Run with the Pack: Chapter 7

The wolf was almost upon him before Bahr could react.

“Run whelp!”

Bahr, facing the stranger, refused to run and stood his ground. Before him was a fearsome wolf, ragged from a hard winter but strong of jaw and fixed of stare. Other wolves appeared but remained several paces behind. The other wolves, all male, were not many but not one.

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“Run whelp,” repeated the stranger. “Run whelp, run whelp, run, run, run, run, run, run, run.”

“Back,” responded Bahr. “You run, you run, you run back. Back, back, back, back, back, back.”

The shrieking, blood-curdling exchange continued, growing more and more intense, neither wolf willing to commit to shedding blood in an uncertain fight, but neither giving ground either. The other wolves joined in the vocal exchange, adding to the barking, howling, shrieking cacophony. Despite the vocal support they offered to their companion, the other males stepped no closer to a situation that could have had a nasty outcome. They understood, without giving it a thought, that they were as likely to be injured by their companion as they were by the stranger wolf.

Elha, snout to the forest floor, having stopped to examine a complexity of scents, was startled by this sudden eruption of momentous sound. Upwind of the fray, and with ears pointed forward, she had not detected the approach of these wolves. Turning and focusing her attention back along the path to where she had last heard Bahr, she could clearly picture the scene as she discerned the sound clues assailing her ears. There were many wolves engaged in a vocal stand-off. There were many wolves but not a great many. Many wolves were a danger to a lone wolf like Elha, whether in company with another wolf or not, so she made no attempt to approach the unfolding scene. All her senses were alert to that danger and her limbs and heart were now priming themselves for immediate action, whether to fight or to flee.

She was more likely to run on the instant, for no wolf would enter a fight that was not theirs and a fight that was unnecessary. Any injury was an immediate danger to a wolf struggling to survive in an unforgiving forest. Though a wolf may be the greatest fighter in the forest, fighting greatness came only through the greatness of the pack. A wolf alone was always vulnerable. A wolf alone must give all to survive and must avoid a fight that could weaken it and leave it to fall victim to the forest.

Continuing to focus her attention on the unfolding scene, Elha paced and swayed, readying herself for the run or the fight that could break at any moment. She did not run. She perhaps should have, but she stayed, not out of concern for her companion, the stranger wolf that had fallen into company with her, but for another reason. For Elha, despite acute awareness of the danger from the nearby wolves, was also aware of other feelings, other motives than the need to stay safe.

Having lived by two overwhelming motivations for the whole of her life, the need to hunt, scavenge and feed, and the need to avoid danger, Elha was becoming aware of another feeling that she could not quite understand. It was a feeling that competed with her mounting hunger and her immediate sense of danger. Wolves were used to being hungry, often for many days at a time, so Elha felt no concern that the nearby noise had eliminated any chance of finding prey in the forest that night. Right now, the feeling of danger was far more acute, as Elha pictured the scene, not far away, of fangs bared, spittle spraying, voices raised in anger and threat, wolves ready to pounce and rip and tear in an instant. Strong as that feeling of danger was, the other feeling was bubbling up under the surface and commanding more of her attention. Not much at this point, but enough to prevent her from fleeing the danger, which was her first instinct, the instinct of survival.

The other feeling was also part of that instinct of survival and so she stayed where she was. Far enough away from the danger that if it began to move her way, she could dart off, galloping away at a speed that would prevent even the fastest wolf from closing on her. As long as she remained alert, she would be able to keep herself safe. This strange and new feeling brought pictures of other wolves into her mind, as she poised ready to make her escape if need be. She pictured Bahr, as she had pictured him when she was laying and warming herself in the brief winter sunshine. She could tell that the enormous din being raised by the many wolves nearby, as they sized each other up, was being made by other male wolves. She imagined each of them in turn, as each voice gave rise to a picture of a wolf in her mind. She had known male wolves before, of course. Her ulfa and her brothers. She could tell a male wolf at a distance from its voice and from its scent, but she had never taken any particular interest in them being male. Her siblings were her siblings and her ulfa was her ulfa, and that was what they meant to her. Males were part of her family and her family meant everything. Family meant food, safety, protection and comfort. Family was all.

