Read Lone Wolf for Free Online Page A

Watch me!" he yapped. Each day he got closer. "Watch me, Thunderheart! You're not paying attention!" he'd scold. "I'm almost there!"
    And then one day he made it. He found himself draped over the limb above the one he had aimed for. He was stunned. "Urskadamus!" he yelped. The curse startled Thunderheart.
    "Where did you learn that?" she roared.
    "From you!"
    She chuffed heartily.
    "Don't laugh at me! I'm stuck!"
    "You jumped too high. You weren't paying attention!" she added slyly.
    "How do I get down?"
    "I don't know. I've never been stuck that high in a tree," she replied.
    Faolan gave a plangent little yelp.
    "No whining!" She turned her back and walked away as if she didn't have a care in the world.
    Faolan stared at her broad back in dismay. "You're leaving me like this?"
    "You'll figure it out," she said without turning around. "You're the smartest youngster I know."
    A few seconds later she heard a soft thud as Faolan dropped to the ground.
    He was soon at her side, wagging his tail. "I did it!"
    "I knew you would!" She turned her head and gave him a soft bump with her muzzle.
    ***
    All summer long the pup grew, although to Thunderheart he still seemed small compared to a bear cub. For a wolf pup, however, Faolan was large and very strong. He had abilities that ordinary wolves simply did not possess. He was a wolf without a pack, which made him fiercely independent. And since he had acquired the taste for meat, he had become proficient at hunting down the four-footed animals, the occasional ptarmigan, and other ground-nesting birds. Swifter on his feet than Thunderheart and with a keenness for strategy, he had managed to chase an injured caribou into a narrow defile and trap him. When Thunderheart arrived, she brought the animal down with a single blow. This strategy worked so well that the two had done it several times since that first occasion.
    "I love caribou," Faolan said one day after they'd brought down another one. "Where do they come from?"
    "Different places at different times. In the spring they come down from the Outermost."
    "The Outermost?"
    "North of here. The taste of the caribou from the Outermost in the spring is the best." "How do you get there?"
    Thunderheart pointed to the North Star. "In the early spring, when the Great Bear constellation rises, you follow the last claw in the foot that points to the North Star. The Outermost is in between that claw and the North Star. I once had a den there. Someday ..."
    "Someday what?" Faolan asked. Thunderheart looked troubled and didn't answer. "Someday we'll go back?"
    "Perhaps. But I am not sure if it is good for your kind."
    "My kind?" Faolan felt his heart race. "But the Outermost, it is good for your kind? If it's good for your kind, it's good for my kind."
    "Never mind, never mind. Eat up." She was about to say more, but Faolan interrupted.
    "I know, I know," Faolan said wearily. "I must grow fat for winter."
    "Yes, eat that liver." She yanked out the bloody organ and tossed it to him.
    He obediently began eating, but his mind turned over what Thunderheart had said. I am not sure if it is good for  your kind. He didn't like the way it sounded and didn't want to hear it again, out loud or in his mind. He would simply seal up his ears.
    ***
    Together the grizzly and the wolf pup would often hunt late into the summer evenings until the stars broke out. Faolan liked to sleep near the opening of the den, where he could see the stars and hear the star stories that Thunderheart told him. By now the words and the hidden language of bears beneath the words had become completely transparent to Faolan.
    Thunderheart would point her paw toward the sky and trace the star picture of the Great Bear constellation with her longest claw. "He leads the way to Ursulana," she whispered. It was to Ursulana, the bear heaven, where Thunderheart was sure her cub's spirit had traveled.
    Every star seemed to have a story, and every animal a constellation. Faolan was impressed