Have you ever heard the phrase a picture is worth a thousand words? This book is for the bored and curious. This is just a book I have on here for something extra for me to do. An image will be featured at the top of the chapter and a short story th...
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The earth had been scorched from the fire. The ground was cracked and splintered. It seemed as though nothing had survived. A dirty white Jeep stopped at the edge of the wildlife sanctuary. Only one person got out of the vehicle.
"We'll come to get you tomorrow. Do you have everything you need?" The driver asked.
"I'll be fine Dad. I got everything. There's nothing to worry about," she replied with a smile.
"Okay. If you don't want to camp out here there's a ranger station about two miles from here,"
"I'll be fine. Now go, or you're going to be late getting back to the station,"
The Jeep drove off and the girl climbed through the broken electric fence. The grass crunched beneath her boots. She looked across the landscape. There was no way that anything had survived out here. She adjusted the straps on her backpack and continued onward. It was already starting to get dark after an hour. So far, there hadn't been any sign of life. Something crunched beneath her feet. She looked down and gasped at the sight. It was the skeleton of a rabbit. She walked around the skeleton in a wide arch and walked a little ways from it and decided to camp there. She shrugged off her backpack and unclipped the lantern on her bag. She didn't want to harm the place anymore than it already was with starting a fire. She set the lantern down and lit the candle inside. A small flame flickered across the camp. The traveler unrolled her sleeping bag and stared at the stars. Turns out she had forgotten something... Her tent. It wasn't cold out so it would be fine for one night. She closed her eyes and fell asleep. Half an hour later she heard something crunch close by. Shooting up from her bedroll she looked toward the light that the lantern was still giving off. A gray wolf had stuck its head inside her bag and was eating some of the food she had packed.
"Hey! Get out of my bag!" She yelled. The wolf flinched and ran away from the small campsite. The girl ran her fingers through her messy hair and sighed.
"Well, at least I know something survived the fire," she mumbled to herself. Crawling out of her bedroll, she checked her backpack. The wolf had managed to eat its way through the jerky package and eat a few pieces. She took the package out of her bag and ate a few pieces. The sound of paws made her look up from her food. The wolf had come loping back. It stood just a few feet away from the little campsite. She looked down at the jerky package and back up at the wolf. She grabbed a piece of jerky from the package and held it out to the wolf.
"Do you want some?" She asked. The wolf licked its lips and took hesitant steps toward her. It grabbed the jerky from her hand and quickly ate it. The wolf was thin and its ribs were exposed. She dumped the rest of the package out onto the ground.
"You can have the rest. You need it more than I do," she told the wolf. The gray wolf feasted on the jerky. After the wolf had finished he padded closer and laid next to the lantern. The girl dug through her bag some more and grabbed the blue blanket she had brought with her. She began to make her way toward the wolf. His head shot up and he looked at her with curiosity.
"It's just a blanket to keep you warm. I won't hurt you," the girl said. The wolf lowered his head to his paws and let out a sigh. She draped the blanket over the wolf and then crawled back over to her bedroll. By morning the candle was still burning. She looked at the lantern with curiosity. How was it still burning? The wolf had woken up and was watching her intently. She looked at her watch and began to pack up. The wolf walked over to her and dropped the blanket in front of her. She picked it up and put it back on the wolf.
"It's yours now," she told the wolf. The wolf licked her face. The girl smiled and pet the wolf on the head. She packed the rest of her belongings and stood. She looked at the lantern and back to the wolf.
"You can have my lantern too. I don't need it," the wolf looked at the lantern and then back to the girl. She smiled and began to walk back to the fence. The wolf whined and she looked back at him.
"I have to go. My dad and the others are waiting for me," she said. The wolf walked back to the lantern and laid down. The girl walked back to the fence. Sure enough, her dad was there waiting for her. She climbed in the backseat and the car lurched forward.
"Did you find anything out there?" He asked.
"All I saw that was alive was a gray wolf,"
"Really?"
"Yea, it stayed with me at my camp,"
"Cool. We'll have to write it down back at the station,"
The ride was silent the rest of the way. The girl took out her phone and found the picture from last night of the wolf. He was laying by the lantern. She scrolled to the next photo of the wolf with the blanket draped over his frame. It was almost as though he was waiting for her to come back. As the years passed the sanctuary grew back and came back to life. The girl took over her father's place at the station and would camp out in the sanctuary often with the wolf that would be there waiting for her every time. The wolf passed at the age of twenty one. The girl renamed the sanctuary and it became Grey's Wildlife Sanctuary in honor of her best friend that would be there waiting with the lantern and blanket she had given to him all those years ago.
A/N 1,028 words. I hope you all enjoyed this story! Please vote and comment! Thanks for reading and I hope you all have a Happy New Year!
