A.N.D. - Wolf Woods

“Wuh-Wuh-Wuhhhhhhrrrrrrrroooooo! Woooooaaaahhhroooo!” The heroes’ cub is born! A healthy boy!

Grinning wildly, Wolf threw back his head and repeated the call. “Wuh-Wuh-Wuhhhhhrrrrroooooo! Woooooaaaahhhrooooo!”

All up and down the street windows opened, echoing and amplifying the news. “Wuh-Wuh-Wuhhhhrrrrooooooo!” A messenger took off for Wendell’s palace on four feet. As his dust rose, so did the sound behind him. “Wuh-Wuh-Wuhhhrrrroooooooo!”

Tony was trying to concentrate when one of the wolves in the garden started howling like it had been stung by a bee. He expected it to quiet down, but instead every wolf in the garden picked it up. Then they were yowling downstairs, then up the stairs, and in moments his entire castle was ringing with the racket. Damnit, he was trying to work here, and it wasn’t anywhere near the full moon!

He was about to go looking for Sebastian to make him explain what was going on when his secretary skidded into his office. “Congratulations! It’s a boy!”

“Who’s a boy? What...” Understanding came a second later. “My grandchild? I have a grandson?”

Sebastian nodded madly, throwing open the window and leaning out. “A healthy boy. Wuh-Wuh-Wuhhhhhhrrrrrrooooooooo!”

Behind him, Tony shouted, “Hey! How’s Virginia?” But he didn’t stay for the answers that could be given better elsewhere. “Hey, you! Stop yapping and go get my carriage ready!”

“Yes, sir!”

Wendell thought he heard something in the distance, but he couldn’t quite figure out what it was-until he noticed motion in the mirror. At one end of his throne room, two very correct guards stood in rigid formality, but at the other end, a reflection showed a madly wagging tail.

“What?” Wendell demanded. The guard blinked, startled, but didn’t break his pose.

“At ease! Now, tell me, what does that noise mean?”

“Lady Virginia just had a boy, your majesty.”

Now it was Wendell’s turn to blink. “I have messengers who were to tell me the moment the baby was born!”

“Do they run faster than the speed of sound, Sire?”

The wolf arrived from New Sanctuary two hours later. It beat the human messenger on his galloping horse by fourty-five minutes. Wendell offered them both his thanks and congratulations and ordered his carriage prepared. As he hopped in, his thoughts were less about the baby than the uses for a long-distance form of communication that worked faster than traditional messengers.

“Wuh-Wuh-Wuhhhhhhrrrrroooooo! Woooooaaaahhhroooo!”

Queen Red’s hands jerked in surprise at the first full-throated howl she’d heard in months, making her horse plunge.

“Liege Lady! You are not safe, we must return to the palace!” Lucy looked wildly around at the brush beside the road as the guards reached for their crossbows.

Red found herself smiling. “No, that’s not a hunting howl. It’s happy, whatever it is.” She’d been very good at reading howls once, and was inordinately pleased to have a chance to exercise that old skill.

One of the guards frowned warningly at her. “Perhaps it is happy because it feels its pack outnumbers us. We must go back immediately.”

Red sighed, pulling her horse into a sharp turn and heading back to her cold, empty castle.

“Wuh-Wuh-Wuhhhhhhrrrrroooooo!” Benjamin’s head snapped up, making him lose eye contact with the vole he’d been trying to Persuade into his cage. Can’t you animals ever shut up? I almost had the first meat for a week! What? What does that noise mean? He ground his teeth in frustration. The other wolves wouldn’t talk much to “queen’s pet” certainly not enough to explain all the codes of their disgusting noises. All he could recognize was the “wuh-wuh-wuh” prefix of a birth announcement. Somewhere, a wolf cub had been born to parents who wanted and celebrated it.

He snarled back at the sound in jealousy and rage. What is to celebrate bringing another cursed life into this world? Why should your parents want you when I… I am better than you will ever be! What do you have, nameless cub? Do you have the ear of a queen? Do you have her signet ring for yourself, to use to demand anything you want? Do you have a pack of wild wolves believing your whims are royal order? What do you have? No one but animals want you!

A scullery wolf, pouring her bucket into the slops pit, heard the howl on the wind. It would mean her tongue to howl back, so she just refilled her bucket and hustled back into Riding Hood castle.

“Wuh-wuh-wuhhhhrrrrrooooo, woooooaaaahhhroooo,” she whispered as she knelt to scrub next to another worker.

“You there!” snapped a guard. “What are you plotting?”

“Nothing, sir!” the second maid whined. “She was just handing me this scrub brush!” She held up the brush and the guard snorted and looked away.

The third maid, who had been working silently nearby, got to her feet and tossed the contents of her bucket out the window. A shrill yap of protest sounded from the inner courtyard.

“Wuh-wuh-wuhhhhhrrrrrooooo, I’m so sorry!” the maid apologized, hanging out the window. “I didn’t hear you down there! Wooooahhhrrrooo, please forgive me!”

Below, the wet wolf asked her guard, “May I have permission to go change my clothing?”

“Make it quick!”

“Yes, sir!” She scuttled quickly down into the laundry.

“What happened to you?” the laundress snorted, the chain on her collar clanking as she walked to the end of her tether to pull out clean livery from the shelves.

“Slop bucket. Help me unbutton the back?”

“Sure.”

While the laundress deftly unbuttoned her, the maid grumbled to herself. “Sloppy scullery girls! Wuh-wuh-wuhhhhrrrooooo, if I wasn’t collared I’d bite them into shape! Wooaahhrrrooo!”

Behind her, the laundress smiled. “I’ll tell the bootblack when he comes in,” she whispered quickly. Stepping back, she threw a new dress over the maid’s head and started buttoning it up. More loudly, for her guard’s benefit, she said, “Go tell the housekeepers to come to me, the fresh sheets are ready for the beds they tend.”

The maid smiled back in perfect understanding. “I’ll tell them right away.”

Back in New Sanctuary, Great Wolf’s Mate drew the shutters and gathered up the other Wolf with a nod. Virginia dimly noted that the village seemed much noisier than usual and went back to examining the infant as the dominant women left. He was so little! And wrinkly, and delicate, and what was she thinking to have a baby? Now that he was here, all she could think of was how terrified she was that she’d mess up this whole motherhood thing.

The Wolf women smiled at her, pushed past Littlebit, and left as the midwife showed her how to let him nurse-OW! “One tooth and you’re getting weaned, kid!” Virginia warned the baby as the midwife snickered.

Pounding feet up the stairs heralded Wolf’s arrival. Only a nasty look from the midwife kept him from jumping eagerly on the bed, so he came in and sat next to her with exaggerated care. Already tired, Virginia handed the bundle over.

“Huff, puff, he’s perfect!” The baby looked even tinier in Wolf’s large hands. “Look at him! He has your mouth, and my hair, and...” he cocked his head. “I think he has your papa’s ears. Well, his hair will hide that.”

“Be nice,” Virginia muttered sleepily.

“You rest now. I’ll be within howling distance.” The midwife patted her and left her. Wolf remained mesmerized by the baby, although he did snake an arm out and pull her to his side.

Virginia wriggled around so she could pillow her head on Wolf’s thigh. The last thing she heard as she drifted off to sleep was Wolf crooning “Shepherdess is quite a mess...” with a background of muted howling outside.