Chapter 12

Kensa had been waiting on Poro Poro Hill all day. It was cold, and the rain kept stopping and starting, which was somehow worse than if it had rained continuously. In all the time he had been here, not a single goat had come here to graze, let alone two at once. Why would they in this weather? But Lala wanted every popular grazing spot to be covered at all times, and he had happened to be standing near her when she was assigning wolves to each spot for the day. He shivered from the cold as he once again surveyed the empty hill.

Then, to Kensa’s amazement, he heard the sound of hooves on stone. A moment later, he caught sight of it, an adult female goat. He briefly worried that it might be a mother, but there appeared to be no children accompanying it, so if it was a mother, it wasn’t doing a very good job.

The goat was completely unaware of his presence, walking calmly in the direction of the very boulder he was hiding behind. Kensa had never been this close in front of a live goat before. He’d been behind one a couple of times, and he’d seen plenty of dead ones, but live goats rarely stayed still long enough for him to get a proper look. At this rate, the goat wouldn’t even have time to turn around before he—

No, he reminded himself. Lala had expressly forbidden them from killing individual goats. But what was he supposed to do, just sit here and watch it eat? Ask it how its day was going?

Maybe, Kensa thought, what Lala had meant was that he shouldn’t let any goats find out that he’d killed a lone one. That way, the Elder Goat wouldn’t get upset, and so neither would Lala. After all, hadn’t his mother always told him not to waste food? The goat was so, so close. All it would take was one lunge, his jaws around its delicious neck…

The goat’s panicked bleat lasted for less than a second. It lay on the ground, motionless at his feet.

Ordinarily, this was the point at which Kensa would run and tell the pack that he had killed a goat, and anyone who wanted some would follow him back here and eat it. Anything left over would be carried back to Baku Baku Valley for anyone who was hungry later. But something told Kensa that telling the pack about this might be the last mistake he would ever make.

All at once, it dawned on him what he had done. He’d broken the pack’s laws. Even if those laws hadn’t existed a few weeks ago, Lala had made it very clear what the penalty would be for anyone who broke them.

Kensa didn’t feel like eating anymore. Perhaps if he left the goat’s body in the forest or dropped it in a river, everyone would think it had been an accident? No, the bite marks on what had once been its throat were unmistakable.

Bari, it was said, had once eaten an entire goat in one bite. Kensa looked at the goat and tried to imagine all of it inside him at once. That wouldn’t work either.

No, he would have to hide the body somewhere and eat it bit by bit. Yes, that was the solution. He would tell Lala that he wanted to stay at Poro Poro Hill for a few more days, and so she didn’t need to send any other wolves up here. She might even admire his dedication for that, assuming she didn’t ask him too many questions.

Yoma had been gone for almost a full day by the time her friends started to worry about where she was. The last time they saw her, she’d told them she was going to Poro Poro Hill on her own. She had said that the grass tasted even better there just after it rained.

When Grandma heard that Yoma was missing, she promised to investigate. She knew of a cave on Poro Poro Hill where a certain goat and wolf had once stayed the night, but that cave was difficult to find if you didn’t already know it was there, and Yoma had no reason to stay on the hill for so long after the rain had cleared up. Just in case her fears were correct, it probably wouldn’t be wise to send any goats to investigate. Instead, she went directly to Baku Baku Valley, where she requested an audience with Lala.

“Good morning, your Elderliness,” Lala said, taking Grandma to the sloped area of Baku Baku Valley where the two of them had first discussed their original agreement. “How can I help you today?”

“A member of our herd, Yoma, disappeared on Poro Poro Hill yesterday,” Grandma said solemnly. “Her friends say that she went there alone.”

Lala froze. She narrowed her eyes in the direction of Poro Poro Hill, barely visible in the distance. “I see. One of my wolves has been acting strangely ever since I stationed him on Poro Poro Hill yesterday. It seems we now know why.” The wolf turned to Grandma and gave her a very fixed smile. “Please allow me to take care of this. I can assure you that after today, none of my wolves will dare to break our agreements ever again. I’ll see to it that the wolf responsible for this never gets a chance to.”

“Forgive me, but it was my understanding that you are the wolf responsible for the actions of the Baku Baku wolf pack,” Grandma said.

“I meant the wolf who killed the goat,” Lala said snappishly.

Grandma looked into Lala’s eyes. There was a chance that this was all part of some larger plan, that there would be another mishap, and then another, and after every time Lala would assure her that the wolf responsible would be punished, because she believed that Grandma would rather accept that than call off their agreements. But for now, at least, Grandma would assume good intentions.

“I understand,” she said at last. “If I may make one request, however, please do not harm the wolf who has done this. The damage has already been done, and causing further suffering will help no one.”

