The Legend of Black Wolf - Sully's Journey Home

Chapter Thirty Two

The frozen ground crunched underfoot as Sully walked off his strange dream.  Instead of mulling over each point and what it all meant, he tried to quiet himself and clear his head.  The air was very crisp and much too cold for a sensible man to be out at such a brisk pace.  Wolf kept up, staying close to Sully’s side.  Sully could tell the animal was sensitive to his friend’s mood, and it comforted him to have Wolf show such concern.  

      The two made quite a pair as they trekked over the winter grounds. Sully’s hair was no longer tamable as it had been before he’d returned to Colorado.  The unruly curls blew in the wind, giving his determined face a fierce and wild look.  His red and black striped coat and his buckskins gave him a distinctively Indian look, although from the way he walked, it was clear to anyone that he was not a native.  The wolf at his side, ever growing, was feared by most, and made a formidable companion.  

      With the wind picking up, his eyes began to smart and tear.  He lifted the hood of his coat over his head as he walked on.  His moccasins, used to long intervals near the fire these days, grew stiff as his feet got colder.  Wanting so desperately to clear his mind of Abigail, Sully kept walking, listening to the quiet of all that surrounded him.  Along the open plain, the wind began to kick up what snow lay around, chaffing his face.  Where there were trees, there was shelter, but not even an owl or rabbit crossed his path.  The brown and gray tones of winter surrounded him, and Wolf blended right in to his surroundings.  He felt like he was disappearing into the woods, disappearing to all whom had known him and transforming into someone else.

      He watched his feet, the pace helping him to concentrate on quieting his mind.  Before he knew what was going on, Wolf’s sharp bark brought him to a quick halt.  Looking up, expecting to see an enemy, his eyes focused on the edge of a frozen lake.  Sully had been just a few feet from stepping out onto the ice.  Wolf barked at him again, urging him back from the water’s edge.  Crouching instead, Sully drew Wolf to his side and petted the cold fur with a freezing hand.  

      “Thanks, boy.”  He said, turning his attention to his dedicated friend.  Wolf nudged Sully’s hand hard, just short of licking him.  As he petted Wolf, he looked around, realizing that he’d never known a lake to be near camp.  The harder he looked, nothing quite seemed familiar to him.  With the overcast sky, Sully couldn’t even be sure of the time, although his stomach was telling him it was well past breakfast.

      Ducking his head halfway underneath the opening of his coat, he sheltered his face from the wind a moment as he tried to think.  Allowing his breath to warm him under the heavy weave of the red and black coat, he closed his eyes and thought long and hard.  He did not want to admit he was lost, not even to himself.  Wolf leaned into his side, and he held onto the creature as he decided to simply go back the way he had come.  If nothing else, this time he would concentrate on his surroundings, find himself something to eat, and if the weather worsened, he’d build himself a quick shelter.  There had been many survival skills from army life that paralleled what Cloud Dancing had taught him.  The medicine man had been glad to see that Sully was such a quick study, but many of the basics were already well known to him.

      Walking back into the woods, there was little to be seen that was available to eat, and nothing much looked familiar to him.  At times, he noticed his own tracks and was able to navigate back to the open plain area.  Once there, he settled down to rest.  He knew that, without food, navigating the plain and the windy cold would take a lot of his strength for the day.  Busying himself to start a fire, Wolf watched placidly for awhile, then snuck off to find himself some amusement.

     Gratefully warming himself in front of his little fire, Sully watched the snow stop as he rested.  He wondered what the tribe was doing and if anyone had worried that he was gone.  Sully often took off to be by himself, and most of the tribe had grown used to his strange comings and goings.  But he knew that Cloud Dancing would be worried, though he had known Sully the longest.  He asked the Great Spirit to send peace to Cloud Dancing’s heart so that he would trust that everything was fine.