FicWad

Chapter Two
The air was thick with the smell of musk and strands of velvet from the antlers of the bull elk were scattered in the long grass, making it difficult to focus in on one scent.
Mother crept forward, the fur on her belly brushing the ground, and paused every now and then, checking that she had not been seen. She would always continue on, straight towards the rump of her chosen prey and then she would leap from the grass and sink her teeth into the meaty hide.
Ulva watched as she galloped away after the young calf and jumped as he saw it fall to the ground. He skipped over to her as she stood panting over the carcass and he sat, waiting patiently for her to eat her fill.
Because Father was gone, he had to go with her on hunts. Mother did not like leaving him alone at the den so she had decided to bring him as well.
When she did make a kill, the she-wolf would eat until her stomach sagged down almost to the ground then she would waddle shakily back to Ulva to sick up some food for him. Despite how much he loved this kind of meat, the pup longed to join Mother when she ate the meat off of the freshly killed animal. It looked so red and succulent and warm; so inviting, but his teeth were not yet strong enough to tackle such strong foods.
She walked over to him after stripping the calf’s ribs bare of meat and put her head down to the ground. Ulva ate the food silently but happily and followed Mother back to the den.
She lay down outside, as she always did when the sun was out, and Ulva stayed with her.
“Mother, when can I go hunting with you?” the pup asked, rolling about in the dirt again. This seemed to have become a habit whenever he was outside but the she-wolf did not mind.
“You already do,” she replied, licking her paws clean.
“No, that’s not what I meant... When can I help you hunt?” he righted himself.
“When your wolf teeth are grown properly,” Mother answered. “That will only be in a month or even a few weeks. It will not be long, I promise.”
“But it takes forever,” Ulva complained. “Can’t we speed it up?”
“You cannot rush these things,” she replied calmly.
“Why not? I can! Just watch me,” he joked, chasing his tail and kicking up a thick cloud of dust.
“How will that speed it up?” Mother asked, amused at her son’s foolishness.
“I don’t know,” he replied, still snapping at his tail, which always seemed to be out of reach.
Soon he was too dizzy to entertain Mother, so he stopped and fell onto the ground, lying on his side with his tongue lolling out of his mouth.
“See,” the she-wolf said. “Your canines are coming in. It will not be long before the other teeth get bigger as well.”
“Really?” Ulva exclaimed. “Are they as big as the grizzly’s?” He bared his teeth and snapped at the air. “I bet I could kill that bear if it came here again!”
“I doubt that...” Mother replied, spoiling his fun for a while. “But they will get a little bigger every day until they are as big as they can be. Then and only then will you be allowed to come hunting with me.”
“Alright,” he sighed, collapsing in another cloud of dust. “Mother, can I ask you something else?”
“Yes,” she said, hopping around him in a circle before settling down again.
“Are we going to move den?” Ulva asked, scratching behind his ear. “I don’t want to move den. I like this one.”
“What makes you ask that? We would not move den unless there was a family of grizzly bears moving in next door or a wolf pack was threatening to kill us if we did not leave,” Mother told him.
“Alright,” he sighed again, relieved. He liked the view that this den had over the hunting ground where he and Mother would go every morning to eat. The mountains that rose beyond were a fantastic navy blue shade at first light and the mist that settled over them made the pup shiver with exhilaration. He liked this den and he was not prepared to leave just yet. He still had a lot of places still to explore about this place. Then, an idea sprang to mind and he asked her suddenly, “Mother, can we go exploring?”
“Yes,” she replied. “As long as we do not stray far from the den.”
Ulva stood up and shook out his downy white fur. He then bounced away up the little slope behind the den and wandered into the woodland behind it.
Mother soon caught up with him and he walked next to her as she guided him through the trees. He went ahead a bit but stopped to wait for the she-wolf to catch up. He walked under her belly and continued in a different direction. When Mother did not follow, he called, “Mother, this way!”
Soon, they came to a small cliff above a lake and Ulva threw up his head and whined a quiet, whimpering howl.
“Oh dear,” Mother said, listening to the awful noise he was making. “I must teach you how to howl before my ears explode.”
They both laughed and after they had calmed down again, Mother put her head up to the sky, shut her eyes and let out a long, monotonous cry that lost its high-pitched eeriness as it came to an end. As she lowered her muzzle and looked down at her pup, all he could manage was, “That was amazing! How do I do it?”
