The Wolf Who Came Back

A Fable for Our Time


By John T. Harding


There is a spirit of place, a specialness about a city or a countryside that makes it different. That sense of specialness comes in large part from the people who live there, and with the blend of cultures they bring with them and add to the mix.

But some part of the specialness comes from the place itself -- the hills, the trees, the air, the water, the weather, the animals ... even those long gone. Their spirits remain.

Wolf was driven from the Eastern Woodlands many decades ago, and the red squirrel was replaced by the European grey.

But their spirits remain, and watch.

This is a story about a wolf who came back.


Chapter 1

The Road to the Island



Wind never lied. Wind always carried messages truthfully, good news or bad, and Wolf had learned as a pup to trust his nose at least as much as his eyes and ears. Sometimes more, because Wind carried smells of things and of creatures that Wolf could not see or hear. And carried them farther, too, well beyond the limits of his sight or his hearing. Eyes were good at catching movement, but if the enemy or prey kept still and made no sound, neither eyes nor ears were enough to alert Wolf.

But smell was different. No matter how still or quiet a creature was, Wind carried the message to Wolf even when he was asleep. The creature was there, Wind would say, even though Wolf could not see or hear it. The only problem was direction. It was sometimes hard to tell, especially if Wind was still or slow. But even then, Wolf could often tell the direction and even the distance by the strength of the smell. Wind could also be a friend and ally when Wolf was hunting. If he was downwind, he could stalk his prey and get near enough to close in before the target knew he was there. Few creatures other than Wolf had learned the advantage of staying downwind. His cousin Coyote knew it, and he had heard that his enemy Man knew it. He wasn't sure, because he had always stayed well clear of Man, watching from as far away as he could. But he had not seen Man for a long time, and he was far from his usual territory. He was still wary, because he was now in territory that had all the markings of having been used by Man. But where was Man?

Man was gone. Where or why, Wolf did not know or care, but he was still wary. Even so, Wind kept assuring him that it was safe. Man was not here. Wind never lied, but Wolf was still wary.

He was entering new territory now, after spending many days wandering toward the morning sun. Early morning was a good time to hunt in these forests. The woods were not thick, like they were at home, where the afternoon sun slept behind the mountains. And there were plenty of fields next to the wooded areas, so Wolf could stay behind the trees as he worked his way toward the deer browsing in the fields. By staying downwind and using the skills honed from years of hunting, Wolf could get very close to his prey, before rushing in for the kill. This was good, because he did not have a partner to help him run down the target and prevent it from swerving away. In this new territory, deer did not have to slow down when they reached the trees.

But the best places to hunt in this new territory were the places where Man had abandoned his dens. Men were strange creatures, Wolf knew, and even more strange were the dens they made. The dens Man made were not nestled in the comfort of Mother Earth, but were strange, ugly contraptions sitting on top of her. To make the dens, Man cut down trees and gathered stones, dumping them together and stacking them in great piles, as if he wanted to punish the Earth Mother. But for what, Wolf did not know. It was as if Man had forgotten he and the Earth Mother were one. By punishing the Earth Mother, Man was risking her wrath. Maybe that was why Wolf had not seen Man -- Earth Mother punished Man.

No matter. Deer liked to feed near the dens Man had made. This new territory was a mix of woodland, where deer spent the day resting, and open space, where the best shrubs grew next to the man-dens.

Wolf soon learned that he could get close to the deer by moving along behind the piles of stone that marked man-den territory boundaries. Wolf thought it was strange that Man had to move stones into great long piles to mark his territory, rather than marking the stones where they lay, the way four-foots did. His brother wolves all did it. Fox and Coyote did it, even Deer and Cat and that stupid cousin Dog did it. Man never even came out of his den to mark his territory; why did he stay inside and soil his own den? Instead of marking his territory properly, as any real creature did, Man piled up rocks and broke trees, knocked them down and left them. What strange creatures. No wonder they went away.

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