Wolfsong
As the first snowflake settled, it whispered secrets of a winter tale waiting to be told.
A tale of a warrior sent by his clan to bring an invader and murderer to justice, in the land where winter holds sway, and man still struggled in the nascent days of his total and widespread reign.
Kah’nuk the bull mammoth slowly approached the herd matriarch as she stood upon the rocky precipice, a slanted flat-topped boulder that surveyed a valley of white and shadow.
Above, the borealis soul ribbon cut a jagged rainbow line of light across the partially clouded sky. The cold wind gently howled through the snow-capped evergreen pines and spruce trees that arose here and there across the undulating valley cut by the great glacier movements. The early morning chill maintained the blanket of snow that covered all that could be covered, from the forest domains to the small glades and hills that lay interspersed across the tundral valley.
“Matriarch.” Kah’nuk rumbled in greeting. “Your vigil keeps you awake longer than usual. What change in the winds causes such restlessness?”
“Kah’nuk.” The wizened, long tusked, and grey haired Matriarch turned and lifted her wrinkled trunk in response. Kah’nuk touched it with his, feeling wrinkled skin over lithe muscle. Even at her great age, she still towered over him by a full metre, tall and still as a great oak.
Kah’nuk held a wider profile, his fore and hind limbs each a column of mighty thew that supported his thick rounded body. The matriarch’s tusks were cracked and chipped from many battles, while his were larger, more curved and had only a few cracks along its fearsome bony edges. The matriarch was both the leader who resembled the namesake of the clan she led and would lead until her passing into the Great Beyond. Shattertusk. Kah’nuk was the herd’s champion and its most loyal and strongest male.
“The winds bring no scent, but a warning in the air. The wolves fill the night silence with their chorus, and in their howling they bring a warning.” The matriarch gave a low, mournful bellow.
“A warning?” Kah’nuk asked, looking out over the wintry forest expanse. “Is it man? Have their fires and clan disputes broken the accord of the land? Or does their greed outmatch their hunger yet again?”
“Nay, my champion. This wolfsong brings a warning of a different kind.” The Matriarch huffed and gestured to the barren lands of the North, a place where mountains were said to often belch smoke and bleed fire, and nothing but ash remained to mingle with the snow and the lifeless trees that once grew there.
“They sing of a danger this land is not ready to accommodate. Of a threat that resides in the barren North, so terrible to the great balance that the very future of this realm is at stake. A creature that does not belong and outmatches the great bear, the lion and the sabre-cat in ferocity. Not even man and Neanderthal in their darkest deeds can hope to match its appetite for malevolence and wanton destruction. Worse than man, worse than bear, worse than sabre and lion. Those are the warnings the wolves sing to all who can hear and understand, as I do.”
She turned to him, her wizened pale blue eyes meeting his deep chestnut brown own.
“Kah’nuk, my champion, you must see to and answer this threat. Confront it, and if it does not submit or agree to serve the Balance, you must destroy it. We are the great wardens of this land, and must keep it so before man comes into his own and we pass from this world into the Great Beyond, where even I cannot see where our destiny lies.”
“In service to all creation,” She continued. “The Balance must be protected at all costs. If we cannot subdue this threat, it will spell doom to all who dwell across this land. The forests will drown in screams and blood, for I sense that while this imbalance is caused by one intruder, I fear it is merely an envoy. A single raindrop that heralds a deluge. You must see to this vanguard threat, and stem the tide if you can.”
Kah’nuk lowed affirmatively.
Come the morning, he would set out across the forest and confront this invader. He would know from the scents and the messages the smaller creatures would tell him as he passed if and when he would be getting closer. Perhaps the invader would be careless, and leave signs that betrayed their presence, and he would be done with the business and return safely to his herd and his mate and calf by the evening.
