Lent told her again," Stella, you need to do other work besides chores in the tree." Stella hung her head and whined," I really like being in here and working with you. Out there I only found despair and white."
The Snowy Owl tried to comfort her, but the wolf held back and looked more gloomy. Lent sighed," I know you feel like not going back on ground. But Stella, can you for once trust Glaux?"
Stella looked at Lent fiercely with her ears back and snarled," I do trust Glaux!" Lent decided not to argue and Stella finally let out a sigh," I'm sorry, Da. It it is okay with going down there. I will do it."
Lent spread his wings out and then folded them on his back. As soon as his stretch was over, he finally said," Stella, you are right on your past. There is this old saying,'You got to put the past behind you and look into the future. Otherwise you are going to look like a coward." Stella hung her head and said softly," I will put the past behind me. I won't be a fool."
As soon as Stella changed her mind, both of them didn't find it easy getting a half-grown wolf out on the earth. For Lent, he had to bring all his strength for a 97 lb. wolf. Stella stared at the owl with worry and said," Da, I think we might have to do some flight lessons."
Lent gazed at her with shock and screeched," Preposterous! You are not a bird and I don't think a wolf can fly." So Stella's idea was out. The black wolf looked out of the hollow and tilted her head to the left. In her mind, she thought she may be able to jump to the nearest branch. Then suddenly she knew that phrase that owls used for flying practice. It was clearly branching!
While Lent was busy trying to plan of something to fly Stella to the ground, the wolf stealthly slipped out of the hollow and onto the branch. Her paws were clumsy on the bark but she managed to grip hard on the wood with her claws. There came a slight scratching noise and Stella tried to make her best effort of jumping off this one branch to the next. One of her back paws slipped and Stella held back a yelp. In her gizzard(or marrow), she knew she could do this. Stella kept telling herself that she wasn't an owlet anymore.
At her pace, it really took until sunset when the last drop of the Lavender sky fell. She silently thanked Glaux for making owls nocturnal. Of all the other branches, Stella made no effort but kept slipping. At last, she came upon her last branch( which was 2 feet from the ground.) Stella breathed slowly and steadily balanced her paws then her tail. She closed her eyes and let her dreams of noble owls glide in her mind.
The wolf opened them and jumped on the last of the branches smoothly. She yipped in excitement, but Stella checked again to see if she was all right. Stella looked down 2 feet from the ground. She embraced herself and made sure her tail and paws were steady with balance.
First, Stella gazed up at the sky to see the sun setting high up in the air. She was always curious on why Firulf( the owl constellation of the Western Skies) was in the same exact place as the Sun. The wolf erected her ears and nose then pushed her legs off the branch. To her astonishment, her legs and paws held no strain.
She was still standing on fore-paws then she looked around. Stella took three steps away from the tree and sniffed her surroundings. It had been month since being in that treacherous blizzard.
Stella panicked a little from the memory of her past. She kept reminding herself that she was not coward and that she could put the past behind her. To her surprise, the ground had more grass and dirt than she remembered. Stella clawed the grass and dirt with one swipe then looked to see if there was snow.
In all her life, Stella had never seen grass or dirt. She was amazed that there were insects and different types of birds. She wandered through the long grass along Lent's tree and sniffed the dirt to test. Luckily, she out that the grass and the dirt carried a musty scent. Stella sniffed the floor again and detected a juicy but strange odor. Then she shoved her ears forward and heard beats and soft thumps. Something in her gizzard stirred to life, the tendency of that life-pumping artery creature made her lose control of her body.
Never once in her life did she hunt, or was taught to because she bent low to the ground. The wolf bent lower than before on the grassy plain and steadily placed each paw forward to the scent. Her gaze was set on what looked like a bush rustling. Stella's mouth was getting watery, but she ignored the fact for she was only few lengths from it.
Suddenly as soon as she came close, her skipped a beat when the jackrabbit dashed out in a flash. As quick as lightning, Stella jumped in the air then she soared in the wind current and landed back on all fours; but she didn't stop. She trekked fast through every inch of that forest. The rabbit was just upon her: which looked as if he was not giving in. Stella muscles were not yet tired, but she stopped and turned away. As soon as she was four lengths away, the rabbit stopped and started chewing on a piece of shrub.
Then Stella turned toward a thick piece of the forest and dashed around the rabbit's right. Before the rabbit could get away, Stella pounced on the rabbit and bit into the life artery. When that was finished, she was about to eat into the carcass, but something inside her told her to do the ritual. She didn't know the name of it, but she did it anyway. She gazed into the jackrabbit's eyes and said," May your life sustain me." And by that moment a flash of light from the eyes said," I will climb to my heaven for I have lived till I grew older. I will sustain you."
As soon as that was over, the wolf hungrily chowed down in the corpse. The blood of the rabbit was better than any of the small shrew's. Her kind( which she didn't know much of) would have saved a morsel for one another, but Stella didn't know much of clan or pack life. When the bones and meat were all done, Stella lifted her head up where the West Point star was. The star was in one of the eyes of Firulf, for he was the watching owl and her gizzard told her to follow.
She prayed up to where Glaux should be( the North) and howled to the Sun:
Guide me to where my gizzard tells,
Where I might find of the wolves' tales,
Please bring the light of the moon,
And of the stars of an eery loom,
And constellations of every point,
Bring me to the path of the Western Point star,O' Glaux,
May my memories of Earth last eternally
The song of the prayer ended, but it rang through her mind and she simply went fast to sleep at dawn.