The sounds of these males battling with their voices meant something to Elha that she had not sensed in herself before, and she could still not quite understand what it might mean. The presence of these males and their aggressive behavior held her interest and it was that interest that kept her from running. Repulsed as she was by the din of aggression and the fear of attack, she was attracted by a curiosity about those other feelings that were new to her. The repulsion and the attraction were equally powerful and so she remained where she was, ever ready to dart off into the forest if she needed to. The vast noise of the confrontation continued.

Bahr still stood his ground, figuratively as well as physically, as he fought off the instinct to withdraw in the face of the other wolves who were more than he was. The many wolves (but not a great many) continued to harangue, to harass and berate him in no uncertain terms, howling insult after insult: “cur, whelp, no-wolf, runt.” It was these insults that kept the proud and stubborn Bahr from withdrawing. He would rather stand and fight, stand and lose, than give ground. For a lone wolf, standing his ground like this was a dangerous choice. The best course would have been to run, but Bahr, in his pride, would not run.

The stranger, equally stubborn, would not allow such an act of defiance. It must surely come to blood if one of the two did not give way. For the other wolves, though as vociferous in the condemnation and insults hurled at Bahr, recognized that he was a wolf to be feared and were not about to enter upon the fray at their peril.

If one of these two wolves took a pace forward, Bahr would lurch back at him.

“Stay back” he hissed at them showing the fangs of his ample gaping jaw, before jumping back to stand his ground in front of the antagonist. Neither of the other wolves needed telling twice and both lacked the aggression, as well as the strength, of their bolder and fiercer companion.

The noise of the confrontation rose to a climax. All around the forest responded with flapping, scurrying and bounding away from the danger. Certainly, there would be no stalking of prey animals that night, as they had already run for cover and would not be seen again until stillness and calm returned, until the noise had abated, and the threat had passed.

Frustrated at Bahr’s obstinance, the other wolf leapt forward, jaw extended, launching itself at Bahr’s face. Feeling the move an instant before he saw it, Bahr launched his own forward attack rather than backing away and putting himself on the hind paw. As the combatants met, there was a clash of fur and teeth and jaws, then each was left with a small portion of the other’s hide. Rolling and recovering, Bahr found himself with his back to one of the other wolves and quickly sidestepped to regain his position as the other wolf, raising himself up, quickly drew back away from Bahr’s snapping fangs.

Having each struck a blow against the other, the two wolves again struck up a clamoring, howling cacophony of part threat, part insult, part defiance.

The stranger, detecting Elha’s scent from a change in the wind for the first time, altered his tack.

“So, it is shiha that you protect? Found yourself a mate, have you?”

Bahr was not sure what the other wolf meant, for he was unaware of any mate and, despite keeping company with Elha, she was not family and he had staked no claim. Nevertheless, he was aware of some stirring of concern deep within him. It unsettled him momentarily and the stranger detected his disquiet.

“Leave her be, she is mine,” slurred the stranger. “I will kill you and have her. She will smell my name and she will smell your blood. She will know my strength, and she will know I have killed you and she will want me.”

Bahr continued to snarl his defiance.

“Run off, whelp, or stay and been torn apart by my fangs,” continued the other wolf.

Bahr was not about to run off and, despite not making any claim to the strange shiha, he kept himself between the strangers and the path that led to Elha, upwind of and behind him. This time it was Bahr who attacked, launching himself at the stranger’s throat, with fangs poised to clamp down and tear flesh. Yet the stranger was quicker than him and, sidestepping, launched his own fangs into Bahr’s flank, tearing a portion of flesh and fur away as Bahr’s momentum carried him on past the point of danger. Cannoning into one of the other wolves, which bounded off with a yelp, Bahr soon recovered himself and, leaping back to his position upwind, launched a series of lunges that kept the stranger at bay as he recovered himself.

By now the noise of the fight was overwhelming and dizzying to the two combatants, as well as the two onlookers and Elha, who maintained her distance, pacing as if awaiting the outcome. Bahr gave no further thought to the shihah, as he concentrated on his target, oblivious to further distractions. His vision, which had now become blurred with a red, misty haze, saw only his adversary. He ignored the other two wolves which, having witnessed the ferocity of Bahr’s attack, had no further mind to intervene and had even reduced their snarls and howls to a token background yap. Had they circled around to Bahr’s rear, they could have snapped at his heals, distracting and weakening him as wolves might do when tormenting a bear into a hasty retreat. They did not. Instead, they backed away to a safe distance in the direction they had come, ready to make flight should Bahr turn to attack them. They gave no thought whatever to a concerted pack aggression.

