Spirit of the Wolves (12 page)

“Be careful of that one, wolf. He will pretend to be friendly, but he will scheme like a hyena at your kill. The krianans who live in the forest stay away from the village because he has made the elders suspicious of them.”

IniMin smiled at the assembled humans. If I didn't know better, I would have thought him friendly. “We live in a dangerous world,” he began. “There are beasts that live only to kill us, and those who will steal the very food we and our children need to survive. The only way we can survive is to control the wildness around us. More than that, it is our sacred duty to do so.” His voice rose. “We used to be one beast among many, running wild and no better than these brutish wolves who stand before us.” I had to stop myself from snarling at that. “We are not like those beasts anymore. We have been chosen from among all others to lead. It is our duty to tame that which is wild and to remove the dangers from the lands around us. Why else would we be the only creatures in the world to stand tall, to use tools, and to build homes? Why are we the only creatures able to speak, and think, and plan?”

“The wolves think!” TaLi said. “They talk. We just don't understand them.”

A few of the humans laughed at her. HesMi frowned at the girl. “You've had your chance to speak,” she said. TaLi looked rebellious, but stayed silent. DavRian had said something
similar about humans and their tools back in the Wide Valley. It unnerved me to hear the same belief here.

“I've finished,” IniMin said. “And I admire young TaLi's passion.” He, too, stepped down from the rock, an insincere smile stretching his face.

He was so condescending, I wanted to bite him. And I couldn't believe that he thought that humans were supposed to control every beast in the land. He sounded like a Greatwolf!

HesMi nodded to TaLi.

“I met NiaLi when I was not much older than you. You look like her, and you have her grace. I am pleased to welcome you as RalZun's candidate for krianan.”

“Thank you,” TaLi said formally. “I would be honored to serve as your krianan.”

The human leader spoke more sharply to IniMin. “Do you know when your brother's son will arrive?” she demanded.

“No,” he said respectfully. “I know that he is on his way.”

“He's a good candidate, IniMin, but we won't wait forever.”

“I don't expect you to.” He smiled. “In the meantime, I look forward to seeing how useful these wolves really are.”

“IniMin's nephew is his candidate for krianan,” HesMi said to TaLi. “He now lives in another village, but has spent many winters in Kaar, as did his father before him.”

A soft scrabbling drew my attention to the tartberry bushes at the far edge of the clearing. A wolf was lying flat on its belly, so that just its head and forepaws were visible as it peered into the village. It was much too small to be Milsindra or even Lallna, and at first I thought that Prannan or Amma
had snuck into the village. Then I looked more closely. There was something wrong with the little wolf. Its head was too round and its muzzle too short. I tried to make eye contact with it to warn it away. Kaar was my territory now, and no strange wolf should trespass.

RalZun pulled on my ear. I yelped.

“Were you paying attention?”

“Yes.”

He glowered at me. Prannan's name for him was apt. He was every bit as bossy as a raven.

Ázzuen pushed between me and the old human. “HesMi said that IniMin has to get his candidate here in three days, and then they'll decide by their Spring Festival on Even Night who their next krianan will be,” he said.

I felt a surge of confidence. TaLi's challenger wasn't here yet. We had hunted with the humans, and HesMi liked TaLi. For the first time since we had left the valley, I believed we could succeed. We had a long way to go in a short time, but we had done well so far. Ignoring RalZun's irritated huffing, I nosed Ázzuen's muzzle and trotted toward TaLi.

“Let's go,” I said, looking back at Ázzuen. We had work to do.

F
or the rest of that day and through the night, Ázzuen and I stayed at the edges of the human homesite, letting the humans grow accustomed to us. The next morning, we dared to slink close to their fires. None of them seemed to mind. Marra then joined us in the village, and when her presence didn't make the humans nervous, Pell arrived, too, though he refused to come any closer than the very edge of the largest clearing. I waited for our next task, but the humans seemed in no hurry to have us prove ourselves. I bit back my impatience. Though Even Night was near, I didn't want to frighten the humans by pushing them too hard. Finally, when our second day with the humans was half over, TaLi and MikLan came to find us. When Pell saw them, he slipped back into the woods.

“We've been invited to swim with some of the younger villagers,” TaLi said excitedly. “They want you to come, too. They said that hunting with you was the most fun they've had in moons!”

I panted a smile at her. Young humans always took to us more quickly than their elders. If we could get them to like us as much as TaLi, BreLan, and MikLan did, they could influence the others. TaLi galloped from the village. Ázzuen, Marra, and I followed.

The young humans cavorted in a stream a five-minute lope from Kaar. It was shallow enough that I didn't have to worry about TaLi. The humans were all about the same age as TaLi and BreLan—near or just past adulthood—and they had the energy and sense of fun of youngwolves. My tail began to wag as our humans waded in to join them. A moment later, we splashed in, too. The water was cool and tasted of minnows. I could smell Pell's willow and wind sage scent nearby and wondered if he was hiding in the bushes watching us.

