As darkness fell so did the inhibitions of the wolf pack in attacking humans. They came in at us on darting forays trying to grab a hold of one of us and pull us out beyond the heat of the flames. We beat them off with torches. It was a long and sleepless night. That night was followed by two more just like it.
By day they shadow stalked along beside us and at night they were our living nightmares. It didn't take long to see why my ancestors had needed caves so critically, as a point of survival. Not only had they been a source of shelter from the elements, but if attacked they only had to defend the mouth of the cave and not there back and sides to.
A wolf's persistence, in a hunt, was usually what paid out for them, but I had a plan to disrupt that strategy. I had diverted our course more to the southwest at the first appearance of the wolves and on the morning of the fourth day it paid off. I watched, as two wolves ranging out in front of us a ways suddenly stopped with their noses held up to the breeze. Excited activity followed among the pack, as a whole, and then they were gone.
Trent looked around at me, "What spooked them off?" He asked with bloodshot eyes.
"Must've been something they smelled."
"Another wolf pack's territory?" He asked.
"No another predator."
Deshavi spoke up, "But what other predators are there here besides wolves unless you mean….!" Her voice trailed off, as her eyes got big.
"Tigers?" She squeaked out.
"Yep, we are now officially in tiger country. Last home of the mega-cats."
They both looked at me, as if I was crazy, but they didn't say anything as my strategy had gotten rid of the wolves. It was a curious thing the relationship between the wolves and the giant tigers of this land. No one had ever documented an instance of tigers hunting down wolves for prey or eliminating them as a competing predator, but wolf packs avoided tiger territory, as if it had the plague. Rarely, were wolves ever seen, in an area frequented by tigers. They respected the great cats, as did I.
Both Trent and Deshavi were regarding the surrounding landscape more indepthly than they had, when we were being hounded by wolves and I couldn't resist a little jabbing humor, "What's the matter? Scared of the big bad tiger?"
They both gave me dark looks and I chuckled.
"Don't you think coming here is about like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire, grandpa?"