Topic: The Legend of Wolf

[nichi]

The Legend Of Wolf
By Andrew Baker

 

            The leaves had turned vibrant shades of yellow and red, warning of winter’s impending arrival. The ones that had fallen were still soft and it was easy for the Wolves to move silently through the forest in search of their prey.  They were following signs of elk along the ridge when Wolf, the pack leader, caught the scent of something strange. Wolf knew that this was a new smell to his forest and he was instantly alert for danger.  Wolf lifted his snout to the wind and sniffed at the strange scent coming from the other side of the ridge. Wolf approached it silently from downwind, the pack close behind.

               Peering over the top of the ridge, Wolf and his pack saw a group of strange creatures huddled shivering on the forest floor. Wolf had never seen such odd animals; they had no fur and spent much of their time on their back legs. Wolf and the pack hunkered down to watch the furless creatures, fascinated with the agility of the furless creature's front paws. Wolf thought about hunting the creatures but they were scrawny and smelled like they would be bad eating so, amused, he settled in to watch the creatures and their odd activities.

               Wolf and the pack spent most of the morning observing the creatures; the creatures never noticing the presence of the pack. Occasionally one or two of the creatures would wander off and come back with a handful of nuts or berries, which they would feed to the waiting pups. Wolf watched and waited for members of the pack to go out hunting but they never did. If they were starving they would lose their fur, thought Wolf and he began to feel concern for the starving, furless creatures.

               Wolf feared the creatures might be lost and would starve in his woods. Wolf cocked his head from side to side as he watched and thought about the strangers. The thought of a creature starving in such bountiful woods troubled Wolf and he could not sit idly by and watch it happen. He and the pack agreed that they should do something to help the creatures. Wolf thought they looked frightened not dangerous; they had no claws that he could see and tiny teeth set in a mouth that would barely open.

               Wolf decided he would talk to the furless ones, find out where they came from and if they were lost lead them back to where they belonged.  He walked down the hill alone as the pack waited ready to leap into action if help was needed. When he came to the edge of the group he addressed the one nearest him.

               "Who is your pack leader?" he asked.

               The creature curled his front paw in a gesture Wolf had never seen. The paw was curled but one of the toes remained extended. The creature used this toe to indicate one of the other furless creatures. The other creature saw the gesture and came towards Wolf and the creature.

               To this creature Wolf said, "I am Wolf. What are you?"

               The creature responded, "We are called Humans."

               "Are you lost?"  Wolf asked.

               "We are not able to find what we seek," the Human answered.

               Wolf sat down and thought about this, his forehead wrinkling as he puzzled through the odd response. Finally he asked the Human, "Where do you come from?"

               The Human sat down on a rock next to Wolf. He breathed in deeply and remained silent for a moment as he collected his thoughts.  "The stories I tell you were told to me by my father as they were told to him by his father," the Human began.

\"At one time we lived in the sea when the sea was warm and full of life. One day the sea turned cold and we followed the sun, the source of warmth, from the sea onto a land that was as warm as the ocean once was.  The land was filled with fruit the size of my hand and we had plenty to eat. We learned to walk on our back legs to see over the grass and to better follow the sun but in doing so we forgot how to live in the sea."

               "Some of us stayed in the land of fruit by the sea, but others fearing the cold would come again continued to seek out the sun.  The sun came from behind the sea that we had just left and traveled across the land until it disappeared again. We traveled across the land following the sun only to run into another sea. We followed the edge of the sea looking for a mountain high enough to reach the sun. Eventually we came here where the fruit is tiny and we are slowly starving."

               Wolf waited to be sure the Human was done with his story. When he was sure the Human would say no more, Wolf thought about all that the human had said. The Human had spoken of lands and fruits that Wolf had never seen. How strange that their fathers would teach them stories but not teach them how to hunt, thought Wolf.  Wolf tried to picture the strange things the Human had spoken of and a great longing filled him, spurring him to a decision.

               "I will teach you how to hunt so that you may feed your pack and in return you will teach me the stories about the lands your pack has seen."

The Human's lips curled back and Wolf readied himself against attack. However, the Human only made a coughing sound and remained in a relaxed posture.  Wolf was surprised that baring the teeth was not an aggressive gesture among the humans in fact it seemed to Wolf that it was a positive gesture.

