As the night grew darker, the summer slipped away, the falls came. Winter here was supposed to be mild and light, a soft sprinkling of snow. Yet...

The wolves struggled through the soft drifts. "No," gasped a mottled, brown wolf. "The blizzards from the Beyond... have they crossed over to this land?"

"Have you gone cag mag, or crazy? They could not have." Yet his partner's eyes were bewildered and frightened.

"We must tell the Fengo. He will know how to deal with this."

The other wolf, one with a dirty blond pelt, stayed silent. Curse this mhuic weather, he thought in his mind. This one might send the chieftain cag mag.

If he doesn't explode first.

The two wolves raced over to the thick forest of birch trees, leaving the angry gray clouds behind them. They were thickening with snow, hail, ice... this would not bode well for the Star Clan.

                                                                                        _+=+_

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." The two scouts stood with their tails tucked behind them, ears shoved forward. "We are certain. Blizzards are arriving."

"With blizzards, come famine, with famine comes disease, with disease comes... extinction!" Hrathair's eyes glinted. "Leave us," he snapped at the two wolves. They slunk out of the cave and headed to their dens.

"What do you make of this, oh chieftain?"

"The plight." Agaris's eyes narrowed into yellow slits. "The malcadhs. A curse, a blight, they're nothing but moldwarpy curs! They have brought this fate down upon us."

"Exactly. Chief, what I propose is a cleansing, a cleansing of this clan."

Agaris's eyes burned, kindled with hatred. "We shall continue the rituals of old. Take all the malcadhs to their tummfraws, their final resting place, so that nature can take hold of them and fix this world once again!" He pounded his paw against the ground.

"By the power invested in me by the late Fengo, and my power as the Fengo of the Star Clan, I hereby proclaim this law true."

He turned to a small gray wolf standing silently at attention. "Go."

The wolf nodded, and sprang into the night. As he ran off, he wondered if this signaled the destruction of the Star Clan itself.

                                                                                     _+=+_

The mother wolf nuzzled her week-old pup. Although he was rather young, he was about as big as a month-old pup. She licked his paws, his face. Suddenly, she stopped.

Oh... his paw was slightly twisted, curved to the side. It was a slight deformity, but it would be all right. She hoped so.

"I'll name you Glennwod, after the trees that used to grow in the Beyond," she whispered. Her pup, his mouth milky, yawned. Mother and son settled down to a soft sleep, before they were roughly shaken awake.

"Up you go," a voice snarled. The mother, whose name was Garana, looked around dazedly. Her pup was gone.

"Glenn? Glenn?!"

"Hush, she-wolf!" the voice growled, and a paw whacked the side of her head. She fell down in the snow.

"Glenn," she whispered. A frightened yip shot through the air. She tried to stand, but the world spun underneath her feet. She howled, and a jaw clamped around her muzzle.

Oh, Lupus, here I am, about to die, my pup in the paws of these wolves. Just take me now! She screamed inside her head.

Suddenly, the jaws were gone. She gulped down the air. Garana felt a wolf stand above her. Dimly, she saw the form of a pup clutched in the mouth of a tawny wolf.

Hrathair's smug voice cut through the air. "Garana, your pup is being taken to his tummfraw. He is a malcadh now. The old rules are back."

No! The voice screamed in her head. The rules are supposed to be gone! Why, oh why!

As her pup was dragged from her, Garana swore an oath to herself. She would find whoever was responsible, and who that wolf was, their blood would stain the ground.

                                                                            _+=+_

The feeling of those wriggling bodies against the mother's fur made her smile.

Another mother, Jaosia, was snug in her den, curled up on a reindeer pelt. She was considering what to name them. Once again, she checked them. All healthy. All perfect. No flaws. She sighed, her breath a short huff. She was unaware that at that moment, a pup was being taken and ancient rule was being put in place.

As her mate, Bronwyn, circled her, the pups Sdofi, Noenid, and Reiyan thus became part of the Star clan.