Flame Wolf

A Short Life

I felt my mother's rough tongue scraping across my delicate skin, racking my body. I couldn't yet see or hear, as I had just been born. I could barely move, yet I felt everything. A tremor in the ground, though I didn't know what it was. I felt something brush up against my side and a sharp pain in my left flank. I let out a pitiful mew, and the pain receded. I didn't know what world I was living in, I didn't know what was happening, who I was, or even what I was. All I knew was that I was confused. Painfully confused. I wanted answers, and I wanted them now. Unfortunately, I couldn't ask. Since my ears and eyes were still sealed shut, I couldn't see my surroundings, nor could I hear what was going on around me. I was blind to the world. Alone, confused, hurt.

Weeks later, I could finally open my eyes, though I wished I hadn't. Bright rays of light streamed in through speckles of darkness all around me. I was in a desolate world with no other presences. Where had my mother gone? Or my brothers and sisters? My pack? They were all gone, they had abandoned me. Left me to die in this cold, cruel world where the law was "Eat or be eaten." But I didn't know how to hunt, I barely knew what I was, or where I was. But I knew that my family had abandoned me. Now, why? I had no idea. I struggled to lift myself onto my legs, testing myself. After several failed tries, I made it. There was one particularly large opening of light, and I struggled towards it. There was an immense pain in my left forepaw that shot through my leg like I was being stabbed with a thousand icy cold daggers. I mewed out for help, but nobody came. Only the wind was there to reassure me of this harsh world which I had been born into.

When most of the pain had left me, I crawled towards the light. My paw still hurt, but I couldn't examine it. It was too dark in the cave. Finally, I bursted through the entrance and was greeted by a shower of warmth washing over me. In that moment, I knew that I would have to push through. Teach myself to survive in this world. Live alone, but know that somehow I would always manage to do it. I looked down at my paw, and saw that it was crooked. I had a splayed paw! That's why they had abandoned me. I was a mistake, a deformed little pup. But I didn't have time to worry about that now. I looked around me, and saw fluffy white mounds of something. The same substance seemed to be falling from the sky, slowly drifting down without a care in the world. I stuck my rough pink tongue out and waited for one of these mysterious flakes to land. One did, and it bit like cold fire before it was gone. Disappeared. How? I had no idea. But I tried it again, and again. My puppyish instincts couldn't comprehend what was going on around me before it was too late. The next thing I saw were teeth and fangs, and claws. Long, horrible, deadly claws and a mouth gaping wide open to swallow me. I didn't feel any pain, it all happened so fast.