WOLVES DON'T TALK

Chapter 7. IF THEY MISSED ME

We walked and walked and walked. My feet started to ache about mid-afternoon. When I complained, the wolf just frowned and the lady acted like she couldn't hear me.

I plodded along behind them as we started our ascent up the mountain. The slope was slight but steady; not a rocky or rough climb, but both my feet and my courage gave way after a while. So I plopped down on a big rock without muttering a single word to the weird twosome, kind of hoping they wouldn't notice and would go on without me. Of course, that didn't work. They both strode quickly over the rock and started nagging me to get up and trudge ever on, but I refused to listen. I leaned leisurely back on my stone seat, cupped my hands behind my head and, for the first time since getting lost, enjoyed my surroundings.

The forest had changed since we'd left the clearing that morning. Different types of trees now mixed in with the redwoods. Some of them were pretty big, but many could not have been very old. Their trunks were slender and bendy and their branches coated in leaves instead of fir like the redwoods. Lots of large sword ferns also covered the forest floor now and other smaller plants as well.

I spotted a couple puffballs growing in a crevice of my rock perch and squeezed their rounded mushroom caps, watching puffs of spores pop out. Then I leaned back on the stone and basked in the warm summer sunlight blazing down from the blue sky that had emerged over the forest canopy as we'd travelled along.

From my rock, I spotted a bunch of rabbits.

"Sylvilagus," I said to myself, repeating their scientific name just like my father had taught me, hoping he'd be proud I'd remembered.

The biggest of the lot thumped by first. Three younger bunnies followed it and then another smaller adult. I thought briefly about chasing after them but my aching feet kept me on my rock, which happened to be in the sun's direct line of fire just then. I closed my eyes and gloried some more in its warmth and listened to some birds chattering in a nearby tree.

"Get up, little girl," the wolf snapped at me.

I stayed put and squeezed my eyes tightly together, anticipating another attack from its orange glare, forcing me to move on against my will. I felt tired and hungry again and did not intend to go anywhere --- for a while, anyway.

"Carmen," Pythia tried, "we should climb the mountain while we can still see, before it gets dark."

Her voice had a sweet, persuasive tone, sounding almost like a serpent trying to convince someone to eat an apple or curl up in its coils. It sent chills rocketing down my spine, forcing my eyes to fly wide open. But all I saw was the same old pair of oddballs staring at me. My tired brain was playing tricks on me.

"I'm tired and hungry," I persisted in my objections. "I can't do a good job of guessing when I'm worn out."

"Little girl," the wolf started, but stopped when the white woman patted its head with one of her ivory hands.

"Never mind," the oracle said, smoothing the fur between its ears as she spoke. "We can rest for a few minutes."

I flashed a victorious grin at the mutt as it wagged its tail back and forth in objection. The creature gritted its teeth together and glared angrily at me. The lady ceased petting the wolf and put her hand once more into a pocket in her robe and produced some more flat bread, which I eagerly gulped down even though it was becoming a tiresome dish.

"Tell me about the trees," Pythia directed the wolf. You could tell by its immediate toothy grin how much the request pleased the old Canis lupus. I rolled my eyes and braced myself for another lecture.

"Well," it said slowly as it swiveled its hairy black head back and forth, surveying the scenery. "There was a fire here a few years back. You can see where it scarred the trunks of the bigger redwoods. Loggers have worked here, too, cutting and thinning this area."

Duh, I thought, observing the many severed tree trunks surrounding us.

"The fire and the logging let the light in and created space for other plants. Old redwood groves don't let in much light for other vegetation to survive," the creature continued.

"What are those trees with the sagging tops?" Pythia asked, pointing at a group of young evergreens.

"Western hemlocks," the wolf responded eagerly. "That's a Douglas fir over there," it added, nodding at a huge tree with thick, scaly bark. "That one is a bigleaf maple and there's a vine maple and a red alder," it said, indicating a nearby group of green leafy trees as it droned on and on.

I dozed off in the middle of the moss diatribe and woke up a few minutes later at the beginning of the berry discussion. The wolf was pointing its long snout at bunches of gooseberries, snowberries, salmonberries, and thimbleberries clinging to bushes surrounding the clearing.

"Thimbleberry leaves are large and soft and can be used for ..,"

"Toilet paper," I interjected, demonstrating my knowledge of some basic woodland survival information that any kid would remember about the thimbleberry's velvety leaves.

Thankfully, this put an end to the wolf's lecture. Both it and Pythia flapped their mouths open, speechlessly staring at me.

"Good going, little girl," the wolf finally said, almost grinning at me as it spoke.

"Stuff it, Mac!" I shouted at the dumb creature and then gulped on my words. My mind was definitely not functioning well, confusing that creep Mac Richards with the infuriating animal showed how the whole weird situation was wearing on my tired nerves.

But it didn't matter. My rest on the rock had resulted in some inspiration.

The oracle leaned over me.

"Did you have an idea?" she asked, focusing her blank white eyes on my round brown ones, like she was reading my thoughts.

"Yes," I said, feeling somewhat excited over my own brilliance. "A road, a loggers' road. There must be one nearby. They would have needed it to move equipment to take the logs out."

"Wonderful! You're wonderful, Carmen," Pythia almost laughed as she praised me. "Let's go find it."

I laughed, too, as the three of us trudged off once more through the woods; this time looking for a road; one, as it turned out, that it actually didn't take too long to find. Pythia asked me where I thought it might be and I made my best guess.

"See, you are a great Diviner," she praised me again when we located it.

However, my instincts turned out to be much better than the road, which clearly had not been used in a long time and had become more of a pathway overgrown with shrubbery and weeds than a useful avenue for vehicles. But it provided us with a clear direction to follow as it wound its way up the mountain and wasn't completely clogged with vegetation, like many of the trails we'd already spent the day slogging around on."

We trudged up the road, which became steeper and steeper as we ascended the mountain. Our trek seemed like it went on for miles and miles to me, although I knew it probably didn't. We were still walking when the daylight started to give out. I wanted to stop again but the neither the wolf nor the woman would consider pausing until we finally halted for a brief rest on the side of a steep cliff.

The three of us, a tired little girl in ragged jeans, a smart-aleck black wolf, and a shiny white woman, stood on the edge of the precipice, looking down on the world as a blazing orange sun slipped away into the horizon of the western sky.

I could feel my eyes tearing up as I gazed down on the forest that stretched away into the distance; its majesty covering the entire world as far as I could see. And I thought about my family and friends. I wondered if they missed me, if they were looking for me, if they would ever find me.

"Carmen," Pythia said gently, taking my arm as she spoke. "We must ..," but she didn't get to finish.

Instead, the three of us turned and stared in horror at a bunch of nearby trees that started shaking and thrashing wildly about behind us. Almost on cue, the rocks on the edge of the cliff beneath our feet also trembled and started sliding down the slope. We responded automatically by bracing ourselves against the stone deluge and scrambling to more solid ground.

"Devils!" I shrieked, as the world erupted around us.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'll publish two more chapters a week from now. However, I'm warning you, it just keeps getting weirder and odder.