Now Lala looked surprised. “You’re joking, right? I know you do things differently over in Happy Goat Land, but surely you realise that any law I don’t enforce is an invitation for my wolves to openly defy me? How do you expect me to keep my side of the agreement if my wolves don’t fear the consequences if they disobey?”

“I had hoped that you would make them understand the necessity of our agreement without resorting to violence,” Grandma said. “The transgression was not against you, but against the Sawa Sawa goat herd, and we do not kill those who break our laws. The very thought is no less repugnant to us than the unfortunate incident itself.”

Lala sighed in frustration. “Look, if you can think of a better solution, one that will actually work, then I’m happy to try it. But trust me, letting Kensa off with just a warning will make this far more likely to happen again, and I’m holding you responsible for that if it happens.”

“I understand the gravity of the situation,” Grandma said. “I will think on this and return to you this evening. Please do not harm this wolf until then.”

Grandma returned to Sawa Sawa Mountain and told Tapu and Mii what had happened. She hadn’t told Yoma’s friends yet, as she wanted to deal with one thing at a time.

“I say we let the wolves figure this out on their own,” Tapu said. “That wolf knew what the consequences were for taking the life of a goat, but it did it anyway. Lala’s right that if you take away those consequences, there’ll be nothing to stop this from happening again. We can’t put that wolf’s life above the lives of all the goats who will die because of that.”

“But the threat of consequences wasn’t enough to stop this wolf from killing Yoma,” Mii said, “so obviously it isn’t working.”

“I think it will work fine once the wolves are reminded that those consequences exist,” Tapu said.

“No one has to die for them to be reminded of that,” Mii said.

“But if no one dies, then the consequences don’t exist,” Tapu said.

“Yoma is already gone,” Mii said. “Taking another life won’t bring her back, and it won’t make anything better. If we let Lala kill that wolf, it’s us who are responsible for that. We’d be no better than the wolf.”

Grandma wished they had time to send a message to Mei’s philosophy friends asking for advice. Although, on second thought, perhaps that would only make things even more complicated.

That evening, Grandma met with Lala at Baku Baku Valley for the second time that day. The wolf looked like she wasn’t getting enough sleep, which was how Grandma herself felt most days too.

“We’re keeping Kensa under guard in one of the caves,” Lala said. “Unless you’ve got any better ideas, he dies at dawn.”

“Does he regret what happened?” Grandma said.

Lala gave a tired smile. “Profusely.”

“Then I’ve got an idea that I think will work.” Grandma examined various stones on the ground until she found one that was suitably shaped, and then she told Lala what she could do with it.

Lala examined the stone and smiled. “Oh, Grandma, I like the way you think.”

Boro and the other wolves were gathered together in the central area of Baku Baku Valley. Lala stood on the raised platform alongside Kensa, who looked exceptionally unhappy to be there. “Kensa here has killed an unaccompanied goat,” Lala said. “As I made quite clear the other day, the punishment for this is death.”

Kensa looked as if he wanted to shrink into a grain of sand. Boro felt sorry for him, as did many of the watching wolves, Boro suspected. After all, what had Kensa done that most of them hadn’t done at some point in their lives? Even so, if Lala decided that Kensa deserved to die, Boro knew that the pack would respect that decision, and that they would think twice before breaking the agreements with the goats in the future. Whatever plan Grandma had concocted with Lala, Boro hoped it would work.

“However,” Lala said, “the Elder Goat of Sawa Sawa Mountain has put in a special request for me to show leniency. Since we rely so heavily on the services the goats provide to us, I thought we’d humour her on this occasion.” Lala pushed a flat stone to the edge of the raised platform so that everyone could see it. “This stone will determine Kensa’s fate. We will drop it from the high cliff, and if it lands with the smooth side up, Kensa’s crime will be entirely forgiven.” She smiled humourlessly. “Who can guess what happens to him if the rough side lands upward?”

It wasn’t a question, and no one answered it. Lala knocked the stone off the platform and pushed it to the steep cliff that overlooked the path down to the forest. Everyone gathered around to watch.

“Why don’t you do the honours?” she said to Kensa.

The stone sat right on the edge of the cliff, its smooth side facing upward. Hesitantly, trying desperately not to flip it onto its other side, Kensa nudged the stone over the edge. Two heartbeats later, they heard the loud clatter as it landed on the rocky path below, sliding some distance before coming to a halt. Everyone peered over the edge to see how it had landed, but it was too far away to make out any details.

“Good,” Lala said. “Now,” she said to Kensa, “lead the way, and don’t even think about trying to run.”

Kensa could scarcely put one foot in front of the other as he led the pack down the sloping path towards where the stone had landed. The tension in the air felt like a thick fog.

