The Wolf Folk Series: The Rebuilding Of A World

It took Tosco out of circulation for a week, but it was time well spent, he gained two sons whose loyalty was beyond question. They both had brilliant minds and would become fierce warriors, both would rise to be Warrior Commanders! Time passed by quickly and the seasons changed in their regularity. Jason Tosco Tate and Carl Tosco Tate graduated with honors and went on to do their graduate work. Carl had developed a food-bearing plant, by breeding several weeds together that could survive drought and harsh climate and still produce fruits that could sustain a human or a wolf with enough nutrition to thrive. Jason's work in soil chemistry brought him a Nobel Prize and international recognition when he developed a simple treatment that would restore worn-out lands and make the land fertile and productive again. That they were both of the Wolf-Folk would become important in the near future as the Business Cartels sought to reassert their dominance within the American Government.

After the scientific community had heaped accolades on Carl and Jason Tate, many companies tried to tempt them to work for them. They turned down every offer and refused to divulge their current employer.

The business interests would have been very surprised had they known the two young men were employed by Wolf Farms, Inc.

They traveled all over North and South America and made several trips to Korea to assist the Clans there in reclaiming their lands.

Wherever they went, they were accompanied by Warrior Master Feld. Most folks thought that Warrior Feld was their field assistant and, many times, he was just that.

They did not see the Combat Platoon of Warrior Wolves standing around as spectators. In fact, Carl and Jason did not recognize them despite the fact that they were wolf-folk themselves until the Wolf Warriors were kicking butts and taking names!

They were in lower Mississippi, working with the local Family of Wolves to reclaim their fields made barren by centuries of over-planting and harsh chemical fertilizers.

Many of the local farms had been taken out of food production and, already, local shortages were taking place. As the huge machine they had developed, chomped through the worn out soil, pulverizing the lumps of clay and mixing it with Jason's biologic "soup", the soil was noticeably different.

The local Farm Manager gathered up a handful of the reclaimed soil and sniffed it. He said, "Great Lord of Wolves, Above Us All, that soil smells sweet and fertile as anything I have ever seen!"

Carl said, "Yes sir, and you just watch when we plant it with our new crops, you will need to stand back so that you don't get tangled in the vines!" Both he and Jason knew then that the farm manager was wolf like themselves.

About that time, a large group of men emerged from the nearby drainage canal and raced towards the two young men.

Warrior Commander Feld had been watching over his charges, while pretending to be a field hand. The second the intruders appeared over the bank of the old canal, he was mind calling his troops.

The intruders never got anywhere near Carl and Jason, in seconds they had all their knowledge stripped from their minds and they were dead. All that remained of them was a pile of unidentifiable body parts!

Carl and Jason sat down in the dirt, stunned at what had just taken place.

Warrior Master Feld casually walked over to where the two young men were sitting and said to them out loud, "Carl, Jason, when I said the business cartels were not going to get you, I meant just that. If we have to crush every member of their organization, so be it. They cannot have you and they will not succeed, no matter how hard they try!"

He continued, "What you are offering our Folk and those of the Human Kind is far too important to allow some greedy individuals to make it their own private domain!"

Carl stood and asked the elderly Wolf Warrior, "Sir, will you train us as warriors? We need to be able to protect ourselves, even though we now know you and your wolves will always be nearby."

The request pleased Warrior Feld immensely and he replied, "Of course I will train you, as soon as we return to Greystone, we will begin."

So it was that the two newly made Wolf Warriors began trodding a path that would eventually take them to commanding Wolf Folk Warriors of unimaginable power and strength.

They continued their work in the southern states, reclaiming the land and placing it back in production.

The new varieties of fruits and vegetables developed by Carl were an instant success in markets and food stores and farmers, both wolf folk and human kind farmers and growers were beating a path to The Earth Sciences Laboratories the two young men had founded in Cashiers, North Carolina.

With their adopted father's help, they had over two hundred wolves employed in the production of chemical packs and seeds that they sold at cost to any farmer, Human OR Wolf, wishing to improve his farms.

After several attempts at sabotage, Warrior Master Feld permanently assigned two squads of Wolf Warriors to protect the Laboratory and Research Center.

Carl and Jason had already realized exactly what their friend Warrior Feld was and what he was doing. Instead of being unhappy over the situation, they trained harder to become Wolf Warriors themselves.

The presence of the Wolf Warriors was beginning to be noticed by the humans they were protecting and a few were concerned about having a wolf nearby.

Most, however, had grown comfortable with their presence and, when they learned that those of the Wolf Folk were not the creatures of old tales told to scare small children, they were more interested in learning about them than being frightened of them.

While the Wolf Folk did not advertise anything about themselves, if a human asked them directly if they were wolf, they would not lie, many of their kind were outted to their Human Cousins by a simple question, "Are you a Wolf?"

