The Collector Series: The Wanderer

It took many mothers a while to learn the new eating habits of their families and fathers were amazed that they had to look up to meet the eyes of their sons. Over the next several years, the population of wolves and humans greatly increased, Gar was hard-pressed to hold school and had to delegate other wolves to assist him in the other villages. With adequate food, the younglings of both races, human and wolf, outgrew their parents and both were seen acquiring more powerful mental skills. There were no problems with the Great Felines during that time, what Ton, Jan and Zac had done to them had thoroughly frightened them. But, it was not to last, the Great Felines thirsted for revenge and they plotted and planned while licking their wounds in the deep canyons of the surrounding mountains.

There was a steady influx of settlers trekking over the mountains from the old village and the increased birthrate of the two races was creating a space problem in all three villages. There were wolf pups and human toddlers everywhere one looked.

It was becoming apparent that a fourth village would have to be established. It was fortunate the land was so fertile, otherwise, the increased population could not be fed.

It was not unusual for a learning class to contain fifty or more younglings, and yet, those younglings who played ball with such energy, sat patiently all through class, asking intelligent questions and giving answers asked of them that amazed their instructors. The students pressed their instructors for more, faster and, at the close of the day, those instructors breathed a sigh of relief that they had survived another day.

A few human and wolf younglings, a very few, demonstrated that they had inherited the Werewolf gene and fewer still were demonstrating Vampire traits. Although there were a few very frightened parents, those who had inherited these genes learned to control their new powers and they looked to Ton and Cal as their leaders.

The wolf younglings, Mot and Len, were of the new "breed" of wolves, those born to a sire and dam who both had been raised in the new land. As pups, the two demonstrated a surprising array of mental powers and now they were fast approaching adulthood. They had developed a following of young wolves who were also demonstrating powers not previously known among their kind. When they all got together, the very air above them crackled with stray energy.

Their love for the pups of both races was amply demonstrated, a frightened wolf pup or a crying human child was never left to his or her own misery very long, that a member of "The Gang" would arrive on the spot to ease the pup's terror.

The members of "the new breed" of wolves took it as their duty to care for the young of both races and, more than a few human babies suckled a mother's milk alongside his or her wolf brothers and sisters.

As they grew older, all those of "the new breed" were identified as being WereWolves!

Young mothers, harried by a large litter or several human pups, always found a member of The Gang on hand to help. A lost pup brought out the whole gang to go in search until the pup had been restored to its family.

Should there be a danger from a serpent, the Gang would call for their older brothers and sisters to kill the beast. On the rare occasions that a truly impossible danger presented itself, the young wolves discovered the "BEAST" was still among them.

They were never told who those who contained that BEAST were, but they all knew who and what they were. They kept their secret, even when the gene was passed on to their own pups.

The few older pups, human OR wolf, who thought to try their hand at bullying the other younglings, quickly changed their minds after a visit with a member of The Gang and the very mention of the BEAST was enough to send the bully running for a place to hide. The Vampires, however, were always from the males of the humankind, but he, also, was a "BEAST".

Ton and Jan saw this developing in their village and decided to just watch and see how it played out. They never had to step in, The Gang never became the bullies they were policing and that was the idea that came to their minds.

Ton and Jan went to speak with Wander and he agreed, they had a need for a "police" function. They had no crime among themselves, but there was always a lost pup, a mother who needed assistance, the chance of a home catching fire or a wild animal roaming the village. The fear of another Great Feline attack was also always in the back of their minds.

So it was that the Wolf Patrol was organized under the direction of brothers Mot and Len, whose "Beast" was just making himself known to them. They appointed Village Captains and sufficient young wolves volunteered in each village so that there would be two young wolves on patrol during the day and throughout darkfall.

All the patrols were powerful mind-speakers and they could call for assistance or rouse the villagers instantly, if need be. The young wolves took their duties seriously and all the villagers felt a bit safer that there were "eyes" always watching.

All members of the Wolf Patrol shared the secret of the BEAST and they sometimes felt him watching them. They knew that, if they were in over their heads, the BEAST would assist them. That their own BEASTS, Mot and Jen, led them made them all both proud and feeling safe.

It was not long before the new Police Guards proved their worth, a spark caught in the thatch on a roof and flames began to shoot up in the middle of the darkfall. An alert watcher spotted the blaze and roused the family in time for them to all get out of the house. His partner roused the village headman and help came immediately to put out the fire before the entire home was destroyed.