As they got closer, Lala said cheerily, “Remember, everyone, if the rough side landed upward, Kensa dies where he stands, as does anyone who tries to help him escape.”

When they reached the stone, Kensa stared at it fixedly, not moving. Everyone else peered around him, but it was hard to see the texture of the stone from this distance. “I think it’s rough,” someone behind Boro said.

Lala stepped forward and examined the stone. “It’s smooth,” she said. “It seems you have the Elder Goat to thank for your life, Kensa.”

Kensa started crying.

“Boro, put that stone in my cave,” Lala said. “For next time it’s needed.”

Boro clasped the stone in his jaws and followed Lala and the rest of the pack back up the path. Everyone was silent except for Kensa, who continued sobbing quietly to himself.

“Cheer up, Kensa,” Lala said. “Just think how lucky you are to be alive and breathing. I think more of us should take the time to appreciate that, don’t you?”

When they reached the central plateau, Lala wandered off somewhere on her own and the pack dispersed, still talking in hushed voices about what had just happened.

Boro took the stone into Lala’s cave and set it down in a corner, the smooth side still facing upward. He was just about to leave the cave and maybe get something to eat when a sudden curiosity overtook him. He looked back at the stone, still sitting where he had left it. Tentatively, he walked back over to it and nudged it with his paw. He flipped it onto its other side, and then again, and then a third time. Boro stared at the stone in amazement as he realised what Lala and Grandma had done. Both sides of the stone were smooth.

Grandma had just finished dictating to Ugui a message for Gabu and Mei, telling them everything that had happened over the past month, including her solution to the most recent dilemma.

“Is that everything?” Ugui said.

“One more thing,” Grandma said. “Could you also ask Takkan whether he thinks I did the right thing?” During her brief time in the Emerald Forest, Grandma had taken enough of an interest in Takkan’s philosophy group to know that there was unlikely to be a definitive answer to that question. In any case, she’d made her decision and would have to live with the consequences of that, regardless of what Takkan thought. Still, it couldn’t hurt to find out.

“Sure,” Ugui said. There was a pause. “Is it okay if I tell Lala where I’m going? It’s just that if she finds out I’ve left without telling her first, she might get suspicious.”

“Will she ask you to tell her everything I’ve said to Gabu and Mei?”

“No, she’s never interested in that. She just makes me tell her if there’s anything that might be relevant to her.”

“That’s fine,” Grandma said. “In any case, there’s nothing in these messages that I particularly want to keep secret from her.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to tell Gabu and Mei that I’ve been working with Lala?” Ugui said.

“You can tell them if you wish. I only thought it might be awkward for you to tell them in my words.”

“I don’t mind,” Ugui said. “I’ll tell them. I think they should know.”

Ugui took flight and headed for Baku Baku Valley, where she met up with Lala and told her she was taking a message from Grandma to the Emerald Forest.

Lala gave her a thoughtful look. “I’ve got a special request for you,” she said. “When you see Gabu, get him to tell you why he stopped eating all goats when he was only friends with one of them. Ask him…” Lala paused. “Ask him if there’s anything that would have convinced him to stop eating goats if he hadn’t met Mei. Naturally, the consequences will be dire if you tell anyone that I told you to ask him this. Make Gabu believe that you’re asking out of your own curiosity.”

“I understand,” Ugui said. “Can I ask why you want to know these things?”

“You may not,” Lala said simply.

When Ugui left Baku Baku Valley, she spent several minutes flying eastward, towards the mountain. When she could no longer see Lala, she circled back around and flew to Sawa Sawa Mountain. There she found Grandma and told her what Lala had said.

The Elder’s eyes widened. “I see,” she said. “It sounds to me as if Lala wants the same thing that we do, but she doesn’t want us to know that she wants it.”

“What, to convince the other wolves to not want to eat goats anymore?” Ugui said. “Isn’t it more likely to be some kind of trick? Perhaps she wants to know what kind of things you might do to convince the wolves so that she can stop you. If she really wanted them to stop eating goats, she could just tell them to stop, right?”

“I’m not so certain,” Grandma said. “When I spoke with Lala earlier today, she said a few things that suggested to me that her position as leader isn’t as stable as she would like it to be. When you ask those questions to Gabu, tell him it’s me who’s asking. Or better yet, tell him the truth, that Lala told you to ask. I think the answers Lala receives will be more useful to her if Gabu understands the context.”

When Ugui had gone, Grandma marvelled to herself at the notion of the leader of the Baku Baku wolf pack asking her grandchild’s husband how she could convince the other wolves not to want to eat goats. None of that would have made the slightest bit of sense to the Grandma of just two years ago. It gave her hope that things were really starting to change for the better.