14
Zillah Moody
the wolf. He reached the part about finding it dead with the best bits
missing as he realised with despair what it would mean to them all.
"So what happened?"
"I was younger then and full of energy and I decided to go after the
wolf and see if I could trap it or kill it."
"But honestly Tėtis, what chance did you have of doing that"?
"Every chance I thought, and I had to do something. I figured out
it was a lone wolf. It didn't seem to belong to a pack. The nearest
pack we heard that winter was miles away, faintly in the distance. You
could just barely hear them howling when the wind was in the right
direction and then most of the time you couldn't, so I guessed this
animal wasn't part of a pack.
He'd probably lost the leadership in a fight with another younger
wolf perhaps and had been driven out. That was what I assumed anyway.
But I couldn't take the chance that he wouldn't be back again.
Wolves can't get enough of a good thing."
"Yes they can be quite a problem. Do you remember Tėtis when I
was about ten and you took me into town and some came out of the
woods and followed us for a while out on the main road after dark
on the way back, and we could see their eyes gleaming? Then two of
them closed in on the cart, chasing us, and they leapt up at the horse
but you soon shouted and clapped and fired your pistol and scared
them off. I can admit now I was terrified, what with all those fairy
stories Mumija and Močiutė used to tell me about wolves. Lucky it
was summer and maybe they weren't particularly hungry. I suppose
they were just following their instincts."
"Well anyway," his father continued.
"I went back and geared myself up and got those two bear traps we
still have. At that time the horse was young and strong, only three
years old, so I saddled him up and stowed the gear behind the saddle and
in the saddle bags and set off. I wrapped myself up warm,
took my axe and told Mumija, Močiutė and your Aunt Marija, not to
leave the house and to keep an eye on the children. I reckoned that