If there had been any doubters before that, there were none by the next day and it was decided to increase the watchers to three during darkfall. It was a decision that was to save many lives in the not-too-distant future.

The influx of newcomers and the increase in the population forced the villagers to consider adding yet another village as even Peace Village was bursting at its seams.

The headmen of Harmony, Paradise and Peace villages formed a council to tend to the affairs of the villages. The first thing they did was designate a fourth village to be named Happiness and invited folk from the other three villages to move to Happiness and get it started.

Like the other villages, the land around Happiness was extremely fertile and, after they had burned out a few of the carnivorous vines, the new village was perfectly safe. The younglings from among the humans of the other three villages prepared the fields and got them planted before any villagers actually moved in.

When humans and their wolf companions started to move into the new homes that had been built, there were grains nearly ripe and root and melon vegetables were ready to be harvested. By the time the next cold time arrived, there were nearly one hundred humans living in Happiness and that many, or more wolves.

During that cold time, on quiet darkfalls, the folk in Happiness were sure they could hear the yowls of far-off Great Felines. At the request of the villagers, the Council increased the Police Guard to four wolves on patrol at darkfall and three during the day.

There were no "naysayers", all the folk, humans and wolves knew and feared the Great Felines. If they were becoming bold enough to allow themselves to be heard, they knew it was only a matter of time until they felt themselves strong enough to attack the villages again.

Some of the villagers in Happiness spotted a grain growing in the standing water of a nearby pond. They carefully collected the grains as they ripened and dried them in the sun.

They found the water grains to be delicious when added to their soups and stews, so they collected several baskets of the new grains and stored them away to be planted in the marshy areas of the pond the next warm time arrived. It would prove to be an important grain crop and, when trade began, it would be a popular trade item of great value.

Towards the end of the warm time, a group of humans and wolves straggled in, they were starving and it was obvious they had come a long distance. They told of crossing the mountains in the direction of the darkfall sun, and of terrible hardships crossing the high mountains, of ice and snow blocking their way and the carnivorous vines attacking them. They shivered in fear at every loud noise and were seen at darkfall, huddled together for protection.

The newcomers' folk had lived in narrow mountain valleys, where food was always in short supply. Their younglings, both wolf and human were gaunt and undernourished. They were short of stature and unable to do a full day's labor in the fields.

From the moment they arrived at Harmony, human mothers were digging in their supplies for food to feed the newcomers. Mother wolves sent their younglings out to hunt rabbits and other game to feed the hungry wolves and humankind.

Leaders of both races of newcomers were amazed at the generosity being shown them and, when they were shown new homes, ready for occupancy, the newcomers sat on the dirt and cried.

They had expected to be forced to fend for themselves or even be made slaves to the people already living there. The wolf kind had thought they would be treated as pariahs, but, instead, they were made welcome and given a place to live that was warm and dry.

It took them many days before they finally understood that the new homes, the food, the planted fields and the clothes were given them were theirs to keep. A few of the older wolves from among the newcomers had bewildered looks on their faces as their own pups and younglings led them to their new homes.

By the coming of the cold time, there were over a thousand humans and at least that number of wolves living in the four villages, all looked well-fed or were fast becoming that way.

The younglings of both races of the newcomers were experiencing a growth spurt and sons were beginning to tower over their own sires. Vampires and Werewolves began to emerge from among the newcomers. While Vampires could only come from the human males, werewolves were from both sexes of the wolf race.

There was a friendly rivalry developing between the human younglings of each village, they competed against each other in athletic games, some of which came down to them from the Before People. Hit Ball and Carry Ball were favorites of the human youngling boys and each village had their own team. The wolflings would act as outfielders and retrieve a ball that had gone errant.

As the days began to cool off towards cold time the youngling boys got their carry balls out and started issuing challenges. The human younglings ran and pushed against each other, trying to take control of the ball during a furious Carry Ball Game, the younglings who played Hit Ball had carved their own clubs and the small balls would go sailing over the rooftops, the wolfling outfielders in hot pursuit.

When it finally became too cold to play, no definite winner had emerged and challenges were issued to resume the games as soon as the next warm time arrived. The players would spend their cold times in friendly bragging to their competitors about how they were going to wash them out of the game.

The cold time in this new land was less severe than had been experienced by the newcomers in the lands of their birth. The snow seldom covered the ground for more than a day or two and the streams never froze solid.

While homebound, the men occupied their time making new spears and throwing sticks and the mothers were kept busy making new clothes for their younglings, who seemed to grow out of their clothing at an alarming rate!

