You close your eyes and whisper, "Crystal be with me , give me strength to do what must be done." You grip the knife tightly and count to ten. One, two, three.... Ten. Peeking around the corner you try to be quiet as possible and get right behind the adult wolf watching over her cubs. You grip the knife and stab it into her side... once, twice, and again for good measure. The blood pours upon the ground in front of her cubs who were preoccupied at first chewing on something. After the brief but fruitless struggle from the wolf her eyes go dead watching her little cubs. They both look up toward you with pale blue eyes. You finally see what they were chewing on.... a boot--a leather boot. Someone else was here.
You take a step toward the boot with your knife dripping blood on the snow and pick it up. One little cub runs off and licks her mother and the other starts to chew on your boots. You kick at it but he keeps coming and you reach into your pack and get a small piece of jerky and give it to him. He grins and enjoys the meal while you look at the boot. It was chewed up but it definitely wasn't big enough for a man's foot, "Either a child or a small woman" you say to yourself.
You make your way out of the cave up the slope when you hear a pitiful whining sound and look back to see the two cubs following you. Apparently they liked the jerky too much. You laugh and decide its the least you can do and toss them each another small piece before heading back into the forest.
YOU ARE READING
Into the snow
FantasyA short love story where a man receives a mysterious note from Crystal and seeks out to find her but faces many difficult challenges. My first published short story on paetron written in 2017 and being dusted off and put up here for everyone's enj...
