Survival of the Fittest

by Jacqui Murray

  “Stop, Zvi! You’ve gone too far!”

  This from the lead warrior, but instead of stopping, Zvi tucked the last pup into the crook of her weak arm and swung the other. Her intention was to push the warrior out of the way but her forceful slap connected with his cheek and cast him aside like the detritus of a hunt. He hit the ground hard and rolled into the central fire, screaming as his hair burst into a fiery blaze.

  Zvi ran from the pained screeches and bellowed threats of her groupmates, not caring that they would never again welcome her into their midst.

  Back at the mother wolf’s den, Zvi collapsed, shivering. The remaining pup wriggled from her arms, yipping his excitement to be home, and scrabbled in a fruitless search for his sibling. When he forgot what he was doing, he curled into Zvi’s lap.

  "I'm here. No one can hurt you," Zvi promised.

  The pup’s nose twitched, muzzle turned up to Zvi, and he licked her. Zvi tucked him into the nest at the back of the den, built a bristle bush barrier at the cave’s mouth, and settled in for the night. As they lay together, sharing warmth, Zvi listened for footsteps of her band but the only sounds were nocturnal insects and Owl’s hoot as it searched for a meal. Zvi and the pup fell asleep.

  When night arrived the next day and still no one came, Zvi had no doubt her people had abandoned her but it didn’t feel lonely or isolated. Now that someone needed her, it felt like freedom.

  "I will care for you, as Giganto cared for me. No one will hurt you. You will grow into a good strong wolf and rejoin your band."

  Zvi petted the animal's downy fur until they both fell asleep.

  Chapter 29

  Zvi awoke to a paw slapping her cheek. Only the slightest rosy glow showed over the treetops.

  “You wake early.”

  The pup charged forward, slammed his tiny paws to the ground with a high-pitched squeal, and then coiled in and out of Zvi’s feet. Zvi giggled but the wolf froze, head cocked, staring at his pack leader.

  “You never heard a laugh, Wolf?”

  Her stomach rumbled which made the pup tuck his tail and flop over.

  "You and I are hungry."

  She carried him in the crook of her arm while collecting roots and slugs and a tree frog, all rejected by the wolf so Zvi popped them into her mouth and kept searching.

  “Where do I find something you will eat?” She grumbled and then stopped beside a familiar tree. Curled around its trunk was a thick vine. “I know this plant, pup. Its juice matches your mother’s milk, well, in color. I don’t know about taste.”

  With a snap, the stem broke. Zvi sucked the liquid out and drooled it into the wolf pup’s mouth. He swallowed eagerly, licking drops of the juice from her lips. It took another and another before the pup yawned, curled at her feet, and fell asleep.

  Zvi picked him up and hurried to their cave, protected the opening with small boulders and bramble bushes, and sat down by the mouth, wolf cuddled in her lap. There, the pup slept while Zvi listened to his gentle snores.

  Zvi couldn’t believe her luck. She’d found a friend.

  Zvi tucked the pup the next day into her neck sack as soon as Sun peaked over the horizon.

  “We have to find Giganto, Pup,” but by the time Sun peaked overhead, there still was no sign of him.

  “I guess he’s busy again. He does that sometimes, with his family.”

  Zvi’s stomach growled and she headed for Leopard’s tree, the one place with an easy supply of meat. The pup’s hackles rose as he sniffed the predator’s scent and then he whimpered piteously.

  “There’s nothing to worry about. We’ll leave if Leopard is there.”

  The tree was empty of both the dangerous cat and a carcass so Zvi scavenged from a berry patch and ate from a termite mound until her appetite was sated. None of those foods interested the wolf. In fact, when offered, he coughed and shook his head violently.

  “I’ll cut more of those vines. When you grow up, Pup, we can hunt together. I’ve only had one hunting partner before—B-Borg. It was much easier with both of us.”

  The two created a daily routine. They woke with Sun, roughhoused for a while, and then went in search of Giganto and food. Within a handful of days, the vine’s milky liquid no longer satisfied Pup. His natural instinct was to eat meat but until his teeth grew in, he couldn’t tear or crush even the smallest morsels. Zvi was at a loss what to do, becoming more and more desperate as the pup lost the weight he had gained and began to mewl constantly in hunger.

