Watch Wolf

leaped over a wall of fire had swept across the Beyond. She had not witnessed it, but those who did had said they’d never seen anything like it. That alone should have qualified him for the Ring.
    “What in the name of Glaux!” Edme muttered as she looked up. She had begun to take up many of the owl expressions and milder swear words. She watched Faolan reach out and grab what looked like an ordinary Spotted Owl. Before she could wonder, Faolan was back on top of the cairn.
    He dropped the owl and quickly pinned it down with his starboard forepaw.
    “I didn’t mean to! Honest, I didn’t mean it!” The owl was hysterical.
    “Faolan, a graymalkin!”
    “I think so.”
    “Well, why didn’t you howl the alarm?”
    Faolan looked at her blankly. “I’m not really sure.”
    “That’s unconscionable! You could get into a lot of trouble.”
    “I didn’t want to send a false alarm. I just thought there was something —”
    “Don’t, don’t, don’t! Please don’t sound any alarm,” the owl pleaded.
    “Why were you hanging around over the crater? There weren’t any coals shooting out. The She-Winds are gone. What’s your excuse?” Faolan’s voice was rising.
    “All right, all right. I just … I just …” the owl sputtered.
    “You just what?” Edme stomped down on his other wing.
    “I did it on a dare,” the Spotted Owl blurted out.
    “A dare!” Faolan said. “Are you
yoicks?”
    “Yes, definitely. I am completely, totally, eternally
yoicks.”
    “But why?” Edme asked.
    “I was sick of them making fun of me. I wasn’t really going to take the ember if I saw it. But Skylar said that sometimes after the She-Winds blow out, youcan see the ember float to the top.”
    “Skylar is full of wet poop!” Faolan said. This was one of the nastier owl curses because owls prided themselves on their discreet and noble digestive systems, which allowed them to produce neatly packaged pellets, unlike other birds who excreted white splats.
    “Probably, but I just wanted … well, you know, for them … to like me. I fly funny. You saw it. That’s why you caught me so easily. My port wingtip is turned funny.”
    “That is no excuse! Look at Edme. She has one eye. Look at me.” Faolan shifted his weight so he could hold down the Spotted Owl’s wing and lift up his splayed paw. “Have a look, idiot!”
    “That’s, uh, some paw!”
    “It certainly is. And I’ve learned to live with it — very well, I might add — as Edme has learned to live with one eye. And guess what else?”
    “What?” the owl asked in a trembling voice.
    “We were never accepted until we came here. We were gnaw wolves, bitten and beaten up, the last ones at the kill allowed to eat.”
    “I’m really sorry.”
    “Sorry!” Edme exclaimed with contempt.
    “Are you going to howl the alarm?”
    “We should,” Faolan replied.
    “No, you shouldn’t,” the owl said quickly.
    “Why not?” Faolan asked.
    “Because I know something … something important.” His yellow eyes had a sudden crafty shimmer. “I know about a cubnapping!”
    As the moon moved across the night and began its slide down the western sky, the owl, whose name was Arthur, told the story of what he had seen.
    “I was just minding my own business, flying with a Fish Owl over the river, looking for trout. And I saw this little cub — a cute little fellow.” Edme felt her legs begin to wobble, as if her bones had sprung a leak and her marrow were dribbling away. Faolan, too, felt a darkness run through him.
    “Go on,” Faolan said. “You saw a cub.”
    “Well, yes, and a wolf stepped out from behind a rock, and the little cub trotted right up to the wolf and wanted to play! Play, I tell you! A baby cub and a wolf.”
    “The wolf — what did he look like?” Edme askedweakly.
    “It wasn’t a he. It was a she. She was gray with some patches of black.”
    “Did she have a white-tipped tail?”
    “Yes! Yes, as a matter of fact!”
    “Fretta.” Edme whispered the name. “She’s a scout for the MacHeaths.”
    Arthur squirmed a bit. “Hey, how about letting up alittle with that foot of yours? You’re squashing my plummels to bits!”
    “Go on!” Edme said impatiently.
    “So this she-wolf steps out, and at first she seems really nice, but suddenly three more wolves step out from behind the rock. One was pretty ugly. Uglier than you,” he said, glancing toward Edme. “Ouch!” Faolan had pressed down sharply on the wing. “You want