Rainy day
Chapter 1: Not a dog
The world is dying. Not fast but slowly. The weather had changed, millions of animal and plants vanished from the earths once beautiful ground.
There is an old tale, older then the dying of the world. The dying world offers a paradise. A place where you will be safe and live in peace. Only a few know about it and less believes in it. The only ones that can find that paradise and lead you to it are the wolfs. But there are no more wolfs in this world. One of the many species that disappeared over time.
As a vet John Watson knows what he is looking at not like the hunter who brought him the hurt animal. It wasn't the size or the color of the fur; it's always the eyes. The eyes of a wild animal not broken or bend and tamed from its owner. This one was wild and free and proud.
"Found it in the forest, caught by one of these traps, you know the ones that aren´t allowed to use anymore because they let the animals suffer." The hunter thinks that it is a dog, maybe a runaway but it wasn't. No John Watson looks in the eyes of a wolf. A creature that shouldn't exist anymore. "Can you help it or do you have to end it?" The hunter was a dog owner himself and knows how deep a bond can be. That means a lost and hurt dog would get help from the man.
"I think I can heal him again. No problem. You can let the dog (wolf) stay with me." John answered the question of the hunter without breaking the eye contact with the wolf. "I will contact the local police to tell them a dog was found maybe the owner is looking for him." He continues to let the whole thing be in his hand.
"Thanks mate. I get the cage later. See you Saturday at the pub, right?" John nods. There was no way to get away from the weekly social meeting with the major of the village people. As a public figure he had to be there. The hunter left and John had finally time to talk to his new friend like he calls all the animal that came to his place for treatment or shelter.
"Hello there." The wolf´s eyes narrow. "For an extinct creature you look pretty much alive." John smiled at the wolf that starts to growl loader as he comes closer. "I know you can understand me. You are hurt and I´m a doctor who can help you. Would you let me help you? Please." John is in front of the cage door. The wolf´s left leg was bleeding as was his chest and he had another wound at his head. He will need to check him up.
John opens the door of the cage slowly to not startle the hurt animal that had cornered himself in the left side of the cage. He reaches out with one hand, offer it to the wolf. He needs his trust when he didn't want him sedated. An injured animal is dangerous. It will fight everything, helping or not.
"I will help you. Don´t fight me. I don't want to sedate you." John is now in the cage with the wolf hand open in front of the wolf´s mouth. A warning growl comes and as John didn't stop or pulls back the wolf bites down, breaking skin and burring his teeth deep in John´s flesh.
John had expected the bit but had hoped it would work without it. The wolf was testing him or hasn't enough strength to bit down probably. If he wanted the wolf could have bit off his hand and half of the arm.
"See I won´t hurt you. You can trust me." Holding eye contact he must have pass the test because the wolf let go of his hand and licks a bit of the blood away, as if to say sorry.
"Can you come out with me or do you need help?" John touched the wolf´s nose carefully and pets it to comfort the frighten and hurt animal. Slowly he followed John´s hand out of the cage, dripping blood the whole way to the blanket John had laid out for him.
Armed with warm water and towel as his medical kit John knees down next to the exhausted wolf. "I need to have a good look at the cut so I will clean the blood away a bit. Please try to stay still. I do my best to not hurt you."
John starts to clean the wounds and finds more cut´s and bruises under the dirt and blood. The wolf had a few busy days behind him or weeks. He was very careful not to hurt him, the danger that the wolf decided to attack him was still there. This wasn't some tamed poppy it was a strong wild creature that could kill him easily. During the cleaning, sewing and covering the injuries both, man and wolf start to relax. The animal was in pain but with every treated wound it got better until the wolf was clean and treated.
"Hey my friend would you like to lay down on a clean blanket? This one is a bit dirty. I have also something to eat and drink for you, if you feel like it." The wolf looked up at John, who had his hand on the wolf´s head.
The wolf stands up, with a few difficulties but follows John in a different room where a soft blanket was ready for him with a bowel with food and water next to it. The food was ignored but the water was drunk greedily before the wolf lay down carefully and fall asleep nearly instantly. John walked away, making no sound to give the wolf the rest he needed.
For the first time on that day John looked out of the window with his new friend and patient sleeping on the blanked on the floor, his wounds covered. It was raining. John loved the rain. As he was a child his grandmother told him always stories when it was raining and he couldn't play outside.
His grandmother told five year old John often from her friend before she died. In these stories was the friend sometimes a human, sometimes a wolf. His mother explained to him that his nanna is mixing things up and they come out wrong, there wasn't any wolfs anymore. The last seen was over hundred years ago. But John believed his nanna. She told him about the ability wolfs have developed to survive. Hunted by the human race they learn how to tick the humans by create illusions to appear as humans themselves. It made sense that nanna´s friend was sometimes a wolf and sometimes a human. John liked that story and the tale about the paradise too.