WOLF CUB -SILVERN
Five months old and lucky.
Or at least, one of the luckier ones, once, not so long ago, he
was born with six siblings, his litter consisted of eight actually, one never
made it to live another hour.
What he remembered most was when he first glanced at the wall of moving
fur, at his mother, in their warm dark den. She was a handsome creature.
She had two pointed ears, her entire body was covered with white and
light brown thick fur, her bright eyes glittered in the dim lair, looking at her
face, and the only thing he could see from his position on the ground was her
snout, the tongue that dangled out from her black drawn lips, and the tips of
her upper jaw teeth.
He had cast a look at his siblings, all similar versions of himself,
standing ungainly on four little paws. Short tails stuck out behind them.
But that was in the summer, now was winter, and many of his pack had not
made it.
There were only three cubs now; he was the eldest of them all, the
strongest, and the one whose chances of survival seem the best.
But winter was finally over, the snow had melted and so had the frost off
the grass, grass that was growing anew. This seemed to lift the pack's spirit.
The
cub, whom I have no name to call, as wolves don't give each other names but
recognize each other's aroma and this way they identified themselves and
others, stood at the top of a hill, ears forward and his little snout pointed
towards the ground.
He wagged his tail slowly; he was excited, just a bit. He caught sent of
something new, but it was an old sent, stale, he investigated the nearby area to
see if he could find a fresher version.
He lifted his head at the approach of one of his siblings, she was the
dark furred one, a she-wolf, her fur as dark as the night itself and her eyes
had the forest's green, but her fur wasn't pure black, it had a plash of
gray and white fur in some areas. He, on the other hand, had taken his
mother's pure white fur, his eyes were a golden brown.
But since he was a youngster, his fur still had splashed of darker fur.
They would disappear as his grew older.
His sister caught the scent and investigating along side him. She lifted
her head suddenly, alarmed, no, just a pack member, a one-eyed gray wolf, eight
years old.
He seemed to recognize the sent, his head snapped back and he called for
the others.
Soon the entire pack stood along the cubs, tracking the scent.
They scouted the valley and stumbled across something strange, at least,
for the young cubs it was strange, for the elders this seemed to disturbed them.
They were studying a set of prints in the damp, sodden soil.
Human tracks.
A set of human tracks, male, very old too, and alone.
The pack members stirred, some had enough sense to leave, soon, all but
the female alpha, her white cub stood alone, his sister had left them.
The female alpha continued to track the sent. Soon they were within range
of the creature they were perusing.
It was a bizarre creature, strange but somewhat familiar, it was familiar
in ways of sent, it was a red blooded animal, from Earth, not the same could be
said about the other visitors of the forest, they were only interested in the
bark of trees and they came to collect it at certain times of the year, then
they would leave.
His pack had always avoided them.
But then his pack were always avoiding anything that stood on two legs
and was over five feet tall.
Like the human.
The cub had once seen a creature like this one, but he was too far away
to catch a sent.
So this was how a human smelt and this too, was it's tracks, the cub
strayed away from the trees and followed his mother. She was gazing at the
human.
"Oh moon light…" The human raised an arm at the night sky, "Tell
me I am sane, tell me I am free and well, for the sun had me yesterday, I almost
thought I was dead."
The human circled a small fire
surrounded by round stones, "I, Achivil the great, am still very well
alive," he raised a strange, hollow object to his lips and the young cub
watched with fascination as water dribbled down from his lips.
A dry, husky laugh came from the creature, and it continued to make the
strange noises, the cub wondered if it was calling for it's kind, "Ahhh,
how's it like to be the only…only…only freeee human on Ea-rth?" He drank
again, the cub came a bit closer, close enough to realize that whatever it was
drinking, it wasn't water, it had a strange strong smell. His mother stepped
beside him, watching the human intensely.
"Lone-ly." The thing sobbed, "Veryyy lonely, moon, do you know what
lonely is? Maybe you do, you've been hanging like a stupid cow in the sky
through out my life and others, so, you experienced lump of POCKMARKED ROCK,"
The cub jerked back startled at the raised voice.
"WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE LONELY? Isolated in the sky," The voice
was no longer a scream, just a bitter yell, "where beneath you, life goes on,
you are there to watch it, not take part of, having nothing, not anything to do
with it…just watching…time goes on…you age."
The human slumped towards the ground; his mother cast a look around,
crouched to the ground. The cub huddled beside her.
"Oh, noooo, I'm looooseing it, help me…" It snorted and lolled
around at the ground, his mother stood up and walked quietly towards the human,
the cub's ears pricked forward, was this a hunt?
The human didn't notice her approach, the cub felt a surge of
adrenaline, but his mother wasn't hunting. She stood watching the human with
her ever-silent eyes.
He finally noticed her, standing only three feet away. He jerked and cast
a look at the ground, his's gaze fell on a shaped thing that appeared to be
made from skin the color of a deer's, it had something black and glinting
inside it, the human watched his mother stood up, then slumped again.
"Miserly loves company, wolf, want to howl at the moon along side
me?"
The cub didn't understand any of the noises the human made, but his
mother seemed to know what it meant, but she stood, quiet, unmoved.
The human reached towards the ground and held something for his mother,
it was meat, deer meat. Just the though of meat got the cub to move towards his
mother, the human watched then extended his arm towards the cub, the cub sprang
back against his mother, startled. Snarled a little.
"Ah, your little one, I've had a little one once, but she's dead,
sad isn't it?" The human made another sobbing sound, "Are you hungry
little fellow?"
His mother sat down, beside the human, she wasn't disturbed by what he
did next, he had placed a hand on his mother's skull, then removed it.
"Little one, little one lost in the woods," The human muttered, "I
can't find it."
His mother cast a look at the human.
"See, wolf it's like this, a few days ago I heard crying." It
paused, "Crying of a child, a human child, somewhere in the woods. A free
human child on Earth, the only one.
"I looked and looked and searched, I left my home valley and still
didn't find the child. Now, wolf, if you are as smart as legends tell you to
be, what do you do with it if you find it? Hmm?
"Kill it? Eat it? Leave it? Noooo, no, no, no." Pause, he brushed the
alpha's fur, "We humans had been a pain to all creatures, gray wolf, but if
I must tell you, we are the only things that's going to bring back old Earth
to all creatures, before it's too late, what do you think wolf?"
The cub's mother settled at the ground. To the drunk human, it was as
if a very large dog decided to sit beside its master, a comfort in the cold
bitter mountain air.
"Now, wolf, I found…I found the child, but I am no mother." It
paused, "And even if I was, what would I do with it?" another pause
thoughtful, "Let me explain wolf. Earth isn't going to come back easily, and
humans are trying their best to do it, but time is called for the wilder part of
Earth to rise and fight back."
"I have a human child for you, you mother wolf will raise it. Show it
your ways, the ways of the forest and wild, cancel the human greed, bond with
the wild, break the isolation between animal and man, show the…" The human
coughed, "Let it learn your language, let him live wild, and when he grows
bring him to me, I will teach him how to be human, if only you teach him how to
be wild first."
"Here mother wolf, your species' breeding season is soon to be, with
your new litter, you shall foster this orphan child and when it is time, bring
him to me, hopefully, age wouldn't have got the better of me."
The human stood up, walked to a strange structure, like a cave only
different, hollow inside, and pointed at the top, he came back out carrying
something in his arms, "Take him. Mother wolf, show him nature's ways."
His mother sat beside the thing in rags, to the cub's surprise it was
alive and moving, he ventured towards it.
"What shall I call him? The to be hero?" The man muttered, "Oh I
don't know, just call him human now. Man-child. Man cub, just take that thing
out of my face."
The cub stared at the thing; it was hard to make out what it was.
"Maybe, this will work out well.." The human looked deep in his
mother's eyes, "Maybe, I am too old too see. Maybe, some spring, Earth will
bloom again."
His mother took the rags between her teeth and carried what's in it to
her new den. Her white cub wasn't far behind.
