Wolves and War

by Candy Rae

“What can we take with us?” asked Janice some days later, looking round at their possessions. “I’ve worked so hard to make this a real home.”

  “We’ll take what we can carry,” answered Winston, a comforting arm round her shoulders. “Anything else, like that rosewood dower-chest that was your mother’s, we are to load on to the wagon and it will follow. We can easily build more cupboards, tables, chairs and the like.”

  For the four youngest Randall children, their move to Zanatei was a huge adventure, the three girls especially not really aware of the danger threatening from the south. Louis was not so carefree about what was prompting the move west. He was old enough to fully understand the very real danger they had found themselves in.

  “Where will we sleep on the journey?” asked Violet.

  “On the ground,” replied Tara. “These sleepbags are jolly comfortable. When I left with Kolyei I only had what I’d gone out in. Laura Merriman lent me hers for the way back. Clothes for the journey, sleepbags and then cooking and eating utensils are all we’ll need.”

  “Food is being arranged,” added Kolyei.

  “We won’t starve,” agreed Tara.

  “We can gather nuts and berries as well,” Brian declared enthusiastically.

  Janice listened to their enthusing with dry amusement.

  “And when we arrive?”

  “Most welcomed you will be,” announced her four-legged guest.

  “Kath, Emily and the others are getting ready for you,” added Tara. “Ilyei told Kolyei they’re building basic furnishings, including beds though they’ll be a bit rough and ready.”

  “I like beds,” announced Kolyei. “They are much better than cold, hard ground.” He grinned and Tara laughed at her vadeln-pair affectionately.

  “Every Lind I have met approves of the human tradition of beds. Thomas and the other boys built ours not long after we arrived at Zanatei. They’ve become very popular.”

  “And Francis McAllister,” queried Janice, “what is he doing?” She didn’t have much time for the ex-rating, ‘irresponsible troublemaker’ being the most common epithet she used to describe him.

  “He learns,” said Kolyei. “He finds out how we Lind fight Larg.”

  Janice shooed the three youngest away at this point, not wishing them to hear yet more talk of war.

  “Go along and play. There’s no school this morning.”

  “No school,” repeated Lucy with glee and they sped away, intent on finishing their game of rounders.

  “Three days,” fretted Janice. “How am I going to get ready in three days?”

  “Brian and I’ll help,” said Louis. “We can begin to dismantle the furniture we are taking so that it can be loaded on to the wagon.”

  “I can help pack the clothes and bedding,” added Tara shyly.

  “When did Dad say the wagon would be here?”

  “Tomorrow morning,” answered her eldest. “We’re to share the wagon space with the Wylies, the Crawfords and the Amptes.”

  “What about your possessions Tara?” asked Janice suddenly. “Mrs Mackie told Winston she had kept them in case you returned.”

  “I had forgotten,” Tara admitted.

  “Go and ask about them now. Violet will go with you if you ask her. She is dying for another chance to ride Kolyei.”

  “Can you manage without me?”

  “Of course we can. Now, trot off and get them.”

  Janice then set her mind to the knotty problem of how to fit everything they wanted to take into the limited space of the jezdic wagon.

  In the end Winston himself went to central stores for Tara’s box. He placed it on the big table in the living area where the Randalls usually ate.

  “What’s in it?” queried Tara with interest.

  “When you ran off Jim went down to the cabin and went through your things looking for clues as to where you’d gone. He insisted that your personal possessions be stored until you came back. Made quite a song and dance about it if I remember. He was convinced he’d find you all and that you’d come back someday.”

  Carefully, Tara lifted the lid off and peeked inside. It was full to the brim of neatly packed items.

  “Why, it is Mama’s walnut box,” Tara cried with delight as she lifted the precious artefact out. “Mama kept her jewellery in it. It’s very old, it belonged to her grandmother.”

  She laid it reverently to one side and looked inside the carton to see what else was there.

  “The holos,” she said as with trembling fingers she took them out one by one. “This is Mama and Papa on their wedding day and this is Mama holding me when I was a tiny baby.”

  Soft tears began to flow and Janice was glad she had arranged that the girls and the two boys should be someplace else this morning. She moved over to Tara and took her in her arms. Tara leant into her as she cried her grief away. After a while her sobs died down and Tara dried her eyes with the kerchief Janice offered.

  “What are the other holos?” Janice asked gently.

  “This one is Mark, my little brother. It was taken on his fourth birthday.”

  “He looks a jolly little chap.”

  “He was, most of the time. When he was good he was very, very good, when he was naughty that was different.”

  She pulled out the last holo. It was larger than the others and showed a traditional family portrait of the whole family, Tara’s mother sitting, Mark on her lap, her father standing proudly behind and Tara herself standing leaning into her mother. All four were smiling happily at the holocamera.

  “I mustn’t cry,” said Tara firmly.