The males wrestled like youngwolves seeking dominance, dunking one another under the water and splashing the females. TaLi, giggling, splashed them back. When one of them tossed an armful of water on me, I charged him, knocking him onto his rump. The other humans whooped in laughter as the male I'd knocked over tried to dunk me. I let him chase me around, stumbling in the knee-deep water. When I smelled him getting frustrated, I allowed him to catch me and push me over. He grinned and rubbed the fur between my ears. My chest warmed as it did when I lay side by side with TaLi.

I waded out of the stream to find Marra and Ázzuen soaking wet and being chased by a group of young humans. The
humans all had huge smiles on their faces. I shook the water from my fur and lay down next to TaLi, basking in the afternoon sun.

“Can your wolves hunt anything besides elk?” a male asked TaLi, stretching out beside her.

“They can hunt everything,” she said. “We've hunted elkryn, horses, and aurochs with them.”

The other human grunted. Then a slow grin spread across his face.

“Do you have rock bears in the Spruce Valley?”

“Yes,” BreLan said.

“Grass lions?” the young human asked.

“Of course,” TaLi said, beginning to sound annoyed.

The young human's grin widened. “Are you and your wolves afraid of them?”

When our humans just glared at him, the young human got to his feet.

“Come on,” he said.

TaLi and BreLan stood, and Ázzuen and I got to our paws. We all knew a dare when we heard one. MikLan was fast asleep, Marra at his side. She raised her head and yawned, then set her head on MikLan's chest and began to snore.

I followed the humans from the stream, wondering what we were getting ourselves into.

The humans stopped in a copse of rough-trunked trees and dense bushes. I watched as they clustered together like a herd of prey, hiding under the cover of the thick brush. A pungent,
meaty scent wafted from just beyond the trees. I knew I'd smelled it before, but couldn't place it.

Whispering now, the humans pushed through the brush. Sharp thorns scratched their skin where they wore no preyskins and I pitied them their lack of fur. I wondered if the humans had long ago lost their fur and then learned to make clothing, or the other way around. I was so focused on my thoughts that it wasn't until we were at the very edge of the plain that I saw them: an elk carcass, stripped almost bare, and three longfangs guarding it. I swallowed a yip of fear.

I'd never seen a live longfang before, and had only picked up their scent after they were long, long gone from a place. Now that I was closer to them, I understood how the scent of these living beasts became the strong taste of the fang TaLi wore around her neck as the symbol of her role as krianan.

The longfangs were more than twice the size of a grown wolf and had flat, light-colored fur that reminded me more of the pelt of prey than that of a hunter. Even from a distance, I could see the long, curved fangs that gave them their name. With these fangs, they could spear prey through the neck, sometimes causing it to bleed to death, sometimes crushing the air from its throat. A single longfang could take down an elkryn or an auroch. We never, ever competed with them for prey. Hyenas did, once the prey was dead, but they weren't good at hunting on their own and, as much as I hated to admit it, they were better at stealing prey than we were.

The humans were murmuring with fear and excitement.

“HesMi won't let us fight them if they come after our kills,” a girl said, “even though we could win if we wanted to.”

I heard a chortle from above. Tlitoo peered down from a high branch.

“What would happen if one of your wolves fought one?” asked the male who had dunked me.

“I don't want to find out,” TaLi said.

I looked from her to the other humans. Human groups were ruled by dominance just like any wolf pack, and with courage came status.

I turned my back to the humans and watched the longfangs. The three adults hunched over the carcass. The cubs, as they called their young, tugged at a piece of hide that still had thick strips of meat hanging from it. Each cub was trying to eat it, but whenever one got close to doing so, the other would snatch it away.

“I want that hide,” I said to Ázzuen. If I could steal it, I would impress the young humans. I expected Ázzuen to tell me it wasn't safe, but mischief lit his eyes and his mouth opened in a grin.

“Let's get it, then,” he said.

Two adult longfangs chased the third away from the carcass. She tried once to go back to it and they rushed at her, growling fiercely. One of them reared up on its haunches and swiped at her. The two cubs darted to her side.

The cubs were thin and lanky and about two-thirds the size of the adults. Longfangs grew more slowly than wolves did. It took them two years to reach adult size, which meant that the cubs were about our age, but only as mature as a pup four months out of the den. The longfang who had to be their mother looked down at them and then back at the dead elk.
Slowly, she crawled on her belly toward the carcass where the other two longfangs continued to feed.

There was still quite a bit of meat on the bones. The cubs mewed and, though I didn't speak their language, I knew it was a cry of hunger. Their mother tried to sneak in to get some of the carcass and the feeding longfangs growled at her. She backed off again. She lay down on her belly, staring at the other longfangs and the meat they guarded. The cubs watched her for a moment, then began their battle for the hide again. Ázzuen's breathing quickened. He was watching the cubs as intently as the mother longfang was watching the carcass, and the tip of his tail twitched as it did before a hunt.

The cubs were energetic in spite of their hunger. They were bigger than we were, and, unlike prey, they had sharp fangs and teeth. It was too risky to just run out and grab the hide from them. I snuck a look at Ázzuen out of the corner of my eye, ashamed that I had to ask his advice yet again. If I wanted to be a leaderwolf, I should've been able to come up with my own ideas.

Ázzuen bent close to me to whisper in my ear. A slight crackling of the undergrowth was all the warning we had before a black shape darted from the bushes and a sharp beak grabbed Ázzuen's tail.