Secrets of the Wolves
Previously an editor at a leading American publishing house, Dorothy Hearst now lives and writes in San Francisco. Visit www.dorothyhearst.com
Praise for Promise of the Wolves
‘If you liked
Watership Down
, you should not miss
Promise of the Wolves
’ Jean Auel
‘Hearst’s story, from the off, beguiles with its dazzling imagining of the relationship between wolves and humankind thousands of years ago’
Daily Telegraph
‘The story of Kaala and her pack takes readers on a journey into a rich and fascinating world. A remarkable look into another kind of being’ Temple Grandin, bestselling author of
Animals in Translation
‘A crackling foray into a dangerous past . . . Hearst’s remarkable fluency when writing in Kaala’s voice is immediately absorbing’
Publishers Weekly
Also by Dorothy Hearst
THE WOLF CHRONICLES :
Promise of The Wolves
First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster, 2011
This edition first published by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2011
An imprint of Simon & Schuster UK
A CBS company
Copyright © Dorothy Hearst, 2010
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
® and © 1997 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.
Pocket Books & Design is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster
The right of Dorothy Hearst to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-84737-210-9
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-84739-231-2
eBook ISBN: 978-0-85720-069-3
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Typeset by Hewer Text UK Ltd, Edinburgh
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Mackays
Dedicated to
Jean Hearst
with love and gratitude
and many thanks for all of the words
I
was not the first wolf to promise to be the guardian of the humans. That pledge was made many years ago in a time of great hunger, when a wolf named Indru met a tribe of starving humans. It was so long ago that wolves had just become wolf and humans were not yet quite human. The humans stood on two legs as they do now but had not yet lost their fur. They had not learned to control fire or build sturdy dens, and they had not learned to make throwing sticks that could kill beasts many times their own size. They were not nearly as good at surviving as were Indru and his pack.
The humans that Indru met at the edge of a great desert were so thin and hungry-looking that it seemed certain they would die. They should have made good prey for his pack, but Indru did not hear the call to the hunt. He felt pulled to the humans, as he would to his own packmates. He felt so drawn to them, so protective, that he could not let them die. He wanted to help them live. So Indru and his pack taught the humans the secrets of wolfkind: how to hunt rather than just scavenge what others had killed, how to find the best prey, and how a pack can work together to be stronger than any one individual. The humans survived.
Indru’s wolves and the newly vigorous humans hunted together and slept side by side. The bond between them strengthened until it was as much a part of the wolves as their own heartbeats. Wolf and human might have become one pack, one family, but as the humans gained strength and knowledge, they grew proud. They did not stop learning after mastering the skills the wolves had taught them, but gained more and more knowledge, until they were stronger than many other creatures. They said that they were better than other creatures and they demanded that the wolves serve them. When the wolves refused, the humans became so angry that they used their newfound knowledge to destroy everything within their reach. They killed whatever could not escape them and, when they learned the secrets of fire, even burned their own lands.
What happened next, our legends tell us, is that when the Ancients—Sun, Moon, Earth, and Grandmother Sky—saw what havoc the humans caused, they prepared to destroy both wolf and humankind. In other times, there had been creatures who had grown too powerful, and the Ancients had killed them, too. The legends say that one time they hurled a huge rock from the sky that caused a night that would not end, and that many creatures perished.
Indru climbed to the top of a high mountain and pleaded with the Ancients. He was so eloquent in his supplication that he convinced the Ancients to spare wolf and humankind. In exchange, the Ancients demanded a promise from Indru. They told him that the humans, when left on their own with their newfound knowledge, would continue to believe that they were different from other creatures, better than any others, and thus would find it easy to destroy everything around them. Indru promised that wolves would become guardians of the humans. They would teach the humans of the Balance—how all creatures are part of the world and must not destroy that which they depend upon to survive. They would forever watch over the humans to ensure that they never again grew too proud and destructive.
Indru and his packmates taught the humans how to be a part of nature, and how one must never take Earth, Sun, Moon, Sky, and the bounty they provide for granted. They taught them about family and taking care of one’s pack. They taught them how to be part of everything around them. And they showed the humans how to cherish the Balance. For generation upon generation, wolves tried to keep humans in touch with the world around them. But the humans, who bred faster than wolves ever had, began to want more than they had. They once again grew proud, and once again tried to make the wolves their slaves. The wolves—who could be as proud as any human—once again refused. There was a great war, with humans killing wolves and wolves killing humans. The wolves, angry and resentful, forsook their promise. The legends say that the Ancients then sent a winter three years long to end the lives of wolves and humans. That other creatures would die, too, apparently didn’t matter to them. Throughout the land, humans and wolves starved. Throughout the land, wolves and humans died.
The second time wolves and humans hunted together, the long winter ended. A youngwolf named Lydda, who lived in the Wide Valley generations before I was born there, found a hungry human boy weeping against a rock. She felt drawn to him, as Indru had been drawn to his humans, and lay down beside him. Then Lydda and the young human killed a weakened elk. The meat saved both Lydda’s pack and the young human’s tribe, and the wolves and humans of the Wide Valley began to hunt as one pack, bringing the two clans together once more. The Ancients, pleased that the wolves had remembered their promise, ended the long winter. But it was not long before wolves and humans began to fight once again.