School was held on two half-days each five days and the rest of the time, the younglings were left to their own devices.

The human younglings, thinking to copy their sires, formed a Junior Patrol in each village. They were soon joined by youngling wolves and they elected their own leaders. They held a brief meeting each five day to discuss matters that concerned them.

Each village fielded four or five Junior Patrol Groups and they augmented their sires and older brothers in protecting their village. Many of the younglings were able to span their minds much further than either of their parents and, sometimes their mental energy left a purple haze over each village.

Their sires began passing information on to them about the growing concern over the Great Felines and the Junior Patrols decided to form a Feline Watch. They selected the most powerful far speakers among them and they would press their minds out as far as they could in the search for the Great Felines.

They were successful, their young minds were either more powerful than those of their parents or, perhaps, more resilient. In either case, they made contact with their hated enemy and the searchers were certain the Great Felines were moving closer each time they made contact with them!

The Great Felines did not have the power to shield their minds, so, to the Wolves and Humankind, reading them was like storytelling around the campfire!

Their reports to their elders caused great concern and the Council of Headmen and Pack Leaders ordered that stocks of weapons be made and placed at convenient locations around each village and a young far-speaker was assigned to each adult patrol.

They prepared, but no attack came, most humans and wolves knew the danger was real and they did not relax their vigilance, however, a few argued that the Great Felines had forgotten about them after all this time and they went about their business, neglecting the weapons stores and training. They would soon learn, to their horror, just how wrong they were!

The warm time arrived and planted fields turned green. Rows of vegetables were eagerly watched for ripening. The Junior Patrols sponsored a mid-warm time festival, there were games for the younglings and food and dancing for the adults. All were invited and more than a few young wolf couples were seen standing nose to nose, swaying in time with the music!

There were games of Hit Ball and Carry Ball among the human younglings and the wolf youngling showed their prowess by leaps and races. The younglings of both races held mock battles and everyone had a grand time. There was a feast that evening and everyone stuffed themselves with the produce of their farms.

Everyone was a bit groggy the next morning when the Junior Patrol in Happiness Village sent out a mind-screech, "THE FELINES, THE GREAT FELINES ARE ATTACKING!"

The wolf and human younglings raced to Happiness Village, there were thirty Great Felines dragging humans from their homes, mothers and children screaming and the menfolk trying to locate their weapons.

Members of the Junior Patrol fell upon the Great Felines with a ferocity seldom seen among the younglings of either race. They hacked and clawed, bit and stabbed at the Great Felines, holding them to the outskirts of the village.

Some of their strongest mind-speakers found they could befuddle the felines' minds and they began to apply all the power they were capable of to the shorting out of the feline's thought processes.

By the time the adult humans and wolves arrived, the Junior Patrol was holding the line, they had completely stopped the advance of the hated felines. Not a single Great Feline survived the attack and the leaders of the Junior Patrol insisted they back-track the felines and wipe out their colony, once and for all time.

The adults were not so sure, but the strength of the younglings' arguments carried great weight and an attack force was assembled. The Junior Patrol insisted they be included and they formed three platoons, led by their own leaders and they waited around, somewhat impatiently, while the adults made ready to carry the war to the homeland of the Great felines.

Already, many of the younglings were showing the signs of "The Beast" within them. Human boys were unable to hide their new fangs and red eyes. Nearly all the young wolves showed Werewolves phasing in and out.

Overall Command of the Army was given to Wander and Gar and they set out for the homeland of the Great Felines with the mind-speakers of the Junior Patrol leading the way. They had already demonstrated their prowess in tracking and tracing the Great Felines and the adults were willing to follow them.

It took them two darkfalls to reach the eastern mountains with the Junior Patrol mind-speakers pointing the direction. The Junior Patrol mind-speakers had set a cloaking of mind-fog over their party so the felines would get no prior warning they were coming.

The war party worked their way up the narrow gorges of the rugged mountains, their goal showing in the minds of the Junior Patrol members like a great fire. At every step, their anger increased, the dead and injured they had left behind prodded at their souls like a sharp stick.

They finally reached the heights above the feline encampment and what they saw, looking down on the encampment, made their blood boil. There were humans and wolves being held in cages of thorn bushes and being tormented!

While the felines could see very well in the darkfall, much like their ancestors, they were essentially diurnal, more like the wolves and humans. The humans and wolves pulled back and waited for the felines to finish their day and bed down for the darkfall.

