Wolf River - Chapter 7
#7 of Wolf River
The morning brought with it a fleeting memory of despair and pain.
Faint grey light leaked in through the interwoven branches that made up the walls of the shelter. The air was cold and smelled of dampness and pines. Frost whitened edges of the sleeping bag, and was slowly brought into focus as the human's eyes adjusted to consciousness and the dismal greyishness of his surroundings. His breath hung in a cloud in front of his face for a moment before dissipating in the frosty air.
He blinked rapidly and stretched out, fingers and toes exploring the bubble of warmth contained within the confines of his sleeping bag. The groan that began deep in his throat turned into a sharp intake of breath as a white-hot lance of fire sliced unexpectedly through his left ankle. He was suddenly very still for a moment. His brow furrowed.
There was something about that pain, something that seemed like it should be quite important. He couldn't quite place it in his foggy, sleep-drugged mind. Vague memories dangled a hint in front of his face, a clue that was just out of his reach...
His eyes grew wide as memories of recent events trickled through his mind as slow as molasses. Fear ran cold fingers down his spine. That dream. But it hadn't been a dream. He had actually been there. He'd had realistic dreams before, but none so real as to feel the ground beneath his feet, to feel the wind cool against his face. He rubbed his bleary eyes and sighed. Despair curled around him as he remembered what had been revealed in the dream. He lay still and silent for a long while, staring gloomily up at the roof of pine branches over his head.
There was nothing left, nothing at all. He understood that now. The life he knew so well, it was gone. So were his friends, his family, everyone and everything that he knew and loved. Only his memories of those precious things remained. Everything else was buried beneath the sands of time...
Other memories returned, slowly drifting through his mind like mist over a twilight landscape. He vaguely recalled running, branches whipping and stinging at his face and hands as he fled from the hopeless despair that had welled up in his dream. He squinted up into the gloom, a frown contorting his features as he tried to get a grip on the intangible feelings that were just out of his reach.... Cold... He remembered being so cold that his hands were as useless lumps of ice...
He sighed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He carefully rolled on to his side, wincing as pain flashed through his ankle again. His eyes roved around the shelter, probing his dull surroundings for any clues as to what had happened during the night. There wasn't much to be seen. The fire at the entrance was long dead. From what he could see of the outside world through the mouth of his shelter, it had snowed heavily during the night.
He yawned and shook his head. A headache flashed to life behind his eyes. A dismal groan escaped him, and he screwed his eyes tight shut.
After a moment, he cracked open a bloodshot eye and began the search for his clothes. It took him a moment to realize that he couldn't see his clothes anywhere. He thought that was rather strange, but then again he was still having a tough time thinking straight. He pushed an arm out of the warmth of his sleeping bag and groped around blindly. His searching fingers eventually found one of his socks lying beside his sleeping bag. He picked it up and brought it in front of his face. It was frozen solid. He thumped it against the ground a couple of times. It made a hollow, almost wooden sound. He frowned and tossed the rock hard sock to the side. He was NOT getting out of his sleeping bag today at the rate things were going.
For several minutes, he lay quietly. He tried to fall back asleep, but he had too much on his mind to be able to relax. The pain in his ankle bubbled and flared whenever he moved, further adding to his worries. He tried counting the pine needles on the branches that were interlaced above him. After several minutes, he let out a long, drawn out sigh.
The wind shifted and the scent of smoke wafted past his nose, raising one of his eyebrows as it drifted past him into the depths of the shelter. His eyes moved over to the fire that was usually burning against the large stone that sat beside the mouth of his shelter. He stared hard at the cinder pile that lay there for a long time. Not even the tiniest wisp of smoke rose from the ashes.
His eyebrows drew together. He sniffed again. The scent of smoke was strong, pungent. He squinted at the entrance to his shelter, the brightness of the morning world outside momentarily hurting his eyes. After his eyes adjusted to the light, he was sure he saw smoke drift past the opening. He was suddenly at a loss to explain this. Why would there be a fire burning outside of his shelter? He sniffed again. This time he caught a faint whiff of something cooking. He pushed himself up on one elbow. What the heck was going on out there? He had barely finished that thought when a head darkened the entrance to his shelter.
