Chapter 9 - Kaira (1)

Every beast in the Wilderness had its own way of bonding with a Zukira. Like in the case of Tulaks the Zukira had to forcefully ride its back, to be able to 'tame' or partner up with the beast. Similarly, in order to bond with a dire wolf, one had to defeat it in a battle and then hope to receive a 'lick'. However, it wasn't all that uncommon for the wolves to reject the ones who defeated them and can refuse to lick the tribesman who defeated the creature.

A wolf's lick was no ordinary lick either. It has strong healing properties as well as symbolised a lot of things. One of which could be directly interpreted as affection. Unlike the other beasts, when the wolves were tamed, they became highly affectionate and possessive over their 'partner' and would often lick them.

However, when it came to choosing a partner, the direwolves were extremely picky. But once they picked a partner, they would readily give up their life to protect their partner from getting hurt. this was also one of the reasons why scouts preferred to use them as a mount rather than a Tulak.

The same was true for the commander wolf, who for no reason whatsoever had chosen Zok as her partner. Maybe she saw Zok as her 'child' when she saw him getting hurt and thus her motherly tenderness got triggered. But there was no way for the tribesmen to be sure of anything as even the best tamers had never seen such a weird behaviour from a direwolf before.

The direwolves were also known for partnering up with someone who was stronger than them. However, the commander wolf defied all knowledge the Zukiras had gathered over a couple of decades and chose to partner up with the weakest one among them.

The tribesmen for whom Zok was a laughing stock and a burden, were now jealous of the same child. All because now he had the strongest direwolf they had ever seen, by his side and he didn't even have to do anything to gain such a strong partner. While they had to give their best to even get an umber brown wolf to partner up with them.

They just couldn't accept that the commander wolf now belonged to Zok even after seeing her lick his wounds again and again. But the most surprised among them was Skah. Never in a million years had he thought Zok would be the one to partner up with not only a white dire wolf but an aberrate white dire wolf. In fact, had been wanting to tame the wolf himself and make the commander wolf his own. But Zok threw water all over his plans.

It was only right that the strongest beast in the tribe belonged to the strongest man in the tribe. That meant, the wolf should have belonged to him, the chieftain, not his good for nothing son. Skah was trembling in rage. The fact that he couldn't subdue the wolf was enough of a slap to his face but having his deadbeat son partner up with that same wolf was just plain humiliation in his eyes.

Skah was sure the tribesmen would be laughing behind his back now. He would've been upset if Ahuli had been the one to tame the wolf, but he would have also been proud of him. After all, Ahuli was his capable son whom the entire tribe respected. But for Zok... he had no such feelings. Even now, deep down Skah along with other tribesmen wanted to believe that the wolf had not in fact bonded with Zok.

The only one who was genuinely happy about Zok's 'achievement', was Ahuli. As soon as the commander wolf calmed down, the other wolves relaxed as well. This gave Ahuli the chance to rush up and check on Zok. However, as soon as he got close to Zok, the commander wolf immediately let out a growl.

The wolf's possessiveness for Zok had already kicked in. There was no denying now that the commander wolf now belonged to Zok and him only. Ahuli quietly sat down in front of the wolf to show her that he did not mean any harm to her partner. The wolf's saliva might have healing properties, but it wasn't enough to completely heal Zok's wounds.

He needed a healer's immediate attention. But Ahuli couldn't afford to take things fast and be hasty as then the wolf might think he wants to harm Zok and lash out. Moreover, the looks on the faces of other tribesmen made the wolf even more protective over Zok.

Ahuli wanted Zok to try and distance himself from her, but he was passed out. Seeing no other way, Ahuli kept nudging closer to the wolf and after ten minutes the wolf finally allowed Ahuli to grab Zok and take him away to Suhi who was also a capable healer. To everyone's surprise, the wolf followed him in.

Suhi was just coming out of the shade when he saw Ahuli carrying a bloodied Zok in his arm, "Master, you have to check on him. The Tulak-"

"I know. I saw Huruk charging at Zok, that's why I went to get the tranquillizer from the shed- did you tame the wolf?" Suhi immediately dropped the darts in shock, "I thought only your father-"

"I didn't tame her. She partnered up with Zok on her accord. We can discuss it later. Just help Zok first!"

"Right, quickly lay him down."