Wolf Tech 7 - The Cats

Chapter 4 - New Neighbours

The leaders decided that the story where they had been beaten back so soundly by mongrels should never have happened. They suppressed the knowledge to only the Alpha, and the next alpha when he came of age to take over, and only orally.

The Alpha of the Shadowed River Pack ordered the fight to not be talked about, using his powers, so that those that knew couldn't speak about it. The records were taken and those that they couldn't destroy were hidden and limited to 'Alpha Eyes Only'. Those that died, many were written out, as if they never existed, the rest were listed as 'died in a rockfall'.

Over time, those that had known forgot about it. The fight couldn't be fully forgotten but it was only remembered as, 'Bad things happen if you go there.' While paper was becoming more accessible, as others came from Europe to this new land, they were still precious this far out. It was nearly another century till the railway came out, and goods came out more readily.

*****

Cody was leading a team that was expanding their surveillance network to the north of the Wild Valley Pack, into what the humans considered a 'backcountry park' but in reality, was a place where many humans went to enjoy nature. Alpha Adam had tried to describe it, but like most of the pack, they couldn't fathom why humans enjoyed being so tightly packed into cities where they didn't have bonds or trust with even their neighbours!

Also, the few times Adam went into the cities, the stench was hard to deal with; he was used to the mountain forests and their clean smells of pine and snow. The noise also was a pain, at times literally, but mostly it was the lack of peace and quiet.

The sensors they were placing were in an area that they hadn't had any patrols in, as it was mostly a large series of pocket valleys, that other than late summer was nearly impassible from the ground for humans. They could do it in wolf form, but till now, they hadn't bothered with the area.

Arctic Shadow was to the Northwest of here, and while there was mainly untouched land here, there was no records of any packs in the area, and the reports of wolves was non-existent. He had come across a couple or reports of large cats, but nothing more than one old blurred photo that you couldn't even tell what it was.

Those that they had absorbed when Shadowed River had been taken down and hadn't been involved in the attacks to MacLaren and other Packs, refused to go in this area, citing some of their old pack lore. Patrols had been shuffled to give into their demands.

Amber smiled and pulled out the last solar-powered wifi unit and swarmed up a tree to place it where it was able to connect into the mesh network of the existing network that reached all the way back to their packhouse and provide connectivity to the sensors.

*Back home for more.* Cody told the wolfdog, who wagged his tail and started his jog back to the packhouse, pulling an empty sled. Cody had worked with the dog's trainers to train a few for this. They would use the ground-eating pace to return, and would be there in about six hours, spend the night resting, then be harnessed up with the small sled full of what sensors and wifi gear they needed, tomorrow morning. They would relay what they needed before they went to bed or in the morning.

*Toss me a camera, please?* Amber called, breaking him out of his woolgathering.

Reaching down to another sled, he pulled out the self-contained unit that fit into the palm of his hand. It had a solar charger on the outside, with a battery pack and the camera inside the weatherproof shell. It would connect wirelessly to the network, as all their gear was pre-configured at the security office.

"Catch!" he called out, before he lobbed it up the ten metres to her.

She caught it easily and pressed it into the adhesive she had placed on the tree. It sure beat having to use screws into the trees, as they first had to do. This adhesive wouldn't harm the bark, wouldn't attract insects, and when they wanted to move them, they had a release agent with them that would cleanly let them remove the electronics from the tree, then dissolve the adhesive. If the tree grew, the adhesive would make sure to let the bark move, but otherwise was hard as a rock within an hour.