Spirit Wolf by Kathryn Lasky

glacier seemed to have missed the Slough entirely, they could now see it quite clearly as they approached its ragged edge. Faolan called a halt. He peered out across the expanse of ice that seemed endless. The glacier did not appear to be moving at all anymore, but the vast stretch of it stood between the wolves and their destination.
    â€œI don’t think we have a choice. We’re going to have to go across it if we are to get to the border, to the Cave.”
    â€œIt looks solid,” Mhairie said. “I don’t see any cracks.”
    â€œYou never can be sure. It can be deceptive,” Gwynneth said. “I spent a fair amount of time in the northern kingdoms as a youngster. Snow can form a crust over the cracks and the crusts break. You can fall into a deep crevasse.”
    â€œWhat’s a crevasse?” Myrr asked.
    â€œIt’s a deep open crack in a glacier. Deep enough to swallow a grizzly.” She wilfed before their eyes.
    â€œWhat is it, Gwynneth?” Faolan asked.
    â€œNothing,” she lied. The memory of Oona sprawled in that deep crevasse haunted her. Faolan looked at her narrowly and she sighed. “Look, I didn’t want to tell you. But before we met up in the Slough, when I was traveling near Crooked Back Ridge — well, what had been a ridge — the ground was riddled with deep cracks. I found Oona in one.”
    â€œOona!” Edme and Faolan both gasped.
    Gwynneth shut her eyes tight as she recalled the image of the vultures diving into the crevasse, scavenging the remains of animals who had plummeted to their deaths. “It was horrible. The crevasse that Oona fell into was wide, wide enough for the wingspan of a vulture. Wide enough for a grizzly. There were so many animals dead at the bottom. It was a feast for carrion eaters.”
    â€œListen, all of you,” Faolan said, shaking the image from his mind. “We have to pass this way. There is no choice. But I tell you we are not going to become food for carrion eaters. Gwynneth, you fly out ahead and scout for any crevasses. We shall walk carefully. We’ve all beentaught to walk on river ice, testing it with our dewclaws. We shall do the same here. Do you understand?”
    The other wolves nodded solemnly.
    Faolan squared his shoulders, raised his tail, and then barked, “Let’s go!”
    The five wolves set off, Gwynneth flying above to scour the landscape for any dangerous breaches in the ice and listen carefully for any gaps in the wind as it swept over the glacier that might indicate a crack.
    This scheme worked for a little while, until a ground fog rolled in and blocked her surveillance. She swooped down to her companions below.
    â€œIt’s hard to tell what’s below from up there. Before this ground fog rolled in it looked fairly clear. However there’s something else I need to tell you.”
    I am so bad at this kind of thing , she thought. There was no gentle way she could introduce the subject that was troubling her. She wished there was the language equivalent of a slipstream, the partial vacuum created in the wake of another larger bird that allowed one to fly swiftly, barely stirring a feather. But there wasn’t, so she just blurted out the news.
    Edme gasped in dismay. “What? What are you saying, Gwynneth?”
    â€œBanja has a pup. I found her in my old forge.” She ruffled her feathers. “I know this sounds strange.”
    â€œDefinitely!” Faolan said. “It chills me to think of that wolf as a mother.”
    â€œWell, that’s perhaps the strangest part. She’s a very good mother,” Gwynneth replied. “It has changed her completely. She’s a different wolf.”
    â€œTo put it mildly,” Mhairie sniffed. “She was a Watch wolf who was not supposed to mate, and here she has a pup.”
    â€œYes, she’s a mother now. And anyway, I don’t think anyone can consider themselves Watch