02-10-2018, 01:36 PM
The human-pack’s hunters were as noisy as a pair of clashing stags and as ravenous with their appetites as a flock of ravens. In an astonishingly short time they had driven a great part of the prey animals from their grazing grounds, roosts, nests, burrows and hives to other parts of the forests, and as the herbivores left the predators followed them. The hunter-males had to cover bigger distances to find the larger prey, which led them to hunt after smaller animals.
When Karil wandered the forest that day it was silent. The trees rustled in the wind but the birds did not chirp as loudly anymore. The grass blades moved back and forth as the breeze caressed them but there were far fewer traces on them. The rushing waters splashed and guzzled but there were fewer fishes swimming in them. And though the waters ran crystal clear there were fewer animals coming to drink from them.
Soon they would come to harvest what had remained. They would pluck the fruits from the trees and dig up the roots from the ground. They would find the glimmering stones on the surface and dig them up. Then they would dig deeper and tear up the land in search of more. They would harvest the rocks from the mountainsides. They would fell the trees and uproot the bushes. And what was left they would feed to the goat-animals. Then they would move on. All that she could hope for was that they would not come to where she was.
She tracked her way back to her old burrow, to retrieve her belongings. It would be easier to stuff her bed into the leather bag that she had once found in the forest and to bring it to her new home, rather than to make a new one. She needed to do it soon though, before the humans began cutting down the trees around the area and she would have to sneak past them.
She was just coming close to the river where she used to drink at when a familiar scent filled her nostrils. Humans. Not just any humans though, she recognized these ones… two, no, three young humans. One she had not smelled before. The other two she had. It was those two girls she had seen before. The ones who were collecting the black shiny stones. The Wolpertinger laid on the ground and crawled closer instead of wandering into the open. In this manner she reached the edge of the hill behind which the river was running, and peeked down between the bushes.
The two girls that she had met near the village were indeed there, but they had a boy with them who looked like he was about their age. They were busy by the river, all three of them were barefoot and had rolled up their sleeves and trousers. Karil sniffed the air but she could not smell any fish. They did not use metal claws or feathered sticks either so she imagined that they were not hunting. One of the girls, the older one, picked a large rock from the ground and heaved it over into the riverbed where it created a large splash. The boy brought in two handfuls of tinier pebbles and dirt and stuffed it into the cracks. They were building a wall in the midst of the river to back up the water, like a beaver dam. Karil wondered why they were doing it. She slid a little closer to get a better look.
The younger girl seemed to hear something and looked up - straight at her! Immediately a cold wave rushed through Karil’s arms and legs as her instincts activated. She’d been found. The girl would alert the rest of the pack and they’d attack. Should she flee, or try to silence her before she could scream? Yet the girl didn’t scream. She did not inflate her chest with air or get the attention of the others. A smile formed on her lips. “Mei, look!” she said finally, without looking away.
“Alice? What is it now?” the girl spoken to asked.
“It’s the doggy! Look! Up there!”
Karil should have fled now. The older girl was probably going to know better and scream. If she delayed her escape she would put herself at greater risk. Why was she not going? Because, she answered her own question, she felt no threat coming from the humans.
The younger girl knelt and held her hand out, beckoning for Karil to come closer. The boy had also noticed her by now, thus all three pups were looking. He was also the first one who came closer and climbed the small hill, curiosity glimmering in his eyes. “That’s a strange dog”, he said. “It’s got antlers. Like a stag.”
“She’s not a doggy”, the older girl said as she followed the boy. “She’s a, uhh… a wolf-singer or something. I don’t remember the name that grandpa gave her, but she’s that.”
“A wolf singer? That’s a dumb name. I bet she can’t sing.”
“Back away”, Karil warned. “Karil attack if...“ But her words got stuck in her throat when the boy reached out and began scratching her head. She wanted to snarl, to snap at his hand or at least to back away, but instead she pressed her head into the fingers. He was pressing just the right spot, one that she had trouble scratching when it itched. Then she felt that her tail was wagging, like a common dog’s. She wanted to make it stop, to force it back, but she could not. “Ngh~”, was all she could say.
