Wolf Child

Prologue

Looking across the blazing plane; the days end looming closer, creeping across the domed sky, red seeping into orange seeping into blue. She surveyed the horizon with a lingering sense of foreboding on the edge of her consciousness. She heard all of the sounds of the lingering day as they played upon the breeze but as the nightingale began to sing a sudden silence descended upon one part of a forest a hundred miles away. She heard the silence so profoundly that she ventured to see what was the cause and what she found brought joy into her heart.

It was the gurgling of a tiny human baby, wrapped in a patchwork of furs from various species of animals. It was laying at the top of a hill in a clearing where people left their dead and surrounded them with large, smooth stones, painted in a myriad of colours. She picked it up gently and studied its face, placed her hand upon its brow and then...realisation. This was no ordinary child, it wasn't chance which allowed this child to live where so many other children have died, it's uncanny ability to withstand the cold was not from the furs it was wrapped in. The sounds of the forest were coming back now as if her realisation was the cue for life to carry on as it was. The nightingale restarted its melody. A mouse skittered through the undergrowth. A wolf howled in the distance. She knew what she would do and yet she hesitated; she wouldn't usually interfere and claim control over life and death. Everything must die, this she knew, but first they must have a chance to live.

The wolf was the key. She looked to the moon and asked her to weave a furry wolf pelt made of her moon beams. And she asked for a silvery thread so then she could sew the moon pelt into a hide that would fit the tiny baby. Thanking the moon for her kindness; she gathered her strength and sang to the baby a song as she transformed the child to prepare it for what lay ahead.

Let the spirit of the wolf

Carry you to a better place

Where you can grow up strong

And let your life be good and long

So I will give you ears to hear

And a tail for balance and speed

This moon beam pelt I'll give to you

And claws and teeth to feed.

A guardian will come soon

By light of the moon

You shall be safe

Though cold you may crave

And your family will know you as Maya

But we will both know you as Winter.