by Bryce THOMAS
‘All right, Gran. I’m trying to look tough here.’
Silvah laughed. ‘You are tough, Rasci. You are a deserving leader. I’m with you Rasci.’ She looked at the rest of the assembly. Some showed amazement, but most showed pride.
‘I think I can speak for us all here,’ Natan said, happily. ‘We will be proud to have Rasci lead us.’
‘Er… I was only joking. I just didn’t want that prairie rat poking his nose in.’ Rasci looked around at the pack. As the rain began to attack with blasts of blustery, wind propelled droplets he turned to the cave. ‘Honest!’
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
‘What are we to do about these men?’ Natan asked Rasci after they had all retreated to the shelter of the cave. The sky had gone darker than the night as the rocks outside were lashed by squally rain. ‘They have killed wolves for no reason. What are we going to do about it?’ His mood was as black as the weather.
Rasci shook his head. ‘Honestly Natan, I really don’t know. I’m going to have to think about it.’
‘But they’ve already killed Rhamin and Yeltsa. None of us are going to be safe. We must do something to stop them attacking us again.’
Rasci’s face was grave. ‘One thing I do know,’ he said, pacing the dry rock floor, ‘is that we can never win a battle against men.’
‘But we must do something.’
‘Rhamin taught all of us one important rule. Wolves have to live and exist alongside men, whatever they do. Over the years, we have had to adapt to whatever men do. But men do not have to live alongside wolves. Do you remember the story of what happened to Rhamin when he was a cub? I was lucky. I wasn’t born until the following year, but when Rhamin was a young cub, men hunted down and killed his mother as well as two other wolves. It was Silvah who saved Rhamin that day. But the wolf pack could do nothing to retaliate. They all had to accept the fact that the men had hunted and killed some of the pack. They had to accept it and just get on with their lives.’
‘So we just let them kill us, do we?’ Natan asked bitterly. Rasci shrugged. 'That’s the way of the world, I’m afraid. Everything is hunted by something. We have few real predators, but men are one of them.’
‘But we fought back against the bears. Why can we not fight back against the men?’
Rasci sighed. ‘Look, Natan, men do not hunt like we do. They don’t hunt just for food. They kill other creatures just for fun. They even kill their own kind just for fun, Zelda will tell you that. That’s how she first came upon men.’
‘That’s true,’ Zelda said from somewhere in the darkness. ‘Rhamin taught us that we have to show men that we are no threat to them,’ Rasci continued. ‘That’s why he stopped Solin from killing the farmer’s children. That’s why we all helped to save the farmer from the bears. And by helping the farmer and his friend, Rhamin saved us from his wrath.’
‘That’s not exactly true,’ Lexa, argued. ‘It was one of the men we saved that was in the mechanical bird. I know; I saw him. They were chasing us and, as I glanced up, he was pointing at me. I thought I had seen my last rabbit. I’m not kidding; I was scared stupid.’
‘But why would he do that?’
‘I really don’t know, but it was him, I swear!’
‘Have men kind got no sense of honour?’ Natan asked, shaking his head in disbelief. He slumped dejectedly onto the hard rock floor.
‘Some of them, apparently not,’ Ramusan remarked. ‘But it wasn’t the farmer. I’m sure, it was the other one. On the mountain, the farmer stopped him killing Rhamin. I saw him push the other man’s weapon aside. It made the invisible claw miss Rhamin. It passed harmlessly through the branches above our heads, remember?’
‘I know.’ said Rasci, contemplating the situation. ‘I know the farmer is a good man.’ He thought again, recalling his dream and the farmer’s reaction to the mechanical bird. He was some time forming his words in his mind. ‘And besides that,’ he said eventually, ‘I know the farmer never left his home.’ He knew the others would wonder how he knew that. The statement was going to require an explanation. Many of the pack were used to Zelda and her predictions. But he knew that some of the pack, especially the newcomers from the north, would think that dreams were something that should remain firmly lodged in your sleep. ‘He is still crippled after the bear attack,’ Rasci added quickly.
