Last year I had made a promise to a new friend I had met. I had promised to come back to meet it again. And as the next spring came, I finally had the time to go back. That, and.. enough time had passed of what had happened last winter. As I arrived at the place where the Washington lodge had once been, I just stood there, stood and stared. There was nothing to be seen, from what I'd heard, the Washington family.. well, the parents had cleared the lot off of debris and then sold it to someone. They hadn't been back ever since, and had no intention to do so. I understood their decision, of course. This mountain had taken everything from them. As I stood there, the horrors of our last visit here returned to my mind in a flash. The Washingtons weren't the only ones who had lost something. I had seen Jessica fall into the mineshaft, and lost her forever. Only Sam, Chris, Emily and myself had made it out alive. The rest of us.. they were all gone. I stared at the empty lot for a little while until I finally started looking for my friend. The last time I saw him, was right here. I had said I'd be back, and I had kept this promise. I just hoped that he was still alive.
Right as I was about to walk deeper into the woods, I heard some bushes rustling behind me. I turned around and saw me four-legged friend. But he wasn't alone. Behind him stood a female wolf, almost pitch black in color. It was slightly smaller than my friend, and stared at me cautiously. And that wasn't all: as Wolfie took that first step towards me, I saw that next to the female wolf stood three puppies. One of them was black like the mother was, and two of them were brown. One of them slightly lighter in color where as the third one almost reminded me of fire with its brighter brown, almost orange shade.
"You've got little wolfies!"
I said as I knelt down in front of the wolves. Wolfie was the first one to greet me, followed by three playful puppies. The mother was the most cautious of them all, but eventually they all stood around me.
"I missed you",
I said as I carefully petted the wolf. It didn't back down which told me that it really did remember me.
"Nice to meet you. How are you?"
I asked from the female wolf as Wolfie and the puppies circled around me. Well, the pups did. Wolfie was resting its head on my lap. The black wolf looked at us for while, but finally decided to join us.
"I was worried about you, buddy. But you seem to be doing fine. You've got a pretty mate and three puppies.. And speaking of which, do you guys mind if I name them? No? Didn't really think so."
I observed the puppies for a little while. One of the two males, the black one seemed to always be causing some trouble. Now it jumped all around its siblings and stopped to bite the female pup's tail.
"Why don't I call you Mayhem, huh? Seems like a fitting name",
I noted and moved onto the other male, the lighter brown one.
"You're a tougher one, aren't you.. What about August?"
I asked while looking at the puppy. It was mostly brown but had some black areas around its muzzle and tip of tail.
"Yeah, August is good."
All that was still left was the female puppy.
"You're a fiery one, right.. What do you think about Phoenix?"
I almost immediately asked.
"Risen from the flames of something that once was."
After naming the puppies I moved on to spend some more time with the wolf family. We left the area surrounding the lot and walked a little deeper into the woods.
"You've really got yourselves a handful with these puppies",
I said to the adult wolves as the pups dashed around and teased each other as well as their parents.
"Or should I say, pawful. Anyway, I'm sure you'll be just fine. You've already gotten this far with them. I kind of wish I could stay here forever",
I confessed as Mayhem came to bite my shoelaces.
"Sadly I can't. But I promise to come back and check on you guys again. That's a promise I won't break."
It's unfortunate, but all good things eventually have to come to an end. And just like that it was also my time leave from the mountains.. but not before saying a proper goodbye to Wolfie and his mate which I'd started calling Nala, and to their puppies. It was almost heartbreaking, right after making new friends.
"I'll see you guys later, take care",
I still said before leaving again. And just like last time, Wolfie stood there, looking after me. But this time it wasn't alone, it had a family. And I knew my friends were going to be just fine.
