Chapter 1: The White Wolf

"Mukluk!" Nikki called. "Here Mukluk." Niki Hanson was searching for her German Shepherd, Mukluk. He had, once again, disappeared. It was about six o' clock in the morning when Niki jumped over the gate that led to the heifer lot. She went on calling Mukluk's name. She received no answer from her dog. "That damn mutt!" She growled as she kicked the dirt. "It's too damn early for this!" Nikki decided to give up her search. "Mukluk's gone to the Grover's again. He just can't resist that female Siberian Husky dog."

Nikki continued to walk around in the lot. She carried a .22 in her hands just in case she met up with the bull. She wasn't of course going to shoot the ornery animal. He was scared stiff of the scent of gunpowder and it kept him far away, but if there was a heifer in heat, Lord only knew what that bull would do.

Nikki smiled as her favorite cow, Milkshake, came to greet her. Unlike the bull, Milkshake was very friendly and didn't mind the scent of gunpowder. She had never been struck with a bullet before so she didn't have reason to fear it like he did. "Hey there old girl!" Nikki exclaimed. "What are you up to?"

Milkshake nudged Nikki's back pocket. Niki laughed and took out a sugar cube. She gave it to the old cow and continued on her way. She hadn't gone five feet when Milkshake nudged her again. "Oh Milkshake! You'll run me out of cubes if you keep this stunt of yours up."

Milkshake just let out a sorrowful moo. Nikki rolled her eyes and gave Milkshake another piece of sugar. She lapped it up with her long tongue. Then, Milkshake turned around and went back to the other cows to eat the round bale that had been put in the feeder about an hour ago. "Yeah, you better leave!" Nikki laughed. She continued to walk deeper into the lot.

Nikki was sixteen-years-old. She got average grades in school and was a pretty good artist, when it came to drawing and painting, she was the best in the entire school (even better than Ms. Board, her old, crabby, can't draw diddly-shit, art teacher). Nikki was about 5 foot 4 inches and weighed 110 lbs. She had short black hair with bright blue streaks in it. Many of the people at school had thought she was pretty and the guys nearly drooled when she walked by. Nikki, however, didn't give a rat's ass what anyone thought about her. She was a loner and was very quiet at her school. Ever since her best friend, Emily, had been killed in the car accident last year, Nikki had stopped talking to everyone. She even stopped talking to Jeff, her other best friend and once boyfriend. Now, she sat in the back of the class and would only talk when the teacher called on her to answer a question.

Suddenly, a wolf's howl pierced the silence in the lot. All the cows snorted and backed away from the feeder and towards the barn. Nikki, however, was fascinated with wolves. She loved the stories her grandmother had told her about the wolves. Her grandmother had passed down those ancient stories ever since her grandmother had told it to her. The wolves were said to be extinct for over 200 years and Nikki's great-great-grandmother had been alive when the very last wolf had been shot.

Now, hearing that howl brought Nikki's heart into her throat. "It sounds like it's in pain," Nikki thought. She only knew what a wolf's howl was like because her grandmother had howled like one and had taught Nikki how to howl as well. Nikki raised her head to the sky and tried her hardest to mimic the voice that had a few seconds ago erupted out of the forest and into the morning sky.

When her voice slowly died away into the forest, Nikki listened. She got an answer from the wolf. Nikki, without thinking, dropped her gun and began to run towards the huge forest that was at the very end of the heifer lot. She easily slipped through the barbed wire fence and ran into the woods.

Nikki's feet turned into a blur as she ran towards the animal. She dodged the trees and sticks with so much ease it almost made her look like the wind blowing into the forest and being cut in half as the trees forced it apart. She came to a large river. She backed up a few steps and charged at the mighty current. Nikki cleared it easily.

When she landed on the other side, Nikki raised her head to the pine tree's towering top and howled. She got a reply and ran towards it. She finally came to a clearing in the forest. What she saw shocked her.

A white wolf lay in the small meadow. It's body looked like a bloody mess. It laid in it's own red pool and the huge wounds on it's body kept adding to this blood puddle. Nikki cautiously took a step towards the wolf. "Are you okay?" She asked, thinking what a fool she was to be talking to an animal. The creature didn't reply but let out a small whine. Nikki's mother was a vet so she knew that her mom might be able to help the creature. "But how the hell am I going to get it to mom?" She thought.

Nikki started to walk towards the helpless creature. When she got to it, she began to stroke its blood stained fur. "It's all right," she said quietly. "You'll be okay."

The wolf whined again. "It's hurt badly and is slipping into unconsciousness," Nikki thought. She very, very carefully lifted up the wolf's leg to check its gender. "Well, you're a guy I guess," she said absent-mindedly.

Nikki took off her bandana and wrapped it around the wolf's neck and applied pressure to the gushing wound by using her knees. Then she grabbed her barn shirt and ripped off a piece of it. She tied the wolf's leg up, where another wound lay. She continued to rip the worthless shirt into bits and dress the wolf's wounds. All the while talking to him softly.

Nikki decided that her mother and father could never find out. Her father hated wolves, "They deserved to be destroyed off the planet. Killing cattle and humans whenever they felt like it." Her mother liked wolves but she wouldn't nurse it for fear of getting caught for helping the creature. She would say something like, "Lord knows what the nobles would do to us if they found out we were helping a wolf." Nikki certainly couldn't tell her older brother and sister. They wouldn't understand. Her sister hated animals and said that they were good for nothing but fur coats. Her brother would trade in the wolf for some reward money and wouldn't have cared if the nobles tortured it and killed it.

Nikki looked at the wolf. She felt a strange bond between the two. Somehow, she felt like this animal was connected to her in a way. She looked around for a place to hide the creature while it got better. She knew just the place.

Nikki tried to lift the creature but found out that it was useless. She tried again. No luck. Nikki was getting tired of this. She put her hay bale lifting arms under the wolf and lifted him up off the ground. She gasped, "This thing weighs more than a fat bull calf does." She swung it carefully onto her shoulder and made her way to her playhouse in the forest.

When Nikki had been younger she had asked her dad to build a playhouse. He had done so for Nikki's birthday. Emily and Niki would then play with their model horses and spend summer nights in that house. When Emily had been killed, Nikki didn't return to the playhouse. It brought back too many horrible memories. But now, she had no choice.

Nikki reached the small hut and opened the door. It was just how she remembered. There was a large couch and a beanbag chair in the corner. In the very center of the hut were four loose floorboards, where Nikki and Emily had stored their prized possessions and diaries.

Tears welled up in Nikki's eyes but she pushed them away and gently lay the heavy wolf down on the couch that had once belonged to her best fried. She stroked the wolf gently pondering what she should do.

"I good go home and get some gauze and ointment from my mom's office," she thought. "But I don't want to leave it all alone." Then she thought, "Or I could wait until it woke up and then go home and grab my clothes and stay the night here." She shook her head. "No," she sighed. "That wouldn't do." Nikki decided to go home and tell her mom and dad that she was going on a horseback riding trip and would be gone for the night (her parents were used to Nikki's camping trips with her horse Midnight Sky). She got to her feet and gave the hurting wolf a final glance before walking out the door, towards her own home.