Another Time

It was on the fifth night that Manueline went out with him to walk among the wolves. She stayed out much of the night, watching and learning how the wolves hunted and how he hunted with them, leading them and guiding them as only a man could.

She saw one wolf challenge him, she could not make out what the challenge was over but it was clear that it was a challenge. Wals almost idly struck him behind the ear. Not hard enough to do real damage but hard enough to leave the animal dazed and confused for a moment. The other wolves just watched and afterwards snapped at the stunned wolf but didn't offer to do him any real harm.

There was a sensible accommodation between Wals and the members of the pack and Manueline made sure she was seen as a part of that accommodation. She didn't go out as often as Wals, who often went out two nights out of three, still she went out often enough for the wolves to see that Wals obeyed her and would strike any wolf that offered to do her harm.

She made Wals settle into a routine so he would be around the house for a good part of the day and Manueline set about teaching him her language and, this time, learning his. She made him talk to her; tell her awkward stories about his nights out with the wolves. She made him tell her about the house and the time he had lived in it before. At first, he found it hard to remember and hard to communicate in a language either one of them failed to understand completely. Manueline persisted, making him talk and forcing herself to talk and memorize the language he taught her.

One morning Wals bought home a wolf cub. It was young no more than a three or four months old. He said haltingly in a mixture of his own language and hers, "He was born out of time, an autumn litter, all his siblings are dead and last night his mother was killed by a stag. I think it would be a good thing to keep him."

Manueline argued with him, asking what they would feed him with; what would they do with him when he grew; hating the idea of constantly having meat in the house in order to feed the wolf. Wals said nothing but just sat by the hearth with the wolf pup in his lap and looked at her. There was no need to argue, he couldn't argue with her. Ultimately, he knew it was her decision and she would have to decide whether to cast out the wolf and leave him to die or give him a place in the house. Manueline knew it as well and eventually fell into silence, standing looking at them knowing that in this case, she had no choice; the wolf would have to stay.

For the most part, it was too hot upstairs for him so he slept and spent much of his time downstairs or outside. Manueline always fed him and he became very attached to her. She trained him, teaching him to come when told to, to stay or wait on command. He would take food from no one but her.

Wals suggested they call him 'Singer' but Manueline wouldn't hear of it telling him it was too close to what the stars called to the dogs of the moon, they cried 'Tsa! Tsa!' as they chased the evening star across the sky. No dog's name should ever have a sound close to the hunter's cry. Even as she said the words, the wolf got up looking round him and Wals could feel the urge of the cry in his own spirit. He let the matter drop; they called him 'Cub' when he was small and switched to 'Wolf' as he grew into his full size. He was too small to go out with Wals and when the spring came, the pack moved deeper into the forest and the wolf never saw them again.

In the depth of winter, the people from the village came over the river again. This time the wolves knew and Wals picked up their sense of an alien presence on the fringes of the forest. In the night, he traveled again the path that brought them into the valley and saw the campfires on the edges of the forest. He and the wolves went down. Wals left the pack away from the firelight and crept closer so he could hear snatches of the conversation round the fire.

He knew enough of the language now to be able to make out what they were saying. It was evident they were looking for him and Manueline, trying to discover what had become of the four men. Wals was also fairly certain that they had only a hazy idea of where the four men had gone; only knowing that they had found marks at some point on the river that looked as though Manueline and Wals had landed there when they crossed. There were dozens of little valleys across the hills that bordered the river on that side so the chances of them finding the one that was home to Wals and Manueline were slim. Still he watched them.

There were ten of them altogether. They were all dead by morning. Wals came on them out of the night; first of all the one left to guard the others. Wals walked up to him, extending a hand in greeting. The man stood petrified for a moment looking at Wals with a wide-eyed terrified expression on his face. Wals greeted him, slipping round behind him, finding the pulse at the point of the jaw, stopping the cry that rose in his throat, feeling the life in his neck and stopping it till the man died.

He went round the sleeping men, one at a time, most of them didn't even wake, turning their heads in response to the greeting touch from Wals, passing from sleep into a deeper sleep and then into death. Once they were all dead, Wals looked to see if there was anything that might be useful to him and Manueline and then he called the wolves, encouraging them to howl and leaving them to the bodies in the night. He picked up a few things, a couple of bows, some metal pots, some knives; everything else he threw on the fire and burnt.

