Bazi remembered great uncle Orwell as a somewhat over-friendly old man with bad breath. In his prime, Orwell had no doubt cut a fine figure - he was both tall and broad, and his mind had once been razor sharp. In the guise of a young man, his uncomfortably forthright comments and 'colourful' manners might have passed for charming. But he was an ageing, senile wolf by the time Bazi was born, and she could only remember the scowl on her mother's face when he crossed the line of socially acceptable behaviour - time and time again.

In her early months, Orwell had been a constant presence. Under the watchful eye of Shar-Kali or one of her sane sisters (which excluded Nura), the three newest additions to the Nanum-Akkad clan were happy to run around with weird uncle Orwell. He indulged their whims and played along without question, exhausting the children when no other wolf could. Bazi remembered his lazy eye and the dark stripe that ran down his back, fading at the base of his tail. His physical peculiarities made him the perfect 'baddie', and he took to the role with great enthusiasm. "Run away, you squirts of mothers milk!" he would holler, and the pups would squeal as they scattered.

Later on, it would be made clear to Bazi that Orwell's inclusion in the pack was predicated upon his abilities as a naturalist and healer. Every year, Shar-Kali's labour became more difficult, and she needed her uncle's deep knowledge on the subject of child-bearing to emerge with her life. She made no effort to conceal the fact that her reliance upon him disgusted her.

As Bazi and her sister got older, they began to see another side to their great uncle.

On more than one occasion, they caught him watching when they disappeared into the shrubbery to do their business. The tundra offered little protection from prying eyes. "It is a natural loveliness!" he argued when they confronted him, "Wolf-kind's golden perfume! Sweet snow blossom, you darling spring bud - you make meals of nothing."

He waxed lyrical about the beauty of the natural world. His words might have been inspiring, were it not for the inappropriate context. When the pack's females went into heat, Shar-Kali marched their great uncle to the outskirts of the pack's claim and told him to return only if he wished to seed the earth with his blood. One one such occasion, just before the sickness struck them down, he decided to test her words.

It wasn't Sin or Ea or even Shar-Kali that Orwell sought out in the dark of night. The three women kept to themselves for the duration of their cycle, steering clear of men and children alike. No-one was around to see the dark figure approach the spot where Bazi and her sister snoozed in a tangle of young, white bodies. Mari was at a stage in his life where girls and all that they represented were incredibly uncool, and had joined the pack's hunters for his first night-time stalk. The girls were alone, and unprotected.

The first thing Bazi remembered hearing was her sister's squeal of horror. Bleary-eyed and drunk with sleep, she rolled over to see the dark shadow of her uncle poised above them. One of his thick forelegs weighed heavily on her sister's flank whilst the other pinned the flailing girl's tail out of the way of his searching nose, which he pressed roughly into her privates. Bazi didn't quite understand what was happening, but she knew it wasn't supposed to be happening.

Before she could open her mouth to scream, it was over.

Shar-Kali appeared out of nowhere. Within moments, she had her uncle by the throat, and seconds before the old man could piece together what was going on, his circulatory system had been breached. No screams. No scuffle. Only the quiet hiss of blood spattering against the rocks, and Orwell's gurgling, nonsensical farewell to the world: "Mine.. buds.. unquenchable .. glory.."

He dropped like a sack of shit, and no more was ever said on the matter.


Present day Bazi stared at the ridge on her own son's back. It seemed he would inherit a rarely seen family trait - the first to display it since Fellway. The young mother nudged her snoozing baby closer, and put her head down to sleep.