Spirit of the Wolves Read Online Free PDF

and ravens who told her she smelled bad, and even to rock lions. She had understood the giant wolves her grandmother had taken her to see when she still stumbled on her feet like a colt. But now she could not. Often she thought she saw meaning in Silvermoon’s eyes, but she could never be sure.
    â€œYou will have to find another way,” NiaLi said.
    TaLi lay down next to the wolf and inhaled the rich forest smell of her. When she was four, her grandmother had begun training her to become the next krianan for the village, and from then on she had been alone. So many of the village did not want the krianans telling them what to do and what they must and must not hunt. They laughed when TaLi told them they were just as much a part of the forests as the animals they hunted and the plants they ate, and they had shunned her. She’d felt as if she no longer had a family.
    Until the day she had fallen in the river.
    She had struggled for life, but part of her had wondered what would happen if she let herself float down the river and over the distant falls. When the wolf splashed into the water and swam towardher, she thought it must be coming to kill her, for she’d been told since she could walk that wolves lived to kill humans. But the wolf bobbed near her and TaLi grabbed its fur. It swam with her to shore, saving her life.
    Then it stood over her, panting, and she could see huge teeth. She waited for it to kill her then, but it did not. It helped her home.
    She rested her back against the warmth of the wolf and looked up at her grandmother.
    â€œThey might not let me be krianan,” she said.
    â€œI know, child,” her grandmother said. “If they do not, you must leave the valley. You are a krianan whether they accept you as one or not. You must find the krianans who live in the forest surrounding the village of Kaar. They know that we must be part of the natural world. They know that if those like DavRian prevail we are all lost, and they are fighting for our cause. You must go to them and help them. You and your wolves.”
    TaLi stared at the old woman. It was enough that she was supposed to convince her own village to keep the natural way. She couldn’t possibly do so among strangers.
    â€œYou must,” the old woman said, as if she could read TaLi’s thoughts. “What happens in Kaar will influence what happens throughout much of the land. They are a village larger than any you have ever seen, and they are deciding whether to go the way of the krianans or the way of those who believe that humankind must rule all other creatures. I am too old to make the journey and I trust no one else. It must be you.”
    â€œWhat if the wolves won’t come with me?”
    â€œIt is their task, too.” The old woman’s voice grew sharp. “You have not been listening. The wolves and the krianans share this task. Your wolves are discovering it, they have told me so. If youcan’t find a way to talk to them, you will have to find other ways to keep your tasks aligned.”
    The old woman struggled to her feet and limped toward TaLi.
    â€œYou have the strength to do whatever you choose. You and your wolves. It is your duty, and I know you can do it.”
    â€œI will,” TaLi whispered.
    The old woman looked down at the girl and the wolf, and an expression so complex passed over her face that TaLi could not catch exactly what it was.
    â€œHer name is Kaala, you know,” NiaLi said, smiling down at the snoring wolf. “And her friends are Ázzuen and Marra. You are all lucky to have found one another.” She rose slowly and returned to her seat by the fire, wincing as she sat and pulled her furs around her.
    TaLi buried her face in the wolf’s thick fur. “I love you, Silvermoon. Kaala.” She whispered the words she had never said aloud to anyone, not even BreLan. “I can do this if you help me.”
    Each beat of the wolf’s strong