‘But that doesn’t mean anything,’ argued Natan.
Rasci gave out more information that would take a lot of explaining. ‘He was sleeping on his veranda when the metal bird passed over his home. It woke him with a shock and he was very angry.’
‘Oh, was he? And just how do you know that? Were you there? Did you see it?’ asked Ramusan sceptically.
‘In a way, he was there, Ramusan,’ Zelda remarked, coming to Rasci’s aid. She nodded. ‘Yes, in a way he was there.’
Rasci wanted to avoid the questions. What he needed now was time; time to think; time for the pack to cool off; time to work out what to do. Somehow he just felt that there was something he could do, but about what, he had no idea. At this very moment in time he felt like a stone that was rolling down a mountain. He couldn’t say where he was going or where he would end up. He was in a free fall situation. He was being carried along by a sequence of events, and only time would bring him to his final destination along with the answers.
Outside, the initial flurry of rain had abated to a calmer steady but persistent downpour. They all made their way back outside.
Without the gusty, squally winds that head up the front belt of a storm, hunting would be easier. Rasci saw this as an opportunity to take the pack members’ minds off the loss of Rhamin. Despite anything he said they were all looking to him for leadership. ‘I think it best if we all go out and find some food. When we’ve eaten then we should sleep.’ Realising they were all still waiting for his command, he said, ‘I will let you all know what we shall do when I know the answer myself.’
–––––––
‘I wonder if what Solin said was true,’ Rasci remarked to Zelda, as they rested. The rains had slackened off a little. An elderly buffalo had provided them with a good meal and they were doing what all wolves do after a heavy meal. Some wolves slept, others rested; others, to keep their minds off the previous day’s events, played with sticks and small rocks, tossing them away and chasing after them. They were all a little more reassured than the previous night, but they were still restless. As things stood, they didn’t know what the man’s intention was. They didn’t know if they were to be hunted down like Rhamin and his mate, and they didn’t know what to do to stop the man if that were the case. Neither did they know how to avenge the missing members of their family. For most of the wolves, it was good to have a new leader; someone to rely upon; someone to make the decisions; someone who could come up with the answers to their questions. But Rasci had no answers.
‘You mean about the spies?’ said Zelda. ‘Oh yes, I think so. After all, there are lots of birds in the sky.’
‘But it couldn’t be Corvak, surely.’ Rasci frowned.
‘No, it would not be our old friend the raven; that I do know.’ Zelda put her paw comfortingly on Rasci’s. ‘Now is not the time to doubt your friends, young wolf. Corvak and his family are as much behind you as we are. Just because he has not visited you lately, doesn’t mean he has abandoned you.’
A short distance away, resting by the water hole, Silvah lifted her head. ‘Corvak knows,’ she called to Rasci. ‘He was with us when the mechanical bird came over. He left for safety. The wings of that bird would kill any creature that gets in the way. But he didn’t return whilst I was there. I hunted for hours and travelled miles to try and trace Rhamin but during that time Corvak never returned.’ She sighed sadly. ‘Rhamin’s gone. Gone for ever,’ she added in a whisper. Then raising her voice she added, ‘But Corvak will return; I know that much.’
With that, Rasci felt a little easier.
‘I wonder why Solin hated Rhamin so much,’ Rasci said as he sett
led down for the night.
Zelda grunted. She gave a big sigh and rested her chin on her paws. ‘Sibling rivalry,’ she said eventually.
Rasci lifted his head and looked at her. Her eyes were closed and she was speaking as if having a vision. But she was just recalling the past.
