Beneath a Winter Moon (11 page)

The wolf was tracked once, by the same man who lost the beagle puppies, but he lost the trail by the end of the first day. Eventually things settled down, the episodes were forgotten— but Thomas, and Tyrone could never forget. They would suffer from nightmares for months and Thomas never hunted their woods at night again.

He could feel the electricity in the air as he finished the story. He wondered if he should have recounted it at all. As if reading his thoughts, Jenny said, “Well, thanks a lot for that, Thomas. I am
really
scared now.” Thomas heard the teasing sarcasm but he knew there was some truth to her words.

Delmar stretched his long arms and yawned. “Let’s not get all
weirded
out now. It’s probably just a Timber Wolf, folks. Besides, it’s far from us…”

“And it is not like we are in a locked helicopter with four big strong men and a couple of rifles,” Jenny interjected sarcastically.

“And one handgun,” Steven said, raising a 9mm Beretta up so that the moonlight would shine on it for the group.

Jenny punched Steven in the arm.
Hard.

“OW!” Steven exclaimed.

“We had an agreement,
husband
,” Jenny said.

“I forgot,” Steven said, massaging his arm. “Geez, Jen….that hurt.”

“Serves you right.”

Delmar chuckled.

Daniel, who had been quiet through it all, suddenly spoke up. “I have a story, too.”

“By all means,” Steven said.

“Okay, then.” Daniel shifted so that he could see everyone’s faces in the dim light of the moonlit cabin. “When I was growing up in
Idaho
, I learned about a battle that chief Yellow Wolf had before he fought against the army. My grandfather told me that Yellow Wolf was looking for a sacred burial ground that had been lost and forgotten by most of his people. Yellow Wolf’s grandfather had died and the old man’s last wish was that his body be placed in this very sacred ground.

Yellow Wolf searched for a long time and finally found the entrance by following the shadow of a tall rock as the sun went down. The shadow pointed to a crack that opened up into a hidden canyon.”

Everyone listened intently, trying to forget about the eerie howl.

“Yellow Wolf was working his way through the thin crack in the canyon wall and just as he broke free onto the other side he was met by a trickster. The Trickster was in the form of a giant wolf, but he wore a magnificent tribal war bonnet.”

As if on cue, another howl penetrated the night air, sending chills through them all. Jack growled softly.

Daniel paused for a moment, then continued. “The trickster spoke up and told Yellow Wolf that to come into the sacred grounds on
any night other than the night of a full moon
would curse him and his family forever, and that they would die horrible deaths. Yellow wolf didn’t understand that this magnificent giant war-wolf was a trickster and so he heeded the words.

Now, Yellow Wolf was no fool—and the trickster was convincing. So, he left the burial ground and waited for the full moon to come. He sang songs over his grandfather’s body each day and night, honoring him and begging his grandfather’s spirit to remain within his old body until he could be put to rest in the sacred grounds.

The night before the full moon, the army came and there was a fight near their camp along the river. Yellow Wolf was badly wounded as he protected his grandfather’s body and his family. The next day when the moon was full, he was not strong enough to take his grandfather. So, he convinced his half-brother, Lame Horse, to carry him.

Lame horse left with his grandfather’s body but did not return.”

The cabin was still and silent as they waited for Daniel to continue.

“Days went by and still no word came of Lame Horse. It took a month for Yellow Wolf to recover and finally, he packed a horse and gathered three young Braves who volunteered to accompany him on the journey to the sacred ground. They reached the pillar of rock, and Yellow Wolf waited for the shadow to lead them to the opening.

The shadow came as the sun was swallowed up by the horizon but Yellow Wolf did not realize that on this day it lead to a different crack in the rocky canyon wall. The three Braves went through the crack first and Yellow Wolf followed. They all heard a long, sorrowful howl just before they went into the canyon.

The three Braves were then attacked by an enormous wolf that walked upright. The wolf tore the Braves to pieces right before Yellow Wolf’s very eyes. Yellow Wolf tried to attack and kill the wolf but the animal backed away, whining like a puppy. He cornered the huge wolf and yelled for it to fight back, but it would not. It was then that Yellow Wolf saw a set of shiny, blue beads around the wolf’s neck. The beads had been given to Lame Horse when he took a wife. The upright wolf also had a leather arm band around its right forepaw. An Eagle’s feather dangled from the arm band The feather was from an eagle that Yellow Wolf and Lame horse had caught together, from high on a mountain. Yellow Wolf sank to his knees in front of the crying wolf and he wept because he knew this
was
Lame Horse, his brother.”

“Wow,” Jenny said and leaned in close to Steven, who had a slight grin on his face.

“Lame Horse lay against Yellow Wolf. Yellow Wolf sat on his knees, wailing a sad death song while Lame Horse howled and whined. They did this until dawn, when Lame Horse became a man again and told his brother how the trickster had lied and how the only time it was safe to come into the canyon was when the full moon
was not high in the sky
, and then even safer by always coming by the light of day. Lame Horse begged Yellow Wolf to kill him, and so Yellow Wolf did as he was asked. He burned his brother’s body, and then set out to find and kill the trickster.”

Daniel paused, listening for any more of the strange howls. None came.

