This week’s image brings us back to the wolf pack of the Highland Wildlife Park and was taken… well in the past. It’s been shamefully long since I last visited, so I’m looking forward to seeing what’s changed.
Clearly, something caught this guy’s attention. Possibly the herd of reindeer in the next enclosure. Apparently keeping prey animals next to their natural predators actually improves their breeding potential and overall wellbeing. Which doesn’t sound reasonable at all, but I trust the expertise of people who actually study this stuff for a living. If there’s one thing I’m not fed up with its experts and their expertise. The world could do with a whole lot more of that, I think.
Chùlaibh pricked up her ears. There was that sound again. She didn’t know what it meant, exactly. It wasn’t a noise she’d heard before. But that was significant too. Whatever she’d heard wasn’t pack. Until proven otherwise, that made it dangerous.
Had she been one of the others, great alpha Onchu or even his mate Niamh, she might have been unafraid. After all, what in this world could threaten them? But Chùlaibh wasn’t them. Not even close. For as long as she remembered, she had been the pack’s omega. Chùlaibh knew that other creatures, the two-legs for example, thought that meant she was the least of wolves. She also knew that that wasn’t how wolves worked. That wasn’t pack. Hindmost she may be, but that too had its role to play. If that pack was a running wolf, she was the tail. In swinging the wrong way she would balance the pack so that it would keep its feet.
So it was now. Truly she was slower than the rest. A hunt would usually end for Chùlaibh many minutes after it had for their prey. She didn’t mind that. As omega she’d wait her turn to eat, anyway. On this occasion it proved an advantage. As Onchu must have foreseen. Nothing would sneak up on hear pack.
She snuffed the air. It was like the scent of a two-legs, yet not at the same time. The same weird smells of metal and oil. That odd null, dullness of the tough shiny material they liked to use. Hot dust. An edge that was not quite burning but wasn’t anything else either. All the smells that come with a two-legs. What was missing was the meaty, sweaty, greasy scent that was the two-legs itself and not just the stuff they carried around everywhere.
Chùlaibh whined a warning to the pack. Low and cautious. Be alert, it said. Alert but not panicked. All might be well, but it could be otherwise.
Moments later, Onchu arrived. He stood tall and proud beside her with all his senses focussed where she was looking. Long moments of attention stretched out before Onchu relaxed and Chùlaibh settled alongside him. All was well. The alpha wolf turned and licked her face in gratitude for a job well done.
Then the noise returned. Closer than before. Chùlaibh whined, higher pitched this time. Her ears flattened back against her head even as Onchu’s hackles raised.
A Thing stepped into the clearing. It moved on two legs but it smelled wrong. Across it’s whole being Chùlaibh could see no flesh anywhere on it. The Thing’s outside was hard and cold like a beetle’s. Most disturbing were its eyes. Hard, dry, black domes. No colour anywhere. Just lifeless orbs that seemed to lead to nowhere.
Onchu barked an order and the whole pack moved as one. Niamh slipped in next to Onchu. Her lips parted in a silent snarl. Her hackles were raised so she was fractionally taller even than their alpha. The rest of the pack departed on swift, soundless paws into the woods. Moments later, Chùlaibh joined them. For once ahead of her leaders. The alpha couple held their ground for ten heartbeats longer to ensure the Thing didn’t follow. They overtook Chùlaibh in half as much time and the pack vanished into the forest.
Brandon Lim 