Howling
A short story
What was left of the dead yak’s leg was swaying in the icy blast of Khuvsgul. Before coming to far northern Mongolia for the second time, Chaeyeong had not known that the body of a once-living animal could creak like an old log. She had not seen any carcass during her first visit in the summer. Now she was getting accustomed to running into dead livestock on the steppe, either frozen or gnawed to death.
“The cubs cannot break the ribs just yet. They soon will, though. The alpha female began to bring them along,” Ganzorig said. After inspecting the yak, he snapped one of its ribs. The yak’s flank had been torn open and gobbled down so wide that he could sit in the cavity.
“When did they kill the yak?” Chaeyeong asked in Korean. Tuguldur translated her question into Mongolian for his father. “Yesterday, or maybe the day before. Their footprints are still around,” answered Ganzorig, taking out bags of dried horse meat onto the hood of his SUV. Many footprints, some of them bigger than Chaeyeong’s palm, were scattered around the yak.
As they took pieces of meat with their hands and dined in silence, snow started to fall. “Dr. Kang,” said Tuguldur, “the beaters are asking for an additional payment. They are saying that they did not know that you wanted to capture the wolves alive.” His voice was still carrying a sense of guilt.
Unlike her ex-husband, Chaeyeong did not want to blame a guide for the death of Jihun. She had brought Jihun along to Khuvsugul so that she would spend a few days with him after finishing her project. After the divorce, she had not seen Jihun often since her ex-husband had kept custody of him. Jihun had been excited that he would be camping and riding horses for three days with his mother.
It was an accident that the wolf with a crooked tail showed up at the camp when he was mounting a horse. The horse bucked, and Chaeyeong heard her son’s neckbone snap.
“Ask them if they could wait until we return to Ulaanbaatar then,” Chaeyeong answered. She had rejected the compensation that the travel company offered. Nonetheless, she did not shy away from taking advantage of Tuguldur’s guilt. A tour guide with a good command of Korean and willing to do his penance, whose father was a shepherd who occasionally hunted wolves, was indispensable in her quest for vengeance. Meanwhile, she got the impression that his father was reluctant to chase the wolf. He did all the job required to help his son and did it well, but that was it.
“We have no time to spare. We finally tracked her down. She must be there,” she said, pointing at a snow-covered mountain ahead. Ganzorig, who had been watching her and Tuguldur, nodded. No translation was needed this time.
Puffing out cigarette smoke, Ganzorig muttered something with an unfathomable face. Chaeyeong held out her hand to him for a cigarette. Her fingers were so stiff from the cold that she could not light it by herself. Tuguldur stepped in.
“Thank you. What did your father say?” She inhaled deeply.
“He said that you now eat and think like a wolf mother. You even smell like one, too.”
*
It stopped snowing past midnight. Chaeyeong crawled out of her tent, shivering. She ate a handful of half-melt snow by the dying fire. Her mouth was dry. It had been two weeks since she had brushed her teeth with toothpaste. Ganzorig had told her it would be best not to use anything artificial so that the wolves could not notice her. She rubbed her face with her damp hands. Her body smelled like mutton fat, smoke, wet wood, and urine.
No star was to be seen through the murky clouds of the night sky. With her hands cupped around her mouth, she howled into the darkness several times. There was no answer from the mountain.
“Can’t sleep?”
Chaeyeong did not turn around. No other man would talk to her in Korean in the wilderness of Khuvsgul. “I should practice more, I guess,” she mumbled, “I can’t howl like your father.”
“I had lived with him for eighteen years before entering the army, but still couldn’t manage to imitate a wolf like him.” Tuguldur sat next to her. “Guess I am not born for it. My wife and kids find it funny when he can make wolves answer back but I can’t.”
Tuguldur fell into an abrupt silence. Chaeyeong left him floundering. She was not offended that he had mentioned his children, still alive; yet she did not feel obliged to tell him that it was okay to be absent-minded.
