Page 21

Upon nearing the beaver lodge, Steph and Daniel came upon the wolf pack again. They had taken down one of the wild boar and were ripping at the flesh and snapping at each other. Daniel stopped the buggy.

“Why’ve you stopped?”

Steph asked.

“Because of that,”

Daniel replied, pointing over Steph’s left shoulder.

She turned her head to see a large brown bear lumbering forward. It stopped to survey the scene before it. The wolves seemed not to have noticed it. Deciding to make the most of this drop in focus, the bear accelerated, charging at the writhing mass of grey fur. At the last moment, it let out a yell that sent the startled wolves skittering away. Steph expected she would now see this large creature fend off the wolves and claim the kill as its own. She was wrong.

The bear, without breaking stride, ran straight at the bloody carcass and began ripping flesh from bone. The wolves gathered themselves and turned to face the creature. This all took no more than a few seconds.

“This should be interesting,”

Daniel breathed.

It was. The bear, noticing the wolves rallying, began to rip ever more hungrily into the shreds of boar. Steph could not be sure, but the bear seemed to change its stance as well. Ever so subtly. It looked braced for something. Then Steph found out why.

The whole pack launched themselves simultaneously at the bear in one ferocious tsunami of fur and teeth. The bear reared up and swung out, sending one wolf flying. To Steph’s surprise, the bear returned to the kill whilst still being snapped at by the pack. It put its large front paws upon the carcass, clamped its jaws around a leg and snapped its head back. The leg ripped off. The bear turned tail and ran back from where it came, wolves falling from its flanks. At first, the wolves looked like they would try to retrieve part of their lost prize, but then turned, writing the leg off as a minor loss. They returned to their feeding as if nothing had occurred.

The wolf which had been flung so effortlessly by the bear limped over to join the rest of the pack.

Steph gripped the tranquillizer rifle a little tighter.

“There is a desperation,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

Daniel asked.

“There is desperation in the animals. It’s not good. It will lead to behaviours that are generally chaotic and not completely in character. Usually, when animals act like this, there is an external pressure. It could be a drought, whatever. But it typically passes. It is expected to pass. But this…”

“There is no drought and there’s enough food as the population of deer and boar are often topped up. And there are the bison.”

“And yet some of the behaviour is frenzied.”

Daniel shrugged and started driving the buggy onwards once more. Steph watched the wolves over her shoulder as they left. They currently seemed completely uninterested in the vehicle. She then looked at Daniel. He may have shrugged at her concerns, but his brow was furrowed in a way she had never seen from him before except when Michael was around.

They passed the beaver lodge. The beavers were still going about their business collecting sticks for their dam. Upon hearing the buggy, they swam for the safety of the lodge. Steph wondered how much protection the lodge would really give them if the cave bear found itself determined to get in. Had been an issue yet? Also, what was the cave bear’s territory like and what were its usual routes?

A thought then occurred to her. How had the territories been shaped? Was there data on it? There had to be! The predators were chipped. Surely there was information on where they spent their time and where they roamed. Could they really afford to shrink their natural square milage of roaming ground to suit what was available? She had her thoughts on this.

Daniel slowed his speed to a crawl.

“Right, keep your eyes open,” he said.

Steph scanned the trees around them. Nothing. It did occur to her that the likelihood of them stumbling across a tree that potentially housed Fergus’s remains was somewhat slim. It might be that they would have to get out and walk to have any luck.

The radio kicked in. It was Davey.

“Daniel, you there?”

The voice didn’t seem panicked which was a positive.

“Daniel?”

Steph looked at Daniel who was continuing to scan the trees as he trundled slowly forwards.

“You going to answer that?”

Steph asked.

Daniel sighed.

“I suppose so.”

He picked up the radio and clicked the button on the side.

“Yep?”

“Where’re you two? You find anything that we didn’t find the first time?”

“Yeah, some scratch marks. Seems the cave lion had waited on the roof to ambush Fergus.”

“Fucker!”

“Poor bastard!”

came a voice in the background.

“Who’s that?”

Daniel asked.

“It’s Roger,”

Davey replied.

“I just picked him up to take him to the main house whilst this is all sorted. Where’re you now?”

“Just past the beavers. Looking for that tree you mentioned where you had seen kills being hidden.”

“But you don’t know where that is!”

“I know it’s around here somewhere!”

“I’ll come and meet you!”

Steph watched Daniel mouth a curse before replying, “No need!”

“Don’t be stupid! I know where it is. You think some of Fergus is there?”

“You have to get Roger back though, don’t you?”

“I don’t mind popping along,”

came Roger’s voice in the background. Steph found herself suppressing a smile.

“Stay where you are; we’ll see you in ten or so.”

The radio went quiet. Daniel sighed loudly.

Steph kept quiet and studied Daniel’s face in profile. He refused to turn.

“Why didn’t you want him here?”

Steph asked finally, keeping her voice soft.

“Who said I didn’t? I just thought it made sense for him to focus on Roger and for us to focus here.”

“Really?”

Steph raised her eyebrows.

Daniel turned to look at her. She stared at him, unblinking. For a moment he tried to hold her stare but then his shoulders sagged.

“I dunno,”

he said.

“I mean it is better than Michael I suppose, but it’s… It’s stupid really.”

Steph thought she would rather it was Michael but that was neither here nor there.

“Try me,”

Steph said.

“I just feel that – and nothing has really been said as such – but I feel I am just the young enthusiastic dinosaur lover. I’m a fun novelty to have around. But I’m not really trusted with any big jobs. I’m nearly thirty. It’s degrading!”

“But there aren’t dinosaurs here?”

Steph said.

“Yeah, I know!”

Daniel replied, looking at the trees.

“I was using it as an example. Like that kid in the family who knows all the dinosaurs and has all this intelligence in one area, and everyone nods along humouring them as they reel off fact after fact. And then the adult says, ‘that’s nice’ and sends them off to wash their hands before dinner.”

Steph considered this.

“So you don’t want to wash your hands before dinner?”

she said, keeping her face straight.

“What?”

Daniel gasped turning around to face her.

“No, that’s not what I meant! I meant… ah, forget it!”

“I’m winding you up!”

Steph said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“I get it. You just want to feel like you are being taken seriously for everything you can contribute. Not just the things people think you are.”

“Exactly,”

Daniel replied, sighing and relaxing a little into his seat.

Steph thought about her own family in this, what they thought of her work and what they considered as real long-term careers. She sniffed and looked away into the trees.