‘You were all siblings,’ she continued. ‘You and Solin were born the year after Rhamin, but you and Solin were from different mothers. When your father, Anval, lost his mate that day when Rhamin was saved by Silvah, it was as if he had lost a part of himself. He was still the leader of the pack, but until he took another mate, he seemed to lose interest in leadership. It was Solin’s mother, Rhiana who brought his will back. But she was an ambitious and determined mate, and with that determination, came a certain anger and ruthlessness. She never tolerated any other wolves, male or female near her den. Anval was lucky to hold the pack together. But, by showing kindness and consideration, the rest of the pack remained loyal to him despite Rhiana. And despite Rhiana, he had a bit of a fling with Celion, a young female who had comforted him when he was at his lowest ebb. She was a kind creature. She gave birth to you and three other pups the same year that Solin was born, but died shortly after. Something burst inside her and she bled to death. But you were the only one of Celion’s pups to survive. Rhiana had asked Anval to fetch her some food and, while he was out of the way, she killed three of the pups. She would have killed Celion, only the other senior wolves in the pack, especially Silvah and Seth, gathered around her and saved her. You were snuggled beneath your mother. Rhiana never saw you. But by the time Anval returned, Celion had already passed away. He was very sad. He seemed to give up somehow. He was killed soon after that. It was just sheer carelessness. He didn’t care about himself any more.
‘But, although he wasn’t himself, while he was still around he insisted that Silvah and I reared you. You have no idea how difficult that was.’ She stopped and thought for a moment. ‘You know, you never left our sides. One lapse in concentration and that bitch, Rhiana, would have killed you!’
‘So Solin was brought up to hate me then?’
‘Not so much that,’ Zelda replied. ‘but Solin was brought up by Rhiana as the next in line to take over as leader. Then, Anval was badly wounded. He later died from his injuries but, when he passed away, there was no leadership contest. Rhiana was a vicious and dominating wolf and she asserted her position. She wasn’t going to be demoted just because her mate had died. In fact, Anval’s death seemed to release an even more dominant streak in her. Without Anval around she had absolute power and was not prepared to relinquish any of it. She took over leadership on her own. She didn’t take another mate and her plan was to raise her son as the leader. That’s all she seemed to live for. And she kept to it as well. She kept Solin and his three litter siblings, close to her. It was hell, I can tell you!’
‘So what changed?’
‘It was Rhamin. He was less than two years old, but he was big. Soon, he was big enough and strong enough to challenge her. He made Rhiana stand down and, despite his inexperience, the pack welcomed his taking over as leader. He was very popular with them. He was already so much bigger and stronger than any wolf by that time.
‘But the move dismayed Solin. He was racked with jealousy. He had always been jealous of Rhamin, but now, still only a year old, and unable to defeat him, he became rebellious. He always had something to criticise or complain about.’
‘So why didn’t he leave when Rhiana did?’
‘Because he had a dream. His mother had instilled it into him from the day he opened his eyes. And because, despite himself, his big brother still loved him. Rhamin spent a lot of time with you and Solin, but he was never together with you both at the same time. Rhiana saw to that.’ She paused to think. ‘It was like he had two separate lives with two separate families while Rhiana was the leader. But it didn’t seem to bother Rhamin. Even when he was a year old, when you were born, he was too big for anybody to stop him doing what he liked. Rhiana became wary of attacking him. And, after he deposed her as leader, she just up and left the pack with the other three cubs. Nobody knows where she went. She just left on a hunting trip and we never saw her again.’ She thought again and shrugged. ‘There were rumours.’
‘Rumours?’ asked Rasci.
‘Yes, there were a few stories going around. One was that they had been killed by a mountain lion.’ She paused again and gazed sightlessly at the sky. ‘Perhaps they are still alive, who knows? We never heard anything about them after that.’
As the darkness drew in, Rasci settled down to another night of fitful sleep. At first he couldn’t clear his mind at all. Try as he may, sleep slipped away each time he began to capture it. Something was preying on his mind; something had to be done. But what? If he knew that, then he’d know how to do it. He began to question his motives for taking over the leadership. Why had he done it? Until Solin had appeared, he had had no intention of taking control. Young Natan would have been his first choice. But then, Natan would not have been able to stand up against Solin as he had. Rasci knew that. Damn Solin! All Rasci wanted was a quiet life. He wanted to hunt and play and act the fool. That was his way; it always had been. Now it was all changing. He had always felt free. Now he felt trapped in another decisions for himself; making decisions for the others; being responsible for their safety. Where would it all end?
