When Girl Meets Wolf

Published Feb 16th, 2019, 2/16/19 12:19 am

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SteampunkWolf
Level 54 : Grandmaster Wolf

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Hey all! So, this is my submission to the Animal Whisperer Blog Contest. I hope you enjoy it! Also, please let me know what you think. Thanks a lot!

When Girl Meets Wolf:

Is it possible for man and wolf to co-exist? This question… it’s the same question that has tormented me ever since I was a pup. The same question that has lost me my pack and ultimately sealed my fate.

I can still remember my youth. It was early winter in Alaska, and I was just a young pup at the time. I followed my mother painstakingly through the forest as we tried desperately to find food to sustain ourselves during the harsh winter months. It was by no means an easy task, as food was scarce and it could be days before we found anything to eat. To make matters worse, I was still too young to be without her, and I seemed only to slow her down, but it was unfortunately a risk we had to take to avoid other predators looking for an easy snack.

Typically, we could merely hunt around close to the pack, but food was becoming scarce in that area, so we had to venture further out. My mother, who was a scout for the pack, took me on an old hunting route that she used to have success on when she was younger. The route went by a river, but it was a path that I had not taken before. Regrettably, I was still clumsy at my young age, and as I was walking, I slipped on black ice and plummeted into the rapids.

My mother quickly dove in after me in an attempt of a rescue, but the current was too strong, and it pushed me away too quickly for her to keep up. The water was bitterly cold and ruthless, pushing me under over and over, trying to quell me. Then, right as I began to lose hope, a stroke of pure luck came to pass. An ice fisherman on his way back from a day of fishing saw me drifting down the river. He rapidly rushed over towards me, and when I was close enough to the edge, he used his fishing net to grab me, saving my life.

I could not believe what had happened. I had always been told that humans were no good and would kill me if they got the chance; I never had heard of a human who would save a wolf.

After the ordeal, the fisherman spoke some words which I could not understand, dried me off with his coat, and sent me back to my mother. Ever since then, I often wondered if humans can actually be trusted, but my mother warned me that, no matter how nice a human may seem, they will be the cause of my death if I’m foolish enough trust them.

As the years passed, I grew more experienced with my hunting skills and never encountered another human, but I still held the belief that humans could not be as bad as my pack made them out to be. A belief that unfortunately lead to my seclusion. My pack would constantly ridicule me for it, so I decided one day to split off to go my own way.

I spent months after that moment, roaming around the wilderness, looking for a new pack, but none would accept me because they did not trust humans, and they believed I would lead them to disaster if they let me join their packs.

Eventually, I gave up on the search and just decided to go my own way. It seemed better to be alone than to be with a pack that would not defend me.

Then, one day while I was out hunting, I saw a small, human girl, about nine years old, lying still in the snow; she appeared to be sleeping. I cautiously approached her to find that she was blonde and wore a purple coat with pink flowers and small button-up boots. Her small nose and cheeks were rosy from the cold, and she had a few scratches and bruises. Then, in an instant, I noticed the skid marks on the road and the red car that was smashed sideways into a tree. I slowly walked over to it to look inside; and, as I walked, I saw the red snow stained with blood. Hesitance took me back for an instant until I hopped on my hind legs. The sight I saw inside was gruesome. The girl’s mother had been impaled by a branch through the side of her skull, and her father’s spine appeared to have snapped upon collision. I concluded the girl must have been ejected into the snow the moment they collided with the tree.

For a moment, I wondered what to do. Would it have been best to just leave her there and hope somebody found her? Without another possible doubt, I crawled under her, and carried her back to my den. She was not very heavy, which made the journey relatively easy. Once we arrived at my den, I wrapped around her to keep her warm during the night. It seemed like the only thing I could really do.

As I laid there, I wondered if I had made the right choice. “No,” I thought to myself. It was at that moment I told myself I would bring her back to the road in the morning. Perhaps there would be more people there looking for her.

Night approached, and I fell asleep.

The next day, I was awoken to the sound of a small shriek. The girl had come to, and must have been frightened to see a wolf wrapped around her. I suppose it was not that surprising. After all, for all she knew, she was alone with a fanged killer.

In an attempt to de-escalate the situation, I decided it would be best to roll over onto my back to show her that I meant no harm. She appeared to be a bit taken back for a slight moment, but after a few seconds, she slowly approached and began to pet my stomach. I licked her hand as a gesture to show her my intentions were not bad, and she eventually settled down.

It made me feel regretful to see her in that state. There was no way she could have known that her parents were dead, and she must have been very confused as to how she got there. She could not stay with me, however; I did not know how to care for a human child.

I knew what had to be done, so I began to walk out of the cave whilst making yipping sounds in an effort to get her to follow me. I’m still not sure if it was that or just the fear of being alone that actually caused her to follow me, but either way, she came.

I started to lead her back towards the road again, but my actions proved to be ignorant and foolish. I lead her back along the same river that I had fallen into as a pup. In hindsight, I should have known that the path was difficult for inexperienced wolves to navigate, let alone a human child. And, almost as if by coincidence, she slipped on the snow, and fell into the freezing water. I watched as her purple coat drifted down with the current, bobbing up and down in the rapids.

In no time at all, I jumped in, just as my mother had done for me when I was a pup. Flashbacks of that day came rushing back, but I knew there was nobody but me that could save her this time. If anything, it was my chance to repay humans for saving me as a pup.

I quickly swam down stream, fortunately grabbing her small hood. Although, the current was too strong for me to swim back, so I instead got her as close to the edge of the river as I could.

A tree had fallen over the river during a major winter storm the previous year, and she was able to grab onto a branch; she tried with all of her strength to hold onto me as well, but she simply wasn’t strong enough, and I slipped away, jamming my leg into a rock, breaking it in two. I hopelessly drifted further down the river, unable to swim to freedom. There was nothing that could be done at that point, and I lost hope once again. At that moment, I was pushed under the ice.

So here I am, stuck beneath the ice, with little time remaining. It’s funny… how fast your life can flash before your eyes… how fast your life can be taken from you. I can’t help but appreciate the irony that I’m going to drown saving a human after a human saved me as a pup from drowning. I guess my mother was right; humans do result in death. Hm… and to think, I don’t even know the girl’s name… pity.