It was a head that was not human. It was the head of a wolf. It grinned at him and licked its chops.
His yell of shock echoed out across the snow covered valley.
Kendri flattened her ears and winced. Within the close confines of the shelter that yell had been loud. She gave the stranger an apologetic grin and pulled her head out of the shelter. She shook her head and blinked. Her ears were ringing.
Cautiously she peeked into the dark interior of the shelter once again. The pale creature was sitting bolt upright, staring at her with his eyes about ready to fall out of their sockets. Kendri noted that the fur on top of his head stuck out at amusingly impossible angles. However, judging by the look on the stranger's face, amusing was not what he thought of the current situation. His mouth hung open, small square white teeth barely visible behind pale lips. She could sense his fear seeping into the cold air. Kendri tried to smile at him in what she hoped was a friendly manner. She kept her ears back a bit, trying not to look like a threat. Her tail wagged a few times. The stranger abruptly shut his mouth and his head cocked to the side. He appeared to relax slightly. Maybe he recognized her? Kendri hoped so. He passed a paw over his face and looked around the shelter for a moment before his pale eyes returned to her. The fear that tainted the edges of her perception dwindled away to nothingness.
The stranger opened his mouth again, and this time he said something. Kendri's ears came forward and she cocked her head to the side. The stranger's voice was a deep rumble, almost felt more than heard. At first Kendri thought it was a growl, but she didn't sense much fear or any aggression coming from the stranger. She soon realized that it was far more than a growl. Her sharp ears heard distinct modulated sounds. He had a language! She had suspected such a thing right from the first time she laid eyes on him, but some part of her had thought it impossible. Her heart soared at the possibilities that suddenly presented themselves. If he had a language, given time, they would be able learn how to communicate. The overpowering loneliness that had been her constant companion for the last two years suddenly seemed less frightening. A small smile crept along her muzzle.
The stranger spoke again. His words, such as they were, flowed together, the sentence he spoke becoming a rumbling whole. Kendri didn't understand a word of it, but it felt like a question. The stranger's pale eyes remained locked on hers. One corner of his mouth quirked upwards. Kendri wondered what it was that he wanted. She pulled her head back from the mouth of the shelter and thought hard for a moment, one paw scratching her chin. He could literally be asking her anything. She absent-mindedly picked up a stick that was close at paw and stirred up the fire in front of her. The two grouse that she had caught yesterday had been cleaned and plucked and were now skewered on sharpened sticks and had been carefully placed over precise locations of the fire in front of her. She reached down and turned the sticks so the birds would cook evenly. She yawned and looked up at the overcast sky. A few solitary snowflakes drifted down form the heavy clouds.
Also arranged on sticks stuck into strategic locations in the snow around the warmth of the fire were the stranger's clothes. She pondered them for a moment. They were for the most part dried out by now. Perhaps that was what the stranger wanted. She could imagine the winter air being quite cold on bare skin. Well, she thought, it would be a good start to give him back his clothes, even if that wasn't what he was asking for. She stood up, wincing slightly as her muscles complained about the ordeal she had put them through yesterday. One by one, she picked the unusual items of clothing from where they hung and gave them a vigorous shake. She bundled the items of clothing together and after taking a deep breath, she bent down and crawled into the shelter.
Kendri blinked rapidly as her eyes adjusted to the gloom. She heard movement as the stranger turned to face her. A hint of fear tickled her empathic perceptions. The stranger regarded her with wary eyes. His breathing was loud in the cramped quarters of the shelter. His scent was strong in here, so strong that is was almost overpowering. Pungent, salty, and carrying with it the tang of maleness. Kendri shifted uneasily and held out the bundle of clothing to the stranger. His eyes went towards the clothing held in her paws.
"Is this what you wanted?"
The stranger looked up sharply, pale eyes searching her face. The two thin strips of fur above his eyes drew together, and the bare skin on his forehead wrinkled. Did he sense the inflections in her voice as she had in his? Slowly he reached out pale, bare skinned paws, to gently take the clothing from her. The corners of his mouth curved upwards to crease his face in what might have been a smile. His head bobbed up and down once. Kendri smiled and wagged her tail. The stranger hurriedly picked through the bundle of clothes and picked out a grey piece, which he pulled over his head. It fit snugly over his torso, Kendri noted, conforming to the lines of his large frame as though it was a second skin. She wagged her tail at him and backed slowly out of the shelter. A bright spark burned in the stranger's eyes and the corners of his mouth curved upwards again as she backed out. This time she felt sure that that was his way of smiling.
