The howling hound clan.
Population: 36 adults, 12 younglings.

The Rootpaw clan
Population: 24 adults, 6 younglings

The era of flame, year three.

The Alpha stood before the Rootpaw clan’s Alpha, both snarling and whipping their tail against the ground while they slowly circled around each other. At an incredible speed the two males pounced at eachother, colliding with a loud thud.

-A few minutes of intense fighting later-

The Howling Hound Clan’s Alpha stood above the other, his fur colored by blood. Most of it his opponents, thankfully. He stepped over his wounded opponent and let out a vicious howl, his clan mates joining in, celebrating his victory.

“You stand under the Howling Hound Clan now. We are joined together as one. You follow me now, not him. Understood?”

The other clan bowed their heads, some reluctantly, others without visible protest.

“From here on out, any female of age that does not have a mate will do so with me until a mate is found. We need to grow stronger!”

While the older ones were arguing and snarling at each other, a youngling snuck over to the Alpha that was currently knocked out and found that a scale that had fallen off had embedded itself into a stick. He took the stick and playfully batted at it. A female looked down and noticed his behavior, but most importantly noted that the scale was digging into the soil while being tossed around. She took it from the youngling and examined it silently.

-Later that day-

The female caught the Alpha’s attention and showed the stick with the scale embedded into it, demonstrating what the youngling had done.

“Could be useful to carve in the trees. Or maybe do other things?”

The Alpha nodded slowly and grunted.

“We will see what this thing can do, and if we can make more.”