Chapter 22

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Chapter 22:

'Mother,' I heard Pup's odd wail that she used to call me. I instantly sprung up and followed the sound, hoping nothing had happened. I couldn't run nearly as fast now, my belly swollen, sometimes having to endure a kick or two from the cubs I hold inside it. I weighed more, moving was more painful by the day and yet there was a thrill inside me. It was probably that very thrill that kept me going. And Mate.

'Mother!' reminded me of why I was running, forcing my legs to carry my doubled weight and half the energy I can usually supply them with.

“Coming,” I howled in response, hoping that would reassure her.

Pup's understanding of the wolf's subtle language was improving by the day. She now mastered a lot of it herself, but she would always call me 'mother' in that odd tongue that humans speak. So clumsy, so imprecise. She could also run faster now, but still on those two less wobbly legs. Why wouldn't rely on all her four limbs? It was beyond me. I'd admittedly tried to walk like her once, thinking that there must be some advantage to it, but I couldn't stretch my body in the right way, couldn't hold my balance. It was like jumping up without letting your hind-paws leave the ground. Clumsy, tiresome, wobbly, slow, loud and everything else a wolf does NOT want to be.

'Mother!' There was a sense of urgency now, though what could be bothering her in the middle of the pack's territory is beyond me. I looked up at the full moon and felt strong under it. The snow was gone; the cubs should be here any day now; I'd dug a den for their birth; I was eating as much as I could without letting the pack starve hunting for me; and signs of the humans have increased, become more regular and frequent. Everything but that last part was as it should be.

I found Pup sitting, leaning against a tree looking down a slope and into what used to be our territory. It still was, but now we shared it with humans, which made it their territory, not ours.

I can't believe that the humans just came and took the land. Didn't ask, didn't nothing. And we're no longer allowed to step onto that land, although we were actually here first. I have no problem sharing it with them, as long as they don't hurt anyone from my pack. Unfortunately that's not the case though.

I'd already lost my first pack to them, and one or two wolves from this pack who had been unfortunate enough to have been here at the time the humans has arrived. I hoped they would be away for my cubs, but the chances of that were nought.

“What's wrong, Pup?” I asked.

“They took down some of the trees. The forest is shrinking. We have to leave.” The fact that even Pup was getting worried about the situation with the humans worried me. She was, after all, a human too.

“We can't go anywhere until my cubs are ready. I still have to give birth, which should happen under this moon or the next, if not, then one of the suns in between. Then the cubs will need a couple of full moons to become strong enough to travel. Then I'll take the pack away from here.”

“Can't we go now?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because I can't travel and give birth at the same time. And after that the cubs need to grow strong. Then we can move our territory else where.”

“When will the next snow fall.”

“We should be gone by then. Unless is there's some bizarre change in weather pattern, which I doubt will happen.”

“I smell a bizarre change in weather pattern.”

“No, you don't. You know this from your time with them.”

“Who cares where I get my information from. As long as I have it.”

I agreed, but didn't agree. The humans could have lied. Where as if she had really smelt it, I would have believed her. However I doubt that even the humans wouldn't have lied to each other. Lie is actually a very new word. Just as new as truth. Pup taught the concept of them to us, and we now have a way of referring to them. I still don't understand why humans do all these unnecessary things to each other.

“Me neither,” Mate growled coming up from behind me.

“You too?” Pup asked.

“Me too,” Mate replied.

“I don't understand them,” I clarified.

“Nobody does. I hear that they often don't even understand themselves. Not surprising, really. They follow absolutely no logic.”

I agreed to that statement and watched as another tree from out territory, home to birds, maybe a squirrel, probably lots of bugs too, fell. As the tree went down you could hear it moan in pain, hear the creaking it made as its own weight brought it crashing down. But that wasn't normal. When a tree fell from age, the cries of pain are less. This is something the humans are doing again. The way the tree cried warmings to its neighbours was like the bellowing moose that sun I was captured.

“Why do they do that?”

“Because they like the material of the tree. They call it 'wood'.”

I couldn't get my mouth to make the right sounds to say, 'wood' the same way Pup did. It must be a sound that only humans can make.

“Doe, we need to get away from here as soon as possible,” Mate urged.

“And go where, exactly? Most wolves will be moving, we won't get the territory we need! For all I know I'm leading the pack into a life of being rogues, as a pack. That's absolutely unheard of!”

“You call her Doe?” The question was aimed at Mate. None of my business.

“Yes.”

Pup laughed her hearty laugh, her human laugh. It came from deep within her, shook her whole body, and made me wish I could make such a beautiful sound too. It was the only thing I envied her of. That, and her innocence.

Another moan cut through the woods as yet another tree fell. I didn't want to think about how many trees there would be left if the humans didn't stop. Well, if they didn't stop, none would be left. Stupid thought. No, what would be left tomorrow if they didn't stop today? How many trees could they bring down within the time it takes for the sun to raise and set? That was the question that needed answering.

“We need to hope the cubs will grow extra fast, because for some reason, I have a feeling that this territory is no longer safe,” I finished the conversation.

Everyone watched and listened in silence. Three of us, two wolves one human, watched and listened to trees groan in pain as they crashed to the ground.

It was painful.

We left nothing, but our paw prints in the snowWhere stories live. Discover now