The she-wolf, former Alpha-Female and now just plain Alpha, seeks to fill the vacuum of power left behind in the wake of the Lab's assassination. As a female wolf, however, she has a much more sophisticated and subtle plan to work in the tigress's abscence. At the same time, one of the members of the "science team" is having a very large problem with his daily Manna

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On the eastern side of the island, within sight of the vast ocean, where the surviving canines from a sunken scientific transport vessel struggled to curtail their own addiction-fed greed, the Alpha female strode amongst the company as she never had before.

Her two Beta-females walked at her round, swaying flanks and showed their curved fangs to any that happened to step too close to their mistress. The Alpha-female, now just plain Alpha - though no one knew that quite yet - walked smugly; she had bided her time long enough. Now was the time to seize control, while the thrice-damned tiger was away. She frowned at the thought, she still couldn’t believe that that stupid yellow lab had betrayed them all by bringing her to them in the first place and then even had the gall to have her fight his own battles; it was sickening. ‘He deserved more than what he got.’ Thought the Alpha-female.

Though now she had disposed of their puppet king, she did not stride brazenly into the camp to announce her “victory,” if walking a fool dog into the jungle and murdering him could be called such. No, that was the way an Alpha-male, a real Alpha-male, would do things. The she-wolf, however, had something that a male did not have: a brain.

She looked for those who were not too fat to stand a hike in the jungle and for those without the haunted hungry looks of those hopelessly addicted to Manna. As the Alpha-Female felt her own tummy roll and bounce with each step, she strongly regretted the first day she had ever let one of those devious white crisps pass her lips. One by one, she took the desirables away from the rest and quietly explained the situation. She offered freedom from being ruled by a spoiled, overgrown house-cat and the promise that the hunting wolves would side with her when they returned. She whispered that the Manna was killing them - a truth which was plain to most non-addled dogs - and that many were already lost. She of told how she would rebuild the community with no more bickering or fighting amongst themselves. She wove fantasies of how the tigress was plotting on fattening them all up so she could eat them later when they were helpless and of how they would be no longer troubled by Manna if they simply left with her into the jungle. Fear was so rampant in the camp that the Alpha-Female had them falling over themselves ready to believe, wanting to believe. Even the more improbable notions of coming back later to help those they leave behind, and mumbles of exercise and proper nutrition to the very rotund. The last thing she spoke of in her private conversations was her new name. “A new name for a new future. I name myself Sharyenna and I will be mother to all our people lost on this forsaken island.”

No one who the alpha-female chose to spoke to refused her offer… at least until she met the trio the tigress thought of as her science team. It was remarkably difficult to separate the three of them or even get them to change the subject from their science and their inane study of Manna. However, the alpha-female had to have these three for their keen intellects and scientific backgrounds in spite of their blathering and in spite of the fact that the German shepherd named “Einny” - what a ridiculous name - showed more than a few signs of addition to the thing he was studying.

“…After that, we ran a linear regression algorithm on the matrix we compiled using the coordinate data of each disk location that appeared around Bruce, Einny and myself over the last several mornings. You would not believe what we found!” exclaimed the border collie with the large black patch over one eye and ear. She too had not been able to avoid the inevitable gains involved with residing on the island, but her borderline manic personality seemed to have burned the worst of it off her figure.

Sharyenna blinked in the torrent of words which poured from a simple greeting and a few nods here and there. “I don’t doubt that for a moment.” She said with an exasperated expression.

The border collie continued as if the she-wolf had offered words of encouragement. “There is a pattern to the way in which Manna is placed or grown around us each morning!” She said this as if it were the discovery of a lifetime, “Here look, we drew a picture on a bit of bark over here.”

“I really don’t have t-” began the she-wolf before having a crude drawing carved into a sheet of bark shoved in her snout.

The collie looked up with eager blue eyes as she explained their latest scientific triumph. “Look here, what do you see?”

