Wolf Weekly

Chapter 3: The cave

"Where are we going?" My dismay had returned now and it was beginning to sink it that I was in the middle of nowhere.

"Wow, patient-much!" She scoffed, "We'll get there when we get there... it's not far..." Rain dripped down my face, I was getting cold, and my arm was hurting so bad I couldn't see straight.

"Wolf?" I whined I must've sounded like a little boy right then but I was too in pain to care. Wolf was staring up the ravine walls, the same walls which I have fallen off of, The current situation didn't seem to apply to her. She was aloof and distant, but then we felt mud trickle around our ankles, and the rain fell faster and faster and faster. Her hair smacked me in the face as she turned her head around to see The entire hill behind us melting into the mud. I heard her mutter something that many of the older boys would say at my school when the teachers weren't around. Her eyebrows scrunched up and she wrinkled her nose, she looked kinda funny but judging by her current demeanor, I knew that knew wouldn't be the best time for joking about. She started running much faster than she had when she was chasing me, her current pace was mocking the chase, I could see that she was worried but I didn't see quite why. I knew the mud would be a reason to be alarmed and I myself was becoming uneasy from its sticky consistency, I was never fond of being dirty but judging from Wolf's looks she didn't quite care. I also knew that running could only filthen myself and splash mud upward upon ourselves, therefore, making us dirtier... so why was she running? When she remembered that she had company she once more turned to stare at me almost expectantly.

"Run!" When I didn't move she sprinted back to me and tugged on my arm dragging me forward. I wasn't expecting her to be as strong as she was, I wasn't expecting to lurch forward and find myself being dragged at record speed. Finally, I realized that if this weirdo was panicked I too should be, I found it in my feet to help push myself along as she dragged me, eventually she let go as I was running- that is until I watched as she began climbing up the rocks again.

"I'm not going up there!" She said another word which I suppose wouldn't have made either of my teachers to pleased, without waiting she began to climb up the rocks alone- no climb wouldn't be an appropriate word for that, more or less she floated up those rocks, she did it with so much ease you'd assume she was walking, you couldn't tell she was on jagged, muddy and most of all loose rocks. As her last trace of feet disappeared above the ledge panic began to set in. It became evident why she was ushering me wherever she was going- a mudslide had begun. While I hadn't known much about mudslides besides the stories boys would tell me I found myself utterly terrified of the unknown.

"Wolf!" There was no answer besides the sound of sliding rock. Timidly I began to climb at a pace that even a snail could pass, I'd stumble up a rock before slipping several inches down only to catch myself and remain latched on tightly, moments later I'd settle down and try another rock. That's how it went for several long minutes. It was when I realized that I was completely soaked that I heard the rocks sliding only a few feet away from my head. At first, I was afraid that it had been the large waterfall of rock and soil we were running from, but then I realized that it was her- Wolf.

"Take my hand!" Wolf had dropped her load of suitcases and was now assisting me up to the hill. She could even climb one-handed! Was she human? I wouldn't have been surprised if she wasn't  It was not long before I was sitting inside a cave. Heaving breaths in a puddle of murk.

"Stay here!" Her look strongly suggested that I obey. I did.

The cave suggested that she was in someways civilized. A raked pile of leaves suggested her bed, a firepit expertly comprised of rock and wood, and a long log dragged up against the cave's wall for storage. Several things sat upon the log the first item was a burlap sack with no evidence of its origins, I decided it would be wise to look inside the sack for that would be noisy, especially in a girls sack- if she was even a girl. The next item I saw was unsettling and threatened my light lunch I had eaten aboard the train to resurface, it was a dead rabbit, with blood pooling out of a tiny gash, there was much more meat that had been skinned and several more deceased animals waiting to be skinned. The smell was unbearable. I saw the suitcase she brought and my own which I must've dropped. At the back of the cave, there was a small tunnel that looked as if Wolf hadn't set up camp back their and I had no desire to check it out myself.

Minutes later she appeared with a few suitcases in her clutch, she was completely muddy and she looked exhausted.

"That wasn't smart, you could've gotten killed!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah- save it... This is why I am alone!" She rolled her eyes as she unlatched several suitcases and began to sort through them.

"What are you saying! You're alone? There's nobody else with you?"

"What else would I have meant? Now, are you going to sit there and ask questions or help me sort?" She kicked a suitcase towards me. I reached out my arm but immediately returned it to the warm hug of it against my body, she completely changed yet again into a sympathetic look.

"Right... I'm sorry I forgot, let me see it." She tenderly reached out and took my arm in minutes she had produced a medical kit and began treating my arm, I looked down and saw it wrapped up skillfully.

"You can rest" she pointed towards a pile of leaves which suggested being her bed. "We can talk when the storms over" I felt tired so I didn't object instead I laid down in the pile, trying my best to ignore the uncomfortable itchy leaves and pretending it was a prestigious bed at home instead. From the thoughts of home, a single tear came to my eye and silently rolled down my cheek- it had never felt farther away than now.

"Welcome home Arlo!" I felt the warm hug of my mother and my father as he tenderly ruffled my hair, I had never missed them more, it was after all the first time in which I had been away from home for over a year. I was proud to tell them about everything that I had learned and they were proud of a there brave little boy for going to a faraway boarding school for a year. My father scooped me up and placed me on his shoulders, as my mother carried my small school trunk. They'd promised me ice cream and we sat in the park finally together again. While yes it was true that I had just been through the hardest year of my life, what did that matter? After all, I was home now. The ice cream was vanilla, the softest vanilla ice cream I had ever had, I remembered the warmth of the sun on my face and the keenness of the grass as it tickled my feet. My mother's voice had never been more gentle and my father's stories had never been funnier. That night as we returned home I was greeted with my house's royal blue gabels and the scent of mother's cooking in the kitchen- Steak Stew, my favorite. We at in the dining room with elegant music playing, but over the music, our voices were to be heard talking happily. That night I went to bed in my nice warm bed that has been made for months, without anyone sleeping in it. I felt as if I had reunited with an old friend, and before drifting off I felt my mother kiss me on the forehead and my father ruffle my hair like he always does. The bed was far more comfortable than our boarding school beds, mine was much plusher and it felt like a bed rather than a sack of rice. The linens felt like silk it had never felt better to lay in that bed. I drifted off to pleasant dreams.

I awoke to freeze in a frigid cave on a pile of itchy leaves with some crazy girl I barely even know to sleep just across the fire, snoring clamorously.  I was never before this hungry nor this scared but most of all I was never this alone... or so I thought, but the idea of once again having a companion sounded a million years away at that moment. And the memory of my parents, that's what broke me the most was knowing that I wouldn't see them ever again- that broke me. Silent tears ran down my face and blurred up my vision until I couldn't see. I had cried myself to sleep.