It was the summer before Nate's senior year of high school. He had planed to meet his friends in jasper park Canada, which was over 2,000 miles away ,but he knew that it would be amazing from the pictures that he had seen online. After he got to jasper he drove to the trail waited at the spot near the trail where he was supposed to meet his friends. A few hours go by and he then got a text from his friend saying that some stuff came up and nobody was going to be able to make it. Nate was pissed, but he looked at the trail and thought "Well i didn't come out here for nothing." he hopped out of his old 75 c10, which he was surprised that it didn't fall apart on the way there. "Maybe i can get this thing in better condition next summer" he thought, as he got his bag and guitar out and started walking down the trail that look like it hadn't been traveled down in a while and started humming "diamond rings and old bar stools" by Tim Mcgraw.
Nates P.O.V
After about 3 hours of hiking I eventually made it to a nice little spot to camp for the week, it was a small cave that only went back like 10 feet that had a sort of ledge protruding looking out over a small pond. I gathered enough wood for a fire and sat it all down in a part of the cave and decided that i wouldn't need fire for another hour so i walked to the pond to look for crayfish, or crawdads as there called where I'm from, and lucky enough there were. after about spending an hour there i gathered 34 crawdads and took them up to the camp and started the fire. i was not sure how i was going to cook them ,but then i remembered that i brought an old pot. So i filled the pot up with half a gallon of water i brought with me and dumped the crawdads in and then sat the pot on 4 rocks the held the pot above the fire like a tripod. Since i knew it would take about and hour for them to be done i grabbed my guitar and sat on the ledge to watch the sunset over the mountains, that reminded me of my home in wild and wonderful West Virginia. i started to sing and play country roads, a song that was written about west Virginia, mid way into the song i heard rustling in a bush behind me.
"Who's there?" i shouted. Silence.
"Isac if you guys are trying to prank me, its not going to work, i knew u guys would show up!" I yelled walking over to the bush,
"No please, don't hurt me" I heard a young feminine voice say.
"Huh? who are you, come out of there" i said wondering who was there.
"Promise you wont hurt me?" it said from the bushes.
"Why would i hurt you? Just come out so i can see you."
"Ok" i heard someone say cautiously from the bush at the moment a small tan color wolf pup limped out of the bushes and looked up at me with a smile.
"Wait, did you just talk?" i asked shocked that a animal had just spoke to me, and i understood it.
"Yep, that was me" the cute little wolf said with a adorable smile.
"Well, I must have hit my head on the way up here"I said still in total shock that i was having a conversation with a animal.
"You don't look like you hit your head?" she said examining me.
" No, i guess not. well what is your name little fella?"I said getting down on one knee trying to get closer.
"Fella? im a girl silly!" she said giggling.
i laughed "Sorry than little miss, whats your name?" I said with a smile.
"My names kate, whats yours? she said looking up at me.
"Im Nate, now it seems that you have a paw that needs looking at now"i said reaching out to her.
She quickly jerked away " promise you wont make it worse?" she said l acting like i was going to kill her.
"Now why would i hurt, a cute little pup like you?" i said still reaching out to her.
"because your a human, and humans have hunted my pack forever"she said cautiously looking at me.
"well i am a hunter, but i didn't come out here to hunt wolves, and let alone i don't even hunt wolves. And i dont even have a gun." i said showing her my pack"
"ok... I trust you" she said limping closer to me.
"ok now let me take a look at your paw" i said taking her paw into my hand.
I could see that her paw was swollen and she whimpered when i tried to touch it.
"How did this happen?" i asked still examining her injury.
"I saw you come down this trail and decided to follow you but i tried to jump on a rock and fell off of it" she said clearly embarrassed that she thought she had made a fool of her self.
"well i might be able to help you out" i said reaching into my bag pulling out an old shirt and a small cooler i had a ice pack in.
"ok now this might sting a bit at first alright?" i said cutting up pieces of the old shirt.
"what are you going to do?" she asked.
"im going to take this ice pack and wrap it up then wet the cloth its wrapped in and then tie this to your paw" i said demonstrating on my self
"all right, as long as it doesn't hurt." she said.
"all your going to fell is cold on your paw and maybe a little sting at first." i said then applying the wrapped ice pack then tying it onto her paw.
"ah, that cold" she said biting her teeth at the sting and the cold.
I then finished up the wrap on her paw and then put what was left of the shirt in my pack and sat down.
"all finished how does it feel?" i said urging her to try to walk.
she limped paced around the cave"All i feel is the cold" she said smiling.
"That's the point of it, the cold is for pain relief, the swelling should be gone by the mor-" at that moment my phone went off and i walked over to the rock in the middle of the cave and checked it, "Nathaniel" i read on the phone I swiped and then put my phone up to my ear.
"Aye bub whats up man, what happened to you guys?" i asked.
"Aye, buck and well you know how my truck needs a new transmission, and isac's truck only has 2 seats, so we supposed to take melanie's car?" he said through the phone.
"yeah, and what happened?" i asked looking over watching kate.
"well we were about to leave and Melanie's little brother was using the back hoe to dig out where their going to build that pond, and ended up backing into her car" he said with a low sigh.
" is it bad?"I asked curiously.
"that shit looks like monster jam bro" he said laughing.
"damn did he not stop when he got on the car?" i said also laughing.
"No he kept on going he didn't hear it he had ear buds in" Nathaniel said sending me a picture of the car.
"damn bro, that sucks do they have that cove-"
" whats that i smell?" kate said sniffing the pot of crawdads that had been on for a while.
