Chapter 11

The three goats who had fled didn’t return that night, nor the following morning. Grandma hadn’t expected them to. She had another busy day ahead of her comforting surviving relatives.

On top of that, the events of that night had divided the herd on whether continuing their attempts to defend themselves was a good idea. Many in the herd saw what had happened to Jiro (the first goat who had fled), Yori and Nobu as a reminder of what could happen to anyone who tried to run, while others took it as evidence that Grandma’s plan to face the wolves head-on was unsafe.

“It’s not how Elder Chōro would have done things,” Bima said. “My little Aiju is traumatised from being so close to the wolves; I was so scared that something would happen to her.”

Aiju, who was playing with her friend Yū a short distance away, didn’t appear traumatised to Grandma. As a matter of fact, she recalled seeing the young goat trying to push her way to the front of the group to help fight off the wolves last night. She decided not to comment on this.

“The wolves’ leader has given her word that young children and their mothers will not be harmed,” Grandma patiently explained. “Neither of you were in any danger last night.”

“I hope you’ll forgive me for saying so,” Bima said, “but I don’t think it’s responsible for you to stake the lives of our children on the promises of wolves.”

“I’m doing everything that can be done to keep all of us, especially our children, as safe as possible under the circumstances,” Grandma said. “The wolves have good reasons not to break their agreements with us. I know better than to trust them unconditionally, however, which is why I asked the children and mothers to move to the centre of the group rather than isolate themselves as the leader of the wolves suggested.”

Bima was about to say something else, but she was distracted when Yū ran giggling between the two adult goats. Aiju, following close behind, was shouting, “Come back here, you nasty wolf! I’m gonna get you with my horns and kick you!”

“Aiju, come with me!” Bima said.

“Just a minute,” Aiju said, still chasing her friend.

“I don’t think this is healthy,” Bima said to Grandma. “We should be teaching our children to run away from wolves, not to attack them.”

“You’re right,” Grandma said. “Aiju,” she called gently.

The young goat stopped her game and looked at Grandma as if worried she had done something wrong.

“You’re doing a wonderful job of keeping the herd safe,” Grandma said, smiling kindly at Aiju and Yū, “but remember that when the wolves are here in real life, you must leave fighting them to the adults.”

“I know,” Aiju said. “It’s just a game.”

“Real life isn’t a game,” Bima said. “Say goodbye to Yū.”

While Aiju was busy saying goodbye to her friend, Grandma said quietly to Bima, “There’s no harm in pretending. Children know that games aren’t real, but playing games can help them to understand and cope with the real world better.”

Bima looked at the two young children, her expression softening slightly. “Come now, Aiju. You can play with Yū again tomorrow.”

Rōjin approached Grandma after Bima had left. “It seems you were right, Mari,” he said, sounding tired. “Fleeing from the wolves has never been free from danger in the past. Perhaps it’s time we tried something different.”

Grandma nodded. “It won’t be easy, but I remain hopeful that things will not always be like this. Perhaps one day, we will need neither to fight nor flee from the wolves.”

Rōjin studied her shrewdly. “I don’t know about that, but in defending ourselves, at least, you have my full support.”

Mii was not looking forward to her visit to the wolves that day. “Am I supposed to just pretend that nothing happened?” she said.

“No,” Grandma said. “Remind the wolves that you are a person who was harmed by their actions last night. Have you managed to make friends with any of them besides Boro yet?”

“There’s Tomo and his mate Kazu, although she barely speaks to me. Tomo’s the one who thought Boro might be giving information to Lala and told me about it last month. Other than those two, not really. Some of the other wolves are less disrespectful to me than others, but I wouldn’t call any of them friends.”

“That’s another thing to work on if you’re able to,” Grandma said. “Try to stay on good terms with Tomo as well. Any wolf willing to aid us, especially if it’s to the detriment of his pack, is a valuable ally.”

