Secrets of the Wolves (10 page)

The three of us waited there until the early morning light made it possible for the humans to see us waiting just beyond the glow of their fires. As soon as some of the adults caught sight of us, we set down the meat and slipped away to rejoin our packmates on the hill. We hid for a few moments with Ruuqo and Rissa, watching as the humans took the meat back to their fires. Then we quietly left them and returned to the pack.

We waited two days, keeping far from the humans’ paths in case they were angry that we had come to their home. When no human hunting party came after us, we returned with more meat, this time bringing it just a bit farther into the homesite. Once again, the humans watched us from a distance, coming to take the food only after we were gone.

The third time we brought food to the human homesite, it was different. They were waiting for us. We came once again at dawn, since it was one of the times humans were most active and one of the times many of them were gathered together. It was also a time, Rissa had told us, that they would be least frightened of us. The humans could not see well in the dark, and thus were more fearful in the nighttime.

When we crept into their homesite and saw a large group of them standing in a half circle, like the elkryn sometimes did when they challenged us before a hunt, we nearly ran. Ázzuen and Trevegg began to back away, but when I saw TaLi standing, smiling, next to HuLin, I spoke.

“Wait,” I whispered, setting down the heavy walking bird I carried. Something had shifted, something had changed.

“Kaala,” Trevegg warned, “we can’t confront the humans. We’ll have to come back another time.”

“Trust me,” I said. “They aren’t afraid, not really. They want us to be here.”

He raised his nose to the slight breeze. There were so many scents swirling in the human homesite—excitement, anticipation, curiosity, a little bit of fear—that I knew he wouldn’t be able to determine what the humans were feeling solely by scent.

“How do you know for certain?” he asked. Ruuqo and Rissa were leading the rest of the pack on a hunt, so the three of us were alone. Trevegg was responsible for Ázzuen’s safety and for mine. “How do you know they won’t get frightened and attack?”

It wasn’t a smell, or a sound, or even the way the humans had stopped clutching their sharpsticks so tightly and holding their young so closely. It was a change in the air itself. When I had first seen the humans nearly six moons ago, I had felt it—a warmth in my heart, a yearning that could only be eased by moving closer to them, the feeling that something I had lost long ago was within reach. I knew that if I resisted it, the warmth would build to an intolerable burning in the moon-shaped crescent on my chest, and that if I gave in to it and could lay my head on TaLi’s chest, the yearning would be replaced by a feeling of rightness and belonging. When the humans had been so fearful of us, the pull had been muted. Now that they wanted us there, it swelled.

“Trust me,” I said again, lifting my chin to meet Trevegg’s gaze. I would explain everything to him when we had time, but if we were to keep the peace with the humans, if we were to have a chance of succeeding at the Greatwolves’ task, the adults in the pack were going to have to rely on my judgment. “You need to trust me,” I said.

“Be careful,” Trevegg said at last. “At the first scent or sound of trouble, you leave. Understand?”

I dipped my head in agreement, but my chest was already moving forward, drawing the rest of my body with it. Ázzuen’s soft whine told me that he was resisting the temptation to run to the humans. Picking the bird up in my jaws, I walked cautiously forward. Not to TaLi. To HuLin. As I neared the tall human, I began to lose my nerve. I almost set the walking bird down several wolflengths away, but something about the human leader’s manner made me keep moving forward until I stood just in front of him, so close that my breath made the fine fur of his deerskin wrap tremble. I waited there, looking up at him, holding the walking bird in my mouth.

And he took it from me. Like it was the most natural thing in the world. For a moment, I stood perfectly still, transfixed by the curiosity in his gaze. A quiet whuff from behind me brought me back to myself and I stepped back, just a few paces. Ázzuen came forward next, giving HuLin a piece of deer shoulder, and Trevegg came last with a rabbit. When the human leader took the rabbit from Trevegg, the oldwolf pressed his head against his hand, and HuLin briefly rested his hand atop Trevegg’s head before stepping away from the oldwolf. HuLin handed the rabbit and Ázzuen’s shoulder meat off to other humans but he held onto the walking bird, looking at it with satisfaction.

