Spirit of the Wolves Page 11

They watched me intently, and I wondered if they were afraid. I relaxed my face into the soft, welcoming expression Rissa greeted us with when we were smallpups. Humans trusted us more easily when they met us when they were young, and it wouldn’t hurt to have as many friends as possible in the village.

  I walked toward them very slowly, then lay down so that I would be as unthreatening as possible.

  The children began to chatter excitedly. Several came forward to me. A bold female reached out a hand to stroke my fur. I licked her hand. The next thing I knew, I was surrounded by laughing, smiling human young, all of them gently stroking my fur.

  “TaLi said there are more wolves that will come help us,” the bold girl said. “She said she’ll teach me to hunt with them.”

  “She told me they sleep next to her,” a thin male said, looking directly in my eyes. A wolf would consider such a look a challenge. I would have to remember to tell any other wolves who came to Kaar that humans did such things without malice.

  “I’m going to bring one into my shelter,” a soft voice said, and I saw myself looking into the eyes of a dark-furred, soft-skinned boy whose head would come up to my nose if I were standing. I licked his face and he giggled.

  Then I heard a harsh grunt and saw a boy standing apart from the others, his eyes downcast. It was the child who had been running alone the first day I was in Kaar, excluded by the others. I stood.

  “That’s JaliMin,” the skinny male said, sneering. “He won’t talk to you. He can’t even think.” But the child stared at me in fascination. I found myself growing angry with the sneering male. Ázzuen had been the smallest pup in Rissa’s litter. When her other pups had harried him and kept him from her milk, I had fought for him. Now I felt the same urge to defend the quiet boy.

  I stood, slipped past grasping hands, and made my way to the shunned child. He smiled when he saw me and held out a hand. I licked it.

  A sharp whistle cut through the village and the rest of the children scattered. As I watched them go, RalZun strode toward me, his lips pursed. Ázzuen trotted at his heels.

  “He was like all the other children until just before he was old enough to walk,” RalZun said, looking at the boy. “Then he was attacked by a rhino that charged through the village. The rhino killed his older brother, and JaliMin stopped talking, stopped responding to anyone. No one knows why. Some think he must have fallen and injured his brain. Others say he was so frightened, he lost the ability to speak. He’s HesMi’s only grandchild now. It’s her great sadness that her grandson will never serve on the council of elders.”

  He squatted down next to us. Ázzuen licked my cheek.

  “I told RalZun we want to teach the humans to hunt salmon,” he said. “The way we did in the Wide Valley.”

  We hadn’t hunted salmon in the Wide Valley, but Ázzuen clearly wanted RalZun to think we had. Probably so the old man wouldn’t insist on following us to make sure we knew what we were doing. I grinned at Ázzuen. I was tired of RalZun treating us like incompetent pups, too.

  “We do fish the river,” RalZun said, “but if you can help us do so, it’s another way to show the elders you can help us.” He frowned at TaLi.

  “Go with them and see if it is worthwhile. Can you do that?”

  “Yes,” TaLi said, with impatience of her own.

  “We’ve hunted together for moons,” I added.

  “I know you have, youngsters,” RalZun said. “But do not be so sure of yourselves that you are careless. You are all young to be trusted with the tasks we are burdening you with. But there’s no help for that.” He peered at TaLi through narrowed eyes. “Try not to let HesMi see how much you despise DavRian. It won’t help things.”

  TaLi grinned at the old man. “I’m used to pretending I don’t think people are stupid. Come on, wolves!” she said cheerfully. She galloped into the woods. Ázzuen followed her.

  I stopped, feeling that I was being watched. When I turned, I saw the silent human child, JaliMin. I darted over to him and touched my nose to his cheek. His eyes widened and then he laughed. I licked his face, then followed TaLi and Ázzuen.

  As we approached the river, I smelled a familiar, pungent piney-earthy scent. I expected Ázzuen to stop, but he went straight toward the smell.

  “Ázzuen,” I said, “don’t you smell the rock bears?”

  “Of course I do.” He grinned. “That’s how you find the salmon. You follow the bears. I’ve done it before.”

  When? I wondered. I thought I knew everything Ázzuen did.

