Walking With Wolves

Chapter 1

" I'll see you tonight, Mum!" called Mercy as she raced out the door to her truck. It was the first day of school, her senior year. The morning sky looked as excited as her - bright, blue and dotted with little, cotton ball clouds. As she jumped into her silver, rusty, junk box truck and stuck the key into the ignition. She leaned back on her black, leather seats and stared at her house one last time before she left it for the first time as a senior. It was worn, and obviously housed several generations of children, the white, stained siding starting to peel once again. The railing on the porch needed another coat of paint, Mercy had been so busy over the summer it hadn't gotten done, it was worn from hands being run up and down it. The stone path that led to the door had several loose patches in it, and the shrubbery lining the farmhouse needed to be trimmed.

Mercy pulled out of her gravel driveway and headed for school. She always left home a little early so if need be she could stop and take a few pictures, and still make it to school on time. Mercy took her Canon camera everywhere and anywhere, she never left home without it. It was obvious she loved photography too, you could tell as soon as you walked into the Kendrick house. Her photos were pasted on every wall in the house. Mercy slowed as she approached her favorite photo spot, knowing that it would be worth stopping. And as she parked her truck she smiled at the view that proved she had been correct. As she jumped out of her truck the wind whipped mahogany, waves into her face. She approached the railing of the bridge, pressed into it, leaned over it and stared at her reflection- she had soft features giving her a youthful look, round hazle eyes, small but pretty lips, and auburn hair that had purple streaks layered within it, while when strait it came to her armpit, its natural waves cropped it to about her shoulder. The Wolf River divided Windigo Falls from Boundary Woods. Mercy walked to the center of the bridge, that ran over the river. She took a deep breath, absorbing the smell, sound, feel of the morning. The sun was warm on her face, but there was a bit of a breeze that made the morning a little chilly, and it smelled of mud and grass combining to make a mossy smell, and it sounded just like you would imagine, the river creating a trickle, the wind blowing the leaves, and birds singing their morning tunes. And off to the distance she could hear sticks braking and rustling in the brush, like something was running... and then out of the woods a grey-silver wolf tumbled on to the bank of the river. As it regained its balance Mercy reached for her camera that had been strung across her neck, pulled it to her face and after years of practice, quickly adjusted the exposure and focus on the camera, in a matter of seconds. It looked up realizing that she was there. She had spent all summer trying to find the wolves and came back empty handed. It wasn't that the wolves were rare, actually they were really common in Northern Minnesota. but by what research said , wolves are very sly creatures, and can tell where you are from 20 acres away. Mercy took the picture right before it ran off again in alarm. But with Mercy's high Tech camera she ended up with multiple pictures. But for a second it stopped and looked at her with a bit of curiosity, and at that moment while she zoomed in on the face something poked at the back of her mind. the wolf looked familiar some how, but she has never been able to distinguish one wolf from the other, and she has only seen less than a dozen wolves in her lifetime and all of them had been running at a good amount of speed. she pulled the camera from her face to look at the picture again, at that moment she realized that the eyes did not belong to a wolf but human. they were not brown or gold but green. green like the trees that surround it, a summer green with a tint of brown. she looked up again but it was gone.

As Mercy drove to school the wolf was the only thing on her mind. and she then remembered where those eyes where from. Only months ago she saw eyes like those, but they hadn't been owned by a wolf but a boy in her grade. She had had a stare down with eyes like those, Lane Maxford. They had been fighting in science about whether there was an afterlife. Mercy's argument being that this life couldn't be it. That there was something more. And Lane's was that the only reason we believe that is because the human race can't bare the thought that we live and die, that we need to feel a purpose. And after Mr. Reed had told them to sit down or they would have to fight it out in the office, they glared at each other for another 5 minutes, and while she might have been upset with him, she couldn't help but notice his eye color, and how it made his ashy blond hair look a little less dirty. Later after class he brought it up to her and all Mercy had said was, " You may be right that we couldn't bare the thought, but there is still something more." and that was all she had needed to say. But the strange thing was he had gone missing 3 months ago, right after school got out, thought to have run away and it was believable, he wanted to sing for the world.