MEN LIKE WOLVES - DAY TWO, PART TWO

In his four-legged form, the scout glided downhill. He was like a ghost - soundless and almost impossible to see.

It was early evening and the scout was surveying the approaches to the town. The way was clear and he would eventually double-back and report. The rest of the pack were working their way down the mountain at a slower pace.

The decision to actually go into town was not the scout's to make. But there was a place that bothered him: a lonely cabin, well beyond the edge of town. It was redolent with the scent of hunting creatures. Whatever they were, the scout didn't recognize them. They were something that was human and yet not human at the same time.

Much like the pack itself, actually.

The scent was old. Whatever threat the not-quite-humans had presented was probably gone. However, the scout was serious about what he did. He decided he should check the cabin - just to make sure.


Hank-the-bear knew that something was wrong, but he couldn't identify it. There was something new in his world. There was a scent that reeked of aggression and danger. It wasn't strong, but every now and then a trace of it drifted down from the nearest mountain.

It wasn't a grizzly bear. It wasn't a mountain lion. And it wasn't a wolf - although that scent seemed closer than anything else.

Whatever it was, Hank didn't like it. And its presence triggered protective instincts within him. So he left the low ridge of heavily treed hills that was his current range and carefully drifted back to the cabin. Hank wasn't really lonely - his kind normally led solitary lives and were well adapted to that - but he did dimly miss those who had once lived at the cabin. Especially the cubs.

The youngsters had been gone for some time, but Hank had decided that he should make sure. There was something bad in the woods and the cubs might need him.


Lugging a basket full of laundry, Mrs. Watt walked down the hallway and past the living room. Then she paused and backed up several steps to get another look. Billy and Laura were in the room. Billy was playing a hand-held game, while Laura was on the Internet. She was looking at a page that was dominated by the badly drawn image of a gruesomely leering furred-and-fanged monster. It looked like a malformed bear or wolf, but was stalking through the woods on two legs.

Mrs. Watt walked into the den and put her laundry basket on the couch. "What are you looking at, Laura?" she asked.

Laura looked up over her shoulder at Mrs. Watt. "I'm doing some research about the missing people."

Mrs. Watt nodded, still looking at the web-page that Laura had found. The artwork on the page was garish and amateurish, but it was the sort of thing that might give a child nightmares.

Laura got out of her seat and walked over to the laundry basket. She began pulling clothes out, folding and arranging them neatly on the sofa.

"That page says a lot of people have gone missing in the big national parks - like Yellowstone and Glacier," Laura explained over her shoulder as she continued to sort and fold.

"This doesn't look like a site you should take too seriously," Mrs. Watt said as she used the mouse to scroll down. There was a lot of capitalized words and bolded text. Some of it was wild quotes from people who claimed to have seen strange creatures in the woods. Predictably, the writer was also sure that somebody in power was hiding the truth. Mrs. Watt was skeptical of the internet, and it looked as if nothing on that particular website was going to change her opinion.

"Yeah, he's nuts," Billy spoke up from where he was sitting. "But, he has some stuff from newspapers and magazines. People really are missing - hundreds in the big parks."

"That's hundreds of people over dozens of years," Laura clarified.

By now, Mrs. Watt was frowning thoughtfully as she examined a list of citations at the bottom of the web page. It was neatly formatted and linked, and looked a lot saner than the rest of the page. Clicking on a link, Mrs. Watt found herself looking at an archived article from the Washington Post. It had been written almost a decade ago and was dryly formal. As a result of an increase in disappearances among park visitors, the National Park Service was putting together a task-force to investigate search and rescue standards in its parks.

"Those parks are big places, Laura," Mrs. Watt said distractedly - she was still reading the story. "Yellowstone is bigger than some countries. And a lot of the people visiting them are city folk. There's all sorts of ways to get yourself in trouble if you don't know what you're doing."

"Yes, ma'am," Laura said respectfully as she finished folding a towel.


Ellie peeked out the window and laughed.

"Guess who's back?" she told her husband.

