As she followed currents, she listened to the news the Sharkgard and Orcasgard passed along to her. And she waited for the right moment.

Other forms of terra indigene referred to her Elemental form as Ocean. Among her kin, she was known as Alantea.

And humans, those two-legged upstarts, called her domain the Atlantik.

CHAPTER 25

Windsday, Juin 20

The Lakeside Wolfgard knew how to hunt deer together, and they knew how to fight together to defend the Courtyard, but they didn’t know much about hunting bison until they tried to round them up. After chasing one of the yearlings, the pack made it clear that this wasn’t an animal they wanted to hunt unless they were very hungry and had no other choice. In fact, the only Wolf who really wanted to chase bison was Skippy. The juvenile’s suicidal enthusiasm was one reason that Simon decided to send four of the bison to Talulah Falls as a gesture of friendship to the terra indigene currently living there.

Unlike the Wolves, who didn’t know how to hunt bison, the bison already knew how to defend themselves against Wolves. But they weren’t prepared for a Grizzly dressed in a T-shirt and jeans to jump toward them and roar, and when faced with a small tornado that trotted after them, they stopped fighting the Wolves’ efforts to herd them into the truck.

Tired and thirsty, Simon watched Jerry Sledgeman drive away with the bison. <Well, it’s done,> he said when Blair joined him.

Blair shook out his fur. <Boone Hawkgard says there is enough room in various freezers to store half of the meat from the yearling the Sanguinati brought down. The other half of the meat will be available now to all of us, including the human pack.>

Simon sighed. <Meg didn’t like the bison burgers. I don’t think Ruthie or Merri Lee did either.>

<Their mates ate what they left on their plates. We can sell bison burgers and hunks of roasted meat at Meat-n-Greens. Kowalski and Debany will eat them. So will Captain Burke and the Shady Burke if we allow them to visit again.>

<The humans are another pack who want to eat from the land inside the Courtyard.> Simon headed for the Pony Barn, where Meg had watched the “roundup” from a safe place.

<They eat like Wolves and gather in numbers that rival the Crowgard in any Courtyard.> Blair said nothing for a moment. <How many humans can live in that pack? How many will want the supplies that come into the Market Square? We can’t bring down more deer to feed another pack. The herd wouldn’t produce enough offspring to make up for that.>

He could accept for himself being hungry some days. But not Sam. Not Meg. Not the other terra indigene young who lived in the Courtyard.

<Our human pack has been sensible so far.> Of course, hunger could drive out sense. But that was a maybe problem. Food of all kinds was growing in the Courtyard, and there was plenty of meat, even if things like pork and beef were in short supply until they received the next delivery from a terra indigene settlement that raised a few of those animals. And how the human pups drank milk! He’d run out of milk for Sam, and Meg didn’t have any either until the earth native truck made the next delivery. They couldn’t ask for more from their current sources, so they would all have to make do with a little less.

Except Sam and Meg.

<I’m going to the swimming hole,> Blair said.

He’d like to do that too, but he headed for Meg when she stepped out of the Pony Barn, and Blair went on without him.

“You must be hot,” Meg said, tunneling her fingers through his fur.

Yes, he was.

“Where is Blair going?”

This was one of Meg’s tricks: asking questions when he couldn’t answer because he was in Wolf form.

Jester Coyotegard stepped out of the barn, grinning. “He’s going for a swim.”

Meg looked at Simon. “Don’t you want to go for a swim?”

Of course he did. He was hot and his fur was dusty. He gave her a hopeful look.

“No. I’m not hot, and I don’t want to do the Squeaky Dance.”

Simon sighed. This day was full of disappointments.

“I’ll wait for you here,” Meg said.

“Which is convenient,” Jester added, “since your clothes are in the back of Meg’s BOW.”

Grumbling to himself, Simon trotted to the swimming hole. The cool water tasted good and felt even better. And since there weren’t any human females nearby to get all squeaky about it, when he’d paddled around enough as a Wolf, he shifted to his human form and enjoyed floating on his back while cool water played over sun-warmed skin.

• • •

Meg returned to the folding chair that Jester had set out for her. She picked up another deck of prophecy cards that she’d brought to show the Coyote. Then she sighed. “Simon really wanted to have bison.”

“Your seeing and his wanting made it happen.” Jester repositioned the other chair and sat beside her. “That brought the bison here, where they’ve done a lot of good. The terra indigene in Talulah Falls are talking to Ming Beargard and the Steve Ferryman because the bison meat is the first thing that has made them happy since they came to the Falls to control the humans. Henry, Elliot, Vlad, and Nyx have gone to Talulah Falls with Jerry Sledgeman to deliver the Courtyard’s bison, and the Steve Ferryman and Ming are going to join them there for a meeting with the terra indigene leaders and some humans.”

“How do you know who is going to be at that meeting?”

“I have my sources.” Jester winked at her. “I think Talulah Falls will be under new management soon. Isn’t that the phrase humans use? So you showed me the city deck, which isn’t so interesting, and the nature deck, which I liked. What’s that one?”