The Prophesy: Book 1 - Cave Lupus

 

The next day found the column at rest, half an hour from the battle between the orcs and the priests and their infantry, the Hunters. The forest dulled the noise, but an occasional flight of birds would tell them that the battle had expanded and was a bit close for comfort.

"So, mage, how do you like being part of our little fun?" enquired Harp.

"Prince Harp, this is under no circumstances a funny matter! It is a question of life or death!"

"So? Isn't everything a question of life or death? When you eat, it is dead matter you devour, and, sometimes, it is still alive. When you defecate, you also give a death sentence to whatever is living in your feces, and you give life to the dung beetles, which will feast on the leftovers of your digestion. You are born to die, and you do so every breath you take, mage."

"Aren't you a bit young to be considering these matter, Prince?"

"The youngling, here, is you, Mage, not me. I have lived billions of lives, and as many deaths. I have been born, stillborn, died young, died old; eaten and been eaten. I know life inside and out. I have mated so many times and seen my young die countless times. Believe me, it changes the view about the importance of a puny battle! I have been male, female, given birth and died giving birth. Can you claim to have access to this repository of knowledge? I doubt so."

"How is this possible, Prince Harp? You are but five springs!"

"This body has five springs, but the conscience that inhabits it is sixty five million years old, give or take a few thousands. We are Wolf, the Wolf. Get it through your thick skull that what you see is not what you get!"

«Having fun at the expense of the mage, son?»

«His condescending attitude riles me!»

"Mage, I have received reports from the wolves. The battle is still raging on at the bridge, and an additional column of orcs is coming behind us. I will have the column move west through the forest, about three miles. We will try to let them pass on the road without attracting attention. From the report of the observers on the rock above the bridge, the orcs are in deep trouble, mostly because they are faced with priests, which seem to be holding their foot soldiers on a tight leash. However the arrival of that column of orcs may well reset the balance somewhat. This is why I want to let them go by. There is no report of priest or hunter movements, which would indicate that those at the bridge would not get reinforcements any time soon. Please get to your horse, we will be moving in five minutes. Make sure you leave nothing behind to indicate our presence. The wolf escort and legionnaires will see to the cleanup. Harp! See to Silver Moon, the white stallion, and his mother Shadow of the Moon. Let's move!"

"Yes dad!" Harp concentrated and gave the command to the female and her colt to get to his position as soon as possible, which brought them to him in a gallop. Then the four boys caught the attention of the horses in the column with the mental equivalent of a whistle call. As soon as they had every horse's attention, they gave a common command to the horses which, in effect had them move rapidly into the forest, westward, in parallel to each other, trying their best not to leave any hoof print. Even the cavalry horses obeyed, as King Harold informed their handlers of the impending change of direction, and they did not try to object.

The next to engage in the forest were the legionnaires, who tried to erase any trace of the horses' passage; then came the elves, who did the same for the legionnaires and horses marks. As the first orc appeared on the road, the elves, in forest green, were watching them to see if any would notice the area had just been vacated. The wolves themselves hid some traces left by their allies, and distracted the orcs if things seemed to arouse their curiosity. The tension was at its maximum while the orcs' avant-garde was exploring the trail for any signs; let one become too suspicious, and trouble would erupt.

It took the orcs' lead almost an hour to reach the end of the vacated encampment, an hour where everyone was on their toes, but finally, they continued without detecting the recent activity. The next tense moment was the passage of the main orc body; it included a lot more eyes, ears, and noses to deceive, but the presence of the scouts had probably made the unit complacent; none reacted as they travelled the stretch of road.

Finally, the rear guard came, some fifteen minutes after the main contingent, and it too was fooled. They were less attentive to the roadsides than to the rear of it, afraid of being attacked from behind.

The wolves kept up to the orcs and reported their actions. They stopped short of the edge of the forest and seemed to wait for the sun to go down, which, given the latitude, would be around compline. The skirmishes for the taking and holding of the bridge continued all day, both sides weary of quite a few hours of battle. Both seemed unwilling to leave the bridge alone and let the other pass.

"I hope this continues!" commented Harold as the day wore on. It's refreshing to see these two groups fight!"

"You are as bad as your son!" exclaimed the mage. "He sustained this morning that life and death balanced themselves!"

"He doesn't need me to tell him what to think, mage! He is old enough to do so by himself. We do not preach illusions or lies; we have lived long enough to be immune to the short-sighted views of short-lived animals like you. Our body changes, we remain. Marlin, you have barely lived two thousand years, I read in your mind, and I stress the word barely. Harp told you how old we are!"

"But this is impossible!"

"What is? That we are as old as we claim? Why is that so, according to your limited knowledge? Because when the body dies, the conscience does too? Are you sure of that? Have you ever died to verify that hypothesis? No, I see in your mind you have not. Has it ever occurred to you that we may be transiting from one body to the next, waiting for the moment to emerge to the world? We decided that the time to emerge was now. We choose our form, we choose our time, we choose the places and we did so in a proper sequence. We are, and we have proven to you, repeatedly, that we are who we are, but still you refuse to admit to our existence, because it conflicts with your preconceived ideas of what is and can be. You are worse than Saint-Thomas Aquinas!"

"Who?"

"A man who refused to believe his own eyes, a preacher of an old religion, now lost to history. We were there when he discounted his senses, some eight thousand years ago! We were there, as the dog that was crushing the hipbone of the sheep they had finished eating! That memory is accessible to all of the Royals, on demand! It is our memory!"

