Six

STACY STARED AT the skeleton wolf intently. Suddenly, his bony rib cage lifted and fell—a breath! He’s alive, Everest! But only barely. Stacy’s mind raced. Everest, you and I can probably manage to lift him onto Basil’s or Wink’s back—probably Basil since she’s fastest—who can carry the wolf back to the mineshaft. We can save him if we move quickly.

Stacy took a cautious step toward the wolf. Suddenly, his head jerked up and his eyes opened. He stared directly at Stacy with the blackest eyes she’d ever seen and then bared his teeth and growled. Stacy took a step backward and held up her hands as Everest stepped forward, ducking under one of her arms to wrap himself protectively around her body, snarling back at the defenseless wolf. Just then, without warning, a second wolf emerged from the bushes. This wolf was also white, except for her paws, which were stained a reddish-brown color, as if from digging in the mesa’s terracotta clay. She had little bits of twigs and sage sticking out from her ratty fur—Stacy even spotted a tiny yellow cactus flower and a few needles near her neck.

The wolf quickly ran to her skeletal pack member and laid some type of food in front of him. Stacy focused her eyes to see what it was, but the wolf quickly ate the offering and jumped to his feet. Before Stacy could react at all, the wolf with all the sticks sticking out of her and the skeleton wolf sprinted off away from Stacy and her wolves.

“Follow them!” Stacy yelled. “They must be the wolves we came to find!” Everest and Wink were already in pursuit. Stacy looked around and saw Basil, crouching low to the ground. Stacy hopped on Basil’s back and held tightly as Basil rocketed off toward the others.

Basil quickly passed Wink and Everest, who had both gained some ground on the two wolves. They climbed quickly out of the ravine and were running across the mesa, dodging and weaving through the mesa biome’s huge red boulders that had fallen from the cliffs above them, perhaps centuries ago. The wolf with the little bits of sticks and brush sticking out of her fur glanced back at Stacy and Basil as she ran. Suddenly, Basil veered to the right to avoid a large tumbleweed. Stacy tightened her grip on Basil’s fur and braced herself as six or seven tumbleweeds came rolling at them like a set of waves. Basil slowed and navigated around them with ease and then quickly sped up to close the distance she’d lost. The disheveled wolf glanced back at Basil. Suddenly, as if out of thin air, a giant thicket of sagebrush grew up out of the red sand—too wide to run around and higher than Basil could jump. Stacy’s head was spinning, but out of the corner of her eye she saw Everest catching up to her and Basil. He passed them, running faster than Stacy had ever seen him run, and skidded to a halt right in front of the wall of sagebrush. Red sand flew up as Everest’s sturdy paws dug deep into the earth to halt his momentum. Basil accelerated, and in one smooth motion, she jumped on Everest’s back and propelled herself and Stacy into the air and onto the other side of the barrier. Stacy turned around to see Wink soaring over the wall after them, landing with a massive thud on the soft sand. Everest would have to go around, but with Basil and Wink on the other side now, the chase continued.

The skeleton wolf was slowing down a bit now, struggling to keep up with the other wolf, who glanced over her shoulder again—this time her eyes were wide with panic. She slowed down a bit to cross a dry arroyo and Stacy could feel Basil speed up to finally overtake her and the skeleton wolf.

But suddenly, a prickly pear cactus no bigger than one of Stacy’s boots doubled in size the second the two mesa wolves passed it. It doubled again and again and too many times to count as Basil sprinted toward it. Huge needles stuck out in every direction and Stacy braced herself for the worst while Basil skidded in the sand, trying to stop, but she was going too fast. Just before Basil and Stacy crashed into them, Wink charged by, barreling through the cactus—his power allowing him to emerge on the other side completely unscathed. Seeing the pathway cleared, Basil jerked forward, resuming the chase. Within a minute, Basil and Wink had caught up to the two mesa wolves and were running on either side of them. The skeleton wolf looked exhausted. Stacy looked at the female mesa wolf. Her expression looked to Stacy as if she were out of ideas and resigned to being caught. She is doing this, Stacy realized. She has a power!

Stacy heard a bark behind her and whipped her head around. Everest! He’d caught up to them and was only a few paces behind. Basil surged one last time to overtake the mesa wolves. She spun around, stopping them in their tracks. Wink went to the side and turned to face the mesa wolves as well, forming a triangle with himself, Basil, and Everest. There was nowhere for the wolves to run, and by the looks of the skeleton wolf, who had slumped down at the feet of the other, he was done running.

Stacy hopped off Basil’s back and broke a branch off a nearby dead bush and quickly scrawled the rune symbols for friend in the red dirt. The wolves’ expressions remained unchanged.

“Well, it was worth a try,” Stacy said glumly.

Basil quickly stepped forward and touched her nose to the dead bush Stacy had broken the branch from, incinerating it instantly. This got the mesa wolves’ attention. The female stepped forward to Basil and walked in a circle around the ashes of the dead bush, her bushy tail gently waving in the desert wind. She took a step back, and Stacy gasped. The bush had reappeared and was no longer dead. Stacy walked forward to examine it.

“It’s real!” she exclaimed. “She used her power!”

Wink and Basil walked toward the skeleton wolf and gently lifted him up and laid him over Everest’s broad back. The female wolf began to lead Everest and the others up the steep terrain of the mesa. Everest, can we trust them? Stacy thought to herself as she walked alongside her pack’s alpha. Everest turned to her and nodded, reassuring Stacy.

Stacy was in disbelief for much of their journey up to the top of the mesa. The rune was right. There are other wolves here with powers. Stacy already had a guess as to what the female mesa wolf’s power was, but it was strange. She appears to be able to make things grow . . . like some type of bonemeal effect. Could be useful. But it sure is peculiar. What the skeleton wolf’s power might be, Stacy had no idea.

The group was now high on the mesa, above the hoodoos that rose in the distance, above the abandoned mineshaft where Noah, Page, and Molly were hiding out. They were almost as high up as the clouds. The female wolf led them to a cluster of cacti, which she parted using her powers to reveal a small gully in the earth a few feet below the mesa’s surface. There was a patch of soft-looking grass, a shallow pond, and . . . Stacy blinked . . . two more wolves!