Kendri sat down in front of the fire again and checked on how the grouse were cooking. She couldn't keep the smile from her face. Gods! It felt so good to be happy. It had been too long since she had felt this way. She had a sudden urge to run laughing through the fresh snow, rolling, playing like the pup that she once was.
A sudden flood of old memories welled up and the smile faded from Kendri's face. She clenched her jaw and sighed. She reached to the pile of wood beside her and cast another ragged chunk of spruce on the fire. Why couldn't the past just leave her alone?
Behind her, in the gloomy depths of the shelter, the human fought a painful battle to get his pants on over his swollen ankle.
The human ventured a peek at his abused ankle and really wished he hadn't. When he caught a glimpse of the swollen and hideous shades of blue and black that his ankle had become, he drew in a sharp breath between clenched teeth and swore. This was not good. He explored the injured region with a gentle finger for a moment, tensing against the pain. After a brief examination, he was fairly sure that his ankle wasn't broken, but he knew that at the very least it was badly sprained. Dread coiled in his stomach as he realized that even sprained, his ankle would take weeks to fully heal. He cursed again. He didn't need this. He tried to deny it, but he knew with calm realization that an injury like this was almost a sentence of death in his current circumstances. With a heavy sigh, he lay back down for a moment, staring at the ceiling and contemplating his future. He had to admit that it looked rather bleak at the moment. He was stranded in the middle of nowhere with a badly sprained ankle. He would have to make do with the food that he had, since getting anymore would have to wait until he healed up enough to be able to walk with out much pain. However, and it took a while for the thought to percolate through his cluttered mind, he seemed to have found an unlikely friend. The wolfish creature had returned, and amazingly it appeared to want to help. He shook his head in dismay. Either that or the creature wanted him for its next meal. He paused for a moment as he recalled its recent actions. Had it really talked to him? He hadn't understood a word of what it said, but what he had heard, or thought he had heard, was some kind of language. Funny thing was that he had asked it if it had seen his clothes and that's exactly what the creature had brought him. He frowned and shook that thought away. Weird...
Gathering his courage, the human eyed the pile of clothes that the wolf had given to him. They were dry for the most part and the faintest bit of warmth still radiated from them, but they absolutely reeked of smoke. That puzzled him for a minute before he realized that the wolf must have placed them near the fire to dry them out. He shrugged and picked his sweater out of the pile and pulled it on over his shirt, shivering for a moment as the cold cloth stole away some of his precious body heat. As he straightened the sweater out, he saw what looked like traces of dried blood around the collar. He frowned, wondering where it had come from. Memory jarred and he jerked a hand up to his face. His probing fingers brushed the ragged edges of a scabbed over wound above his left eye near his hairline. He winced and pulled his hand away. In the dim light he could see flecks of dried blood sticking to his fingers. He contemplated the evidence of injury for a moment, unsure of what to think or do next. He grimaced and wiped his hand on his sleeping bag. No wonder he had a headache.
He dug through the rest of clothes in a pre-occupied manner. He could only find one of his socks until he remembered that the other one was frozen into a solid lump somewhere behind him. That shouldn't be much of a problem, he thought. He was sure that trying to pull a sock over his sprained ankle would be an excruciating experience at best. His gloves were there in the pile, and he pulled them and the sock inside his sleeping bag to warm them up before he put them on. He picked up his jacket and pulled it on, wrinkling his nose at the overpowering scent of smoke that clung to it. There was dried blood on the collar of the jacket as well. He tried his best to brush it off. He took a deep breath and eyed his jeans where they lay next to him, wondering how best to put them on and keep the pain to a minimum. After a moment of hard thinking, he gritted his teeth and picked them up. This was going to hurt.
