The Luna and her Quadruplet Pups by Jane Above Story

3rd Person

The mountain village of Alta Montaña sat so deep in the rainforest that unless one was standing at its center, they might never realize it was there. It was well known throughout the kingdom for its beauty and artisan wool goods, but it wasn’t the sort of place many Southern Islanders went unless they were trading or hoping to soak up some time in nature.

While tourists poured into the town from regions far and wide, the area’s raw natural beauty struggled to tempt locals – as more often than not the entire mountain was covered in clouds. Even when it wasn’t raining, it was a normal occurrence to walk out the door only to disappear into a blinding haze of white fog.

Needless to say, it wasn’t a good place to lose one’s possessions, as finding them again could prove very challenging.

This was part of why the city’s orphan gang proved so successful when it came to pickpocketing and

swindling. It was easy to hide among the clouds and grift money from unsuspecting tourists, for even when their mark realized something was missing, they certainly couldn’t see to track down the thieves.

This was also how it came to pass that Ethan and Jane managed to come within feet of their lost pups,without ever realizing it.

They arrived in the village in the early hours of the morning, having driven through the night to reach their remote destination. They had no way of knowing whether or not the pups were somewhere in the small town, but it was the closest corner of civilization to the jungle where the children were last seen.

“1 don’t know about this.” Jane murmured, gazing around the quaint village. “If they went into the jungle maybe we should start looking there – this is an awfully long way from the turn off.”

“I know.” Ethan sighed, “but somewhere here might have seen them. There’s no telling where they might be in the forest, and they’re smart kids, they’ll have tried to get to people for help.” As beautiful as he found the landscape here, Ethan was less than amused by the constant downpours and relentless cloud cover.

It made picking up on the children’s scent- let alone tracking them – all but impossible.

Jane was not convinced, she nervously gnawed her lower l!p as she scanned the village, trying to put herself in her pups’ shoes. She knew they were smart enough to try and find food and fresh water, but would they trust strangers? Would they go to adults for help after everything that they’d been through? Sometimes she worried there was too much of her in them, or that she’d unintentionally imposed her own insecurities onto them – and that was before any of this began.

She scented the air for what felt like the thousandth time, but like Ethan, the flooded streets and dense fog prevented her from smelling anything but damp and mud. It was so powerful in fact, that she was struggling to even smell Ethan. Her wolf was anxiously pacing in her head, and Jane had to wonder how anyone tracked anything in such an environment.

exclaimed, swatting at the dozen mosquitos happily svcking her blood. “It’s hot and miserable and just… argh! This morning

with their change of scenery, but she couldn’t really blame Linda. It had been days since they’d heard from Eric, and even then Ethan had been the one to

about the pups handling it all

suggested, seeming to realize she’d accidentally increased her friend’s concern. “You know how they

she had never had much opportunity to explore the outdoors. Her heart had always been too weak to go on

want to make things worse for Jane, so he swallowed his concerns and continued to scour the area for signs

cloudy town square, the pups were standing hand in hand, listening to Sophie

pointer and middle fingers – never your thumbs. Pinch them together like tweezers and your mark

Paisley asked

you want

don’ wanna steals from anyone.” Paisley

girl with resignation. “How do we choose

to. You can tell who’s who just by the ways they act. If someone is from here, they walk around like they know the place,

can’t see what anyone’s doing.” Riley objected, feeling equally as sulky as her sister. “l can only see people’s feets

Sophie turned them around, pointing through the

grown ups can’t. And the feet are all you need, rich people have really

we get caught?” Ryder

be – there’s four of you. If one of you gets pinched, the other three can help fight off the baddie” Sophie suggested. “Honestly you’re lucky, do you have any idea how many times I wished there were two of me so I could fool a mark? That’s

is?” Parker asked,

Sophie informed them with a big smile. “Besides you’re really little, so the adults won’t ever suspect you and they’ll be

stay here very long.” Riley reminded her.”Just until we

a little time. You’re first few scores have to go

to pay for our