~
There
was a forest nearby. A house stood in the distance. A nest of houses in fact.
Where was this? He was on the very edge of the forest. He would make the houses
if he ran now. Night was drawing in its curtains over the sun and animals
stirred close by. Wolf’s pulse thrummed in his ears like a drum beat. Something
stirred in the forest.
Wolf looked over his shoulder and he
noticed he was in the centre of the forest all of a sudden. The trees were
tight about. There was no clearing at all. A brush of something swept through.
Wolf scanned the grey and black. Was there something in here with him? Hairs on
the back of his neck tickled as though something scuttled just over his skin
then he saw two eyes shining in the darkening light.
Wolf swallowed. It’s going to eat me. As if in response the animal snarled and
growled low. It didn’t want him here. Wolf closed his eyes and jerked his head.
Fear iced through his heart and drew his breath so quickly he raised his hand
to the spot. The animal wanted him to sit, not necessarily leave. How did he
know that? I’m going to sit, he
thought as he sat and crossed his legs.
Wolf dropped his eyes to the floor
beneath. In the very next instant the animal crept forward. It was careful, as
all animas were. What did he know about it? He’d never had an animal. Wolf
snuck a look up toward it. It was a wolf. A big wolf. It’s you.
The wolf snarled at him and sat down,
rather expectantly, if he had a right to say that. Speak the truth, something,
an instinct? said. “I um…I’m afraid,” he stammered and drew his knees up. The
wolf raised one brow thoughtfully. “I, I didn’t want to um, ack…acknowledge
you. That you existed. I trapped you. I was scared that you’d hurt me, the
people around me.” I’m jabbering, “Do
you know the man? They call him Sir,” he carried on without answer, “I was told
I never gave you a voice. Because I, because I never accepted you. Is it true?
Is it why you attack people?”
The wolf cocked its head. Maybe it
didn’t object to a jabbering human.
“I…I want you to have a voice. No,” he
changed his mind, “I need you to have a voice.” The truth, something coached.
Wolf gathered a breath. He had to stop jabbering on. It wasn’t going to go
anywhere this way. “I’ll never exist if
we don’t start trusting each other,” he enforced calmness on himself. The wolf
might need his calm. Something was happening, wasn’t it? Something small. A
tiny strand connecting them? Wolf drew his eyebrows together.
“Maybe, maybe if you can talk, we can
build something.” He gathered his eyebrows tighter. “I’m ashamed. I’m, I’m
sorry. I see now that we are part of one another. I can’t ignore you any more
than I can ignore myself.” Wolf put his hands on the floor and caught the dried
leaves in his fists. “Please.”
Please.
He heard within his mind. Wolf looked at the wolf in front of him. “There is
much I can learn from you.”
There
is much I can learn from you.
Wolf narrowed his eyes. The wolf was
echoing. Right? “I don’t know what. How to coexist together?”
How
to coexist together.
Wolf let himself smile a little bit.
Why had he been so afraid of this? Sir could be right. It could possibly be a
good thing to exist together instead of alone.
They must have spoken for hours. The
wolf was curious. Why else would it have stayed? When Wolf opened his eyes into
the waking world it was dark just like in the forest. Had it been longer than
hours? Sir was still there. Had he moved at all?
“How did it go?”
“It is learning,” Wolf told Sir.
“Did it speak to you?”
“It echoed a lot. I think it could
speak here better. If you let it take me…”
Sir’s eyebrows lifted high up his
forehead. “Take you?”
“I want to let it out. Can I? Would
that be safe?” Was he imploring?
Sir’s
eyebrows sank down his face as his eyes sank down onto the table and examined
it for a time. “I will allow it. Tomorrow. Be ready.”
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