Lone Wolf

silently collided, a hump bulging from one cloud near the top. Around that hump shoulders rose. Faolan yipped and Thunderheart sat up, too. Above the hump a smaller dark cloud was settling. Faolan could not contain his joy. "It's us! It's us! I ride you in the sky!"
    And with that announcement, Faolan flung himself onto Thunderheart's back. The huge bear roared with delight, and the ground shook as they bounded off together, with Faolan perched on top of her.

CHAPTER SIX
    ***
    BLOOD LESSON

    THEY HAD NOT GONE FAR WHEN Thunderheart felt Faolan grow suddenly tense. She saw immediately what caught his attention. In a clearing, a mother grizzly and two cubs were making their way to the river to fish. The grizzly mother and cubs spotted them and froze in their tracks. Faolan tumbled from Thunderheart's back and scurried behind her, trying to hide. He nudged up against her hind leg, pressing into her fur. The mother and cubs approached cautiously. Faolan peered out, and the cubs both made chuffing sounds. They were laughing at him and he knew it! Their mother simply stared, dumbfounded. Thunderheart could feel Faolan shivering.
    He knows he's different! It was bound to happen. Her first instinct was to shield him, prevent the bears from staring. But the more the mother stared and the more the  little cubs chuffed -- one was chuffing so hard it was rolling on the ground with glee at this odd sight -- the more determined Thunderheart was not to shield Faolan. She moved her legs so that Faolan was exposed, and shuddered when she realized how tiny he was in comparison to the cubs.
    Faolan made a mournful cry and looked up at Thunderheart. If she could have, she would have willed him to be twice his size. But she stood still as a rock. Not a sign, not a sound passed between them. All she could think of was that night she had dragged him from the river, that spark of life, nearly quenched yet still flickering. That fierceness!
    Faolan caught something in her eyes. Slowly, he turned his head to the cubs, who were now convulsed with chuffing in the tall grass. In a split second, the pup's body transformed. His shivering stopped. He lifted his head high and began to walk forward with a regal bearing, his tail raised and his ears alert. The cubs' mother bristled with fear. She reached out and swatted the cub nearest to her. He yelped, and then his sister gave a gasp as she looked up from her tumbling and spotted Faolan.
    The bear family regarded the pup with confusion now. How could something so small do this to them? Thunderheart herself was baffled. Faolan had not grown  a speck bigger and yet somehow he appeared dominant. For one moment she had observed the pup caught between two worlds -- one of which he had never seen. It was as if Faolan had joined something very important and very old, as if he were surrounded by the spirit of an invisible pack.
    Then his tail began to waver just slightly and droop, and Thunderheart trotted over to him, grunted the command to follow, while reinforcing it with a light tap to his shoulder.
    The mother grizzly blinked. Who was this strange creature who looked like a wolf, but now was behaving like a bear cub?
    In truth, all the animals were confused, including Faolan. As he trotted behind Thunderheart, one thought ran through his head: I am different. I am different. I am different.
    On their way back to the den, they passed a small inlet from the river where they had fished. The water was still, undisturbed by current. Faolan paused and peered down at the gleaming surface. Thunderheart came up beside him, wondering if he had found more fish. Both their reflections quivered on the surface of the dark water. I look nothing like her, nothing like any animal I have seen. Why are my eyes so green? Why is my face so narrow?
    Thunderheart's face is huge, wider than my chest. Her fur is so thick and dark. My fur is too bright.
    ***
    They returned to the den. Out of habit, Faolan clamped on to Thunderheart's teat. As he nursed he looked gravely into her eyes, and she saw a question in the deep green pools of light. Why am I not like you? She growled softly and licked his nose in answer.
    Love, she thought, love is all that matters. But she did not say these words aloud. Bears, being solitary creatures, had great reserve and did not often give voice to their most powerful feelings. It was as if to utter such thoughts aloud was to diminish them. But she looked into Faolan's eyes, and he, who had