After ten thousand years of hidden isolation, the Wolf Folk were beginning to be recognized by Human Kind and accepted as friends and equals.

Those of the Business Cartels were furious and they began a "newspaper" campaign accusing the Wolf Folk of heinous crimes, rape, murder, larceny, theft and attempting to push "decent" humans off their own planet! They went so far as to accuse the Wolf Folk of raising Human Children as food!

Warrior Commander Feld had been working with Carl and Jason since the death of Carl's Grandfather and the young men were as brilliant in their military lessons as they were in academics. He recommended to Lord Tosco that they be promoted to Warrior Leaders and assigned a squad for each of them to lead.

The promotion came as a complete surprise to both of them and, when they were told they were to choose their own squads, they were completely flummoxed!

It took them a week to be convinced they really WERE Warrior Leaders and another week to choose their nine wolves for each of their personal squads.

The first thing they did after choosing their squads was to hold a barbeque for their newly assigned warriors, including their mates and offspring.

They invited Shirley's little son, Kevin, to the festivities as they knew there would be other wolf boys about his age. The little wolf boy showed up at their apartment at the crack of dawn on the appointed day.

He fidgeted and hoped first one foot, then the other, unable to decide whether to knock on the door or go back home and wait.

Carl detected Kevin's mind just outside the door, the child was radiating anxiety and indecision like a radio broadcast. Carl went to the door to rescue the child and set a place for him at the table for breakfast.

They both knew he had eaten at home, but, he was a growing boy and he needed fuel to become a "big boy". They could not know then, that that little wolf boy would become one of the biggest wolf warriors of all time.

It was not long before there was knock on the door and Shirley had come looking for Kevin. The child waved gaily at his mother as he was shoveling breakfast cereal into his mouth.

Jason and Carl both assured the anxious mother that Kevin was just fine and welcome anytime.

From that time on, it was a tossup where she would find her son, if he wasn't home, she knew he was with Uncle Carl and Uncle Jason and soon, Kevin started calling them his Uncles to their face!

They loved the little child as if he were their own and, in the process, threatened to spoil him rotten! It was a wonder the child did not become a monster, but he had a mind on the level of his two new Uncles and would follow them in their footsteps.

The outing was a great success; the children organized a ball game, led naturally by Little Kevin, while their parents gorged themselves on good old American Barbequed Brisket and hamburgers.

Many of the Wolf-Folk had never tasted southern barbeque and they were hooked at the first bite! By the end of the day, they had two Warrior Squads completely devoted to them and their mates as well!

Unknown to anyone, Lord High Alpha Jeremiah was watching the proceedings and he was greatly pleased, he had great plans for both Carl and Jason and they were coming along better than he had ever hoped they would!

He decided that he had better start watching Kevin also, he detected a mind more powerful than any he had encountered before! The only mind that even came close was that of Luca!

Jason and Carl considered themselves to be brothers as well as mates and they never went, one without the other. That they were always followed by their "staff" never seemed to register with the Cartel.

They were in the cornfields of Nebraska, showing the farmers there about their soil processing machine and how to apply the soil restoration packs.

It was the spring of the year and the weather was delightful. As the soil came out the back of the processor as it worked its way across the field, the farmers were amazed at the way it crumbled instead of the terrible clods and chunks of clay they were used to.

They crowded around the discharge chute, running the flowing soil through their fingers and smelling its sweet aroma.

One farmer exclaimed, "Sweet God Almighty, we haven't seen soil like this since my Great Grandfather was a tyke!"

Carl told the group, "Why not try our new blend of seed, you will be surprised at how much corn it will produce per acre!"

One farmer asked, "Is this seed available at the Co-Op?"

Carl replied, "Sadly, no. They have refused to carry our products, but we can promise overnight delivery of our planting seed from our plant in Cashiers, North Carolina."

Another farmer asked, "How much will it cost us per acre to use your seed?"

Carl replied, "If you plant the seed at the recommended rate, it will cost about $250 an acre. You must know that the seed is a hybrid and the corn you produce cannot be used for seed the next year."

The farmer laughed and replied, "Hell, that ain't no different than any other seed and a damned sight cheaper! I'm gonna go with you guys on this an' see how it goes!" Most of the farmers were nodding their heads and none spotted the two men who were sneaking off to get in their trucks.

None, that is, other than Warrior Master Feld.

About half the farmers signed up and Carl was happy that someone thought his playing around with the genetic code of several wild grasses had real value. The big payoff came later that summer when the yield of the treated soil with the hybrid corn was double that of those farmers who had elected to farm as they always had.

The Cartel waged a war of words that the corn was dangerous, would poison those who ate it and it was the work of the devil. The Cartel hired men to pose as fiery preachers and evangelists to rant and rave against the new corn.