It did. He lay back, breathing heavily, sweat beading on his brow despite the cold. He took a moment to collect himself as the pain slowly faded away. Never once did he ever think that the simple act of getting dressed could cause so much pain. He groaned and pulled himself into a sitting position. Just how the hell was he supposed to do anything in this condition? Even walking wasn't going to be an easy task. He would have to make himself some sort of crutch or something, and even then he would be able to do little more than stumble around.
He reached over and picked up one of his boots. This part, he figured, was going to be even less fun than putting his jeans on. He loosened the laces and stretched open the mouth of his boot as far as it would go. Gingerly he placed his injured foot into the boot and began to gently pull the stiff and cold piece of footwear on to his abused foot. The grinding of his teeth was audible within the close confines of the shelter. He continued to ease the boot on and a gasp of pain escaped from between his clenched teeth as he finally managed to get it all the way on. He bent forward, resting his forehead on his knee and waited for the pain to subside. Strangely, the cold that seeped into his bare ankle from the boot helped ease the pain slightly. After a moment of respite, he fished the sock out of his sleeping bag and pulled it over his other foot. He pulled on his other boot, laced it up and then lay back against his sleeping bag. He couldn't believe it. He was worn out from the simple act of getting dressed. He felt like crawling back into his sleeping back and going back to sleep for a month, but he knew that doing so would get him nowhere.
As he sat there pondering what to do, another whiff of smoke drifted past him, carrying with it the tantalizing hit of a cooking meal. Hunger suddenly gnawed at his belly. Whatever it was that the wolf was cooking outside was making his mouth water and he wondered if it would share some of it with him. Actually he wondered about a lot more than that. He wondered what the wolf was even doing here and he wondered just exactly what it was. He wondered about wolf's intentions, but mostly he wondered what kind of reaction he was going to get from it when he came crawling out of the shelter. He turned his head to stare at his rifle. He was rather surprised that it was still there. Either the wolf didn't realize what it was, or it was a gesture of trust to leave it within his reach. He chewed his lower lip while digesting this new bit of information. Considering what had happened over the last couple of days, he was leaning towards the creature trusting him not to use the rifle against it. He recalled wolfish creature's reaction during their first meeting when he had snatched up the gun. Its reaction had been one of fear, and his brow furrowed as that incident brought another question to his mind. How would it know what the rifle was and what it could do? Then he remembered the strange tracks that he had come across several days ago. The wolf could have been following him for nearly the whole time that he had been stranded here, and it may have seen him shoot the deer. That made sense, in a way. He sighed and pressed the heel of his palm hard into his forehead. Why couldn't his life just be simple for once?
His stomach rumbled again, drawing to his attention the fact that there was some form of food cooking outside. He swallowed nervously and began to crawl out of the shelter on his hands and knees, being careful not to bump his ankle.
The change in lighting stung his eyes for a moment before they adjusted to the brightness of the outside world. The first thing he saw was that it had snowed heavily overnight, to the tune of about six inches of the white stuff. He forced himself to his knees and looked around. It was a grey, overcast day and a few solitary flakes of snow drifted down from the clouds. Off to his right, sitting on a log next to a small fire was the wolf. It looked at him curiously and its tail waved side to side a couple of times. He struggled to his feet and leaned against the boulder that stood at the mouth of his shelter to take the weight off of his injured ankle. The wolf looked up at him with wariness in its amber eyes. He noted with some surprise that his cooler sat in the snow near the fire, opposite the wolf. He swallowed nervously and started towards it, the tantalizing hints of cooking meat driving him onwards, his hunger overcoming his uncertainty.
Breathing deeply, preparing himself for the stab of pain that was sure to come, the human eased his left foot forward and gently put some weight on it. He winced and lurched forward as pain lanced up his leg. He swore under his breath and balanced unsteadily on his good leg while he waited for the pain to subside. He was going to have to make some kind of crutch and soon too. He wasn't going to make it very far without one. He stumbled forward another step, grinding his teeth as the pain flared again.
The wolf stood up slowly. Startled, the human stopped and stared at it. The creature moved slowly, reaching down to pick a long piece of wood from the snow. It stepped towards him, clearly nervous, ears back and tail wagging tentatively. The human tensed, wondering what the wolf was up to. The wooden pole that it carried could be used as a weapon and he was in no condition to fend of an attack, unlikely as that possibility seemed. Still, he fought to contain the primal 'fight or fight' reflex that rose unbidden in the back of his mind. He stood rooted to the spot as the wolf approached to within a few feet.