  He slowed when we neared the river, and the scent of bear intensified. I wasn’t sure I wanted TaLi so close to a bear, even though they usually didn’t attack unless we tried to fight them or steal from them. Which seemed to be exactly what Ázzuen intended. I stopped, and blocked TaLi’s path with my body.

  Ázzuen poked me with his muzzle. “I’m not stupid enough to fight bears for prey, Kaala.” He whuffed softly. Jlela dropped down from a limb directly above us, almost landing on my head.

  “They are leaving, wolves,” she quorked. “We will warn you if they return.”

  I would have asked her to go after them to find out where they were going, but ravens come and go as they please.

  Ázzuen trotted toward the river. Since I was a pup, I had hunted with Tlitoo to find prey. I didn’t know when Ázzuen had started hunting with Jlela’s help.

  “Are you waiting until you are an oldwolf?” Jlela quorked. TaLi pushed impatiently at me, and I followed cautiously after Ázzuen.

  We emerged at a narrow, fast-moving stretch of river. It was a place where the riverbed dropped sharply several times, so that the water danced downstream along rocks and tree limbs. Two bears were on the far side of the river, shambling away from the rushing water. Tlitoo and Jlela hopped from tree branch to tree branch behind them.

  “Hurry up!” Ázzuen yipped.

  TaLi watched the bears leave, her spear clutched tightly in her hands. When they were out of sight, she relaxed and crouched down on her haunches on the riverbank.

  Competing for prey is all about balance. A wolf who challenges a bear or rock lion directly will end up dead or too wounded to hunt. But a wolf who waits too long to go after another hunter’s prey will starve to death. Salmon is good greslin. The problem is catching enough of them. We usually missed so many more than we caught that it wasn’t worth our time.

  Ázzuen leapt onto a rock in the river and looked at the rushing water, then back at us. He stood, swaying a little, the spray of water making his fur cling to his body. I watched him, wondering what he had in mind.

  “I’ve found two ways to hunt the salmon,” he said. “One works in the shallows, one in rushing water like this. We can take the humans to the shallows if your girl wants to.” He didn’t look at me as he spoke. He held perfectly still, as I’d seen water birds stand. Then he thrust his head into the water and came out with a writhing salmon.

  He waded back to the riverbed and dropped the salmon at my feet. I pinned it under my paws. Ázzuen returned to his rock and, after several long moments, plucked another salmon from the river. This time, when he brought it back and set it on the riverbank, TaLi darted from the woods and smashed the salmon’s head with a rock.

  “There’ll be more in a minute,” Ázzuen said. “They move in groups.”

  He nosed the salmon I held down and looked up at me.

  “You first,” I said. “You caught it.”

  He bit the salmon in half, swallowing a huge piece of it. I tore into what was left. As we devoured the fish, TaLi sat on the bank, weaving together river reeds. From time to time she looked anxiously across the river. She didn’t have to worry. We would warn her if any bears came back.

  Then, as the wind changed, I caught the scent of bitter spruce. Milsindra was somewhere nearby. I ran along the bank to find her, but the scent had disappeared. Uneasily, I returned to Ázzuen.

  The next time he waded into the river, I went with him, standing by his side on the flat roc
k.

  “When did you learn to do this?” I asked him, watching the silvery fish swim by.

  “Back in the Wide Valley,” he said. “When you were with your girl. I watched the bears, and I thought if bears could do it, we certainly could.”

  I saw a fish glide by and thrust my head into the river after it, but I came up empty jawed. I hadn’t stuck my head far enough into the water. Ázzuen snatched another from the river and hurled it to TaLi, who crushed its head and set it by the other one. I growled in frustration. A huge salmon swam right by my feet. I lunged at it, missing it completely and falling face-first into the water. I struggled to my feet to see Ázzuen grinning around a salmon that writhed in his mouth.

  We caught four more. That is, Ázzuen caught three and I caught one. TaLi finished weaving the reeds into a large gourd shape the humans called a basket for our catch.

  Ázzuen and I stood on the opposite side of the river, watching her.

  “That was smart,” I said to him, licking his cheek. His fur tasted of river and salmon.

  “I have other ideas,” Ázzuen said, his face solemn. When he was a smallpup, his serious expression made him look like a little oldwolf in a pup’s body. Now it suited him.

