by Bryce THOMAS
‘Add up?’
‘Yes, I can add numbers. Two wolves plus two wolves are…’
‘Four wolves,’ Rasci said proudly.
Ben’s eyes widened. ‘Gosh, you know this stuff as well!’ Rasci tried to grasp the reason why Ben should spend much of his life learning to count wolves, but something inside him prompted him to think better of asking for any further information. ‘But… but what’s reading and writing?’ he asked instead.
Ben chuckled again. ‘You don’t know much about humans, do you?’
Rasci shook his head. ‘No, but I’d like you to teach me.’
‘What, to read and write?’
‘What does that mean?’
Ben was pensive for quite a while. ‘Well,’ he said eventually, ‘it’s like… like putting words down on paper…’
‘Paper?’
‘You know, that stuff I had on my desk. I can say something and you can hear it. But just imagine you are not here when I say it. Then you won’t know what I’ve said.’
‘Obviously!’ Rasci said, confused.
‘But if I put what I am saying down on paper,’ Ben continued, ‘then you can see that paper and know what I’ve said, even if you are not there when I say it, you know…’ He got off the swing, bent down and wrote his name in the sandy dirt with his finger. ‘That says “Ben”,’ he said proudly, standing back up and pushing his bottom back onto the seat of the swing, which was a fraction too high to sit on without standing on tiptoe in the first place. ‘My mummy showed me how to write that.’
Rasci still looked puzzled.
‘It says “Ben”, but when I can write better, I could write “Ben needs help” and you would know that from the writing, even if I were not here to read it for you, because if you can read, you know what it says. Understand?’
Rasci was overwhelmed with admiration for the cleverness of this young man. He nodded. ‘Yes, I understand very well now, thank you. You explain things very cleverly.’
Ben smiled, appreciative of Rasci’s praise.
‘And when you want to know something, it is easy to learn if somebody has already said it and put it in writing. That way, they can speak to you without being there. And you can hear it over and over again, every time you read it.’
‘Fascinating,’ Rasci said, approvingly, wondering why wolves hadn’t thought of teaching their cubs how to leave messages like that.
‘Do you want me to teach you to read, Rasci?’
‘What? Oh, perhaps, one day! One day I would like you to teach me about yourself and your kind. But at the moment, Ben, I have something very important to ask you.’
‘And what is that?’
‘Well, first of all, would you like to see Smokey’s pup that Rhamin stole?’
Ben’s eyes widened. ‘Smokey’s puppy?’
‘Yes. You know that Rhamin stopped a wolf called Solin from attacking you, remember?’ Rasci knew that the tale Rhamin had told of what happened inside the farmer’s house was true. He and Solin had argued about it days later.
And Ben remembered well the night that a wolf, he now knew as Solin, had entered his home and Rhamin, The Black Wolf, had followed and stopped Solin from killing Ben and his baby sister. And then, Rhamin had stolen two of Smokey’s pups, but later, Smokey returned with one of them. ‘You mean that the dog Daddy saw on the mountain is Smokey’s puppy, don’t you?’
‘Yes, I do.’
‘Daddy thought it was.’ His eyes lit up with excitement.
‘Oh, yes I’d love to see her.’ He seemed excited at first, but then his mood changed. ‘But I know Daddy would as well. That bad wolf came back with some other wolves and killed the other pups, you know,’ he said, looking down at his feet, sadly.
‘Yes, I know,’ Rasci said despondently, ‘and I’m sorry about that.’
‘Oh, it wasn’t your fault, Rasci. I know that.’
‘The pup that Rhamin stole; her name is Lexa.’
‘Lexa, wow!’ His little face lit up again.
‘And would you be able to tell your mummy and daddy that she is coming to visit you?’
‘Oh, yes,’ Ben said eagerly.
‘And would you be able to tell them that I need your father’s help to rescue Rhamin, the wolf that saved his life?’
‘How?’ Ben was beginning to get excited.
