Spirit of the Wolves (20 page)

No longer separate souls.

Two will change the path.”

He shook out his wings and bowed to Neesa. “We are the Neja,” he acknowledged. It didn't seem to bother him that Neesa knew. It still bothered me.

“What wolf told you?” I asked Neesa.

My mother's smile turned shy. “If you will allow me, Kaala?” She lay down. “There is something I would like to show you, now that I know you and your friend are the Nejakilakin. The wolf I mentioned. And more.”

I had spent most of my life yearning for my mother. There was so much lost time I could never get back, so many lessons I never learned from her. How could I not take the opportunity to see inside her mind? We had so many moons of time to make up.

I lay down next to her. Before I was properly settled, Tlitoo wedged himself between us. One moment I was inhaling my mother's aroma, and the next, all scent was gone and I felt as if I was falling. I wanted to sleep next to my mother and feel her steady breathing while still seeing her thoughts, but I could not have both. Reluctantly, I released my hold on the present and allowed myself to fall.

It was not the first time Neesa had stolen away from the valley, but it was the first time she'd gone alone.

She and her sister, Rissa, had first snuck away when they were
not much more than pups. The Warm Hill pack hunted the nimble sheep that climbed the foothills of the High Mountains guarding the valley's edge. While the adults of the pack napped, the two bored youngwolves would slip away to explore. It was Rissa, always bolder, always more adventurous, who had first suggested seeing what was beyond the mountains. Rissa succeeded at everything she tried. She was a graceful hunter and turned the noses of all the male wolves they came across, even before they were a year old. Neesa needed to find a place she belonged, far from the pack that fondly saw her as less than Rissa. On this day, Rissa had followed the leaderwolves to learn how to mark the edges of the territory, and Neesa was left on her own.

She stood at the top of the pass and looked down at the expanse before her. It was so much bigger than the Wide Valley that there must surely be a place where she could find her own way.

She loped down the hill, feeling her muscles stretch in the cool morning air. She sensed rather than heard another wolf running behind her. She stopped when she reached the flatland and faced the approaching wolf.

Hiiln of the Swift River pack grinned at her. Swift River was one of the strongest packs in the valley, and everyone knew that Hiiln was their next leader, with his brother Ruuqo as his secondwolf. She and Rissa hunted with the two of them, and Hiiln wanted Rissa for his mate. He'd never paid attention to Neesa before. She whuffed a shy greeting.

“I didn't know anyone else ventured outside the valley,” he said. She thought she detected admiration in his voice.

“I haven't gone far,” she admitted.

“Want to come with me to explore those caves?” he said.

If Rissa had asked, she would have said no, that it was too dangerous,
but she didn't want the young Swift River wolf to think her a coward. They ran along the narrow valley between the mountain and the hills, and then up a craggy hill to the openings in the rock.

“Pick one,” Hiiln said.

She almost chose the closest one so that they could be in and out more quickly, but something drew her to another cave, higher up on the hill. She climbed nimbly up the rocks and Hiiln laughed.

“Your pack must be half rock sheep!” he said, and she smiled shyly at him. They reached the entrance of the cave and Hiiln bent down to whisper to her, his breath tickling her ears. She held perfectly still, trying to breathe.

“Does Rissa ever come here with you?”

Her racing heart seemed almost to stop, and bitterness seeped onto her tongue. “Yes,” she said.

Heedless of any risk, she pushed past Hiiln into the cave.

She had thought the cave would be empty. If it had smelled of another creature, she would not have entered so boldly. The shadow of a wolf directly in front of her stopped her cold, but she still smelled nothing. Hiiln, following behind her, collided with her rump. He whuffed in annoyance, then followed her gaze.

“I thought you would get here sooner,” a wolf rumbled. His voice was old, but his shadow on the cave wall moved with the suppleness of youth. Neesa couldn't help but bend her knees in obeisance to the Greatwolf, even though what she should have done was run. She noted, through her fear, that the Greatwolf was not trying to threaten them, as those in the valley so often did. That was also when she realized that there was no solid wolf casting the shadow that spoke to her.

She spared a quick look for the rest of the cave and saw the bones. Piles and piles of them. They smelled of wolf but were too
large to be those of an ordinary wolf. Greatwolf bones. Many wolves' worth of them.

“What happened here?” she asked.

Hiiln nudged her, a warning to be cautious, but her curiosity always got the better of her sense.

“This is where we came,” the Greatwolf said, “when we failed, when we were too ashamed to go on. Long before any wolf you know was born.”

“I think we should leave, Neesa.” Hiiln began to back away.

“Do not go,” the wolf said, but it was Neesa, not Hiiln, he addressed. “You have come this far to find your task, do not quit now.”

“What task?” Neesa asked, mystified.

“Have the ravens not found you?”

The ravens bothered Neesa all the time, asking her to follow them, but she had always ignored them. When she didn't answer, the old Greatwolf grimaced.

“The Warm Hill pack has allowed its bloodlines to weaken.”

Neesa snarled at the insult. The Shadow Wolf smiled at her anger.

“Have you not found yourself drawn to the humans?”