Meanwhile, the two antagonists were now circling each other, awaiting the moment to strike. In the end it was a mutual leap at each other’s throat, the stranger catching Bahr first. Falling back with the force of his opponent’s attack, Bahr fell onto his back, the stranger on top of him, but managed to clamp his jaw around the stranger’s neck. With the momentum of the roll, Bahr was able to force himself on top, pushing the other wolf’s neck into the mud, a clump of which flew over the animal’s snout, stopping him from breathing and forcing him to relax his grip on Bahr, momentarily, to take a breath. Bahr now held his writhing opponent down by the neck, gripping with his mighty jaw and pinning his adversary down with the full weight of his body.

Having clearly demonstrated his dominance, Bahr released the wretched stranger, instantly poising himself and growling his further threat. The stranger, having recognized that he had been bested, stood further back, now in the direction of Elha but paying no attention to the shiha’s scent. The other wolves had continued to back away in the direction they had come, maintaining their own threats and defiance but making no move to put bite into their bark. In this way, the stand-off continued, with Bahr between the stranger and his brothers, paying the two other wolves no heed. The stranger, keen to be back in the company of the other two was unable to pass by Bahr.

Continuing to snarl his defiance at Bahr, the aggressor wolf suddenly leapt, not directly at Bahr but to his side in a bid to pass his tormentor and reach the others. Taking Bahr by surprise, the wolf managed to glance by Bahr. Not, though, before Bahr was able to inflict a punishing bite on the departing wolf’s hind leg. The many wolves now resumed their tirade at Bahr from a distance, each facing Bahr on the path they had come from but none of them willing to close the gap.

“Low cur, nothing-whelp, stay apart or you will be sorry.”

Bahr could ignore the insults now that it was clear that they were merely the empty threats of the defeated.

“Stay apart yourself, weakling. Never cross my path again or you will die on the instant.”

With a further barrage of yelps and roars the strangers turned and left the way they had come. Bahr, panting, stood facing them, watching them disappear into the forest, following the sound of their departing pads, and their yaps and subdued howls. Satisfied that they would not return he began to calm, the excitement subsiding. He felt the warm glow of having won something more than just a fight but was unsure what to do next or where to go.

He had all but forgotten about his companion but, as the fighting madness receded, so he again detected Elha’s scent, now rolling down to him on the breeze. Instinctively and without thinking, he began to move at a slow pace, recovering his strength, in Elha’s direction.

Elha could of course tell that the battle was over with the sudden cessation of noise, but she could await the outcome with unconcern. With the outbreak of violent sounds having scared away all food within a night’s distance, there was no prospect of a kill that night and she therefore lost commitment to the direction she had been heading. Elha nonetheless began to move upwind and away from the scene of danger, to start to put distance from it. She guessed the outcome of the fight by the knowledge that only one set of paws was heading in her direction. Still attracted by her previously unknown interest in male wolves she did not, however, move with any conviction. Moving away, she allowed her pursuer gradually to catch up with her.

Bahr, this time, was not heading in the same general direction as Elha, he was heading directly for her. Although she was not family, she was the closest thing Bahr had and a lone wolf is a lonely wolf, particularly when faced with danger or trauma. For some considerable time, Bahr moved at a relaxed pace towards Elha, as Elha moved away to a slower pace.

At one point Bahr stopped, curled himself onto the carpet of leaves beneath him, and rested, panting, occasionally lapping at the the wounds that had been inflicted upon him. Elha was only barely conscious that the sound of a wolf following her had momentarily ceased. Without thinking she also stopped and rested, taking in the sounds and scents from a forest that seemed still compared to the mad confrontation that had just taken place.

As Bahr rose again, continuing his walk with a limp, so Elha continued to rest, barely noticing the sound of the pad of paws approaching her. Hesitating further before she raised herself up to continue to pace away from Bahr, Elha slowed almost to a standstill, as Bahr caught up.

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Run with the Pack was published by Park Langley Editions in 2022. I will continue to post each chapter in turn here, as long as there is interest from readers. Please comment and/or like if you wish to read the next chapter.

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• Prologue: Farewell Dear Brother

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