Free Promise Of The Wolves by Dorothy Hearst Page A

the secondwolf, “take Minn and Yllin and go around behind the clumsy bear. Wait for my signal and then join the fight. Remember, we are one wolf short.”
    My mother’s the missing wolf. A wave of sadness overwhelmed me. The other pups took family for granted. They had their mother and father. Rissa took care of me as her own, but Ruuqo did not, and I had no one that was really mine. I wondered how long it would be before I was able to look for my mother. How could I possibly find her? I didn’t even know where to start. I swallowed a whine of sorrow and frustration. I looked out at the bear and my packmates surrounding her. This was going to be my first time taking part in a packhunt, and my mother should be there with me.
    I thought I hid my feelings well, but Ázzuen licked the side of my face, and I turned to see his eyes full of sympathy.
    “Yllin says your mother was the fastest wolf in the pack,” he said awkwardly. “She gave you her quickness.”
    My heart hurt in my chest, and I knew that if I spoke, my voice would tremble. I did not want to show Ázzuen my weakness and I could not think of any way to thank him for his sympathy, so I just lowered my face to my paws and watched the attack.
    Werrna took the youngwolves along the outer edge of the trees, reappearing on the plain, a good thirty wolflengths on the bear’s right side. They ran quickly past the bear far enough away to keep her from feeling threatened. She looked up, decided they were not a danger, and returned to her feast. Werrna stopped just beyond the bear, to its right, and said something to Yllin. Yllin sank to the earth in a patch of heather as Trevegg and Minn ran on. They circled the bear, stopping directly behind her, and Minn lowered himself to the ground as Werrna continued in a circle, stopping on a small hill at the bear’s left flank. They had surrounded the bear on three sides, and she hadn’t seen a thing. Rissa and the rest of us closed the circle, completing the trap.
    “Are you sure six wolves are enough?” Trevegg asked. “I am not as fleet as I once was.” He looked down, ashamed.
    “You are our wisdom and our strength, fatherwolf,” Rissa said, licking Trevegg’s cheek. “How many bears have you fought in your time? If anyone knows how to trick a bear, it is you. Your grandniece and grandnephew are fleet and strong. The pack is powerful. And,” she said, grinning toothily, “as Minn said, it is not a very large bear.”
    An impatient screech made us all jump.
    “Are you going to wait until the sun burns a hole in the prairie?” Sleekwing shouted. We had not heard or smelled him come up behind us to land in the branches above. “There will be no horse left by the time you are done yapping.”
    Yap, yap, yappy, yap.
    Wolves yap while mangy bear eats.
    Worms! Raven still hungry.
    He leapt in the air with a loud caw, followed by Tlitoo and half a flock of ravens.
    “So much for having the advantage of surprise,” Ruuqo sighed, as the bear looked up at the loud birds.
    “Well, then, no reason to wait until the moon rises,” Rissa said. She made a soft, low sound, almost like a moan, deep in her throat. Werrna’s gruff voice answered her from across the field. In that instant Minn charged the bear from behind. At the same time Yllin ran at the bear from its right side, and Werrna left her hillock and sprinted toward the bear.
    The bear stood on her hind legs. Her paws were almost as big as a wolf’s head, her teeth huge. When she saw three wolves running at her through the grass, she turned and roared in arrogant rage. I did not need to understand her language to know she was saying that no puny wolves were going to take her meal. Yllin, Minn, and Werrna darted in and out, just beyond the bear’s deadly paws. Then all three wolves leapt at once and, while the bear was distracted by the attack, Rissa, Ruuqo, and Trevegg charged down the hill. For all his concern, Trevegg kept pace with the younger wolves, and the