“Ohh. You enjoy being pet, doggy?” the boy asked. He got to his knees and reached his other hand out too, to rub at her chin. Karil could not help but to close her eyes, letting the pleasure rush over her. She had never thought that it could be so enjoyable… it made sense now that dogs enjoyed being pet so much.
Now the two girls joined in as well and laughed as they started to rub Karil’s sides and her back. Karil thought that she would pass out from the pleasure. To be scritched, rubbed, petted all over like this, she wanted to do nothing more than to lay her head into the laps of these human-pups and fall asleep against them…
It took all her willpower to pull herself away from their hands. She was panting, her tongue hanging out the side of her maw, draped over her teeth, but the pleasure was quickly withdrawing. The pups looked surprised before the boy asked: “Doggy, do you not want to be pet? Do you not like it when we rub you?”
“Karil… Karil like rubs”, she said. “But Karil not want rubs.”
The younger girl looked puzzled at this. “Why do you not want rubs? If they feel good and you like them, you’d want them, right?”
The truth was, she wanted more. She would have wanted nothing more than to sit between the three of them and let them continue. But she forced herself to sit on her tail so it would not wag anymore, and bared her fangs for a threatening snarl. “Karil is not dog. Karil is predator. Forest belong to Karil. Forest not belong to human-pack. Human pack destroy forest, kill food, remove trees, rip out grass and bushes. Human pack… enemy of Karil. Karil not want rubs from enemy.”
“We’re not your enemy”, the older girl said. “First of, the forest isn’t even yours, if it’s anyone’s it’d be King Aragorn’s. But really it’s there to be shared by everyone! And we’re not destroying the forest! We just need a little space to build our homes!”
“Homes… not in forest. Human pack go outside forest”, Karil said. “Go with big human packs outside forest. Live happy there. Leave forest alone.”
“Don’t act like this place belongs to you”, the boy said, now in a more aggressive tone. He had picked up a rock and a stick that he was waving at Karil as if threatening her. “We have every right to be here, just like you!”
Karil growled. Then she leaped forward and snagged the stick from the boy’s hands before snapping it in half between her teeth. The pups screamed and turned around to run away. The boy dropped his rock as he ran. Together, the three of them slid down the small hill, waded through the little river and disappeared into the undergrowth towards where they had come from, as fast as their hindpaws could carry them. Only the youngest girl had the presence of mind to snag up the leather bindings that they had worn around their hindpaws as they ran. The Wolpertinger gave no chase. She waited.
Soon the silence filled the forest again, with only the gurgling of the river disturbing it. Karil wandered down and knocked over the little dam that the children had built, then pushed the biggest rocks back towards the edge of the riverbed where they had come from. It was but a small feat, the tiniest of ways to fix what the human pack had done to this forest, but she felt strangely good about it nontheless.
At the same time she felt a deep sadness within. Having scared the children would mean that she could not speak to them anymore. She felt that they would return, after all she had not attacked them. But if they met again it would not be on amicable terms. They would run away or attack her like the hunter-males. They would not pet her.
She felt that day that she had made a choice. She could have taken the offer that was extended to her by the children. She could have stayed and let them pet her. They could have brought her back to the human pack’s homes. They could have treated her like a dog. She could have found a dog mate and had pups. She could have laid by a cozy fire in the evenings and slept. She could have died with the human pups crying for her, after having had a happy life. All these things could have been hers, perhaps, had she made the right choices.
Now the offer was no more. She had chosen the lonely path of the predator. She had chosen not to let herself be tamed, but to stay a Wolpertinger. And though she felt sad that everything she could have had was gone she did not regret her choice. Her face hardened as she shook her head to rid herself of the lingering feeling of the pettings, then leant down into the river to drink. Then she covered the remaining way to her old burrow and retrieved what she had come to get.
