Chapter 13

Dear Grandma,

We’re sorry that everything isn’t going as well as you had hoped, but we’re amazed by everything you’ve managed to achieve in such a short time. I’m so proud to call you my grandmother.

Things are going fine over here. We’ve finished Greta’s play, and now Kon-kon wants to sing in Tanya’s new play. Tanya didn’t mean for it to be a musical, but Kon-kon asked her really nicely and she said yes. Now Takkan is teaching her how to sing, and she’s amazingly talented.

Now that Kon-kon is a little older, Gabu and I can leave her with Takkan for a while if we need to, so we were wondering if the two of us could visit you at Sawa Sawa Mountain one of these days. We’re sorry that you still wouldn’t get to meet Kon-kon, but we’re really looking forward to seeing you again and we think this would be the best way.

Love,

Gabu and Mei

Ugui waited as Grandma and Mii excitedly discussed the prospect of Gabu and Mei coming to visit. Mii hadn’t seen them in months, and for Grandma it had been almost a year since her brief visit to the Emerald Forest.

When they were ready for her to continue, Ugui said, “About the thing with that wolf, Takkan says it’s complicated. Utili-tarian-ism,” she pronounced carefully, “says it would be better to let the wolf die, but Takkan says that utili…” she trailed off uncertainly, “that theory says that about all carnivores. According to de-ont-ology, it was wrong to lie to the wolves because it means they can’t make informed decisions. But then Takkan said to ignore those theories, because he would have done the same thing you did if he was in your position and had thought of it.”

“That’s good to hear,” Grandma said. “What about Lala’s questions for Gabu?”

“Lala’s first question was about why he stopped eating all goats instead of just Mei. He says it was because he didn’t want to make Mei sad. As for the second question, about how Lala could convince the wolves not to want to hunt goats, Gabu and Mei spent a long time discussing that. It took them a few days to figure out an answer; that’s why it took me so long to get back.”

“What did they decide?” Mii said.

“Gabu’s first plan was for Lala to tell the wolves the whole story of why he ended up running away with Mei. That’s a big part of what convinced their neighbours in the Emerald Forest to trust Gabu. But Mei was worried that wouldn’t work because of all the complicated feelings the wolves might have about Gabu. Eventually, they decided that the best plan was for the wolves to make friends with more goats. If it’s just you they’re friends with, Mii, then they can think of you as an exception, the only goat they don’t want to eat, but if they’re friends with more goats, they’ll start to realise that all goats deserve not to be eaten.”

Mii and Grandma looked at each other. “That might work,” Mii said quietly, as if saying it too loud might make it untrue.

“That’s everything I’ve got,” Ugui said. “I’ll go and let Boro and Lala know.”

“I’m just gonna go and get something to eat,” Boro said, walking nervously to the entrance to Baku Baku Valley and down towards the forest.

Zack watched him go from where he and Beach were lying together. “You know, I’m kind of worried about Boro,” he said. “This is the fourth day in a row he’s gone hunting early in the morning, and he never seems to want anyone to go with him.”

“He’s always going off alone,” Beach said without lifting his head, still lying on the warm rock with his eyes closed.

“Right,” Zack said. “It’s been a tough year and a half for him. First Gabu left us, and then Giro and Bari and the others, and now everything’s changing again. Wolves are almost getting killed just for hunting goats. It can’t be a good time for a young wolf like him to be growing up in.”

There was a long pause, during which Zack wondered if Beach had gone back to sleep. Then his friend said, “Go after him?”

“Yeah,” Zack said, “I think we should.”

They took a moment to stretch fully awake, and then ran to the path leading down to the forest. “Hey, Boro, wait for us!” Zack called, but Boro was already nowhere to be seen anywhere along the path. “He must have been in a real hurry.”

“Yeah,” Beach said.

They followed Boro’s trail a good way into the forest, heading in a straight line in the general direction of the river. It seemed he’d gone a lot further than most wolves would normally go to hunt this early in the morning. Perhaps he’d found the trail of a deer or a pair of goats and was going out of his way to hunt them. If it was a deer, he would surely appreciate their help to catch it. Zack and Beach slowed down and moved quietly to make sure they didn’t scare off whatever Boro was hunting.

Boro’s tracks began to smell more recent the more they followed them, but still there was no sign of him. The footprints were evenly spaced and close together, which meant he hadn’t been running, so Zack expected they would catch up to him eventually.

