Many people say that just before you die your whole life flashes before your eyes. For me, this is true. There wasn't much to see, but I also noticed that time also seemed to slow down. It's amazing how quickly you can think just before you no longer think at all. As my short life replayed in my head, the wolf's arc through the air towards my throat slowed down to a crawl as I watched, completely helpless. I only wished that her strike would come faster, praying to end my horrible fear. Off to my right, I noticed a small rat quickly scurry back towards the entrance.
Wait... the rat had just run back at normal speed, and yet the wolf was still suspended in the air, as if some force were holding her there. Moving slowly, I got up and began moving towards the tunnel that would lead me back out of the cave. The small room with the floating wolf was not exactly where I wanted to be right then.
For the first time in a while, I actually glanced around and noted some details as I hurriedly made my way across the room. It was a perfectly round room, about 30 feet from wall to wall. The ceiling was about 15 feet up. It was roughly the shape of a sphere sliced in half.
The stone that made up the cavern was pure white. Now the shape and the color were just plain unnatural looking. This only helped to increase my nervous state, which was already worse than it ever has been.
Having already seen everything in the cavern, and wanting to get away from the still growling wolf, I hastily made my way to the exit. Now, I've never had the best of luck, but what happened next just doesn't happen. The ceiling caved in. It completely blocked my only exit from the room. To make matters worse, the floor underneath me opened up in the perfect shape of a square. It wasn't jagged, uneven, or messed up in any way. It was simply a perfect square. This square also just happened to open up directly beneath where I was standing at the time.
It's not necessary to say, but I fell. I only fell about ten feet, but I landed on rocks and it was pretty uncomfortable. Glancing around, I realized that neither this room, nor the room above were natural. This room was roughly in the shape of a rectangular prism. It was about four feet wide, five feet long, and ten feet tall. At the back area, where I fell, was a formation of rocks that could easily serve as a ladder to get out, but there was something much more interesting on the other side that I just had to get a closer look at.
I quickly crossed the room and stopped at a small wooden table. It was about three feet high, and it looked as if it were made in a great hurry. It was only a rough shape with four legs. I was surprised that it could stand at all. But the table was not the real item of interest.
I forgot to mention that both this room and the room above were giving off some sort of light, so I could see very clearly the small wooden object resting on the table. It was a small carving of a wolf, lying asleep next to a tree. Sitting in the tree was what appeared to be a boy about my age. He also appeared to be asleep. All three objects, the boy, the tree, and the wolf, were made with such detail that they almost appeared real. If they had been colored, I would have expected them to get up and walk around the table.
I picked up the carving by its small round base and took a closer look at it. There didn't appear to be any mistakes at all. No small scratches, no unnatural markings, nothing. It was perfect in every way. This got me to begin thinking about who would make such a beautiful carving, but then hide it underground in a cavern. As I wondered, I began to delicately pet the wolf with the tip of my finger. Maybe they had been a member of an ancient race of warriors and they were ashamed or embarrassed to show their beautiful work. Maybe they died before they could reveal it. Maybe I would never figure it out.
I decided that I would leave it here, just in case whoever actually made it would still be alive and come back for it. That just meant that I had to find a way out of the cave. If all else failed, then I could always attempt to dig through the rubble and risk another rock fall. Whatever I may decide, I had to get up into the other room first.
"IT IS TIME!"
Startled, I jumped back into the wall. "What? Is someone there?" I asked.
No answer. Now I was getting creeped out as well as becoming nervous again. This whole place was beginning to seem more dangerous by the minute. I wanted no part of it. I was about to make my way to the rock ladder, when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I quickly turned my head to see that the wooden wolf had begun to move! It had crawled off of the base and moved onto the table. It was staring at me with its small eyes, but it appeared more curious than threatening.
It hadn't changed in appearance, other than the fact that it had begun moving, but it now seemed a little more intimidating with its now working fangs and claws. I stood still, hoping that I wouldn't scare it. As stated earlier, I like wolves, but this was not a normal wolf.
It slowly sat down and looked over at my right hand. I didn't realize anything at first, but then I fell some sort of force pulling at my hand. There was nothing there, but my hand was being forcefully pulled toward the table. In a panic, I tried to pull it back, but that only caused the force to violently yank it and slam it palm up on the table. No matter how hard I tried, I wasn't able to move it at all in any direction. It just lay on the table in front of the wolf. The wolf, by the way, was now padding silently over to my upturned palm.
THUMP! I turned around at the noise to see that the real wolf from the other room was now very mobile and had dropped into the room. Once again, I frantically tried to remove my hand from the table, but this time was not any different.
While watching the wolf closing in on me in the small room, there was a sharp pain in my hand. I looked down to see that the wooden wolf had sliced a large gash all the way across my palm. It was now bleeding all over the table, but I've had worse injuries from my father, so I turned my attention back to the real wolf that was now right in front of me.
