A calm night.
Dark and peaceful with the moon gently shining in through the window, turning everything a shade of pale blue. It was one of those nights where I was having a dreamless sleep until one moment in the night when I woke up, or at least I had thought I did.
I had opened my eyes for real only slightly and for a few seconds, so I only saw glimpses of my room. Once I closed my eyes again to darkness, then reopened them, there was a large mass of dark fur lying next to me. Letting my eyes adjust, I was able to register better what the mass of fur was. It was brown and large, and the shape of a canine. Propping myself up on my arm proved my guess right.
Lying next to me on my bed was a large brown wolf. He looked at me with his glowing yellow eyes and growled softly. I lay back down behind him and stared at his furry back while he fell silent again. I don't know how I knew, but the wolf was a male and he was older than me (if we were the same species), but I didn't know how much older.
Every time I tried to look over him, or get out of bed, or even just to reach out to my night stand for my glass of water, he would growl at me and stare me down with his yellow eyes. I didn't know why, but he wanted me to stay in bed, and he wanted me to sleep behind him, under the covers, where I would be completely out of sight from anyone peeking into my room. The only way someone could see me if they stood right next to the bed and looked over the wolf, but I doubted he would let anyone get that close enough.
At one point, I woke up again and found the wolf fast asleep. I needed to go to the bathroom really bad. Slowly, I made it out from under the sheets and down to the foot of my bed without disturbing the wolf. Carefully, I crept over him and quietly walked to the bathroom without waking him up. But when I came back, he wasn't very happy at all.
He glared at me angrily with his yellow eyes, baring his teeth at me. I stepped into my room without reacting to his disapproving look, even though my heart beated quickly thinking of those sharp canines. The moment my first foot touched the floor of my room, he started growling at me, more angrily than he had before. I jumped at the sound. He was like the rumbling engine of truck. As I got close to the bed, he snarled at me and snapped at my side. I held my hands up and walked to the foot of the bed, keeping my eyes on him, but not making direct eye contact.
"I just went to the bathroom," I told him. "Not that big of a deal."
He snapped at me with a roaring growl, as if to say, "It is a big deal!"
I carefully climbed over him and crawled up to my pillow, expecting to find his teeth in my flesh at any moment. The moment never came, he just waited for me to get back under the sheets and nuzzled me, still glaring at me, but at least he stopped growling. His face looked all serious business, but his eyes were soft and leveling, like he cared and didn't want anything to hurt me. He would never hurt me.
Knowing I was safe and sound in bed, he turned back around and kept his guard watching over me next to me in bed. I fell asleep under his watchful eye, wondering why he was being so strict.
Somewhere closer to morning, when I would soon have to get up for school, I woke up to the sound of the wolf's loud growling. My eyes flew open just in time to see the fur on his back bristle while his body shook angrily next to me. He leapt out of bed and growled angrily at the pile of miscellaneous items my mom had put in my small room until we had a better place to put them. He was crouched low like he was ready to attack, his tail high in the air and all his fur on end. He showed just as much teeth as he had shown me after I snuck past him, but his growl was deeper and more angrier, more menacing and threatening. He barked loudly at the pile of bags a few times. Then he turned and faced the curtain hanging over where my door should have been.
I didn't know what he was finding so threatening, nor could I see anything wrong at all, but deep in my bones, I felt it. It was a dark feeling and the feeling of fear. Whatever was on the other side of the curtain was anything but friendly and I knew it would hurt me in some cruel way, more than just inflicting physical pain. I tried calling the wolf to get back into bed, but he wouldn't listen to me. I was scared and didn't want to be in bed alone and he felt so far away.
I felt scared for him.
What if the thing behind the curtain came out and hurt him? What if he couldn't keep it at bay? Would it hurt him? What would it do to him? What would it do to the both of us if it got us?
What happened next, I never found out. My alarm rang and my eyes opened to my room, looking at what I last saw before my eyes opened. Only the enormous wolf was gone and the felling of fear and darkness was gone. There was no longer a sense of an evil presence behind the curtain.
Whatever was behind the curtain, the wolf kept me safe from it. Even though it seemed a few times that the wolf was the bad guy, in the end, he was only trying to keep me safe. He was a friend trying to protect me.
But the strangest thing, I thought, was that it all felt so real.
