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Darwin's Legacy

Chapter 12 - Long Live the King

Roark regained consciousness to find himself bound and bouncing along on the shoulder of a creature much larger than himself. He was groggy, and his head ached terribly, but he forced himself to look around and find out what he could of their situation.

The first thing he noticed was that the Dylan, still unconscious, was slung over the creature's opposite shoulder. Considering their combined weight and the apparent ease with which the fellow seemed to be carrying them along at a rapid pace meant that the creature must be incredibly strong. He could not see much of the beast itself, just the back of the rough hemp shirt and trousers it wore and a bit of the back of its head. Most of the fur was short and white, except on its two round ears, where it was black. Looking down, which made him slightly nauseous, he could see that the creature was barefoot, and that its rear paws were stubby and covered with black fur. He could not tell if they had claws or pads from this angle.

He strained his neck to look back and saw that a different type of creature was following them with Darwin slung over its shoulder. The second creature was large, but not as large as the one carrying Roark, and its exposed fur was mostly orange, with some white above the eyes and around the muzzle and a few black stripes on its face and forearms. Its face and eyes were vaguely feline, but with a heavier structure. White whiskers, another feline feature, extended from the sides of its muzzle. Roark checked its paws and saw that both sets were considerably shorter and less developed than any of the species he had seen on his journey through the river valley. Its clothes were cruder too, more like those worn by the coyotes and the more isolated wolf packs, he thought.

The creature had yellow eyes, and they locked onto Roark's as the wolf studied them.

"Hey Rock, one of our guests is awake." The orange creature called.

"Which one?" The reply came from somewhere near Roark's hindquarters.

"The good looking one."

Roark's porter halted and dropped the grey wolf unceremoniously to the ground. The drop knocked the wind out of him and he almost passed out again. Dylan landed with a bump beside him. The second creature lowered Darwin down almost gently to lie on the trail beside them. Roark shook his head to clear it and looked around to orient himself.

He could not see very far as the trail was surrounded by trees, but by his guess it was early morning, an hour or so after dawn. He could not tell how long he had been unconscious. But his belly was grumbling, not screaming for food, so he guessed that it was the day following the debacle at Patch's camp.

Sitting up he could get a better look at the pair that had been carrying him and his friends. The orange and stripped one was definitely feline, he decided, but much bigger than any of the cats in the northern valley. His larger companion was harder to classify. It was bulky, like a bear, but Roark had never heard of an intelligent bear before. Nor did it look like any of the bears that wandered the mountains. This one had a large round white head, black arms and legs, small, round black ears and two black patches around its eyes that gave it a comical look. Yet the expression of barely suppressed anger on its face was anything but comical.

Before Roark could ask what the creatures were, and why they had taken them captive, a sound from further down the trail alerted him to the presence of a third member of the party.

"Why did you stop?" A gruff voice complained.

Roark's eyes went wide in amazement. The creature coming back down the path toward them was even stranger than the first two. Its face and head was shaped like a shovel covered in short black bristles, with two leathery ears sticking up from the top and a flat leathery snout at the bottom. It was further deformed by several bony protrusions and a number of long teeth that stuck out at strange angles. But the oddest feature was a pair of tusks that curled up and around and almost back into its snout. Even its paws were different, malformed lumps with a fleshy thumb and two thick digits that ended in hard shiny blocks, more like a goat's hoof than a paw. It examined Roark with beady black eyes that held a surprising amount of intelligence.

"Before you ask," it addressed the grey wolf, "I am a warthog, a type of pig. My name is Nolan." The creature looked around at the two prostrate prisoners and saw signs that they were regaining consciousness. "We may as well take a break. We can continue when all three of you can walk on your own.

Just then Darwin began to stir. He blinked his big brown eyes and when they cleared he was staring straight into Nolan's face. The beagle screamed and passed out once more.

"Interesting." The warthog observed. "I wonder what utility that particular attribute has towards survival?"

"Nolan believes that each species developed specific traits that contributed to its survival after the change." The orange one commented. "My name is Kaplan, by the way." He squatted down beside Roark and took the wolf's bound paws between both of his larger ones and shook them while smiling at Roark in a friendly manner. After he was done he let his paws and eyes linger on Roark until the wolf began to feel uncomfortable.

"Uhm, Roark. Wolf." Roark offered.

"Dylan, also a wolf." A pained voice said from below him. "Would you mind getting off my tail, Roark?"

Kaplan helped Roark shift over by grabbing the bound wolf's buttocks firmly and lifting.

"Stop it Kaplan." The warthog ordered, although Roark did not know what he was referring to. Still, he felt better once the big cat had released him and resumed his position in front of the three captives.

"You are some kind of feline?" Roark ventured.

"Yes. A tiger to be exact." Kaplan smiled in reply.

"What's a tiger?" Dylan injected. He was slowly taking in their surroundings and the three strange creatures that had captured them.

"A type of hunting cat, not native to this region. We come from Asia, a land on the far side of the ocean that lies west of here." Kaplan answered Dylan while still staring at Roark. "That's what the plaques say anyway."

"The plaques?"

"They are a sort of record from before the change. It is difficult to describe them and the other artifacts that have been preserved to northerners because you have developed in a different environment. You'll see them when we take you to the King and then you will understand." The hunchbacked wolf stared at the tiger for a few moments but when no further information was forthcoming he turned to the largest of their captures.

"And you." Dylan asked in what he hoped sounded like a friendly tone. "What sort of creature are you."

The big fellow did not answer at first, but Nolan nudged him and indicated that he should respond.

"I'm a panda."

"And a panda is ... ?" Dylan prompted.

"A bear ... I think." The panda sounded embarrassed to Roark. "The plaque under our picture is broken, incomplete. We are supposed to be from somewhere called China."

"Where's that?"

