Otis The Wolf, parts 1174 - 1177

1174. You can be certain the account of what happened to Otis is the truth simply because I, being a Duck, am incapable of making anything up. Duck stories have been handed down from generation to generation and are devoid of any fiction, and lack even any sort of invention or elaboration. Facts are all we care about, and inevitable conclusions. So I leave unanswered the question: do disasters strike in triplicate, or is it is a literary device of fairy-tales and dumb repetitive jokes.

1175. Let's just say that sometimes reality has the structure of fiction, and sometimes fiction has the structure of reality but it is all just coincidence. Like I said before, it is possible for people to draw absolute conclusions form a single example, how much easier to draw conclusions from three related evil things happening all at once.

1176. But to continue with our story. Just as there was an old gray wolf named Ottus who had it out for Otis and wanted to destroy him and drive him out of the community, so there was a wolf-like rather grayish old man who took a suspicious sort of interest in the Boy's companion and began to ask awkward questions about him.

1177. This elderly man was a well known veterinarian, or what we today would call a veterinarian, and like the Boy's father the blacksmith, he was a very important member of the community.  No one much liked this old man but it was not entirely his fault. He was almost never able to cure any animal diseases or ailments but instead had four remarks that he used in all situations.

Otis The Wolf, parts 1170 - 1173

1170. It was Ottus who was the first to notice that our Otis looked too much like a dog, and that something had to be done about it. It was the commander himself who suggested the spying assignment and it is easy to see his ulterior motive, he knew that in time it would be easy to find fault with his performance and have him turned out into the wild completely.

1171. All that was necessary was an accident during a raid to a farmstead in which someone was caught or injured. If this happened it would be easy to cast suspicion onto the spy, and suggest he was acting as a double agent. The entire wolf community was expecting this to happen anyway so, as in the past it was inevitable. But no accident had yet happened to facilitate the old grey wolf's insidious plan.

1172. As time went by the situation of  Ottus the Commander became more and more untenable. There was always the possibility that Otis would revolt if he was ostracized, if such a confrontation arose the outcome was hardly a foregone conclusion. He was uncertain if the rest of the wolves would join him in attacking Otis, it was all a matter of convincing them that Otis had morphed into a typical house pet.

1173. Then several problematic situations arose all at once. It seems to be true that problems and difficulties arise in groups of three. Either problems arise in triplicate, or it is a literary device so often resorted to by writers that people come eventually to think that triplicate disasters are somehow part of the fabric of human events. Obviously in the case of the story of Otis this could never be the case since there is nothing fictional about it.

Otis The Wolf, parts 1166 - 1169

1166. The cart was repaired in short order in a way the four desperadoes did not even comprehend. A greased steel collar was inserted as a bearing. As for the outer rim, although it had years worth of mortised repairs inset in it, nothing could be done to improve it so it was left alone. The men resumed their journey and Otis went his way, in the opposite direction.

1167. Otis returned to his wolf pack and gave a full report of his days activities. Something must be said of the internal politics of the extended family of which Otis was a part. This clan was run by an elderly grayish wolf whose name was also Otis, like all the others, but pronounced Ottus. For about two years Ottus had been suffering from arthritis which affected both of his hind legs.

1168. Arthritis was a very dangerous affliction in the wolf community then as now because it was likely to lead inevitably to the commander of the pack being challenged to a conflict. This had not happened for a few reasons, first because Ottus had been able to conceal his affliction, and second, because at that time there was no wolf in the community strong or bold enough to issue a challenge, regardless of any arthritis.

1169. There was no challenger except for Otis himself, who could have easily vanquished the old grey wolf with no trouble but it did not enter his head as of yet because of his lowly position in wolf society, and his humiliating assignment of being a spy dog.

Otis The Wolf, parts 1162 - 1165

1162. In that characteristic way of anyone who is a true mechanic, the Boy was more interested in the damaged wheel that in the persons who owned the cart: four rough dirty characters who looked like they had been sleeping in ditches for many months. The Boy held up his hand for them to stop, and immediately started a careful examination of the wheel. The men stood just behind him wondering what he was doing, and Otis lay down and pretended to take a nap with one eye open.

1163. By a series of signs the Boy explained to the men that the wheel was damaged and would need to be repaired. He drew for them a map in the dirt of the road and to indicate his house he took a horse shoe out of his sack and put it as the destination.

1164. In response to these directions one of the men drew from his pocket an old sock of a  money pouch and holding it up, shook it in order to demonstrate that it was empty, and the services being offered could not be paid for.

