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wolves. Even in my haste I was amazed to discover that I could
understand her quite easily. I stopped.
'What a splendid tail you have,' she complimented me, quickly
following her advantage, 'and what excellent teeth.'
'Thank you,' I replied modestly. 'Your own tail is also quite fine.
and your coat is truly magnificent.'
'Do you really think so?' she said, preening herself. Then she
nipped playfully at my flank and dashed off a few yards, trying to
get me to chase her.
'I would gladly stay a while so that we might get to know each
other better,' I told her, 'but I have a most important errand.'
'An errand?' she laughed. 'Who ever heard of a wolf with any
errand but his own desires?'
'I'm not really a wolf,' I told her.
'Really?' she said. 'How remarkable. You look like a wolf and you
talk like a wolf and you certainly smell like a wolf, but you say you
are not really a wolf. What are you, then?'
'I'm a man,' I said.
She sat, a look of amazement on her face. She had to accept what I
said as the truth since wolves are incapable of lying. 'You have a
tail,' she said. 'I've never seen a man with a tail before. You have a
fine coat. You have four feet. You have long, pointed teeth, sharp
ears and a black nose, and yet you tell me you are a man.'
'It's very complicated,' I told her.
'It must be,' she said. 'I think I will run with you for a while since
you must attend to this errand. Perhaps we can discuss it as we go
along and you can explain this complicated thing to me.'
'If you wish,' I said, since I rather liked her and was glad by then
for any company, 'but I must warn you that I run very fast.'
'All wolves run very fast,' she sniffed.
And so, side by side, we ran off over the endless grassy plains in
search of the God Belar.
'Do you intend to run both day and night?' she asked me after we
had gone several miles.
'I will rest when it is needful,' I told her.
'I'm glad of that,' she said. Then she laughed, nipped at my
shoulder and scampered off some distance.
I began to consider the morality of my situation. Though my
companion looked quite delightful to me in my present form, I was
almost positive she would be less so once I resumed my proper
shape. Further, while it is undoubtedly a fine thing to be a father, I
was almost certain that a litter of puppies would prove an
embarrassment when I returned to my Master. Not only that, the puppies
would not be entirely wolves, and I had no desire to father a race of
monsters. But finally, since wolves mate for life, when I left her - as I
would of necessity be compelled to do - my sweet companion would
be abandoned, betrayed, left alone with a fitter of fatherless puppies,
subject to the scorn and ridicule of the other members of her pack.
propriety is a most important thing among wolves. Thus I resolved
to resist her advances on our journey in search of Belar.
I would not have devoted so much time here to this incident were
it not to help explain how insidiously the personality of the shapes