“So, uh,” Zack said to Beach as they walked, “what do you think of the way things have been going lately?” It was a dangerous question to ask, which was why Zack had waited to ask it until they were alone in the forest.

“Hunting goats is too tricky now. Not worth bothering anymore,” Beach said.

“Yeah,” Zack said. “Look what almost happened to Kensa. I mean, having a healer is nice and all, but we managed all right without one before.”

“No outsiders to worry about,” Beach said.

“They would’ve gotten tired eventually and moved on to bothering some other pack,” Zack said. “That’s what always used to happen back in our parents’ day.” He was quiet for a moment. “Giro and Bari would’ve fought them off.”

“They would’ve gone running and screaming,” Beach laughed.

Zack shushed him and signalled for him to stop. “I think I heard something.”

Faintly, from just beyond the trees ahead of them, there came the sound of someone talking. It sounded like Boro. Zack crept forward until he caught sight of the young wolf. He was facing away from them, his head bent low to the ground, and he was talking to something in a low voice. Part of Zack wanted to call out, but another part of him told him that something was wrong, and he should wait and listen. He focused his ears to hear what Boro was saying.

“That’s great news. By the way, Lala said she’d give us the day off from hunting, so you can tell Grandma that it should be safe for the goats to graze today.”

“Boro?” Zack said loudly. The young wolf’s head snapped around, his eyes wide and fearful. A small brown bird that had been concealed in front of Boro took flight at once.

“Zack!” Boro said. “I… I can explain…”

Beach ran forward to see what the fuss was about. “What’s wrong?” he said.

“He was talking to a bird,” Zack said, not taking his eyes from Boro, “sending messages to the goats about it being safe for them to graze today.”

Beach looked from Boro to Zack and back again. “Boro is a traitor?” he said.

“No!” Boro said, starting to panic. “I only wanted what was best. For everyone, I mean.”

“It looks like it,” Zack said to Beach. How could Boro do this to them, to his own pack? No wonder he’d been acting so strange these past months. It was Gabu’s fault—it had to be. Boro had looked up to him so much, and now here Boro was, siding with the goats. At least that explained how the goats had been so well prepared for them lately. “Look, Boro, Lala is going to want you dead when she finds out about this. I don’t want to see that happen to you. If you leave now, we’ll wait an hour before telling her. Go to wherever Gabu is and…be happy with him there, okay?”

For a moment, Boro looked like he really would do that, but then he shook his head. “I need to talk to Lala. I can explain it to her.”

Zack shook his head sadly. He would miss Boro, but at this point there was nothing they could do.

Boro was silent as he followed Zack towards Baku Baku Valley, Beach following behind him in case he tried to run. His best friends in the pack now thought he was a traitor. Knew he was a traitor, he corrected himself. This must be how Gabu had felt when everyone had found out about his friendship with Mei. Gabu hadn’t even betrayed the pack, not really, and Giro had still tried to have him killed because of it. This situation was so much worse.

When they arrived at Baku Baku Valley, most of the wolves were just starting to get up for the day. “What’s going on?” someone said, noticing the way Zack was leading Boro.

“We found Boro passing secret messages to the goats,” Zack said gravely. “Go and fetch Lala.”

Murmurs rippled throughout the pack as the news of Boro’s betrayal began to spread. Sensing that something unusual was going on, wolves began to gather from all over Baku Baku Valley, asking each other whether the rumours were true. By the time Lala arrived, almost the entire pack was present and knew what Boro had done.

Zack left Boro with Beach—with the eyes of the entire pack on him, there was no way Boro could have escaped—and went to tell Lala exactly what he’d seen. Boro’s only hope was that Lala would be merciful for the same reason she had allowed him to continue betraying the pack all this time, whatever that reason was.

Lala looked down at him from the raised platform, in much the same way as she’d looked at Kensa when he’d first been brought before her after she found out about his transgression. The watching wolves stopped talking.

“Boro,” she said calmly, “is it true that you were passing information to the Elder Goat this morning?”

Boro shakily nodded his head. “H-hei.”

“Could you tell us exactly what you said to her?”

“I told her that today is our day off from hunting, so it’s safe for them to graze,” Boro said. There was no point in lying, not when Zack had already told her everything.

“And is this the first time you’ve shared our pack’s secrets with the goats?”

Boro hesitated. “No,” he said.