‘Well, I have a plan, but I haven’t worked out all the details yet. That’s why I need your father’s help. But I’m bringing Lexa, so that he’ll know that you really are talking to me. Unless he knows that we are able to talk to each other, then he’ll never believe what you say. I carry the scars to prove it. That invisible tooth cut my shoulder.’
‘Invisible tooth?’
‘From the fire stick that your mother used,’ Rasci explained. Ben chuckled again. ‘That’s Daddy’s gun,’ he explained.
‘It fires bullets.’
‘Gun? Bullets? Right,’ Rasci said, as he began to understand more of man’s language.
‘I’m really sorry about them attacking you, Rasci. Mummy doesn’t believe me at all, when I tell her about you, but I think Daddy does, now,’ he said and then added, ‘A little.’
‘Then I shall fetch Lexa, and then he’ll believe you a lot, won’t he?’
A broad grin cracked Bens face. ‘He sure will!’ he said excitedly. He paused for a moment. ‘When are you coming?’ he asked, his eyes lighting up in anticipation.
‘In a few days. Perhaps when you are not away from home.’
‘Well, I don’t go to school at the weekends,’ Ben said eagerly.
‘Weekends?’
‘Oh, we go to school for five days and have two days off. Those two days are called the weekend. Seven days all together in a week.’
‘How interesting,’ Rasci said, gazing at the teacher. She was watching every nod and gesture that Ben made.
‘When is your weekend?’ asked Rasci.
‘In three more days,’ Ben said, fidgeting with anticipation. A little bell tinkled in the background. ‘I have to go in now,’ Ben said, with a shrug of his shoulders. ‘Are you coming?’
‘No,’ Rasci said, with a smile. ‘But I’ll see you again very soon.’
Ben pushed himself off the swing and turned to go back to the school house. Mrs. Steadman was still watching him, but from the doorway now.
‘Don’t forget to tell your Daddy, that Lexa is coming to visit.’ Ben turned back to Rasci for a moment and shook his head. ‘No, I won’t,’ he said and with that, he skipped off back to join the other children who had already begun to go up the steps by the school house door and were being ushered inside by Mrs. Steadman, who’s gaze still remained fixed firmly on Rasci’s little friend as he ran to catch them up. Rasci watched on as May looked around and said something to him and then, they both went inside together. As the door closed behind them, Rasci could see the face of Mrs. Steadman as she took one last glance towards the swing.
–––––––
Rasci’s meditation had lapsed into sleep and he slept through the rest of the day. But he dreamt no more about Ben. His dreams seemed more jumbled and imprecise, at first, bearing on nothing in particular, but just flicking from one part of his mind to another. Then, eventually, his mind turned to the stranger he had met on the plains. There was something about Roxana that had intrigued him. Momentarily, he thought about the mountain lion that had stalked him, and then, through a thick misty fog, he saw Solin, talking to Roxana. She had explained that it was he who had told her about Rasci but, with the passing of the mist cloud, the vision faded before he could establish what had been said, or whether it was the past or the present and, as quickly as it came, in front of his eyes, the scene was transmuting into a picture of another wolf, one he thought he recognised, only the thick mist, once again, drifted across his line of vision, obscuring everything.
When Rasci awoke, it was dark outside the cave. He could hear Zelda’s heavy breathing as she slept beside him. There was no sign of Silvah. She woul
d be out hunting. Slowly, Rasci stood up and stretched, putting a little weight on his injured leg to test it for pain. It was healing fast and, as he strode over to the water hole for a drink, he let his full weight fall on his bruised leg. It still hurt, but he knew that in three days time he would be well enough to travel at his usual loping stride to the farm once more. In the meantime, as a result of his restless, dream filled sleep, he had something he felt compelled to do. He would let Zelda sleep for now. In the days to come, he would tell her of his dream about Ben, but the thought of talking about Roxana troubled him. He didn’t know how to tell either Silvah or Zelda about the young wolf that he had met out by the perimeter of Raymond Rozalski’s farm, or how they had met. He wasn’t sure how any of the other members of the pack would take it either, if he said he wanted to introduce her into the pack. He wasn’t even sure if Roxana wanted to join, nor was he sure why he was even considering it. She had suddenly appeared in his life and then, just as suddenly disappeared. He wondered to himself if being a leader meant that he should have all the answers, but then thought how difficult it was for Rhamin, sometimes, to decide what was the best thing to do. Rhamin relied a great deal on Zelda’s wisdom. Perhaps, if he told Zelda about everything that had happened to him, she would be able to advise him too. Looking down at the frail old wolf once more, he was determined that he would broach the subject before he left on his mission but, until then, he was going out where he always felt best; alone, in the forest.