When Mii arrived at Baku Baku Valley, she showed herself in without waiting for anyone to greet her. She had long since stopped counting, but this must be around her eighth healing visit, and she knew by now what was expected of her. The other wolves regarded her lazily as she made her way to what everyone now thought of as her healing cave, in which she always kept supplies of a few useful herbs ready to use. One of the wolves slunk off to tell Boro that she was here, so that he could act as her chaperone once again. At this point, Mii probably didn’t need anyone looking after her, but it was a good excuse to talk to Boro without anyone overhearing.

When she and Boro were alone together, the first thing he said was, “I’m so sorry! You must hate me after what happened last night.”

“Why would I hate you?” Mii said, perplexed.

“I was right there next to Lala and I didn’t do anything. I even told her that those goats who ran away were safe to hunt.”

“I don’t think you did anything wrong, Boro,” Mii said. “Grandma told you not to interfere with Lala’s plans. I certainly don’t hate you just because you were there.”

“I should talk to Lala about this, tell her to stop,” Boro said. “She already knows that I’m”—he lowered his voice—“helping you guys, so what have we got to lose?”

“Openly siding with us could still be dangerous,” Mii said. “If you make a nuisance of yourself, Lala might decide to do something anyway. We still don’t know why she’s letting you help us. Besides, if Lala notices that you aren’t scared of her finding out about you, she might realise that you already know that she knows, and that could get Ugui in trouble.”

“I’ve got to do something, though,” Boro said.

“Before the attack last night, did Lala say anything to the pack about us defending ourselves or me refusing to treat anyone who got hurt during the attack?”

“No, she didn’t,” Boro said. “I guess she didn’t want me to figure out that she knows what’s going on in Sawa Sawa Mountain. Stars above,” he muttered, “I’m starting to lose track of who knows what now.”

“Can you start spreading the rumour that their ‘healer goat’ isn’t going to treat anyone who gets hurt while attacking us? It might also help if you reminded everyone what happened to Giro’s ear.”

“That’s a good idea,” Boro said. “Wait, how do you know what happened to Giro’s ear? I only found out myself a few weeks ago.”

Mii smiled. “Oh, it was Mei’s mother, Grandma’s daughter, who bit it off just before she died. Didn’t you know?”

“Huh,” was all Boro said in response to that.

The first wolf who came to see her that day had a sprained leg. “How did this happen?” Mii said to her.

“Caught it on something while on a hunt,” the wolf answered gruffly.

“What were you hunting?” Mii said. The wolf looked at her suspiciously. “Lala wants me to collect information for her about the most common causes of injuries.”

“Rabbits,” the wolf said. Her gaze softened. “Happened a couple days ago. I wasn’t there for what happened last night.”

“Let’s get this sorted out, shall we?” Mii said.

Later that day, Mii received a visit from Gururi while his admirers waited outside the cave. “I’ve got a sore back. Please could you help me with it?” he said, pronouncing the word “please” as if it were in a foreign language.

“Of course, Gururi,” Mii said pleasantly, and began to work. After a while, she said, “I was just wondering, do you know if any of those goats survived last night? Their families are sick with worry, not knowing if they’ll come back. It would help them to know for certain one way or the other.”

The large wolf looked uncertain. “I got one of them,” he said slowly. “Someone else must have got the other two.”

Mii paused in her work for long enough that Gururi looked around at her. “I see,” she said. “Thank you for letting me know.” She resumed treating his back.

There was another pause. “It’s just how things are, you know,” Gururi said. “You can’t blame a wolf for hunting goats.”

“I guess not,” Mii said.

“They…” Gururi hesitated. “They died quickly. No suffering.”

“That’s good to know.” Mii gave him a half-smile.

The next wolf to visit her was Lala. “How can I help you?” Mii said to her.

“Good morning, Mii,” Lala said. “What’s this I hear about you collecting information about injuries? I don’t recall asking you to do that.”

