Hungry Like the Wolf

Written by Brutishjohn

As the autumn leaves were beginning to fall, the future winter storms came closer and closer. The forest creaked and moaned to the wind and branches fluttered to the power of the rain. Squirrels ran to the top of trees to their homes for protection against the weather. Raccoons, deer, elk, and other animals alike ran to their dens and homes in order to survive the lethality of the oncoming force. The clap of thunder, the darkness of the sky, the treacherous rain, and the sense of mortality was the only thing that seemed to exist in the forest.

As the trees swayed to the wrath of the storm, one lone character could be seen in the open. It's tail was ragged and worn, bearing a dim gray tint with no personality except for the experience of torture. It's legs were, to some point, a useless mess of torn hairs and skin pried off from the forces. It's back was in no better condition. Wired hairs sticking up at impossible angles. The spine itself was somehow intact. It's head was untouched, save for the blood smears on it's mouth and the shadows around it's eyes, the proof of it's exhausted state after the terror the character went through. The left ear was all but there. The rest of the face was covered by the series of scars and bruises that will never truly heal.

This creature, shunned by it's neighbors and by the storm, sat there next to a den. The den, where the smell of rotten flesh, the buzzing of thousands of flies, and the darkness of the storm ever surrounding, but not touching, could be seen with a hunger for the life of those unworthy. This was what the creature called home; a murky, damp, rotten home that would send anything with a sane mind to the other side of the mountain should it get close enough to the den.

The creature stared intently at the den, as if waiting for something to emerge from the lifeless hole in the mountain-side. The sound of grumbling from the hungry creature combined with the clap of thunder. The emptiness of the soul of the creature matched the mercy of the storm. This creature rose with the storm. As the storm grew greater, the darkness of the creature's heart grew darker. The storms grows hungry; the wolf becomes merciless.