Kenneth pushed back into the wolf’s mind. He formed his images into a wolf following a visible scent trail up the mountain. Follow. The wolf took off at a run following the scent trail up the mountain. Kenneth followed behind watching the wolf sniff the air and change directions as the scent led him up the mountain deeper through the snow that covered the ground.
Kenneth followed the wolf as it ran up the slope. It tracked the scent till it ended in a cave, and a solid rock wall that sealed it.
It wasn’t really a cave, so much as a deep hollow that reached back a half a dozen feet into the mountain itself. The wolf was pointing and sniffing all around the back wall of the cave. Kenneth walked around the small space inspecting every inch of it. The solid rock at the back of the cave was unremarkable in every way. The cave was the same as any other he might find on a mountain. A place in a very convenient location that had allowed years of water, air and perhaps small animals or an earthquake, to shape this hollow from the rock it was made from.
But it was that very ordinariness of this place that made him sure there was something here.
He looked over the cave again, this time running his fingers along the rock. He inhaled deeply. He couldn’t smell anything, not even the faintest whiff of people or wolf. His pet still nudged at the back wall of the cave. This could be a front door. He didn’t trust his wolf slaves, but he did trust his abilities and if the wolf had led him here, then there was something here.
For the time being he withdrew. He called his pet to him and they left the cave as it was. He took a sharp turn outside the cave and left by a different route than how he had followed the wolf there.
He walked along the snow covered ground and looked up into the night sky, the moon was less bloated than it was the night before. It would be half in less than a week. Not that it mattered to him. The moon would do as it always had. It hung in the sky slowly sinking into the western sky awaiting the chase by the unrisen sun.
He turned back in the direction of where Michael had parked the trailer. He knelt down in front of his pet and projected the images of what he required. The wolf sat back on his haunches and howled deep and long into the night. He knew that the rest of his wolves would follow the howl. They would all get back to the trailer with plenty of time before sunrise.
Kenneth rode with Michael in the truck that pulled the trailer behind them. The road was calm and the night still held sway over the land. The black was giving way to blue in the Eastern sky though.
Kenneth didn’t speak. He was too busy pondering the puzzle of that cave, the mountain and everything that had happened since he arrived. He knew that cave was part of the answer. He knew that the wolf had followed people and wolves’ scents to it. It must lead somewhere. He didn’t believe for a second that that cave was what it looked like, looks and surface impressions were always misleading.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
But he had been over every inch of the thing, twice. The rock was solid all the way around. There was no air, there was no smell, and there wasn’t anything that pointed to what he was looking for.
When they reached the guest house Kenneth turned to Michael, “I want you to go back out to the mountain and watch at the point that the wolves will lead you to.”
Michael nodded reluctantly, “Of course, Instructor. Where will I be going?”
“You’ll be going to a small cave, a depression, a hollow, in the side of the mountain. There you will sit and watch, from a distance. There is something about that particular hollow and I want to know what that is.”
“And the wolves will lead me there?” Michael asked.
“Yes,” Kenneth replied, “I’ll instruct them on what is to be done; all you have to do is sit and watch.”
With that Kenneth walked back out to the trailer. He opened the back door and stared at them. They understood his instructions. He led three of the wolves out of the trailer and up into the house. He let them out on the back balcony.
He turned to Michael, “What are you waiting for?”
Michael nodded his head jerkily and quickly ran out to the truck and started the engine.
Kenneth watched as the truck pulled out of the parking lot and drove off beyond his line of sight through the trees. He turned toward the back glass doors. Mount Shasta was there, and the werewolves were there too, somewhere. He would find them and that small cave was the key.
As the sky lightened, he retreated to his room and died the same as he died every morning.
When the sun touched the western horizon, he awoke from his death sleep and punched a number into his phone. “Has anything happened?” he asked.
“No, Instructor,” Michael replied calmly and quietly, “The wolves have stayed alert and I have my binoculars. Nothing has approached the cave at all.”
“Are you sure you’re watching the right cave, Michael?” Kenneth asked suddenly irritable.
“Yes, Instructor, one of the wolves ran into the cave when we first got here. I hunkered down a ways off, hiding in the tree line. I have a good view of the cave but I need my bino’s to see it.”
Kenneth sighed. He knew this was going to be a long, long game of patiently waiting to see what happened, if anything. He shook his head. “Bring the wolves back. I will take over from here.”
Without waiting for a response, he turned off his phone and set it down on the table. He opened the back glass doors. He looked at his pets and gave them instructions. They all lay back down and stayed where they had been. Kenneth immediately jumped over the wooden railing and took off running through the forest.
He wasn’t sure what kind of game the werewolves were playing. If their home was underground then a dormant volcano would make sense, it would be the last place anyone would look.
If that cave was a doorway, then maybe there were more. Maybe, but he had to focus his attempts. He had searched long and hard for the wolves that plagued him and his business ventures, and his House as well. He could wait a few more days if necessary. He would find their secret. It was only a matter of time.