“I have,” Neesa was startled into saying. She thought that no one knew. For, when she and Rissa were not sneaking off to see the outside of the valley, they were watching the humans. Rissa wanted to take Hiiln to see them.

“Why do you want to know?” Hiiln asked.

“It is the way wolves and humans are supposed to be,” the Shadow Wolf said.

Neesa's throat went dry. It was her darkest secret, that she felt drawn to the strange, patch-furred, two-legged creatures.

“My leaderwolves said it was unnatural and that we should stay away.”

“That is our doing,” the shadow Greatwolf said, regret softening his voice. Then, from his shadow face, glowing green eyes met hers, and she felt her legs give way. She hadn't meant to do it, but she found herself lying flat on the cold ground of the cave. Hiiln, lying prone next to her, gave a soft whimper.

“I will not keep you long, steadfast young wolf,” the shadow said to Hiiln. “And you will play your part in this.” He whuffed in amusement. “You have a weakness for the females of the Warm Hill pack, as the Swift River wolves often do. You are not obligated as young Neesa is, but I have a feeling you are not the type to run from a challenge. I will not keep either of you here long. But you must learn of what has happened here and why your task is important.”

Neesa felt as alert as she did before a hunt. When the Shadow Wolf spoke again, it was as if his words settled into her mind like rain into welcoming earth.

“All creatures once were one,” the Shadow Wolf said. “In the time before time, there was only Earth, Moon, Sun, and Grandmother Sky. Together, these Ancients made up the Balance. But after many years, the Ancients grew lonely and tired of one another, and they began to squabble. So, one night when Moon had turned her face away and Sun was conversing with Sky, Earth made Creature to keep her company. At first, Moon, Sun, and Sky were furious and thought to destroy Creature. Yet Creature entranced them. For the first time in as long as they could remember, the Ancients ceased their squabbles and watched Creature play. For the first time, the Ancients had found something to diminish their loneliness.

“But when Creature reached adolescence, it grew fractious and unmanageable. It wanted more than its share of Earth, and wanted to possess Moon, Sun, and Sky. The Ancients had come to love
Creature so much that they could not destroy it. Instead, they split it into a thousand pieces, which split and split again until the world was filled with creatures.

“And yet each of these pieces was so lonely that the Ancients feared that each part of what had been Creature would waste away.”

The Shadow Wolf moved toward Neesa and lowered his cold shadow nose to her warm muzzle.

“A lonely creature is a dangerous creature,” he said, “and so the Ancients ensured that every creature would know it was a part of every other one, and part of the Balance. And for many years the creatures of the world were able to keep the Balance. Until one day a wolf and a pack of humans met at the edge of a great desert. The humans were dying of hunger, and the wolf taught them his own secrets so that the humans could live. Wolves and humans became the closest of friends.”

Neesa grunted. She knew the story of Indru, as every wolf did.

The Shadow Wolf continued. “But, like the Ancients, they quarreled and then they fought, killing and wounding. For in every creature there is the battle between the need for love and the selfishness of the will. The humans were so wounded by the wolves' betrayal that they pulled away from all other creatures. They began to destroy everything around them, using the new skills they had learned from the wolves. The Ancients decided that they must wipe out these creatures, lest they destroy all others.”

“And the wolf Indru begged for the life of wolf and humankind,” Neesa said, remembering her legends. “And the Ancients allowed it.”

“And the wolves promised to watch over the humans,” Hiiln added.

“The Greatwolves did,” Neesa said, bowing down to the shadow before her.

“And we failed,” the shadow Greatwolf said. “We were meant to watch from afar, to keep the wild while your kind guided the humans. But we were jealous and took what was not ours. Then we gave up and hid away. We came to this cave and chose to forget the Promise. But the smallwolves did not. Some of you could never stay far from the humans, and that is what can save us. It is up to your kind.”

He stopped speaking. Neesa stared at him, uncertain of what he wanted of her.

“You want her to take on your task?” Hiiln's voice held a snarl.

“It is the last thing I want,” the Shadow Wolf snapped. “There is no other choice. The smallwolves must succeed where we failed. Or the human aspects of Creature will destroy themselves, wolfkind, and many others. It is in your blood, Neesa of Warm Hill. Your sister will seek the life of the pack. You can succeed if you trust the ravens and do not resist the humans. Or, if you will not, if you cannot, find me the wolf who will, a wolf who travels with raven and can enter the world of spirits. You must, or wolfkind will fail.”

Neesa found that she could rise to her paws. She bolted from the cave, Hiiln close on her tail. She didn't stop until she reached the gentle foothills of the Wide Valley.

Scents of wolf and dirt and pine flooded my nose as I rolled away from Tlitoo and Neesa. My mother was wide awake and watching me.

“I was too much of a coward, Kaala,” she said. “Rissa and I took Hiiln to see the humans. He was as drawn to them as you are and was exiled for it. I stayed in the Wide Valley and chose a
safe life with my pack. The ravens came to me and I refused them. Then I began to have dreams of whelping pups that would save wolfkind and wanted to try again. I left the valley and found Hiiln, and we began to work together to fulfill the Promise.”