The Alpha sighed, and shrugged, “I don’t know. Connect-the-dots?”

The collie coughed, thrown off her rhythm, but only for a moment. “Well… sort of, but it’s much more complicated than that. See, this big circle in the middle is Einny.” Now the rotund German shepherd coughed and looked uncomfortable, “And each of these dots is where we found a disc. We created a grid and mapped the location of each, whether it had a stalk or not and its size. Currently, the working hypothesis is that the bigger a disk gets, the older it is. Bruce has been trying to analyze the minute differences in the chemical structures of each, but the concentrations of phospholipids tends to deteriorate so rapidly for some reason that it is hard to-”

The she-wolf could not bear another tirade into organic chemistry. “So why are the dots connected in a spiral?” she interrupted quite loudly so Betsy had to cease speaking.

“Oh yes. The spiral is the pattern that is observed after we used a matrix and a few equations and Einny’s knack for calculations to deduce if there were any patterns to the positions we found. It appears as if the disks are placed on a spiraling path which radiates outwards from the sleeping body. Bruce supports this hypothesis since the crisps near the body appear to be slightly older than the ones outlying the circle.” The bid brown bloodhound nodded his head slowly from where he sat behind the border collie.

The she-wolf put her paw to her face. She couldn’t care less about the placement of Manna disks. Her only concern was to stop people from killing themselves by gorging on the stuff. The collie was beginning to give her heartburn. “Listen. I’d really like to talk to you about something important. If you’d just come with me for a moment, I’ll-”

And now the little collie, who weighed at the most 3/5 of the she-wolf’s weight, puffed out her fattened chest, “This is important. We have to understand what is happening on this island in order to beat it. We’re getting closer all the time, I know it…”

The Alpha frowned and looked significantly at Einstein. The shepherd was among the largest dogs in the camp. He looked like he weighed more than the round bloodhound and fat little collie rolled together. His massive, round gut was distended past his knees in a similar fashion to the lab’s though not to such a great extent as the she-wolf’s former mate. Covered by fluffy tan fur, it had probably been fed not only by his own daily share of Manna, but generous helpings from his neighbors as well. The shepherd’s massive neck was thicker around than the collie’s waist with two permanent rolls at the base forming natural collars; more rolls formed whenever he turned his head. The base of his tail was like a glacier of fat moving ever forward into space, using his tail as support; it was spreading in a thick sheet over his rump and devouring his tail, piling up as his back grew thicker and plumper. She would have a difficult time getting him through the long hike that was to come. More difficult by far, however, would be restraining him tomorrow morning when the Manna came. Though obviously gifted with a spark of great intelligence like the other two dogs, the shepherd’s eyes were wide and dilated as he struggled with the hunger pangs that came in the afternoon following a meal of manna. Inside, the she-wolf felt a stir of pity. She knew that the more a dog ate of the Manna, the stronger the pangs, both in the morning and afternoon. And Einstein was eating far more than his fair share.

A thought struck her as she gazed at the German Shepherd and foresaw all the trouble she would have with him in the near future. ‘Perhaps I can use him to lend their thoughts to the right direction.’ The thought was action as the she-wolf opened her mouth, still staring at Einstein, “Yes, I can see how beneficial your studies have been so far.”

The collie’s eyes widened as if struck and Einstein turned his head away in shame, his neck rippling and bulging with rolls until they touched the side of his own face and stopped his head from moving any farther. “That… That’s uncalled for!” stammered the black and white patched collie before she twisted her head around to Einstein with an affectionate, but worried expression.

The she-wolf pressed her. “I wonder… you say that you collected the positions of all the Manna disks around Einstein in the morning. I bet you had a few problems doing so, didn’t you?”

“Well… we… we had to do it before Einny woke up, but-”

“No buts,” interjected the Alpha, “Your friend is hopelessly addicted to Manna. Just look at him. Look what it’s doing to him!” To the German Shepherd, she added, “Can you even walk anymore?”