Weary with thought, he sighed. Before he could sleep he had to stop his mind from galloping from one thought to another. To do that, he had to make a decision. And this was it: In the morning he was going to resign his leadership. Suddenly he felt much better. A heavy rock lifted from his soul. So now he could relax. He fell into the sleep of the drained and weary.
–––––––
All sleep is interspersed with dreams. It is a time when the mind recalls events, formulates ideas, processes data. Dreaming is essential for animals and humans alike. It is a period marked by rapid eye movement. And more often than not the body moves and jerks about as well. It wasn’t long before Rasci began to dream. Old Zelda couldn’t see him, but she sat nearby; near enough to feel the twitching and the jerking and to hear the whimpers and the woofs. She knew Rasci was solving a problem in some way, so she didn’t wake him.
‘Damn’ the man had said. ‘Why in hell did you do that, Raymond?’
The men on the mountain were the first images that came into Rasci’s dream. He was right there, beside them, watching, listening to them, but they looked straight through him. At the same time, as he watched the scene, like in any dream he could see himself down the slope behind Rhamin, watching what was happening from the cover of the heavy leaf laden branches of a tree. He’d watched as the farmer pushed the other man’s gun up in the air when he shot at Rhamin. It had provoked an angry response from his friend and now the farmer was explaining why he had stopped him killing the black wolf. Once again, in his vision, the words were clear to Rasci.
‘I know that black wolf, the one with white ears,’ said the farmer ‘He saved my family from an attack by another wolf.’
‘That seems a bit far fetched to me. Just look at him. What a magnificent trophy!’
‘I don’t do trophies,’ Raymond replied brashly. ‘I do guided tracking for deer hunters like you, Petersen. I don’t shoot all the wild life willy-nilly.’
Something was going through Petersen’s mind. Rasci suddenly saw a vision of a dead bear. It had been killed with what the men called a gun and it was being skinned, and then he saw its skin had been filled to make it look alive again. It was standing motionless in the front passage leading to a room in the home of the man. Petersen had put it there to look at and admire. It was there for his friends to see. Rasci understood now what the man meant by a trophy.
His mind flicked back to the mountain.
‘But nobody will believe me when I tell them about the size of this animal!’ Petersen exclaimed. He shook his head. ‘Raymond Rozalski, I’m really disappointed with you.’
&nb
sp; ‘Be that as it may, these wolves deserve a life as much as we do.’ And then, the farmer smiled. Not at the companion. It was a smile aimed directly at Rhamin. The farmer said something to the black wolf, but it made no sense to Rhamin at all, and then the farmer gave him a wave of acknowledgement; a wave that Rhamin did understand. Rhamin lifted his head slightly as if to let the farmer know that he had understood. There was a long silence as both looked into each other’s eyes. Then, still held in the farmer’s gaze, Rhamin turned slowly and hopped down from the ledge into the cover of the dark undergrowth.
Raymond looked down at his own gun that lay on the rocks beside him. Giving out a big sigh, he went on, ‘I did shoot a couple of wolves last year,’ he confessed. ‘But that black wolf was with them. I didn’t know it at the time, but I know now that he wouldn’t attack a human being, man or child, even if he were starving. I know that for a fact because he and his pack were starving. The wolves I shot were thinner than I had seen an animal for a long time. They were just looking for food. When they started worrying my sheep, I just reacted automatically and started shooting.’
‘But there are plenty of them about Ray! You shouldn’t beat yourself up over a couple of dead wolves for goodness sake!’
‘There are plenty of humans about, but it doesn’t give us a right to shoot them for pleasure. We kill deer for the meat. You hang stuffed animals on a wall!’
‘I didn’t mean it that way. What I mean is, dead is dead. You can’t undo what’s already been done.’
‘I know, but it’s not that. It’s because that black wolf stopped one of the pack killing my kids. All right, it stole one of Smokey’s puppies, but I think he only did that to divert attention. I really do! He’s a clever one that black wolf, mark my words.’