«Let him chew on that for a while, Harold. He's going to have sore jaws!» Samson said.

***

"Isn't this fun to watch the orcs close in on the Hunters with our night vision? They are very stealthy, and we are learning a lot on their attack techniques!" commented Harold, more for the benefit of the mage than for the other royals, who were seeing the battle from the eyes of a few select wolves, less than half an hour away.

"Yes, television is a precious tool, dad. I never thought it could be so nice!" replied Sitar. "It seems orcs have a good night vision too, but they are noisy say the scouts. It's surprising the Hunters and the Priests have not heard them yet."

"Given the stream is rather noisy, and fast, it probably covers their blunders." Paschal suggested.

"They have paused, in the high grass, just along the road, on the road bank leading to the first trees. I think they are waiting for the last glow of sunset to vanish; this will be their best chance of getting on the bridge, before the Hunters' eyes adjust to the night light." Samson explained.

A few minutes passed and suddenly, the sun's last rays were extinguished by the Earth's curvature; the night fell like a black veil, hiding everything from sight, except to the wolves.

"Ha! Here they go! Look at these cockroaches run across the bridge and under it as well! They might as well be glued to the underside of the bridge deck! They are moving fast!" noted Harp.

"Their first members have reached the halfway mark already! They sure are on the move! It's like the bridge is being painted by the orcs!" said Dunbar, informing the legionnaires.

"Three quarters now, and still the Hunters have not reacted. They are there in trenches they have been digging in a semi-circle, about sixty feet from the bridge. If they think it will stop the orcs, they are sorely mistaken!" Williams remarked.

"They did it! The orcs are across the bridge. Why aren't the others responding? I can't believe they do not see the orcs coming now!" wondered Harold.

«There is something fishy about these trenches, sire,» said Dunbar. «Notice they are slanted, and dug in a strange way. I think our friends the orcs will have a bad surprise!»

«I sent a couple of wolves; they should be downwind in a minute, dad, we will have an idea of what the Hunters are doing shortly.»

«Good idea, Paschal.»

"I wonder where all these orcs come from, you know. We counted five hundred in that column, but there must be at least five thousand on site now," noted Samson.

"That caught my attention, dad, I had three decades of wolves move and explore along the river. It seems we were luckier than we thought! From the damage observed eastward of us, there was a huge convergence of orcs upstream; the only thing that prevented them from crossing and taking the Hunters à revers was the extended rapids. This bridge is the only surviving crossing of the stream for hundreds of miles, according to Paschal's map. They seem to have been coming from the mountains and converged less than ten miles from here."

"Hey, what's that foul smell?" exclaimed Harp.

"Petrol! The orcs are swimming in petrol! So that is what the Hunters had in mind! Call back the wolves, when they set this on fire it will propagate to the dry grass!"

"Done! The scouts are returning to the rock. What's the wind condition?" asked Sitar.

"If it continues to blow the way it does, we may have to retreat if the fire jumps the river! Get ready!"

"Calling back the wolves now! All teams except the surveillance one on the rock are moving back towards our position. Expected arrival to our limits, five minutes, dad!" informed Paschal.

"Wow! Look at that! The flames are at least a hundred foot high! There is a lot of cooking orcs!" exclaimed Harp.

"Hey, look at that, the grass caught fire and the firestorm is moving towards the bridge, pushing the orcs back!" commented Harold.

As they watched the furnace decimate the orcs, one of the wolves that were on the rock interrupted their gaze.

«One would like to call your attention to the strange behaviour of a group of those closest to us.»

«Yes, Surefooted, where?»

«Look!»

"They are digging in the sandy buff and filling in containers with it? I wonder why?" asked, intrigued, Enron.

"And they are moving them in a chain gang fashion amongst themselves? This is really intriguing!" commented Dunbar.

"Let's wait and see!" replied Harp, as intrigued as the others by the behaviour of the orcs.

About ten minutes later the reason was becoming clear!

"They aren't as dumb as I thought!" exclaimed Harold. "Never underestimate your enemy! Look at them! They are paving their way to the trenches over the fiery grass by covering it with sand, thus extinguishing the fire in the process! And the sand is wet and cakes on quite nicely!"

"But the closer they get to the firewall, the worse the heat, I would wager," commented Samson.

"Well, they are aware of that, believe me! Look at that other chain that just started, from the river! It carries pails of water and those that work close to the firewall get doused in water regularly! And now they have installed a rotation, so that it's not always the same that work close to the firewall. They are filling in the trench with wet sand! It vitrifies in the deep, but stays sandy on the cooler surface. The water chain is a lot shorter than the sand chain, since it doesn't need to cross the bridge. They take their water from the other side of the river directly!"

"Still, dad, there must be quite a few burns! Look at the wet sand explodes as it is dumped in the inferno!"

'True, Paschal, but they are gaining, anyways, as the sand bridges the trench gets ever wider, the impact of the heat is reduced by a ratio equal to the distance between its edges and the middle of the sand bridge squared. The hard part is the front as the sand bridge progresses to the other side of the trench."

"How many have they lost?" wanted to know Williams.

"I estimate about three hundred when the firewall got lit; another hundred or so when the grass caught fire, the slower ones that had already been seriously burned by the fire as it started but were not in its immediate path. Add another fifty or so extinguishing the fire. Nothing to modify their plans, I would say." Harold replied.