               "So do you agree," asked Wolf trying to coax his bristled fur back down.

               "Yes Brother Wolf. When can we begin?"  The Human asked.

               "Have your fastest and strongest ready here in the morning. We will come for you then." Wolf turned and scaled the hill. In an instant he was out of the Human's sight. The pack greeted Wolf with a great deal of sniffing and prodding. They urged him to fill in the parts that they could not hear, nipping at his legs and licking his jowls in encouragement. Wolf made them return to their den before he would indulge them but once there the pack spoke late into the night discussing the strange things that the Human had told Wolf.

               The next morning the Wolves met the Human pack at the Human camp. The Wolves spent the morning showing the Humans how to move silently in the forest. They showed them how to sense the wind and stay downwind of their quarry. The Humans were poor at being able to smell the trail but excelled at spotting broken branches and droppings - signs that their prey had passed through that area. By early afternoon the Wolves and Humans had spotted a herd of deer.

               Less dangerous than elk Wolf thought the deer would be good prey for the Humans to start with. Wolves and Humans stalked and surrounded the deer singling out an older female standing apart from the herd. The Wolves acted in practiced concert moving the deer to a place where the others could bring her down. The Humans did their best to keep up, but unfamiliar with hunting as a pack and being slower than the deer or wolves the Humans were soon left behind. Wolf noticed that the humans could not keep up and signaled the rest of the pack to fall back and reunite with the Humans.

               They waited for the deer herd to regroup and formed a new plan where the Wolves would chase the deer to the waiting Humans. The Humans were left behind to find hiding places while the Wolves once again closed rank on the older female. Two of the wolves distracted the Herd Leader while the rest of the Wolves expertly separated her from the herd. They chased the deer right into the grasp of the waiting Humans.

The Humans were clever and chose their hiding places well. They were out of sight and above the deer allowing them to easily pounce on her as she passed under them but the Humans having no claws and small teeth were not able to bring her down.  Wolf, seeing that the Humans would once again be unsuccessful, signaled the other Wolves to take her down.

               The Wolves brought the deer  quickly to her death and were eating before the Humans had time to reach them.  The Wolves ate enough to satisfy their own hunger, then filled themselves with enough to regurgitate once they returned so that the rest of the pack could eat too. The Wolves made room for the Humans to eat but the Humans kept their distance watching the Wolves tear out the prime bits of meat. When the Wolves had filled themselves the Humans moved in to the carcass but instead of filling themselves with meat they wrapped their agile forepaws around the legs of the deer and carried it back so that they could share it with the others.  For the Wolves to do that would mean dragging the kill along the ground and across difficult obstacles with their jaws but the Humans with their agile forepaws and the advantage of height from walking on their back paws were able to manage the feat easily. For the first time Wolf saw the Humans working together and he marveled at the clever nature of the creatures.

               The Humans greeted the hunting party with cheering and dancing. They gathered round the deer and looked eagerly from one to the other; unsure of what to do. The Human Leader tore a piece of meat off of the deer and ate it as he had seen the Wolves do while the rest of the Humans watched with intense fascination. The more courageous members of the pack imitated the pack Leader's action, timidly pulling meat from the deer and eating it quickly.  The others followed suit and soon the Human pack was eating and reveling in the unexpected bounty.

               The good humor of the pack elevated the hunters temporarily but soon exhaustion from the day's work caught up with them and they curled up away from the celebrating pack to sleep. Wolf and the Human pack leader had separated themselves from the group hours before and were silently staring at each other, deep in thought. Both were troubled by the Humans inability to bring down the game and they had spent hours trying to puzzle out a solution.  The Human was clearly ready to collapse but he kept himself awake turning the problem over and over in his mind.

               Wolf cleaned himself as he wondered what you had to feed a human to get them to sprout claws and fur. The Human turned a twig absently in his front paws as he puzzled out the same question from a different angle. The Human snapped the top of the twig off with his other paw, leaving a pointed end. The Human continued to turn the twig in his paws adding the occasional poke at himself with the pointed end. Suddenly the Human stood up and said,  "I know what to do. Meet us here in the morning."

