It was a long way to the camp of the Northern Wolfpack, over hills and a ridge. Ooki and Ken had run the whole time without allowing themselves a rest. They were tired but not exhausted; Wolves are persistent runners who, if necessary, are able to follow their prey for a day or more. Paradise was still in the twilight, but the eastern pinnacles and ridges of the mountain - where the sun would rise - were already lined with a faint glow.
Ooki and Ken sat down panting in front of Zari Kan and Ashi and waited, as was their style, until one of the two spoke to them. Young wolves and puppies huddled together, awake and excited.
"What danger is it that Balto Kan and Jenna warn us about?" Ashi asked.
Ooki scratched his ears with his paw. Ken shrugged his shoulders, panting. "They do not know!"
“What?” Zari Kan started up. "Does that mean that a pack just sounds the warning call?"For no reason? And we passed the call on! Has Balto Kan's pack gone crazy?"
Ooki scratched himself normally, dropped his paw and nudged Ken promptly.
"Balto Kan got the call from another pack, Beyond their hunting ground," explained Ken. "But they don't know what is there either."
"They just passed the call on," Ooki growled. "Like us. Like all packs. Because nobody knows anything."
The wolves stood in silence and couldn't believe what they were hearing. Shivers ran down Hige's spine. The memory of the nightmare came over him again, he felt as if he were locked in the cage against which he ran in vain. He crouched down and hid his head under the tail.
There was a flash of lightning behind the ridges and reefs, beams of rays shot up. The edge of the glowing sun rose above the mountain flank, which had become dark in the backlight, climbed higher and higher, became a burning disc that separated from the mountain and rose into the sky.Every drop of dew on the grass caught its light, forest and meadow were covered with countless sparks.
Hige forced her head to look up at the dewy meadow, at the familiar paradise in the morning light. It was just a dream, he couldn't think about it anymore. Toboê padded over to Blue with his tail pinched and whined.
Ashi pulled the Leftzen up and growled: "Have all packs gone crazy? Or has a disease come over them that we don't know? Zari Kan, father of my puppies, I've never heard wolves howl and call for danger and don't know why they do it. "
A loud screeching from the treetops made the pack look up. Rusty, the eagle, had landed on a fir tree at the edge of the forest, hopped lower and lower from branch to branch, fluttered to Ashi and poked her fur.
"It's you, Rusty!" Ashi said and nudged him with her snout. She would not have allowed any other bird or four-legged friend what she would allow Rusty to do. Since the time when he, just fledged, flew to the wolf cave, hopped up to Ashi without hesitation and began to play confidently with her puppies, hardly a day has passed without he visited the pack.And since eagles are vigilant and immediately burst into high-pitched warning shouts at the slightest sign of gefar, this friendship was also useful to the wolves.
"O you pointed ears!" mocked Rusty. "Do you think that you know everything? Of course, you shouldn't be blamed. You just can't get as far with your four legs as we do! You can ask me what the whining was all about!"
“You?” Ashi smiled with her eyes like a wolf. "How do you know, my little winged friend?"
"Of the convertible birds, sister four-legged!"
"Rusty! That can't be! It's been a long time since you flew over our paradise."
The eagle stretched out one of its wings and straightened the shimmering brown feathers with its beak.
"if you take a closer look, it wasn't the wandering birds that told me. Red, the red finch, told me and he got it from Gray, the pigeon, and from whom she found out about it, I don't know, it could have been Braun, the hawk, or White, the bald eagle.Maybe it was also the ravens, which is not that important. In any case, it's a message from the country of Alaska. "
Rusty tugged at Ashi and tugged at her breast pelt.
"Sister Vierbein, in the land of Alaska, from where the cold wind comes and where ice and snow have come together, a pack has come together, a pack the size of which has never been seen before - as numerous as the pebbles in a river. That is the message of the migratory birds and that, it is said, is the danger. "
Zari Kan had listened in silence, tail stretched out taut. Now he let it sink down. "A pack as numerous as the pebbles in a river? No, Rusty, there is no such thing! How is such a pack supposed to find enough prey? To be full, it would have to keep killing. Waka, the law, didn't Wanted. The migratory birds have a lot to tell us. On their flight from one end of the world to the other, they saw miracles that we do not know. But this story, Rusty, cannot be true! "
Rusty flew to the lowest branch of the fir tree and peeked down at the wolves with his head cocked to one side."Then don't believe me! It should be fine with me. You don't mind that a giant wolf runs the pack of Zallos up in Alaska and that wherever he goes, nobody can resist. And be as strong as you, Zari Kan! That's what Blacky says, old man from the mountain's raven. "
"Ashi looked up suddenly." Hota, the bear? "She asked." Were you with him, Rusty? "
"Me? No! What am I supposed to do in the rock country."