"whoa bro, you've been up their for a day and your already chasing tail aren't you?" Nathaniel said laughing his ass off over the phone.
"what?! No bro, it was just... well this chick needed..."
"Nah, nah, nah. its alright bro you go do your job ill hit u up tomorrow bub" Nathaniel said hanging up the phone.
"wow" i said walking over to the pot to take a look. i saw that the crawdads needed to be stirred, do instead of a spoon i choose the next best thing. my knife.
"i never caught your name by the way." kate said looking up at me while i stirred the pot.
"oh sorry, my names Nate." i said looking down at her.
"But why did that voice on the box call you buck?" she said with a puzzled face.
"well my grandpa's name was buck, so i inherited the name from my middle name" i said taking a piece of cloth and holding the handle of the pot and sitting it down at the edge of the peak.
"well whats your middle name?" she asked curiously.
"well, do you really want to know?" i said not really wanting to tell her.
"yes i do!" she said strongly.
"well, my middle name is Buck" i said waiting for the laugh to erupt, as i held the cloth over the top of the pot straining the water out of it. nut i didn't hear any laughter.
"its not that bad."she said limping over to my bag sniffing my stuff.
"really now? well tell that to every pipeline i've ever had a job interview with" i said with a laugh.
"I think its kinda cute" she said that made me blush a little bit.
"well are you hungry? i got plenty to eat here." i said dumping the crawdads out onto the stone that i was using as a table
" sure they smell delicious." she said with a adorable smile on her face.
we sat down and started going to to town, but by the time i had ate 5 she had ate 10, so they didn't last very long. "damn she can eat for a pup her size, id hate to eat with a pack of wolves like her" i thought to myself. after we were finished i sat back and decided to watch Netflix so pulled out my phone and scrolled until i found Ernest saves Christmas, for me being a 17yr old boy i still loved this movie.
"Kate do you want to watch?" i asked the little wolf that was about asleep by the stone.
"watch what?" she asked.
" a movie, its called Ernest saves Christmas." i said showing her the screen of my iPhone 5.
"wait movies... aren't those the moving pictures? like the ones they play at the the place where the humans gather around and watch a big wall with pictures?" she asked.
" You mean a drive in? yeah just like that, but smaller." i said.
"sure why not." she waled over to me and laid down beside me where i was laying against my bag.
we set laid there for an hour and watched the movie, and Kate loved every bit of the movie and she has the most adorable laugh. she had tons of questions about it and i answered all of them like "how does this box with the screen work" "whats Christmas, why does he act so funny, etc." and after i answered all of her questions i got up to stretch and looked out side and saw that it was already dark.
"damn" i said checking my phone "10:06" it read.
"well do you have a pack or something i need to take you to" i said at the mouth of the cave looking out at the stars. i had heard no answer from Kate.
"kate you sti-" I looked around behind me to see kate sound asleep. she looked so cute setting there with her tail wrapped around her.
I just laughed and went sat on the ledge of the cave looking out over the ridge that was on the other side of the pond. you could see mountains for miles and not a cloud in the sky the stars looked like someone had sprinkled sugar across the sky. i pulled out my phone and decided to call my sis and make sure she was alright because while i was up here my aunt was taking care of her. since our parents passed away when we were younger we lived with our grandma until i turned 16 and my uncle Kevin gave us an old trailer, and we put across the road from there house where an horse shed used to sit. i found her in my contacts and face timed her. it ringed for ever and i just sit there looking up at the stars. "i cant believe that Kate lives this every night" i thought so deep that i didn't even here my sister.
"bub you there?" she asked worried.
" yeah, sorry i was just looking up at the stars, i mean just look." i said flipping my phones camera around to show my view.
" i cant see them very well" she said.
"never mind, ill just send you a picture later. so hows it going down there? is aunt k taking care of you?" i asked worried about her being by herself and my aunt only checking up on her every now and then.
"i'm fine bro, when are you coming home? Melanie texted me and said that they were not going to make it." she told me surprised that i was still up here.
"yep, and im not sure how long. This is the perfect place to get some stuff off my mind. i'm defiantly coming back next summer" i said staring up at the beautiful night sky.
"so your just up there in the middle of only god knows where Canada all by your self?" she asked concerned. we've watched out for each other ever since we lost our parents when we were little and had to move in with our aunt and uncle.
"yeah, pretty much" i said with a smile looking back at Kate curled up beside my bag.
"what are you looking at?" she trying to get my attention, i must have been staring for to long.
"nothing, just my bag." i said getting up going to lay down be side of Kate to go to bed.
"well, since when di-" "aye baby where do you keep your Doritos? oh hey nate" she got cut off by her boyfriend Dylan walking into her room.
"Dylan, what the fuck are you doing in my house with my little sister? and is that my underwear!? boy so help me if i catch you f-"
" got to love you bro" she said cutting me off and hanging up on me.
i let out a long sigh and set there looking at Kate, i pulled out moved my bag to use as a pillow. just then i heard Kate yawn and looked over to see her shivering.
"Nate can i sleep with you?" she said in a sleepy voice.
"sure come here" i said picking her up and pulled out a jacket out of my bag and wrapped her up and then put her on my chest.
I heard another yawn and looked up just to see her gazing into my eyes.
"thanks for everything Nate." she said giving me a lick on my nose.
"don't mention it" i said smiling and gazing into her eyes until we both fell asleep.
I was thinking to myself the whole time about this feeling i had just being around her, it felt weird. i shot it down thinking " nah, she's a wolf" but deep down i felt something burning.
