Chapter 16: Idyllic Campout
"What is your physical status?" Walking Stone asked.
It was the first thing Mark heard as he woke up. He found that he lying down on his back inside the den, and that it was still daylight. Next to him stood Walking Stone in his parka. Behind the Stone-Coat what was left of the tent barricade was hanging in tatters. Otherwise the den was empty. There were no wolves, no dead flies, no backpacks, and no blonde news reporters. "I seem to be OK."
"There was some concern," said Walking Stone. "You have been unconscious for several hours."
"I was sleeping," said Mark. "How are Ann and the wolves?"
"Everyone suffered minor bites but are otherwise in reasonable and improving health."
"What about the flies?"
"No live flies have been observed since you did something to cause them to kill and eat each other. At least that is our theory of what happened."
"Yes, that's what happened," Mark confirmed. "Where is everybody?"
"The warm life individuals except for you are all outside enjoying what they consider to be a nice summer day," said Walking Stone. "The coolness of the den is much preferable but I have been requested to return outside and again supply my services after fetching you."
With some difficulty Mark managed to stand up and stumble outside. "Deja-vous all over again," he mumbled. Ann was couched before her flat table-top rock, carving up a fly and dropping fly meat into a pan. Nearby wolves were lined up awaiting their shares of fly meat.
"There you are, lazy bones!" said Ann. "Just because you saved us all doesn't mean you get to sleep all day! Get your stony-faced friend to cook more fly meat or you'll miss dinner altogether."
Twenty minutes later Mark had eaten his fill. "I don't mean to seem ungrateful, but I'm getting tired of eating bug meat."
"Well aren't you the kid that is going to catch yummy fish?" Ann asked. "We're running out of yummy flies anyway. What did you do to them?"
"I was able to amplify their ferocious thoughts," Mark explained. "They went so crazy that they attacked each other."
"How did you know to do that?" Ann asked.
"I didn't," said Mark. "It was the only thing I knew how to do that could possibly influence them, so I did it, hoping that it would alter their behavior in our favor, just as it did for that first fly while I was fishing."
"We got lucky?" asked Ann.
"Very lucky," said Mark. "My Grandfather says we mostly make our own luck; my Grandmother says that mostly our luck makes us."
"That about covers it," said Ann. "I would like to meet these wise people now that it looks like we might live long enough to survive your quest."
"More flies are likely to migrate here from the West," said Walking Stone. "Based on news reports of previous behavior they can be expected perhaps every two to four days.
"Good," said Mark. "We'll probably be tired of fish by then."
"We'll survive," said Ann. As she sat talking with Mark she was absentmindedly petting Long Fang with one hand and Runner with the other: the biggest and most powerful wolves in the pack. "Our friends here will see to it."
Mark was very impressed with how quickly the wolves had warmed to Ann, even Long Fang. Humans really have to have themselves all together for wolves to trust and like them.
"So the Tribe has a Wolf Clan and an Owl Clan, right?" said Ann. "Are there other clans?"
"Bear, Jant, and Stone-Coat Clans," said Mark. "I was going to be Owl Clan but it was decided that because I was already hooked up with Walking Stone I should be the first Stone-Coat Clan member instead. Besides, that way the Treaty would be preserved."
"Yes, you mentioned a treaty before," said Ann. "Can you tell me more about it?'
"Ah! I don't know if I should be telling you about that," said Mark. "Let's go fishing."
Ann had to smile. Mark's quest would last at least ten more days. By then her leg would be mostly healed and she would get back to civilization with her story somehow. And by then she would know much more about the Treaty and everything else about the Tribe and their Stone-Coat friends. She turned off the video recording device imbedded in her baseball cap to conserve memory. She already had great footage of Ice Giants marching along their trails, Tribe greenhouses, wolves, flies attacking, and her young friend Mark and his personal Stone-Coat companion. And she expected to record much more before she escaped Mohawk County.
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