"Dunno." The big bear hung his head. "The maps don't show it."

"Nolan thinks that it is part of Asia." Kaplan contributed. "All we know about the pandas are that their original Chinese name translates as "Bear-Cat. Nolan can tell you more. He is the species expert."

The warthog squatted down beside the others and rested his arms on his knees.

"Might as well talk about us." He shrugged. "You won't be going home to repeat it to anyone. Not after the King finds out that you helped his new concubine escape."

"Snowdrop has escaped?" Darwin said groggily, struggling to sit up. When he did he looked in wonder at the three strangers, passing quickly over the warthog with a shudder.

"Yes. The others in your party must have taken her after they killed poor Patch's mother." Nolan informed them. "We would have gone after them ourselves but we did not know how large a group it was, or how well armed. There was a question of jurisdiction too. In any event, the King is not paying us to fight, just negotiate. The soldiers will deal with them if they catch them on this side of the gap."

"The rest of our ...." Darwin began, but Roark silenced him with a nudge in the ribs.

"We, that is our comrades and us three, were on a rescue mission." Roark told them. "Darwin here is the father of the child she is carrying. She was sold into slavery before it was known that she was pregnant, before it was known that a feline could get pregnant from a canine. Once her family finds out they are sure to want her back. We came to bring her home."

Roark was not so sure about the reception Snowdrop's tribe may give her, but he was hoping to elicit some sympathy for their cause. Maybe even convince the trio to let them go.

"You sound fairly confident that the feline really is carrying the canine's baby. Me, I'm not so sure." Nolan observed doubtfully. "Species can't breed with other species to my knowledge."

"Oh, but they can." Dylan chipped in. "Roark and I have seen it with our own eyes. A fox-feline cross, born to the leader of a caravan we were employed by."

"Foxes are a type of canine, are they not?" Nolan asked.

"They seem similar but they cannot breed with wolves, coyotes or dogs." Dylan informed him. "And none of the others can breed with felines, including foxes. At least, not until now. It seems like the species in our valley are growing more alike with each generation." His voice trailed off as he recalled the discussions he and Roark had on the same topic during the long nights guarding Silver Tip's caravan.

"That is interesting news indeed." The warthog jumped to his feet and motioned the other two to assist the prisoners up. "We need to get back to the King as fast as we can. You two," he indicated Roark and Darwin, "look like you can keep up. Rock, you carry the one with the stunted legs." And with that he turned away and trotted down the trail.

The panda scooped Dylan up, draped him across his massive shoulders and set off behind the warthog, who was obviously in charge. Kaplan put a large paw on each of their shoulders and turned the two remaining captives in the same direction.

"Best keep up. Nolan may be well spoken but he can be pretty vicious when he is upset."

"But, but where are we going?" Darwin said, distressed at the prospect of moving further away from the missing Snowdrop.

"Why, we are going to see Diego, the King, of course!" The tiger roared jauntily as he slapped them each on the rear to set them in motion.

********

Annie had been kept in isolation for three days before being called in front of the foxes' Board for questioning. The group interrogation session had lasted for many hours, but as she was well rested and well rehearsed she did not suffer through it. Afterwards, she was returned to her cell, for that is what the little room she was staying in actually was, where she was again kept incommunicado for another three days.

The guard whose duty it was to bring her meals explained that it was necessary in order to keep her alive during the marathon debate that her testimony had ignited. If she were unable to return for further questioning the clans opposing Silver Tip's motion to declare war on the wolf alliance might be able to cast doubt on her story. It was his job, he explained, to protect her, along with several others stationed outside. He did not reveal that it was also his job to kill her if her death became a politically necessity.

Annie had settled down into a routine of exercise and study that helped mark the passing of the days. She slept until breakfast was brought and afterwards washed herself as well as she could in the small lavatory attached to her cell. While her fur dried she studied books designed to teach fox kits how to read and write in their language that the guard was kind enough to bring at her request, after checking with Silver Tip. It was hard work because she had an extremely limited vocabulary and little idea of how the words should be pronounced. She often wished that Tig would be allowed to visit her and help her but her guard explained that the diminutive fox was now the Chief of Defence, and as such was caught up in the debate that raged in the meeting hall.

Annie studied until lunch and afterward stripped off her clothing to exercise. She started with a series of stretches that wolf warriors had developed to keep their limbs limber and then did a few cycles of calisthenics designed to keep them fit during the long mountain winters when they spent most of their time confined to their caves. She finished the routine by pacing from one end of the cell to the other for several hours. It was not a long route, just six paces from the door to the far wall of the alcove, but she strode purposefully and was in full sweat by the end of the first hour. She marked the time by counting her strides, knowing that her pace was about a hundred and twenty steps per minute. Just before supper was brought she washed again and dried herself before donning her clothing.

On the day after her appearance in front of the Board she lost track of time and was still walking when the guard brought supper. After getting over his initial shock at seeing the stunningly beautiful she-wolf striding toward him, her lithe body outlined by her sweat-soaked fur he asked her why she did just changed clothes and have the others laundered each day? She told him with some embarrassment that she only had one set of clothes left because of the wear and tear of their travels, and she thought that she would have to wash them herself in the sink in the alcove and wait until they dried. Removing them to exercise seemed simpler. The guard smiled at her explanation and although he would have killed for the chance to see her like that again he chivalrously offered to bring her more clothes, including outfits suitable for exercising in.

On the morning of the forth day since her questioning she was surprised when Tig brought her breakfast.

"Is the debate over?" She asked as he set two plates of eggs and bacon down on the bench that also served as her bed.

"Indeed it is." He sat, placed one of the plates on his knees and indicated that she should do the same.

"Who won?"

