A Quiet Forest
For nine hundred years, the wolves of the Eastern Forest had patrolled the woods around the village of Witten. They had killed an occasional sheep. They had eaten an occasional dog. They had also kept the deer down, which had kept the saplings up, which had kept the forest healthy.
The villagers had never loved the wolves. The villagers had survived alongside them.
This spring, the wolves were leaving.
The forester had reported it first. Then the shepherd. Then a hunter from the next village over. The wolves were moving north. There were now only — it was thought — three or four left in the entire forest, where there had been thirty.
Most villagers were pleased. The mayor declared a small celebration.
Anya was eleven. She read too much. She had read about ecosystems. She had read about old folktales. She had read about what happened to forests when their predators left. The book on her bedroom shelf about the history of the Carpathian wolves had been her favourite for four years.
Anya was not pleased.
She wrote a careful letter to her teacher. The teacher, a thoughtful woman called Mrs Tannen, read the letter at home that evening, and the next day she said to Anya, very quietly: "You're right to worry. Would you like to do something about it?"
"Yes."
"What did you have in mind?"
"I want to find out why they're leaving. Most things have reasons."
Mrs Tannen thought