A.N.D. - Wolf Woods

Red could hear the howling while they were still an hour’s journey away from New Sanctuary. Lucy started whimpering. “They’ve gone mad, they’ve all finally gone mad! Turn back, or they’ll eat us up!”

Red was equally startled, but not so panicky. “What are they saying?” she asked Benjamin.

He scrambled up on top of their load to listen, his head cocked and his ear turned to the breeze. An expression Red couldn’t quite read crossed his face, then it went back to his usual bland politeness. “They’re announcing a festival of some sort. It’s too far away for me to tell for what.”

Lucy grabbed her arm painfully. “Who knows what will happen to people in the middle of a wolf festival? They probably roast humans like pigs for the feast!”

Benjamin made a lip-smacking noise just to tease, but he quailed into silence as Red turned to glare at him. With him subdued, she turned her ire on Lucy. “Don’t be ridiculous, Wendell’s not going to let his new citizens eat his old ones, no matter how fond he is of his furry friends.”

“A suggestion, my liege-uh, lady,” Benjamin said from the back. “Perhaps I can learn more if people think I am just a travelling wolf and not part of a human entourage. If I jump down now, I can enter the town separately and meet up with you there later.”

Red thought about it. “Good idea. Go, then.”

“Thank you,” Benjamin slipped down just as they entered the woods and was gone. Red watched the trees for a while, hoping for a glimpse of him. Oh, please, don’t let him decide to stay! Whatever would I do without him protecting me in these dangerous times?

At last, free of that controlling queen and her irritating magpie of a secretary! Benjamin slipped a finger under his collar, scratching an itch. He hadn’t been able to take this off yet, not with Red around him all the time, but he’d find a way. It wasn’t right that those other, slinking, stinking, disgusting animals should be free of it while he was still chained like a dog.

Oh, he knew that the queen was afraid he’d go native. As if he’d be foolish enough to trade his power over her for the chance to rub shoulders for the rest of his life with wolves! Wendell’s softer cage was only for those who lacked ambition.

He had never lacked ambition.

A half-mile out of town, he scented a gathering of humans off to his left. Hmmm! He couldn’t smell any water or blood-they weren’t at a stream or hunting. And there were no wolves with them, not a one.

A pure human gathering hidden just outside a wolf town? That had to mean trouble.

Which also meant that he should be part of it.

They were keeping their voices down (for a human) but not enough to escape wolf senses. As Benjamin slid up soundlessly, he could hear them quite clearly.

“...thought we were going to do it before the whole town met the brat?”

“Are you insane? If we did it before that stupid ceremony, then I’d be the obvious suspect. After the brat goes out in town, we can pin it on anyone.”

“Oh, please, those so-called heroes are dumber than dirt, anyway! Else they’d have known that they met Betty before!”

There was a snort of derision. “Stupid animal told me himself that they don’t remember a lot about Little Lamb Village. That wolf doesn’t even recognize Betty as a Peep. Nasty sniffing beast-but they haven’t sniffed her out, nor me, Sally’s mother’s cousin’s sister! They trust us. This’ll be easy, and then they’ll pay for what they’ve done to the Peeps!”

“This isn’t just about your family feud! It’s about what Wendell is doing to all the humans, and your delay has put the plan in more danger than ever! If Wendell comes to this ceremony, he’s going to know that you’re not the people who he sent. You’ll end up in prison and the brat will still live! We’ll have failed!”

“He won’t come to this party, it’s a wolf thing. He’s too busy ruling. We’ll do it soon, though.”

“Fine. This full moon’ll do good as any other. That gives us another three weeks to plan.”

Benjamin hid in the bracken as they passed by, making sure to take a deep breath of every scent. He didn’t know their faces yet, but he could find them again. Oh, yes, he could find them again.

Whatever they were planning, he’d find a way to be part of it. Maybe, if he was very lucky, he could even find a way to get his queen to go to war and eliminate that wolf-loving Wendell and his animals once and for all.

Just as in the garrisons, the road into town led by easy degrees to the town center. Unlike the garrisons, there were all sorts of creatures thronging the walkways on either side. Tantalizing bits of conversation and business floated by as the ox plodded on.

Over to one side, a plump, middle-aged wolf in many skirts was leaning over a gate, her tail waving gently as she talked to a younger woman. “...the longest, fluffiest tail you’ve ever seen, and a good hunter too! One sniff, and she’ll be crazy for your Richard! It’ll be a match, you see. If it is, you owe me three lambs and a rabbit.”