“So, Dr. Kang, were you working for a mining company?”
Tuguldur was desperately trying to change the topic.
“Not exactly. I worked at a public research institute. In a nutshell, I searched for where to dig up the rare earth metals, and some firms found my research useful.”
“Recently, many foreign mining companies have come to Mongolia. I heard they give you good money. Maybe I could get a job in a Korean mining firm.”
“I quit after my son died,” Chaeyeong retorted, calm in her tone but sharp in her words.
“My apologies, Dr. Kang.” Tuguldur opened his mouth after a long search for a proper answer.
“I have never told you I need your apologies. Are you not satisfied with being a guide?”
“I just wanted to get away from my father, his sheep, and the meadow. Didn’t want to end up a shepherd like him. He loves his way of life, but I don’t. So I went to South Korea and never came back until my visa expired. I held enough money to start a family in the city. The language I picked up has been handy so far, too.”
Chaeyeong gazed at Tuguldur’s face. He must have gotten married young. His muscular build was a mismatch to his boyish face. She remembered that he was only twenty-seven. He was old enough to be a father, yet young enough to desire the flight from his father.
“Doesn’t that mean you are satisfied with being a guide?”
“I have a home in Ulaanbaatar, but Korean tourists don’t come here to hang around there. They come here for the exotic steppe. Sometimes, I feel afraid that the steppe is not letting me go. Now I want a new job, new skills that will let me leave the steppe for good with my family. However, I also feel guilty for leaving my father alone here.”
Chaeyeong repressed her unexpected urge to laugh. Here sat a man who wanted to leave the steppe with his family and a woman who came back to it in the absence of a family. Suddenly, she wished that his family would collapse too. She put her hand on his and looked into his eyes. She could feel her bottom getting wet from the melting snow.
Sounds of explosives thundered from afar. Tuguldur pulled his hand from under her hand. “Tomorrow will be a big day. Sleep in peace, Dr. Kang.” He gave a light pat on her back and went into the tent he shared with his father.
*
Snow was falling again. Ganzorig gave a briefing in the mercilessly wobbling SUV. They were driving to the other side of the mountain. Once they arrived, they would hike up the hill facing the mountain from the east. Then each one of them would pick a spot where they could hide and look down the valley: Ganzorig in the north, Tuguldur in the south, and Chaeyeong in the middle. Though the wind was blowing from the west, they would still have to cover themselves with the snow lest the alpha female become suspicious.
“I will radio the beaters after everything is ready,” shouted Ganzorig, “and then they will come across the mountain on horseback, driving the wolves down to the valley.”
After covering Chaeyeong up, Ganzorig gave her a walkie-talkie and a rifle. She had never shot a gun before. “Now all you have to do to shoot it is pull the trigger, but don’t. I am giving this to you for your protection only, just in case,” warned Ganzorig. “My son and I will wait until the wolves get close. Really close, so we can avoid killing them. Understood?” Chaeyeong nodded.
As Ganzorig and Tuguldur walked away, Chaeyeong closed her eyes and reminded herself of what she had wanted to do. She would not take a move until the men captured the alpha female and her cubs. Then she would snap the cubs’ necks with her own hands, one by one while their mother was watching. She was not sure if she could do it.
With a sign over the walkie-talkie, the beaters began to ride on. Although they were yet to pass the ridgeline, Chaeyeong could hear their shouts growing larger. Incomprehensible Mongolian phrases were being radioed more frequently.
“Dr. Kang, we found them! In the middle!”
Chaeyeong recognized Tuguldur’s voice. A herd of small figures was trudging down the mountain.
“They are approaching where you are. My father is telling you to be patient. We will wait a bit more, and if they continue coming towards you, we will slowly crawl to you.”
Chaeyeong waited. The beaters appeared on the ridgeline. She could see a wolf turn around to check where the shouts were coming from. Its tail was crooked.
“I found her,” Chaeyeong said into her walkie-talkie.