“I anticipated your instructions,” Mii said. “I thought it might be useful information to you.”

“I see. Some people are also saying that you will refuse to honour your side of our agreement for certain kinds of injuries.”

“Only if I have a conflict of interest,” Mii said. “I’m sure your wolves would be reassured to know that they’re not putting their lives in the hooves of someone who resents their actions in some way. Perhaps that whole situation can be avoided if their wise leader directs them to hunt less risky prey.”

Lala nodded thoughtfully and smiled, but when she spoke her voice was icy. “You will honour your agreement in its entirety or the deal is off. Both of the deals.”

“I’ve made my decision,” Mii said. “If you have a problem with it, speak to Grandma. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got patients waiting.”

Lala stalked out of the healing cave. Tomo walked in a moment later.

“What did you say to her?” Tomo said, looking back at the entrance Lala had left through. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her that annoyed.”

“I told her that if any wolves get themselves hurt trying to attack an entire goat herd at once, I’m not going to heal them. Grandma’s orders.”

“Is it likely that wolves will get hurt?”

“Honestly, if Lala tries something like that again, I hope so. The only option we have left at this point is to defend ourselves. If we can’t feel safe in our own home, where can we feel safe?”

“I wanted to apologise for that,” Tomo said. “I know we have to eat, but I don’t think Lala went about it in the right way. All of you looked terrified last night.”

“Unfortunately, there’s no good way of doing it. If wolves want to eat goats, goats will suffer. Believe me, I know a lot of clever people who spent a long time looking for a better solution, but there isn’t one.”

“I’m sorry,” Tomo said. “I don’t know what to suggest.”

“It’s all right. I’m glad to have at least some friends here, so thank you for being a friendly face. I just wish more wolves would remember that goats are people too.”

The herd continued their preparations for further attacks. They no longer practised every night, since having everyone be tired wouldn’t help matters, but they did so often enough to keep everyone feeling ready for when the wolves came. The patrols continued every night and, just in case Lala decided that the herd was too well-defended at night, whenever most of the herd was gathered during the daytime too.

Grandma expected the next attack to come a week after the previous one, just before Mii’s next healing visit. She had Tapu strengthen the patrol that night and make sure everyone stayed awake, but in the end, no attack came. Boro reported the next day that Lala was “waiting for the right time,” but that she had given no clues about when that time would be.

Lala pushed stones around with her paw atop her high pinnacle on Baku Baku Valley, each representing one of her plans for hunting goats without breaking any of Grandma’s ridiculous rules. Currently, thanks to Grandma continuing to make life difficult for her, most of these stones were now in the pile she thought of as “non-viable.” Agreeing to the rule against hunting small groups of goats had definitely been a mistake, but she couldn’t go back on that rule without inviting further intrusions by the Gara Gara wolf pack into her territory. Having to fight them off would be yet another thing for her to deal with on top of everything else, and it would make her wolves even more dependent on the healer goat’s visits.

She wished she could just tell her wolves, “No more eating goats,” and perhaps get another few favours out of Grandma in return. That would solve a lot of her problems right now, but it might also turn out to be a fatal mistake. It had taken her months to convince Giro’s old pack that she was a leader worth following. Even now, she knew there were some wolves who still believed that a male leader would be better, although they kept those thoughts to themselves for fear of what might happen to anyone she found conspiring against her. If she forbade them from eating goats outright, that fear might not be enough to keep them in line. As such, that plan didn’t even get its own stone.

A dusty old pebble caught her eye. She walked over to it and rolled it around a little with her paw. That pebble had been an old, half-baked idea that she had considered only briefly before rejecting. After rejecting so many other ideas, however, it was starting to look like a sensible plan. Well, maybe “sensible” was pushing it a bit. She settled on “potentially viable.” It certainly wasn’t the main plan she should pursue, but it wouldn’t hurt to put steps in place towards achieving it, just in case it turned out to be the best option after all. She rolled the pebble into a row containing a couple of other, larger stones. She looked at it for a moment, and then rolled it slightly further away from the other two. Still something to keep in mind, but not as important right now. To the larger stone on the left, she said, “Let’s give you a try, shall we?”