"We did in a sense. Yesterday a small caravan that was weeks overdue came in. They brought news that confirmed our story." While she ate Tig recounted the story of the how the caravan had come upon the ruins of Broad Leaf's wagons and the bodies of several foxes that had been toured to death. They had spent the next few weeks dodging wolf patrols and messengers while they slowly worked their way around the battle zone and back to the winter campground, all the while collecting more evidence of the wolf invasion.

"The clans and guilds have finally realized how great the threat is." He concluded. "And while they are not happy with the way that my father has taken control over the positions that wield the most influence and power in wartime they have voted to go to war. Preparations have already begun."

"It is good of you to take the time away from your duties as Chief of Defence to come see me." She patted his leg in a friendly manner.

"Oh, it is no trouble." He replied between mouthfuls. "I have been relieved of my duties due to my error of judgement in sneaking you into the campgrounds. It is a minor concession that was necessary to get Lead Belly's clan on board."

"They made that buffoon Chief of Defence?"

"No, Silver Tip has that honour, with one of Lead Belly's more intelligent nephews as his deputy, the one that almost penetrated our defences seeking to kill you." He pointed out.

"So now what happens to me?" Annie asked.

"Now you get to move to proper quarters, Silver Tip's suite to be exact. It will not be so strange since his current mate is also not a fox. Hmm, the old fellow may be starting a new trend here." Tig mused before getting back on the subject. "In any event, you are also free to move about the common areas of the compound, providing you have a fox escort. This is as much for you protection as it is due to their prejudice. While the board has granted you freedom it cannot guarantee your safety. Fortunately for you I happen to have a lot of time on my paws since stepping down from the Board. This will allow me to be your humble escort, freeing your regular guard for military duty."

"Enchantee" Annie replied graciously in the fox tongue, with mixed success.

"That is actually pronounced 'on-shant-tay'." Tig pointed out as he stood and brushed a few stray crumbs from his shirt. "Leave the plates and your clothes, someone will come for them. You'll have new outfits ready by tomorrow."

"Servants cleaning up after me? I could get used to that."

""You should." Tig said without a hint of sarcasm or humour. "Foxes like father and Star Blaze are the next best thing to royalty in our society. Being his guest means that you will lack for nothing. Come, let us be off."

* * * * * * * *

Ang-Ro's armies had grown as Ro-Da had predicted they would, and even she was astounded by the number of willing recruits they found among the river valley inhabitants. It seemed that it did not take much to set cat against dog or even breed against breed.

Word of the advancing hoard and their atrocities had spread. Now when they approached a canine village they were more likely to meet a group sent to negotiate surrender as they were armed resistance. The felines were less willing to bow down, however, and preferred to abandon their encampments rather than submit. Ro-Da had anticipated that and had deployed large flanking parties to herd them back into the path of the main force. When those groups choose to stop and fight, the results were bloody.

They were held up by one such group now, the largest remaining concentration of felines between Ang-Ro and the southern gap. The felines were surrounded but well dug in. They had already repulsed several assaults conducted by canine conscripts under the command of wolves. The cats seemed determined to fight to the death. Ang-Ro's generals had advised a blockade of the area, which had little water and less vegetation, and to wait until they starved them into submission.

At this point the only thing that Ang-Ro wanted from the felines was for them to get out of his way, but he also had to make sure that they would not attack him from the rear or try to take back their territory once the main army moved south. For although he had yet to inform his generals of the fact he still intended to move out of the river valley before winter set in and closed the gap, to conquer a land that he was convinced was full of wonders, and possibly the only real threat to his budding empire. But he kept that information to himself for now, and surprised his advisors by refusing to consider their advice.

The great black wolf paced back and forth in front of a collection of wolf assaulters, coyote cut throats and large dogs. There were even a few feline warriors from the northern tribes that did not shy away from collecting battle trophies off their own kind. The group, over a thousand strong, was his special shock battalion. Volunteers all, they were the most eager and vicious of his troops, and the least controllable. Each time one of his officers sent a soldier back for discipline because it had disobeyed orders and killed unnecessarily Ang-Ro had him sent to his mate, the sadistic Ro-Da, for evaluation. Those that she favoured, and that survived her unique form of examination, were sent to the shock battalion. The rest were never seen or heard from again; a good thing according to anyone who had heard their anguished howls echoing through the night.

The troops of the shock battalion stood in ragged rows and uneven files. Discipline was not their strong point, nor was deportment. While the rest of the army had adopted a uniform of sorts, with similar equipment and garments being issued to all the members of the formed units, the members of the shock battalion dressed as they wished and armed themselves with whatever spoils they fancied. Ang-Ro studied them out of the corner of his eye as he continued to pace silently, letting the tension build.

Many of the group sported their fur cut and dyed in bizarre shapes and exotic colours. Many had shaved their heads or other body parts and now sported tattoos in the place of fur. Decorative chains and medallions abounded. Some even had metal and plastic studs piercing their skin. A hazard in close combat Ang-Ro was certain, and sure enough, he spotted several that had ragged ears or scarred temples where their piercings had been ripped out of their flesh. They seemed to bear these marks with pride however, and those with the most scars stood in the front rank, indicating a position of unofficial leadership among the rest of the rabble.

The grand leader of the wolf alliance, now just called the valley alliance in a bid to elicit the loyalty of the other species, stopped in front of one particularly gruesome example. It was a dog, a type known as a doberman he had learned. This one was fully as large as Ang-Ro himself, and its eyes shone with an insolent glare. One ear was in ribbons; the other was missing the tip but still held a row of metal studs. More studs pierced the skin beside the dog's eyes, and scar tissue showed that they were not the first to be placed there. It even had a large silver ring through its nose. It stood helmetless and bare-chested, crossed leather straps held together with iron rings were its only protection. Freshly healed cuts criss-crossed its face and chest, forming a crude pattern. Ang-Ro could not be sure which were earned in battle and which were self-inflicted.

