Promise of the Wolves by Dorothy Hearst

Author:Dorothy Hearst [Hearst, Dorothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Novela, Fantástico
Publisher: ePubLibre
Published: 2008-06-15T04:00:00+00:00

10

14,000 YEARS AGO

I could not stop thinking about the human child. I was so preoccupied with thoughts of her that I did not notice at first when Trevegg walked slowly into the clearing, his eyes creased with concern. Minn followed a few steps behind, looking perplexed, and a little frightened.

“I can’t find her, leaderwolf,” Trevegg said to Rissa, who looked up sleepily from a nap beside the fallen spruce. The rain had stopped at last, and three days of sun had dried out all but the soggiest parts of the gathering place. All of us were looking forward to a rest in the sun before the evening hunt.

The oldwolf shook his head. “I followed her trail to Wood’s Edge and then partway out onto the field, and then her scent just disappeared. I don’t understand it.”

“Perhaps she stopped to rest and has not yet woken?” Rissa said, rising, all signs of sleep gone.

“Borlla’s missing,” Marra said, bounding up to me. She had run to meet Trevegg and Minn as they returned from the Tall Grass plain. Ázzuen trotted over from the watch rock, ears cocked to listen.

“She’s always missing,” I said, feeling a little guilty. I had all but forgotten about Borlla in my fascination with the human child.

“But this time they can’t find her. At all. And Trevegg is upset. Listen.” She nodded toward the oldwolf.

“Her scent just vanishes, Rissa,” Trevegg was saying. I had never seen him frightened or at a loss, but he seemed to be both.

Ruuqo, Werrna, and Yllin hurried over from across the clearing.

“It’s not possible,” Werrna said, almost angrily. “Even if she was taken by a hunter, there would be a smell of it. I’m sorry, Rissa,” she said to the leaderwolf, who growled at the mention of a hunter. “She keeps wandering off on her own, too distracted to be aware of danger and too weak from hunger to run or fight. It was only a matter of time before something got her.”

“I am not so old,” Trevegg snapped, “that I wouldn’t know if something had taken her! She’s just gone.”

“Her scent was there and then it wasn’t,” Minn said, sounding spooked. “Trevegg’s right. There’s no smell of a recent hunter. Her trail just vanishes.”

“It’s not possible,” Werrna repeated stubbornly.

I was shocked to realize that Werrna was afraid, too. I didn’t think she was afraid of anything.

“If the Ancients are angry with us,” Ruuqo interrupted Werrna, with a glare, “we must determine why.”

“We will make sure first,” Rissa said, her voice barely a whisper. “I trust you, elderwolf, but we must be certain.”

“I would feel better if others looked for her, too,” Trevegg admitted.

Rissa touched her nose to his cheek and, without a word, without our usual leaving ceremonies, led the pack out of the gathering place.

“Why are they acting so strangely?” Ázzuen asked Yllin as we ran along the deerpath, gasping a little to keep up. “She’s gone missing lots of times before.”

Yllin paused a moment by a starflower bush to let us catch up.

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