It was a beautiful morning and everyone was awake. However, all the nocturnal animals were fast asleep. A wolf named Salena and her pack were in deep sleep, but her two eight-year-old twin pups, named Noor and Advika, who were too active and so couldn’t sleep.

While the twins were chatting, an evil jaguar named Aadi, who liked attacking animals and making little creatures miserable, sneaked near them to attack Salena’s pack!

“Aadi is gonna attack! Aadi is gonna attack!” yelled one of the twins, waking up everyone.

“Alright everyone, listen carefully! We are going to attack Aadi and his friends. Pups, you go somewhere safe, everyone else, come with me!” said Salena.

“What about you?” asked Noor.

“I’ll be fine,” replied Salena.

“I hope she’s right,” said Advika as the twins ran off.

“You’ll never win, Aadi!” yelled Salena. “We’ll see about that .... Raaar!”

Later, the pups came back to see if their mother and their pack had won. But, to their surprise, they found their mother and the pack lying on the ground and not getting up.

“No!” screamed Noor.

“Well, well, well! What do we have here?” asked Aadi in a mean way.

“Run Noor, run!” yelled Advika.

The pups ran far, far away. Advika tripped so badly that one of her legs couldn’t move! Noor got scratched so badly that she started bleeding! They kept running until finally they were so tired that they fainted. When the night came, so did a wolf their age.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Huh?” said Noor, waking up. “We are fine, thanks for asking.”

“I’m Basim, who are you? Where’s your pack?” asked the wolf.

“I’m Advika and that’s my twin sister, Noor. And ... they….” the twins started crying.

“They what?” asked Basim.

“They ended their journey in the circle of life. Aadi attacked our mama,” cried Advika.

“Aadi, the jaguar, attacked? Don’t worry,

I’ll take you to my mama. She can help,”

replied Basim. Basim took the twins to his mother, Anadia.

“Mama, these are my new friends, Noor and Advika. They have a sad story. Noor and Advika, this is my mama, Anadia, that’s my little sister, Azrah, and this is my pack,” Basim made the introductions.

“Nice meeting you all,” replied Noor. “But where are we?

“You’re not from here?” wondered Basim.

“We are from India, have we come very far away?” asked Advika.

“You don’t have to fear anything here. You are safe with us. Come on, you must be hungry. Let’s eat something,” said Anadia.

The pups were so hungry that they dived right into the delicious food!

“I wish mama could eat with us,” said Noor with sadness.

Later, after the wolves finished eating and started playing together. They soon become good friends. Basim noticed that something was bothering the twins, so he asked them, “Are you guys okay?”

“It’s just that I miss mama and the whole pack,” replied Noor. “But I am happy I made a new friend.”

“So, how is it like in India?” asked Basim.

“It’s good. But the only thing I don’t like about India is that Aadi lives there. Otherwise, our home and the countryside is beautiful. We have always lived there peacefully with all the other creatures. I can’t believe that we travelled so far to another country!” said Noor.

“I guess it was your destiny. But the good part is that you met us and you are now safe,” replied Basim.

Then Hazeema, Basim’s older sister, came to check on Basim. “Basim, the sun is rising. Time to go to sleep,” she said.

“We’re not that sleepy. Can we stay up a little longer please?” replied Noor.

“Okay, let’s talk then,” replied Hazeema. All the wolves were asleep, but the wolf twins and Hazeema sat together and chatted.

“Our pack finished their journey in the circle of life,” Advika shared sadly.

“That’s bad. But you shouldn’t lose hope. They’re here, in your heart,” Hazeema tried to reassure the twins.

“Thanks for the comforting words. I think

we too should sleep. Sleep tight then!” replied Advika.

Hours went by. The moon started waking up. So did the wolves.

“As-salamu alaykum everybody!” said Noor.

“Wa‘alaykumu as-salam!” replied Advika and Basim.

“Wait! Basim, where’s your mama?” asked Noor.

“She woke up a little early and went to hunt,” replied Basim. “We may have only met yesterday but we make great friends. If you want, you can join our pack.”

The twins hugged Basim and said, “Thank you!”

“Hey girls, quit it! That’s tight!” Basim said, trying to escape the hug.

Hours later, a friendly owl came by. “Huh? Who are they?” thought the bird. She then flew near the wolf twins.

“As-salamu alaykum!” said the bird.

“Aaah!” yelped Noor. “Who are you?”

“She’s Azeebah, our guard bird. Azeebah protects us from predators by watching them from the tree and warning us when it is not safe,” replied Basim.

“Wow! Hi Azeebah, I’m Noor!”

“And I’m Advika!”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you two,” said Azeebah. “I have never seen you guys before, where are you from?

“We are from India, but Aadi, the jaguar, attacked my family and we are the only ones who could escape,” Noor narrated sadly.

Basim then went to see his mama, Anadia. The twins also followed him in a while, since they felt safer near him.

“Ok, we can,” they heard Anadia say as the twins came near them.

“Yes! Thank you, mama!” replied Basim.

“What’s going on here?” asked Advika as she came near them.

“My mama said you guys are allowed to stay in our pack!” said Basim happily.

“Yippee!” cheered the wolf twins.

As for Aadi, he was impatient to find the wolf twins. The fact that two pups managed to escape him really hurt his ego.

Soon Aarnav, Aadi’s brother, arrived with some news, “Aadi! I found the location of the wolf twins!”

“Excellent. Where are they? I’m starving!” said Aadi.

“Come this way,” said Aarnav.

Back with the wolf twins, Azeebah, the owl, informed them that Aadi was making his way towards them with his siblings. Hearing this, Basim’s pack got together to prepare for a confrontation.

“Okay everyone, get ready for the battle!” said Basim.

“Yeah, we will help too,” offered the twins.

“Oh fine! You did escape Aadi, so I guess you are ready for this fight,” said Anadia.

“Woohoo!” yelled the twins.

“But first, we need a plan,” replied Hazeema.

“Hmm.. I have a plan!” said Advika. “Okay, so here’s the plan ….”

Basim and his group moved towards a

place that lay between their home and Aadi’s land. Later, when the jaguars and wolves

came face to face, both were ready to defeat the other.

“Now!” Basim shouted and the fight started.

Aadi and his gang grouped together, but they got cornered by the wolf pack. Then Aadi noticed that from one side there was no one blocking their way, so he thought to escape from there and signalled to his siblings. Just as they were going to escape, they were blocked by Anadia!

“You’re cornered, Aadi! You lose,” said Advika.

“This isn’t over! We will meet again!” said Aadi, as he and his friends ran away.

“We did it!” everyone shouted with happiness.

“You know what, It’s all a test! Now I’m not sad about what happened. Yes, our pack passed away, but we met new friends! I’m happy for what we have,” said the twins.

Basim said, “It’s over now. Welcome to Pakistan!”

Published in Dawn, Young World, December 25th, 2021