"Ah, the sand bridge is completed, at least the front tip had reached the lip of the trench on the other side!" Sitar remarked.

"Yes, and now they are completing the task, widening it to a convenient width. Watch it, the orcs seem pissed! There is going to be some bloody mess shortly!"

"You are right, dad! They are furious! Look at that charge! The Hunters better number their innards!" exulted Enron, enthralled by the view he could afford from the wolves on the rock.

"They are offering a nice resistance, son; see that rain of arrows! But it doesn't slow the orcs one bit, it seems! Those that fall are picked up by the ones behind and used as body shield!"

"The bodies get converted to needle cushions by the arrows! It must not be fun for them!" commented Harp, remembering his visit in the cacti patch!

"I doubt they have much time to worry about the level of comfort of a needle cushion, Harp," said, laughing, Sitar.

"The first line has reached the archers and is engaging them with swords! The Hunters seem to fight desperately, from what I can see." Harold commented, for the benefit of those not able to use wolf television.

"The vast majority of the orcs are across the sand bridge now. Hey! They are encircling the Hunters! They plan to clean up the bunch!"

"Sitar, more interesting is the behaviour of the twelve or so priests. They too are fighting, but they are poor fighters. The orcs seem to have decided to disarm them, and herd them. I wonder why?" asked Enron.

"Look at that! Two dozen orcs have lifted one of the priests off the ground and are carrying him towards the bridge!" Harp exclaimed.

A few minutes later, the group reached the sand bridge and suddenly, the priest got dumped in the trench, right in the still burning petrol!

"I knew the orcs were vindictive, but I never thought it would go that far!" exclaimed Sitar. "Not that I shall ever cry on roasted priests, having seen what happened to Germanicus' brother and his friend."

"The next one just got dumped. At that rate, there will be no priests left in five minutes! Good riddance!" exclaimed Harp.

"The treatment befits their crimes," concluded Samson.

"It sure gave some incentives to the Hunters! They have redoubled their efforts and seem determined to fight their way out of the trap, with or without what is left of priests in their midst!"

"Yes, you are right, Harold. I see a group in an approximate imitation of the arrow formation legionnaires use to charge trying to escape the encirclement, just off the road near the pine forest on the left!" Dunbar remarked.

A few minutes later, the Hunters made good their escape, about fifty of them at most.

"The orcs aren't giving chase?" asked, dumbfounded, Harp.

"No, and they will regret it, I suspect," replied Harold.

"How many orcs are there, still?" enquired Enron.

"Difficult to say, son. The fire and smoke make it hard to see the situation with any precision. I estimate four out of five orcs got killed and the rest isn't in very good shape. That leaves around a thousand orcs. Not a serious threat to us, but a definitive danger to the Hunters."

"The orcs must be in a rush to go north, dad, they aren't doing their usual 'after victory' brunch with the dead or wounded. They just dispose of the wounded and leave them behind. Not that I wanted to assist to their usual cannibalistic rituals of victory, but this tells me there must be something urgent north calling for massive orc movements."

"You are right, Paschal, this is strange. They have left the bridge area and are following the road north post-haste!"

"Dad, the orcs are going to have another ugly surprise they should have tailed the Hunters! A wolf pack on the other side reports Hunters setting the forest afire! And the orcs are walking right into the clump of pine they have set ablaze!"

"I confirm Enron's report. I have another wolf pack on the other side of the road reporting similar activity. The Hunters split and are setting the forest on fire! They have the wind for them; it's pushing the flames towards the river. I have ordered all wolves within the area to move north as fast as they can."

"Thank you for the update, Harp. We will stay were we are for the night. That second use of fire may be more devastating than the previous one, if only because it will spread unchecked!"

"Agreed, Harold. We will keep everyone ready to go on short notice should the fire cross the river. Everyone! Be on notice of departure, five minutes, and all night. Sleep in rotation, two hours per shift! Double the watch!" hollered Samson.

"We have given order to the wolves to patrol the shore of the river and immediately signal any spark crossing the river or burning debris."

"Thank you, Sitar." Dunbar said.

"The forest is very dry, and is like tinder. We would need a wind shift or a rainstorm to drench the forest floor. It is cloudy, humid, and very hot but I cannot say if we will get a thunderstorm tonight. However, a thunderstorm under these conditions could be as dangerous as what the Hunters did. Let a single tree get set ablaze by lightning, and we may be caught between two fires," analyzed Harold.

"I have warned the horses about the situation and they understand why they need to stay packed, dad. The wolves at the rock are reporting a column of smoke up the hills, about four miles after the bridge. It can be smelled, but not seen. The night is too dark, there is no moon and no stars, as you can see for yourself."

"How can the wolves say this if they cannot see the smoke?" asked the always sceptic mage.

"Burning wood doesn't smell the same as burning petrol or flesh, like the orcs or the priests. We can differentiate odours from miles away, and a downwind coming from the mountain to the valley carries this one."

«I wonder how many times he had to smash his fingers with a hammer before he learned to use one properly?» Paschal commented.

«Has he? I have my doubts!» Williams replied.

«He sure is stubborn! If all mages are as obstinate as he is, I wonder how things will go when we meet others!» Sitar added.

***

The night was calm until an hour before prime.

"The fire has reached the edge of the river, upstream. The trees are burning ferociously, and the sparks fly high. The branches that fall in the river are rapidly extinguished as the current twists and douses them with water. However, there is burning debris falling across river from the updraft created by the heat. So far the wolves are not reporting any foothold of the fire on this side, but it may not last!" Enron reported, waking up his dad and Harold.

