Wolf Winter

Chapter 1

I felt my mother's tongue roll over my back when I was that young. I remember her fur being as soft as feathers and fresh moss; her scent warm and comforting to me. But, there were times when there was no comforting, warm scent of my mother or her soft belly fur to cuddle into and I was left alone.  Sometimes; I would open my eyes and she would be there, smiling down at me and other times...she wouldn't be there at all. There would be just the strong scent of earth from the inside of my home, with only a bright light filtering in through something - a bush I think. My mother was like a mirage; she would be there sometimes but she wouldn't be there when I wanted to see her - to feel her. To breath in that comforting scent. 

I remember being hungry back then - really hungry. I swear that I could feel my bones jut further and further out of my body. My mother wasn't much help at feeding - no matter how much I searched, there was just no teat to suckle and feed from. It didn't help that she left me for what seemed like an entire age; which often scared me as I could hear something snuffling outside my home. It always concerned me when I woke up and she wasn't there - but I knew better than to cry out.

Just when I thought I was not going to survive, I remember seeing my mother come in the den with another wolf. I was scared - what did this stranger want? Did they want to kill me?! The stranger lay down, her belly facing me, obviously inviting me to suckle from her but I wasn't so sure. My mother grabbed me by the scruff and placed me in front of a teat on the stranger's belly. I, immediately, got to my paws and reached for the milk - despite my better knowing instincts. As the milk flooded in my body, I felt my muscles begin to relax, the pain in my stomach cease and my body warming up. I was saved. So, whenever my mother was out, she would give off a quick howl and the female wolf, her name was Yin if I'm right, would come to my home and feed me milk until her own pups arrived.

I was only little back then, compared to who I am now. So, I was all in whenever mother invited me to play with her tail, unintentionally. I learnt very early on about my "unique abilities". For example, I found that I could retract my little claws when I was going to sleep. This was useful when I wanted to play with my mother's tail, which she found strange, but to me it was an exciting game of hunting. She always grew concerned for me whenever she caught me retracting my claws, which I thought  I was doing in private.

By the age of ten weeks, I was allowed to play outside in the clearing just outside the den, which was always an excitement to me back then. On some occasions, my mother would play with me and we would gamble around the clearing, but I was never allowed out of the clearing which I found was odd and it made me even more curious about the world outside the clearing. I tried to sneak off and get out of the clearing but my claws kept making noise and getting me caught which was most annoying - especially if I was just about to get to the "passage" as she called it. So, when I discovered my claw retracting abilities, it was of great use to me - whenever I wanted to sneak out, I just retracted my claws into my paws and stalked across the ground to the passage. But, after my first no claws escape attempt, my mother never took her eyes off me unless she was out hunting. 

But, she did let me play in the clearing if I wanted, whenever she went out to hunt for us. I always took my chances at this time of day; I would run to the passage entrance way after she left me and I would make sure she was truly gone before I entered the passage. It was dark, filled with scents from the other side of the passage which I often took note of. One day, I was sitting on a rock in the passage; when I saw two glowing circles staring right at me and they came with a growling sound.

I wasn't entirely sure what the creature was until it started running towards me, then I realized it was a coyote - coming to get me and eat me as a snack! I turned tail and began running and climbing back to the clearing, where I thought it couldn't get me...until it burst through the entrance straight after me. I ran for the den, like my mother had told me, but I didn't have enough time to drag the bush across the entrance with my teeth and I got a nip to my right ear for my wasted efforts. I was in the den, but the coyote had got in - and I was all alone. There was nowhere to run...nowhere to hide....it was all over for me....

OR was it?