ORDINAR06OILQNES

ORDINARY WOLVES

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e characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. 2004, Text by Seth Kantner All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher: Milkweed Editions, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Suite 300, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415. (800) 520-6455 www.milkweed.org Published 2004 by Milkweed Editions Printed in Canada Jacket and interior design by Christian Fnfhausen Cover photograph by Denis Felix/Getty Images Author photo by Stacey Glaser e text of this book is set in Jenson. 04 05 06 07 08 5 4 3 2 1 First Edition Milkweed Editions, a nonprofit publisher, gratefully acknowledges support from Emilie and Henry Buchwald; Bush Foundation; Cargill Foundation; Timothy and Tara Clark Family Charitable Fund; DeL Corazn Family Fund; Dougherty Family Foundation; Ecolab Foundation; Joe B. Foster Family Foundation; General Mills Foundation; Jerome Foundation; Kathleen Jones; Constance B. Kunin; D. K. Light; Chris and Ann Malecek; McKnight Foundation; a grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature, a grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation Minnesota, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts; Sheila C. Morgan; Laura Jane Musser Fund; National Endowment for the Arts; Navarre Corporation; Kate and Stuart Nielsen; Outagamie Charitable Foundation; Qwest Foundation; Debbie Reynolds; St. Paul Companies, Inc., Foundation; Ellen and Sheldon Sturgis; Surdna Foundation; Target, Marshall Fields, and Mervyns with support from the Target Foundation; Gertrude Sexton ompson Charitable Trust; James R. orpe Foundation; Toro Foundation; Weyerhaeuser Family Foundation; and Xcel Energy Foundation. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kantner, Seth, 1965Ordinary wolves / Seth Kantner. 1st ed. p. cm. ISBN 1-57131-044-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Young menFiction. 2. Rejection (Psychology)Fiction. 3. Loss (Psychology)Fiction. 4. Wilderness areasFiction. 5. Arctic regionsFiction. 6. InupiatFiction. 7. AlaskaFiction. I. Title. PS3611.A55O73 2004 813.6dc22 2003024025 is book is printed on acid-free paper.

PROLOGUE

of a lake in the tundra a wolf lies dying. Blood splotches her trail down a bluff, out onto the lake. Her punched tracks zigzag. She lies on her side, panting, one eye open to the sky. A ski plane soars against the blue. It swoops low, a giant buzzing eagle coming to pluck the wolf away. e tundra glares brighter and brighter in the wolf s eye until land and sky have no detail, and then a wing slides to a stop over her. Its shadow is black. e buzzing is insane now, a tiny angry blizzard, drifting snow. It stutters to silence. In the silence the wolf hears her pups of the spring, their howls yipping mournful and confused, across the land, and the distance of death. Two humans bend over her. e larger one is dressed in down overpants. A down parka spans his barrel chest and stomach. A wolf ruff is sewn on his hood. Moosehide mittens hang from wool strings around his neck. e female beside him wears caribou mukluks with ugruk bottoms, and she too has a strip of wolf fur on her parka. She is skinny, her hair
ON THE DRIFTED SNOW

L V

black and her face gaunt. Her eyes shift and water, and flick south to the orange horizon, impatient to climb back into the sky, to escape to lands the sun doesnt abandon. e man leans and touches the wolf s eye. Shes dead. e eye doesnt blink but the man wonders if she can still see out. Hes wondered about other wolves, hundreds. He scratches his throat. He pulls a down engine cover from the fuselage and toggles it over the cowling. Long flight ahead. Dont got room for you and this hundred-twenty-pound animal. Best skin her. His glance runs along the skyline, and then over at the woman. He flicks open a knife. Coupla more days, sun will be gone. en the damn Darkness. He bends and slits the wolf from front foot to elbow and across the chest. e woman turns away, uninterested in him or his commentary. She thinks it ironic that this man named for the coldest month of the year, with a home at the northern tip of a free country, should complain about winter. Shes shivering. She jogs across the lake to keep from freezing while he skins. Her steps crunch in the snow. She hates snow. She pulls back her hood, holds her breath, listens a last timeshe hopesto the tundra. To her surprise, she hears wolves. She sees specks, running and stopping. Young wolves, waiting for their mother. A sob catches her unaware. Her heartbeat roars in her head. She runs, back toward the dot of the ski plane, her only doorway to civilization here on a planet of wilderness, cold, and encroaching night. She hums, to keep from hearing their cries, and, instinctively, to protect the wolves from the pilot. Far away the narrow shapes turn north and run.

was born and raised in the wilderness of northern Alaska. He attended the University of Alaska and the University of Montana, where he received a bachelors degree in journalism. He has worked as a trapper, fisherman, gardener, mechanic, igloo builder, wildlife photographer, and adjunct professor. His writing and photographs have appeared in Outside, Alaska Geographic, Prairie Schooner, Alaska, Switch!, Readers Digest, and other anthologies and publications. His work reflects his devotion to the land and the animals who live on it, and his belief in the importance of wildness left wild. He lives with his wife and daughter in northwest Alaska.
SETH KANTNER

ORDINAR06OILQNES

ORDINARY WOLVES

by Seth Kantner

2/16/04, 1:40 PM

ORDER NOW Milkweed Editions IndieBound Powells Barnes & Noble Amazon
Ordinary Wolves is distributed to the trade by Publishers Group West