"OK, thank you, Enron. What about the orcs? Any news?"

"A couple came out of the forest, but they were on fire, and they jumped in the river, where they drowned. I think their own trap also took some of the Hunters. The scouts reported seeing a couple of charred hunter body floating downriver. Not many, but still, this adds to the good news!"

"Ok, son, get the others awake, we may have to depart shortly. What is the condition at the bridge?"

"The observers report it still stands, and that the fire has progressed to the ditch. Everything from the forest to the ditch is burning, leaving only the area where there was the first burn yesterday free of flames, but not of danger. Fire-brands are flying everywhere."

"What about the wolves on the rock?"

"Harp has ordered them off and back to join in the retreat, should the need arise. Their last report mentioned thunder and lightning up in the mountains on both sides of the river."

"Oh. OK. Have the others up there reported any rain yet?"

"No, but they say they smell a wind change and a sudden drop in temperature. It may trigger the thunderstorm shortly. As to where the rain will fall, who knows?"

Five minutes later everyone was ready to leave, just waiting for the signal.

"OK! Let's move! We return to the road as fast as we can! I don't care if we leave tracks! Move it!' ordered Harold.

Everyone moved quickly in line behind the horses, which blazed the trail by crushing the underbrush. Harp was riding on his horse, keeping a close watch on the mare and her colt. Now was not the time to have a panicked colt run wild. The three miles that separated the column from the road was covered in an hour, a critical interval, which kept everyone on edge. The wolves reported that the fire near the bridge was puttering out after two huge explosions, probably the petrol reserves used to feed the firewall.

As the column emerged from the forest, the boys were getting alarming reports from the wolves along the river. It seemed some spots were beginning to smoke from the shower of fire that was falling across the stream.

"Let's move back along the road the way we came. Let's hope we will be able to outrun that fire, or we will be in trouble. Drummers, double the cadence! We need to speed up if we are to escape!" ordered Harold.

"I am calling back the forward wolves, dad. They will be able to outrun the fire if it starts, but I do not want some cornered!" said Enron.

"Agreed! Harp! Please move the mare and her colt to the front so they are as far away from the fire as possible! You are in the lead, boy!" ordered Samson.

"The next firebreak is the rock slides found an hour back at walking speed, or four miles! Samson! We have a long fast walk to do; at double speed it means thirty minutes of walk! Paschal, Enron, keep abreast of the wolves' reports; Harp, Sitar, keep the horses calm! Dunbar, Williams, with the packhorses! Samson, with the elves and legionnaires, ahead of me! I will lead the cavalry as rear guard! Mage Marlin, with me! Horsemen! If you see a faltering elf or legionnaire, take him or her with you! We will win this race together or lose it together!"

«I have reached the end of our column, dad!» Harp reported. «We are moving at double walkman-speed!»

«I have joined Dunbar and Williams, dad; Dunbar leads the packhorses, and Williams is closing the train on his own horse. I keep moving back and forth on the sides to reassure the horses. The packhorses just started moving behind Harp. I see the elves following; King Samson is out of sight, behind the elven infantry!»

«Do not worry, Sitar, I am with the legionnaires, at the rear of the elves. I stopped to insert myself in the column as you moved further along! We started moving a minute ago, as soon as there was about twenty feet between the last elves and the leading legionnaires.»

«Dad, a pine tree blew up in flames on this side of the river, about six miles upstream, reports an advanced scout team. They are moving out of the way, the wind is changing and pushing the brazier downriver rather than uphill. I have ordered all wolves in front, up to the road to regroup at the next hillcrest.»

«Acknowledged, Paschal!»

«What is the speed of propagation reported by the wolves?»

«About half-speed of a running wolf! Pretty fast enough to catch up with us, Samson!» Paschal replied.

"We have an hour and a half before the fire front coming down the valley catches up with us. A wolf's normal running speed is eight to ten miles per hour, and Paschal just informed me that the wolves could easily stay ahead of the fire, for now. But this may change. A truly full-fledged forest fire can progress at sixty miles per hour. No need to be lazy on our ass!" Harold informed the mage, and the others by the same occasion.

"We have been on the move for five minutes, already. Twenty-five minutes to go before the rocks! Keep it up!" ordered Samson. "Your lives are in danger!"

Another ten minutes passed and the column was already halfway to safety when another alarming report came in from the wolves.

«Dad! The fire is picking speed as it grows! I have ordered the last wolves behind us to fall back on our position at maximum speed! They are barely able to outrun the fire front!» Paschal transmitted, alarmed.

«Damn it! That brings the fire speed to barely below thirty-five miles per hour! Double the speed to a full run! It's a race for our lives! Two miles to go before the head of the column reaches the rocks!»

«Ordering full retreat from the wolves! They should catch up with us shortly!» Paschal informed the other royals. «Dad, we need to go to full run, we have less than twelve minutes to reach the rocks!»

«Message received, Paschal; drums are picking up speed to sound the charge!» Samson acknowledged.

As the column took to running, they saw the first wolves pass by them running towards the front of the column at breakneck speed. This could only mean one thing the fire was getting closer by the minute!

Five minutes later the first horses passed the rocks and continued along, Obeying an order by Harp, they moved to the side of the road, to let the others come running in on the road to safety.