               The human walked over to the sleeping Human hunters and woke them. Wolf watched the Human's as they babbled and gestured among themselves. They are curious creatures, he thought realizing he too was tired. Wolf picked himself up from off of the ground, gave one last look at the excited bunch of hunters and trotted up the hill toward the Wolves' den and the sleeping Wolf pack.

               The next morning the Wolves met the Humans at the Human's camp. The Humans were carrying branches the size of Wolf's front leg; sharpened to a point at the end. The Humans made their own fangs, Wolf thought. Even if I had the front paws to hold them I would have never thought of that. Wolf's respect for the Humans climbed; simultaneously he decided that the Humans would make dangerous enemies.

               The hunting party returned to the same place where they had found the deer the day before to find that the deer had once again gathered in the hollow. This time the Humans hid themselves in a rock outcropping at the far side of the hollow.  The Wolves were to send two down the center and one on each side of the hollow to herd the deer towards the waiting Humans.  When the Humans were in place and the Wolves were positioned, they started their maneuver. It worked much as it had the day before but this time the Humans were able to take down not one but two deer.

               The Hunters rejoiced at their success and danced around the slain deer scattering what remained of the herd into the forest. It was so early in the day that the Wolves were not yet   hungry and instead of eating and carrying back the meat in their stomachs, they let the Humans carry both deer back to the Human camp. The Wolves separated from the Humans and gathered the rest of the Wolf pack, meeting the Humans at their camp shortly after they had arrived with the deer.

               One of the Humans had found a fire in the woods and had brought back a coal.  The Humans were gathered around what had been built up to a roaring fire in the center of their camp.  The Wolves, alarmed by the bonfire, stayed at the outer edges of the Human camp, watching and waiting for the silly creatures to set their camp on fire. Wolf watched the Humans walk around the fire with seeming carelessness and total confidence. He crept closer to the fire and could see that the Humans had dug a pit and surrounded it with rocks to keep the fire contained.  Again Wolf admired the creatures cleverness.

               Wolf returned to the eager pack and explained what the Humans had done. With the caution borne from fighting a lifetime's instinct, the Wolves joined the Humans at the fire. The Humans roasted the meat and all ate their fill several times through the day. In the early evening the Humans gathered around one of their elders.  The Wolves following their hosts lead did likewise eager to see what the Humans would do next.  The elder told fascinating stories of all the places the Humans had traveled and all the struggles they had faced and survived.  The elder spoke late into the night without break until the middle of his accounting of how the Humans had crossed a great river, when he suddenly stopped and told the crowd that he would pick up there tomorrow.

               Wolf and the Human leader spoke as the crowd was breaking up and decided that since the meat was so bountiful they would not need to hunt in the morning. They agreed that the two packs should meet around midday to eat and hear more of the elder's tales. Wolf bid the Human farewell and joined the rest of the pack gathering for the return to their den. Wolf had not yet invited the Humans to the Wolves' den, and after what he had witnessed today he was unsure that he ever would. Wolf had resolved to keep a watchful eye on the furless creatures; he was sure that their strange and amusing antics were not the result of a simple mind but rather just the opposite. They were the end product of an extremely clever mind - a mind more clever than his own. That cleverness made him wary of the Humans.

               Weeks passed and the Wolves and Humans enjoyed days of successful hunting and nights of magnificent stories. The nights grew bitter and by the first snow the Humans still had not grown fur. This was deeply troubling Wolf.  The hunting party needed to travel further each day to find decent quarry, much of their prey having moved down from the mountain with the approaching bad weather. The Humans were having difficulty being away from the warmth of the fire for such extended periods. Wolf thought of moving the pack closer to the hunting but what would he do with the Human pack. He needed to speak to the Human Leader.

               As he was puzzling through where to move both packs, he caught the unexpected scent of deer just over the ridge ahead of them. Wolf thought it strange that deer would return up the mountain at this time of year and he raised his nose to verify the scent. Wolf cocked his head and sniffed the air again. It was not just the scent of deer but of elk and a goat; he was sure of it. Wolf could not believe his good fortune; easy hunting and the prey should be neatly trapped between the Wolf pack and the Human pack waiting right behind the scent.

