Page 65 of Blacktail

Fang paused for a long beat.

“It was a joke, you see,” he said. “You are rather large, and—”

“I took the meaning,” Blacktail said. “It is only that you are not funny.” Fang thought he smiled a bit, just the same.

“Well, no matter. As I said, the only one concerned with bloodlines is Quickfoot.”

At that, there came another clatter of falling rock. “There is something stalking us,” Fang said, rising up to scent the wind.

“It’s fine. It’s just Little One. He’s been with us since we left the den.”

Fang groaned. “He’s quite taken with you.”

“It seems so.”

“Oh yes. When we heard you were coming, I sent him down to the forest of men to ask around. He listened to the stories for a day or two. When he came back he was…aglow? Something like that. There’s a great deal of talk of you, you know.”

“Do tell.”

“They say you can walk through mountains.”

Blacktail turned to look at Fang. “Seriously?”

“Yes. I’ve also heard that you can become unscentable, unseeable, and unhearable. According to Little One, when men come to hunt you, all of them are killed, together with their slave creatures. They say you cannot die.”

Yes,” Blacktail said dryly, “I’ve heard that one. I’ve also heard it told that I piss lightning and fart thunder. You shouldn’t believe that, either.” Blacktail paused. “What is it that you want, Fang?”

Lord Fang lifted his front lip and lay his ears back for a moment to show his submission. Blacktail accepted this, saying nothing.

Fang sighed and said it. “There is a great grizzly bear, Fatberry she’s called. She used to live on the red hill, but the two-legs broke the trees and ripped up the land there. Now their dens are over it like weeds. Fatberry was always grumpy, but she’s worse since then. She moved her hunting here. Since then, we’ve been dying a little bit at a time. There’s not enough prey on this mountain for her and us.”

“Why not kill her?” Blacktail asked, reasonably enough.

“We tried that,” Fang said, sighing, setting out again up the cliff. “We had a scheme. Little One occupied her with, you know, shenanigans. Smart mouth, jumping around, all of that. The rest of us tried to circle around behind. It might have worked, but the wind shifted. She caught scent of us. We lost the surprise. There were seven of us then. We hung on her like ticks. But…it all went to dung. Blue-Eye was killed outright. Quickfoot’s mother was badly mauled. She died three days later. No one escaped unwounded.” He stopped to show Blacktail the claw scar in his flank. “Since then,” he said, “the pack is wary of her. Afraid, actually. I myself would still have another try, but even a lord can only command so much.”

“Why not move somewhere else?”

“There is nowhere else,” Fang hissed. He caught himself and looked up to see if he had given offense. Blacktail only looked down, impassive. “There is nowhere else,” Fang repeated in a more level tone. “Quickfoot went six longruns to the south. Gray-Ear went at least as far to the north. I myself checked the east. The stink of men was everywhere.”

“And the west?”

Fang lifted his leg to lay a small squirt on a bush, then trotted to catch up. “Smartnose went west and never returned. I took that as a poor omen.”

Blacktail said nothing for a time. “Just south of my home, I came upon a mountain range where a small pack might hunt. And a few other such in between.”

“How far?”

“Many longruns,” Blacktail said. “Many-many. Perhaps farther than that.”

They were both silent, knowing that Fang’s emaciated pack lacked the strength to travel such distance. Even if a few of them somehow survived the journey, by the time they arrived, winter would be in its full fury. The prey animals would be fewer and hide easier. The pack would freeze even as they starved.

In the spring, yes, perhaps they might move north and survive, Blacktail thought. But this winter will be spent here. “Very well,” he said. “Call your pack together.”

Fang wagged his tail and kissed Blacktail’s muzzle, not in servitude, but in friendship. “I don’t know what to think about all this other business, the things that the cats…”

Blacktail looked at him.

“Well, never mind. You’re a good sort, either way. I’m grateful.” Fang threw back his head and howled,