«Dad I made it, and so did Dunbar and Sitar. The horses are moving out of the way to let the elves come running to safety! Where are you?»

«I am sending Enron and Paschal forward at full gallop. That mage will have to prove his worth, or die!»

«OK, I just saw the last horses pass the rocks, followed by Williams! The elves are coming in now!»

«The wolves are coming in too, running like mad!» Paschal reported. «The last ones are just behind you, dad! They refuse to leave you behind in danger!»

«The wolves upstream beyond the fire are reporting huge thunder flashes, and a huge mushroom cloud. It's going to be one big thunderstorm coming down on us!» Enron interrupted.

«Well, let's see if that mage is one! We need that rain now!» Harold said, icily.

"Mage Marlin, our situation is desperate, in less then two minutes the fire will be on us. We need rain, lots of rain, now. You say you are a mage, do your stuff, or roast!"

«Greywolf, come to me, now! If that mage does anything, I do not want your unit caught in his line of fire!»

«As you command, King of the Wolves!»

"Now, mage, do your stuff, we are the last, and you can feel the heat of the fire roasting your ham already!"

The panicked mage knew he had to do something drastic or face walking the last miles on foot, with burning branches showering him.

He took a metal rod and pointed it towards the nearest bushes, and set them on fire, as fast as he could.

"I am creating a firewall, your majesty. Lack of material to burn should reduce the speed of propagation somewhat."

"Fine, Enron reports a thunderstorm heading down the valley. Can you use that?"

"How far is it?"

«Enron, how far is the storm front?» Harold asked.

«Two miles behind us, closing in at twice the speed of the fire. The wolves report intense flashes, but still no rain. I just made it with dad to the rocks. The last wolves out are with you; the first centurie is passing the rock barrier now, just behind us.»

"Two miles from here according to the wolves, moving in at sixty miles per hour, it should be here in two minutes!"

"That will be close, I will continue with the firewall for another minute to gain us some precious seconds, then I will try to trigger the rain!"

"You better do better than try, mage!"

As the troops continued to run, now fully encircled by fire on both sides of the road, unit after unit passed the safety of the rock falls. Some showed burns from branches and firebrands, others were exhausted. The cavalry kept their horses in check, with the help of the telepathic control of the boys.

«Dad, move it!" the road will be cut off if you don't!»

"Mage, it's now or never for the rain! Paschal is telling me the road will be cut off any instant now!"

The mage lifted his staff towards the clouds and a powerful lighting left it! Once, twice, three times the mage focussed and fired away at the cloud. The third time a gigantic rumble replied from the clouds, and the wind picked up dramatically, followed first by a light drizzle, that rapidly turned into a torrential downpour. Fire and water entered their eternal war dance, as thunderbolts flashed above the last legionnaires running for the precarious shelter of the rockslides. Suddenly, hail started pummelling the cavalry, hail stones the size of marbles at first, but they became dangerous as they reached the size of balls, then eggs! The legionnaires raised their shields above their head in a vein attempt to protect themselves from the bombardment, but the icy projectiles bounced on the road to hit them in the legs. As the last foot soldier ran into the segment of the road enclosed by the rockslides, the thunder began hitting the trees in the forest, making them explode and converting their constituents into shrapnel.

The cavalry came into the protected zone at full gallop, followed less then three yards behind by the wolf pack and Greywolf, the last to cross into safety.

"Legionnaires, Elves! Protect the horses and the wolves with your shields!" ordered Harold. "Wounded, report to me in that gully! Is the water safe to use?"

«Yes.» Greywolf reported, who came to the king, on three legs.

«Thank you Greywolf. What happened to you?»

«I had to remove a burning branch that had fallen on one of ours. I burned my front paws badly and the branch also hurt my rear left leg as it rolled; that is why I cannot use it.»

«Come here. Let me heal your wounds. What happened to the one that the branch fell on, Greywolf?»

«She is severely burned; we are bringing her to you now!»

«Sitar, Harp! One of the wolves is seriously burned. Go help bring her here!»

«We are on it, dad! We are using horse blankets to carry her, with the help of four legionnaires! We should be where you are in a minute!»

Mitsuko was busy as each animal, be it wolf, horse or human came to the king for healing. There were numerous burns, some mild, others severe, but none that took a life. There were also some sprained ankles and concussions, also easily healed. The boys were kept busy as well, with the wolves and the horses.

"Dad, the wolves that were up the hillside outside of the firestorm range all reported safe and sound. They took shelter in natural caves. They are reporting the storm is calming up valley, but that they still see the storm front move down towards the lower valley. They mentioned a couple of landslides and secondary fires due to lightning, but the drenching of the forest has about removed the risk of another fire any time soon."

"Good to hear, Paschal. However it's still going strong here. It may be an hour or two before it calms down."

"Dad, why did you heal each animal individually rather than use the trick you applied at Command Rock?"

"I figured it would let me get to know each individually and gain their trust more deeply. It took longer, but it will pay off in the long run, son. Trust and knowing each other is essential in a war."

"Oh, it makes sense."

"Don't I always?"

Paschal stuck his tongue out at his dad, laughing. "Nope!"

