The Wolf Pups

It was the most exciting time of the year.

On this day, the sun shined bright overhead and not a cloud blotted the sky. Beneath the endless blanket of blue, the Wolf Hunters graduation ceremony was well under way. It seemed like the entire city had come to Memorial Park to witness the event. Eight year old Grizelda Thies stared at the sea of shining, white faces around her, at the proud mothers who dabbed their eyes and clucked like gossiping hens about their son's heroic deeds, at the stern faced fathers who tried their darndest not to display too much outward affection. Grizelda didn't have a doting mother or poker faced father; her parents had been killed during the terrorist attack three years ago. What she did have was an over enthusiastic aunt whose merriment was contagious, and an older brother who was set to walk across the stage and graduate from a Wolf Pup to a Junior Alpha.

Salen was three years older than Grizelda. While she had inherited her mother's cornsilk blond hair and soft, angelic face, Salen possessed the auburn hair and brooding features of their father. He also proved to be adept in the ways of the Wolf Hunters just like their father had been. Skills such as weapons training, fighting, and survival came naturally to the young Wolf Pup, and it wasn't long before he found himself at the top of the class. Now, the stage was set, both literally and figuratively, for his ascension.

Streamers of gilded silver and black flowed through the air like living things and the stage was festooned with artificial rose campions and jet black Calla lilies. A row of Alpha Hunters sat on stage decked out in their uniforms of black formal wear with red berets crowned on their heads. One by one, the Wolf Pups took the stage and received an ornamental AK47 along with a bandolier of bullets from the Headmaster, a grim faced and stocky older man whose chest gleamed with so many medals Grizelda wondered how he stayed upright. When it was Salen's turn to walk across the stage, the crowd of spectators seemed to grow more frenzied, their screams and applause evidence of the pain and hardship he endured after losing his parents and the hard work and passion he put into getting to the top. As Grizelda clapped for her brother, a heartfelt pang shuddered throughout her. He looked so strong, so brave, just as their father had looked in the photos she'd seen of his graduation. Grizelda wanted to follow in both of their footsteps and join the Wolf Hunters, and with the organization finally opening its ranks to girls for the new class, she would have that opportunity.

After the ceremony, a festive barbeque picnic was thrown for the graduating class and their families. While the now Junior Alphas fraternized amongst themselves, the younger children spent the day playing under the clear blue skies. They played a popular children's game called Freedom Wolves, in which one group of kids were the so called Freedom Fighters and were hunted down by the Alpha Wolves. Hunting usually involved loads of tickling and play fighting, and by the time Grizelda had took turns playing both sides she was flushed and tired. She rested on a nearby bench, giving her lungs a chance to breathe. She knew that when she joined the Wolf Pups, she had to be tougher and couldn't let some little children's game tire her. As she caught her breath, she noticed something glittering in the well kempt grass. She bent down and picked up the shell casings. They were cold to the touch, cold with death and all the implications behind it. Memorial Park had been the site of intense violence between the State Police and the Freedom Fighters. It was also where the public executions were carried out in the form of firing squads. Grizelda balled her tiny fist around the shells, her mind wandering back to when she was five. After the terrorist attack which claimed the lives of her parents, the perpetrators were caught and executed right in this park. Her aunt had brought her then and made her watch, made her see the justice of the State being carried out in its purest form.

"This is what we do to traitors of the State," her aunt had told her as the terrorist were lined side by side. "This is what they deserve!"

Grizelda hadn't blinked when the bullets roared through the air and the condemned terrorist jittered like bloody puppets before finally falling with their strings cut, dead. She was still too young to understand death, but she understood that these people had taken her parents away and she would never see them again. It was then that she decided she wanted to be a Wolf Pup, to protect the State against the vermin that was the Freedom Fighters so no children would have to go through what she had went through.

Grizelda looked around and found more shell casings sprinkled around in the grass. They jingled like tiny bells when she scooped them in her palm with the rest. She was still searching when she spotted the teeth.

Human teeth.

There were three teeth, all held together by a bloodied fragment of a jawbone. Grizelda steeled herself as she plucked the teeth from the grass. If she were to be a Wolf Pup, she couldn't be a tired, scared little girl. Salen had already executed a known traitor to the State. When the time came for her to do the same, there would be no hesitation.

"Hey Grizelda, come play!"

The cries of the other children beckoned her from her reverie. She slipped the shell casings and teeth into her pocket which jingled when she ran to continue playing with the other children.