The Reality

Three Little Wolf

      Another morning, another hunt.
   I banish the thoughts of the alpha from my mind as if they are nothing as I run through the pines.
     Every once in a while, our "leader", Collin HuntLeader, schedules large, widespread hunts with the entire Scout wing, when he's feeling the Attacks are too numerous for his liking.
     Attacks are when a pack successfully makes a kill, either a sheep or a cow or anything else. This month there's been six. That's way more that usual.
     Scouts already kill about ten wolves a month, but sometimes it's better to stamp on the population all at once.
"Okay everyone. I want Nick and Carter on the West side, Lea and Madison on the East side, Claire and Matthew on the North boundary...." As Collin lists off the names of Scouts and their assigned areas I feel sick inside. Lea and Madison, two of the best hunters we have, heading towards the den of pups I "saved".
Why should I care anyway? Why should I suddenly feel compassion for animals I have hated all of my life?
My little sister is of course, staying inside today. I told her if she opened her mouth about her fierce desire to help the mutts I'd hunt her instead.
"Awesome. We're together." Nick whispers as the list continues on. I see Lea a few feet away in the crowd, ambling towards Madison who's already nocked an arrow.
"We're always together dung-head. Collin knows we're an epic team."
He smiles and reaches and grips my hand. His bow is on his back and his other hand resting on his quiver.
His bow is a lot nicer than mine. Polished and clean, with a new bowstring. Mine simply gets the job done. His arrows are pretty two, clean and slicked feathers of coordinating colors, paint up and down the shaft.
"Scouts, you are released. Happy hunting!" Collin says from the rock he's standing on. The crowd starts to dissipate.
The churning in my stomach is just beginning. Already my mind is reeling for the wolf's safety as well as my own. To be locked away in the Wolf House forever...
But the natural call of the hunt has awakened inside of me, the rhythmic pace, flying alongside Nick, silently gripping my bow. We have a strong bond, Nick Tracker and I. Hopefully this horrible mistake I've made won't tear it apart.
      We spot a pack after a little while. The alpha is a sooty-gray male with black speckles around his muzzle. He is beautiful.
     "I'll take the Flanks." Nick whispers.
     The Flanks are the omegas of the pack, the ones for bodyguards of the alpha.
     But the wolves are hunting too, there's a stray whitetail doe forty meters up the slope.
     They all suddenly take after it at the same time, barking and spreading out to enclose their prey in a thorny trap of bristling predator.
     "Go!" Nick says with a maniacal grin on his face. Usually I would be smiling as well, but now I'm sick as I watch that gray alpha race away.
     The pack has seriously spread out and are in separate little quadrants around the fleeing deer. Nick and I struggle to keep up. 
     I, however, was raised for the forest. I can almost sense the spiraling roots of these trees around my sprinting feet, and it does help that I know this forest well,
      As I pursue the male I nock an arrow from instinct although no part of me intends to shoot it.
     But Nick, unfortunately, does.
     His arrow comes flying from the thicket. In the chaos the wolves are no rallying around us and not the deer. This is bad for both sides.
     The arrow swerves as a young Flank tears by it, a hair above his head.
     It ends up in the alpha's front right leg. He falls with a yelp into the nest of ferns surrounding him.
      As is has been forever, I smile a small smile seeing his shape on the forest floor, but as my pleasure fades with sick comprehension that I have enjoyed the fall of such a beautiful animal, I know what I have to do.
       Already I see the still body of a Flank a few feet from Nick, who's back is turned from me.
     "Nick! The bigger Flank ran West. Go after it!" He smiled and tears away in the direction I'm pointing. He's so stupid. I hate him.
      I lean over the alpha, who's grunting and whining in pain.
     "Hey." I say quietly. I bend down and start stroking his soft muzzle. 
     He opens his eyes and stares at me. They're a deep golden-orange color, with flecks of black. Everything about him is color.
     I have never touched a breathing wolf before. I run my hand through his mane on tangled fur by his neck.
     Suddenly he barks and struggles to his feet, snapping at my hand. I recoil and step back.
     He calms and gingerly holds his injured leg up.
     "Hello, hello little wolf." I say quietly and soothingly.
      I creep forward on my knees and place my hand around one of his perfectly tilted ears.
     "Let's take you home, get you something to eat, okay?" I slide my arms under his stomach and lift him up. It's a good thing I've had to lift far heavier things than him.
At a slow pace we start for my own little cottage, disappearing into the fog, all thoughts of anything else disappearing as well.