After the southern neighbor pack had also fallen silent and the last calls faded over the hills, the wolves felt as if they were surrounded by a breathless voice, as if every creature, whether four-legged or bird, had crawled into its hole in the ground or in its loophole. The leaves hung motionless on the branches, no more breeze moved them.
"Ooki and Ken" ordered Zari Kan. "Go north and ask Balto Kan and Jenn what danger they are warning us of."
Ooki and Ken set off without a word and trotted shoulder to shoulder into the silent darkness of the forest. What awaited them on the other side of the hill, what kind of dangers threatened there, they neither knew nor asked about it. They have been in the pack for many years. Instead of moving forward and becoming wolves for their own herd, they were content to help raise the little ones year after year and to be caregivers and protectors. Since they looked very similar to one another, they had also been given names that made up one word.(Ooki = large, KEN = another word for dog) They seldom talked and preferred to listen when others were talking. For the two lead wolves, who had already grown old, they were irreplaceable - experienced companions that Ashi and Zari Kan could always rely on.
The wolves that stayed behind watched the two of them until the night swallowed them up and the faint sound of their paws died away. Then Ashi and Zari Kan went to the hump to keep watch. When a field approached, they would be the first to oppose it. Kiba followed them. Now that Ooki and Ken were no longer here, he had to take their place in the pack. His legs felt stiff, he felt the clap of his heart down to his throat. He was only a young wolf, it had always been a matter of course that the experienced older wolves would provide protection. Now for the first time he had to answer the questions himself.
Blue took care of the intimidated pups.Tsume and toboê did not understand what it was all supposed to mean, but they felt the excitement that had seized the pack and pressed their way to the sister, whimpering and seeking protection. She licked their faces and whispered soothing words in between: "Do not be afraid! We are with you."
Cloe had no time for the pups, not even for the other companions from the pack. She had withdrawn to the furthest edge of the camp, crouched there ready to jump, as if she wanted to flee at the first sign of danger and leave the pack to its fate.
While Blue was comforting the puppies, she received a lot of attention and never let the dark edge of the forest out of her sight. Suddenly she realized that she missed Hige, she looked around searchingly and saw him hunched up under the bush. She nudged the pups reassuringly again and went to Hige. When she bent down to him, he raised his head.His eyes were strangely sightless.
"Hige!" she knew.
He ran his snout over his face as if lost.
"The cages!" he muttered. "I can't destroy it!"
"Cages, Hige? What do you mean?" Blue touched him gently with her snout. He wasn't as strong as Kiba, had been the smallest in the litter, and was always the inferior in all the rough games of the puppy age. She started licking his fur. Because he was weak, weaker than herself, he aroused her tenderness and the protective instinct that Tsume and Toboê evoked in her.
She felt how he calmed down. He sat up, rubbed his head against her and said, "It's nothing, Blue. It was just a dream."
A whimpering yowl came from the puppies. Toboê felt abandoned by his big sister and complained loudly about it. Tsume, on the other hand, bravely tried to wag his tail.
Blue smacked Toboê with his paw. "Such a big wolf like you," she said reprovingly, "and behaves like a tiny thing who still sucks on its teats!"Toboê pressed himself flat on the floor, waggled his head, sniffed and indicated in every possible way that he was by no means big but a poor little puppy that a hard-hearted sister rejected. Blue stretched out good-naturedly and let him crawl into her fur. Tsume padded over with his tail held high to show that he was no longer tiny, but then, relieved, imitated his brother.
High above, in the deep black sky, the stars wandered through the night; so imperceptible that no eye could catch him. Ashi and Zari Kan stood motionless on their guard posts, only occasionally their ears moved or their tails twitched. But no noise, no sound indicated an impending danger. Mice scurried through the grass, the birds of prey of the night scurried through the darkness again. And neither Zari Kan nor Ashi felt the inner unrest that experienced wolves gripped when not only their lives but that of all four-legged friends and birds are in danger.If the lightning ignited a tree and the fire jumped from top to top, the wolves knew it before the wind carried the smell of smoke into their nostrils. If the mountain wanted to shake off its snow load in winter, they felt it before the first slab of snow came off. When a mudflat of brown water, mud and rock rolled down into the valley after a downpour, the wolves had always been able to get to safety in time. But as much as Zari Kan and Ashi listened to themselves, they received no message from the woods or from the hills, the mountain also remained silent, protruding silently into the night with its scabs, ridges and battlements.