1165. Now the Boy made a sign to the men which is no longer used and would hardly be understood in this day and age. He put his hands in his armpits and waved his elbows up and down rapidly, indicating the motions of a big bird. This meant, at that time 'free as a bird.' The men understood this gesture and went on their way, planning to stop at the boys house. The Boy followed along behind, and Otis brought up the rear, still on the alert for any trouble.

Otis The Wolf, parts 1158 - 1161

1158. Otis may have considered the Boy to be dumb, obtuse and unaware of his surroundings but that was not really a fair assessment. As you know, his father was a blacksmith, so was his grandfather. There was not a time he could remember that did not contain the roar of the hearth and the bellows, and the ring of the hammer on the steel. Therefore he had a certain inbred awareness of all things pertaining to the family profession.

1159. 1000 years ago the blacksmith profession was not just any profession. He was a man who could put certain things to rights, certain things that the life of any community were entirely dependent on. The blacksmith in the dark ages, was like a doctor in modern war. An emergency arises and all make way for the Doctor, regardless or where and for whom the crisis strikes. So too, 'Is there a blacksmith in the house' was a medieval cry for help of the  desperate traveler.

1160. This Boy, only thirteen, already had all of the inbred habits and mannerisms of the accomplished mechanic. Seeing the cart in the distance he instantly noticed the damaged rear right wooden wheel, which was flopping slightly from side to side, unlike the undamaged wheels.

1161. At fifty yards away he could see that it was one of those very old wooden wheels of a type long out of use, a wheel devoid of any steel reinforcement either at the rim or the hub. It was a wheel used now only by desperate people out on the road with dilapidated equipment; the type of traveler that can not afford to stop for  needed repairs, and for whom any breakdown was disastrous.

Otis The Wolf, parts 1154 - 1157

1154. Otis was acquainted with three types of persons you might come across that smelled of the blood of their own species. Soldiers, murderers and cannibals, and from the smell of things the people in the distance seemed to be of the second variety. Murderers would be of two types, those who had acted in self-defence, and the murderer-thief variety, and it was hard to separate those categories because the one so often morphed into the other in a short time.

1155. Figuring out these things would be unimportant if he had been alone; he would have simply disappeared. But as a house dog he had to go along and act his part. Thanks-be to the wolf's immortal God's that his spy status had not compelled him to give up his religious observances. Otis had been able to practice his pagan ceremonies because the local dogs, although Christians, still retained many of their old pagan practices, although devoid of any spiritual significance for them.

1156. So Otis offered up this prayer to the Immortal Gods. 'Dear Immortals, you fields and streams, tree-trunks and Mulberry bushes, if ever I have offered up to you my small libations then hear my prayer.  Yonder persons, I am sure you see them, please visit them with some affliction so that they will be unable to attempt to do us any violence, and it will not be necessary for me to un-sheath the weapons you granted to me at my birth.'

1157. And the Immortal Gods heard Otis' prayer. There was a big boulder at the side of the road, carved on it was a number indicating a distance to some city that years ago had ceased to exist. Otis had never once passed this mileage marker without offering it a small libation, and that stone in appreciation of Otis' attentions now managed to bump itself into the rear wooden wheel of the cart approaching them, although it appeared that the cart had struck the stone.

Otis The Wolf, parts 1150 - 1153

1150. But for Otis it was not alright to start liking the Boy, liking any persons was an invitation to damnation. The job, the entire job, consisted of appearing to like people, appearing to be friendly. But to actually like people was the most dangerous thing that can happen to an undercover wolf. The best situation is to fall in with angry old farmers who are stupid and abusive, this it the safe way to carry out ones' job.

1151. Making friends with thirteen year-olds was a mistake, and Otis only persisted in his error by telling himself that the job the Boy had was the perfect foil for his examination of almost every farmstead in a wide area free of any suspicion.  So what if he happened to like the boy a little, and what did it matter if he might be called upon to defend him some time, life was full of dangers and trials, might as well make the best of the given situation.

1152. The one thing Otis kept trying to insist on was the necessity of not using the roads when traveling from place to place, he kept on suggesting over and over again how pleasant it might be to go through the wild woods by hardly perceptible pathways, rather than out in the open in full view of the Gods knows whom or what, but to no avail.

1153. It was just a matter of time before some dangerous situation arose. When the evil day did arrive Otis saw it coming about half a mile off. He didn't actually see it coming, first he sensed it and then he caught its odor on the evening air drifting their way.  Hidden in the evening mist was a group of transients, headed South, unsavory persons smelling of blood, human blood no less.