The day had started out like any other. Waking up, hiding myself away in oversized sweaters and sneaking out the door as quietly as possible. The goal; make it to school without waking up my angry alcoholic father. He passes out on the couch pretty much every night. He is always extraordinarily cranky when woken up and by cranky I mean violent. He is violent when he is tired, violent when he is hungry, violent when he is sad, heck even violent when he is happy. The best method of survival is to keep the place clean, keep food on the table and never show your face. Unfortunately that is much easier said than done. The bruises on my side could prove that much, at least this time he avoided the face, it's much less of a hindrance that way.
The way to school was mundane, the school day was lonely and boring but safe per usual. The walk home was the same. My routine of cleaning up the house and making dinner to leave for him in the fridge was typical, down to the 6 beer bottles littering the floor by the couch. The walk to my spot in the woods where I would stay until the sun went down was just like any other. Normal. Boring. Banal.
Until it wasn't.
I was three chapters into my book when the sounds of the forest changed. Normally the birds chirped until the sun set, the bugs buzzed and the odd small creature rustled in the leaves. But then it all just stopped. All at once, it had never happened before. The quiet seemed unnatural. Like all the other animals knew something I didn't, like there was a threat they could all feel in the wind that my silly human senses could not comprehend. That was until I heard a dull, faint thumping noise. It was very quiet at first and then it grew louder, like the distant galloping of horses but somehow softer. The ground under my fingers rumbled with the sounds. I was frozen in the fear that something was coming towards me. The hair on my arms standing on end.
Then out of the trees came seven massive wolves. They were huge, the size of horses or bigger. Somehow my fear faded upon seeing them. It should have terrified me, a pack of unnatural, impossible wolves. But it didn't. They ran past in a row, one by one, speeding through the trees faster than any animal I had ever seen. I swear if I blinked I wouldn't have seen them at all. Until one of them stopped. A massive russet wolf paused in his run and looked at me. Its large brown eyes stared startled into mine. It hunched slightly and gave out a quiet whine before shaking its massive head and running after the other members of its wolfy pack.
I stared after them. My heart is still pounding in my chest. Eyes wide and full of shock. I sat there for what felt like hours. The cold slowly seeping back into my bones. What the hell had I just seen? The wolves were impossible. Wolves that big just didn't exist. And yet they had been there. I wasn't dreaming, at least, I don't think I was. And I was completely and totally enamoured by them.
The sun started to set over the trees. I packed up my blanket and my books and headed back through the woods to my house. The practise of sneaking back into my room seemed so mundane after the incredibly wild and breathtaking experience of the unearthly wolves.