Watch Wolf

it?”
    Faolan did not reply. For him, it didn’t seem that strange at all. He was not sure why. Partly, it was because watching these bears took him back to his youngest days as a pup, when he would wait with all the patience he could muster for Thunderheart to regurgitate the meat she had brought back from hunting. The smell of the fresh meat mingled with the juices from Thunderheart’s mouth and gut rushed back to him.
    “You’re thinking about Thunderheart, aren’t you, Faolan?” Edme asked.
    “Yes.” There was a small hitch in his voice. “I wish we could go down and meet these wolves.”
    “We can’t, Faolan. The Fengo said we must go to that place, the Hot Gates, to be met and properly led into the Ring of Sacred Volcanoes.”
    “I wonder how we’ll even knowwhat the Hot Gates look like. Such a strange name.”
    “I don’t know. Maybe they’re little volcanoes that lead into the Ring,” Edme replied. “Look, Faolan, there’s an outcropping down below and downwind from the bears. We could watch the wolves from there. They’d never know.”
    Faolan hesitated, but the idea was irresistible. It was as if his marrow were straining to be near that mother bear and her cubs. He could catch reassuring smells on the breezes when she regurgitated meat for her cubs. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to watch just a bit longer from a safe distance downwind.
    By the time Faolan and Edme reached the outcrop, the wolves had left the moose carcass. The grizzly mom and her two cubs had stayed on the banks of the river.
    “Her den must be near here. Bears like to have summer dens near a river. Good for fishing,” Faolan said.
    “Those cubs are so cute. Just little fur balls! Look how playful they are.”
    It took Faolan back. How much fun he had had with Thunderheart. He could picture himself so clearly, riding atop her shoulders or scampering afterher when they hunted for roots in the early spring. How he had hatedthe bitter roots they dug at first. Now he would give anything to be out digging roots with his second Milk Giver.
    The mother bear had a full belly and had stretched out to bask in the midday sun for a quick nap. It was odd, but Faolan himself had begun to feel sleepy. It was almost as if he had eaten all that meat and could hardly keep his eyes open to watch the cubs playing.
    “I suppose, now that the wolves are gone and the mother bear seems full, we could help ourselves to what’s left of the moose, couldn’t we?” Edme said.
    “I suppose so.” Faolan yawned. “But I’m really not that hungry.” He felt satiated though he had eaten nothing.
    He soon fell into a dreamless sleep.
    Faolan would never be quite sure what it was that awakened him or how long he had slept. But he was immediately alert. Something was not right. He laid back his ears, raised his muzzle, and slitted his eyes.
No! It can’t be!
He’d resisted his own yearning to go closer to the mother grizzly — and now Edme was there playing with the cubs! Thankfully, the mother grizzly was still slumbering. If the mother bear woke up, Edme would be dead before he could warn her off. He rose up trembling. His guard hairserect, he began walking stiff-legged as quietly as he could toward Edme and the frolicking cubs. He glanced at the mother. She was sleeping deeply. As he got closer, the cubs spotted him. He growled low at Edme.
    Edme turned. There was shock in her eyes. “Faolan, whatever is the matter with you?”
    “Get away from those cubs! Get away. She’ll kill you if she wakes up!”
    The cubs looked up, startled. Edme read the horror in Faolan’s eyes and immediately backed away.
    “Follow me!” he ordered and immediately began to run at press-paw speed. He looked over his shoulder. One of the cubs had tried to run after them but stopped when he realized he couldn’t keep up. He had a forlorn look in his eyes.
By my marrow, he’s about to cry,
Faolan thought, but he ran on.
    When they had put a good distance between themselves and the grizzly, Faolan stopped. He glared at Edme.
    “What is wrong with you, Faolan? You … you don’t seem yourself at all. You really scared me!” she said.
    “I’m sorry, but I was scared. If that mother grizzly woke up, we would both be dead. You can never, ever touch or even come near a grizzly’s cubs like that. They go crazy,
cag mag — cag maglosc.”
    Edme blinked. Faolan was speaking Old Wolf again. And she could have sworn she’d heard him muttering strange phrases in