Ang-Ro recalled seeing this dog once before, in a village pub where a tracker had almost revealed the wolves' plans to invade the south. This was the dog that had revealed that others knew of the kingdom to the south and his plans to invade it. He had helped in the questioning of the collie bitch with such fervour that Ang-Ro had immediately recommended him to Ro-Da. Back then the dog had been sleek, fit, and unscarred save for the cropped ears and tail that marked him as a fighter. Ang-Ro hardly recognized him now.

"Crusher." The wolf addressed him.

"Yes Ang-Ro." The dog replied with a smile, happy to be remembered.

"Are we boring you?" Ang-Ro enjoyed the way the dog's face faltered in confusion. The big canine did not know why he had been singled out but he suspected that he was in trouble.

"Wha-what do you mean?"

"I mean," Ang-Ro raised his voice and turned his head back and forth to sweep the assembly, "are you and your comrades tired of sitting around. Do your hearts cry out for action?"

"Yes!" Crusher and several of the canines closest to him roared.

"Do you thirst for glory?"

"Yes!" More voices joined in.

"Do you crave battle?"

"YES!"

"Do you want to see us humiliated by the foes that stand between us and our just rewards?"

"Yes?" "No?" "What?" the crowd broke into a babble of confusion.

Idiots, Ang-Ro thought.

"I said do you want to kill them, seize their treasure and rape their females?"

"YES, YES! YES!"

"Do you want blood?" Ang-Ro screamed to the sky as he struck a dramatic pose with his arms out and his paws clenched.

"YES!" Every single soldier in the shock battalion screamed out.

Ang-Ro stepped to one side and pointed down the hill where he had assembled the group. From a mile away the light from the feline's camp fires were faintly visible through the mist that had gathered as the sun set.

"Then there it is!" He cried. "Go get it!"

With a roar the battalion raised their weapons and charged. They flowed around Ang-Ro like a river around a rocky island, but he would be the last obstacle that they parted for. The roar was the signal for the regular troops on this side of the blockade to move apart and create a channel for the advancing shock troops.

Ang-Ro hoped that they would do so speedily, and avoid being killed by the bloodthirsty pack, but if they did not, no matter. He had plenty more troops to lead south on the next phase of his campaign.

********

Nolan ran the prisoners for several hours without pausing to rest. Roark blessed the fact that they had spent so much time on the road, building up their endurance, and that they were going generally downhill. Still, the pace that the southerners set was a brutal one, and he had no breath to spare to carry on a conversation with their captors or his companions. Darwin, with his shorter legs, was having a harder time of it, but he was managing to keep up. Dylan, who was riding in relative comfort across the big panda's shoulders however, kept up an incessant flow of observations and questions.

"The vegetation is completely different here in the south." Dylan noted at one point. "What do you call this tree?"

"Nothing." Rock mumbled, tired of listening to his cargo. He jogged on in silence.

"We don't call it anything, because it never comes when you call anyway." Kaplan quipped. Of the three captors he was the only one that seemed to have a sense of humour.

"No, seriously." Dylan implored.

"It is a palm." Nolan answered, as he usually did eventually. He seemed to like showing off his knowledge. "There are some thirty different varieties in this zone. You will see more of them as we near the coast."

"Coast?" Dylan was not familiar with the word.

"Where the land meets the sea. Solid ground on one side, a vast expanse of water on the other."

"Which is bigger?" Dylan wondered.

"Who knows? From the shore, from where they meet, both look endless." The warthog answered. "Now be quiet."

But after a few moments of silence something else caught Dylan's eye and he was off again. Although it all seemed very haphazard Roark could tell that some of his friend's questions were designed to elicit information about the southerners themselves. Through carefully phrased and timed inquiries they were able to determine that there were more than three species in the kingdom, and that the King was a different species than the ones that had captured them, a more formidable one, if that was possible. Dylan also managed to bring out that they were small in numbers, compared to the population of the valley, and generally less advanced in the areas of tools and weapons, preferring simpler versions of each but applied with greater force. Any advanced implements came from foxes like Patch, who traded with them clandestinely, and had to be modified to fit their under-developed paws.

From the responses and reactions to the former pack historian's questions Roark surmised that the panda, Rock, was the equivalent of the typical wolf assaulter, all brawn and no brains. Not that the bear was stupid, just uninterested in the world around him and with a dour attitude, just like his wild cousins that Roark was familiar with. Roark wondered if Rock's attitude was typical of his species. In his experience such creatures, feral or otherwise, were usually peaceful if left alone and not dangerous unless provoked into a rage, but then they were almost unstoppable.

Kaplan, the tiger, was almost Rock's opposite as far as personality went. He was a gregarious extrovert who found humour in everything and could make a joke of anything. Yet his physique and the ease with which he moved marked him as a formidable fighter. He had the same sleek lines and graceful manner of the feline warriors that Roark had become familiar with, but he was much larger and heavier set than cats in the river valley. When the big cat yawned and stretched the display of teeth and claws was truly impressive. Roark also noted the fact that both were sharp and tapered, designed for ripping and slicing through meat. That made him wonder what the southerner's diet consisted off.

But Nolan was the one that mystified Roark the most. Roark had very little experience with pigs, except as prey or food. The ones that the felines and canines raised were fairly dull creatures, but they were tenacious and could get out of even the most secure enclosures. The wild hogs that lurked in the forests and on the slopes of the mountains were smart enough to stay hidden when stalkers were present, but they had short, sharp tusks and could cause an unwary hunter fatal damage when they charged unexpectedly out from the underbrush. The scouts and hunters of his pack knew this and were always wary when they saw sign of swine on the area, so Roark believed that wolves were smarter than pigs. But he wondered if the feral wolves he heard tell of east of their mountains were as smart, or whether they were merely hunting and killing machines like so many other feral predators.