Soon, she was down at forest level and making her way towards Fuka Fuka Valley, one of the goats’ main grazing spots. If you wanted to find a goat that had strayed from the herd, Fuka Fuka Valley was the best place to look. Of course, a single isolated goat wasn’t much use nowadays, but it was a start. What she really needed was to find out exactly how often multiple goats went to graze there at the same time.

When she arrived at Fuka Fuka Valley, there were no goats there. Unperturbed, Lala found a suitable hiding place and began waiting. Whenever the wind changed, she moved to a different hiding place to ensure that she was always downwind from the main part of the valley. She passed the time by watching the clouds.

After a while, a middle-aged goat came strolling in from Sawa Sawa Mountain and started to eat grass unhurriedly. Lala continued to watch from her hiding place, once again regretting the agreement that prevented her from hunting this goat. Watching the goat graze was incredibly boring, and more than once Lala almost fell asleep. She went back to watching the clouds, which had been more interesting anyway, and casting only the occasional glance towards the goat.

What felt to Lala like hours later, the goat looked towards Sawa Sawa Mountain and raised her head in what appeared to be a greeting. Lala looked in that direction and saw two more goats join the first in the valley.

Perfect, Lala thought, and she began to creep through the trees towards the goats. They were so distracted talking with one another that she was confident they wouldn’t notice her there until it was too late.

She was just about to leap from her cover and charge at one of the goats when a few words from their conversation reached her on the breeze. “…is how much time she’s spending with those wolves,” Goat Two was saying. Lala stopped moving and pricked her ears to listen.

“I think bad influences are to blame,” Goat Three said. “Did you see how friendly the Elder was with that wolf that night?”

“Now that you mention it,” Goat One said, “I wonder if that might explain what happened with her grandson.”

“You know, she always used to spend a lot of time over by Para Para Fields, colluding with the Elder there,” Goat Three said. “Perhaps she picked up some funny ideas.”

“Not that there’s anything wrong with the goats from Para Para Fields,” Goat Two said.

“No, of course not,” Goat Three said. “It’s just that they do things differently over there. Not how Elder Chōro would have done them.”

“You’re right, Elder Chōro would never have stood for any of this,” Goat One said. “He knew better than to act friendly with wolves. Look where it’s got us.”

“You can scarcely get a decent night’s sleep these days,” Goat Three said. “Things were never this bad when he was in charge.”

After that, they chatted about things Lala had no interest in while Goat Two and Goat Three grazed. She snuck away and made her way back to Baku Baku Valley.

So, Grandma has a little coup of her own to deal with, Lala thought. She turned her mind to figuring out what she could do with this information. If Grandma was challenged for leadership of the Sawa Sawa goat herd—Lala wasn’t certain how goats went about doing this, only that it was, in all likelihood, exceptionally boring—that would almost certainly put an end to their agreements. That would not be good.

When Lala returned to Baku Baku Valley, she called her wolves to an assembly. “Listen up. We’re going to try hunting goats a little differently from now on. While they’re wasting their time and energy expecting us to hunt them at Sawa Sawa Mountain, we’re going to camp out at their favourite grazing spots. Fuka Fuka Valley, Poro Poro Hill, you know the places I mean. Find somewhere to hide and spend the day there. Bring a friend if you want, but make sure only one of you is hunting at a time. Wait until there are two or more goats, and don’t reveal yourself until they’re distracted or about to leave. Remember that a goat can’t run as fast when it’s full up on grass. Got all that?”

“Hei!” the pack chorused.

“Good. Let’s keep this nice and simple for those of you who are numerically challenged: One wolf means two or more goats. No eating children or female goats who have children with them. As always, any wolf who breaks these rules dies, so follow the golden rule above all else.”

