Page 54 of Blacktail

“Be still now, and turn your head away,” the Hider said. Yup, Blacktail thought. He’s definitely talking better. “The magic does not work if you watch.” Blacktail smelled a lie in that, but he did not care. He laid his head down. Don’t fall asleep. It’s too soon to trust them.

The prey touched Blacktail’s hind leg with its forepaws, probing gently. Many of the spots it touched were swollen. Only moments before, even a light touch would have made him yelp. But whatever magic ran through his veins was strong.

Not long after the crunching sounds began. Blacktail rolled his eyes, lifted his head to see.

“No.” The Hider moved his hand to block Blacktail’s view. “Really. It is best you not look on it.”

Another wet crunch. Then another. “Well…if you say so.”

“Tell me, Lord,” the Hider said. “If I may ask? You are from the far hill?”

“Eh? How do you know about all that?”

“The mices tell to me,” the Hider said. “They see much.”

“So it would seem.”

“This journey you make…it is hard, yes?”

“Yes and no.” Something snapped in his leg—not painful, exactly, but…discomfiting. Blacktail grunted. “Not that hard, really, but for the damn mountains. The god who made this land must have treasured fatal drops above all other things.”

“Why you go south? Has the Forest God been told of there? The mices have not seen Him.”

“No one that I talk to seems to know anything. No one but the Old Kitty Mother, and she keeps her own counsel. She tells me He may be found if I journey to the south.” Blacktail sighed. “But I have walked quite a way already. All I’ve found is men.”

“You are the great hunter,” the man said. “She chose you. You must be the one to find. Tell me, what do you think? When you dream of that day, what do you see?”

“That’s an interesting question,” Blacktail considered this while the prey did horrible things to his leg. “This is just me, mind you, but when I think of the Forest God, I imagine him in a wild place. He would be somewhere the hand of man has not touched. Perhaps a place where men still fear to go.” He looked at the Hider, not quite pleading. “Is there even anywhere like that left in this world?”

The Hider thought for a while. “Perhaps. But is would be very far from here. So far south it would be not a forest but a jungle. There are many men, many roads and Cars on the path to this place. My Lord Hunter is brave.”

“The Old Kitty Mother said the same thing.” Something in his leg snapped. Blacktail winced. “I think I’m starting to believe it.”

The Hider took a quick peek, then smiled. “Don’t bite. The prey is finished soon, I think. Leg will heal.”

“I won’t bite.”

The Hider rambled on. Blacktail thought it was mostly a distraction, but he didn’t mind. “What does my Lord Hunter think the Forest God will do? If you find Him? Wake Him?”

Blacktail surprised himself with the truth. “Probably nothing,” he said. “He has slept long. I think it may take more than the woes of one wolf to rouse him. But if he does…” Blacktail trailed off, considering. After a breath or two his lip curled up—not quite a snarl, but close. “Or perhaps he will gobble me up to punish my impudence.” He paused, then winced at another crackle from his nether regions. “Or perhaps he will grant me an audience.”

“What then?”

“If the Forest God listens to me, he will rise up. He will awaken from his long sleep and go out into the world. Then. Well. Then men will learn what it is to be the hunted. All men.”

“Do you think?”

“No. Not really. But it can’t hurt to hope.”

“Is the Forest God so powerful?” the Hider asked, awed. “To kill all of men?”

“Possibly? I grew up on a rock up north of here. We’ve got chipmunks, bear, caribou, mouse…like that. But we don’t get many Gods up there. The Old Kitty Mother—you’ve heard of her, right? From the mice, or whoever?”

“Yes.”

“She seems to think it’s possible. And she strikes me as a clever one.” Another crunch. Blacktail winced. “So…maybe. And it’s not like I’ve got much else going on.”

The Hider smiled. It was sweet and genuine, like a puppy. It lit up his face. “That…that is a glorious thing.” His expression was wide-eyed adoration—worship, even. It was the first time another creature looked at him that way. Blacktail always remembered it.