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Chapter 15

"Your husband will come here looking for you, Ohana," Lynny said, his big arms folded as he gazed out the window. "As soon as he gets off patrol, he will wonder why his wife is not in his home, cooking his supper for him."

Sitting at a corner table with Zaldon, Ohana pouted. "I don't care! I will never go back to Lallo! Never! Kilyan will come for me," she insisted, folding her arms and jerking her chin. "You will see."

Zaldon and Lynny sighed in unison. They were brothers and as a consequence, looked almost exactly alike. Being full-blooded winter wolves, both were giants, with muscular white bodies and deeply black eyes. Zaldon's eyes were always twinkling with laughter and warmth, but Lynny's were often as bossy and playful as their owner. Lynny kept his long mane in a low ponytail, the tie of which was nearly touching the tips of his tresses. Zaldon's white mane, meanwhile, was loose and flowing down his back.

Zaldon was a sorcerer, with the mark tattooed in black dye in the fur on his forehead - as was the custom of the winter wolves. Zaldon had learned his trade from his grandfather when he returned to the winter tribe at eighteen years old, but after he moved to the sun village, he stopped wearing the leather cuffs and the feathered cape and was free to wear nothing except the old feathered talisman his stepfather had given to him when he was a boy.

It was seldom that Zaldon visited his family in the winter village. He avoided returning for fear of having to face his father, who had become weak and enfeebled in the absence of Zaldon and Lynny's mother. But Ohana was in trouble. And so Zaldon came. Just like that.

Ohana was Lynny's daughter, a beautiful young female with silver fur and white stripes around her slanted gray eyes. She looked a great deal like her mother Idella, if not far prettier. She was sixteen years old - one year too young for the mating season but never too young for a male to claim her. Lallo - an ex-lover of hers - had done just that.

Lallo claimed that he had always loved Ohana, and upon discovering that some male from the summer village was after her, he made a claim on her and married her. Lynny had agreed to the marriage, believing Ohana was better off staying with her own. But Ohana knew the truth: Lynny just didn't want Ohana to leave him for the summer village.

Zaldon held out his paw, laying it across the table in supplication. "Ohana . . . make us understand. Is Lallo hurting you? Disrespecting you?"

"Is he hogging the sheets at night?" Lynny added with a contemptuous wave of his paw.

Ohana sneered at her father's broad back. "He has no idea how to lick my pussy!" she declared shamelessly.

Zaldon and Lynny groaned in unison. Zaldon pinched the flesh between his eyes, and Lynny whipped around from the window, looking irritable.

"You ran away from your husband," Lynny said darkly, "because he's a little inexperienced in bed? Girl, do you have any idea how lucky you are to have a husband like Lallo --!"

"I don't care!" Ohana repeated defiantly, her gray eyes bright with anger. "I want Kilyan! And Kilyan wants me." She pointed a long pink nail at her father. "And you can't keep us apart!"

Lynny's chest heaved and he started forward angrily, but Zaldon held up his paw.

"Zaldon," Lynny cried incredulously, "you are not taking her side!"

Zaldon frowned. "You asked me here to help, Lynny, so I'm helping. Calm down."

Lynny heaved a shuddering breath and folded his arms again. He glared at Ohana and she glared right back. Zaldon watched them wearily, suddenly grateful that he had no teenagers at home to yell at him. For the longest time, he had wanted a child, a little daughter to love and protect. He had watched Lynny raising Ohana and had looked upon their tickling matches and play sessions with joy, but he had envied them as well. Lynny and Ohana had always been very close. But now that Ohana was a teenager, they did nothing but yell. Zaldon suddenly wasn't envious. At all.

Zaldon looked at Ohana. "Do you know how we winter wolves came to be?"

Ohana rolled her eyes and pouted. "Uncle Zaldon," she moaned. "One of your stories is not going to fix anything! Daddy is still going to make me go home to Lallo - no matter how we damn winter wolves came to be!"

Lynny's nostrils flared. "Don't take that tone with your uncle, girl!"

"Or what!" Ohana challenged.

Lynny opened his mouth - more than likely to make some threat - but before he could speak, Zaldon impatiently squeezed his eyes shut and bellowed, "Shut up, both of you!"

Lynny and Ohana swallowed sheepishly and were quiet. Lynny flattened his ears and turned to the window again. Ohana poked her tongue in her cheek and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. She sat with her arms folded and looked on the verge of crying. Looking at her, Zaldon saw the little pup he used to bounce on his knee and wanted to hold her.