“You stand like this and put your head up like this. You should have your eyes shut gently. Do not ever screw them shut because this makes a foul noise that does not sound pleasant,” she told him, posing at the end and showing him how he should look. He tried to copy the best he could and waited for his next instruction.
“You take a deep breath and take in all the air you can,” she said, watching as Ulva did as he was told. “Then, you let out a howl. Try it.”
The little pup made sure his feet and legs were in the right position and sucked the warm evening air into his lungs until they felt as if they were going to burst. He felt a tingling feeling inside, somewhere near his heart but it may have just been his lungs pressing against it because they were so full, so he ignored it. He let out a long, rather wobbly howl.
“That was a good start,” Mother told him after he had quietened himself.
“That felt wonderful,” he said, smiling and staring up at her.
“Yes, well...” she began, looking out across the lake below the cliff. Then she seemed to have spotted something moving by the water’s edge. Her eyes locked onto the thing and she did not move a muscle.
Ulva took a look for himself but he thought the shape might have been a blackbird or a duck. “What is it, Mother?” he asked her, now concerned. “What have you seen?” He saw the duck suddenly look up and yelped as something gripped him around his waist.
He turned his head and saw that it was only Mother. Relieved, he relaxed and slumped down so that he was easier for her to carry.
She seemed to be running a lot faster than usual and her breathing was faster too. Ulva was slightly worried about her. He had never seen her when she was this tense before except when she had fought the grizzly bear.
Maybe there was a bear chasing them, but he could not see, smell or even hear it. He had no idea why Mother was running.
Soon, out of breath and shaking, she stopped by a puddle and began rolling in the mucky water.
“Mother?” Ulva asked, confused. The she-wolf had always told him to stay clean and wash often, and this went against everything she had told him about that. “Why are you doing that?”
“I have to,” she replied quickly, without explaining. “Now you roll. Come on.” She stood up and nudged him into the muddy puddle, which was deeper than he had expected.
Ulva scrambled out of the puddle and shook his fur to dry himself slightly. “Why are we rolling in the muddy water?” he asked, suddenly wanting to clean his fur.
“We need to mask our scent with something, so they cannot follow us,” the she-wolf explained, walking away down a narrow deer trail. “Come on. Stay close to me. Quickly, run.”
The little white pup, now a mucky pale brown colour with a paler cream face, wandered after her and stayed at the tip of her tail. He wondered why she had told him to roll in the mud and why they had to mask their scents. He also thought about who would be following them and why. All he knew was he did not know, but Mother did and she was not telling him.
He began to trot and after a while he was walking beside the large she-wolf. “Why do we have to mask our scent? Who’s following us?” he asked her.
“I do not know them, but they are a threat to me and you, so we must stay ahead of them in case they are not friendly,” she explained, clearly not suspicious of her nosy pup. “We need to go faster. Come on.”
She took Ulva by his scruff and cantered along the bumpy trail. Tiny flakes of dried mud came off of the pup’s head and dropped to the trail below.
They had covered a vast distance and it was almost dusk by the time Mother stopped to rest again. She was shaking even more than before now and Ulva was growing increasingly worried.
As she sat at the top of a grassy hill, he approached her. “Mother, are you alright?” he asked, knowing the answer but wanting her to say it.
“Yes, I am fine,” she replied hastily, but her pup knew she was lying, and she soon admitted, “No, I am not. You see, Ulva, the animal that is following us is not a bear or a Two-leg but it is a wolf. This wolf is one I have not seen or spoken to in many years and I suppose you could say that we were not the best of friends when I was younger. This wolf was the alpha-male of my pack before I met your Father and after all these years, he still recognises my scent and is coming for me. He wants to kill you because you are not his own pup. Do you understand what I am saying?” she finished, looking at her son.
“Yes, a bit,” he replied, looking seriously out to the horizon. “This is just like a game of hide and seek.”
“In some ways, yes,” Mother realised, trying to soothe Ulva’s frail nerves a little. “I suppose.”
“Well, let’s hide then,” Ulva started to lope away. “Before the seeker gets here. He’ll find us then we’ll lose.” He did not seem to be taking this as seriously as Mother was but she did not mind. As long as he was happy, she was happy too.
She galloped away after him and scooped him up again into her mouth.
Together, Mother and pup dashed away towards the purple mountains in the distance as the sun shone its weak crimson rays down to the ground below and the murky grey clouds floated across the evening sky.