The warthog's intellect was unquestionably superior to that of his companions, and the facial armour would be a definite asset in close fighting, but how could such a creature survive around the likes of Kaplan and others fiercer than him that they hinted at? Roark decided to use up some of his precious breath and ask.

"Nolan." The big grey wolf injected in one of the increasingly rare silences. "How is it that your species came to share this territory with the likes of Kaplan and Rock? It seems to me that your ancestors would have been easy prey for creatures as large as them."

In response the warthog whirled faster that Roark would have thought possible and crossed the distance between them in a flash. Rolling his great head before Roark could step out of the way he brought his curled tusk up and around in a killing slash that missed gutting the big wolf by less than an inch. An intentional miss, Roark realized.

"My folk are not totally defenceless." The swine said challengingly. "And we are not so stupid as to stand around feeding our faces waiting for the big cats to pounce on our backs. That is why we are one of the last of five surviving species. That is why we are held in such high regard by the king."

"Ah, you guys taste like shit, as ugly on the inside as out. That is the only reason why we didn't eat you all." Kaplan sneered.

The angry warthog shot the big cat a deadly glance, but the quip had served to break the tension. Nolan pointed to a wide, gentle river that bisected the trail up ahead. A low wooden bridge had been constructed across it.

"Take them to the river and clean them up." Nolan ordered. "You know how the King hates to question smelly prisoners. Have them wash their clothes and feed them so that they don't faint from weakness the first time he sticks a claw in them. I'll go ahead and let them know that you are coming." Then he turned and trotted away toward the bridge.

"Hmph." Kaplan snorted as the swine ran off. "He just wants to bring the good news to the King by himself so that he can get all the credit. He's just a suck up." The usually cheerful tiger said sourly. Then he smiled his normal sly smile and added. "A suckling pig. Ha!" He looked around for a sign of appreciation for his joke, but saw none.

"Oh well." He shrugged. Then he turned Roark around and began to loosen his bonds. When he was done he propelled Roark forward by slapping the big wolf's buttocks with one of his large orange paws and said, "Get yourself down to the water and get out of those filthy rags. And don't try anything stupid." Kaplan stepped back and patted the crossbow he had taken from Roark for emphasis. He had removed the trigger guard so that he could fire it with his thick paws. Roark was afraid that it would go off inadvertently and put a bolt through one of them, so he hustled his two friends down to the river where the chances of being accidentally pierced were less.

Soon the three intrepid travelers were sanding naked in knee deep water. Slapping their wet shirts and trousers against some smooth rocks to beat the dirt out of them. Kaplan and the big panda stood watch over them. The tiger had the crossbow pointed generally in the middle of the group but Rock was unarmed. Dylan was certain that he needed no weapons, but he wondered if the bear could move as fast as a fit wolf. Then he noticed that Rock was mostly watching him, the slowest but strongest member of their party. The panda glanced at Darwin occasionally, but had obviously dismissed him as a threat. Still, he kept close enough to the beagle to tackle him should the dog chose to bolt. The tiger, however, hardly took his eyes off Roark, the fastest and most likely to put up a fight. Clever, he thought, match the skills of the guards to the strengths of the prisoners.

Then Dylan noticed that the big cat's stare seemed to be directed considerably lower than Roark's eye level. A moment later the tiger spoke and confirmed his suspicions.

"I'd heard that wolves were big." Kaplan addressed Roark as the grey wolf laid his clothes on the rocks to dry and began to scrub the road grime off his fur with a chunk of soap that the tiger had tossed him. "You are certainly bigger than the foxes that visit here, and this dog that travels with you. Would you say that you were, uh, typical of you species?"

"I'm on the large end of average." Roark could see no reason to lie to the southerners, the foxes had probably told them all about the species that inhabited the river valley anyways. "But there are a fair number much bigger than me." He scooped water to rinse the suds from his face and torso did not notice how the cat's eyes wandered up and down his body as he bent and stretched and shook to rinse thoroughly. But Dylan did.

"Larger or just, uhm, thicker?" Kaplan asked.

"Both. The leader of the assaulters from one of the nearby packs is half again as big as me and twice as broad. He has difficulty getting through tight places."

"Oh my." The cat sighed.

While the two had been talking Darwin was trying to keep as much distance between him and the guards, especially the large black and white panda, who had broken a large chunk of cane off and was munching on it idly. The sound of the woody reed snapping and cracking between the panda's huge teeth reminded him of his relatives munching on the bones at the end of the autumn feast. And he did not like the way the bear kept following him around.

Darwin tried to step behind Dylan to put the bulk of the hunchbacked wolf between him and Rock, so that he could wash his legs without the panda staring at him. But when he straightened up he discovered that Rock had moved silently around and right up behind him. He let out an involuntary yip and jumped back, or tried to. His foot caught on a rock and he fell backwards into the river. When he broke the surface the panda was standing right over him with a scowl on its face, reaching down with those massive paws. Darwin scrambled backwards, but the panda lunged forward and grabbed him by his upper arms and hauled him out of the water. Darwin legs kicked a foot above the surface of the water and screamed as the panda held him at arms' length.

"Don't be afraid." Rock said impatiently. "I won't eat you. Pandas are herbivores."

Roark had taken a step toward the two to help Darwin, but Kaplan brought him up short with the crossbow leveled at the wolf's chest.

"I'd eat you." Kaplan said, smiling one of his sly smiles. "Given half a chance."

"No trouble here chief." Dylan said, pulled his friend back away from the grinning tiger. "Come on Roark, get your clothes on. They can dry on you just as fast as they can on the rocks." When they were a safe distance away he leaned over and whispered in his friend's ear. "You've made a friend"

"Eh? An enemy you mean."