***

The fight between fire and water lasted for hours, but finally water won, after a lot of hissing, vapour clouds, and sparks flying in every direction. The charred forest looked spooky, as the fog slowly rolled over the remains of once proud trees. Only the biggest had survived, their thick bark protecting them from the intense heat, and their height keeping their top branches relatively free of damage. The worse off were the resinous trees, which had exploded under the heat, collapsing on each other and bringing down their brothers in the process. Some sheltered areas still glowed red but they would die out from lack of appropriate combustible to reignite the inferno. Here and there, between rocks, some trees seemed to have escaped the blaze, and stood tall and firm, ready to repopulate the forest with their seeds as soon as things finished cooling off. The death of millions would feed their saplings as they began their race towards dominance and light. Even in the middle of the blackened desolation, a careful observer could see bits of greenery as tiny shoots of trees, ferns, grass and other lucky survivors, sheltered from the flames by the bodies of their once parents and competing enemies had now become allies in protecting them. The wind, which had whipped the flames to a destructive frenzy, now would carry the tiny seeds of the first conquerors of this land of desolation, the blue and black berries, soon to be followed by others. Next spring would find a carpet of flowers covering in its coloured diversity the hideous traces of the forest fire.

Harold and the other royals surveyed the desolation from the rockslides' edges.

"We will stay here for a day; the ashes are too hot for even booted men, much more so for moccasin-clad elves or bare-pawed wolves."

"It must be the case dad. I can see tiny movements between the tree stumps. I think its rodents, but they do not go far!"

"There are two reasons for this, Sitar: first, the soil is too hot; second, they are exposed to predators from the sky. Look up, and you will see quite a few birds of prey, including owls, ravens, and others; there is also a vast number of vultures, amongst other scavengers, which are looking for an easy meal."

"I wonder how the rodents survived the inferno?" asked Harp.

"Their burrows are underground, son. They have deep nests, to protect their broods from predators, such as wolves, coyotes, and others. It doesn't always work, because there are predators that can dig their way into the nest, and others, such as snakes, which just follow the tunnels to where the young are. Snakes use a sense of taste-smell to find their way. That is why they keep sticking their tongue in and out, and it is also why it is forked. They have a capacity to create a three-dimensional representation of their environment using taste-smell, much like we use our eyes and ears."

"I don't like snakes!" Enron stated.

"Neither do I, they compete with us for food!" Paschal replied, looking at the mage with a wolfish grin.

That grin sends shivers down my spine. I feel like I'm on the menu, like one of these rodents! Marlin thought.

«Do not worry, mage; you are too toxic for my diet!» Paschal replied telepathically.

«Paschal is picky!» Harp commented. «I am not as difficult on what I eat!»

«I know about it! I was wondering when you would go on to eat my dishes and table!» Samson added, laughing.

«I tried, but my teeth aren't hard enough!»

«And I thought it was termites having a go at the table and chair legs! It was you!» Sitar replied.

«These termites sure had big strong jaws if they did the type of damage I saw!» Harold added.

«Sorry to blow your bubble, but it was my pups!» Cleopatra informed them. «They need to chew badly on anything, and the chair and table legs were conveniently available.»

«We're sorry uncle Samson, but we couldn't help it! Our teeth itched too much! It was such a pain when they grew!» Hatshepsut told the group.

«It's nothing, girl. We will know better next time and supply the pups with proper chew toys.» Samson replied. «Anyways, these furniture pieces will not be very appropriate for what I intend to do later; they are cumbersome, and heavy. They might as well be put to good use.»

"The sparks are beautiful when they fall off a tree, aren't they dad?" Paschal remarked.

"Yes they are and they illustrate life and death in a very effective way too."

"How so?"

"See, each life is a spark in the vastness of time, propagating itself to create new life, new sparks in an eternal darkness; as each of us is born, we carry the fire of life another step forward. Some of us may not, but overall, there are so many that do so that life explodes and teems with diversity. We are fire, born of fire, intimately part of the universe from its inception to its death. From stardust we came, to stardust we will return. We are thoughtful energy, which burns, controlled, and sometimes, purposeful. An inner fire drives each life, from the tiniest to the largest, from the dimwit to the genius. Ultimately, we are family, even the orcs and the priests. I sense, deep in me, that the entire planet is alive, its biosphere, albeit vast, is fragile, and yet aware of something it cannot escape. We are its seedlings, son. We are its sons, its envoys, its ambassadors; we must not fail, or all will be lost for Gaïa⁵⁴⁵⁴ ("James Lovelock, an independent NASA researcher, formulated the Ga&iuml;a hypothesis. See <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gaia_hypothesis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">this link<\/span><\/a> for an overview of the hypothesis.")! The Wolf Conscience, along with the Horse Conscience, which is emerging due to your intervention, boys, are aware of this, and represent the next evolutionary step in Gaïa's efforts to save its work. The ancients were to be the guardians of this nest, they had the knowledge, the technology, but they behaved as if they owned their Mother; thus they ravaged rather than protected. No animal can dirty its nest and hope to survive."

As Harold told his tale of life, those that heard it felt moved, compelled, to accept it as truth; the royals more than the others, because their binding to the Wolf Conscience made them acutely aware of its validity.

"This is sobering, dad. I wonder why the ancients, with all their knowledge, did not see their role in the protection of Mother Earth?"

"A few did, Sitar, a few. But they were ridiculed, scorned, laughed at; and ultimately, crushed by greed and avarice. The need for power, dominance, control of limited resources, led to ever more powerful means of crushing those that were seen as mere tools to assuage the needs of the greedy. Remember this: knowledge does not guarantee sagacity."

"Assuage?" Harp wanted to know.

