The Pack Read Online Free PDF

child in turn. But there was no need; they were all in the boat, watching the two herons, as they had often done before, spread their great wings and sail across the darkening sky.
    â€œWhere are you headed for?” she asked.
    â€œThe cabin,” they answered together.
    â€œYes, the small jetty by the cabin. And when you have landed there, you are in the Land of Wolves. But of course, we all know that the Land of Wolves does not exist any more.”
    What did and did not exist—or had ever existed—beyond his particular Zone, the Pack and the Old Woman, Bradley could never be sure of. Nor whether the slivers of memory which surfaced in him were ones the Old Woman had implanted or were all that remained from a previous life, long forgotten.
    â€œThe story. The story,” said Floris.
    â€œIn the Land of Wolves, long ago, the wolves kept to themselves, as did the cabin people, though sometimes they sang to each other, when the moon was so beautiful and neither people nor wolves could stop praising it. And the wolves would come close to the cabins and the people—the very few that were there—would put out some scraps for them and watch, just for the pleasure of seeing their silver coats, their bright yellow eyes and the way they flowed out of the forest and back again on silent feet.
    â€œAnd so they lived together, not happily, not unhappily, but simply being people and being wolves. Till the Dead Time came …
    â€œAnd in the worst of the Dead Time, when people had nothing to eat and the harshest winters to endure, the boldest of them—or the most desperate—left the cities and came north to see what they could find. And they found the wolves and they found cabins they could stay in, while they trapped and skinned wolves that had lost their fear of people. And so successful were they at what they did that soon there were very few wolves left in this huge area; and those male wolves, which bayed at the moon with such sorrow now, had no females with which to mate.
    â€œAnd that’s when the wolves began to travel. In winter they moved in their tireless flowing strides across the frozen lake, down the path, through the forest by the road and across the farmland, till they came—only the strongest and the wiliest—at long last to the edge of the Zones, where people lived in tents and boxes and places made of mud and where stray dogs lived, scavenging among its refuse. And there they found their mates.
    â€œOne magnificent wolf, his shoulders three feet from the ground, as long as Bradley is tall, his eyes burning like candle flames, chose a bitch as black as coal, almost as big as himself, but with a heart in pain from being driven away from a family’s love. No dogs were allowed in the Invisible City—or were welcome anywhere else. And so the great wolf found her and both bayed their fierce joy beneath the moon and from their union—”
    â€œHunger was born,” said Floris.
    â€œHunger was born and was the best of both his parents. No dog has ever been as courageous, as intelligent or as loyal.”
    These words, Victor was thinking. What do these words mean?
    Hunger always seemed to know this was his moment. He sat up, attentive, waiting for Bradley to put his arm around his neck and hug him.
    â€œAnd Fearless and Shelter too, they also have some wolf in them and, if you look deep and long into their eyes, you will see, reflected there, lakes, forests and stars.”
    The children smiled.
    â€œNow, what is the world made of?”
    â€œAshes. Du—”
    â€œBut what of the people who came to the Land of Wolves?” asked Bradley.
    â€œAh,” said the Old Woman. “That, as you know, is another story. For it happens that if you eat certain animals that are not meant to be eaten—like the wolf—the spirit of these animals will rage within you, such that you will become a cage for them and then a partial home