  One day while hunting, Zvi placed the pup on the ground and waved, “Hunt!”

  First, pup gnawed a root but became bored. Next, he snagged a rat almost his size but it easily escaped his baby teeth and soft claws. Zvi snatched the rat, snapped its neck, and skinned it.

  Which gave her an idea.

  She chewed a mouthful, spit it into her hand, and gave it to the wolf. The pup slurped it up, yipped his excitement, sat on his haunches, and wagged his tail for more.

  Zvi giggled. “This will work fine.” The wolf gobbled up the chewed food until he fell asleep curled at her feet. She slung him over her shoulder, paws dangling in front and back, head snuggled into Zvi’s neck, and collected moss and branches. Last night, the wolf had been cold despite his fur. A nest would insulate him from the chill earth.

  A sniff upon entering the cave told her nothing dangerous was there so she tucked the pup into the warm nest and petted his furry fluff as he slept, wondering what to do next. Hunger still ate at her insides but Pup was too vulnerable to leave alone.

  “Food will wait. I have responsibilities.” Her pack depended upon her.

  The next day, when the two left the cave, again prowling for Giganto, Zvi let the pup romp.

  “I hope you don’t run away. I’ve come to consider you a friend.”

  That was the furthest thing from the orphan’s mind. Her scent was imprinted on his brain so no matter where he bounced, leaped, nipped, or chased, he always found his way back to her. Even when Zvi hid, the wolf could track her.

  As Sun dipped below the tree line, the wolf howled for the den and its lingering smell of his family. Zvi stuffed the entrance with bramble bushes and then they talked. Well, Zvi talked, the wolf listened as no one had ever before.

  “I was orphaned like you…” “My mother taught me how NOT to treat a child…” “I love you…”

  "Pup, I’ve never been so happy. You are a good friend.”

  The wolf pup snuggled into her chest. It helped assuage the worry that blossomed in Zvi, the one that frightened her too much to put into words.

  Where was Giganto?

  Chapter 30

  Zvi’s anxiety grew day by day as there continued to be no sign of Giganto. Did his tribe migrate? Or was he injured?

  “We need Giganto until you are old enough to hunt as my partner.”

  The wolf pup mewled and his forehead wrinkled.

  “You will like Giganto. He’s scary to some but gentle with friends. If something happens to me, Giganto will care for you. He’s too big to die.”

  Pup looked unconvinced so Zvi explained, “Bees live in hives, termites in mounds. They travel together. I lived with my People and you with your pack. Predators avoid groups and are drawn to the lone traveler.”

  Pup whined.

  “You’re worried Giganto will reject you? He’s not like that. He let me stay with him when I was alone like you are.”

  Pup pawed his face and sneezed. It took Zvi a moment of reflection.

  “Well, Giganto’s family may be frightened by a wolf but they know me. I’ll explain.”

  Pup leaped up, sprinted around the cave, and banged into Zvi’s leg.

  "You’re right. We will live here, in the den of your mother, with Giganto."

  The next day, as the days before, Zvi and the pup searched for Giganto. The wolf stayed at her feet, instinctively remaining quiet when Zvi was. That included when they crossed paths with Giganto’s family but they didn’t know where to find Giganto. />
  After another long fruitless day, the two returned to the cave. A snarling female wolf greeted them, with bared fangs and raised hackles.

  The pup yipped and leaped toward her but a swipe of her clawed paw tossed him well clear of the den where he landed on his back with a painful squeal.

  “Pup!” As Zvi hurried to help him, the female wolf’s mate slipped out of the underbrush. His steps were measured, head down, tail stiff, as a deep rumble rolled from his jaws, directed at Zvi.

  Zvi clutched the pup in one hand and a branch in the other, swinging it as a weapon, hoping to frighten the wolves out of the den, not injure them. When two tiny pups appeared by the female, Zvi dropped the branch and fled.

  “I can’t hurt them, pup. They want only to protect their family.”

  When Sun dropped out of sight, Zvi scrabbled up a tree, losing her footing more than once, stuffed the wolf into a hole in the trunk, and fell into an exhausted sleep, wondering what to do next.