There had been an incident with Werrna over that bird. She was the one who had caught it, and in spite of the fact that Rissa and Ruuqo had ordered every wolf in the pack to save food for the humans, she had not wanted to give it up. We came upon her near the river. Walking birds travel with their mates and often one will not leave even if the other has been killed. The feathers and blood sticking to Werrna’s muzzle made it clear that she had already eaten one of the birds. The second one lay, still warm, in the melting snow at her feet. She was digging a hole to bury it in when we came upon her. She looked at us defiantly.

“I will share with my pack,” she said, “with elders and with pups. I know my duty. But I will not give any more of my meat to humans.”

Ruuqo and Rissa both raised their chins at her. For a moment, I thought Werrna might challenge them. She was strong, and a good fighter; she would be a formidable adversary. But after a moment she stepped away from the walking bird, glaring at me.

“We can find something else to take to the humans,” I mumbled.

“No,” Rissa said, “we cannot.”

I wanted to argue. The last thing I needed was for other wolves in the pack to think I was depriving them of meat. Enough of them resented me for making us responsible for the humans anyway. But the look on Rissa’s face changed my mind. With an apologetic glance at Werrna, I picked up the soft, warm bird.

Now, watching HuLin admiring it, I was glad Rissa had insisted. Walking birds are rich and fatty, almost as good as greslin meat. HuLin handed the bird to a human female standing behind him. Very carefully, very slowly, he reached out his hand to me. I took two steps forward and sat at his feet.

“TaLi,” he said softly, as if he feared a loud noise would startle us, “you say you have hunted with them?” I could tell by the approval in his voice that her status in her tribe was rising.

“Yes,” she said, just as quietly. “We’ve caught small animals together. And some deer.”

That was stretching the truth a little. We’d caught one deer. But HuLin seemed fascinated.

“Do you think they would hunt with others of us?”

“Yes,” TaLi said, excitement creeping into her voice. “I’m sure of it.”

“Bring them,” he said. “Bring them next time we hunt. We will see.”

For just a moment, the calculating look in HuLin’s eyes gave me pause. It was the same look Ázzuen got on his face when he had thought of some way to thwart the leaderwolves’ commands without getting in trouble, as if he had just found some new way to get what he wanted. A warning shiver ran down my neck. “Idiot,” I whispered to myself. HuLin had just invited us to hunt, and I was worrying about some fleeting expression on a human’s face? Once we had shown the humans how useful we were to them, once we had run the hunt with them, it would be only a matter of time before we were welcomed into their homes and proved to the Greatwolves that we could succeed.

Trevegg nipped my flank gently, pulling me from my thoughts, and the three of us backed out of the human homesite.

Even Trevegg bounded like a pup as we ran from the human homesite. None of us could believe how easy it had been.

“He just took it from me!” I said, giddy with excitement. “Like he was a pack member. Like he was a pup!”

“Don’t get overconfident,” Trevegg warned, “he’s no pup. We’ll still go carefully.” But his ears and tail were high.

“You think you’ll win your bet against Werrna,” Ázzuen said, grinning at the oldwolf. “If the hunt goes well, it won’t be long before they invite us to share their homesite.”

“I am concerned only with the well-being of the pack,” Trevegg said, his nose high. But his tail wagged even harder. He picked up a fallen pinecone in his mouth and tossed it in the air, trying to catch it on its way back down. When it fell to the ground he pawed at it as he might a mouse.

Suddenly, he froze, then stamped his front paws hard on the earth, the Swift River wolf signal to stop and listen. Ázzuen and I held perfectly still, and all three of us heard a rustling in the bushes as something moved quickly away from us. It could have been anything reasonably large, a hyena hoping we might lead it to prey, a curious bear cub, even a rock lion. Trevegg’s eyes narrowed and he lowered his nose to the ground. He followed a scent for a few moments, then whuffled softly. Ázzuen and I crept forward to see what he had found. We all looked at the large paw print embedded in the mud and melted snow. It was the paw of a huge wolf.