"No. I don't think so." Dylan pointed behind them, where the tiger was standing and watching them with that mysterious smile still on its face and its tail swishing slowly back and forth behind it. "I don't think that he was talking about how tall you were."

"What do you mean?"

"He's like some of those wolves that don't take a female for a mate and don't go to the Mi-Ran. You know, like Lo-Lo and Ru-Kor."

Roark glanced back at the tiger who was still watching them, or watching a specific portion of him at least. Something about his buttocks seemed to fascinate the big cat. Roark tucked his tail between his legs and hurried to gather his clothing.

Males that loved males were an inevitable, but rarely discussed fact of life in the wolf packs. With many more adult males than females it was not unusual for a pair of lone males to form a partnership of convenience, sharing a cave and their possessions as a couple would, but some took the arrangement much farther. Some turned to the lifestyle out of loneliness, while others seemed to be of that predilection from birth. Lo-Lo and Ru-Kor, for example, had been a couple for as long as anyone could remember. Lo-Lo was a slight wolf who stayed back in the den with the females, taking care of the cave they shared and combing his silky fur. Ru-Kor was a scout. A steady, serious and valuable member of the pack, as tough and strong as they came. Out in the field one would never suspect that he was any different than anyone else. They were quite open about their relationship, so much so that as the Balance Roark had sometimes had to intervene between them and the more prudish members of the pack.

And it did not end there. He knew that a number of the big assaulters had similar arrangements with smaller hunters and runners while they were away hunting or waging war, but they generally had female mates and cubs of their own back in the den. Then there were the ones like Ro-Da, who preyed on either sex with equally sadistic glee. Roark had protected Annie from a number of those and even fought off a few that were after him when he was younger. Later, when he became the Balance he arranged for the worst of them to be ejected, but Ro-Da was untouchable. Fortunately she confided her acts of perversion on wandering lone wolves and the occasional prisoner, or had before he had left. Roark felt that she was likely to take advantage of the war to indulge more deeply in her perversions.

He wondered which type the big tiger was, and he slipped a couple of fist-sized river stones into the folds of his clothes just in case.

Kaplan and Rock argued over whether to wait until the prisoner's clothes dried or to carry on right away. The tiger was in favour of waiting, but the panda was anxious to get back to wherever they were going. The dispute was about to become a brawl when Roark, feeling unusually uncomfortable being naked after what Dylan had pointed out about the big cat, settled the argument by donning his damp clothes and motioning for his companions to do the same. With a snarl the big cat led them over the western ridge of the narrow valley they were in.

Dylan was right behind Kaplan and he stopped, frozen in his tracks, when he crossed the ridge and looked down on the vista before them. Roark and Darwin, just a few steps behind him, were also struck dumb with wonder when they came up beside the hunchback.

Below them the hills dropped rapidly. Several streams, like the one they had just bathed in, meandered back and forth across them before joining to form a river at their base. The river was unremarkable, but it ended in a vast expanse of blue unlike anything the wolves or dog had ever seen before.

"The sea." Dylan exclaimed.

"Yes. We're used to the sight because we grew up beside it, but the view from up here is special." Kaplan had stopped a few feet further down slope and was also admiring the view. "I'm told that it is especially impressive for those seeing it for the first time."

"Is it true that it is made of salt?" Roark asked.

"Yes. It is too bitter to drink, and if you let it evaporate in a shallow pan you can scrape the salt off it and season your food with it.

"Amazing." Dylan breathed. "The foxes we worked for told tales of it. They said that it was like a big lake, but I never imagined ..."

"What's that?" Darwin interrupted, pointing at a body of water separated from the sea by a sliver of land. There was a large white patch among the greenery that lined the bay.

"That is the ancient city of Diego." Kaplan informed them. "A pile of ruins too dangerous to inhabit, but that once provided excellent scavenging. Nolan's bunch says that it was once the finest city in an empire that stretched from here to the north and east for more than a thousand miles and also into lands beyond the sea. They believe that it may have been the capitol of that empire. Because of that, our kingdom, and our king, is named after it. Now we should go. It looks like nothing from up here but we still have ten miles to cover before we reach the Amphitheatre." Kaplan pointed to a spot a little more than halfway between them and the ocean where tendrils of smoke drifted up from the forest.

They followed the river to the valley floor, crossing it near the top were it was narrow and keeping on the southern side as they descended. The vegetation was thick but here and there they spied piles of the white artificial rock that they had seen while traveling with Silver Tip's caravan and patches of the black substance that they said the ancients had used to make roads. These sightings became more frequent the closer they got to the ocean.

The sea and the long bay were in view for as long as they were above the level of the trees that grew on the valley's floor. As they drew closer they could make out moving lines of white on the open ocean, and large grey structures in the water of the bay.

"The white is the surf." Kaplan explained when asked. "Big waves of moving water with enough force to knock you back to the beach, or drag you out to sea. Nasty stuff. Lounging on the beach is okay, but you won't catch any of us cats anywhere near the water. The pandas tolerate it though. When the surf is light they'll wade in and splash about a bit. But the hogs positively love it. They swim out in even the roughest surf. It was a survival trait, Nolan claims, to keep our ancestors from eating his. Whether that is true or not they certainly love the ocean. The crazy flat-faced idiots even ride on the waves on slabs they carved from the more buoyant trees." The stripped cat shook his head as if the he himself did not quite believe it.

"The grey shapes are called 'ships'." He continued. "They were like floating homes, or villages some of them. Long ago there were hundreds of all sizes lining the bay but each time there was a storm a few more would break up or sink. Now only the largest remain. Most are lying on their sides in the shallow water but one or two are still upright. The wart hogs scavenge there, with some help from the pandas."

