Page 98 of The Spirit of the Wolf

“And so you will be,” Grey Coyote had responded. “When the beast is tied, and I am certain he can do no harm, I will guess the riddle. You will be there then.”

“Hmmm. But what if you require my help before this?”

“I will call you. This shelter is not far from his encampment.”

With a sigh, Marietta had at last agreed.

Leaving Marietta to construct the ropes he would require, Grey Coyote had set to work forthwith, fixing his snares, tying the lines to trees big enough that they would hold a huge man. When there wasn’t a tree large enough for a snare at a particular spot, Grey Coyote had tied the ropes around two or three smaller trees.

Throughout, the rain pounded on him, and his fingers slipped over the knots he made, but he patiently kept on. He could not stop.

At length, he was satisfied with what he had done so far. However, he still had one trap left to construct. When it was done, he would await the results of his handiwork…from a safe distance.

The storm, meanwhile, had worsened. It began to hail, and although dawn approached, the sky was as black and as dark as night. A bolt of lightning crashed close to hand, shaking the earth, causing the trees to tremble, but Grey Coyote ignored it, certain it was the Thunderer, mocking him yet again.

Suddenly, he heard a scream, high-pitched and filled with terror.

A scream?

Marietta… She was in trouble.

How had he not foreseen this? Why had he not anticipated this?

Jumping to his feet, Grey Coyote crashed forward through the undergrowth and trees, uncaring that such haste would announce his approach. It didn’t matter. He had to get to her.

A burst of light followed by an explosion that shook the ground accompanied the beast as the beast rushed in upon her.

Marietta screamed and kept on screaming as the bear-like creature pulled her up by her hair and flung her to the ground. Where had he come from?

She stayed there on the ground, hoping against hope that the creature would simply go away. Then suddenly something big and hard came down to hit her in the head, and looking up, she beheld a broken-toothed smile in a horribly scratched and bearded face, before with one last terrible scream, she fainted.

The beast held Grey Coyote’s wife within its grasp. From where he stood, Grey Coyote could see it all.

Sprinting toward the place where the screams had come from, Grey Coyote realized he was yet too far away. But, he didn’t pause. Faster. Faster. He must get to her.

And then he saw her. She didn’t move and she was on the ground.

Was she still alive?

His heart sank. She had to be alive. She must be alive.

He realized he would have to kill the beast. Now.

Forget the riddle; forget that he knew not what the beast possessed, or what the thing was which he himself must possess. Never mind that by killing the beast, he would fail himself and his people…forever.

Nothing was more important than the safety of his wife.

Grey Coyote drew up his bow, but he hesitated. Could he really endanger his tribe? Throw away his lifetime of training? Could he live with what would assuredly be his failure?

But then, all other thoughts were swept away from him. The man-beast had pulled off Marietta’s remaining clothing, not caring that she was getting hurt in the process.

He meant to rape her.

Casting all doubts and concerns aside, Grey Coyote went into action. With his bow already in hand he quickly positioned an arrow against it and released it, followed by another arrow, another and another, one after the other. So quickly did he shoot them, the sky might have been raining arrows.

But the man had not been compared to a bear merely because of size. He was impossible to kill, and like with a bear, Grey Coyote’s arrows served to do no more than anger him.

Letting go of Marietta, the beast staggered forward, toward Grey Coyote. Though Grey Coyote had allowed himself a reserve of arrows, it was not long before he was fitting the last one to his bow.