For the first time, he was able to see the creature clearly, and he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. Never once did he imagine that such a creature could exist. He looked it over from head to toe. The leather cloak that it had worn the first time he had seen was gone. All it wore now was a leather belt around its waist, which was almost lost to sight under the thick fur that the wolf had. Upon the belt, a sheathed knife with what looked like an antler handle was affixed. As his eyes roved over the wolf, he noted with numb surprise the subtle patterns in its fur. It's chest and belly were a solid off-white. Long black tipped guard hairs began to invade the white fur around the shoulders and neck, growing much thicker on the wolf's sides and back, and running down the top of it's arms to end near the wrists. The creature's face had an almost husky-like mask to it, but it was not as sharply delineated. The fur around the eyes and the top of its muzzle had a salt and pepper colouring which blended into the white that began on the sides of its muzzle and ran down its throat. Its pointed ears were rimmed with dark grey, almost black fur, while the insides were almost white. Its eyes were a piercing amber hue, and he saw intelligence in them. His mind reeled at the thought. An intelligent animal. A wolf's head on a vaguely human shaped body. An impossibility. Troubled thoughts swarmed through his head. How was such a thing possible? The wolf stared at him evenly. It held out the wooden pole to him. The human stared at the proffered chunk of wood and his brow furrowed. When after a moment he didn't take it, the wolf pulled it back and mimicked using it as a crutch. Then it held the pole out towards the human again.
The human blinked in surprise. Did he really just see that? The wolf waited silently for him to make up his mind. After a moment, the human reached out a tentative hand and grasped the pole. The wolf wagged its tail a few times and nodded. The human regarded the wolf with profound surprise. It had made him a crutch? Suddenly his situation didn't seem that bad anymore. Weird, for sure, but no longer terminal. He smiled and nodded in return. "Thanks." He said.
The wolf's ears came forwards and it cocked its head to the side, looking a bit like a curious dog. It smiled, or at least he thought it smiled. The wolf's expressions were a little difficult for him to discern. It motioned over towards the fire. He nodded and grinned a lopsided grin. He understood that part at least.
The makeshift crutch made walking a bit easier for him, and the pain in his ankle lessened from excruciating to just plain agonizing. It was with great relief that he reached the cooler beside the fire and was able to sit down. He was surprised to see that the wolf had hovered nearby, apparently ready to aid him should he stumble as he made his painfully slow progress towards the fire. He began to rethink his situation as the reality of current events slowly sunk into his addled brain. He just might recover from this injury as long as this strange creature would lend a hand. He really hoped that that would be the case.
Once he had made himself as comfortable as possible, and had leaned his crutch against the cooler beside him, the wolf returned to its seat opposite him. The fire crackled and popped between them as they regarded each other silently. The wolf reached down to turn a couple of sticks on which two chunks of meat were skewered. At first glance they looked like small chickens, then the human realized that they must be grouse. His stomach rumbled and he licked his lips. Food, and enough for two.
The wolf looked up at the human, its amber eyes searching his face. It opened its mouth to speak, but hesitated briefly. A strange look clouded its features and the wolf cocked its head to one side. After a second or two, it gave its head a brief shake and started over again.
It pointed a clawed finger at its chest and said "Kendri."
The human raised an eyebrow. That must be the creature's name. The briefest sensation of familiarity tickled something deep in the dark recesses of his mind before fading into the background. A frown settled upon his features and he was silent for a moment. The wolf reached down to check on breakfast again.
The human cleared his throat. Since introductions were in order, he pointed a thumb at his chest.
"Chris."
Kendri looked up at him, her tail waving gently side to side. "Chris." She repeated, pronouncing his name with surprising clarity. A grin split her muzzle.