Ed frowned. Thanks to those missing person cases, he'd just finished a double-shift and he was dead tired. He wasn't in the mood for visitors.

Then he finally figured out Ellie's smile.

"Darn it," Ed grumbled as he carefully got to his feet. There was a tricky moment whenever Ed stood up when he had to make sure that his prosthetic leg was properly engaged and supporting his weight.

Ellie reached down and picked up their boy. Troy was pretty active now, but he was still a very quiet boy. So quiet that Ed was beginning to wonder if that was something to worry about.

The cabin had been a wedding gift from the Howlett's, and both Ed and Ellie were quite grateful. They had to stretch Ed's salary as much as possible. It also helped that the cabin was more centrally located in Ed's patrol area than the town.

But the cabin had come with one unusual feature - a resident bear. Ellie had grown up on a ranch and had no particular fear of black bears. She knew that they were shy and reticent creatures, far more inclined to run than fight. Only a sow with a cub was ever likely to be dangerous. But because of Troy, both she and Ed were uneasy about having Hank around the cabin. There had been some yelling and thrown rocks involved in convincing Hank to stay away.

Out on the porch, Ed glared at Hank. The bear was resting on his belly next to the woodpile. He was motionless except for the occasional twitch of his ears. However, he wasn't asleep. It looked like he was waiting for something.

"I thought we'd come to an understanding," Ed said regretfully. Then he bent over and retrieved a stone from a pile he kept near the door. He never threw to actually hit Hank - just to bounce the rock off a nearby tree.

Hank suddenly growled. It was a surprisingly deep rumble that came from deep within his chest.

Ed quickly looked up.

But Hank wasn't looking at Ed. In fact, the bear had clambered upright and was peering off into the woods.

Something had Hank's attention. And Hank didn't like whatever it was.

Deep down inside, Ed suddenly went cold and wary. He carefully scanned the woodline for anything that was out of the ordinary, all the while calculating the precise number of steps required to get to the nearest loaded firearm.

Hank feel silent, but he was still up on his hind-legs and tensely alert. He seemed to be waiting for something.

A long, frozen, moment passed. Then a sparrow chirped tentatively. That seemed to break the ice as a dozen or so birds suddenly began to sing. Ed realized that he hadn't noticed until then the complete absence of bird noise.

"Ed?" Ellie asked. She was standing behind Ed with Troy still in her arms. She was obviously worried.

"Pack a bag," Ed said carefully, his eyes still on the trees. "We're going back to town. We'll be staying there for a while."

Ellie didn't say anything as she began backing towards the cabin door. She'd recognized the tone of Ed's voice. Something was worrying him. And it was serious.

Hank swung his massive head to look at the new people of the cabin.

"Hi," Troy said to Hank. However, Troy's lips didn't move and he didn't make a sound.

Hank seemed to consider that for a moment. Then he rumbled a return greeting before collapsing back to the ground.


"I have an idea," Laura said suddenly.

It was almost sundown and they were all gathered in the Watt backyard. Brad and Daken were splitting wood - mostly as a way of blowing off steam. The pile of split wood was already huge.

Everyone paused and looked at Laura. Despite her age, they knew that Laura was eerily smart.

"We could ask Deputy Barnett for help," Laura continued. "He knows about us. And he can go all over the county without anyone wondering why."

Everyone took a moment to consider what Laura had said.

"That could be really dangerous for him," Brad warned.

"He's in danger anyway," Aliza noted. "He's always out alone. This way, we'll be warning him."

Daken nodded and then buried the blade of the ax into a log. "We'll ask him tomorrow," he said.


The scout faded back from the cabin, leaving next to no trace. The cabin was inhabited by a couple and their child. Oddly enough, a male black bear was also in the area. That was strange because black bears tended to avoid people.

The near-human predators who had once lived there were long gone. The people who now lived in the cabin were ordinary humans - no threat - but the scout made a mental note of their presence. The pack might need them for food later on. Humans weren't the pack's primary prey, but isolated individuals and small groups were fair game.