Still favouring his right leg a little, he headed slowly northwards. In the distance, he could hear some of the pack calling to each other, but he didn’t call out. He was listening for a specific call, but it never came. Or perhaps Roxana was too far away to be heard. Perhaps she was calling him right now. But then, as he thought about it, that wasn’t likely. Even if she wanted to call to him, she wouldn’t do so in the territory of another wolf pack, for even though it was Rasci’s pack, none of the other wolves knew her. To them she would be a stranger, an intruder. No, she wouldn’t call, that’s for sure.
He knew exactly what he was looking for, but he had no idea why. Nor did he know where to look. He trotted on, letting his feelings and his instincts lead him. Roxana had said that she was heading up into the mountains. ‘You know where to find me,’ she had said, so he was heading the same way.
The ground was beginning to rise towards the tree line of the foothills as the day broke through a thick heavy cloud that hung over the mountains, crowning the tree lined slopes just like the guard hairs enveloped his tender shoulder blades, thicker at the top and thinning at the bottom. The first trees on the lower slopes looked like so many legs supporting the coat of mist like a canopy.
The heavy vapour deadened the sounds of the morning. What birds there were, chanting their morning shrills, sounded close and muffled. He soon reached the legs of the canopy and settled for a rest beneath the first line of trees.
From his resting place he could still see the plains clearly beneath him, stretching into the distance. The thick rain clouds blocked out every bit of white sunlight. Even the trees and rocks below looked grey and colourless.
He turned his head towards the forest and listened. Soon, his keen ears picked up noises of moving deer as they grazed upon the rich green foliage, belching and cudding and generally moving in their unperturbed manner though the undergrowth. He wasn’t hungry enough to hunt them and neither was he intending to return to the Darin that day, so the deer were safe for now. He would wait until he came upon something small and which he need not waste or leave for the vultures that seemed, even now, to have sensed his presence.
To Rasci, the vultures were just pests, creatures that persistently waited for him to leave his kill after taking his fill. They waited and, more often than not, there was something left for the scavengers. He knew that Corvak was the same kind of predator but, being a friend and companion on many of his trips, Corvak was never seen in the same light. He was invited to join in. He was an honorary wolf, a honour bestowed upon him for the many times he had helped the pack. The vultures were not part of Rasci’s family. They just presumed that they could come in after the kill. It was their way. But he had to admire them for their persistence. He watched them circling up above, appearing from the dark cloud and then disappearing once again as they followed the rising air currents.
Slowly, Rasci headed up into the forest and into the veiling mist. He could still hear the deer and the ultrasonic chatter of the small mice that travelled, otherwise undetected, through the lush grass beneath his feet. He let them be. He was on a mission and food was immaterial. The problem was; he wasn’t sure why he was looking for the mysterious female wolf. Neither was he sure exactly where to find her.
Gradually the fog became so thick that he could barely see from one tree to another, but he still strode on, forwards and upwards until, suddenly, his leisurely stroll halted abruptly. There was a commotion up ahead, a crashing of undergrowth and a squealing of an animal in flight. He could hear one of the vultures calling out above the cloud. It unsettled him. They were normally silent birds, never wanting to draw attention to themselves. Then there was silence.
