” called Deborah, the wolf nurse, as she roved through the forest underbrush, swinging her snout from side to side, trying to catch the scent of her runaway charge. “Where is that bothersome cub?” she growled in exasperation as she searched through the bushes and shrubs along the forest trail.

Eclipse, the creamy-white wolf pup with the shining streak of yellow shot through the fur along his spine, stifled a giggle. He was hidden high in the branches on the sugar maple tree Deborah was padding under. He bit his paw to keep the laughter in his chest from bursting out of his mouth, but he must have let a tiny titter escape his maw, because Deborah swung her sleek black head up toward the treetops and peered up into the maples branches where the cub was hiding.

Eclipse gasped, all funny thoughts feeing his mind, and pressed his belly against the branch’s rough bark, trying to blend into the dark canopy. If only he had black fur like his best friend, the black bear cub named Lucca.

But his bright pelt shone like a star against the darker tree branches and Deborah wasn’t exactly nearsighted. “Prince Eclipse!” she yapped, her sharp white teeth flashing against the bluish-black fur of her face. “Come down from there this instant!”

Eclipse sighed. How he’d love to lounge about in his maple tree all night, watching silver-haired bats and great horned owls swoop through the canopy on their nocturnal rambles. But there was no arguing with his nursemaid – if he refused to obey Deborah, he wouldn’t just get a cuffing from her, but two more smacks from his mum and dad.

The white cub slide down the tree, pouncing from branch to branch, using his sharp black claws for grip, until he landed lightly on the forest floor in front of Deb. He was very pleased with himself for how nimbly he could climb trees – he was almost as nimble as his friend, Lucca. Not quite, but almost.

Deborah, however, didn’t look pleased at all with the puppy prince. “What were you doing up in that tree?” she scolded. “Don’t you know wolves don’t climb trees? Where did you get the notion to even try?”

“Lucca taught me how,” Eclipse replied, puffing out his fluffy chest in pride. “I’m almost as fine a climber as he is, aren’t I?”

Eclipse studied Deb’s face closely. He had known the elegant black she-wolf since his eyes had first opened and, right now, he could tell she was struggling with the urge to tell him that yes, he could climb almost as well as a black bear cub. But her stiff and stuffy grownup-ness won over her urge to praise the pup.

“Prince Eclipse, you are a wolf,” she said with a frown. “And not just any wolf. You are the sole heir to your mother’s bloodline.”

“That means someday I’ll be alpha king!” Eclipse exclaimed, his blue eyes brightening.

“Yes …” Deborah replied. “And as future king, you must set a good example before the forest and stop making a spectacle of yourself!” the black wolfess finished with a huff. “Now come along. It’s past your den-time.”

Eclipse stuck his tongue out … den-time, always spoiling his plans. “But I want to go to the full moon council!” he whined.

“Do not whine so, Eclipse,” Deb replied sternly. “It’s unbecoming to a wolf of royal birth. And, besides, you’re just a cub … and children aren’t allowed at full moon council.”

Hmph! thought Eclipse grumpily. A few seconds ago I was “future king” … now I’m just a cub again!

To be continued ...

II.

Eclipse padded after his nanny down the forest trail. Even though he felt grumpy for being ordered to den, he couldn't help but admire the ease and grace with which Deborah stalked through the woods and how well her soft brownish-black fur melted into the gathering shadows.

How Eclipse wished his own bright fur wouldn't stand out so!

The sun was nothing more than a dying patch of yellowish-orange sinking into the crater made by two moutain peaks in the distance as Eclipse and his nursemaid trotted out of the woods. Eclipse gazed longingly down the well-worn path toward the scattering of flat rocks where animals gathered for the full-moon council.

Beyond the meeting place was the flower-flecked meadow and his pack's home den under the maple tree. Even though he had memorized the answer, he still asked Deb, "What is the full-moon council?"

Deb sighed, but she answered the pup patiently. "It takes place every full moon. The alpha queen and king - your mummy and daddy - listen to complaints and requests from their subjects, the wolves, and from other animals who live in the forest. Every creature, from the fiercest eagle to the smallest sparrow, has the right to speak before the wolf queen and her consort and be heard ... that is the law your mum brought to the forest when she became alpha queen."

Eclipse pictured his vibrant, wise, beautiful mother and wagged his stubby puppy tail, but not being able to join her at council made him growl.

"If everyone has the right, why can't I go?" he whined.

"Because you're a child," Deborah snapped. "And children are subject to their parents ... they haven't the capacity to make their own choices yet."

Well, I already know what I want ... Eclipse fumed to himself, but he didn't dare say it out loud - such sassy talk would warrant a cuff from Deb.

The sky turned from magenta to turquoise to indigo as the two wolves trotted along the ridge that ran above the meadow and the council rocks. As Eclipse looked down at the gathering wolves below, he spotted several members of his mum's royal court. There was handsome Silverside with the impressive scar running along his flank. And his lithe gray mate, Elsa, standing between her lanky twin daughters, Holly and Linden.

Eclipse spotted Holly's dashing boyfriend, a young Arctic wolf named Griffin, starting a romp with the two cinammon-brown she-wolves by nipping at their tail-tips. Elderly Theresa, the oldest wolf in the pack and Eclipse's paternal grandmother, looked on at the chase with a smile playing around her scarred muzzle. The long livid scar running down the side of her face where her eye should be always made the dusty-black wolfess intimidating to Eclipse, though she was as kindly and gentle a creature as Deborah.

When the royal couple, reclining on the highest council rock, caught sight of their son, the alpha king winked at the cub and the alphess smiled and nodded at Eclipse. Someday I'll be king! Eclipse thought with a tremor of joy.

But right now, the prince was just a pup, a pup who was being tucked into his den under the big maple tree by his nursie. Deb crooned to him a soft, sweet tune about the sun and the moon and the stars and soon Eclipse felt his eyelids growing heavier and heavier until he was enfolded in the gentle paws of dreams ...

To be continued ...

Aww, that's really nice. Keep going Maria