Underhowl- Rise of the Pures

Chapter Four

Chapter Four 

The guards walked him down the corridor and sat at the end of it. They were at a fork in the road, and the guards kept fidgeting frustratedly. Who is coming to give me a tour? Jeda wondered. Will it be a human? Or another wolf?

    A few minutes later, Jeda could hear rushing footsteps galloping down the left corridor. A small dog appeared, with golden fur and pointed ears, and a little extra fur on his forehead.  He looked young, around Jeda’s age.

    “Hi!” He greeted them cheerfully. “Sorry I’m late, I was in the middle of a nap when your message came.”

    “Just get going.” One of the guards growled, and they stalked off down a different corridor.

    “Sheesh, gotta hate those guards, huh. So full of themselves.” The dog rolled his eyes. “I’m Bustreson, by the way. Bus-tray-son, but you can call me Buster. What’s your name?” He asked, his head cocked.

    “J-Jeda…” Jeda replied. He was a bit overwhelmed at how this pup could be so active in the middle of the night.

    “Aw, don’t be scared. Come on, lemme show you around.”

    Buster began trotting off down the corridor, and Jeda followed. Before long they were at the end of the corridor, and the sight blew Jeda away.

    A huge circular room bigger than anything Jeda had ever seen was in front of him. Jeda was sure Oliver’s whole house could fit in it more than five times, maybe even seven. It had stairs going down into it, and large stairs around the edges that were supposedly for seating. A large platform run around the top that was held up by a few towers made of one orange rock stacked on top of another. A huge circular clearing in the middle had dogs of all shapes and sizes walking around. They looked like ants from where Jeda was standing. At the back of the clearing a series of rickety towers lined up against each other stood, Jeda didn’t know what they were for. Decoration? Jeda wondered.

    “Welcome to the Announcement Arena. Some humans like to call it an ‘amphitheatre’. This is the most important place for all of Fierce Coven, as we have all of our announcements here. All the covens of Underhowl have an amphitheatre like this, but ours is by far the biggest.” Buster commentated in a ‘guide’ voice.

    “It’s so big!” Jeda gasped.

    “Yeah, it was really good when the Fierce Coven claimed this part of Underhowl, ‘cause we have this area. The platform up there are for Elders or Highs, the arena is for Warriors and the seats are for everyone else. See the rickety towers up the back there? That’s where Fabio and Corrine stand when they’re making announcements. And see the hole next to them? That is the only door that leads to other parts of Underhowl.”

    “Wait, wait, wait…” Jeda started. “What’s an Elder or High?”

    “Well, they are the oldies or the dogs that have a high rank but aren’t in charge. Like… um… Sihren, leader of the Warriors. See-ren.” Buster looked around frantically when he said Sihren’s name, as though it was bad luck saying it.

    “Is she a wolf too?” Jeda asked.

    “Yeah, she is.” Buster replied, again making a scared glance.

    “What are you?”

    “Me?” Buster widened his eyes. “Oh, I’m dingo. Almost pure, except for the little bit of kelpie in me.” He held up his head proudly. “How ‘bout you?”

    “Uh…” Jeda grimaced. “I’m not too sure… I never knew my parents. I was adopted.” He sighed. This all reminded him of Oliver, who was probably at home being lectured by his father…