"Yes, assuage means to make more bearable a burden. The powerful would reduce the weak to slavery so they, the rich, the powerful, the greedy, could live a better life; there existed a social model which stated that those below were to bear the weight of those above in the social structure, much like the grain of rocks at the base of a mountain bear the weight of the grains above. It was called the Social Pyramid, and there were only a few at the top. Sometimes, the pyramid erupted like a volcano, and those that were at the bottom would find themselves at the top; it was called a revolution. Unfortunately, those that ended up at the top were as ready to crush those below them as those they replaced! Sometimes, the revolution would be so big, as it was six thousand years ago, that the entire Social Pyramid would suffer a meltdown and collapse on itself. Unfortunately, the human society has learned nothing from its past, and its behaviour today is very much a carbon copy of what led to the Ancients' social collapse."

"Is this what we see in the column?"

"Not exactly, Sitar. We have specialized, but each of us works hard at what we do. Samson, Enron, your brothers, each of us, contributes his fair share of work to the collective wellbeing of the army we represent. There is a pyramid of decision, and it is necessary or we would be disorganized; however none of us sits on his ass while the others work. We are more like a wolf pack than a normal human society in this regard. More importantly, none of us has more than what he needs. Greedy behaviours are not encouraged, if only because such behaviours would take limited resources away from those that might need it, and force others to carry the additional burden greed imposes on the greedy."

"Greed imposes a burden?"

"Yes, Enron, it does. When you become greedy, you tend to collect things; more things than you can carry easily yourself; you end up so loaded in useless things that you need to hire people to carry these things for you; then, you notice that things you value tend to disappear, and you feel robbed of these useless goods and possessions; you end up hiring more people to protect these goods and belongings, which, in turn, usually costs you more than the value of what you wanted to protect initially. To protect these trinkets, you get greedier so you can pay your guards. It's a self-perpetuating wheel that eats the greedy person from the inside as well as from the outside."

"Therefore the greedy assuage their burden with helpers and guards to keep the helpers in check!"

"Exactly, Harp!"

"Does it ever stop?"

"It stops when the society collapses on itself, Paschal. Human, and elven society shows signs of this process happening. Consider archduke Franz of Sophia, of not so glorious memory. He was the typical top-man of a pyramidal social structure. He crushed mercilessly, with the help of that butcher you so elegantly dispatched. But he had one above him, King Samson, and he felt that he should be in his place so that he would be the ultimate pinnacle of the pyramid, and crush everyone else; that Samson did not crush everyone in his path was something Franz could not understand; for him it was a sign of weakness; and maybe too, of fear; he was always wondering when he would feel the boot of the king crush him like the vulgar snake he was. He just could not imagine society in any other way. The funny thing is that the more a person crushes others, the higher the level of corruption. No one trusts a dictator, and everyone finds ways to outwit the creep, by practicing exchange of good-will gestures or black market economy, or downright buying their way into a more secure station in life. Not that getting up in such a structure is actually more secure; it is like pretending that getting nearer a rattlesnake improves safety! Quite a few found out, I am sure, that sleeping in bed with a poisonous snake, be it a king cobra, or archduke Franz, made for a cold bed companion, and sometimes, short nights and shorter lives!"

"Let's get to some food, dad! This is all nice, but it doesn't fill my tummy!" exclaimed Harp.

"We will have some food ready shortly, Harp. We had to delay setting up the camp, until we were sure the rock barriers would stop the propagation of the fire. Now that this danger is past, we can camp here."

"The wolves are hunting in the rockslides, dad. They cornered a dozen orcs on a flat rock, and will dispose of them for lunch. Rabbits and other rodents are getting rare with all of us feeding off them at the same time."

"Remind them to be cautious!" Samson replied.

"They say the orcs are fighting with sticks. Apparently, they lost their weapons while trying to outrun the fire."

"We will have some deer tomorrow; the wolf packs uphill are pushing a herd towards us." Harp informed them. "Also, Silver Moon and Shadow of the Moon, his mother, are doing fine. The youngling wants me to sleep with him tonight. Can I?"

"Yes, but be sure to get your usual escort, Harp. Do you know why he wants you to spend the night?"

"From what he told me, he feels anxious. I will not discard his feelings; maybe it tells us something we are unaware. I have doubled the wolf patrol."

"We will also double elven and legionnaire patrol. I have an uneasy feeling as well." Harold replied.

"Dad, I feel an urge to find more open space. Could we move to the road and clear it some? I don't like having the rocks overhead!" suggested Sitar.

"This is also the feeling I have, dad. Let's finish eating and move down. It may still be a bit hot down there but I would prefer a hotter surface than staying here more than necessary." Enron confirmed.

"What do the wolves say?" enquired Harold.

«We feel danger! As soon as we are done with feeding, we would like to move down too. The soil will be hot, but we feel that it would still be safer than here.»

"So be it. We move out of this place as soon as we are done eating. Twenty minutes tops!" ordered Harold.

Twenty minutes later, the legionnaires, albeit tired from their day's ordeal, moved down the road, carefully removing still burning branches and tree trunks; even the ashes were moved to the sides with primitive broomsticks, so the wolves could walk on the road without burning their paws.

An hour later, they were back to their last position along the road, and set camp for the night. It was well past vespers, but not yet compline, so there remained some residual lights, as it was still summer.