“Did he?” Jenny asked. “Did he kill the trickster?”

He shook his head. “No, the trickster saw Yellow Wolf coming for him and so he turned into a huge crow and flew away, never to be seen again. Yellow Wolf sealed up the two canyon entrances and kept their locations a secret.” He paused again, “Or so the story goes, anyway.”

Delmar slowly clapped his hands and let out a whistle. “Well, done, Daniel!” he said, chuckling to himself. “That was one hell of a tall tale….perfect.”

Daniel was quiet for a moment and then spoke up, his voice indicated that he was not amused. “It was not a tall tale,” he said softly. “It was the truth.”

Delmar just stared through the darkness of the cabin, waiting for Daniel to laugh, but his friend stayed silent. Then, suddenly, Daniel reached out, took Delmar’s hand, and opened it up. Delmar felt him place something in his palm. He held the thing up to the moonlight, and everyone just stared. Delmar was holding an old piece of leather strap, with a dark feather dangling from it.

Delmar’s jaw dropped. Thomas just stared at it, as did Jenny and Steven.

Delmar quickly offered it back to Daniel, but he refused, saying that Delmar should have a turn at protecting it for a while. Delmar’s mouth opened even wider.

Suddenly, Daniel burst into laughter, slapping his knee and pointing at the look on Delmar’s face. “By God, Delmar! The look on your face is priceless!”

Thomas joined in and so did Jenny and Steven. Their laughter shook the helicopter. Delmar threw the trinket at Daniel and said, “Jackass,” and then he burst into laughter himself. Soon, he and Daniel were rocking back and forth, pointing at one another and recounting the looks on Delmar’s face.

“Was the damned story even real?” Thomas asked.

Daniel shook his head. “Not really, no. I made it up as I went along…from several old legends.” He laughed, “The leather strap was given to me by that old man back at the airport…I wouldn’t take a cigar so he slipped that into my hand instead. No idea what it was all about but I’m sure it has to do with some old superstition.”

They laughed again. Daniel’s smile suddenly faded, though. “My grandfather really did have a strong belief in that kind of stuff, though. He was really into the old stories.”

“Okay…no more of the ghost stories, please. We aren’t exactly roasting marshmallows over the campfire. It’s pretty spooky out here.”

“Here, here,” Thomas said. They laughed.

Thankfully, they heard no more howls…and soon they all drifted into an uncomfortable sleep.

The Other reached the edge of a clearing and stopped, the thick foliage keeping his body in shadow while blocking out the few rays of moonlight that had filtered through the clouds. He howled once more…a low, menacing sound boiling up from his throat. Steven and Thomas woke up but the rest of the group remained fast asleep.

“That last howl was damned close,” Steven whispered. “It does sound something like a wolf, but if it is one I’d bet there is something wrong with it. Maybe it is wounded.”

“Jack agrees with you,” Thomas said as he held Jack by his harness and stroked the Husky’s fur. “He does not like the sound of it one bit.”

“I think we did a good job spooking ourselves,” Steven said, keeping his voice low. “It’s not like we have anything to worry about...we’ll just shoot the damned thing if it bothers us.”

“Sorry about the stories,” Thomas offered.

“Bah. It’s fine.”

Thomas patted Jack’s shoulder and whispered that he wished he had more treats. He had packed the vacuum-sealed bags deep in his backpack and could not get to them now without waking the rest of the group. He had given Jack all of the dog snacks hoping to keep him calm. The Husky was far from calm, however…his head whipping back and forth as if he saw or heard things the group could not. Each time the dog perked up his ears and let out a low, rumbling growl Thomas felt a shiver of fear navigate up his spine and out through the goose bumps on his neck.

Steven and Thomas kept quiet as they looked through the windows. Thomas felt kind of stupid himself for keeping watch for whatever was out there. The animal was probably just some poor coyote that would end up scaring the hell out of him as it trotted out from the woods to investigate the helicopter and its plethora of new smells. But, he had never quite recovered from that night when he was eleven and now recalled that he had a pretty rough time during his military training when he was required to carry out missions alone for days, or spend a week alone on a survival course. He had conquered his fear of heights but apparently his fear of being alone at night in the woods was still alive even after all his time in the field with the Army.

* * * * *

Samuel looked at the clock above the tower’s largest window. 6a.m. Three hours until daylight but his shift was over in fifteen minutes. The rest of the locals would be up and around keeping to their normal schedules despite the season’s delayed sunsets and sunrises. He blew into his coffee, cooling it a little before bringing it to his lips. The night had been worse than he intended—
thanks to the little teenage asshole
, he thought. Samuel had called radio checks practically every half hour, only sleeping through a few. There were no replies from Steven’s outfit but there were no distress calls, either. No one could say for certain that something was amiss. Steven was working in that new tract of land up north where he was building a new cabin while putting the finishing touches on his cabin at Baron’s lake, and he may not have a base-station set up and working just yet. As for the radio in the Svensons’ aircraft, he should be able to at least reach someone who could relay a call if something was wrong. Samuel decided it was all a bunch of bullshit and nothing at all for him to worry about. He was going to head home, drink some coffee—topped off with his favorite creamer, of course—Pirate Beach rum.