Telepathy?

I have been thinking. Was I in a Twilight movie? Did I somehow end up as one of the cast?

I know for a fact that wolves communicate with gestures and sounds. So, can someone tell me how Umma suddenly scolded me through a telepathic link?

"Nūh, you'd better get here right this instant and let me clean you," she said sternly.

I had been following some of the older wolves that helped Umma take care of us, nipping at their heels and tails and simply being a nuisance.

My brothers and sisters and I- I don't know which of them is which yet, I may have face blindness or something or maybe they were just too fuzzy for me to make out- were on a great mission to map out our den.

It was large enough for four wolves to comfortably stay in at the same time.

We could understand bits and pieces of what the adults would say and all of us were very envious of their howls. Our squeaks and grunts were tiny in comparison.

One of the younger wolves of the pack made fun of us by showing off his grown-up howl. My stupid sister, I think Sarah or maybe Saffana, tried to howl back unsuccessfully which was absolutely adorable. Her squeaky 'howl' winded her and she had to take in some deep breaths after.

When they walked, they would trip on their own feet and squeal when they got their bellies tickled. My heart could almost not handle these daily assaults of adorkableness. Back to topic.

We each had a different voice and tone. Mine was somewhat deeper than my siblings. So it was easy to identify everyone despite the distance between our den and the usual resting site of the wolves. I could even recognise that young show-off if he were out of the forest. He was rather loud and shaped his howls in strange patterned tunes.

Umma never howled. She only made small huffs with her breath. I never knew how she sounded until that moment when she called me to clean up. I was surprised that I knew the language provided I was still a baby.

Her voice was a sweet knock on hollow wood, round and nice to listen to. It formed in my mind as she spoke that language I never heard but understood; almost like hearing yourself hum with your ears closed.

I obediently went to her and let her lick me as she pleased. As she busied herself, I tried to speak to her telepathically. I could only make growls with my throat. Simply concentrating with my mind didn't work either. I tried throwing out a thought like a ball. I compressed it imagining that I was crunching up paper and shot it out.

That was a bad move. It bounced from the inside of my skull and returned like a corrupted file. I let out a small, disappointed whine in temporary defeat.

Umma felt my disappointment. She nuzzled my head and breathed out. The breath tickled the fur on my ears making them twitch.

She sang me a lullaby meant only for dear ones. I was filled with mirth as her little cheery tune crooned on.

The air vibrated as she sang to us. We quietened from our play. Soon, the other wolves near the entrance joined in with their own signature voices. It was a song their mothers sang to them too. My siblings in wide-eyed wonder at this sudden chorus- orchestra- whatever. I think it's chorus. Should be. Orchestra has the violins, pianos and stuff.

As the song or nursery rhyme or lullaby finished, something sparkled in the air in front of us, shimmering and floating steadily down like pixie dust from the movies. My brother tried to catch it in his mouth but it disappeared.

The magic finished. Us younglings were in a daze.

Umma said it was the song of the Veleme forest faeries who gave us this song in exchange for hunting down a beobir that kept digging up the roots of their houses. We sat around her quietly like studious children willing to absorb everything in the world. It was hard to memorize and I only remembered the first six syllables. Umma said we can only sing it for family members or we'll be cursed.

We couldn't sing it. Our vocal chords were not developed for that. It just sounded like screams and screeches as we tried it.

Umma never howled because she didn't have her own voice. Her parents taught her a way to create her own artificial echo so she could communicate.

It wasn't telepathy. It was similar to ventriloquism. Since you had to project a sound in a different location. But we didn't need to use our vocal chords for this so it was different.

Her soft echoes stimulated our brains little by little. I felt a slight poke in the front part of my skull. It was faint.

We practiced our howls daily and joined in when the adults spoke amongst themselves and remembered the various scents and sounds around us. There were so many, it was overwhelming. We also wrestled and played together to see who was the strongest. I always won so now I'm officially the boss.

Umma would sometimes leave the den and have some young males babysit us. They were very good at their job and I do remember some of them fighting amongst themselves to get the chance to babysit.

When she came back, she would speak to us to get us to learn how to stimulate that bit of our brains ourselves.

Learning the voice projection echo was quite difficult.

It was like being at a loud concert and feeling the beats of drums and the vibrations coursing through your body but then going into a silent room and trying to recreate the beats and vibrations with your own body without moving anyhow or using any external instruments.

We were almost four weeks old now. Soon, we would be taken on a feildtrip outside the den by an adult.

I never knew the life of a wolf cub would be this fun and busy.