They were a bit too late in their campaign, the hybrid corn had already been on the market for several months at prices the farmers who had stayed with the old ways, could not compete. The yields were twice that of the "old" corn" and it stored better and remained fresh in the markets longer.

The market price of corn dropped and the demand doubled! Best of all, the insects and borer grubs ignored the new corn, they did not recognize it as their traditional food!

By the second year, the plant in Cashiers had to be doubled in size and the two Wolf Entrepreneurs needed to establish their own fleet of trucks to deliver the seed to the farmers.

They built a fleet of soil treatment machines, they did not sell those as the technology was their secret and they didn't want the Cartel to copy it. No one noticed, however, as everyone assumed that the secret was in the biology of the treatment and not the machines.

The Cartel managed to steal a few samples of the soil treatment packs and analyzed them. One of their chemists complained, "Hell, this stuff is no more complicated than mouthwash, go get us some of the real chemicals those wonder boys are peddling."

Jason's next development was a modification to his soil renewal machine so that it could be used in orchards and vineyards. Once it was perfected, the two again took to the countryside, showing farmers how to increase their yields of those crops.

By the third year, the Cartel was running scared, they had to stop these kids from ruining their monopoly on the food supply in both America and in Europe.

The Cartel mounted a campaign in churches and purchased billboard space denouncing the new plants and soil process as works of the devil; that was poisoning the people who ate the products of the treated fields and orchards.

Their campaign was a failure before it ever got started, why would a housewife purchase a puny tomato that was sour and had almost no juice, when she could purchase another tomato at half the price that was huge and juicy?

By now, the seed companies were seeing an opportunity in cooperation with Wolf Biologics Company and they cooperated with Jason and Carl in developing plants that would take advantage of the refreshed soil the farmers were using.

The price of fresh vegetables and fruits began falling as farmers were producing two and three times the tonnage they once brought to market.

The benefits continued to "trickle down," meat producers found their feed costs dropping and those that had their backs against the fence, found their profits rising and production began to outpace demand until they lowered their prices.

The Business Cartel finally had enough, they had to put these two upstarts out of business, otherwise, they were going to be out of business themselves.

The hired thugs had observed the two traveled often with a young teen boy, so they hatched a plan to kidnap the youngster and hold him until the two agreed to raise their prices and strangle the farmers.

They were out in California, demonstrating their process to the grape growers and winery operators. They had invited young Kevin to come with them, promising to take him to the attractions in the southern part of that state. The teen was ecstatic, he was gonna go to Disneyland and Marine World!

They were all in the great Central Valley of California, demonstrating their process to farmers around Stockton. Kevin was to one side, he had discovered some sweet grapes and he was eating them as fast as he could pluck them off the vine.

They heard the boy's mental shriek as cartel agents were stuffing him in a car and racing off with him.

Carl and Jason's anger was monumental and the farmers attending the demonstration cringed in horror as two wolves, weighing in at nearly a thousand pounds each, suddenly appeared in their midst and started chasing the fleeing automobile.

Their fear increased when a whole squad of the awful beasts appeared and followed the two wolves racing cross country after the speeding automobile.

Most had heard of the Wolf-Folk, but few had actually witnessed them. To suddenly find them in their midst was a terrible shock.

Carl and Jason began to lose the trail and they mentally screamed out their frustration, when they heard in their minds, "I am Lord Alpha James Butler of the Inland Empire Clan, how may I assist thee?"

Jason replied, "We are Jason and Carl, sons of Lord Alpha Tosco of the Southeastern Clan, Grandsons of Lord High Alpha Jeremiah. A carload of fiends have kidnapped our ward and we have lost them. They appeared to be headed for Sacramento."

The reply was almost instantaneous, "GREAT PRINCES OF OUR KIND, I AND ALL MY FOLK ARE AT YOUR DISPOSAL. WE COME TO JOIN YOUR HUNT FOR YOUR WARD, WAIT FOR US, WE ARE ON OUR WAY TO THEE!"

Within minutes, a dozen carloads of Wolf-Folk arrived and began their change. Some were better trackers than others and they quickly picked up the scent and led a pack of wolves hot on the chase.

The on-looking farmers stood there, mouths hanging open. They had never thought there that many of the Wolf-Folk living among them.

The chase took them to a small town located deep in the delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. They arrived just after dark and quietly surrounded the small house.

Carl scanned the building and located young Kevin. He sent to the teen, "Kevin, we are here, just outside this house. Stand away from the doorway or any windows, we are about to attack!"

Kevin replied, "They have not hurt me, Uncle Carl, they are kinda funny in a stupid way. They have no idea what they are doing or who they are dealing with, they are just waiting for their "Big Boss" to get here."

They decided to wait for the arrival of the "Big Boss" and Kevin agreed to remain quiet and to not irritate his captors.

