Wolf by Asta Bowen

Author:Asta Bowen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 1997-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Seven

First Snow

Annie and Sula hid from the silvertip sow not one night, but many. Each time they waited until she was out of hearing, then made their way back to the clearing where they had last seen Marta and Oldtooth. Always before, if both adult wolves left the rendezvous site, one or the other returned shortly, but the days went by with no sound, no sign. For most of a week the pups stayed close to the drop point, making meals of any small creature that happened by, and learning to run at the first scent of the bear.

As hunger pulled at their bellies, they tried for larger meals—a snowshoe hare, a marmot—but nothing quite kept the flesh on their still-growing bones. Each night they returned to the rendezvous, howled their help song and hunger songs, and huddled together under the trees.

One night in the darkness, as Annie and Sula slept flank to flank, the cold drizzle falling around them began to crystallize in midair. The valley grew strangely silent, strangely soft, and by the time morning came, a change had come over the world.

Annie wakened first. Even when they had been tiny pups in the den, she was the first one awake and the first to go exploring. Lately, Sula was even slower than usual to wake up and follow her.

Overnight, a sprinkling of star-shaped crystals had frozen to Annie’s face and, mystified, she pawed at her eyes. The stuff stuck to her back too, but her undercoat was not ready for winter, and the chill went to her skin. She stood up and shook fiercely, spraying flakes in a shower, then blinked at the scene before her.

The clearing was transformed. Curious, she ventured out to see what white powder had, magically, dusted their world overnight. Tiptoeing from the firs, she sniffed at the whiteness on the ground, but jerked back in surprise when flakes of ice flew into her nose. She snorted loudly, then sneezed. The sneeze woke Sula, who pawed her own eyes clear to watch Annie’s experiment. For the moment, their hunger was replaced by fascination.

Annie stuck her nose back into the snow, this time on purpose. She burrowed down to the grass and inhaled deeply. Satisfied that the earth was still there, she flipped a clump of snow into the air and watched it fall. It exploded on impact, and she did it again, this time nosing a larger clump and flinging it higher.

Playtime! Sula ran to join Annie, but skidded to a stop when the first shock of snow hit her paws. Bewildered, she picked up one black foot after another, trying to keep them all off the ground at once.

Seeing Sula’s dance, Annie chose the moment to tackle her. The two went down in the snow, wrestling for a hold on the other’s neck until they were thoroughly soaked. When Annie had won—though Sula was faster, Annie was still stronger—Sula slipped the tackle and began to race around the clearing.

It was a race without reason.

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