CHAPTER 66
As is the custom in their tribe, one Indian remains awake while the others sleep.
Paw is on watch, and his superior wolf hearing immediately detects a sharp burst from a horn blast, followed by the savagery of hunting hounds.
"Kiowa, wicked winds blow this way," Paw growls, alerting the pack.
Kiowa lazily opens his eyes. With a quick thrust he is instantly on his feet.
"How many?" Kiowa asks, remembering the lessons of ambush.
"I cannot see them. I can only hear them."
"How far?"
"Maybe a mile?"
"What is it?" Makes Trouble asks.
"It is a dog pack," Kida says, leaning down and stretching her front legs.
"We should lead our enemy down the streambeds and use the winding canyons to divide them," Makes Trouble suggests, wanting to reduce the threat as quickly as possible.
"Are the riverbeds dry?" Paw inquires.
"It hasn't rained for many days. The canyon streambeds should be dry."
Kiowa smiles and puts a paw on his almost brother's shoulder. "Are you ready to live up to your name, Makes Trouble?"
Makes Trouble nods and bares his menacing fangs.
"Walpi!" Kiowa shouts.
Walpi stands up.
"Always last," Kida grumbles.
"Run swiftly through the riverbed. Leave a trail and meet us at the end of the north canyon. GO NOW!"
Though Walpi wants to protest that he doesn't know the way, no one dares to disobey the war chief, nor the alpha wolf.
Walpi runs down the ridgeline and begins howling as he speeds through the dry, crusted earth, which used to hold water.
Captain and his pit bull pack hear his howl and pause for a moment.
"Do you hear that?" Skip asks Captain.
"I sure do! We got something on the run, boys. Stay on me!" Captain shouts.
"We got the numbers and the law on our side!" Skip hollers, running alongside Captain.
The pit bulls give chase.
"Anoki, Kida, Paw, lower down into the north canyon and wait behind tall boulders. When we join you, they will be fewer. The strength of our pack will be great. We have magic on our side. Do not be fearful!"
"What will you do?" Anoki asks with concern welling in her eyes.
"When we whittle their numbers down, I will surprise them from behind and drive them to you."
Anoki pauses and thinks on his words for a moment.
"You are my great war chief," she says, standing proudly with her snowy chest pushed out. "I will obey, but I will be thinking of you the whole time."
As the wolves leave the cave and move up a ridgeline, Makes Trouble takes his position by Paw's side and asks, "Do you think they will be as stupid as the Navajo?"
"Let us hope!"
The pit bull posse reaches a fork in the canyon and stop.
"Which way do you want us to go, Captain?" Skip asks.
"Skip, you take half the group that way and I'll take half this way. The canyon can't go on forever. If you reach the end, turn about and rejoin the main group. If you find something, howl and we'll come to you."
"Yipe, yipe, yow," Walpi wails, acting injured. His howls echo off the canyon walls and have the odd effect of seeming closer than they actually are.
"Why ain't we seen him or his trail?" Skip asks.
"We ain't got time for discussion. Master wants a dead wolf and we got him on the run! Now git!"
Skip reluctantly peels off and takes ten of the pit bulls with him.
Up on the high ground, Walpi crouches down and watches Makes Trouble's plan go into effect. How did he know they would divide? he wonders. Scanning the canyon maze, he can see that Skip's pack is going to face another fork. He quickly scoots away from the towering ledge and runs to gain a lead on the pit bulls. He angles his cries so that they bounce off the canyon walls, making it hard for the small pack to decipher which trail he is on. In fact, he is on none of them. But he is above them, watching them. Stalking them. Leading them.
"Whad'ya want us to do, Skip?" Coco asks when they reach another divide.
"Half of you go down that path, with Cypress. The other half, you stick with me."
"How do we even know it's a wolf, Skip?" Coco questions.
"'Cause Captain said, 'Blah, blah, get, blah, blah, wolf.' Now get the wolf!"
From Walpi's high-up perspective, the canyons create a maze for as far as the eye can see.
What would Kida do if she were me right now? he asks himself, pressing his body flat. His golden fur blends him well against the sandstone cliffs.
"She is always urging me to join the pack and fight, even though my Hopi nature tells me to do something else. I would rather plant corn, but wolves do not eat corn. She must be right. My Hopi ways must be wrong. So fight I will do!"
He turns around and starts heading back to where the pack originally divided.
Back at the canyon's entrance, Kiowa sits high on the ridgeline and patiently watches Captain's pack get divided.
BOOM!
A hundred yards into the canyon, the pit bulls stop when they hear the thunderous report of their master's rifle.
"Did you hear that?" Captain asks his pack.
"Master must have shot a wolf."
"Do you think the others will return to Master? Should we?"
"Can't be too sure 'bout them."
"Yit-yowee," Anoki and Kida cry out somewhere in front of the pit bull group.
"Master gives a steak to whoever captures a wolf. Who here wants steak?"
"Me!"
"I do!"
"Me too!"
Captain looks at the two weakest pit bulls in his shrunken pack of five. "Tater and Chili, get back to Master and see if he needs help. Brutus, Hector, and Achilles, you stay with me."
"Let's go earn a steak! Now, are they in front of us or behind us?"
The frothing pit bulls resume their pursuit.
Back at the canyon entrance, Trapper Dan cocks his rifle and takes aim at Kiowa. He squeezes the trigger and lets loose another shot.
Author's note: Trapped. Hunted. Cornered. I wonder what the wolves... I mean the Indians will do?