CHAPTER 59
Makes Trouble covers his snout with his mutated hand in embarrassment.
Why do you stare at Walpi, Kida? he signs emphatically.
"I do not know." She glances away, thinking on it.
"Do you have to stare at all times?" Walpi asks.
"Yes!"
Makes Trouble laughs. He gets up and walks away, joining Paw and Kiowa.
"Do not leave me by myself, Makes Trouble. She attacked my sister. She will attack me," Walpi hisses through clenched teeth.
Makes Trouble glances at Kida. Yes, but I do not think she is going to attack you with her teeth.
Kida licks her lips.
Paw glances back at her and watches her crawl closer to Walpi.
"A woman's heart is like a murky creek. First she is blinded by soot, but when the dust settles, things become clear," Kida says, lowering her head and looking up at Walpi with wanton eyes. She presses her soft red fur against his side, then turns to look at him and see if it's okay.
"If you will stop staring at me, you can sit beside me," he says, scooting his hind legs away.
She looks away, then back at him.
Then away.
Then back.
Kiowa, Makes Trouble, and Paw laugh as they watch the awkwardness unfold.
"You were wise to have us hunt small game through the fall before we moved on to the herd. My legs have adjusted well and my senses are keen," Paw compliments his leader.
"I guess we are all rabbits…" Kiowa answers.
Until we are not! Makes Trouble proudly protests.
Kiowa looks at Paw and says, "The pack is only as strong as its slowest wolf."
"Slowest?" Paw questions.
What do you mean? Makes Trouble signs to Kiowa, offended.
"You are not fast enough to keep up with us, and you will only run the herd off."
But if I don't hunt, then I won't get to eat, Makes Trouble signs.
"Then you will have to eat rabbits until you figure out how to be like us."
I hate rabbits! I am so sick of eating them, and I am hungrier than I've ever been, Makes Trouble signs.
Paw turns his attention back to Kiowa. "I propose we chase the herds to the water and weaken the younglings and calves. Keep Anoki and Kida on opposite flanks to keep the herd moving, while the four of us kill the slowest. Attack any foolish enough to turn around, and leave this hideous monster here so he doesn't get hurt."
Makes Trouble bristles and storms off.
"Let us go," Kiowa says.
The wolves slither down the hill, crouching as low as they can. When they reach the thigh-high sagebrush, they completely disappear in the thick gray brush. In open spaces, they move with such stealth, the grazing buffalo fail to see their colorful coats streak across the open green places.
A very large, older male draws a crowd as he samples grass. Their tight cluster eventually spreads out.
"This grass is fresh and crisp. Move the herd closer to the spring. We can eat here and drink from the cool spring."
The herd moves closer to a shallow stream that widens in some spots and narrows in others.
"I could eat here all day, Long Horns." Blossom, his mate chews and nods.
She looks up and scans the sparkling stream and notices a cluster of cottonwood trees in a depression. As her lower jaw shifts back and forth, grinding grass, she notices that the songbirds in the trees aren't singing their usual melodies.
"Well, good morning to you, little birds," Blossom says with a snort. She shakes her long, dusty, brown-matted hide.
She looks around and notices that rabbits and gophers that usually poke their heads up curiously are scattering for their holes.
"You have nothing to fear from us. Come out, friends," Blossom encourages them.
"Do you hear that?" Long Horns asks Blossom.
"I don't hear anything."
"Not even the birds chirping?"
The two glance at each other, then at Clover, who tears up a patch of grass and shakes the clumped dirt from the roots.
"The roots are really good too. I like to chew them with the tops, because it adds an earthiness that tastes the best."
Blossom and Long Horns look out on the distant horizon but fail to see the wolf pack.
"I don't see any Indians," Long Horns says, straining his eyes to see. "'Course, you don't always. They're usually pretty sneaky."
"I hate the Indians! I can't wait for the Great White Buffalo to come from the sun and lead us all back to the safe lands," Blossom says, admiring Long Horns's lengthy beard.
"You don't believe that old ghost story, do you?" Clover asks around a mouthful of food.
"I have to, for the children. We are hunted by bears, cougars, bitten by deadly snakes, and slaughtered by Indians. The Great White Buffalo is the only hope our herd has."
"Buffalo say they have spoken to him. They say he's going to lead us all into a big cave, where he will raise and lower the sun for us."
"I heard we won't have to wander because the grass will grow right beneath our hooves as we eat it."
"Could you imagine that?"
The two move over to the taller grass, testing it first with their horns to spook the rattlesnakes.
"Lemon just doesn't understand how good the tall grass is. Let's keep it to ourselves and not tell the old cow." Clover chuckles with a wink.
With hardly a care in the world, Long Horns tears a large chunk of grass from the ground and chews it.
He leans back down, wraps his pink tongue around lime-green stalks, and pulls them into his mouth. When he looks up, he sees something that makes him relax his grasp and snort. Two yellow eyes surrounded by a white-and-black wolf mask keep him frozen in place.
Kiowa lunges for the bull, snatching down on his snout. He uses his mouth to cover Long Horn's nose to cut off his air supply.