  “It’s okay to grieve Tara,” Janice soothed. “It’s natural, nothing to be ashamed of. Let’s put these holos aside for the moment and see what else is here.”

  Tara peeked into the carton again.

  “There’s something soft, wrapped in a shawl. “This shawl was Mama’s favourite,” she confided, “I’m glad it’s here. There are no other clothes or anything, just some ornaments and books.” She was busily unwrapping the shawl. She had felt something wrapped inside it.

  “It’s Toddles,” she cried, “my old teddy bear. Mark had a toy giraffe but I never saw it after the storm.”

  “He looks well loved,” said Janice.

  “Oh he is,” said her young guest, rubbing him against her skin. “I used to talk to him in my mind. I never thought I’d be talking to Kolyei the same way. I used to pretend he was talking back to me … childish I know.”

  “I did the same thing when I was your age,” said Janice, giving Toddles a quick pat and thinking back to her own childhood and her own fluffy bear.

  “Did you?”

  “Of course, all children do. The three girls have dollies. I listen to their pretend play all the time. They don’t realise I’m listening in of course.”

  Tara was piling up the books and papers she had found at the bottom of the carton on the table.

  “These belonged to Papa. He used to read them. He hated reading from the screens all the time. Said it hurt his eyes.”

  “There are no books on screen any more,” said Janice. “The computers are only used for what the Council calls ‘necessary projects’. These might well be the only copies that there are. What are they?”

  “Story books,” replied Tara, “grown up ones. There’s an old one of mine as well. He gave it to me when I was eight.”

  She held up an illustrated book with a front cover that said, ‘A Child’s Book of Fairy Stories’.

  She picked up another.

  “This one is ‘Fables of Old Ireland’. I used to read bits of this one myself sometimes and here’s his copy of ‘Kidnapped’. ‘Catriona’ doesn’t seem to be here but here are ‘Watership Down’ and ‘Pride and Prejudice’. I didn’t like that one much. In fact, I think it was mother’s and not father’s at all. The rest are his workbooks. He was an analytical botanist.”

  “There are quite a few,” Janice noted. “What do you want to do with them?”

>   “I’m going to keep the story books.”

  “You could send the textbooks to the repository,” suggested Janice. “Jean Farquharson is collecting books such as these.”

  “Is she setting up a library?”

  “Something like that. Why don’t we put all you are keeping back in the box for now? Brian and Louis can help you take the others over later. The girls will be back soon. You can help me prepare the meat for tonight’s stew.”

  “Did someone say stew?” came Kolyei’s voice from the doorway. He padded into the room.

  “What is that?” he asked, pointing with his paw to the object Tara was holding.

  “It is a book.”

  “What is a book?”

  “It’s sheets of durapaper stuck together, with writing on them telling the stories.”

  “What is writing?” he asked.

  It took time to explain. Tara didn’t manage to help Janice in the kitchen area that day. Kolyei was fascinated and asked Tara to tell him what the marks and squiggles meant.

  “Each squiggle as you call it is a letter, letters make words and words sentences. All the sentences together make the story.”

  “A story?” Kolyei’s eyes brightened. “I would like to listen to a story.”

  Tara laughed.

  “Later,” she promised.

  “Will you teach me how to understand the squiggles?” he asked then.

  “Are you sure? It takes a long time.”

  At the Zanatei domta, the twelve children and their partners had listened to many stories. The pack storytellers held many in their memories and recounted them at every opportunity and to whoever would listen. At night the Lind would gather and the call would go up for one of their favourites.

  There were many about brave deeds in battle but on the whole the Lind preferred not to listen to tales of war. Favourites were those that told of bravery and endurance in the hunt. Legends about the past were firm favourites. There were even some love stories.

  “I could read you the story about the leprechaun at the bottom of the garden who fell in love with a beautiful young maiden,” offered Tara.

  Kolyei settled down, ears cocked.

  “Sit down beside me,” he said persuasively. “I like it when you sit close.”

  When she was settled, Tara began.

  “Once upon a time...”

  “What time?”

  “Don’t interrupt. All fairy stories begin with ‘once upon a time’. You’ll get used to it.”

  Tara began again. This time Kolyei listened and didn’t interrupt although he had a great many questions.

  Her voice was clear and carrying and before long children and some adults began drifting towards them. Engrossed in her reading, Tara didn’t notice and it was with surprise when she raised her head after reading out ‘and they all lived happily ever after,’ that she realised she had an audience.

  She blushed in embarrassment.

  Violet broke the spell.

  “That was wonderful Tara. Please read us another.”

  Other voices joined in her plea.

  “A short one then,” she said, “after someone gets me a drink of water. My throat’s gone dry.”

  There was a rush as the children ran off to ask Janice to get her one.