  “I’m sure you do.” I grinned at him and gave him a sturdy shoulder slam.

  He bent his leg so he didn’t stagger, then placed his head over my neck. His warm breath tickled the fur on my muzzle.

  I startled away from him. I didn’t know what I’d do if he asked me to have pups like Pell had. His bright gaze met mine and the fur between his eyes wrinkled. Then he shook himself and stepped away from me. He lifted his nose to the air and whuffed a warning.

  Milsindra’s scent was back, and very close. Tlitoo landed next to us on the riverbank and krawked a warning.

  TaLi was still crouched over her basket. A shadow appeared over her as Milsindra emerged from the bushes behind the girl. TaLi, intent on arranging the fish in her basket, didn’t see the Greatwolf. Milsindra looked straight at me and opened her great jaws just behind the girl’s fragile neck.

  As I splashed into the river, Ázzuen at my side, Milsindra barked a laugh at us. TaLi spun around just as Navdru and Yildra, the Sentinel leaderwolves, emerged behind Milsindra.

  By the time we reached the riverbank, TaLi had hefted the basket to her shoulder and turned to face the Greatwolves. Yildra and Navdru stared, fascinated by the girl. The Greatwolves never showed themselves to ordinary humans, but TaLi was a krianan, and one of the few humans they could greet. Ázzuen and I ran to TaLi’s side.

  Navdru lifted a twitching nose to the basket resting upon the girl’s shoulder and began to sniff at the fish. TaLi, keeping her eye on the huge wolf, set down her basket and pulled out a large fish.

  “This is for you,” she said to Navdru.

  He shifted uneasily from paw to paw. For all he was leaderwolf of Sentinel and a Greatwolf, it seemed he didn’t know what to make of the human girl. He looked to me.

  “It’s all right,” I found myself telling the Greatwolf, “you can take it.”

  He hesitated a moment longer, and Yildra huffed in amusement.

  “Well, if you don’t want it, I do.” She snatched up the salmon and swallowed it in three huge gulps.

  “You learned to catch so many salmon in the Wide Valley?” she asked me, licking her chops.

  “We learned it from the humans there.” Ázzuen lied so convincingly that even I almost believed him for a moment.

  “You’ll have to show us how you do it,” Navdru said, then rumbled to Milsindra, “I don’t see a problem with their hunting fish together. The human girl is not dominant to them, and if they learn things from the humans, so much the better.”

  “Yes, Leaderwolf,” Milsindra said. Her lip lifted in a condescending snarl and her voice was so full of arrogance, that I couldn’t believe Navdru didn’t challenge her. He just narrowed his eyes and dipped his head, and he and Yildra bounded into the woods. Milsindra stayed behind.

  I lifted my chin to her. She had brought them to try to make us look bad and had failed. She met my raised muzzle with her own. Ázzuen growled. Next to him, TaLi raised her sharpstick. Milsindra ignored them both.

  “I can find her anytime, Kaala. I can find her anyplace and snap her neck in two or shove her off a cliff.”

  “The Sentinels will kill you if you do,” I responded, but my voice shook.

  “Only if they can tell what I did. Humans get injured and die all the time.”

  “Why do you care what happens here?” Ázzuen said. “You can go back to the Wide Valley and rule there.”

  “The Wide Valley is nothing,” Milsindra growled. She swung her head to Ázzuen, who stood steadily, averting his gaze only the slightest bit. “If wolves stay with humans, they will lose everything that makes them wolf. They will become the humans’ curl-tails, and I will not let that happen.” She turned back to me. “You will make a mistake, and when you do, I’ll be sure the Sentinels know.”

  She cocked her head and grinned. “You have friends coming.” She bent down, snatched a salmon from TaLi’s basket, and bounded into the woods.

  I heard humans tramping through the bush.

  “Do you see that?” It was DavRian. I’d know his sweat and dream-sage scent anywhere. “That can’t be an ordinary wolf. And those paw prints are as big as a bear’s.”

  A growl rose in my throat. “Milsindra led them here on purpose,” I said to Ázzuen. The Greatwolves usually took great pains to hide their presence from humans. “She wants them to find out about the Greatwolves.”

