FicWad

Chapter One
“Mother!” Ulva called, the darkness closing in around him. “Mother, where are you?” He was panicking now, but he was sure he was not alone. There was some-thing lurking in the shadows, circling him and closing in for the kill. Closer, closer. He could smell it, but he could not see or hear where it was. “Mother!” he called again, desperately.
The bush in front of him rustled and a massive brown form broke through. It was not Mother, it was a bear.
The great, brown grizzly towered above the little white pup as he trembled in the long shadow it cast on the soil. It bellowed a deafening roar that made the trees quake and lean away from it. Its teeth: four sharp, bone-crushing canines were at the front of its mouth and even then, Ulva was terrified. He had never seen anything with teeth so large and he was so petrified he could not run away. It fell forward onto four paws and roared again, its foul, meaty breath rustling the leaves on the bushes a few lopes away and forcing Ulva to stagger back clumsily. Its eyes: a deep, fiery auburn; they were the kind of eyes that stared right into you, searching to find your weakness.
Ulva’s weakness, however, was plain for all to see: he was only a pup, small and defenceless against any predator. He was so young that he could barely stand on his own four paws.
The bear looked into his eyes and shot fear into the tiny pup. It shook its long brown fur and raised one of its forepaws to send the little wolf flying. The paw was massive, around three times the size of the little wolf’s head. Ulva screwed his eyes tight shut and shrank down into the ground, hoping for a miracle.
Then the grizzly perked up, as if an idea had just come to mind, but it swung round, revealing the cause of the delay. It was Mother, hanging from the bear’s flank with a massive mouthful of its fur.
Ulva jumped up and yelped with joy as the bear failed to reach her. He skipped over to her, wanting her to pick him up and carry him away to safety, but she did not let go.
The she-wolf hung on for dear life as the bear spun madly, clawing at its rump in feeble attempts to catch and kill her. For if she should let go her grip, the bear would almost certainly tear her to shreds and then go for Ulva. She had no choice.
“Mother!” the pup called again. “Mother, look! I’m fine!” He stepped back-wards until he was lying underneath a bush whose leaves concealed him even from the bear. The plant smelt of grass and bark and caterpillars, which was enough to fool even a grizzly, and the flowers had the odour of many insects.
Mother growled at him, her voice muffled by the bear’s fur, “Stay there!”
The bear was enraged and aggravated now as it clawed and scratched and snatched at the she-wolf, trying to get her off. Soon, the great beast had tired itself out and it gave up, hanging its head down and panting madly.
It was then that, with some hesitation, Mother released her grip on the bear’s flank and slowly moved around to her pup.
The bear did not move to stop her, so she hastily scooped up Ulva in her mouth and galloped away with her tail curled between her legs.
“Why did you run away, Mother?” the white pup asked innocently as they arrived back at the den. “That bear was no match for you.”
“Ulva, bears are not fun and games,” she looked down at him, now serious. “That bear could have hurt you – and he would have if I had not stopped him.”
The little pup shuffled his paws and began to dig a small hole in the soil.
“Bears and wolves do not get along,” Mother went on. “You have to stay away from them if you want to survive to be a fully-grown wolf like me.”
“I know,” Ulva replied in the same voice he always did, but it was muffled by the pile of earth that was heaped between him and Mother.
The she-wolf patiently gripped him and turned him round. She looked at him proudly and licked the dirt from his nose. “Look at you,” she laughed, cleaning his belly now.
Ulva giggled and rolled about as her rough tongue messed up his fur. “Stop! Stop it!” he gasped for breath, trying to scramble away but overcome by laughter.
After a few minutes they had both calmed down a little. Ulva turned again to Mother and asked, “Why don’t we live with the rest of the wolves?”
Mother sat up and smiled awkwardly. “Well dear...” she began. “We do not live in a pack because the alpha-male, the wolf that is in charge, would not like it if we did.”
“Why?” the pup asked.
“The alpha-male wants all of the pups in a pack to be his own,” she went on. “You, Ulva, are the pup of a lone wolf.”
The white pup sat up but slumped lazily back down again after a few seconds. “What does that mean?” he asked, gazing up at her with wide eyes.
“That means that your Father was not part of a pack,” she told him bluntly.
“Couldn’t he be in our pack?” Ulva asked.
Mother was tiring of his questions and this seemed to upset her slightly. “Come,” she said to her pup, turning and walking into the den. “I will tell you.”
Ulva followed her and sat down next to her once they reached the chamber.
“Your Father was a great wolf,” she began. “He was a very large, muscular wolf with the power to fight off a grizzly bear if necessary.”
The pup was entranced and he whined softly with eagerness as she continued.
“One morning, he left to go hunting like he always did. The night before, we had heard news that the season of the twolegs was approaching but we-“
“What’s the season of the twolegs?” Ulva interrupted politely.
Mother sighed. “The season of the twolegs is when the twolegs migrate up into the mountains for a month or two to hunt elk, bears and – wolves...” she said, stuttering slightly.
“They... hunt wolves?” the pup spluttered nervously.
“Yes,” Mother answered. “That season was a harsh one, with little prey for the twolegs. You see, they do not normally kill wolves, but this particular season they were forced to due to a lack of normal prey.”
Ulva swayed as she told the rest of the story, her voice soft and melodious like the tune of the songbirds.
“That morning, your Father left the den we had and went off to go hunting. Up until that day the prey had been weak and easy to kill so I had expected him to arrive back earlier, but he did not come back on time, he did not come back at all,” Mother stopped, staring blankly into space for a while as if she were in a trance. “I never knew what happened to him, but I had my ideas. I think that, considering that the twolegs cannot find prey as easily as wolves can, they killed him instead, but I will never find out.”
The pup looked down at the bed of leaves and pressed down on one to make it crunch and shatter into tiny pieces. “So that is why Father isn’t here,” he said, feeling suddenly distressed and concerned for Mother. He plodded up to her and placed his forepaws on her chest, gazing up lovingly into her amber eyes.
She thumped down onto her side to let him suckle but Ulva was content on playing with her tail. She swept it from side to side, brushing leaves this way and that, and the ball of snowy fur leapt and pounced and nipped at the feathers.
Pleased that Mother was cheerful again, he ran up her back, slumped down on her neck and slid off onto the ground again.
“What on earth are you doing?” she asked, nuzzling under his chin.
“I don’t know,” he replied, squirming about on his back with the dust getting into his white fur, making him appear a sandy colour.
“Come here,” she said, pawing at his rump as he waddled away. She sat for-ward and took hold of his stumpy tail in her mouth, lifting him off of the floor and bringing him closer to her so that she could clean him again. She gently set him down again and wrapped her paws tight round his tiny body, licking him happily. This time, Ulva did not run away but he stayed to enjoy the attention that Mother was giving him. He would be able to savour this moment and think back to this happy time that they had together.
“Mother,” he said, turning and looking over his shoulder at the brown she-wolf. “Can I tell you something?”
“Yes,” she said expectantly, her eyes glowing with delight and joy.
“I love you.”