It was a beautiful spring morning when I first met him. I had just gotten up, put on my usual uniform for working and started watering the plants when I spotted a strange looking gray ball in the bushes cornering the path leading up to my front door. It wasn't exactly unusual to find creatures of the nearby forest area seeking shelter in someone's front porch, but this one was bigger than anything I'd ever seen before. Its fur looked dirty and wet, like it had just swum through a river and then decided to take a nap here because it was so exhausted. Cautiously, I approached it.

"Mornin' , Arka!"

I jolted upright. I hadn't noticed the mailman until now. I threw a short glance at the beast laying curled up in between the branches. Thankfully, even though it surprised me a bit since the mailman liked to shout a lot, it seemed to still be fast asleep. I sighed and forced myself to smile as if nothing had happened.

"Good morning, Yurkas."

He got off his bright yellow mail bike and came a few steps closer to the fence separating my front porch from the road.

"Here's your mail."

I felt his gaze wandering up and down my body.

"That's a neat uniform."

"Well, as you may or may not know, working in the city requires me to keep my clothes clean and without a scratch."

He chuckled slightly, as if not knowing how to react to that answer.

"At least it pays better than being a mailman in a small village like this one."

Yurkas had been the village's mailman for as long as I could remember. It seemed as if being the mailman was such an honor that his family happily kept inheriting this position. His oldest son, who was at the time a few years younger than me, already helped his father out when delivering the mail or when it came to small errands. Despite being old enough to handle the business by himself, Yurkas insisted on keeping most of the work to himself. Things were a lot more advanced in the big cities: communication via small electronic devices called "Chips", deliveries were carried out by huge metallic birds often referred to as "Tauben" and the overall standard of living was much higher. Even though I worked in a pretty low position in an office, I had to wash my uniform almost every single day because of all the hygiene regulations. Thankfully, since my home village was close to a small river from which the water supply system was fed, the water bill was rather affordable. The city I worked in used to have a river, too, but the water got more and more dirty over time and filtering it quickly became too expensive. And so, as to prevent germs and illness to spread, the river was forcefully dried down by building a dam at the point where the part of the river that ran through the city separated itself from the main stream. Where the river used to flow are now several flat-roofed gray buildings, more of a slum than an actual residential area. By a hair's width I would have been forced to live in such a building. Luckily, I inherited the small house I lived in back then and still do today from my grandparents as they moved in with my parents.

Thinking back to that day, I was both happy and sad. My grandma loved the outdoors and couldn't stand being dependent on other people if she wanted to move around, water her precious flowers, go for a walk with her pets or do anything at all really. What she missed the most was traveling though. Going to faraway places. Making friends everywhere. Helping people in need. I always felt a bit overwhelmed by that thought, I was more of a home-stuck kid.

But back to the story at hand, the story of how I met one of my most extraordinary friends. As I was saying, Yurkas had just arrived in front of my gate and was now going through his bag in search of my mail. As he handed it to me, he smiled and let his gaze wander once more.

"Well anyways, take care at work. I've heard how dangerous it can be in the city, especially in the industrial districts."

I was still somewhat forcing a smile. It was starting to hurt at this point.

"Thanks, you take care, too. Don't want you tripping over your own feet again like last week."

He blushed.

"Ya needn't remind me..."

I couldn't keep my eyes off the gray furball laying in the bushes anymore at this point and was slowly getting worried that my conversation with Yurkas would wake it. By the size of it, it could have been anything from a fairly big hare to an adulting wolf cub. Both being equally as bad for my garden and myself.

"See you around then. I still have a few things to do before leaving for work."

Without waiting for a reply I turned around and quickly disappeared into my house. As I closed the front door behind me, I took a quick peek through the small window right next to it to ensure that Yurkas had continued on his way through the village. I sighed in relief as I saw him pedal away without a creature jumping out of my shrubs to take a bite out of him. However, there was definitely movement there now. The gray creature slowly unraveled itself and crawled out of the mass of fresh green leaves. It was an adult wolf, however a severely malnourished one. He started to sniff at some of my plants and plucked a few sweet berries off of a bush. Then he spotted me.

I gulped. His narrow, sharp blue eyes were fixed on me and pierced me with their determination. Or was it hunger? Hope maybe? I started to move away slowly, but for every step I took, he seemed to take one forward. My heart was beating rapidly. I had never dealt with a carnivorous animal of this size before. The wolf disappeared from my vision, but I could distinctly hear the clicking of his claws on the stone steps leading up to my front door. The doorknob started to rattle. I froze in an instant.

The door wasn't locked.

This thing knew how to open doors and probably wanted to eat me. In the time I still had, I freed myself from this feeling of shock and grabbed a frying pan to defend myself from an attack. I prepared myself, fixing my eyes on the doorknob as it rattled, slowly moved to the side and ultimately gave way. The door creaked as it opened a few inches. But instead of bolting open, it stopped. Did the animal become scared and ran away? I leaned forward to take a closer look. Just then, the door opened fully and the shadow of a tall being fell onto the wooden floor. Was this beast really smart enough to stand on its hind legs in order to open doors? Was this some kind of circus animal? As I looked up at the figure standing in the door frame, I realized it wasn't an animal. Instead of an animal on its hind legs there stood a young man, maybe sixteen or eighteen years old, with a brown fur cape and boots that looked like they were made for very cold weather. It wasn't exactly warm outside that day, but this boy was certainly overdressed. I was still examining his features, his pale face and hair, his thin body, the strange type of clothing that I had never seen anyone wear around here, and didn't notice right away when the boy stepped closer to me.