"Red, the red finch told you, we know!" Ken growled. And she got it from Gray and she got it from Brown. Or was it White? Or Blacky? Maybe it was just one or the other chirped, what is just floating around and has feathers. You birds always chatter! "
“Quite right, my dear pointed ear, just keep your wits about you!” The eagle laughed screeching, spread its wings and flew into the forest with loud laughter. The wolves watched until the dark shadow in the sky was gone. The screeching faded away, like an echo other eagle voices answered from the slope.The wolves looked at each other as if each were looking for certainty in the other that Rusty the jester had made up. Or did he speak the truth? Had the birds learned something that none of the packs knew? Had Hota, the old man, told them, the bear who lived up on the mountain? It was said that he was older than any other creature and that he could see what had not been done yet but would happen. He had never met any of the wolves. , the bear did not come down into the valley and the wolves avoided the inaccessible area with the crusts and steep rock walls on which wolf paws could not find a hold.
Kiba yelped challengingly, waved his tail, then ducked in the humble gesture in front of Zari Kan and put his ears flat back. "If someone comes from Alaska," he shouted. "he'll soon notice who owns our hunting ground!"
Blue and hige dug their noses into the fur of the lead wolf and, like Kiba, showed that they trusted him. Tsume and toboê wiggled their tails and rolled onto their backs puppy-style.Ooki and Ken stood still, eyes fixed on Zari Kan; They didn't need a gesture, they didn't have to set a sign, in many summers and winters that they were loyal companions and lead wolves.
Cloe stayed apart, kept the leftzen curled up and seemed to say: As for me, I have no problem if someone comes along who is stronger than you.
The birds twittered, whistled, trilled and chirped in the bushes and in the treetops. They also fluttered over the wide meadow, tried to catch tiny insects and kept breaking out into songs. Ashi listened to their voices. Birds and four-legged friends all had their own language and yet they understood each other. Accustomed from an early age to listening attentively and interpreting every sound, every creature found its way around the many languages ​​just like its own. But no matter how Ashi listened, none of the birds reported a message from the north, it was just everyday things that they called to each other: where to find food and what area was called his.Some of these songs were wordless, expressions of joie de vivre and on the beautiful morning.
And this friend was important. For every creature. Waka, the law, had wanted it that way. The joy of life was part of his order. Even mice, always on guard against hunters, enjoyed their existence.
If the danger really came, it was time to face it and face it. The pack shouldn't be afraid just because something might or might not happen.
"We all know Rusty," said ashi. "He just likes to make up stories. Don't think about it anymore. You know how he is."
Resolving yourself from thinking about the giant pack and the giant wolf was easier than doing it. Kiba and Blue led the puppies to the aspen grove, where many mice had their burrows in the soft grass under the trees. While the young wolves praised their siblings when they jumped, or explained which mistakes had to be avoided, they involuntarily looked north again and again.The land of Alaska lay unimaginably far away, mysteriously hidden behind ice fog, as the wolves believed. A couple of times Kiba found himself raising his neck fur, raising his ears threateningly, pulling up his left arms, tearing his throat open and breaking into a deep, growling growl, like a lead wolf trying to scare another pack.
After a while, Blue left the brother and the pups and looked for Hige. She found him on the other side of paradise under a bush. When she came to him, he opened his eyes; she couldn't read the way he looked at her. It wasn't fear what she read in it - she could have understood that after everything that had happened - but something else. As if he could no longer find his way around the familiar world! She stretched out next to him and began to lick him. "Don't think about Rusty's story anymore, Hige!
He looked at the meadow. Butterflies rocked from flower to flower.Bumblebees, bees and wasps hummed.
"It's not Rusty's story, Blue. It's the dream.
"The dream? What kind of one?"
"The one from the