  After they had settled down again (during the interval more children had arrived, summoned by sisters, brothers and friends and Janice was heard to wonder how more could be fitted in), Tara read the tale of ‘Cinderella and the Glass Slipper’, from her own book. They listened enthralled and completely silent.

  There were meows of disappointment when it ended and Tara closed the book, declaring she couldn’t read another thing that day.

  : Tell them to come back tomorrow : suggested Kolyei.

  Tara did, then Janice appeared and sent them away to their own homes for tea.

  Over their own meal Janice declared that all the mothers were in Tara’s debt. They hadn’t had as peaceful a day for a long time and that Julia Ramsay who ran the settlement nursery had asked if she could bring her young charges round the next afternoon.

  “You could tell them some of your own stories,” said Kolyei who wanted to hear them again.

  “I don’t know,” protested Tara, the thought of it all rather daunting. Kolyei picked up on this and turned to his hostess.

  “Others, will they help Tara read?”

  “I’ll do one,” offered Louis with a friendly grin at Tara.

  Tara looked at him gratefully and with a hint of hero worship on her own account. Louis was a big boy and it appeared to Tara wonderful that he should volunteer like this. She was yet to learn that the offer was just like Louis. He loved his three little sisters to bits and would do anything for them (anything sensible and not dangerous that is) and often looked after them when Janice and Winston were busy.

  As Janice had plans about the future of her young guest, she was pleased to see Louis treating Tara as one of the family.

  Another result of that afternoon was that Tara found herself teaching Kolyei his letters. She found him a quick student and eager to learn. Of course, the fact that he could pick concepts and explanations straight out of Tara’s mind was a big help.

  By the end of their first lesson he knew all the letters of the alphabet, both upper and lower case, and had read the first line of ‘Puss in Boots’, slowly, very slowly, but with great accuracy.

  Tara found her remaining days at the settlement exceedingly busy. In the mornings she taught Kolyei after she had helped Janice with the chores. After lunch she attended the nursery where she regaled Julia Ramsay’s charges, and as many others who could manage it, with stories. Kolyei went too and sat in the middle of the group, the tinies swarming over him. He enjoyed himself immensely. Then it was back to the Randall cabin for tea, bath and bed.

  The happy interlude didn’t last.

  Two mornings later the alarm rang out from the sentries on the palisades, not the seven hoots of danger but rather the one that informed those inside the settlement that, as expected, their allies had appeared out of the woods. It was Tarmsei, leading his ryz down to the settlement. He would command the escort to domta Zanatei.

  As Jim and Larya sped out to meet them, they were very well aware of what was happening in the Zanatei pack-land and elsewhere in the Lind heartland. Through Larya, Jim was constantly kept up to date. At least six packs had been asked to provide volunteers for the embryo cavalry force, to try and vadeln-pair with one of the young humans who were even now assembling for their departure for the west and Larya had reported, with a great deal of humour, that there was a waiting list of applicants.

  The five hundred were ready and waiting. As there were no draft animals apart from a few jedzic, most of the equipment they were taking would have to be carried on their backs, although Larya intimated that as there were plenty of escort guards detailed for this duty, there was a fair chance that the Lind would assist.

  Tara and Kolyei were going with them although Jim had considered asking that they remain at the settlement at least for a time to help with translating. The male Lind had refused point blank to be separated from Radya for any longer. Jim had his own private thoughts on the matter but not that private, Larya had laughed as she listened in. She considered this incipient romance very interesting indeed. The two would have to wait quite a long time to cement their relationship if that’s what it was because Tara and Peter were too young to be thinking of a permanent attachment at this stage of their lives.

  Jim, leaning against Larya, watched the procession leave, this their hope for the future. He watched the Lindar form a shield around their new allies as the party began to walk towards the woodlands. Afanasei and Larya would stay in contact with Tarmsei, Stasya, Radya and Kolyei. The cavalcade should make it to the domta without any trouble.

  Jim would have been far happier if more women with children had decided to leave with them. He believed that they would be far safer with the Lind than at the settlement.
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  Many women, when asked, had refused to leave their men. They felt safe behind the palisade walls, especially now that they were being strengthened and the ditch dug. They felt nervous about taking their children to live with the Lind, to a place with no barriers to keep the Larg out. In vain Jim tried to persuade them, saying that they could be evacuated far quicker on Lind backs from the domta if things went badly for them all but it was to no avail. A scant twenty extra women he persuaded to leave their men, although some that did decide to stay, arranged for friends and families who were leaving to take their children with them until the danger was over.

  He had work to do here at the settlement before he, Afanasei and Larya could follow them to the domta, before he could follow them home. He would have to liaise between the two species and prepare the settlers for the Larg onslaught but he was not discouraged. Together they would come through this. Together, Lind and human would build a nation in which both species would live in harmony. His arm round Larya’s neck, he waved goodbye one last time then turned and headed back through the gates.

  * * * * *