Read Online One Minute to Midnight by Steve Lang - Free Book Online Page A

watching
Sharp Tooth approach as the light went out of them. Shouts of glee,
and whoops of victory rang out from across the river, as Sharp
Tooth stood, helplessly watching her friend die. She saw the
corners of his mouth rise upward in a farewell smile. The current
rolled Blood Maw's body over and his face disappeared under the
water. The lump of dead bear floated lifelessly in the
water.
    "Woo hoo! That damn bear’s head’s
gonna look goooood over your fireplace, Jim!" Screamed one of
them.
    Sharp Tooth stopped short of crying
out for Blood Maw. Her shock was so profound; it felt as if she had
been shot too. She reeled back on her hind legs, almost toppling
over, but the men had not seen her, so she escaped with her life.
Blood Maw’s floating body was the last mental image Sharp Tooth had
now. His right paw hung limp, and as water flowed past it, making
it look like he was waving goodbye. Sharp Tooth needed to get her
cubs to safety before the men found them, but as she ran with them
through the forest; her burning desire for revenge began to kindle
like a smoldering ember just before a forest fire. She briefly
considered sneaking around behind the humans and shredding them to
pieces, but she could not jeopardize the safety of her little ones.
Sharp Tooth and the cubs ran for the rest of the afternoon until
her cubs were exhausted and she could no longer smell the men. She
found a cave for them to rest in and killed a passing deer, leaving
it for her cubs to feast on. As they ate, she lay at the mouth of
the cave and began to consider her next steps. Retribution would
have to be hard and swift. Sharp Tooth knew that other animals in
the forest had held council about the humans and their destructive
tendencies. She recalled their last meeting by the mountain
lake.
    One of the wolf clan, Angry Claw,
silenced the murmuring and welcomed Rosebud beaver, Good Night
raven, Chins otter, Sharp Tooth bear, and many other
representatives of the forest tribes. Sharp Tooth sat in silence as
questions without answers passed into the afternoon air like wisps
of smoke from a pipe. The council was not truly prepared to do
anything at the time, but she listened with polite
sincerity.
    “ What can we do about the
encroaching humans on our territories? Every year more of them come
and they hunt us in increasing numbers.” Gallant buck
asked.
    “ There are many men, and
our people are scattered too widely throughout the forests, unable
to unite.” Angry Claw said.
    “ They have terrible
weapons that make fire and we are afraid to attack them.” Rosebud
otter said.
    White Paws grey wolf sat in silence
for a moment. This was his council and he had called the council
meeting. A concern had been running through the vast forest
community that a war with the humans would be inevitable. White
Paws felt that it was necessary to gather the leaders of each
species together and quell growing rumors.
    "It is true, they have fire weapons,
and I believe that they don't respect our land, but we have had a
pact for millions of years to stay to ourselves and leave the
evolving humans alone. Once in a while we steal a chicken from one
of their farms, or kill a cow, but making war with the humans is
dangerous business. It is a path we may not want to go down." White
Paws said.
    "I was by the home of a human one
afternoon, and I looked inside, and they had the head of my good
friend mounted on their wall!" Winter Snow deer said.
    "It is true that their practice of
body desecration is egregious and we have all seen how wasteful
they can be with life. You are not wrong in your instinct to put a
stop to all of this, my friends, but you have to understand that
the humans make war for pleasure. A number of years ago, when I
spoke with Raven Claw wolf, who is long dead now, we speculated
whether we could wait until they had simply wiped themselves out.
Instead, they keep multiplying." White Paws said.
Sharp Tooth had not said much during that meeting, and now