Twenty minutes later, a huge SUV arrived and a tall man got out, flanked by ten other men, obviously the man's bodyguards. They were all armed and a man on the inside of the house opened the door and invited the newcomers to enter.

When Carl and Jason had heard enough, twenty angry wolves, led by two enormous wolves of legendary size crashed into the small building. A glaring wolf, his eyes an angry red and his fangs dripping saliva, stood before "the big man" their eyes at an unequal level, Jason and Carl, both stood head and shoulders taller than the man, while standing in their Wolf with all four feet on the floor!

The man promptly lost control of his bladder as Jason ripped all information from his mind in a brutal mind rape. As soon as he had all the information he wanted, he let the man drop to the floor, gibbering like a caged animal.

The next day, when the local authorities had been called by concerned neighbors that there was something strange going on in the house next door, they discovered a cringing man, babbling about monsters with red eyes. All around him were dead men, their throats torn out and their faces in a grim rictus of fright.

It was a crime that was never solved.

Kevin was happily ensconced between his two "Uncles" at the local Wolf Clan's headquarters, where they were being treated to a huge meal that only a growing teen could enjoy. Carl and Jason watched as Kevin put down a major part of a cow in the form of grilled hamburgers.

As they watched, they saw a wolf form glimmer in and out of the young boy. Carl sent to Jason, "Lord of Wolves, Above Us All, Kevin is nearly ready for his first change, we need to get him home to his parents right away!"

The Red Wolf was sitting at the airport in Stockton, a few miles south from where they were. They explained to their host, Clan Alpha James Butler and he agreed to arrange an escort to the Stockton Airport. He was the Chief Deputy Sheriff of the local county and six of his wolves who were already present, were also Deputies.

Within minutes, they were back in a large car, surrounded by patrol cars with red lights flashing and the sirens growling as they raced for the airport.

Uncle Paul Tate was commanding the huge aircraft and he had the engines warming up as the convoy came screeching into the business part of the airport.

They passed through security, after thanking the Local Lord Alpha for his assistance. Lord Alpha Butler bowed deeply to the two Princes, Sons and Grandsons to the most famous and most powerful wolves of their kind on the planet!

Chief Wolf Pilot Paul Tate started the huge aircraft rolling the second he had instrument confirmation that the doors were closed. The tower had cleared the runway and the Red Wolf leaped into the air at maximum thrust, its jet engines screaming in protest.

Paul had radioed ahead and they were met by a military escort as they crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains as the formation screamed its way east to Charlotte International Airport, several hours away. The planes' turbines were glowing red hot in their effort to get the boy to his parents before he made his first change!

As the plane began its descent into Charlotte, Paul "waggled" the wings of the aircraft in thanks to the Air Force pilots who had accompanied them and set the huge aircraft down on the runway.

The engines would require replacing before the Red Wolf was safe to fly again!

As they taxied up to their private hanger, they saw Lord Alpha Tosco, and Shirley and David Dennison, Kevin's parents standing there, waiting for them.

As Paul cut the engines, Kevin screamed and shouted, "iiIiIi feeeel funny!" Carl stuck his head through the open access door and mind screamed for Shirley and David to get in there, NOW!

As they entered the cabin of the aircraft, they saw their son being held in Jason's arms as he made his first change to a wolf! His parents held each other as they watched their only child change to a huge red wolf. Red was the traditional color for a ROYAL WOLF!

The wolf stood and walked, a little shaky, over to Shirley and nuzzled her hand as he sent, "Momma, I am complete now."

He bowed down to his father in homage before returning to Carl and Jason. He sent, "Uncle Jason, Uncle Carl, please help me to change back so we can go home."

They held the enormous young wolf as he struggled to bring forth his human, he finally emerged a fully grown teen with a shock of alarming red hair!

He went over and knelt before his parents, "My Father and Mother, you gave me life and sustained me so that I could grow. To you I owe obedience, love and loyalty now and forever, but know, that I am destined to protect the Lords Prince Carl and Jason Tate for so long as we shall live, giving my life, if need be, in their service."

The teen walked over to Carl and Jason and knelt before them, "Lords Prince Tate, COMMAND ME."

Tosco and Jeremiah had been attracted by the commotion and were standing in the doorway of the Red Wolf, watching a New Red Wolf and all that took place.

They had known that Carl and Jason were special, but they had never realized they were THAT special. They looked at the pair and the young Wolf Warrior standing beside them with a new recognition and understanding of the direction their race was embarking upon.

These were the new generation of their kind, no longer would they need to hide in the shadows and it would be wolves like these three that would lift them to new heights upon the planet of their birth.

As Carl and Jason transform the food supply for them all, Young Wolf Warrior Kevin will build a coterie of Wolves to surround his Uncles and form the nucleus of their Warrior Command. The food produced by the new seed and soil treatment would save the world from mass starvation!