On the other side, a tiny child let go his mother’s skirts and tottered off. The mother never looked up, and Red was disgusted at her carelessness. Then she realized where the baby was toddling to. Lucy squealed, grabbing her arm, and Red would have screamed, except her mouth was suddenly too dry. Unwarned, the child continued to toddle with outstretched hands towards the back end of the largest, hairiest wolf she had ever seen.

With a triumphant gurgle the child grabbed the wolf’s tail, pulling out two handfuls of fur as it fell over. Now the women could scream, and did, as the huge wolf whipped around, snarling at the rear attack.

For a frozen moment, everyone stared at each other-Red and Lucy clutching each other, the wolf glaring with a lip curled up to reveal finger-length fangs, and the toddler, lower lip quivering and still holding the fur it had pulled out.

Then the wolf whuffed and licked the child, and Red almost passed out in relief. The negligent mother hustled up then, full of apologies, which the big wolf shrugged off. “How else do they learn to walk?” The mother grimaced ruefully, showing off the well-plucked tail that sprouted from the back of her skirts. The big wolf panted in something that might be a laugh, brushing its tail along the top of the child’s head, tempting it to grab for it again. It did, and with only a few grimaces, the big wolf tamely walked off slowly, pulling the child behind it.

“Oooohhhhhhhh!” Lucy slumped against her. “Oh, what I was afraid of!”

“I was too,” Red whispered.

On the commons in the center of town was an oddly familiar sight-a full-sized, Second Kingdom wolf cage. Inside it was a little girl, a silver collar locked around her neck, surrounded by slates on easels. At the top of each slate was a sentence, which she was grumpily copying until each slate was full. I WILL NOT ORDER ADULTS AROUND. I AM TOO YOUNG TO LEAD. I AM TOO YOUNG TO FIGHT. I AM NOT WOLF OF WOLVES. (At the bottom of that slate was a defiantly childish scrawl of But I will be!)

“Addie!” The girl turned to the side as she was called, and Red was horrified to realize that no tail was sticking out of the back of her clothing. A human? Those horrible wolves were treating a human like that-worse yet, a little girl? How could they? Was the natural order of things reversed when Wendell wasn’t looking, or had he given his blessing to this travesty? Her shock was compounded when she realized who was calling the girl. Her herbalist! Her very own herbalist, the one who had helped murder and eat her groundskeeper!

The wolf woman was carrying a bowl in one hand and a pitcher of water in the other. “Here’s your lunch,” she said, passing them through.

Addie poked a finger into the bowl, making a face. “This isn’t food!”

“It’s dried meat and vitamins.” The herbalist laughed at her disgusted expression. “Scientifically formulated to keep your nose wet and your coat glossy.”

“I don’t have a wet nose,” the girl objected.

“Great One says if you want to be a wolf so badly that you’ll challenge him, then you have to know what it is to live like a wolf. So that’s what you get to eat. That’s what we were supposed to live on where I came from.”

Addie poked it again, dubiously. “It looks like cereal. Can I put milk on it?”

The wolf woman shook her head. “No milk. No meat. That and water, and you have to eat with your hands because only people get utensils.”

The girl took a bite and almost gagged. “It’s nasty! Where did you get it?”

“I brought some with me, to remind me of what it was like before.”

A passing wolf turned to her. “That’s a good idea. Maybe we should all eat it once a year, to remember.”

“Huh.” Another wolf drifted over. “And then have a feast, like a celebration or something. Pardon Day.”

“Liberation Day?”

“No, call it Independence Day!”

There were wolves all around now, blithely discussing a holiday, and none of them sparing a thought to the travesty of a human girl being treated like an animal. What seemed so right and normal was an abomination when the species were reversed. Red grabbed at a passing stranger, only remembering afterwards to check for a tail. “Who is that child?”

The person -a human, fortunately-looked over and laughed. “Oh, that’s Addie. Someday that girl’s gonna change history, but right now, she’s just a holy terror. She finally went too far, and Great One decided to give her a reality check.”

“G-g-great one? Is that what you call the wolf who saved Wendell?” Lucy stuttered.

“Oh, no, he’s Wolf of Wolves. Great One is the Wolf who leads the Council of Lead Wolfs.”

Red refused to be distracted by nomenclature. “The people of this town allow this? You’re treating a human like a wolf!”

The human she was talking to shrugged. “Around here, there’s no difference except on the full moon. It certainly seems to have made Addie stop and think. Besides, she’ll be let out for the ceremony tonight.”

“Ceremony?”

“Yes, it’s the undenning of Wendell Lewis. After that, there’s going to be a play. Something Wolf brought back from the Tenth Kingdom. Everyone’s excited. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to deliver these. See you tonight!”