BooksBarbecue
Back Marked In Flesh
Chapters (68)
  1. Books by Anne Bishop
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Dedication
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. Geography
  8. Maps
  9. A Brief History of the World
  10. Epigraph
  11. Prologue
  12. CHAPTER 1
  13. CHAPTER 2
  14. CHAPTER 3
  15. CHAPTER 4
  16. CHAPTER 5
  17. CHAPTER 6
  18. CHAPTER 7
  19. CHAPTER 8
  20. CHAPTER 9
  21. CHAPTER 10
  22. CHAPTER 11
  23. CHAPTER 12
  24. CHAPTER 13
  25. CHAPTER 14
  26. CHAPTER 15
  27. CHAPTER 16
  28. CHAPTER 17
  29. CHAPTER 18
  30. CHAPTER 19
  31. CHAPTER 20
  32. CHAPTER 21
  33. CHAPTER 22
  34. CHAPTER 23
  35. CHAPTER 24
  36. CHAPTER 25
  37. CHAPTER 26
  38. CHAPTER 27
  39. CHAPTER 28
  40. CHAPTER 29
  41. CHAPTER 30
  42. CHAPTER 31
  43. CHAPTER 32
  44. CHAPTER 33
  45. CHAPTER 34
  46. CHAPTER 35
  47. CHAPTER 36
  48. CHAPTER 37
  49. CHAPTER 38
  50. CHAPTER 39
  51. CHAPTER 40
  52. CHAPTER 41
  53. CHAPTER 42
  54. CHAPTER 43
  55. CHAPTER 44
  56. CHAPTER 45
  57. CHAPTER 46
  58. CHAPTER 47
  59. CHAPTER 48
  60. CHAPTER 49
  61. CHAPTER 50
  62. CHAPTER 51
  63. CHAPTER 52
  64. CHAPTER 53
  65. CHAPTER 54
  66. CHAPTER 55
  67. CHAPTER 56
  68. CHAPTER 57

Other forms of terra indigene referred to her Elemental form as Ocean. Among her kin, she was known as Alantea.

And humans, those two-legged upstarts, called her domain the Atlantik.

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 25

Windsday, Juin 20

The Lakeside Wolfgard knew how to hunt deer together, and they knew how to fight together to defend the Courtyard, but they didn’t know much about hunting bison until they tried to round them up. After chasing one of the yearlings, the pack made it clear that this wasn’t an animal they wanted to hunt unless they were very hungry and had no other choice. In fact, the only Wolf who really wanted to chase bison was Skippy. The juvenile’s suicidal enthusiasm was one reason that Simon decided to send four of the bison to Talulah Falls as a gesture of friendship to the terra indigene currently living there.

Unlike the Wolves, who didn’t know how to hunt bison, the bison already knew how to defend themselves against Wolves. But they weren’t prepared for a Grizzly dressed in a T-shirt and jeans to jump toward them and roar, and when faced with a small tornado that trotted after them, they stopped fighting the Wolves’ efforts to herd them into the truck.

Tired and thirsty, Simon watched Jerry Sledgeman drive away with the bison. <Well, it’s done,> he said when Blair joined him.

Blair shook out his fur. <Boone Hawkgard says there is enough room in various freezers to store half of the meat from the yearling the Sanguinati brought down. The other half of the meat will be available now to all of us, including the human pack.>

Simon sighed. <Meg didn’t like the bison burgers. I don’t think Ruthie or Merri Lee did either.>

<Their mates ate what they left on their plates. We can sell bison burgers and hunks of roasted meat at Meat-n-Greens. Kowalski and Debany will eat them. So will Captain Burke and the Shady Burke if we allow them to visit again.>

<The humans are another pack who want to eat from the land inside the Courtyard.> Simon headed for the Pony Barn, where Meg had watched the “roundup” from a safe place.

<They eat like Wolves and gather in numbers that rival the Crowgard in any Courtyard.> Blair said nothing for a moment. <How many humans can live in that pack? How many will want the supplies that come into the Market Square? We can’t bring down more deer to feed another pack. The herd wouldn’t produce enough offspring to make up for that.>

He could accept for himself being hungry some days. But not Sam. Not Meg. Not the other terra indigene young who lived in the Courtyard.