That put the fire under the proud shepherd’s paws. “I certainly can!”

The collie spoke softly, “Einny, you don’t have to prove anything…”

“It’s fine Betsy.” Said Einstein. The large shepherd took a deep breath and then walked his upper body up with his forelegs. Great sacs of loose flesh bulged and sagged at the shoulders as he worked his limbs and his whole barrel torso shook left and right with the halting, ratcheting motion. Sitting up, he looked even fatter than lying on the grass. His belly filled all the space of his undercarriage behind his front legs and to the ground; it even bulged forward a little under his extensive pigeon chest, forming double humps of fat affixed to his front. He sat awkwardly, leaning forward much more than proper posture demanded and with his hips twisted to the side like a bitch offering her teats to young pups. He leaned forward because he could get his front paws no closer to his rump for the enormous belly jutting forward from his frame and it was for the same reason that he turned his hips, so more of his belly could flow out to the side. He sat on his left thigh, with the right turned upright on the ground. The shepherd was so vast that of the left leg, only the paw was visible from under the gut which suffocated his leg. His sex was entirely lost in that jumbled heap of lard and folds of skin and fur. He took another deep breath and braced himself for the hard part.

The shepherd’s eyes squeezed shut in effort as he leaned forward, spilling yet more tawny fur covered fat from between his forelegs. He pushed up with his right leg and fur rasped against the sandy soil as he turn his belly about to bring his left leg into action. The extremely obese canine seemed to strain with all his strength as he slowly lifted his rump off the ground. For the longest time, his belly remained on the ground, fur scraping the dirt and grass. Only when he was nearly up did it finally part from the earth and to the she-wolf, it looked as if it were levitating, held up by the barest unnatural forces and sure to crash back down at a moment’s notice. Standing, the shepherd was even fatter than Sharyenna had thought; he was very nearly the late-lab’s equal in obesity. ‘Undoubtedly he has had far more access to Manna through his research than the average canine.’ And she shuddered with the knowledge that he would be even fatter tomorrow even with no further input of Manna. She needed to get him as far into the jungle as she could today before him - and his valuable mind - were all but grounded.

Einstein seemed much more comfortable once his knees locked and he waddled forward to face the she-wolf. He was breathing heavily as he spoke, “I’m… perfectly capable of… walking.” From the intense look in his eyes, the she-wolf guessed that he was talking as much to himself as to her.

“And look how much trouble it was for you. You’re out of breath doing something you should be able to do without thinking. You’re hard-pressed to manage even the most trivial actions because of your weight.” She raised a paw and gestured down to the great round gut that hovered above the ground at the shepherd’s digitigrades ankles, “And that, is going to be even bigger and heavier tomorrow. Unless I’m mistaken in assuming that you scarped down as much Manna as you could drag your massive rump to this morning.”

The alpha-female stuck an extra-soft point on the shepherd’s soft body and his eyes turned watery, though he held back tears for the moment. “I… I’m not myself in the morning…”

The smaller collie dashed between the two larger canines. She put a paw against Einstein’s fatty chest as if to push him back a little, but his inertia was so great that he didn’t budge an inch. “That’s enough! I won’t have you picking on Einny in front of me!”

The shepherd grimaced with embarrassment as the collie interjected for him; and rightfully so in the she-wolf’s opinion. The German Shepherd was about the same height as the she-wolf while the border collie’s head hardly came up to either of their shoulders. Sharyenna turned to the collie once more. “Your friend needs help. I think even he would agree with me when I say this.”

“No. Einny just needs… He just…” The collie looked up at the wide, full face of her friend, but he couldn’t meet her eyes. His hind legs trembled a bit holding up all that weight. “Einny?”