Zaldon cleared his throat and stretched his paw across the table again. "The winter wolves," he began, and as he spoke, purple smoke danced from his fingertips. Ohana watched with grudging curiosity as the smoke began to take on the shape of tiny dancing wolves.

". . . came from a distant land," Zaldon went on. "No one knows where. Some say they came from across the sea. But when they came, they were not giants as they are now, but wolves of an average size. They were very few in number, having only just escaped the fires that had ravished their home . . ."

Ohana's ears pricked forward when the dancing images in the smoke suddenly screamed and flailed, engulfed by purple wisps of smoke that leapt around them like flames.

"In those days, it is said that those of the winter called themselves the Ipakki. Broken after the loss of their home, the Ipakki fled to the river, where they came upon a tribe of wolves. These wolves lived in pile houses along the water . . ."

The smoke dancing from Zaldon's fingertips took on the shape of square houses on stilts.

". . . and in those times, they called their tribe the Payolo. This day, however, they are simply known as the river tribe."

"Why did all the tribes lose their names?" Ohana asked in a hushed voice.

Zaldon smiled: he had drawn her in. "There was once a very ancient language that all wolves spoke. Each tribe had a name in that language. But the tongue . . ." He flexed his fingers and the smoke took on the shape of dancing wolves again, ". . . it has been lost now." He looked at Ohana, as if awaiting more questions.

Ohana swallowed and nodded, as if the explanation was enough. "What happened then?" she whispered. "When the Ipakki met the Payolo?"

"The Payolo greeted the Ipakki with open arms. They took them into their tribe and cared for them, even married with them. But the leader of the Ipakki . . . he fell in love with the Payolo's village sorceress. Her name . . . was Imani."

Ohana watched with round eyes as the smoke in Zaldon's paw took on the curvy silhouette of a beautiful female with an incredibly long mane. The little silhouette turned about on the spot, swaying her hips to the side and rubbing her paws along her curves. She disintegrated with a giggle.

"Imani caused a war, didn't she?" Ohana accused. "Two males were in love with her . . . Uncle Zaldon, I see where this is going!"

Zaldon smiled. "You know your uncle so well, my little Ohana," he said, waving away the smoke. He folded his big paws on the table and looked at her seriously. "Or have you already heard this story before?"

Ohana smiled sadly. "I've heard parts of it - when you were telling it to my cousins . . . back when you used to live here." She said the last part sullenly, and Zaldon remembered how sad Ohana had been to see him move away to the sun village. He reached across the table and took her paw, and she bowed her head sadly over their clasped paws.

"Tell me how the story ends, Ohana," Zaldon said quietly, smoothing his thumb over her silver fur.

Ohana sniffled miserably. "A male among the Payolo loved Imani too. His name was Wenutu . . . and the male who loved her from the Ipakki tribe . . . his name was Tokala. Imani had a pup with fur white as snow. White Tokala claimed it was his and stole the child, fleeing with his tribe. Wenutu and the Payolo gave chase but were slaughtered by the Ipakki. In despair, Imani put a curse upon the Ipakki . . ."

"That wherever they went," added Zaldon, "their tribe would remain surrounded by perpetual snow. And so the Ipakki became the winter wolves, a cursed tribe that could find no summer wheresoever they traveled. And?"

"And the Payolo became those of the river," finished Ohana dismally, "a magically powerful but small tribe that ever follows the river, too afraid to trust outsiders again and always in mourning for the child that was stolen."

"Very good," said Zaldon, nodding.

Ohana sighed. "Uncle Zaldon. What did that have to do with anything . . ."

"Stories have always calmed you," Zaldon said, shrugging his powerful shoulders. "Use to work on your father too," he added, and still gazing out the window with his back to the room, Lynny's ear twitched. "Both of you inherited your grandfather's foul temper. When your father was a little boy, he used to get so mad, he'd --"

"Zaldon," Lynny said irritably.

Zaldon cleared his throat. "Anyway, I told the story for two reasons. The first reason was to calm you down. The second reason . . . Ohana, if you don't go home to your husband and Kilyan comes here, he and Lallo are going to fight . . ." He looked Ohana in the eye. "And one of them will die."

Ohana swallowed hard, holding back tears. "So that's it? I'm just supposed to go back home? Tell Kilyan to go away when he comes here?"

"Yes, honey," Zaldon whispered and touched her cheek with the back of his fingers.