If someone had wandered the forests of Camelot, and if that someone had left the path and come to the forest a dozen or so miles from the Pale Moors gate, they may have been greeted by the sight of a wolf walking on its hindlegs and with antlers on its head, carrying a leather bag on its back stuffed with dried grass and shedded fur. But not too many people stray from the beaten paths of the forests of Camelot, because they are worried about the predators.
When Karil wandered the forest that day it was silent. The trees rustled in the wind but the birds did not chirp as loudly anymore. The grass blades moved back and forth as the breeze caressed them but there were far fewer traces on them. The rushing waters splashed and guzzled but there were fewer fishes swimming in them. And though the waters ran crystal clear there were fewer animals coming to drink from them.
Soon they would come to harvest what had remained. They would pluck the fruits from the trees and dig up the roots from the ground. They would find the glimmering stones on the surface and dig them up. Then they would dig deeper and tear up the land in search of more. They would harvest the rocks from the mountainsides. They would fell the trees and uproot the bushes. And what was left they would feed to the goat-animals. Then they would move on. All that she could hope for was that they would not come to where she was.
She tracked her way back to her old burrow, to retrieve her belongings. It would be easier to stuff her bed into the leather bag that she had once found in the forest and to bring it to her new home, rather than to make a new one. She needed to do it soon though, before the humans began cutting down the trees around the area and she would have to sneak past them.
She was just coming close to the river where she used to drink at when a familiar scent filled her nostrils. Humans. Not just any humans though, she recognized these ones… two, no, three young humans. One she had not smelled before. The other two she had. It was those two girls she had seen before. The ones who were collecting the black shiny stones. The Wolpertinger laid on the ground and crawled closer instead of wandering into the open. In this manner she reached the edge of the hill behind which the river was running, and peeked down between the bushes.
The two girls that she had met near the village were indeed there, but they had a boy with them who looked like he was about their age. They were busy by the river, all three of them were barefoot and had rolled up their sleeves and trousers. Karil sniffed the air but she could not smell any fish. They did not use metal claws or feathered sticks either so she imagined that they were not hunting. One of the girls, the older one, picked a large rock from the ground and heaved it over into the riverbed where it created a large splash. The boy brought in two handfuls of tinier pebbles and dirt and stuffed it into the cracks. They were building a wall in the midst of the river to back up the water, like a beaver dam. Karil wondered why they were doing it. She slid a little closer to get a better look.
The younger girl seemed to hear something and looked up - straight at her! Immediately a cold wave rushed through Karil’s arms and legs as her instincts activated. She’d been found. The girl would alert the rest of the pack and they’d attack. Should she flee, or try to silence her before she could scream? Yet the girl didn’t scream. She did not inflate her chest with air or get the attention of the others. A smile formed on her lips. “Mei, look!” she said finally, without looking away.
“Alice? What is it now?” the girl spoken to asked.
“It’s the doggy! Look! Up there!”
Karil should have fled now. The older girl was probably going to know better and scream. If she delayed her escape she would put herself at greater risk. Why was she not going? Because, she answered her own question, she felt no threat coming from the humans.
The younger girl knelt and held her hand out, beckoning for Karil to come closer. The boy had also noticed her by now, thus all three pups were looking. He was also the first one who came closer and climbed the small hill, curiosity glimmering in his eyes. “That’s a strange dog”, he said. “It’s got antlers. Like a stag.”
“She’s not a doggy”, the older girl said as she followed the boy. “She’s a, uhh… a wolf-singer or something. I don’t remember the name that grandpa gave her, but she’s that.”
“A wolf singer? That’s a dumb name. I bet she can’t sing.”
“Back away”, Karil warned. “Karil attack if...“ But her words got stuck in her throat when the boy reached out and began scratching her head. She wanted to snarl, to snap at his hand or at least to back away, but instead she pressed her head into the fingers. He was pressing just the right spot, one that she had trouble scratching when it itched. Then she felt that her tail was wagging, like a common dog’s. She wanted to make it stop, to force it back, but she could not. “Ngh~”, was all she could say.
