Greetings, my name is Bandit, you'll have to excuse me if my story rambles a bit, but I was very young when it started. I should warn you, some of the things which happened in my past are painful to recount. Until recently I have not been part of a pack with a proper human as the Alpha so it has been difficult for me to translate the complexities of the husky language into something a human could understand.

My earliest memories are of my mother and siblings confined to a small territory of flat white rock, surrounded by a silver vine. It was extremely crowded and we could not dig in the ground or chew through the vine. There was a small den in the territory but it was not large enough for the ten of us. On rainy nights or sunny days we were forced to find whatever shelter we could. My mother was not a pretty bitch, but she was strong and maintained order amongst my siblings and I. She taught us the laws of the pack and told us stories of the Celestial Pack. As for my father, I have no memories of him.

There were other members of the horde nearby but the silver vines prevented us from establishing a proper pack. There were also two human members of our pack. They provided us with food and water, however, when we tried to speak with them they did not understand our words and would respond in harsh tones. One human, the tall dark haired one with the deep voice, would use a spray of water from a green snake to remove the waste from our territory. Those that were not quick enough would get wet. One of my brothers developed a cough after one such soaking. The humans removed him from the pack and we never saw him again. I worried about this for a while and always made sure I did not get to much water on me from the green snake.

I recall one day the humans were performing some unknown task with other members of the pack, when two males escaped from their silver vines. Immediately they set about establishing their order in the pack. It was a ferocious altercation to which the humans responded using a wood branch with thin yellow leaves at the end to strike the combatants. Bloody and bruised the males were separated and returned to their territory.

I don't know how long this part of my life lasted but one day everything changed.

Occasionally one of the humans would bring a stranger or two for a visit. These visits were always enjoyable. Our human would speak to us with a softness of voice we rarely heard. Often we were let into a larger territory to play with the strangers. The strangers would respond to our words, sometimes even letting us exchange greetings. On one particular day when a stranger came, I was allowed to play with him by myself. I was then placed  in a small den with silver vines on one side and we left the only territory I had ever known. This was the first time I was separated from my mother, little did I know it would be the last time I would ever see her or my pack again.

Next chapter...