Chris smiled in return, a grin that slowly faded as realization struck home. She? Just how did he arrive at that conclusion? He eyes flickered over the wolf's flat chested, fur covered figure. There were no obvious outward indications as to whether the wolf was male or female. Perhaps its hips were a little wider than its shoulders, but the thick fur coat hid everything else. His brow wrinkled as he thought furiously. The thought had just popped into his head and it just felt right that the wolf would be female. He tried to shake away the unease that suddenly gripped him. Something swirled in the back of his mind, and memory flashed to life with a vividness that made his jaw drop. In an instant, he was back in the depths of the forest, stumbling forwards through the falling snow, his senses dulled with cold. Someone was supporting him on his left side as he staggered painfully onwards. He turned his head and looked down. The wolf was there, one arm around his waist, his arm over its shoulders, fighting to keep him upright. He stumbled and fell to the snow with a cry of pain. The wolf's head appeared above him, tugging on his arm, yelling, pleading with him to get back up...
The vision dissolved into the smoke curling up from the fire. He stared in shock at Kendri, who was frozen in the midst of pulling the grouse from the edge of the fire. Her ears were back and she regarded him with a wide-eyed look of profound astonishment.
It took Chris a moment to find his voice. "You helped me to get back here didn't you?" A faraway look clouded his face as he fought to remember more. "I had that terrible nightmare and took off running into the forest..." He shifted uneasily on the lid of the cooler and his voice trailed off. "That must be how I did this." He grimaced and pointed at his ankle.
Kendri just stared at him. He swallowed convulsively. Something twitched in his head. He continued on, his voice catching in his throat. "You... You came and found me..." He paused for a moment, trying to pull himself together.
"I would have died if you hadn't done that." He shook his head sadly, trying to find the words to continue but was unable to. Despair stole over him once more and he held his head in his hands as vivid memories reminded him that he had lost everyone and everything he had ever known.
A gentle touch on his shoulder distracted him and he looked up into Kendri's canine face. He hadn't even heard her get up move to his side. Kendri said something in a gentle tone of voice and handed him one of the sticks that the grouse was skewered upon. He felt a wave of compassion wash over him, and suddenly he felt a bit better. He smiled at the wolf.
"Thanks."
Kendri wagged her tail a few times and nodded before returning to her seat opposite the fire. She picked up the other grouse, sniffed at it and licked her lips. She gave Chris a toothy grin before pulling a drumstick off and tearing into it with her sharp teeth. She chewed happily and let out a sigh of what sounded like sheer pleasure. Chris shook his head and chuckled. He watched Kendri enjoy her meal for a moment longer, before turning his attention to the grouse-on-a-stick that he held in his hand. He pulled off a drumstick and sniffed it, hot grease stinging his fingers. It smelt surprisingly good. His stomach rumbled in anticipation. He took a tentative bite and chewed slowly. The delicate flavour of unseasoned grouse washed over his tongue and his eyes widened in surprise. This unseasoned, slightly charred bird was better than he thought possible. He took another bite, a happy grin coming to his face as he enjoyed his meal.
A sudden thought came to the forefront. Why was he being so calm and collected? He was sitting in front of a fire eating a meal cooked by something that looked like it came right out of a bad werewolf movie and acting like it was something he did every day. He glanced at Kendri across the fire and frowned. Shouldn't he be at least a little bit afraid of a creature that was so alien as to defy explanation? He thought that he should be, but as he watched her eat her meal, he realized that it was difficult to be afraid of her. All she wanted to do was help, and though she tried to put on a friendly face deep down she was so sad and so forlorn. He wasn't surprised at that, after all, she'd been out here all by herself for the better part of two years...
Something flashed in Chris's head, arcing across his thoughts with a crackling discharge. He froze in mid chew, the partially stripped drumstick half ways to his mouth. What the hell was that? His mind questioned crazily. How did he know...? What the hell was going on here? How were these thoughts getting into his mind? Kendri stared at him, a picture of canine disbelief, ears back and mouth hanging open.
Comprehension struck him, and it wasn't gentle. It was coming from her! He was seeing bits and pieces of what was inside her head, and she was experiencing the same thing from him! His mind reeled. All further thoughts fled from his grasp and all he could do was stare in shock at the wolf across the fire.
One thought crept back into the empty space left by the others when they fled. Chris grimaced and held his head in his hands. He'd thought that the last weeks had been out of this world. Somehow, he didn't think things were going to improve anytime soon.