The screams of the humans and wolves being tormented in the canyon below them made it impossible for anyone to get any rest. By the time it was fully dark, the humans and wolves were overflowing in their anger. When Wander gave the word, they came boiling down the ravines like liquid lava, destroying anything and everything in their path.

Had the felines the time to look carefully at their attackers, they would have seen a nimbus of energy around each of the humans' and wolves' heads! By the time the attackers had made a second sweep through the masses of felines, there were no survivors, save three small kits that none had the heart to destroy.

Members of the Junior Patrol swept up the three kits and promised to raise them in love and care. Hopefully, they would not inherit their parents' savage instincts. Later developments would prove them right, the kits were the beginning of a new race of great felines, closely aligned with the humans and wolves.

Unlike the wolves and the humans, however, the Great Felines were single-soul creatures, there were no Beasts hidden within them.

The victors returned to their villages, footsore and mentally wrung out, they had nearly wiped out a race of thinking beings from a world almost empty of intelligent life.

The death of the Great Felines, despite what they had done, weighed like a heavy stone on their hearts. They felt it a great crime to destroy a whole race of intelligent beings.

Three human younglings, Mor, Soo and Lin each took one of the feline kits and raised them. At first, the wolves were wary of the small felines and the humans feared them, however, as time went by, the kits displayed none of the ferocious characteristics of their parents. They were always ready to play and they became fast friends with several of the wolf pups who were always around.

What sealed their relationship was when they and several wolf pups were playing near the trees that shaded the pond. The humans came running when they heard the pups and kits squealing in terror. They found the largest kit, a male they had named Pol, battling a carnivorous vine that, somehow, had escaped detection.

A tiny wolf pup was being dragged by the vines to its eating orifice and Pol was frantically chewing the vines holding the little pup. There were a number of chewed-off vines already and the little feline was giving the battle all he was worth as Tia and Zana, the little female feline kits, were pulling on the pup, trying to free him from the vines.

Gor, a Junior Patrol Leader stepped in and sliced the vines with his axe and then proceeded to chop the root out, destroying the noxious plant. Pol picked up the wolf kit by the nap of his neck and gently brought him back to his dam, Zia.

Zia was an older wolf and likely, Little Mac would be her last whelp, he was an only pup. Mac looked at Pol with adoring eyes, they would be close as brothers for the many years of their lives and, both Tia and Zana were made welcome among the wolves.

That ended what enmity that remained against the feline kits and, in later years, despite their great size, they remained favorites of the wolf pups. It would not be unusual to see the huge feline, Pol, stretched out in the shade and a dozen little wolf pups snuggled up against him, all asleep.

Pol could be depended upon to watch both kits and pups and protect them from any danger. He was soon sharing the responsibility for guarding the village with the wolves as an equal partner and it was proven the Great Felines were victims of their own environment.

Times were good for the human villages and their wolves, the crops were abundant and, with the demise of the wild Great Felines, there were few things that were dangerous to their people. There were human babies, wolf puppies and a few feline kits around the villages, all looking well-fed and content.

Pol had taken to resting on a tree limb high above his village, Harmony. From there, he could see a long distance in all directions. Mac would lie at the base of the tree trunk, both had grown to huge sizes, and they were easily the largest of their kind. The tree could not support both of them at the same time.

They both had selected Don and his mate, Lia, as their human companions. Don and Lia had recently had a pup born to them and it was a toss-up between Mac and Pol, who was the most possessive of the tiny human pup.

As time went by, both were subject to being ridden like a burden beast, their hair pulled, their ears yanked and their tails used for a pulling rope! Neither would even scold the child, but he stopped when he discovered he was hurting his closest friends.

The human pup grew fast and, as a youngling, he was always accompanied by his two huge protectors. His parents had named him Tol and, from an early age, he demonstrated a superior intelligence and a powerful mind. The villagers were finally able to stop cringing when the pup outgrew his childhood temper tantrums. He possessed a mind so powerful, he occasionally broke clay dishes in his mental outbursts.

There was no question in anyone's mind that the young human child was Vampire and the tell-tale signs began to appear by his fifth year. First, his eyes would go uncontrollably red and, a year later, tiny, immature fangs appeared.

From an early age, Tol was a leader among his age group and, backed up by his huge protectors, Pol and Mac, he could have become a dangerous bully, but he did not have it in him to be even a minor bully.

Tol was a caring young human and watched after those smaller than himself with the indulgence of a parent. He was never too busy to help a smaller child, rescue one that was lost or comfort a stubbed toe or a bruised arm.

