Marissa had told him about the bear. She had a gift with some of the animals. She could talk to them and some of them could talk to her. Early in the day a red kit fox had come to her while she was watering and feeding their few animals, the chickens and the cow. The kit fox had told her about a big bad angry bear just killing animals, and she had told her father. She asked the kit fox to lead me to it. That was a day and a half ago. The kit fox had gotten scared and ran off a half day ago, but Terrel had picked up the bears tracks. It was not hard, blood splats and drops were in many of the prints and along the route.

Terrel found the bear, he had been following the tracks for a day and a half now. When he stepped into the small glen, he stopped in shock. A large great wolf and a great cat were attacking the bear. All around the bears den were bodies of various animals, dozens and dozens of them. None eaten, just killed just left to rot. Terrel noticed a small wolf cub and two small great cat kits among the bodies.

Terrel unslung his bow and knocked an arrow. He sent it toward the chest of the bear, arrow after arrow trying to penetrate the tough hide of the bear. The Bear got the upper hand on the great cat, one meaty swipe of it’s huge claws across the back of the cat and it was brushed off like a flea. The bear went to work on the great wolf. The great cat had torn a hole in the bears neck and it was bleeding profusely from the wound, the great wolf had damaged the bears left leg and it also was bleeding a lot. The bear finally dislodged the wolf and with a mighty growl smashed the wolf to the ground.

Terrel took all this in as he continued to nock arrows and let them fly. He was running out, his quiver had only four arrows left. The bear turned all it’s attention toward him. Even with the injured leg the bear was fast Terrel prayed to the forest to let his arrows fly true, ten feet away, one arrow went trough the bears right eye, this staggered and stopped the bear, the next arrow went in the same eye, deeper than the first, the bear rared and roared at Terrel as it high stepped two steps toward him and collapsed on the ground. Terrel was out of arrows, he pulled his sword and stood his ground with the sword aimed at the bears heart, the bear looked up at him, and snarled as he died, Terrel felt a part of his soul being torn from him, and then passed out.

Terrel did not know how long he was out, it had to of been at least overnight, the sun was just rising. He looked around at all the carnage, a sadness filling him from all the wasted carnage. He had work to do, food would wait. He approached the great cat, she was dead. He gently picked her up and carried her to the base of a tree, he then went for the great wolf, he caught a glimpse of a message from him, ‘my mate find and help her, then he closed his eyes and died. He picked him up and laid him beside the great cat, they fought bravely together. He gathered the kits and the cub and brought them to the two. He dug a grave for them all to bury all five of them at the base of the tree. When the grave was done and ready to receive them he said a silent prayer and a silent goodbye to the two warriors and their children.

The bear, Terrel was not sure what to do. The bear was sick, it was not so much his fault the wanton destruction, but the fault of a disease he had contracted. Terrel decided to burn the bear to erase any taint of the disease. It took a day and a half for the bear to burn to ashes, Terrel stood vigil over the fire the entire time, when the deed was done he fixed a small meal, ate and slept a few hours.

Terrel had to get back to his daughter, he had been gone for almost four days and he did not like leaving her for that long, but this had to be done, he could not allow the bear to continue to wantonly kill animals. It was with a heavy heart he packed his few things, he stopped at the site of the great cant and great wolf’s grave and said a final prayer and a final goodbye. In the prayer he uttered to the wolf he would try and find his mate and help her.

As Terrel entered the clearing he saw his daughter loping toward him, no doubt warned of his arrival by her animal friends. He looked closer, and saw that she had a small wolf pup cradled in her arms, thus her strange lope toward him. “Father”, she called, “you have to help him. He was drowning in the small creek and I don’t know what to do!”

“Calm down Marisa, it will be okay, look at me”, he said. “Now you need to cup his snout and ever so lightly breath a very small breath into him. Cradle him on his back with his head tilted to the side when you do it”. He watched her as she sat down on the ground and cradled the pup to breath for him. “O-Kay now tap lightly on his chest, just above his belly, five times. That's it, now give him another small breath, yes that's it, and again tap on his chest” On the third breath the pup lost some water and start breathing on his own.

