CHAPTER 27

Cooking Meat

I ROLLED BACK UP TO my feet and looked out of the cave. The lightning strike had not hit us, but it had been so close that my head hurt and my ears were still filled with a high trilling sound like the singing of frogs. Malsumsis was crouched on his belly with his head down, snarling and ready to fight back against whatever had just attacked us. Wigowzo was pressed close to his side, both of her front paws over her eyes. Although she was as big as many grown wolves, I could see how young she was, still little more than a puppy. This might have been the first time she had ever heard such loud thunder or seen the strike of lightning so close.

I made a motion with my hand. “Be calm, my friends,” I said. “That arrow of fire was not meant for us.” I turned my head toward the outside. “Look there.”

Malsumsis stood and came to stand by my side. After a moment’s hesitation, Wigowzo did the same. The rain was letting up, the rumble of the thunder moving away from us. Across the clearing from us, the huge hollow oak tree was now blackened and burning from inside. That arrow of lightning had struck right into its heart. The air was filled with the scent of not just burning wood, but also cooking meat.

That brought a smile to my face. Whatever had been lurking inside that hollow tree was certainly now of no more danger than a cooking haunch of venison. And, thinking of venison, unlike so many other monsters, this one smelled as if its meat would be tasty. That made me smile even more broadly.

With a wolf on either side of me, both of them wagging their tails at the pleasant smell, we came close to the tree and looked inside. It wasn’t possible to tell exactly what the creature inside had been. The fur and much of the skin had been burned from its body by the great heat of the lightning and the fire it left burning in its wake. The big creature was shaped a bit like a squirrel, but much, much larger, with impressive claws as long as my fingers on its blackened paws. The lightning strike seemed to have hit it in the head, bursting open its skull. Its dead mouth hung open, displaying some very sharp teeth.

The monster had built a nest of some sort inside the hollow tree using brush and sticks. It made for an excellent cooking fire. The fat on its body sizzled and popped as it simmered.

It took a while for the fire to burn down enough for us to get at the meat. Of course, before we ate I gave thanks. I looked up at the sky in the direction where I had heard the last rumble of thunder.

“Bedagi, Grandfather Thunder Being,” I said, “we thank you for protecting us and for giving us such a fine meal.”

Then I tore two big pieces of meat from one of the back legs of the creature. I fed them to Malsumsis and Wigowzo, who had both been sitting patiently with long strings of drool coming from their jaws. Then I tried some myself. This cooked monster meat tasted good.

All three of us ate until our stomachs were sticking out. Then I sat down in front of the cave with my back against the hillside. My two wolf friends curled up in front of me. I was happier than I’d felt since before that embarrassing scene at the campfire in Valley Village when Dojihla had exposed my owl ears to the people and called me a monster.

I felt around inside me for the pain that had struck at her rejection. It was still there, sharp as a small pointed stick, but it no longer made me feel lost and blind. I would never stop caring for Dojihla, even if there was no way she would ever care for me. But I was doing something now, something I knew to be good. That we had already found one wolf from my friend’s lost pack told me my trail was right. The way the Thunder Being had just helped was further proof.

I looked at Wigowzo. I would try to find out from her why she was alone and where the rest of her family might be found. But not right now. The young white wolf was sleeping, her head resting on Malsumsis’s dark back.

Of course, my faithful wolf companion was not asleep. Although he was curled up with his head on his paws, his eyes were open and his ears were pricked up. He now had two friends to protect. He knew, happy and full and resting though we might be, we were never completely safe in this dangerous valley.