  Yipping woke Zvi the next day. She’d fallen out of the tree and the pup was frantic to escape the hole he’d been stuck in all night. Zvi pulled him out, received fevered thank-you licks, and they headed away.

  “We will go where the animals migrate during the cold time. They always return so it must be safe.”

  The rejection of his own kind seemed to wear on the pup. He plodded beside Zvi with none of his usual rambunctious energy. Often, he gazed at her with hopeful eyes as though realizing they were alone. When Zvi stopped, he leaned against her leg and huffed.

  Soon, Zvi recognized the path as one Giganto had described so well, it became etched in her mind right down to the cawing of the birds and the smell of the dampness from the morning mist. They took their time traveling, the wolf pup trotting gravely at her side, head raised, ears erect and listening. When he voided, he buried it with dirt.

  Zvi did the same.

  She created a spear from a tree branch and stuffed her neck sack with succulents, stones, moss, leaves, and spiderwebs for healing. Wolf allowed her to hang a similar sack around his neck, this one from gazelle’s bladder and packed with more of the same.

  Zvi had no particular destination and the entire hot time to get there. She took the opportunity to show the pup how to steal honey from bees and track food. Often, they located caves for their night nest, sometimes occupied but usually empty. By this time, many babies had grown enough to move out on their own.

  Zvi could not believe life could be this happy, having someone to care for who loved her. They ate well and had plenty of tools and weapons. The last goal was a home.

  All that changed one sunny morning. Without warning, a ball of fire careened across the blue sky and exploded in a shower of fiery embers somewhere by Sun’s awakening place. A boom reverberated until Zvi heard nothing else. Pup’s muzzle fell open and his eyes squinted shut as he leaped into Zvi’s arms. She toppled over like a felled tree, hugging Pup to her chest and rolling up against a woody stump, determined to protect him from the hail of rocks and dirt falling from above. Despite covering one ear with her free hand and scrunching her eyes shut, the cacophony continued.

  When it finally ended, her eyes wouldn’t open without fire exploding in her head. Pup yipped and hissed, slapping his paws on the ground, knowing she was hurt but not understanding what to do about it.

  “OK,” and she leaned on her elbows, head drooping, waiting for her insides to stop churning. When her breathing finally slowed and her eyes would open without too much pain, she swiveled her head side to side. If danger stalked them, the pup was her responsibility.

  “It looks normal but smells awful.”

  The sweet scent of jungle had been replaced with the toxic aroma of Fire Mountain exploding, though the fearsome behemoth looked undisturbed. Nor did the jungle sound as it had this morning. It crackled, like a fire raging, and the low rumble of pounding feet saturated the air. The air thundered again, this time like the roar of Mammoth. Pup howled in fear and shook from nose to tail.

  Before she could decide what to do, the sky darkened with birds, raptors, bats, and insects and the ground thundered with the din of feet.

  "Watch out!" and Zvi scrambled backward, stumbling over a log, bracing her fall with one arm as the other gripped Pup. Leopard broke into the clearing and Pup leaped from Zvi’s arms barking his high-pitched warning. His tail wagged gamely as his legs trembled so violently that when he tried to run, he fell spread-legged. The big cat flew past, never looking at the terrified animal, as did a gazelle, a warthog, and a flood of other animals.

  Zvi snatched Pup and leaped into a nearby tree, cracking her spear against the trunk, and settled on a limb to watch the spectacle below. The air rang with hooves and paws, scurrying insects, and escaping rodents, nose to tail, no interest in anything but saving their own lives.

  Sun moved a hand overhead by the time the onslaught disappeared.

  "We must find Giganto and check on my people. Then, we escape together, with the animals."

  Pup yipped and growled, unhappy with the confusion, the distant scent of fire, and more than anything, the fear he smelled from his pack leader.

  Zvi petted his head and motioned, “I will protect you, Pup,” knowing that if the wolf didn’t understand her words, he still appreciated her tone.

  Damaged spear in hand, they trundled down their backtrail. They dodged many animals too frightened to veer out of the way of this huge upright creature with the small wolf who growled in a high-pitched voice. They all eyed Zvi as though wondering whether she was lost or stupid. Zvi’s home cave was abandoned with no trace of where her People went.