Rasci quietly moved forward. The fog was wrapped like a belt around the waist of the mountains. It was thinning a little as he climbed higher up the slope, but it was still too thick to see far. He stopped and waited. The vulture called out again. Even though the fog was thinning, he couldn’t see the bird, but he could hear it descending, brushing through the air above him. There was a flutter and flapping of wings as it alighted somewhere further up the mountain, perhaps a minute or so, in walking distance, away. Rasci crept on forward, careful not to tread on any brittle sticks, as he ascended from the thick mist into a clear day beneath dark cloud cover. The other vulture called from high in the sky. Rasci stopped. Then silence again. Then, suddenly, he thought he could hear voices, faint murmurings, but even his keen ears were unable to make out what the sounds were distinctly. The flapping of wings and the brushing of leaves told him that the large bird was taking to flight again.
Rasci lay in some thick moss by the base of a tree and waited. He lifted his head and sniffed the air, but there was no air movement, no scent drifting either to him or from him, but he still waited. He looked up through the trees. The vultures were circling, high in the sky, directly above his head. Then he heard it; at first, just an almost imperceptible foot fall; then another and another. The vulture screeched again, cutting through the silence. The foot falls were heading away from him. He remained as still as a stone. He could have sworn the first steps were coming towards him, but that wasn’t the case now. They fell silent for a while, and then, he heard them again, once more heading back towards him, getting closer and closer. He hunkered down in the moss, head forward, his back legs beneath him, tensed, ready to pounce, ready to react. Then, silence again for several moments until a humming sound suddenly broke the stillness. It was a voice, the sound of a happy animal, the sound of a happy wolf. The voice was instantly recognisable. It was Roxana. As the recognition dawned on him, the body behind the cheery voice broke into the gap between the trees. She hadn’t seen him. She almost walked past before he spoke.
‘Roxana?’
The female wolf swung around, astonished at hearing his voice. ‘Rasci! What are you doing here? I hadn’t seen you.’
‘I gathered that,’ Rasci commented. ‘Unless you were ignoring me.’
‘Ignoring you? Why would I do that?’
Rasci stood up from his resting place. ‘Oh, I get the feeling you don’t want to see me.’
Roxana laughed. ‘Whatever do you mean? I love seeing you!’ She came over to him, wagging her tail, and gave him a lick on the nose. ‘You’re looking much better now.’
‘Yes, I think I’ve just about recovered from my small mishap.’
‘You haven’t told me about that yet.’
‘I didn’t have the chance. You disappeared before I could tell you.’
‘You might rec
all that you fell asleep before that.’
‘Well, whose fault was that?’ Rasci said with a grin.
‘That’ll teach me to be nice to strangers then.’
‘Yes,’ Rasci said, reflecting on the day they had met for the second time. ‘It was rather nice.’
Roxana looked at him with her wide amber eyes. He couldn’t help thinking she looked even better than he had remembered. Still, when they had last met, she had just had a scrap with a mountain lion. Her dark grey coat was dusty and ruffled then, but not now. Now she was sleek and clean. She looked in perfect health. He could understand her desire to become the alpha female of a pack. ‘I enjoyed it too,’ she stated in her soft voice. Their gazes met. ‘You’re staring,’ she said, abruptly.
‘Heh? Oh, sorry, I… well I don’t know what to say quite honestly. I rather like looking at you.’ He shrugged as if to indicate that it was something he was likely to do again and then looked away. ‘I thought I heard you talking,’ he said, to change the subject.
‘Oh,’ Roxana said, smiling gently, ‘when I’m alone, I talk to myself. Or, rather, I mutter to myself. I’ve often been told that I give my position away too easily.’
‘Did you have some food up there?’ asked Rasci, looking up the mountain from where she had come. The fog, lower down the mountain was beginning to thin and disperse as the day warmed.
‘No. Why, did you want some? We can hunt together if you like.’
‘Well, I’m not over hungry, really. It’s just that I heard one of those stupid vultures land near here. I thought, perhaps he had come to finish off your meal.’
‘Oh, I heard it come near, but I didn’t see it. Perhaps it was after some live food for a change, or perhaps it has its young somewhere near.’
‘Probably.’ Rasci started to stare again. ‘I never really thought of them having families. They seem to be for ever hung above us in the sky.’ He blinked. ‘Let’s walk together,’ he said, to break the trance. ‘See what we come across.’