               Wolf signaled to the rest of the pack who by now had also caught the scent. They crept silently up the face of the hill to its crest, trying not to create any sound that would alarm the quarry. Just before reaching the crest the Wolves gathered themselves for the attack. In one unified action two wolves went down the center of the hill as one each went down twenty feet out on either side. The Wolves were in formation to drive the prey straight backwards towards the humans.  Wolf was bearing down on the lead deer when he realized none of the herd was moving.  In the same instant that he realized something was wrong, he understood what had happened. The Human pack was wearing the furs from the game they had killed in the weeks before.

               Wolf came sliding to a halt and he looked at the Humans with great curiosity. His mouth dropped open and his tongue lolled as he made the wolf gesture most similar to a Human's smile. They may be clever but they are certainly silly, Wolf thought, his smile spreading. Later that day as the hunting party returned with a good-sized elk, Wolf spoke to the Human leader about relocating. The Human wanted to continue his journey further to the north but Wolf told him that it was winter for as far as any wolf had traveled. The Human still was reluctant to return in the same direction as they had come but eventually saw the need to move closer to the game. He knew that the Humans still had more they could learn about the hunt from the Wolves and he had wanted to stay with the Wolves through the winter. Piling truth on wisdom he agreed to move the Human pack so that they might be closer to the game.

               The moved proved wise and for the three days that followed it the hunting party returned early with food. The Humans and Wolves once again celebrated with feasting and stories late into the night. The days passed quickly and soon the mid-winter storms set in on the packs, the worst of which kept the hunting party in their camps for five days.

               On the sixth day driven by hunger and aided by the sun's return, the Wolves and Humans once again returned to the hunt. The snow made traveling difficult but it also made the tracks of the prey easy to see. The hunting party came across a fresh set of tracks two hours out into their trip and followed it back to an alcove where a herd of deer had found shelter from the storm.  The alcove had only one entrance; the back and sides of the alcove were too steep for either the hunters to hide or the wolves to descend. The wolves would have to run through the herd and loop back to drive them back out the entrance to the waiting Humans.

               The Wolves crept silently towards the herd not wanting to startle them any sooner than necessary. They were aided by the wind blowing towards them, keeping the scent of the Wolves away from the deer's sensitive noses. The Wolves inched patiently into the opening of the alcove; the deer not yet alarmed by the Wolves presence. A large doe looked up directly at Wolf and he froze, pretending not to notice her. After tense moments the doe decided Wolf posed no immediate threat and went back to chewing a nearby shrub.

               Wolf waited several long moments more before chancing to move closer. He crept a few more inches towards the herd; when the herd didn't react the others moved closer too. Wolf hunkered down and prepared himself to charge through the herd. The others saw Wolf make ready and prepared themselves. Unexpectedly the wind shifted and blew from behind the Wolves. Wolf froze and waited to see the herd's reaction to the introduction of their scent. Several members of the herd perked their heads up, tails flicking nervously. Wolf had decided to start the charge when he caught a strange scent from behind him, Mountain Lion. Wolf turned his head and tried to locate where the scent was coming from. Mountain Lions don't hunt Wolves, he thought. An instant later understanding struck him.

               Wolf ran for the Humans hiding place, the others following suit unquestioningly. He was only twenty feet from the Humans when he saw the Lion leap. The Human was unprepared and the Lion took him down easily. The Human next to him jumped back and struck at the Lion with his pointed stick. A second Human joined him and sunk his stick deep in to the Mountain Lion's throat. The Wolves positioned themselves between the Mountain Lion and the remaining Humans but by now the two Humans had killed the Lion. Wolf ran around the perimeter searching for others, but if there had been any more they had fled back into the woods.

               The attacked Human was dead and lay underneath the slain Lion. The Human hunters were deeply saddened by the loss of their pack member and had no heart to return to the hunt. Instead they took the Mountain Lion's fur, wrapped their dead member in it, and carried it back to the Human camp.  Wolf feared the Humans would eat their dead but he kept his silence, allowing the creatures the right to their own traditions.

Wolf and the pack stayed and hunted down the deer from the alcove. By now the deer had been spooked and had scattered out into the woods but the Wolves found one and trapped it against the lip of a ravine. They took the deer down in their synchronized death ballet but instead of eating the deer they drug it back to the Human camp to share with their grieving and hungry partners.

