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."What is this?" she asked."What illness has come to these little ones?"Cricket studied her for a long moment, then she sighed."Since you insist on acting like a breeder intent on staking out a mate, you are old enough to know, but it is not apretty story.Come outside the hearing of the little ones."Firekeeper and Blind Seer did so, and when they were all comfortable on a rock-shaded area overlooking thenursery, Cricket turned to Grey Thunder."Some are your children," she said."The story is best begun by you."Grey Thunder's hackles rose as if he scented something dangerous, but he did not refuse though his silence was soprolonged that Firekeeper thought he might be about to do so."Does nothing like this happen among your own pack?" Grey Thunder said rather cryptically.Then he looked moredirectly at Blind Seer, "Are you one of many blue-eyed wolves in your line?""I am the only one I have ever met," Blind Seer replied."My father says that occasionally a blue-eyed wolf is borninto his birth pack, but this happens so infrequently that he had never seen one until my eyes did not turn when thoseof my littermates did.""But the seeds for those blue eyes are planted in your family line," Grey Thunder said."Were you to father pupsthere is a chance one of your get would also have blue eyes."Blind Seer chewed the edge of his paw for a moment, considering this. "I suppose so."Grey Thunder huffed indignantly."Do you know anything of how father and mother both contribute to thecharacteristics of their young?"Firekeeper interrupted."This matter was never discussed in our family, at least not in my hearing.All that was saidwas that it was good for the strongest in the pack to parent the pups because then the pups would be strong.""And is that all you know?" Grey Thunder asked."That is all I heard when I was only with wolves," Firekeeper replied."When I came to humans I learned more.Onehuman of the family that adopted me kept dogs.Do you know what dogs are?""I do.""Well, Edlin was forever trying to get his bitches to bear pups with qualities that were considered useful.His dogswere especially skilled at hunting birds and small game.Edlin was always talking about matching some bitchpossessed of some quality say, good hearing to a dog with good 'bird sense.' I found this very confusing, but Edlintalked about it enough that I got some idea of what was involved.""This Edlin must have talked a great deal," Grey Thunder said, seeming impressed, "to teach a reluctant learner.""Edlin is, if nothing else," Firekeeper said with fondness, "enthusiastic.But what does this have to do with thesehurt pups and Blind Seer's eyes?""Walk with me through an idea," Grey Thunder said."It will be easier.Let us say Blind Seer wished to assure thathis pups would have blue eyes.How might he do this?"Firekeeper didn't like the trail along which this question led her, but she followed it, thinking of how she had heardEdlin discuss breeding pups or Derian the breeding of horses."Might he seek a bitch with blue eyes? That would be a poor way to choose a mate.""I agree," Grey Thunder said, "but we are not saying this would be done.We are walking a trail.""Lead then," Firekeeper said.She found her hand drifting to bury itself in Blind Seer's fur, as it often did when shewas uneasy, but though she knew she gave herself away, she did not move her hand."Blue-eyes and blue-eyes would not necessarily have blue-eyed pups," Grey Thunder went on."Trust me on this.""Easy to do," Firekeeper said."Our mother, Shining Coat, rarely has a pup to match her own unblemished silver.More often the pups look like their father.Sometimes they look nothing at all like either parent.""This is because all of us carry many forebears in our blood," Grey Thunder explained, "and when we mingleourselves in mating, the most common forebears come forth.Now if blue-eyes and blue-eyes mated, there is a greaterchance that they would find a common blue-eyed forebear and that forebear would come forth in the color of a puppy'seyes.""So you are saying that though neither Rip nor Shining Coat had blue eyes," Blind Seer said, "that both must havehad a forebear with blue eyes.""Yes.However, that forebear probably lived a long time ago."Firekeeper leaned forward, thinking of things she had heard humans discuss when they talked of religious matters."Are you saying all of us are our forebears reborn?""No," Grey Thunder said."I am saying that what we were given by our forebears remains within us, even when wedo not see it, as the blue eyes were not seen in Rip and Shining Coat.Even unseen, a trait is there, and may comeforth."And how does this apply to the pups? Firekeeper wanted to ask, but she could tell that even now Grey Thunder wastense.His hackles had not smoothed all the way, but remained ruffled like the quills of a feeding porcupine
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