“Do you know where his mother is Marissa? I need to find her. I know she is hurt and needs our help”. Marissa stared at nothing, listening to nature and the animals.

“That way she pointed, and then when we find her we head east, there is help to the east, they can help her.

We traveled south for just a little bit and then found the she wolf, she had a puncture wound and looked like she had lost a lot of blood. “Marissa see if you can find some fever-few and get some inner bark pulp from one of the willow trees”. I slowly approached the wolf, trying not to startle her to much. Talking softly to her about nothing, and about her mate and the bear.

I knelt down to check on her wound, I cleaned it with some water and tried to comfort her as best I could. After a bit she seemed calm so I gathered a few stones to do a quick fire to boil some of the water up for when Marissa returned. The water had just started to boil when Marissa returned with a handful of the fever-few and the inner pulp of the willow bark. I had her dump the contents into the boiling water to let them mix, blend and soften into a mushy paste.

I went back to the she wolf while the mix was simmering down. I gently lifted her head and so she could take a drink of water from my hands. She was unsure it seemed so I lifted my cupped hand and let a trickle of the water flow over her snout. She ignored it, she was looking at Marissa getting her pup to drink from her cupped hand. I stroked the wolfs head and let her know her pup was fine, and Marissa was taking care of him.

“Marissa, do you think you can let the mother know her pup is alright and tell her we are not going to hurt her, that we are here to try and help her”, I asked Marissa.

“I think she is in to much shock father, I don’t seem to be able to get through to her”.

“Oh well, I guess we will just have to be patient. Can you hand me the cup and extinguish the fire Marissa, I think it has steeped enough. While she was doing that I dug through my small pack for a chunk of honey comb I had, that would would aid in the cooling of the mixture and act as an infusion to the mixture speeding the healing. The honey did it’s think and blended nicely with the willow bark and fever-few, I pulled it from the cup and worked it in my hand drying it mostly out.

I took the remaining liquid and washed around the wolfs injury with it, it was down to a lukewarm temperature. I continued to work the mixture into a small ball and spread it over the top of her wound. The honey would help it stay in place. I poured some water into the cup to see if she would drink from it, she took a few licks and then seemed to pass out.

“Is the fire out Marissa”? I asked. “Yes”. She said.

I bent to lift the she wolf as gently as I could, she was a lot bigger than she looked on the ground, I place her head on my shoulder. “Lead the way Marissa, I hope we can get her to the help you sensed earlier”. And with that we set off to the east. I was hoping we would get there soon, it was past mid day, and even though I was familiar with the woods at night, I had never had to travel them cradling a wolf in my arms.

As we headed east, I filled the she wolf in on what had transpired the last three days or so. Of how her mate had asked me to find and protect her, and of the great cat that he fought side by side with to end the bear. I let her know that I had buried her mate and the great cat together, and their children with them. I could not help the tears that fell from my face to splash against her. I felt her try to turn her head to me. “No, I whispered, relax, rest, Marissa knows of some help ahead, she doesn’t know how far, so you need to rest and heal. Your pup is in fine hands with my daughter, she has a way with the animals, she said you were to shocked to hear her, you would like my daughter I think, everyone does”. I continued in the same vein of thought and soft words to the she-wolf, hoping she would relax, and praying we would find help before it was to late.

After about a three hour walk we stepped into a clearing. There was a young woman tending a fire and keeping her eye on a great cat. The great cat looked strange, as if it were frozen in place. A little bit away from the fire a young man lay bundled up sound asleep.

I called out, “Hello in the camp, we are need of assistance”… Marissa just kept walking up to the woman, while I was somewhat frozen in place like the great cat.

The young woman got up and looked at me and the wolf and then at Marissa and the cub. “Please come forward, make yourself and the wolf warm at the fire while we tend to her cub”. She walked to Marissa and then led her toward the great cat.

As Marissa was approaching the great cat she paused a few moments, tilting her head as if listening. She continued to the cat with the pup in her hands. She bent down to let the pup close to the great cats teats so she could suckle and feed. It took a few moments for the cub to begin feediing but then he settled into a slow rhythm of feeding. Marissa stroked the great cat. I could tell she was talking to the cat. She let the pup feed a bit then gently removed him from the teat. “I think you have had enough little guy, we don’t want you to get sick from feeding to much”. She cuddled the pup, then gently laid it down by the great cats paw and chest, to snuggle in and warm up.

