Chapter 8

The next morning I cooked more deer for breakfast and even baked a few biscuits in the dutch oven. The pups would have been begging shamelessly if they handn't had plenty of last night's treats to finish off.

Mama's cafe was beginning to smell bad again, so after I hobbled Dolly out front again I decided to clean up around and under the cage. The process had been a bitch last time since Mama hadn't understood what I was up to and she'd fussed the whole time.

I figured the pups were old enough to get along without her by now so I just opened the cage and let her out. At first she hadn't known what to do, but soon enough she took off. I took the cage outside and made several trips with a bucket to pour water on it and brush off the filth clinging to the bars. A flat point shovel helped me take care of the waste which had fallen through the wide mesh and was causing the stink.

Lastly I disassembled the cage and left it leaning againste the cliff walls outside, hoping the breeze and sunlight would do for the rest of the mess. A few days of the sunlight's bleaching action would probably remove the rest of the smell.

The pups had seemed lost without their mother at first, but a little more of the deer added to the chow bowl took their minds off their troubles. I spent an hour or so playing with them in the grass and after they thought it was nap time they went back into the cave to find a place to crash.

After catching and saddling Dolly I shut the doors and rode down to the pasture to check on the rest of my stock. They seemed calm and were grazing around when I got there. Of course they came up to greet Dolly as I took her inside the fence. Lola wasn't even put out when I caught her halter and snapped a leadrope to it.

After exchanging the tack I took Lola outside the fence and closed it up behind me before we rode back to the cave. Lola was going to get a turn exploring tomorrow.

Lo and behold Mama was lounging around near the cave's door when we made it back. Lola snorted at first, but then settled down as I put the hobbles on her and removed the tack. Mama even sat still while I petter her head and scratched around her ears before I opened the door.

I'm practically sure Mama was going to follow me back inside when I put the tack away, but the pups rushed her right away, no doubt they were hoping for a snack. She cured them of the notion though by growling and snapping them lightly when they tried to latch on with her standing. Apparently it was weaning time.

The mature wolf taking up with me was something I'd never considered, but I wasn't about to turn my nose up. I cut up a few more treats and then shooed the pups back inside and shut them in. I spent the next two hours using the treats to teach Mama to sit and then come when I called. I noticed she seemed to be a much faster learner than any dog I'd ever trained.

After I thought Mama had endured enough training for the day I let the pups our again, rolled my chair just outside the door, and sat on my ass to watch Mama and the pups play for the rest of the afternoon. She'd endure them for a while and then find a spot to settle down, snapping at them gently if they bothered her while she was resting. After a break she'd get back up and play some more.

At sunset I lured them all back inside with supper. They had raw venison and I had the stew I'd had going most of the afternoon. You'd be surprised how tasty Ranch Style Beans can make venison stew.

With supper over I was able to get all the wolves, Mama and her pups, back outside. I closed them out for about an hour hoping they'd take the hint and do their business out of doors. When I let them in again they seemed to understand it was time to settle down and they went over near the now clean space where the cage had been and retired for the evening.

After they were settled I removed Lola's hobbles and led her back to the barn for the night. As usual I lay down to sleep alone on my bed, but when I woke the next morning all the wolves, Mama included, were snuggled up against me.

Opening the door right away I shooed them all outside. Mama seemed to know why and she found a spot which needed to be fertilized. I was happy to see most of the pups caught on. This was too easy to be true, but I could always hope. I cut up some venison for their breakfast and then warmed up my stew for mine.

Lola and I were going to check out the path down to the river today and I wasn't about to leave Mama and the pups running loose so I doubled checked for anything they might get into. Once I had Lola saddled I shut my nascent wolf pack up inside with plenty of food again, mounted Lola, and headed down the path.

The grade to the riverbank was nearly the same as the one down to my level from the top had been. At first it seemed odd to me, but what did I know about geology. It was what it was and there was nothing I could do about it.

Rosco and the other little fishes had scoured everything looking for a place to set me down and I thought it was at least possible I was here because the area was so conducive to easy living and few problems.

Even if they had done something to make it this way I didn't mind. In fact I wouldn't mind if they did something else which turned out handy. I would raise hell if they tried some take backs on me, but it didn't seem any more likely than a few more gimmes. It was their game though and my only choices had to be within their rules.

The truth was nothing I'd seen seemed beyond the realm of natural possibilities. They had furnished the maps and let Rose and I pick where I wanted to go. I was here now and I needed to see what else was.

When I came to level ground again I could see crossing the river was in my near future.There was maybe an acre or so of useable shore on this side and then the river was all the way over to the steep cliff. The other side was more like what I'd expected with the bank rising slowly from the water level and going on into some thinly wooded land.

From my perch on Lola's back I could see the water was very clear and running over a sandy bottom right here. I coudln't tell how deep the water was exactly, but it looked to be around two to three feet toward the center. It was probably because the channel had widened on upstream a way.

It looked almost two hundred yards wide here, but I could see it was more narrow on upstream about a quarter of a mile. Because of a turn downstream a little I couldn't tell what it did very far in that direction.

Just to be in the know I dismounted and put a hand in the water. It was cold, but not hearly as cold as in my cave. At the edge I could touch the bottom and it seemed less than four inches deep, but I could see it got deeper away from the edge.

Back on Lola's I urged her toward the water and she tentatively put a forefoot into it. When she touched the bottom and put a little weight on her wet foot she seemed satisfied and walked on in. The water did get deeper as we crossed, but it never made it up to the saddle and I was able to keep my feet and lower legs dry by pulling them out of the stirrups and holding them up. I felt very lucky when we came out on dry land again since I wasn't really wet at all.

Now what? Hell, I didn't know, but the bank looked like the traveling would be easier upstream than down stream, though not very much. The upstream direction called to me and we stepped out at a walk.

I kept my head nearly on a swivel looking first one way and then the next. Here and now there was about a hundred yards of mostly level grassy land between the river and the cliff down from the upper plateau. There was no midlevel on the far side, or at least nothing I could see to make me think there was.

The distance between the cliffs which marked the edges of the river's channel seemed to be trending wider as we headed upstream and the wooded area became more dense though it was still not nearly so thick as what I'd seen up on my level. I spotted game occasionally, but there really wasn't room for anything like the numbers up on top of the plateau.

As far as looking around went I didn't see anything really noteworthy for what must have been six or seven miles. When I did see something it was shocking.

The first hint I got about something going on was via my ears. I was nearly positive I heard a scream, but it was so high and shrill I couldn't be sure whether it was a man or a womn. I was fairly sure it was human, or close, but I'd heard before some cats could make noises like it which would fool you.

Kicking Lola into a lope was my first thought and we were covering ground before I thought it might not be a great idea. I didn't rein her in, but I didn't urge her faster either.

There was nothing to see but a slight swell or rise which blocked my vision until we topped it and the scene I saw was almost unreal to me, though I'd always understood it would be possible.