Wild at heart

Flames of Wisdom

I don't know what made me do it but I went back to see the human boy today. He was a curiosity alright. He looked like a cub but what would a cub be doing in the woods all by himself? He kept going  to the metal beast opening the rear and taking things out, mainly food, or at least what I assumed to be food. He'd built what looked like an upside down nest by leaning sticks against the oak his metal beast killed. It looked nothing like the beautiful dens humans of the town created. Maybe cubs didn't know how to build dens. The boy was skinny and dirty with long dark brown fur that was only on the top of his head. The rest of his body was furless covered only with the colourful coverings that humans like to wear. The corners of his mouth were turned down, a sign of unhappiness, and his brows were furrowed angrily. Every so often he turned and kicked something as hard as he could. The boy hadn't seen me yet, which I was glad of, he hadn't brought much food and I was sure he'd be happy to add me to his supply. He was still adding sticks to his nest, if it was even worthy of that tittle. The "nest" was falling apart and there were such large gaps between the sticks that I wondered why he even bothered to build a den, he would be just as cold and wet out in the open. When the entire den collapsed for the third time that morning he finally gave up and plunked himself down on a rock in defeat. He put his head in his hands and I almost felt sorry for him, almost. He reached into his bag and pulled out a string which he started tying around a long branch and then attached a sharp thing the loose end of the string. He began to dig into the firm dirt, I chuckled quietly, the human boy was a terrible digger. His paws had no claws making it almost impossible to penetrate the dirt. He finally pulled a pink wriggling worm from the ground and stabbed the sharp thing into it, a very strange but effective way to kill a worm. He began to walk away from his little home and towards the river. Maybe he preferred to eat his worms with a drink of water. Foxes don't eat worms so I've never tried one but they look disgusting to me, plus I prefer my meat dead and it takes forever to kill a worm. If you cut one in half it just becomes two worms, two become four and so on, its unsettling. As we walked I was always just a few steps behind the boy. I enjoyed how rhythmic the boys footsteps were, the sound of him walking was much different then an animal walking. For one thing he didn't pad quietly through the forest, he was a klutz never looking down to assure that he didn't snap a twig or tromp through a pile of leaves. He had no predators to avoid and he had no prey to catch. No animals got in his way as he tromped through the forest. Here, he was the king and everyone knew it. His steps were far apart as his few legs were long. It didn't take him long to find the stream, the trampled grass showed me he'd been here before. As soon as he burst into the clearing he headed straight for a flat rock that was near the river bank. I stayed within the safety of the forest preferring to observe the humans strange ways from a distance. He used the stick to dangle the hooked worm above the water then plopped it in abruptly. The water rippled for a second then fell still. A slight breeze ruffled the boys hair and set ripples across the calm water. For a long moment the only sounds were the boy's deep breathing and the rustling leaves above our heads. I watched patiently for a long time, only leaving once to catch myself a quick snack. I was completely unsure of what he was doing. It was only when I saw an osprey dive into the water that it occurred to me that the boy was trying to catch a fish. Foolish human, big fish didn't swim so close to the shore of the river, if he wanted any hope of catching anything he would need more string. Oblivious to his mistake the boy continued to sit still for the rest of the day. It was getting dark but the boy was still sitting on the rock clutching his stick. He finally lifted it out of the water, the worm was gone, probably nibbled away by minnows hours ago. The boy sighed and began to babble quietly as he returned home. I followed close behind him weaving my way between the trees as silently as I could. The boy kept tripping on roots as he made his way cautiously through the dark path, I had no trouble seeing but humans have terrible night vision. I sighed in contentment as the boy's den-ish thing came into view at last. He made a beeline straight for his food pile and began to dig things out greedily and stuff them into his mouth. By the time he'd filled his stomach only half of the food pile remained. He would have to start catching things soon if he didn't want to starve. The boy gave a deep yawn before crawling into his mess of twigs. I wanted him to fall asleep quickly so I could get a close look at him but his breathing remained shallow and uneven long into the night. As the moon rose the night air got cooler and I saw him curl into a tight ball. He would never fall asleep if he was cold. The boy seemed to realize that too because at long last he came out of his den. I saw him stretch as he got out and then slowly begin to retrieve rocks from around the clearing. When he had collected enough rocks he carefully arranged them into a small circle around a bare patch of dirt. He grabbed a handful of sticks from his nest and threw them into the centre of his circle to finish his creation. I watched confused as he took a small wooden stick from a manmade container and began to strike it quickly against the surface of the box. I waited anxiously for something to happen, nothing good ever came out of these human rituals. After some time the boy angrily threw the small stick in with the rest of his twigs and drew another from the box. This time he swiped it only once as fast as he could and suddenly the whole clearing had been filled with light. The light was reddish and warm and wonderful. My heart was thumping as if I'd been running for miles on end and my paws felt tingly my eyes wide open  in disbelief. The boy knew the secret to fire. 

I'd like to thank all my readers for making it this far! I'm really enjoying writing this story and I hope you're all enjoying reading it. Remember to vote if you liked this chapter and comment below if you have any feedback. I always enjoy hearing what my readers have to say!