With a great outburst of air, the shepherd breathed out and his hindquarters slumped to the ground. His belly smacked against the earth and though the soil was too soft to produce much noise there was plenty of fat slapping against fat to produce an audible *clap*. He winced with the pain of cramping in his legs and muttered, “Standing is harder than walking. If I had just been able to stretch my legs a little…” his voice faded out of hearing and the she-wolf had no idea if his excuses continued into his thoughts.

The she-wolf talked to the lame shepherd. “I know it’s difficult being so intelligent and yet not being able to control yourself.” She looked into his watery brown eyes, “I know you feel ashamed but the fact is it’s not going to get any easier. You’re going to be even heavier tomorrow and there is nothing anyone can do to stop that.” The shepherd looked down at his belly bulging between his front legs. “But you don’t have to keep getting bigger. Only you can do it, but I promise I can help. The first step is admitting that you can’t control yourself and that you need help.”

The shepherd’s lips trembled, revealing here and there, his sharp fangs. The collie put a paw against his round flank - probably because she couldn’t reach his back - and rubbed up and down; she looked subdued for the first time. The tears finally came, “I… I have a problem. And I want… you to help me.”

The she-wolf smiled honestly in her victory, but it was taken as a smile of compassion. She walked forward a couple paces and embraced the bloated canine with her neck and licked the side of his muzzle in a motherly way. “Everything will be fine, I promise.” She said and Einstein laid back on the ground, emotionally exhausted.

The she-wolf stepped away and was immediately confronted by a very serious looking collie; her bubbly, excited aura had vanished entirely, leaving a cold, hostile core in its place. “So I remember you saying something about leaving the beach.”

“Yes, we can’t be here when the tigress comes back. We will hide ourselves in the jungle until I can get our hunters back. Then we’ll be strong enough to defend ourselves against her.”

She let out a firm sigh and glanced fondly at the beleaguered shepherd for a moment before turning back to the wolf, “He’s going to have a hard time in the jungle.”

The Alpha looked unflinchingly at the suddenly hard eyes of the collie. ‘I better watch this one…’ She thought. “I know. I’m going to do everything I can to help him through it. I’m sure that he’s a lot stronger than even he himself realizes.”

The collie huffed in agreement, “Then I’m going too. I’m going to make sure that you don’t press him too hard or hurt him. However, the tigress was fair to us and none of your lies about her are going to convince me that she’s a monster.”

‘…very carefully.’ She added to her mental note. “Of course, but you have to understand that I am going to have to press him. He’s going to be exhausted and miserable until we get settled and he’s going to have the worst hunger pangs he’s ever experienced.”

The collie looked shocked that she would admit this.

“But it’s better that he get through this because it’s the only way he’ll ever change. He has to want to change bad enough to go through everything that’s going to hurt him on our journey.” Now the she-wolf looked over her shoulder back at Einstein. She returned and leaned a little closer to the collie. “I think he’s strong enough though and you know what?” The collie was putty in her paws, “I think he’ll be better for it in the end and I think he’ll thank you for being there for him too.”
The collie looked like she would begin to weep as well, but instead she nodded sharply and went to lay beside Einstein.

There was only one loose end left. The she-wolf turned to the big bloodhound, “You’ve been very quiet.”

He shrugged, “I didn’t have anything to say. This is their business.” He gestured with his nose to his two compatriots sitting like a pebble against a boulder on the stiff sea grass.

“Are you going to come along with me, then?”

The big dog blinked, though he never took her eyes off her. He said, “I go where they go.”

“Very good.” Said Sharyenna. She turned to go, but the deep, gruff voice spoke once more to her back, “Of course if I stayed, I’d soon have no one but Manna addicted dogs too heavy to lift themselves as companions. Strange how Einstein is the only one you’ve chosen to ‘help’ today.” The hound drew a great draught of air through his powerful sniffer.

‘Looks like I have two to watch.’ Thought Sharyenna as she continued walking away. She began to worry that the fat shepherd might soon be the least of her worries, but her work pulling the rest of the dogs she needed from the community soon cleared her muddied thoughts. There was still so much work left to do.