“Ohh. You enjoy being pet, doggy?” the boy asked. He got to his knees and reached his other hand out too, to rub at her chin. Karil could not help but to close her eyes, letting the pleasure rush over her. She had never thought that it could be so enjoyable… it made sense now that dogs enjoyed being pet so much.
Now the two girls joined in as well and laughed as they started to rub Karil’s sides and her back. Karil thought that she would pass out from the pleasure. To be scritched, rubbed, petted all over like this, she wanted to do nothing more than to lay her head into the laps of these human-pups and fall asleep against them…
It took all her willpower to pull herself away from their hands. She was panting, her tongue hanging out the side of her maw, draped over her teeth, but the pleasure was quickly withdrawing. The pups looked surprised before the boy asked: “Doggy, do you not want to be pet? Do you not like it when we rub you?”
“Karil… Karil like rubs”, she said. “But Karil not want rubs.”
The younger girl looked puzzled at this. “Why do you not want rubs? If they feel good and you like them, you’d want them, right?”
The truth was, she wanted more. She would have wanted nothing more than to sit between the three of them and let them continue. But she forced herself to sit on her tail so it would not wag anymore, and bared her fangs for a threatening snarl. “Karil is not dog. Karil is predator. Forest belong to Karil. Forest not belong to human-pack. Human pack destroy forest, kill food, remove trees, rip out grass and bushes. Human pack… enemy of Karil. Karil not want rubs from enemy.”
“We’re not your enemy”, the older girl said. “First of, the forest isn’t even yours, if it’s anyone’s it’d be King Aragorn’s. But really it’s there to be shared by everyone! And we’re not destroying the forest! We just need a little space to build our homes!”
“Homes… not in forest. Human pack go outside forest”, Karil said. “Go with big human packs outside forest. Live happy there. Leave forest alone.”
“Don’t act like this place belongs to you”, the boy said, now in a more aggressive tone. He had picked up a rock and a stick that he was waving at Karil as if threatening her. “We have every right to be here, just like you!”
Karil growled. Then she leaped forward and snagged the stick from the boy’s hands before snapping it in half between her teeth. The pups screamed and turned around to run away. The boy dropped his rock as he ran. Together, the three of them slid down the small hill, waded through the little river and disappeared into the undergrowth towards where they had come from, as fast as their hindpaws could carry them. Only the youngest girl had the presence of mind to snag up the leather bindings that they had worn around their hindpaws as they ran. The Wolpertinger gave no chase. She waited.
Soon the silence filled the forest again, with only the gurgling of the river disturbing it. Karil wandered down and knocked over the little dam that the children had built, then pushed the biggest rocks back towards the edge of the riverbed where they had come from. It was but a small feat, the tiniest of ways to fix what the human pack had done to this forest, but she felt strangely good about it nontheless.
At the same time she felt a deep sadness within. Having scared the children would mean that she could not speak to them anymore. She felt that they would return, after all she had not attacked them. But if they met again it would not be on amicable terms. They would run away or attack her like the hunter-males. They would not pet her.
She felt that day that she had made a choice. She could have taken the offer that was extended to her by the children. She could have stayed and let them pet her. They could have brought her back to the human pack’s homes. They could have treated her like a dog. She could have found a dog mate and had pups. She could have laid by a cozy fire in the evenings and slept. She could have died with the human pups crying for her, after having had a happy life. All these things could have been hers, perhaps, had she made the right choices.
Now the offer was no more. She had chosen the lonely path of the predator. She had chosen not to let herself be tamed, but to stay a Wolpertinger. And though she felt sad that everything she could have had was gone she did not regret her choice. Her face hardened as she shook her head to rid herself of the lingering feeling of the pettings, then leant down into the river to drink. Then she covered the remaining way to her old burrow and retrieved what she had come to get.
If someone had wandered the forests of Camelot, and if that someone had left the path and come to the forest a dozen or so miles from the Pale Moors gate, they may have been greeted by the sight of a wolf walking on its hindlegs and with antlers on its head, carrying a leather bag on its back stuffed with dried grass and shedded fur. But not too many people stray from the beaten paths of the forests of Camelot, because they are worried about the predators.