Paradise in Wolf's Clothing
By; Christina Adriance
A welcomed beam of sunlight warmed my exhausted body, as it peeked through a wrinkle in the mountain chain. I arose to my feet, leaning myself forward to stretch my still sleeping muscles. My nose took a deep drawn out breath of the crisp cold air, trying to probe the area for any other hint of life besides myself. It made my nostrils tighten, when I found one in particular smell that grabbed my attention. It was too faint for me to trace this only scent, so I closed my eyes and wafted a few times. To no avail on figuring out what it would be, it did give me what direction to follow. I tracked it down, wading through knee deep snow to get to what could be prey.
After two hours, I stopped in my tracks. Ahead of me was an small dog, pawing in the snow to collect its leftover meal scraps. I licked my lips, swirling my fangs with my tongue. I crouched forward, trying to blend my deep gray fur inside the white snow. Yea, I already know its not such a good idea, but what was I supposed to do? I traveled onward, stalking my un-expecting prey. At least my pale silver/blue eyes and pure white chest blended with my enviroment. But of course, the black fur on my face that resembled a mask was a dead give away.
I was only 25 feet away from him, my eyes stung from the snowstorm that pelted me from all angles. My eyes were most likely deceiving me, as it was probably only a rock that was beheld in front of me. But my watering mouth made my mind think otherwise. I crept up for only 5 minutes more, until the creatures back faced me and its head was lowered. I pounced, pushing my body forward at full thrust.
I found myself on top of a small wolf, its face shocked and in submission. I nipped at its throat, growling. Damn. Instead of a nice warm meal I found myself a small male wolf close to hitting puberty, hoorah! I got off of the young wolf and nosed through his scraps, greedily swallowing a small dead rodent. He sat down next to me, head lowered and looking up at me with these big soulful eyes. I glanced down at him, then looked away and tried to ignore it. The pup then nuzzled his nose into my fur, and whispered "Excuse me miss… But can you help me? I got lost from my pack in this blizzard… And, and I have been hungry and tired and lonely-" the wolf began trailing off into tears.
Damn these motherly instincts… I gently licked the top of his head as he buried his face into my chest. "Well… I could try, since I really have nothing better to do." I said, but my mind was telling me otherwise. It had been 2 years now ever since my son had died, and I had been chased down by the village for killing him. I was looking, looking for paradise, In hopes that I could find him again… I needed to tell him I was sorry, it was an accident, I- "Well… there are only 4 of us, and they should be searching for me. But it would be nearly impossible to find me, I can't even smell anything for a mile because of this stupid storm!" The pup had groaned. I snapped back in to reality.
He started to yank on my scarf playfully. "Come on-… Wait. Miss, what is your name…? My name is Toboe." I chuckled at the boys lack of observance. "It is nice to meet you Toboe… My name is Tsuki." I replied, still giggling to myself. "Tsuki huh..? Well that sure is a pretty name. What does it mean?" He asked, a little dumbfounded. "Tsuki means moon…" I said with a small smile on my face. "Oh, that's pretty cool! My name means howling. Even though I'm not very good at it…" He said slowly, a hint of embarasment draped his face. We traveled onward, smelling the air, looking for the trio.