"They are mostly rust now, but there are still a few big pieces of steel to be had there." The panda Rock spoke up for the first time since they had stopped to wash. "To big for pigs to lift. They pay a fair share for us to carry it to their rafts."

Kaplan, with the occasional comment from Rock, continued to explain how the economy of the kingdom worked. For centuries they had used the steel and concrete they salvaged to build defences and weapons for use against each other, but after the kingdom was formed they had taken to trading the precious metals and plastics to the few foxes that dared deal with them in exchange for goods. Roark could tell that the goods they were getting in exchange were inferior to those being traded in the valley. Obviously the foxes did not want the southerners to reach the same level of technology as the valley species had.

Roark was beginning to form a picture of the society here in the southern kingdom. Although they seemed as intelligent they were physically closer to their feral ancestors than the canines, foxes and smaller felines in the north. They had not developed or acquired weapons or technology to the degree that the species of the valley had. That was a good thing, because the desire to expand the kingdom into the northern valley was evident in the way the southerners talked about themselves.

They felt superior to the foxes and the few samples of the other species that traveled south with them because they were bigger, fiercer, and had more resources. They felt that their natural place in the order of things was on top, and that the inevitable course of history was for their kingdom to expand until they ruled all of the known world. Roark was familiar with the attitude from his association with Ang-Ro.

But something had happened to stop the expansion of their realm. The recoverable resources were running out, and there was something else, something the big cat's words hinted at but that was never stated, something else that seemed to be limiting the spread of their kingdom. Roark wondered what it could be.

After two hours of hard walking they dropped below the level of the trees and lost sight of the sea. The ground was flatter here, but with many piles of overgrown rubble. Fortunately ancient road beds, much wider than those they had seen in their home valley, cut through the ruins and made the going easy. One of these roadways cut through a wide green expanse north and east of the ancient city center. Kaplan left the road at the northern end of this region and angled south east.

They crossed a wide flat area that was covered in the black substance that some of the roadways were made of before coming to an entranceway flanked by ancient trees.

A pair of tigers almost as big as Kaplan guarded the opening. They greeted the big cat as they would a superior, the first clue that their escort may be a person of some standing in the kingdom.

"Are they gathered yet?" Kaplan asked his fellow tigers.

"No sire. They are still making their way to the amphitheatre. The King is not due for another hour yet."

"Good." Kaplan turned to his prisoners. "We'll take the long route and I'll give you a little tour. There used to be a roof across the entrance with a big sign that had the name of the kingdom and pictures of some of the species that lived here." Kaplan explained. "But it fell down long ago. There was a big metal sign that had the name too, just in this clearing here, but it was salvaged in the early days, before pride in our nation became rooted in all the surviving species."

"The leopards stole it and sold it to the foxes." Rock commented dryly.

"Yes, well. Most of the interior is intact. I'm sure that you will find it interesting." The tiger led them through the entrance.

A few tigers and a pair of pandas hurried past as they entered. They shot curious glances at the three prisoners but did not stop. They turned left immediately inside the entranceway. Kaplan however, turned right.

"We won't do the whole thing, just a quick loop around the interior." The tiger assured them as they walked down a deserted street. Small dilapidated buildings on either side stood empty and in ruins. Dylan noticed pictures of colourful birds preserved in a clear substance attached to several of them. Kaplan turned left onto a narrower road and led them past a series of equally dilapidated and empty pits. Each was made from the artificial stone that Silver Tip called concrete, and was separated from the road by steep walls and deep moats.

"We don't live here anymore." Kaplan explained. "These pits and cages had only enough room for a few families of each species. Those that survived and evolved moved out long ago. But the first king decreed that this portion of Diego be preserved and we still use the big amphitheatre for ceremonial occasions." Kaplan pointed out the plaques attached to the railings that overlooked the pits.

"This is how we know about the time before the change." Kaplan informed them. "Each of these pits was for a different type of animal, mostly bears in this section, and something called a mountain lion. Over there were animals from a place called Africa. That's where Nolan's folk came from. There are statues there of animals taller than the trees and bigger than houses."

Dylan paused to examine some of the plaques. They were made of a substance that looked like metal but was not, a substance that the foxes did not pay much for, which was probably why they had not been taken away and sold. Each had a picture of an animal moulded into it and the name of the species in the common tongue and another language that he was not familiar with. The one he was examining at the moment was that of an animal the wolves were familiar with, the Great Bear, although this plaque referred to it as a 'Grizzly Bear, Ursus arctos horribilis'. If horribilis means horrible then they got that right, he thought to himself.

"That Structure on the left was keeping birds." Kaplan waved a paw at a framework that rose up out of the trees and ached over to form what was once a roof. "And here on the right they had some monkeys."

"What are monkeys?" Darwin asked.

"Sort of like small apes."

"What are apes?"

"I'll show you some later." The big cat looked flustered. "But you will have to get Nolan to explain the difference to you. Now, ahead on the right was where the pandas lived."

The road widened in front of a very large pit. There was an extensive viewing platform and even an elevated trail that wandered through the area. The vegetation growing wild inside the pit was different than that outside, it consisted of large reeds with fine green leaves. Rock plucked a pawfull of the leaves and began to chew on them.

"Bamboo." He commented. "Best stuff in the world. You can eat it, build with it, make rafts. Anything. Try some?" He held a sprig out.

"Uh, no, thanks." Roark waved him off. Rock shrugged and continued munching.

The tour continued as they turned left to head back in the general direction of the entranceway.

Roark noted that the walls had been painted with murals and that there were statues of the various animals at irregular intervals. Kaplan informed him that the current king had ordered the murals to be restored, and that the remaining statues were just the ones too heavy to be moved and melted down. They were believed to be life-sized, as the ones showing the big cats and a panda family matched the current versions in size if not physiology.

