Watch Wolf

AR
    THERE WAS A FEELING OF UNREALITY as the Namara led an expeditionary force of one hundred MacNamara wolves south and west toward the Black Glass Desert, where the grizzlies of the Beyond had gathered for their drumming. The last war in the Beyond had been the War of the Ember, before the Namara had come of age and long before she was chieftain. Never had there been a war with the grizzlies. Was the world as she knew it falling apart? The seasons were all turned around, and now this threat of war. The Namara knew it had all started with the MacHeaths, for two she-wolves had fled to her and told her of a cub being snatched. For some dark reason that made sense only to twisted minds, the MacHeaths believed they would advance themselves by stealing a cub.
    The Namara had brought the MacHeath she-wolves with her. The wolf Katria was an outflanker, and outflankers were good in battle. She only wished the blind wolf Morag was healthy enough to fight as well. Morag’s mate had generously offered his services, but if he were killed, who would care for the ailing Morag?
    On their second day of traveling, while they were still far from the Black Glass Desert, a strange rumbling could be heard seeping up from the ground. They were traveling at half press-paw speed. Their hackles raised as the earth trembled beneath their paws.
    The Namara howled the signal for a halt. She jumped up to a rock and eyed the troops of her clan. She was a wolf of middling size, with a pelt the color of storm clouds and vivid green eyes. She had a noble bearing, and the calmness of her demeanor concealed the turbulence of her feelings.
    These are good wolves,
she thought. More than half were she-wolves, but they could fight as ferociously as any male. In fact, she was now leading into battle the largest expeditionary force of she-wolves ever assembled. She had great confidence in her clan, and yet they’d never before gone against grizzlies. These wolves had honed their fighting skills on frequent skirmishes with the odious MacHeaths.
    Often, MacHeaths came to the far reaches of the Beyond in attempts to reclaim one of their deserters, and yet, never since the time of Hordweard had they succeeded. The Namara knew that in truth, it should be the MacHeaths they were fighting. But it was too late now. The MacHeaths had wreaked incalculable damage on the Beyond — on all its creatures — and now a war was coming. A messenger had come with the news that the first round of parleys had failed, and all clans were to report to the front. The grizzlies were not willing to talk; they were convinced that a sacred trust had been irrevocably broken. The wolves had no choice but to defend themselves or be destroyed by an enemy vastly larger and stronger than themselves.
    Never had any wolf force gone up against the grizzly bears of the Beyond. And now this drumming, which was done expressly to stir fear and anguish in their marrow!
    It was time for the Namara to address her troops.
    “What you hear is not an earthquake. This is bear drumming, like our
gaddergludders
before a
byrrgis.
The purpose is to raise their blood thirst and to frighten us; that is all.
    “Listen to me, wolves. I am not simple enough, not fool enough, to think you do not fear these bears. I fearthem, too. But I am going to tell you something that might shock you. Our real enemy is not the bears.”
    There was a hush, and then the gathered wolves began to exclaim and murmur.
    “No. It is not the bears we need to fight.” Whispers began to rise, hackles stirred amid the Namara’s troops. “We need to fight the cause of this heinous war, and the cause is the MacHeaths!” Utter silence now fell upon the Namara’s troops. “The MacHeaths snatched an innocent bear cub, ripped him from his mother. And now if we do not stop the MacHeaths, the bears will attack, and we shall have no choice but to defend ourselves. So our first war is with the clan we know so well, through our blood and our history. We shall attack the MacHeaths. The MacNamaras, of all the wolves, know how to fight a MacHeath! And in fighting the MacHeaths, we can bring peace to the Beyond!
    “Let me speak to you about fear. It is merely the other end of the bone of courage. One cannot exist without the other. Courage, as an ancient warrior once said, is fear holding on just a bit longer. We are fighting for our way of life in the Beyond, for which the first Fengo led us out of the Long Cold. It is worth the holdingon,