For three years, a huge wolf harmed the Correz Valley. With extraordinary strength and wisdom, this beast defeated all round-ups and escaped all the traps set for it. At night, its terrible howl enveloped the whole area.
Last Saturday, the guy, known locally as the Wolf King, bit 3 bull calves and 6 sheep and disemboweled them in a frenzy.
The local population decided to take action against it. At noon on the day of the market in December, the village chief, Brennal, accompanied one of the most famous hunters of the time back to the village from Tille Station. For more than 40 years, the old hunter has a record of capturing more than 50 beasts. From Corez to Morvan, from Marche to the Wonder Mountains, whenever there is a wolf attack, people will call him to fight the wolf.
The village chief pushed open the door of the inn and said, "Gentlemen, this is Maremult, our wolf catcher."
Maremult is 75 years old, but he is physically strong, his blue eyes are shining, and a large white beard sets off his face. The room was silent, and everyone looked at the old man who had come to fight the beast. He will certainly express his opinion, explain his plans, and ask for help in organizing a hunt... The old man took out a gold watch from the small bag hanging from the waistband of his pants, put it to his ear and listened, opened the protective case, looked at the time, and then got up and said only a simple word: "I will want to eat something."
A little disappointed by this simple remark, one person shouted loudly: "You must eat quickly!" Wolves are now killing livestock for fun. ”
Maremult stopped and turned his gaze to the interrogator: "Sir, a wolf will never kill an animal for pleasure, it kills an animal because it is necessary." It's not the same. ”
Malemoort added that it is superficial for a wolf to be so brutal and violent to its prey, when in fact it is only for the sake of acquiring its favorite liver and heart. Wolves are not picky when they are not hungry, and do not always frame their opponents.
"If your wolf becomes a killer, it's because it's carefully chosen. The reason why it has the opportunity to become a killer is because you give it time to become a killer. ”
From the next day onwards, Maremult was on the move. He was seen haunting places where the wolves had been, scrutinizing the remnants of the slain animals. He set up a sentry on the high ground alone before dawn and listened for a long time. The howls of wolves coming from different parts of the mountain convinced him that there were several wolves on the mountain, but he had guessed the cries of the wolf king. The Wolf King's cry was unique: octave higher than the other wolf howls, and it barked longer.
After 5 days of reconnaissance, Maremult began to act. He put on gloves dipped in the fresh blood of a calf, cut the calf's kidneys, heart and liver into pieces, and hid an odorless potassium cyanide detonator coated with butter in each piece of meat. He packed three baits into three bags made of calf skins, also soaked in calf blood.
As night fell, Maremult went up the hill, dragging behind him three pockets tied with a rope. He did not get off his horse, and after turning a circle of about ten kilometers on his horse, he emptied one of the three pockets every 300 meters.
Early the next morning, Maremult returned to the scene. When he found that the first bait was missing, his old heart beat faster. The second bait was also missing. Did victory come so easily? But 300 meters away, he found three baits that had gathered together. They were intact, and the Wolf King had not touched them. And as a sign of contempt, it sprinkled a large bubble of urine on three baits. Returning to the village, Maremult apparently did not say much, and he told the farmers: "It will be very difficult to deal with, it will be difficult to deal with..."
Between the old hunter and the wolf king, a contest began. Maremult knew that the Wolf King could only be defeated with a trapper. Now that he knew the beast he was dealing with, he had the correct estimate of it. He hid some traps around a bait, but the hunter's very cautious measures were in vain.
The wolf king came, confirmed that there was a trapper, and used its claws to pick it up in front of the iron, exposing the chains attached to the trees to broad daylight, without touching them, and flew away.
In response, at dawn, a few kilometers away from the trap, the two sheep were bitten by the wolf king and their stomachs were cut open.
The werewolf changes strategy. He first killed any bait that had not been touched directly, such as rabbits, wild cats, pheasants, etc., on the spot, and abandoned them where it fell. Then put on gloves soaked in fresh blood from the bait and ambush the trap on both sides in the shape of a plum blossom. But he still tried in vain, and after the Wolf King pickpocketed here and there, clearly showing the passage it should take and the place of suspicion, sniffed out the hunter's passage and gave up the food that was easily available.
For 5 weeks, the old hunter repeatedly tried various tricks and traps, but all failed. Later, one night in January, when he returned to the village, he heard a wolf cry from the mountain, and the wolf king responded to this cry. Maremult's face immediately burst into a satisfied smile. As soon as he returned to the village, he announced to everyone the good news: "The Wolf King is vulnerable, and he is about to get married."
So Maremult parked the trap for a week, a whole week to listen to the wolf king's activities. He waited on a tree or a cliff to track the wolf king's marriage. The old hunters exercised zoning control over the area where the wolf king courted, marking the hunting area through which the wolf king and the she-wolf would pass- the mountain trail.
One night, he prepared two traps. The first trap was quite large and was mounted next to the carcass of a calf; The second is installed a few meters above the ground and cleverly buried around the animal's internal organs.
The next morning, the old hunter finally triumphed. The soil around the animal's internal organs had been ploughed, a trapper had been activated, and a wolf had dragged the iron fellow away.
The old hunter was overjoyed and followed the traces down. A few hundred meters away, the silhouettes of the two wolves remained motionless in the snowy hollow. The wolf king stood beside the she-wolf who was desperately dragging the trap, and the front paws of the she-wolf had been caught dead by the beast.
When the wolf king saw the old hunter, he let out a heart-rending howl, threw up his legs and ran away, and the she-wolf complained to the wolf king. A snapping shot echoed through the mountains, and the she-wolf fell. When the old hunter returned to the village, the body of the she-wolf was laid horizontally on horseback. He knew that from now on, the Wolf King would be at his mercy.
That night, not far from the village, the old hunter installed his trap and carefully dragged the she-wolf's carcass around each trap. This time he didn't even have to throw the bait, because he knew what was going to happen the next morning...
At dawn the next day, when the hunting party arrived at the scene under the leadership of the old hunter, the wolf king was indeed there, and he was caught by the steel clip linked by the chain to a tree. Seeing the hunter coming, the beast prepared for the final battle. Its green eyes glowed like lightning, and a piercing howl burst from its throat. A hunter aimed his gun at it, and Maremult waved his hand to stop:
"No, we'll take it to the village, live it, get the noose ready!"
The first rope that was put on the wolf's body was broken by the wolf king with a bite of his teeth, and then a rope was successfully put on, everyone tightened, and then the second one was put on, and soon, the battle between the two sides was not equal in strength, and the wolf king could no longer move. Its claws and steel clips were tied together and locked up in the village chief's storage room.
Throughout the day, people around the village lined up to see the Wolf King who made them smell different.
When night fell, the old hunter went to see the wolf king, and he locked himself up with it.
The next day, the village chief went into the storage room and was surprised to find that the old hunter had spent the night near the wolf king. What surprised him even more was that he saw that the ropes that bound the wolves were all untied. The wolf was still breathing, but the eyes of the old man had lost their vitality.
"It's not long gone." The old hunter whispered, then as if defending himself, "When I untied the rope for it, it couldn't even move." I know very well that an animal does not understand death, but sometimes it gives up its life. ’
Near noon, when the January sun was shining on the mountain, the wolf king swallowed his last breath and died. As a hunter, the old man was entitled to wolf skins, but he refused to cut the wolf king into pieces. He had a large hole dug at the entrance of the village and buried the Wolf King and his mate in the hole.
They just lay together forever. Even the Wolf King will die for love...
Wolves are very specialized animals