While Marissa and the young woman were tending to the wolf cub, I was gently stroking the she wolf, trying to make her comfortable and speaking to her in a soft tone. I was tired, and so into talking to the she wolf and trying to comfort her that I did not notice Marissa and the young woman approach. “Father, this is Constance, she is a healer of animals”.

"I did not hear you two speaking Marissa? How is it you know the Kings daughters name”? I knew the answer, but Marissa still liked to hide her ability to speak to the animals.

“She is like me father, she can speak to the animals, and help heal them, her brother Ashari is a very powerful healer too, but he has very little control. Constance says I am a healer also father can you believe it, she said she would help me learn the way and be in control of it. Can you believe it father, I might be able to really help heal the animals, not just comfort them”.

“I’m proud of you Marissa, and if a healer you are destined to be a healer you will be. It was always strong in your mother, and I was hoping you would find some of her healing strength even if it was just compassion, but that is wonderful news. Is there anything you and Constance can do for her”? I indicated the she wolf.

Constance spoke up. “Terrel, I am sure that with the help of your daughter we will both be able to heal the she wolf. I need to warn you though that it will take a lot out of your daughter, she will be like my brother asleep for awhile after recovering. Healing is a very hard thing to do when one is not trained to limit oneself”.

“Marissa, the choice is yours, I can not ask you to heal the she-wolf at a cost to you, this is new territory for you, and it could be dangerous to you”. The she wolf looked to Marissa, then looked at me and nuzzled my cheek.

“Father, I have to do this, I have to learn and she needs the help, she has lost so much, like you she has said I should not try, she does not want to cause pain to you or to me. You need to let her know I do this of my own free will, you need to let her know it is okay”.

I looked at my daughter, at Constance and at the she wolf, then I looked over to the great cat and her kit and the she wolfs cub, snuggled together, sharing heart beats next to the great cat. One final look at my daughter, and I knew she had made her mind up she was going to help this wolf and help me keep a promise I made. I spoke softly to the wolf, I let her know it would be okay, to let them heal her, that a heavy sleep my daughter would need is a small price and both her and I needed a good sleep anyway. Then I let her know about the hole in my soul, that if she were to live a little bit of it might close, might make me feel a little more my normal self. That if she were to die all I could see is that hole growing larger. Marissa and Constance nodded, it would be done.

“Alright Marissa, you need to place your hands on either side of her wound. Follow my vision as we look at the inside of the wound, at what the problem is. There you see that little piece of broken bone, it is causing her extreme pain it is what is keeping her bleeding. We need to dissolve that bone fragment.” Constance looked to me.

“Take what ever you need from me to help her” I said. I knew what she was going to ask, something taken must be given back.

“Your rib will hurt for a day or two, but will regenerate, it is only a temporary lose”, I acknowledged her with a nod. She took her free hand and rested it on my chest by the lower rib.

“Now Marissa, find where the bone fragment came from, can you see where a piece of bone is missing”? “Yes”, Marissa answered. It looks like his claw clipped one of her ribs and it is pushing into her lung, but not puncturing it”.

“You need to bend the rib bone back to where it belongs and then see the rib regrowing and healing. It also looks like there is a vein bleeding we need to knit it and stop the bleeding. This part is very tricky so you watch me stop the bleeding. Then next time we will let you try, but as I said it is very tricky, we do not want to stop all the blood, just stop the bleeding”.

They continued to work on the wolf in my lap, I felt her grow tired and then felt her fall asleep. I tried to keep her comfortable so she would not wake up. It took another hour or so for them to finish up. I could see Marissa already trying to suppress a yawn.

“Were done father. She is going to be fine. It will take her a couple of days to be back to normal but she will be fine. It was amazing father”, she said as she stifled another yawn.

“Lay down and sleep Marissa, I know you are excited about all of this, but the healing took a lot out of you, rest now and tell me all about it in the morning.”

“Come Marissa you can use my bedroll, I will look after all three of them for you, but you must sleep now”. Marissa curled into the blankets and was fast asleep in no time.