  “It’s OK, pup. We’ll find Giganto,” but the closer they got to Giganto’s home, the worse the devastation.

  Whole swaths of grassland were burning. The blast blew down entire stands of trees, roots naked to the air, limbs tumbled together in giant frenzied heaps. The sky was so opaque with smoke, it blotted out the Sun and clouds. Zvi tucked the pup into the crook of her arm and coughed, swallowing the cinder and ash sucked in with each breath. The further they went, the worse the carnage until it made bile rise in her throat.

  “This must be where the fireball hit.”

  The pup whined, head nuzzled into Zvi’s chest, tail wrapped around his body.

  The metallic smell of blood fought with the fresh stench of feces. Bodies littered the ground like refuse, crushed by trees or boulders tossed as though pebbles. Normally, hyaena and coyote would scavenge the eyes and tongues but today, they were untouched.

  Zvi felt the first stirring of panic.

  “This isn’t Giganto’s group, Pup. Maybe he survived.” Kind, trusting Giganto—he must be alive.

  Zvi darted from one usual haunt to another—Leopard's tree, the bamboo forest—but all were destroyed, nothing more than charred wood and tinder.

  “There!” It was Giganto’s troupe, lumbering away. She grabbed one by the arm. "Where's Giganto?" but he brushed her aside, as did the next and the next. "Where are you going?" She begged but no one bothered to answer. They shambled onward, heads hanging, arms lose.

  Zvi ended up alone, with Pup, trying to decide what to do next when something caught her attention.

  “Giganto…” Or what was left of him. Crushed by a boulder, arm pleading for help that never arrived, flies buzzed his blood-laden body.

  Chapter 31

  Zvi threw up while the wolf flapped his ears, sneezed, and coated Zvi with warm licks.

  “Why didn’t I find Giganto sooner?”

  He badly wanted to go away, with her. They had planned it all out. Tears sprang to her eyes.

  "Pup," she murmured, voice buried in the animal's fur. “We are too small a pack to survive."

  The wolf pup wriggled out of Zvi's grasp, dropped to the ground, righted himself with a terrified yip, and sprinted away.

  "No—that’s the wrong direction!" Zvi screamed as the pup pronked through Giganto's stumbling band, every one of them oblivious to the tiny creature dodging thei
r massive feet. He dashed past escaping panda bears, boars, and Giganto's small orange cousins. No one cared.

  Zvi chased after the wolf pup, frightened that he chased the scent of his pack, hoping he didn’t.

  “I know…” pant, “you recognize …” pant pant, “…we are different. I just hope …” wheeze, “…you still want me.”

  If he left her, she would be completely alone.

  Zvi careened after the tiny creature, easing beyond a blockade of brittle thorny branches, dread sending prickles of fear down her long arms, frantic that every dead bundle of fur in her path would be Pup. Blazing orange flames lit the ridge above her, eating their way toward them. Balls of fire leaped from tree to tree, the dry branches filled with sap, setting off booming explosions in the canopy.

  “Argh!” she barked in fear, almost stumbling into a yawning crevice so deep, no one could survive. Her gaze darted through the chaos, but no Pup.

  A plaintive yip echoed from somewhere.

  "Pup! Where are you?"

  Another cry, this one more hopeful as though he recognized her voice. Zvi leaned forward, looking over the crumbling edge of the gaping crevice that had almost been her end.

  There clinging to a ledge was the wolf.

  "I told you it wasn't safe,” she motioned as evenly as possible.

  Pup answered by mewling, as though to say, I now understand. He leaped up as far as his short squat legs allowed and fell back to the rocky shelf, digging his claws into the dirt-laden wall of the crevasse.

  "How do I get you out?"

  It was too deep for Pup to claw his way up, too tall for Zvi to reach down.

  Zvi found an undamaged bamboo pole about the size of her wrist and motioned, “I’ll drop this to you.”

  Once it settled on the ledge by the wolf pup, he sniffed, snorted, and then batted it with a growl. When it didn’t fight back, he licked the tough exterior and tried to chew a piece lose.

  “It isn’t food, Pup. I want you to scratch your way up. Can you do that?”