Crissa's Mate

Chapter Ten

That evening during dinner everyone appeared exhausted from the all-day walkabout. Several more samples of excrement on the trail and tufts wolf hair found on low branches of trees had been taken. Many tracks were photographed but no one claimed seeing any other traces of the animal they had all come there to study. Crissa felt this might be the last chance she had to share her brief encounter with one, but still refrained from doing so, keeping the exhilarating but disturbing incident to herself.

"Tomorrow, we shall go out to the area Svend showed us," Dr. Dekker announced as the food was brought out by Jannick and Lara. "The place near the wolf dens. And from there we will build a blind."

"A what?" Crissa asked David softly. She had finally gotten the nerve to sit next to him.

"It's a small shelter, he told her under his breath. "For camouflage. To hide in and wait."

"To wait for what? The wolves to come and eat us like cows?"

David began to laugh, almost choking on the first bites of his dinner.

Everyone looked at the two of them.

"You OK Dave?" Brad asked, across from them.

"Yeah fine. I'm OK."

"It was all Crissa could do to keep from smiling at the situation."

"So, who will man this blind, Professor?" Brad continued.

"I'm putting you and Crissa into that responsibility," the professor said. "Since you both have cameras with decent telephoto lenses."

No one said anything.

"I want Josh and Mary to hang back here at the hotel tomorrow. To see what they can learn through analysis of the samples we took today. If my hypotheses are correct . . . we just may have a real breakthrough on our hands."

Again, no one had the courage to ask the professor what his educated hunch was. After the bizarre revelation by the villager that morning, all were quietly concerned with how unreal the whole scenario was turning out, regarding the wolves and humans sharing the remote environment. For it seemed the group as individuals, all feared the current situation in relation to certain legends and tales of wolves they had heard as children. Before their excursion into the mountains of eastern Germany, any on the team would have simply dismissed those stories as folklore. Except perhaps the professor, who it was now certain kept this very agenda—from the time of organizing and posting the trip abroad.

"So that leaves Julie and David who will accompany me up to find a wolf den. If we're lucky."

Julie immediately looked over at Crissa. She raised her eyebrows as a subtle message that spoke volumes. Crissa tried to show no reaction to this directive, of course rather being with David in any case. She also realized, as perhaps David did too, that protesting their assignments for the following day would only cause suspicion among the others that some natural attraction had quickly developed between the two.

"So, do you all understand your duties for tomorrow?" the professor asked, smiling before he sat to enjoy his dinner.

The young group, which had already begun eating their dinner—soup, salad, and fresh river trout, nodded their heads somewhat reluctantly at their leader. David turned and gave Crissa a subtly disappointed look, presumably about them not being together, which she secretly returned to him.