His job was done and it was time to return to the others. And yet the scout hesitated. This happened every time he was separated from the others for any length of time.

What if he just kept on going? What would happen if he simply never returned?

The scout had vague memories of how to drive a car. His father was teaching him just before the scout changed, and the pack found him.

Would it be so hard to sneak into town, take a car, and then simply drive away?

But what would happen next? Would the pack follow him? Hunt him down? Or would they simply forget that he existed?

The scout closed his eyes and went very still.

It was so tempting. But what would he do after he left? Where would he go? He had nobody else. The pack killed his family when they took him. Since then, he had helped murder dozens of innocent people. The scout was a man-eater many times over.

He didn't really have a place in the civilized world. As far as ordinary folk were concerned, he was a long-forgotten name, and nothing more. He couldn't just reappear and try to live a normal life. He didn't really understand the world of ordinary people.

No, there was really no choice.

The scout began moving up-slope. It was time to go back to his own kind.

That was where he belonged.


The sun had set and Ed wasn't too happy about that. He had a rifle in one hand and a travel bag in the other as he walked Ellie and Troy to their vehicles. He was going to drive his patrol car into town. Ellie would take the pickup truck.

Troy was on his mother's hip, while Ellie carried some luggage in her other hand.

Hank-the-bear was still sprawled near the woodpile. In the dying light, he was just a dark lump near another dark lump.

Neither Ed or Ellie noticed how their son seemed to stare in the direction of the bear. And how the bear seemed to be looking back at their son. Troy was smiling and making inarticulate noises as Hank's ears twitched and his head shifted from side-to-side.


Aliza was in bed, staring up at the ceiling. There was too much going on in her head and sleep was elusive. Eventually, she got to her feet and slipped through the house and out the front door.

Out on the porch, Aliza sat down in a folding chair. It was late enough - early morning - that the town had gone silent. There were no lights visible in any of the nearby houses. A few widely-spaced streetlights shed a dim yellow light on the street.

It was cool, but not cold, and Aliza took a deep breath of night air. She wasn't wearing much - just an old-fashioned cotton night-dress that was a hand-me-down. It was superficially modest, with a hem that reached down to her ankles. However, it was also thin enough to become scandalous if Aliza allowed herself to be backlit. Her mother, very aware of the fact that Aliza was maturing into a woman, wouldn't have approved of her being outside wearing something like that.

A fantasy wandered in Aliza's mind. Daken was with her on the porch. They were sitting together, with their lips pressed together. And his hands were inside her minimal clothing, on her bare flesh...

Aliza let out an unladylike snort and shook the idea out of her head. She was being silly.

Suddenly, a man on horseback appeared down the street. He was advancing at a sedate pace, the hooves of his horse clopping slowly on the pavement. His path would take him past Aliza's home.

A man on a horse wasn't uncommon in Aliza's world. However, the hour was unusual and they were a little too far into town for that sort of thing to be normal.

Given how scantily she was clad, Aliza considered going back inside. But she decided against it. Actually, the more modest thing to do was to simply remain still. Her house was located between a pair of streetlights and the porch was dark. A passerby probably wouldn't notice her if she simply didn't move.

The horseman continued in Aliza's direction. Somehow, he seemed familiar, but Aliza couldn't get a clear look at his face. The darkness of the street worked both ways.

Aliza's plan to remain unseen failed. As the rider passed by, he somehow sensed Aliza's presence and glanced in her direction. A blush crept over Aliza's face. She could feel it on her shoulders and breasts. However, the man on the horse didn't seem to react to her femininity. Instead, he just nodded at Aliza, but said nothing.

Aliza nodded back.

The man and his horse continued on down the street, but Aliza quickly lost track of them.

Now she was staring out into the distance at the dark and vast flank of one of the mountains that loomed over the roofs and chimneys of her town. Aliza had sensed something, but it wasn't something she'd actually seen, heard, or smelled.

She knew something dangerous was out there.

And it was coming her way.