  DavRian pushed through the long, sinewy branches of a willow and stepped onto the riverbank. A frowning HesMi followed. When she saw us sitting on the bank with TaLi, her frown deepened.

  “Did you bring me all the way out here for this?” She waved her long arm at us. We sat, trying to look harmless.

  DavRian shook his head. “There are giant wolves about, HesMi. I’ve seen them. They just hide when they see us.”

  One of Milsindra’s paw prints was just to the left of TaLi’s foot. The girl shifted so her own foot covered it, then rubbed at the mud until Milsindra’s print was indistinguishable from ours.

  “I’ve never seen them,” TaLi lied. “Some wolves are larger than others, of course.” She shrugged.

  “And some humans are more easily frightened than others.” BreLan hopped from the woods to a tall boulder, and jumped from the boulder to stand next to TaLi on the riverbank.

  DavRian’s face darkened and I thought he would leap at BreLan. Instead he looked down into TaLi’s basket. “Five fish,” he sneered, for that was all that was left after Yildra and Milsindra had eaten theirs. He smirked. “That will feed a few families for a night.” It would do more than that. From what I knew of how humans ate, the five salmon would feed several families for several nights. But that wouldn’t go far in a village as large as Kaar.

  TaLi narrowed her eyes at DavRian. “We can get more, DavRian. The wolves will help us.”

  DavRian smiled down at her. “I’m sure you can. And it’s good to be careful. If the wolves can’t help with dangerous hunts, it’s best to go after things like fish.”

  Anger came between one breath and the next. Milsindra’s threats and DavRian’s insults burned in me.

  “Do you think the humans steal from longfangs?” I asked Ázzuen.

  He grinned at me.

  “It is not needed, wolves.” Tlitoo paced between us. “It is a risk you do not need to take.”

  I leapt over him then, walked up to DavRian, and stared into his eyes, which always made humans like him nervous. Then I walked a few steps, twisting my head around to look at him.

  “I will get the others,” Tlitoo grumbled, and took flight.

  “What does it want?” DavRian asked nervously, looking down at me.

  “She wants us to follow her,” BreLan answered, smirking.

  It took the humans twice as long to get to the longfang plain as it would h
ave taken us, and it was past high sun when we reached it. The longfangs had killed another grass elk. Again, the mother longfang and her cubs stood far back from the kill while two others tore at the carcass. This time, though, the three of them had a large piece of elk shoulder of their own and the cubs were eating hungrily, scattering smaller bits of meat around them. I had heard that longfangs, unlike cave lions and grass lions, hunted in packs. I wondered how the mother and her cubs had fallen out of favor.

  “We’re leaving,” HesMi said when she saw the longfangs. I kept forgetting that the humans couldn’t smell threats from a distance. I thought they’d followed us knowing what was on the plain.

  “The wolves know what they’re doing,” TaLi said. The fear in her voice was so well disguised that I was sure none of the humans could detect it. I leaned against her, offering her my strength. DavRian looked at her and then at HesMi. HesMi shrugged and crouched down, holding her sharpstick. DavRian had no choice but to stay or look a coward.

  BreLan grinned at the Kaar leader. “You didn’t listen to me when I told you about what the wolves can do for us,” he said. “Now watch.”

  For long moments, all the humans could do was watch. The longfangs were guarding their meal so closely we didn’t dare go near.

  Then the mother longfang left her cubs and began to shuffle on her belly toward the rest of the carcass. The other longfangs looked up and snarled at her, but she kept moving toward them, pawswidth by pawswidth. We wouldn’t have much time.

  I dipped my head to Ázzuen.

  We pelted across the grass. Ázzuen wasn’t as fast as Marra, but he was agile and could turn quickly. He came up behind one of the cubs and nipped it on the rump. Both cubs whirled at him, snarling and growling.

  “Ours!” one said. He had dark-tipped ears and a longer muzzle than his sister.

  I ran at him, butting him in the side with my head. His ribs were hard and sharp, close to the surface. They must be growing quickly to have so little flesh on them, I thought.

  The cub Ázzuen had nipped whirled to me, her eyes frantic. Ázzuen and I ran two quick circles around both cubs. Then Ázzuen grabbed one of the small pieces of meat and bolted.