Lala smiled. “Good. That means you’ve been following my orders. Well done, Boro.”

Boro stopped himself from saying, “Huh?” just in time.

To the rest of the pack, Lala said, “I’m afraid there has been a slight misunderstanding. I ordered Boro to insinuate himself into the confidences of the Sawa Sawa goat herd a couple of months ago. I’m glad to see that he’s finally been able to make some progress with that. Nicely done, giving the goats some useless piece of information to make them believe they can trust you.”

For a moment, Boro thought to himself, Wait, did she really ask me to do that? before remembering that no, she definitely hadn’t. “Uh, thank you,” he said meekly. He looked into Lala’s eyes, which stared calmly back at him. “I really appreciate it.”

Lala was just about to say something else when Beach interrupted, “There’s a goat!” Everyone turned just in time to see Grandma trying in vain to conceal herself behind a boulder at the entrance to Baku Baku Valley. Had she come here to try and rescue him?

“Well, well, well,” Lala purred. “If it isn’t the Elder of Sawa Sawa Mountain herself. Take her to my cave. I think it’s time the two of us had a word in private.”

Before Grandma could think what else to do, wolves had surrounded her and were herding her towards a cave in the back wall of the plateau. She knew that coming straight to Baku Baku Valley had been a risky decision, but what else could she have done after Ugui had told her that Boro had been discovered?

“Thank you,” Lala said to the wolves as they backed Grandma into the cave. “Leave us now.”

“Hei,” the wolves said, and they left Grandma alone in the cave with the leader of the Baku Baku wolf pack.

“Well,” Lala said, “now you know that Boro has been betraying you all along. I had hoped to make further use of him, but I suppose that won’t be possible anymore, will it?”

“Boro hasn’t been betraying us,” Grandma said, “although that was a very convincing story you told the pack to get him out of trouble.”

“Of course he’s been betraying you,” Lala said. “How else do you think I’ve been staying one step ahead of all of your plans?”

“Boro has not been betraying us,” Grandma repeated calmly. “I would, however, like to know why for these past few months you have tolerated him acting against your interests.”

Lala stared at Grandma thoughtfully. Slowly, she said, “What do you mean, ‘these past few months?’ If what you believe were true, which it isn’t, today would be the first time I would have found out about Boro sending messages to you.”

“I mean that you’ve known about Boro’s association with us since before all of this began,” Grandma said, “and yet you’ve done nothing to prevent him from helping us.”

“Nonsense,” Lala said, becoming slightly flustered. “Boro has been acting under my orders.”

“If you will allow me to speculate, is it because Boro is a good young wolf, who perhaps reminds you a little of your late brother, and you couldn’t bring yourself to punish him simply for making friends? Is it because you regret what happened with Gabu?”

Lala glared at Grandma. “How could you possibly know that I knew he was helping you?” she hissed. “Did… did someone tell you?”

“Who might have told me?” Grandma said, remaining calm in the face of the increasingly aggravated wolf.

“You know who, don’t you?” Lala said. “Answer me!”

“If you mean the poor young warbler whose wife you threatened, then yes,” Grandma said.

“That foolish bird betrayed me?”

“No,” Grandma said sharply, raising her voice for the first time. “You cannot betray someone who does nothing but threaten you. There is nothing there to betray. I had come to expect better from you than forcing innocent people to follow your orders. Why do you act as though you don’t care about the consequences your actions have for other people?”

“I don’t care!” Lala spat at her. “I’m a bloodthirsty wolf, remember? Wolves only look out for their own.”

“You do care,” Grandma said. “You say so with your actions, at least some of the time, but not with your words. I think that sometimes, you convince yourself that you don’t care, and you allow yourself to do things that you know are wrong. Protecting Boro just now was a kind act, as was forgiving Kensa for breaking the rules. Listening to an old goat who wanted only to make her people less miserable—that was also a kind act. Why do you pretend to be worse than you are?”

“Fine,” Lala almost shouted, “I do care! Is that what you want me to say? Of course I don’t want to cause anyone needless suffering, whether they’re Boro, Kensa, or your stupid herd. I’d have to be heartless to want that. Why do you have to make everything so damned difficult for me?”

Grandma smiled. “I would like to propose one final agreement, one that I think will make matters simpler for you, and better for everyone.”

“You’ve got to be joking,” Lala said. “Go on, say it.”