“Greatwolf,” Ázzuen said.

“Yes,” Trevegg agreed. “Can either of you smell which wolf it is?”

“I can’t smell Greatwolf at all,” Ázzuen said, frustrated, shaking his head hard.

“I can,” Trevegg said. “Just a little.” He buried his nose in the muddy pawprint, then grunted in annoyance. “Sometimes they can hide their scent. We’ve never found out how.” He sighed. “It stands to reason that they would be observing us.” He looked at the two of us, watching him anxiously. “No matter,” the oldwolf said. “We will succeed or fail whether or not they watch us. Kaala, can you get your raven to help us bring the humans to a hunt? It would simplify things.”

“Yes,” I said. I had heard Tlitoo tell the other raven, the female, that he would meet her at a stream not far from Wood’s Edge. It was a favorite raven bathing spot.

“I’ll talk to Ruuqo and Rissa,” Trevegg said. “It’s time to get the other packs to allow us to hunt in their territories so we can get enough food for the humans.”

“Do you think they will?” Ázzuen said.

“Their own survival depends on it,” Trevegg answered. “And Frandra and Jandru will support us on this.”

“You go with Kaala,” the oldwolf said to Ázzuen. “I don’t want either of you alone in the territories right now.”

Ázzuen dipped his head in acknowledgment as the three of us began to run again. We crossed the river back into our own territory. Trevegg continued on toward Fallen Tree Gathering Place, where Ruuqo and Rissa would return after the hunt to await word of our encounter at the human homesite. Ázzuen and I each nosed the oldwolf’s muzzle, then left him, running at an easy lope along the river until we reached a cluster of elder bushes that marked a spot where a small stream left the river and wandered into the woods.

The ravens’ bathing place was another few minutes’ walk from that spot, and we found Tlitoo there, with the female raven we had seen at the Great Plain and another female raven I didn’t recognize. Sitting next to them in the cool mud was the Stone Peak wolf Pell.

Pell stood when he saw us trot out of the woods to the stream bank, bending his legs a little so that he would not be so much taller than we were. I noticed that he didn’t put much weight on his wounded leg.

“I have thought about what you said, Kaala,” he said as Ázzuen and I came to a startled stop before him. “If the invitation is still open, I’d like to hunt with you.”

I didn’t know what to say. I had offered, but now we had to hunt with the humans.

Ázzuen answered before I could.

“We’re busy,” he said. “We don’t have time for practice hunts.”

“Of course you’re busy,” Pell said. “I will not impose on your hunting time. But if you would like to hunt with me sometime, send word with your raven friend.”

Tlitoo was busily preening his wing feathers and didn’t look at me. I noticed that he had pulled several of his feathers out and dropped them on the riverbank.

I looked at Pell’s warm eyes and started to speak, but nothing came out.

He waited a moment, then stretched and stood to his full height. “I’ll wait to hear from you,” he said. I had the feeling he was trying not to laugh at me. He trotted into the woods, limping slightly.

“Since when do you carry messages for Stone Peak wolves?” Ázzuen snapped, glaring at Tlitoo.

Tlitoo threw a feather at him.

“Don’t go,” I said to Tlitoo, slamming Ázzuen’s hip with my own. “We need your help.”

“For what?” Tlitoo pulled another feather from his back. I noticed his plumage was beginning to look patchy, with feathers yanked out unevenly all over his back, chest, and wings.

“Why are you pulling out your feathers?”

“It is too warm to keep them all.” He darted forward suddenly to grab a hunk of underfur from Ázzuen’s chest. “Winter ends, wolflet. Things change.” He threw the tuft of fur into the stream. “And I cannot help you.”