“We found her too. Turn off your walkie-talkie now and stay quiet.”
The wolves were not running away from the beaters at full speed. They were trotting to keep a distance. Chaeyeong waited, holding her breath. The wolves were bigger than she had imagined. She noticed that Tuguldur had come close to her without making a sound. He was getting ready to shoot. The wolves were only a few strides away.
Abruptly, a sound of explosives roared throughout the valley. Chaeyeong gasped. The horses bucked. The alpha female swiftly turned around and began to sprint towards one of the beaters. Tuguldur shot. Another shot from Ganzorig followed. They succeeded in not killing the alpha female but failed in injuring her. The beater could not stop the wolves.
“Damn it!” Chaeyeong sprang up despite herself. She began to run down the hill. Tuguldur was shouting at her to come back, but she did not care. Still running, she shot at the wolves. The gun kicked back. A heavy pain hit her collarbone. She could not breathe for a few seconds. Her head dropped. There were drops of blood on the snow.
The wolf pack was already running up the mountain. Nevertheless, Chaeyeong did not stop. She had taken notice of one cub, falling behind and bleeding. Even the cub was half the size of her body. She approached it from behind and struck it with her rifle. It fell on the ground, whining. She tried to choke it from behind and sensed her arm chafed by its teeth and claws.
Not letting go of the cub, she shot into the air with her left hand only. The alpha female turned her head and looked at Chaeyeong. She started to charge towards Chaeyeong, leaving the pack behind.
“Don’t shoot her!” Chaeyeong yelled. Ganzorig and Tuguldur were aiming at the alpha female, standing behind Chaeyeong. The beaters dismounted from their horses and gathered around. The alpha female stayed a few steps away from the people and hissed. Two beaters took the cub from Chaeyeong and tied it up while others watched the alpha female. The other cubs barked behind their mother, their tails between their legs. The mother wolf and her cubs did not attack or run away until a beater threw a net at them.
Chaeyeong fell to the ground, face up. Another sound of explosives was heard. She knew what she had to do once she caught her breath and got up. She wished for a delay to the moment. “What’s going on around here?” she asked. Ganzorig answered. Tuguldur hesitated to translate his words, but Ganzorig insisted.
“My father wants you to know that this will be his last wolf hunt,” Tuguldur uttered.
“What do you mean?”
“He is going to sell his sheep and move to Ulaanbaatar to live with me. After mining companies came to Khuvsgul, good meadows have been disappearing, getting blown up. So he decided to quit like other shepherds.”
Tuguldur looked away from Chaeyeong.
“With fewer shepherds and fewer sheep, wolves have begun to appear where they shouldn’t be. He says he wants you to know this now before you make the final decision.”
Chaeyeong looked up at the snowing sky, still lying down.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t hiding it. I didn’t hear anything from my father before.”
Chaeyeong stood up. Everything was so quiet that she could hear the snow fall.
She did not know what to feel, think, or say. Thus, she chose to howl.
The wolf mother howled back.
Ganzorig stood behind Chaeyeong and gave a light pat on her back. Then he passed by her to give a pat to the wolf mother. He looked back at Chaeyeong, asking with his facial expression what to do.
*
As the wolf mother and all her cubs disappeared into the mountain, Chaeyeong and Ganzorig howled again. The next moment, they heard the answer from the wolf pack. No translation was needed.
Then everything was silent once more.
(2257 words)
This is my first story for GWC ‘23, judged by
and . If you want to read works of other competitors, go check out , , , and !If you enjoyed my work, you can buy me a cup of tea. I am not a coffee person, by the way.
That took me for a wild ride! Also, I find it fascinating that Eric, you and I have mentioned blood in the snow in our very different stories.
When I say this is a dense piece, I don't mean it's hard to get through (except emotionally). It takes some careful attention, but it merits it. You've packed so much emotion and irony into such a small space.
(Blood on snow, blood on snow, blood on snow, blood in the water...nice catch by Hanna!)