Ohana squeezed her eyes shut, and as she tilted her head to accept Zaldon's touch, more tears came. She frowned miserably and suddenly cried hard, bowing her head over the table, grimacing and choking. Zaldon reached over and squeezed her shoulder, and glancing over at the window, he saw Lynny's back stiffen and knew he was miserably listening to his daughter's tears.

"But . . . I w-want to be with Kilyan," Ohana whispered hoarsely. She suddenly dropped her face in her paws and sobbed hard.

"I know, honey," Zaldon said, rubbing her shoulder. "But sometimes . . ." he swallowed hard. ". . . we can't be with the one we love. You go home and try to make the best of this marriage. If you do this, both boys will live. But if Kilyan comes here and you let him try to claim you, custom will dictate that they must fight. And I know Kilyan will not simply walk away."

Lynny snorted. "Because we both know whose son he is."

Zaldon glanced irritably at Lynny. They had made it a point for an entire year not to mention Kel, not even in passing. Kel had told Zaldon that he never wanted to see him again. Looking at Lynny's back, he had a feeling his brother was not going to stem further comments about Kel. He did not wish for old wounds to be reopened and had a sudden desire to get up and just leave. But he looked at Ohana crying so desperately. And he knew he couldn't go anywhere.

"Ohana, please stop crying," Zaldon begged. "Things will be alright, I promise. Maybe you'll come to love Lallo. You haven't even given him a chance."

"I've known him all my life. I've given him plenty of chances . . ." Ohana sniffled and sat blinking miserably. Zaldon conjured a red kerchief with a playful flourish, and her eyes squinted up as she giggled girlishly.

"Yes, that's it," Zaldon softly encouraged and began dabbing away her tears. "Smile, Ohana. It doesn't have to be that bad. And you can teach Lallo to . . ." Zaldon coughed uncomfortably.

Ohana grinned. "Lick my pussy?" She waved an exasperated paw. "But he's so stupid! He can't do anything. Anything!"

Zaldon smiled at her. "All males are stupid, honey."

Ohana laughed again. Zaldon finished wiping her face and was pulling away when she caught his paw. "Stay a bit longer, Uncle Zaldy. Please?" She looked at him with the large, hopeful gray eyes of a child.

Zaldon bit his lip. He had been in the winter village for three days. He was really starting to miss Julyan, who was probably very worried.

"He's not going to stay, Ohana," Lynny said from the window.

Ohana glared at her father's back, anticipating more arguing. "Why!"

Lynny turned to face the room, and Zaldon and Ohana were surprised by the grin on his face. "Kel is here," he said, looking in triumph at Zaldon.

Zaldon sprang from the table as if someone had lit his tail on fire.

"Uncle Zaldon!" Ohana wailed, laughing as everything went spiraling away.

"Idella is outside," Lynny went on, "leading Kel directly to our house."

Zaldon lunged forward. His chair toppled over, and he staggered over it. Simultaneously, a curtain caught around his tail, and he cursed, fumbling to unwind it as he fought to get away from the corner table. His black eyes were popping. "I'm leaving," he said, "right now!"

Lynny stuck his paws on his hips and laughed heartily.

Zaldon scowled as he got his bearings. "What are you laughing at!"

"I'm laughing at you, Zaldon! Fleeing my house like a little girl fleeing a spanking!" Lynny laughed again. Ohana came to him and took his arm - and they laughed together.

Zaldon frowned at them, adjusting the crooked talisman on his bulging upper arm. "Go ahead, laugh at me," he said, almost sulkily. He smiled, "At least the two of you have stopped arguing."

"Yes," agreed Lynny, putting his arm around Ohana, "we have bonded over your pain!"

Zaldon shook his head. "Very funny . . ." He held up his paw and smoke started to fizzle around his feet.

"Oh, come on," Lynny said, scowling. "Stay and say hello to Kel! Would it really kill you?"

Zaldon glowered at his brother. "Possibly. Shut up and mind your business!"

Lynny chuckled.

Zaldon looked at Ohana, who was giggling still. "Goodbye, Ohana. And take care."

Ohana grinned. "Goodbye, Uncle Zaldon."

Zaldon frowned anxiously at Lynny. "Don't tell Kel I was here."

Lynny rolled his eyes. "We won't, we won't! Get going already!"

Behind Lynny and Ohana, Idella entered with her guests. Before they had time to notice him, Zaldon disappeared.