               The traveling was difficult and dragging the deer was an immense burden for the wolves but they persisted, dragging the deer foot by foot until they made it back to the Human camp. The Wolves found the Humans gathered around a pile of stones at the far edge of their camp. Wolf could smell the scent of death from beneath the rock pile and realized that the Humans had covered their dead member with the rocks. The Humans were uncharacteristically quiet but grateful for the gift the Wolves had brought.

Through the course of the night small groups of Humans would wander over to the pile of stones and with heads hung low ponder the life ended early.  The Wolves were touched by this sad celebration of the death of a pack member. While they felt loss when life was ended they did not take it to the level that the Humans did. Wolf thought that the Humans felt everything with an intensity that Wolves did not possess. He envied that characteristic but was also grateful for the lack of it. It provided the Humans with much beauty but also seemed to fill them with much pain.

               The Humans were not the same after their member's death. Wolf posted two members of his pack with the Humans when they hunted so that the Wolves better hearing and smell would alert the Humans to any danger. Wolf also left the mates of the guarding Wolves at the human camp to keep watch there. The four guardian Wolves stayed at the Human camp round the clock and integrated themselves into the Human way of life. They would curl up by the fire and sleep among the Humans, ate their food cooked like the Humans, even spent time playing with the Human pups. The four never left the Human camp unguarded and would take turns accompanying the Humans that went into the woods to gather fruits and berries. At no time was a Human unprotected by a Wolf's watchful guard, even though they never saw any more sign of Mountain Lions. Wolf thought that if there were other Mountain Lions they saw how quickly the Humans defeated one of their own and decided to leave the Humans alone. The Human that had been attacked had been wearing the fur of a fresh kill and Wolf thought the Mountain Lion may have mistook the Human for a deer - a mistake that had cost them both their lives.

               Despite the lack of Mountain Lion signs, the Humans remained suspicious and distrustful. They grew close to the guardian Wolves but kept their distance from the rest of the pack, treating them with cold courtesy and forced respect. It appeared to Wolf that the Humans thought the Wolves to blame as though the Wolves had engineered the attack or would at any moment try an attack of their own.  Wolf grew ever more leery of the Humans and prepared to part ways with them as soon as the days got warmer and longer.

               The time arrived when Wolf felt it was safe to move the pack back up the mountain and the Wolf pack met the Humans at their camp to say goodbye. The Human Leader politely thanked Wolf for his lessons but Wolf could tell he was just as grateful to be separating from the Wolves as Wolf was to be rid of the Humans. The guardian Wolves decided to remain with the Humans citing that the Humans still needed to be guarded, even more so now that they were preparing to continue their journey North. Wolf was sad to lose the members of his pack but he felt sure that they would be safe with the Humans. The Humans trusted the guardian wolves; their distrust was reserved for the rest of the pack.

               Wolf had two promising pups that would fill the missing members places in the hunt by next spring but he felt a great loss when parting from his former pack members.  Deep in his being he knew that a separation had been created between the Wolves and this new creature that lived among the Humans but was born of Wolves. He knew that separation would span for as long as the sun would shine and at times would pit the Wolves against what would become their distant cousins.

               Wolf's sadness was not to end at the loss of those four members. One week after the pack had moved further up the mountain, another mated pair was to leave. Enchanted by the tales of distant and beautiful lands the pair set off to see those wonders for themselves. Wolf was not surprised by the pair's decision. They had often been the ones to scout new areas for dens and hunting grounds. They were good hunters and a strong bloodline; it pleased Wolf to think that his pack would spread further than the lands he knew. Melded into the Wolves spirit now was the drive to disperse and explore.

               Wolf taught his young to respect and fear the Humans, teaching them to neither hunt nor trust them, however the Humans did not teach the same respect. They taught their young terrible stories, instilling a hatred for the Wolves while the Humans were still young.  Though they hated the Wolves the Humans remained strangely trusting and loving of the Wolves' now distant cousin the descendent which the Humans called Dog.

Wolf did not live to see his offspring hunted by his former pupils; he was able to live his life thinking he had done a good thing by teaching Humans to hunt.

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