I shrank back against the wall, in order to create as much distance between me and the wolf as possible, but it completely ignored me and went to the table. As if this wasn't strange enough, the wolf also put her paw on the table in the same position as mine. She stayed calmly still as the wooden wolf repeated its action on her. We now both had identical wounds on our right hands… well, her paw, but that wasn't really important at the moment, because the force was now pulling both of our hands/paws together over the table.
When the wounds made contact, extreme pain flashed through my entire body. I could see from the wolf's reaction and her yelp that she was also feeling the same pain. My mind clouded as the blood mixed through the open wounds. I pulled back from the pain, but the unknown force was holding us together, forcing this strange mixing to occur.
Before I passed out yet again, I had two thoughts. The first was that I had probably been unconscious plenty of times already today. The seconds was that the wooden was now a part of the carving again, and it didn't have a single drop of blood on it.
*****
I awoke sometime later to find myself back in the first room of the cavern. The rocks causing the cave in were still there, but the hole was not. Maybe I had just imagined the whole thing. I mean, carving just didn't come to life, and there weren't forces that did those things. But it had seemed so real…
"Finally! You've been asleep for quite a while now." Said an unknown female voice from somewhere in the room. "I guess it was too much for you. Or maybe it was just too early?" I tried to speak, but my mouth felt odd. In fact, my whole body felt odd. I decided that it would be a bad idea to try and stand up, so I looked around for the owner of the voice while lying down.
After a quick scan of the room, I found that there was nobody in the room but me and the wolf. I wasn't worried about her now because she looked content to just stare at me, a curious look in her eye.
The room now had a terrible odor to it, but there didn't appear to be anything different. I couldn't place what the smell might be, so I began to breathe through my mouth to avoid smelling it. In fact, the room also looked slightly different. It wasn't really different, but it was as if my eyes had changed slightly and I was viewing it in a new way.
"Hello?" I finally managed. It sounded weak and forced, but at least I got it out. "Who is that?" I really needed to know who else was in the area. Maybe they could help.
"I'm right over here. Didn't you see me?" A pause, "OH!" there was a giggle. "You haven't figured it out, have you? Here's a hint. Look at the wall in front of you."
I looked up. "I don't see any…" As I watched, a portion of the rock wall began to change. At first, it just became shiny, but it soon became reflective and looked like a giant mirror. What I saw didn't make any sense. I saw a small white wolf lying on the ground. Was that who was talking? Behind that wolf was another grayish wolf. It looked strangely like…
Then it hit me. I gasped. I couldn't hold my surprise in. The small white wolf in the mirror was me. I couldn't think straight. This was impossible. I couldn't possibly be a wolf! Things like this just weren't possible!
I jumped up and tried to run over to the mirror, but I couldn't even take two steps before I fell down and slammed into the dirt. The gray wolf in the mirror began to laugh and stood up. I managed to turn around and look at her. It was definitely the same wolf that had chased me down the tunnel. She looked the exact same, and there was some dried blood on the bottom of her right paw.
"Wow… You'll need a lot of practice. Oh, and sorry about chasing you through the tunnel like that. You scared my son and my first thought was that you were just another hunter. They don't try to hunt wolves as often as they used to, but I still have to be ready to protect my children." She had stopped laughing, but still had a smile on her… muzzle… if wolves could smile at all.
"How is this even possible?! Or am I just still asleep?" I asked. I was beginning to get used to talking through a wolf's mouth…er…muzzle. I had managed to get into a sitting position, but it felt odd, seeing as how humans don't sit the way that wolves do.
"It's possible because you are WhiteFur. It was planned since time began for this to happen. There was no choice in the matter for either of us. You are WhiteFur, and I am to be your guide to this new way of life. For you see…" There was a bright flash of light. When the light was at a bearable level again, I looked up to see… well… my mother. "For you see, I am your mother."
*****
Wow. This chapter was a long one. Oh, and before I forget to say anything, I didn't forget about this story, or lose interest, it's just that my computer was taken away. Please don't ask. Also, I recently had my first case of the dreaded writer's block. I was partway through ch. 4 when I just couldn't think of what to do next. Then marching band and tennis started, so I had even less time to think. Then, it all suddenly rushed at me, and I had to delete the entire chapter that I had written so far to make my new ideas work. I personally think that the new ones are better. I bet nobody expected his mother to appear? I was even surprised when the idea came to me. Well, enough excuses about my lateness in writing.
Again, if you have any ideas about the story, you can submit them to me via a message on . You're probably on that site as you're reading this, so it shouldn't be a problem.
I gotta thank some of my friends for reading this and giving small ideas to me. I won't name anybody yet, because they didn't really give me anything big. If you happen to be one of those friends, then give me some better ideas and maybe you'll be featured here! It's nothing against you.
Well, thanks for reading, but it may be a while before I get the next chapter up because of my limited computer access along with band and tennis taking up my time. Until next time, this is sonic30 and Chris, signing out….wow, that didn't come out as cool as I'd hoped…
