"How can I actually call the wolves?" She finally asked him. She wanted to finally see Alesh again.
The king opened a chest of drawers and took out a pipe. "With that." He handed her the pipe carved
out of ice and the princess looked at her, fascinated. "It's as cold as ice. But why doesn't it melt?"
"For it to melt you would have to throw it into a fire. In my realm, ice is not always ice. Nothing here is what it seems. I actually thought you had already found out."
He was right about that. Even the king of this realm was no exception. "So I just have to blow through there and the wolves come here?"
Instead of giving her an answer, King Ulric waved his hand in the direction of the door. So Lyana stepped outside again and looked around. Nothing was to be seen yet. She took a deep breath, then brought the pipe to her mouth and blew into it. An almost imperceptible sound came out and nothing happened for a long time.
She turned to the king curiously. He was standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. The expression on his face was more than confident. So Lyana waited a little longer and after a few moments she heard a rustling.
You could see bright yellow eyes from some bushes and then the wolves left their hiding place and
came towards them. Ahead of everyone, Alesh. The princess recognized the wolf immediately. He
also seemed to recognize her again and ran straight to her and stood in front of her. The others kept
a little more distance, but did the same.
King Ulric now stepped next to Lyana and nodded contentedly. "The whistle is like a kind of howl
to call the pack over," he told her. "There shouldn't be any problems. Should some of the wolves still fight, then remember to stay out of it. They deal with that among themselves. In addition, it would be far too dangerous to intervene in something like that."
"Got it," Lyana replied obediently and watched as King Ulric swung himself back on his horse to leave. Some of the wolves wanted to follow him, but with a wave of his hand he made it clear to them that they should stay here.
When Lyana could finally no longer see him, she knelt down and held out her palm to Alesh. The wolf sniffed it briefly and then nestled its hairy face against it. "I would love to take you to the castle with me. But King Ulric is right. You are not a pet. You belong here. But from now on I will come to visit you whenever the king allows me to." At least she hoped he would allow her to. All she had to do was make sure nothing went wrong today. However, the wolves were so well-behaved that she soon stopped worrying about them.
Since Alesh was so familiar with the princess, gradually the others also dared to get closer and some even let her stroke them.
Lyana felt incredibly happy. She spent the king's absence petting and playing with the animals. She
was so busy that she almost didn't hear the rustling in the trees.
The first time she thought it had to be the wind. But when the sound could be heard again, she
noticed that there was no wind at all. She looked around anxiously and finally spotted them in the
trees just a few feet away. There were at least two men, probably hunters. Either they had no idea
that the coat of arms on the fence belonged to the king, or they were tired of life.
Lyana thought feverishly what she could do. Would they shoot the animals even if she was around?
Or did they want to wait until Lyana left? Either way, she couldn't leave the wolves alone and if she
sent one of them to the king they would just take the opportunity and kill him.
So she knelt down next to Alesh and put her forehead against his. "What should I do, Alesh? There
has to be a way to call the king." Suddenly, an idea occurred to her. She still had the ice pipe lying
next to the hut. But she couldn't risk getting out of sight.
So she went inconspicuously as close to the pipe as she could. "Alesh. Go and bring me the pipe." She looked the animal deep in the eyes and pointed to the piece of ice on the small table next to the hut. Now she just had to hope that he even understood what she wanted from him. After all, she couldn't imagine King Ulric ever teaching his animals something like that. But her new friend did not disappoint her and actually got the pipe from the table and brought it to her.