Everyone lay down on the ground, not erecting tents, as per orders from Harold. Wolves, dogs and humans slept pell-mell, each finding comfort in the heat and presence of the others. Even the horses kept still as wolves and dogs slept under their belly. The horses had finally overcome their ancestral fears of wolves with the help of constant reassurances from the wolf-boys; furthermore, their combined effort at saving Shadow of the Moon and her baby Silver Moon had helped considerably this process.

***

Lauds had passed an hour earlier when the wolves began to stand, waking up everyone, including the elves and legionnaires.

"They say they hear a deep rumble that seems to come from the mountains, mage. And I agree, it does seem like some deep noise is coming from the rockslides." Harold confirmed.

"Dad, did you see that flash up the mountain?"

As Sitar was saying this, everyone heard a sharp crack. A deeper rumble immediately followed it; as everyone held his or her breath, wondering what would come next, the earth began vibrating like a string on a harp.

"That does it! We have an earthquake! Stay on the road, we are safer here than in the forest, were trees can fall on us at any time!" ordered Harold. "Boys, cavalrymen, reassure the horses. Samson and I are handling the wolves! Greywolf, make sure none of us flee in the forest! Lay down!"

As the earthquake increased in violence, terrified rabbits and rodents were running out of their dens, to join their foes on the road. The noise coming from the mountains they had vacated earlier that day seemed to tell of rocks being tortured by a sadistic giant as they cried under the powerful forces that were applied to them until they snapped. Even the horses couldn't stay on their legs and lay down on the ground, shivering, held in place by the will of steel of the four boys. Trees could be seen flying, their blackened carcass thrown in the air by the upheaval of their once solid grip to the earth's roots. Both horses and wolves shivered and told of their terror in their respective dialect.

Finally, after five interminable minutes, the shaking stopped, and an eerie calm descended on the forest, to be broken by an occasional falling tree, or the roll of a rock or boulder in the pass behind them.

"Report! Be ready for aftershocks! This one was a whooper, and there will be other tremors before things settle down!" ordered Harold, shaken.

«Harp here. Both mare and colt are OK. We have one wounded stallion that got hit by a flying branch!»

«Sitar here! No one hurt in my group!»

«Paschal here! A flying rock on the leg hit me and it hurts badly. Wolves report a couple wounded by rocks as well in my group, and a horse broke a leg.»

«Williams here! Two wolves hurt, and a horse!»

«Enron here. Dad got hit by a branch on the head and is unconscious! Also, reporting a horse and four wolves hurt; and one of the pups got hit on the hindquarter by a rock and is whimpering.»

«Greywolf reporting. Three wolves in the lead pack hurt; also one horse, and an elf.»

"I must report three humans hurt in the cavalry, Sire," reported Yamato.

«No one buried?» Harold asked.

There were no reports of buried members of the column; it couldn't be said the same from the viewpoint of the rabbits and other rodents, which, as soon as the tremors ceased, were busy trying to dig their young out from under the rubble.

«Do not move the wounded. I will go from one to the other to heal them as fast as I can. Have the healers help with the less critical! Enron, get an elf to fetch water from our barrels, and put a wet cloth on your dad's head, the colder the better.»

Harold proceeded methodically, going from the critically hurt to the least wounded in order. By prime, everyone was back in health, but way too tired to even consider moving anywhere. Further seismic activity further complicated any idea of displacement, and some were strong enough to throw a standing man off his feet.

The boys handled healing Samson, because a severe concussion was a bit above what Mitsuko could deal with. It took them twenty minutes to repair the blood vessels and prevent further damage; their hardest task was preventing brain swelling, but through careful regulation of blood pressure, they managed to do it.

"Dad's going to have a severe headache when he wakes up, I wager. I am taking command of the elven forces until he is back afoot."

"That's proper action, Enron. I doubt anyone will dare contest your authority for the duration." Harold replied.

As dawn came, a group of elves, legionnaires and wolves took a quick trip back to the rockslides, in the company of Harp.

«We did good not to stay in the narrows! There are huge boulders that have rolled down from the cliff sides, and are right where we would have been had we stayed! An entire side of a mountain seems to have dropped out of existence, opening a huge fissure west of here, and presenting a cliff face that looks cut by a giant rock saw! The stream in the gully where we fetched water earlier yesterday is now a fall! It drops well over a hundred feet straight down!»

«That is funny!»

«What is, Itchy?»

«The rock where we cornered the orcs for lunch is down here, in plain view, about a hundred paces from the road! I recognize the funny looking rock on it. And I can smell orc blood and see a few bones!»

«That is funny, Itchy! I doubt the orcs would have appreciated riding a rock sled down a cliff face, but it is funny!»

«How does that rock look like, Harp?» Harold wanted to know.

« There is an oblong rock, placed in the middle of the slab, itself seemingly presenting a white T, or a cross.»

«Let me see through your eyes, son.»

After a few minutes of examination, Harold came to a conclusion.

«That isn't a natural rock, it is the floor of a church; what you see in the middle is what is left of the altar, and the white is marble that got inlaid into the floor. It must be the last remains of a religious building.»

«Ok, we are coming back; all I can say is that this passage will be difficult when we go home!»

«We may not come back this way, Harp. There are many ways to go south, along different roads. We took the most eastern roads, but we may decide to take the middle ones or the most western ones when we go back, depending on our discussion with Samson and how things will go as we move north.»

«OK. Riding back. We should be in view of the rear guard in two or three minutes at most. The wolves tell me another tremor is coming, from what they feel under their paws. Get ready for it!»