He wandered in the night looking over the river to the village that had sent the men, wondering if they would send any more. Later, after the wolves were finished, he returned and built up a big fire and burnt what was left. He knew the people of the village would see the glow of the fire and be left wondering what it could mean. Well they would have to cross the river to find out and maybe again, none would come back if they were foolish enough to stay the night.

He returned to Manueline late the following morning carrying the bows, pots and knives. She was standing at the door, the cub had sensed him coming, and they watched him as he walked up the path.

She asked, "More men came?" He nodded his head, "What did you do with them?"

"I killed them."

She stood barring the door for a long time, just looking at him, then she said, "Another time, frighten them, don't kill them. Do you understand?"

He nodded his head again. She saw that it was her fault, what he knew now was how to kill people. It seemed to him to be the natural way to deal with anyone who was a threat. She would have to teach him other ways. How to frighten people off not just kill them and, she realized, how to make allies and make people support you rather than work against you. She spent much of the day talking about the wolf pack and how relationships worked within the pack. He listened and talked to her, telling her much about the relationships among the wolves and she carefully built that into his conscious understanding so he would understand the significance of the relationships and she could use that understanding, at a later date, to influence how he dealt with people.

They saw little more of the people from the village. There was one large party of men that came across and looked at the campsite where Wals had killed the men and burnt what had been left by the wolves. They evidently sifted through the ashes looking for something and Wals could see where they had picked up the odd thing here and there, curious to him, they had dug a pit and buried something of what they had found. Whether they buried a lot or a little Wals couldn't tell and had no inclination to dig down and find out. He was content that they had come and left again, though he encouraged the wolves to howl on the edge of the forest in the middle of the day. It was an unnatural and intimidating thing that he knew frightened the men. He could see it in their movements and smell it on the breeze. He talked it over with Manueline and she seemed happy enough that they would be left alone at least for the winter.

It was becoming increasingly clear to her that they would have to move in the spring. Talking to Wals, she gathered something about Mab and who she was. It seemed to her that it would help both of them to find her. She could not understand why Mab would just abandon him. He told her the story about Basket Boy and how Mab claimed he had been found in a river. Manueline assumed at first that the river in question was the one that separated them from the village but later it emerged that Wals and Mab had not always lived in the house they were in now. Wals vaguely remembered moving south and east but had no clear idea where they had come from. Manueline questioned him about it intensely and conceived the idea that Mab was slowly moving south and it seemed reasonable to her that, when she left Wals, she would have moved south again.

Manueline was uncertain about the geography south of them but she knew many rivers joined the river as it went south and she had heard that there was one great river that joined it several days journey downstream. As the winter wore on, she became convinced that in the spring they would have to follow the river south and see if they could find Mab.

Wals once asked her, "Don't you think it would be better to go north. That is where I came from originally." Manueline pointed out that they didn't know where in the north to go. It seemed quite possible that he and Mab may have come from the other side of the forest. Anyway, the only people north of them were the people of the high swamp who were dangerous and spoke a language completely different to that spoken by either Manueline or Wals. It seemed unlikely that Mab came from there and chose to speak some other language. Manueline had it firmly in her mind that they would go south and follow the river wherever it went.

The river by that time was completely frozen over, she asked him if he and the wolves could steal a boat, he just grimaced and shook his head saying it wasn't necessary. The boat they had originally taken was still caught in some reeds down stream from where they had abandoned it. Manueline thought back to that terrifying night when they crossed the river and considered the prospect of using the same boat again. She realized it was the only thing to do; stealing a boat would just confirm in people's minds where they were going and might provoke a pursuit. That boat was lost to the villagers and Manueline felt in a way that it was theirs as she had taken it in rescuing Wals when she genuinely had no other choice, no other way to save him. She reconciled herself to the boat and got Wals to get it out of the weeds; he actually had to dig it out of the ice. It still had the oars in it and was in good condition. They found a dry spot and hid it away, oiling the wood to prevent it from cracking and Manueline set about the business of making detailed plans for the journey.

To follow this thread in the story go to: Dodging Arrows

The next section to read is: A Vague Shadow

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