It was a lazy warm time afternoon and the three friends were snoozing in the warm sunshine. Mac and Tol were lying at the base of the tree with Tol's head resting on Mac's shoulder. Pol was stretched out on his favorite tree limb, looking off in the distance through half-closed eyes.

Suddenly, movement on the horizon caught his attention and his eyes flew open. All three of their minds were connected on a subconscious level and both Mac and Tol stood up to get a better look at what Pol had seen.

Tol remembered Wander and Gar had told him of a thing they called a wagon and they had described it as a box with wheels to roll it on the ground. Rather than carry the load on their backs, men could carry large loads in these things called wagons.

As it got a little closer, they could see that it was a burden beast pulling a box-like thing on wheels and there was a human adult with two human younglings walking alongside the contraption.

Pol told Tol to run to get the Headman, there were strangers approaching. He had decided the thing was, indeed, a wagon.

The Headman of Harmony Village, Turk, came running and the group waited for the strange group to arrive. The human adult led the burden beast into the shade of the tree and sent to Turk, "I am Gos and I have things in this wagon you might be interested in."

Gos laid out a cloth on the ground and proceeded to place metal objects, wooden spears, small dishes of seeds and many other objects they could not identify, for their inspection. He introduced the two younglings as his children, Bar and Lana and told the onlookers that he and the children would answer any questions the villagers had.

News traveled quickly, within a few minutes, there was a large crowd from all the villages looking at the wares that Gos had displayed before them. He nearly had a riot when he demonstrated tiny metal needles made of steel, to be used in sewing, every woman in the villages wanted at least one! They had clumsy bone needles that frequently damaged the cloth they were trying to sew.

The men were interested in the seeds he was displaying and many of the men traded their prized metal knives for a cup of seeds.

The most popular seeds were some he called Kern. He described the plant as a tall grass that had seed protrusions that grew on a special limb. When the limb ripened, it was to be plucked off and dried, then the new seeds could be rubbed off the limb and, either saved to grow more kern the next warm time, or ground up like grain seeds and used in place of the grains.

By the time he had traded almost all his goods, he had his carrier full of knives, hatchets and spears. He was particularly interested in the throwing sticks, he had never seen any as finely made as theirs. He told them he would come back next warm time and trade again.

As he left the village, he was cackling in glee, he would get a good price for those finely made knives and spear points. They were better than any he had seen on his travels.

He had slipped extra grains in the bowls of grain he had traded, he did not want the villagers to think he was cheating them. He wanted to be able to come back and trade again.

After Gos had left, several more traders came over the remaining length of the warm time. The traders came from isolated pockets of humans, only rarely did they have companion wolves. They had heard the legends of The Beast from the Before Times, little did they realize, the creatures lived in Paradise!

The Great Felines frightened them as they knew them only in tales intended to frighten small children. One trader took one look at Pol, stretched out on his tree limb above where the trader had opened his wares and he threw everything in the back of his cart and ran his burden beast out of the village at a dead run.

It was unfortunate that not all the traders were honest, but Pol had the uncanny knack of sensing when a trader was not being honest and, all it took was a snarl and that trader was headed out of the village as fast as he could run, thinking himself lucky he still had all his parts!

The villagers learned to take their hint from the huge feline, but, sometimes they missed it and Pol would never hesitate to take matters into his own paws! With six-inch fangs and needle-sharp claws, few were sufficiently brave to stand up to the huge feline. A gentle housecat, he was not, although some said they were related!

There was usually at least one kit running around and, as fierce as Pol was, just let some stranger try to even touch a kit or a pup, Tia and Zana both had large collections of clothing pieces left by strangers wanting to pick up one of the village kits or pups without permission! Their trousers were usually soiled beyond cleaning as they ran from the village.

Many times, they even left their packs. The villagers would hang the pack from a tree branch so the trader could return and claim his pack. They rarely did so!

The outside world was growing, and humans and their wolves were moving from the protected areas that had sheltered them and were recolonizing the world of their origin. As the years passed, more and more outsiders found their villages and made the trip in an effort to trade. It was a contagious thing, the society that was the four villages would "infect" those who visited them and would carry the infection to others during their travels.

It would not be much longer before the evils that had destroyed the world of the ancients would return. The wolves and the felines would be the humans' first line of defense against the evils of the outside world. In the Before Times, The Beast had battled evil alone, now, the races of Great Felines and the Great Wolves, the descendants of wolves that Gar had trained, were there to help him.

TBC