The Hooman Saga - XXI - Serial Fiction

SO FAR: While the hunters are away, chasing ferals back against the hooman settlement, the remaining female hunters and an aged chief watch Sue undergo her Probe. Now ferals encounter their enemy...

Mar 15, 2025

THE SENTIENT HUNTING PARTY had reached the original feral boundaries. The scent of feral wolves and other canine species was becoming more frequent.

"This place nearly reeks of ferals. It's a wonder they don't hunt each other by accident," sent Snarl.

Tig replied, "This adds up to the map Chief gave us. The main trails are well used. Just a matter of time before we spot them."

As if on cue, a feral wolf rounded a bend ahead and stopped in his tracks, stiff legged. His eyes grew round and back-fur bristled.

For a split-second, no one moved. Then the feral wheeled and ran back down the trail he had come.

Tig led the sentients on an easy lope after the feral. The idea was to bring fear to them. Their drumming paws on the packed ground was like a steady drum-beat to anyone with a wolf's hearing. That would precede them, along with the frantic report by the feral to its pack.

As the trail came to a clearing, the sentients fanned out to the edges, dragging dead limbs back to the center and piling them up as high as they could. Once the pile of deadwood was thick and tall, the sentient wolves ringed around it. Tig led the chant, a form of low growling without word we would understand. The entire pack growled the chant in unison. Smoke appeared above the wood pile, and then a small flame. At that they stopped.

Tig and Snarl led them down another trail which headed parallel to the sentient-feral boundary. This time, the sentients were careful to lope lightly and leave as little sound or scent as they could.

Shortly after they left, a pack of ferals came up from the other side of the clearing and stopped with they saw the burning wood in its center. The leader led them in single file around the clearing, just inside the trees. They scented as they went, and watched the fire as well. With the smoke in their nostrils, they missed the scent of the sentient's trail.

All the ferals were bristling in fear and warning to each other. Yapping and growling added to this.

What the ferals understood is that a party of sentients had invaded, and tried to put the forest on fire. Then they had disappeared like ghosts.

The pack leader barked once and headed back down the path they had come, back to their main camp where they had left their cubs and sitters. As they ran, the leader would stop occasionally and send one or two of his hunters off on side trails. These led to the other packs in the forest, and to their allies. All must be warned.

The sentients continued on their way to the next clearing. These clearings occurred naturally, and usually had several trails into and out of them. They repeated the fire tactic, leaving a pile of smoky wood that left a trail into the sky.

On went the day, the ferals seeing new smokes starting up such that it looked like the forest was magically catching fire across the horizon. Females with cubs were sent away from the fires, across rivers and around beaver ponds to keep them safe.

Most of the hunters went with them, as a back line of defense. Only when the cubs and females were safely away from the fires could the hunters form any line of attack. The worry was that this wasn't natural, but some supernatural occurrence. Fire was a danger that was known. Fires starting out of nothing was something they couldn't know. Being surrounded by fire would be their worst nightmare.

So the ferals moved back through the forest and plains, moving back toward the fields of the hoomans, where fire wouldn't burn. Of the two, fire was a worse danger than hoomans.

- - - -

Once his his own family and pack were safely between the hooman settlement and the river, the pack leader went to a high ridge where he could see most of the feral lands. He spotted the fires burning in different locations. And saw that these were too regular. Also, that the earliest ones were burning out. These weren't natural, but they weren't all that supernatural. The fires weren't spreading, either.

After he looked for awhile, he brought his lieutenants up. A short bark and turning to the path would get them following.

Once on top of the hill, he would stare at each fire in turn, and then back to his top hunters. Then repeat this until they seemed to get it. They would repeat what he was doing and then would look at the others. Finally, all were looking at the fires one at a time and then to each other.

One got excited and started to howl, but was bowled over by the pack leader. Growling, he sat back on his haunches and looked to the trail beyond the clearing where the first fire had been set. He barked quietly, rose, and went down a trail off that ridge which led off in that direction. His small group of hunters followed…

We’re now well over halfway though this serial.

You’re now familiar with the sentient wolves, the escaped human Sue. The sentients are now hunting the feral wolves, protecting their own secret valley, while Sue undergoes her “probe” that shares what she knows about her life before her escape.

Now we are counting down the remaining chapters. There are only a dozen more chapters after this. But you’ll have to stay tuned until next week to see how they get out of this…

For now, set your calendar to keep track of these new adventures. Every Saturday.