“Hei!”

After she had dismissed the pack, Lala started up a conversation with Lili and Lulu. Without being at all obvious about it, she led them to a seemingly private spot that just happened to be quite close to where Boro was sitting.

“Have you heard about what’s happening in the goat herd right now?” Lala said during a rare lull in the conversation. As she had expected, Boro’s ears pricked up. “I heard that some of the goats aren’t at all happy with the way their Elder Goat is leading them. They think she and the healer goat are spending too much time around us and not respecting the traditional goatly ways.” She put a sarcastic emphasis on that last phrase.

“Really?” Lili said, enamoured by the new piece of gossip.

“Well, they’re right, aren’t they?” Lulu said.

“Come again?” Lala said.

“You told us we’re taking advantage of them, getting more out of the deal than they are,” Lulu said. “So they’re right to question their leader, aren’t they?”

Lala gave a musical bark of laughter. “I suppose so. It seems not all goats are as stupid as they look. But the really interesting part is…” She leaned in closer as if about to whisper. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Boro strain his ears. When she spoke, she made sure it was just loud enough for him to hear. “The Elder’s grandchild is the one who Gabu ran away with.” Lili and Lulu both made surprised gasps. Boro appeared unaffected. “So some of the goats are wondering if being friendly to wolves runs in the family.”

“If that’s the case, I’m surprised the family has lasted so long,” Lili said, giggling.

“Well, the Elder and her grandchild are the last surviving members,” Lala said, “and I hear the grandchild isn’t likely to have baby goats any time soon, if you know what I mean. All of this is strictly between us, you understand.”

Boro met up with Grandma, Mii and Tapu on the outskirts of Sawa Sawa Mountain, far enough from the other goats that they wouldn’t be alarmed by the presence of a wolf. He told them as much as he could remember of what he’d overheard Lala saying.

“I see,” Grandma said. “Thank you for telling me.”

“What are you going to do?” Boro said.

“I don’t think there’s anything I can do to change the way some goats think of me,” Grandma said wearily.

“But what if they stop doing what you say?” Boro said.

“Then that’s their own business,” Grandma said. “All I ask of them is to do what’s in their own best interest. If every goat keeps themself safe, then the herd stays safe.”

“A goat herd isn’t like a wolf pack,” Mii said gently. “We don’t punish people who break the rules, or fight each other to see who gets to be in charge for however long it takes before someone else defeats us. Grandma’s in charge because she’s the oldest and wisest. That’s what being the Elder means. The herd will respect that, even if they don’t always agree with the way she does things.”

“What I don’t understand,” Tapu said, “is why Lala told you these things.” Boro and the other two goats looked at him in surprise. “She knows you’re telling us things, right? So why isn’t she being more careful about what you find out?”

“She didn’t exactly tell me,” Boro said. “I just heard her telling Lili and Lulu.”

“Who are they?” Mii said.

“They’re her friends, sort of. I’m not sure if you’ve met them. They, um, gossip a lot.”

“Lala said these things about me to two wolves who have a tendency to gossip while you were nearby?” Grandma said thoughtfully.

“You don’t think she wanted us to find out, do you?” Mii said.

“I have no idea,” Grandma said.

“Maybe she’s making it up to try and stir up trouble,” Tapu said. “That’s what I’d do if I were her.”

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Boro said. He told the goats what Lala had said prior to that, about the wolves hunting in the goats’ favourite grazing spots.

“Huh,” Mii said. “Well, at least it’s back to what we’re used to.”

“Does that mean I should stop training the herd?” Tapu said. He sounded almost disappointed.

“It can’t hurt to keep in practice,” Grandma said. “Remind everyone to stay alert when grazing too.” To Boro she said, “Lala knows that you would tell us everything she told the pack, so we’re not revealing anything by responding to it.”