Kiba stood next to the hump and tried, like the two lead wolves, to listen, to smell and to check every draft. The longer the guard lasted, the harder it was for him to remain calm. He turned his head this way and that, trying not to howl aloud. When he finally noticed that the two lead wolves relaxed, he felt relieved.Zari Kan and Ashi looked at each other. Whatever danger Balto Kan and Jenna had warned of, it had to be far away and not yet threatening. Like wolves, Zari Kan and Ashi communicated with their eyes and bodies, using gestures that express as much as words. It would be a long time before Ooki and Ken keeled back; they couldn't be here before morning. it was time to calm the pack down.
Ashi stepped down from the hump. "I don't feel like sleeping." she said. "How about a story? That will pass the time."
"But the warning call, Ashi?" stammered Kiba.
She moved her tail slightly back and forth. "The warning call? Maybe it was just a nightmare that scared Balto Kan. Tomorrow morning we will know when Ooki and Ken are back with us. No reason, we are now sitting around like scared rabbits that are in front of their own shadow run. Come on, Kiba! Zari Kan is on guard.Tsume walked over with his buttocks jiggling expectantly.
"A story, Ashi? Are you really telling us one?"
"Yes, Tsume!"
"What a?"
"The old story, How Waka, the law, ordered the world."
Ashi waited until the puppies and young wolves had sat down in a circle. Cloe stayed crouched on the edge of the camp, still ready to flee. But finally she got up, scented all around, and then wandered closer.
The young wolves had heard the story of Waka, the law, many times, but no wolf got tired of listening to it again and again. Above all, it was always told by new people for the sake of the pups, so that this story would never be forgotten and never lost as long as the wolves were around.
From the hillside came the call of an owl, soft, wistful tones that seemed to melt into the night. Zari Kan stood on the guard hill; his figure stood out like a shadow in the dark. Young wolves and pups waited in silence for Ashi to speak.It was the lead wolf's privilege to tell of waka, the law, because it was she who passed on life.
Ashi's gaze went from one young wolf to the other and briefly swept Cloe. Then she looked at the puppies.
"Tonight," she said. "I'm not telling you the old story. Blue will do it for you."
"I?" Blue asked confused.
"Yes, you!"
Cloe's tail twitched angrily. Except for the puppies, everyone understood what Ashi was trying to say. Should she lose her life in the struggle with the unknown danger, then it was Blue, to whom she entrusted the care of the puppies, even though Cloe was older and had fought for a higher place in the hierarchy.
The hair on the back of the neck stood up stiffly. She pulled up the leftzen. a challenging growl came from her throat. Ashi straightened up. No muscle moved in her body, her fur did not resist, and yet to the wolves it was as if she were growing, as if she were growing larger and larger in the uncertain light of the stars.She stared into Cloe's eyes.
Cloe held her gaze for a while, then ducked and turned her head away.
"Go ahead, Blue," Ashi ordered.
Faltering and uncertain at first, as if she had to search for the words she had known from an early age, Blue began to tell. But her voice soon got stronger. The story of waka, the sedate gave her courage and confidence - all wolves felt safe in the knowledge that it was Waka who had shown them the way to blow. Wolf pack after pack of wolves had always lived according to his instructions and as long as you did it, it was said, the world would be whole.
With their eyes on the older sister, Tsume and Toboê sat listening in the circle of the pack and, like countless pups in front of them, heard the story of Waka, the law:

"So long ago that nobody knows when it was, in ancient times, the world was not as it is today. Creatures in large numbers lived on it, but none of them knew that and every living being did what it pleased .Streams and rivers wanted to be here and there once, always changing their course and wherever they came, everything that had life drowned in their floods of water. The trees grew and grew, higher and higher into the sky, until the trunks could no longer bear the weight of the crowns, buckled and fell to the ground. Stone and rock wanted to have this one and that one and so the mountains kept creating themselves anew with a great roar and buried what was alive under them. The winds raced towards each other, fighting each other until they destroyed what