Wolf slogged along doggedly on the trail of the two horses and their humans. He was wishing he hadn't eaten quite so much. Not that good, anyway, but darnit, he'd been hungry. Sometimes a fellow just can't help wolfing his food. Besides, there was less to bury that way. Oh well, no need to hurry, really; he'd catch up in the morning. They would probably sleep late. He wanted to have a little time by himself anyhow, to think things over.

It wasn't what he had done...well, not much, anyway. No, it was what he had overheard that perturbed him most. Both Mactruc and Tonka had spoken to Mom and the Big Guy about a great danger many days travel to the northwest. They had heard tales (or, in Tonka's case, perhaps had visions) of a new sort of evil, and -- this really raised his hackles, for reasons he could not quite get a grip on -- "Wolf Women". His brow furrowed as he pondered the possibilities... trust humans to walk straight into trouble every time. Well, he would just have to keep his ears and nose open and watch out for them. It was a lot of responsibility for a half-grown wolf. He breathed a deep sigh of self-pity and plodded on. Great Mother, if ever he needed a good boot to chew it was now.

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Ayla was wakened by Wolf's enthusiastic face-licking. "Oh, stop that, silly Wolf!" she said, pushing him away. Jondalar, not really awake but aroused by the disturbance, rolled over and threw an arm over her. Wolf sat back and watched. He knew that some day he would be more interested in engaging in such activities himself; for now, it was instructive and sometimes entertaining to observe.

However, the performance was cut short when Jondalar suddenly jerked his head back and sat up, saying "Euchhh!"

Ayla sat up too, and looked down. "Darn, I could have sworn I wasn't due for at least another week yet! I guess I just lose track of time when we're traveling."

"Errmm... " Jondalar scratched his head sleepily, his brow furrowed in thought, and looked out the open end of the tent. "Great Mother, we slept late. I don't remember doing anything yesterday that would have made us so tired... Well, we'd best be on our way as soon as possible."

They ate a cold breakfast, not taking the time to make a fire, and got underway immediately, to get as much distance behind them as they could while the day lasted.

Wolf listened as they babbled to one another, but they were speaking mostly gibberish again. Still, he could make a little more sense out of it than before. Just enough to realize that they had indeed totally forgotten about the last couple of days, and then some. Good, in a way... there were some things that he would rather they forgot. But now he would really have to watch out for them. He sighed again. A wolf's burden...

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