“What I offer is my help in convincing the wolves of Baku Baku Valley to voluntarily refrain from eating goats. Once everyone is in agreement, you can impose an official ban on eating goats without damaging your reputation as leader. We will continue to provide healing services and to dissuade the Gara Gara wolf pack from invading your territory, but we can dispense with the cumbersome rules about which goats may or may not be eaten.”

“Of course. I should have figured you knew I was asking about that,” Lala said resignedly. “Fine, you can help me. At least this time you won’t want anything else in return.”

“Not quite,” Grandma said. “I do want one thing from you in exchange for my help.”

Lala stared at her. “What could you possibly want this time? Your precious goats will be safe either way.”

“In exchange for my help, I would like you to make an effort to be kinder to people in future. To begin with, I would like you to apologise to Ugui and Kekyo for the harm that you have caused them.”

For a moment, Grandma thought Lala was about to bite her head off, metaphorically or otherwise, but then the wolf sagged. “Fine. At this point, what have I got to lose?”

“They’re waiting for you just up here,” Grandma said as she led Lala up Soyo Soyo Pass.

“Just out of curiosity, what would happen if I ate them?” Lala said. She meant it as a joke, but Grandma stopped walking and turned to look at her.

“I think you would struggle to do so unless wolves are better at climbing trees than I was given to understand. If you did somehow manage it, I’m afraid you could expect a visit from the Gara Gara wolf pack this very night, and you wouldn’t have Mii’s visit to look forward to tomorrow.”

“The pack would survive, you know,” Lala said. “We could fight off the outsiders and make do without a healer. In fact, perhaps we could let the Gara Gara wolves eat you goats in exchange for leaving all other prey untouched. ‘Go right ahead,’ we could tell them. ‘They’re awfully delicious, but whatever you do, don’t try negotiating with them. It’ll only end badly for you.’”

“That’s true,” Grandma said. “You could do all of those things.” She turned and continued walking up the hill.

“But?” Lala said.

Grandma smiled to herself. “But wouldn’t life be so much more pleasant for all of us if you didn’t?”

They walked a few more steps up the hill. It had been quite some time since Lala had been here. She had to admit, it looked rather pretty in the evening light.

“What’s your real name?” Lala said. “Please tell me your parents didn’t actually name you Grandma.”

“My name is Mari,” Grandma said. “Is Lala the name you were born with?”

“You think I would have chosen it?” Lala said. “There are four of us: Lala, Lili, Lulu and Lolo. The worst part is that we’re not even sisters. Our parents were all just very unimaginative and decided that cutesy ‘L’ names were just so adorable for a pup at the time. I take it that goats are particularly fond of ‘M’ names?”

“Lala is a nice name,” Grandma said.

When they reached the top of the hill, Lala saw Ugui and Kekyo perched side by side on a low-hanging branch of the tree. Grandma stepped aside and gestured for Lala to go forward.

I can’t believe I’m doing this, Lala thought to herself. But if she was going to do it, she might as well do it properly. She stepped towards the tree and bowed her head. “Ugui and Kekyo,” she said. “I deeply regret using the threat of violence to coerce you into carrying out my will. I believed at the time that my actions were for the good of my pack, but I see now that it was wrong for me to mistreat you so egregiously in pursuit of my own goals. By way of reparation, I offer both of you lifelong immunity from all wolf attacks. Will you accept my sincerest apologies?”

“Hmm,” Ugui said. “Can we extend that immunity to all warblers?”

Kekyo batted the other bird lightly with a wing. “We accept your reparation,” she said. “Thank you.”

Lala bowed again and turned to Grandma. “Was that good enough for you?”

“If it’s good enough for Ugui and Kekyo, then it’s good enough for me,” Grandma said. “Please remember that this is only the start, though. In exchange for my assistance, I expect you to refrain from all acts of unkindness against any person, no matter what their species.”

“Yes, fine, I promise to try to do better in future,” Lala said impatiently. “Now, do you have a plan or not?”

“Are you familiar with the barn east of Sawa Sawa Mountain?” Grandma said.

“Of course,” Lala said.

“I’d like you to pick six of your most respected wolves to spend the night in that barn on the night of the new moon, which I believe should arrive in a few days’ time. I will do the same with six well-respected goats.”

“You think all of them will magically become friends?” Lala said derisively.

“Perhaps not friends, but I think that by the end of the night, all of them will have an easier time seeing things from the other’s point of view.”