The House of the Wolf

6

A view of another arctic landscape appeared on the screen, not a flat plain this time but a broad deep gorge with towering cliffs to either side and a river at the bottom. Dr. Hébert and one of his students were climbing over the top of the nearer slope – the other student was presumably filming them – behind their guide, a much older man with the distinctive Asiatic features of the Inuit. Suddenly all three men stopped dead and stood staring and pointing at something behind them. The video jumped around, then zoomed in and focused on the shape of a wolf advancing up the steep treeless slope towards them. The student raised a rifle and took aim.

"No, no! That's not necessary!" shouted the Inuit man in French, waving his arms.

"Are you crazy? It'll kill us!" objected the student in the same language.

"No! Watch me!" returned the Inuit man.

The audience in the lecture hall gazed in rapt silence as he lay down on the steep slope, positioning himself on his back: "Slowly – like this. Stay calm." Dr. Hébert followed suit, and then the others did the same, the cameraman still filming. Closer and closer the great wolf came, muzzle thrust forward. Its coat was pure white in colour, making it stand out clearly against the dun-coloured background. When it was within a few yards of the men the staggering size of the animal become apparent. It came right up to them, thrust out its head on its thick ruffed neck – and slowly, delicately, sniffed at their feet.

As the camera zoomed in close Dr. Hébert paused the video. "Notice the colour of this animal's eyes," he said. "They're blue. Every wolf species we know has yellow eyes. This could support the argument that we're dealing with a new, unknown species. Or it could simply mean that it's a wolf-dog hybrid, since some huskies have blue eyes. But it doesn't look like any wolf-dog I've ever seen."

He pressed Play again. The Inuit man seemed to be talking to the animal, though his voice was low and the words scarcely audible. The great white beast stood with ears pricked, its strange sky-blue eyes intent on his face. Then it suddenly wheeled away from him and galloped off downhill. The audience expelled a collective, audible breath. Chantal was surprised to find she had been holding hers too.

"Noah Aglukkaq was right. That is the correct thing to do in any encounter with a wild wolf," Dr. Hébert continued, switching off the video. "Take a submissive posture, belly up, and don't make any sudden moves. That way the wolf won't view you as a threat. It worked here, but our next encounter was more alarming, and happened so fast that we have no footage of it.

"That valley you saw was the Puvirnituq River canyon, at the northern border of Pingualuit National Park. That same day we hiked back to the northeastern shore of Lake Laflamme, where Noah had left the float plane, and he flew us the remaining distance to the meteor crater. He said it would be best to be up high where we could see if anything was coming, and also suggested that one of us keep watch while the others slept. He seemed very uneasy, and he volunteered for the first shift. We set up our camp atop the crater rim and had a good look around before the light failed, walking along the shores of the lake inside and tasting the water, which is incredibly pure and clear. We also caught some arctic char for dinner. But before we even got around to settling down to sleep that night we were attacked – right inside our tent! It was another huge white wolf, exactly like the one we'd seen in the canyon.

"We yelled and flailed around, and the wolf turned and ran out of the tent again, through a hole it had ripped into the side. There was no question of us sleeping after that! Barely an hour later, three more monster wolves charged straight at our campsite, in what seemed almost like a coordinated attack. This left us no choice but to defend ourselves. I fired my rifle, hitting one of the animals."