They had already passed something that looked like a huge turtle but that Kaplan informed them was called a tortoise, and one of a creature over ten feet tall with wing-like ears and a snake for a nose called, Kaplan believed, a pachyderm, and the panda statues. The next one they came to was of a creature as big around as the largest wolf assaulters, with a huge domed head and long, thickly muscled arms. Dylan pointed out that it had thumbs on its back paws as well the front, something not even the most advanced species boasted today, and he wondered if the statue depicted one of the legendary humans.

"No. It was called a gorilla." Kaplan told them. "Nolan says that it was the largest of the apes, but that they all had similar features like opposable thumbs on each appendage and big heads for holding large brains." The tiger led them to another statue depicting a female gorilla with a bay on its back, and then that of a smaller ape called a chimpanzee.

"And none of them survived the change?" Roark wondered aloud. "With brains that big I would have thought that they could talk and think like humans just a few generations after the change."

"Talking apes?" Kaplan snorted. "Don't be absurd. Look at them, with those dull expressions. Our ancestors would have done them in long before they learned to sharpen sticks."

He took them down a meandering path past another dilapidated bird house and a number of old cages that had once housed smaller apes and monkeys. Soon they were back where they had started, and Kaplan tuned in the direction the other tigers and pandas had gone. After a short walk past some buildings that looked in much better repair than the ones they had seen already they came upon what looked like a long, high, curved wall but that they soon realized was a circular building of some sort. Entrances wide enough for several creatures to enter at once pierced the structure at regular intervals, but they stood empty. There was no sign of any other animals at all, and an eerie quiet hung over the area.

Rock pushed the three forward toward one of the entrances. It opened onto a tunnel that went right through the building. It was dark inside but they could see light up at the far end, and they headed toward it. They emerged blinking in the bright sunlight to another amazing sight.

The building was not a complete circle, just half of one. The interior was open to the sky, and consisted of many semi-circular tiers made from the concrete material. They had emerged halfway up, and there were as many tiers below them as there were above. Nubs of metal poking up at regular intervals indicated that some other structure, benches perhaps, had once been mounted on them. The benches were long gone, but the flat slabs of concrete served just as well for the crowd that had gathered.

The amphitheatre was filled to overflowing with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of creatures. On the far left was a large section of tigers, some as big as Kaplan, others smaller. Roark could not tell the males from the females, or even if indeed there were any females among them. Just left of where they stood was another section of felines, but a smaller species than the tigers, and their fur was spotted rather than stripped. Roark thought that they looked fast and lean, more efficient hunters perhaps than the larger tigers. There was even less diversity among them.

The pandas were seated in the section to their right. They wore very little to cover their starkly contrasting black and white fur in the heat of the afternoon. Roark thought that the smaller ones among them may be females, but there was nothing other than that to distinguish them. Every single one had the same white head with black ears and black patches around the eyes. Every appendage was black, and all the exposed midriffs were all white. He wondered how they told each other apart.

The seats on the far right were filled with wart hogs similar to Nolan. Again, if there females among them they were indistinguishable from the males.

All these creatures were seated in total silence, staring at the tunnel exit and the three canines that had emerged from it.

The final group was ranged around the base of the amphitheatre, facing the seated species. They were a type of feline that Roark and his companions had not seen in the plaques or the murals they had examined, but for the first time there was a difference between the males and the females that was easy to pick out.

The males were huge, with short tawny fur on their lower bodies, but with long dark manes that extended below their shoulders and down their bellies. Their heads and snouts were great square things, larger than the tigers, and the rest of their bodies were equally proportioned. They exuded brute force. Most of the males wore only a white cloth tied around their loins, and they stood three deep facing the crowd on this side of a water-filled moat that separated them from a stage. Of all the animals present, they were the only ones that carried weapons. Even Kaplan had left the crossbow at the tunnel entrance.

On the stage were what Roark suspected were the females of the species, as they had the same short tawny fur but no manes. They were smaller and sleeker than their male counterparts but still impressively muscled. They would have the speed that their mates lacked, a useful trait for hunting. They were dressed in loose white gowns that were belted around their waists. They knelt on the outer edge of the stage, perhaps fifty in total, silently watching the crowd and studiously ignoring the three prisoners.

"The spotted ones are the leopards, right?" Dylan whispered to Kaplan, but the shape of the building amplified the sound and Roark was sure that everyone inside had heard.

"Yes." Kaplan answered in a soft voice.

"What do you call the tawny ones in the centre?" Dylan pointed at the manned males and the sleek females behind them.

"Lions." Kaplan said, and Roark's practiced ear caught a note of distain in his tone.

"Why are there so few females, and no children?" Dylan asked, but the tiger silenced him with a paw to his lips. A door at the back of the stage had opened and something was coming out onto it.

Two large male lions emerged carrying a large wooden chair. They placed the chair in the center of the stage, behind the semicircle of females. A wart hog followed them out, and Roark recognized Nolan. Nolan took up a position beside the chair and cleared his throat to speak.

"All hail King San Diego the eighth, King of the Beasts, protector of the zoo, and benefactor to all." the wart hog said loudly as a lion fully a head taller and much heavier than any of the other males emerged from the door and strutted around to the front of the massive chair.

The crowd in the theatre rose to their feet and cried out "Hail San Diego" in one voice. The response was loud, but Roark was under the impression that it was more practice than enthusiasm that gave it volume. The great lion sat as the words echoed off the walls of the amphitheatre. The crowd remained standing; the ceremony was not complete yet.

"All hail and give thanks," Nolan continued, "for the peace and prosperity he has brought us, here in the four hundredth and twenty-seventh year of his reign."

"Hail San Diego." The audience roared again, and then they sat.

In the silence that followed Dylan's forced whisper once again carried clearly.

"Did he just say that this fellow has been king for four hundred and twenty-seven years?"