"Dad, Dad!"
"Mr. Carter!"
Two young, teenage boys, came running out of the dense forest to a small clearing where Michael Carter was pulling out sleeping bags and camping chairs from the back seat of his 4 door truck. Benjamin Carter and Scott Jones were rushing across the tall green grass with an anxious look in their eyes. Benjamin was easily a head taller than Scott, though Scott was about the average height for boys his age.
Michael hears a hint of fear in the boys shouting and quickly stumbles out of the truck. He grabs the door barely in time to prevent him from falling on the ground. Michael was a muscular man, and being six feet and three inches tall he toweres over the boys
"Benjamin? What's wrong", Michael inquires with a worried expression. The two boys in their shorts and short sleeved shirts look to be fine. His expression slowly switches to bewilderment. By the way the boys were shouting, it sounding like there might have been an injury or something serious; but they as far as he could tell the boys looked fine.
"What's going on Benjamin?" Michael demanded in a stern voice as he gazed at his son. Benjamin shared several traits with his father, his blond hair and dark blue eyes being the most obvious. Scott took a small step backwards while staring into Michael's stern glare. "What is this raucous about? You two had me worried!"
"A wolf! There is a wolf in the forest" Benjamin responded trying to catch his breath and pointing in the direction he had come from. "The wolf is hurt. Its foot is stuck in one of those steel traps." Benjamin looked up at his dad anxiously, "Can we help him?"
"I think it might have been there for a day or two Mr. Carter", Scott chipped in, "The wolf saw us but didn't pay any attention to us. It looked to tired to care."
"I'll grab my tranquilizer gun and we will go take a look." said Michael as he reached over the bed of his truck and picked up a gun case. He had once worked as a veterinarian, and for animal control. Michael had taught Benjamin everything he knew about wildlife, and the different animals. "How big is this wolf?" He lay the gun case on the ground and loaded a dart into the gun.
"Its bigger than any wolf we ever taken care of before. Its this way Dad" Benjamin chirped with excitement and started racing of in the direction he had come from as his father stood up. " Ill race you there Scott!" Benjamin grinned and charged into the woods followed closely by Scott.
Michael chuckled to himself, "Its been awhile since he's had something this exciting happen in his life." He smiled and shook his head. He was not scared about Benjamin running into the woods, he had taught him to be careful and Benjamin was not one to make foolish decisions. Michael set the gun case back into the bed of his truck. From the corner of his eye he saw something quickly fly by his face and hit the inside of the truck bed.
Instinctively, in the blink of an eye, Michael quickly turned around and raised the gun to his shoulder pointed in the direction the object had come from. No one was in sight and he would have heard the crackling of leaves or twigs snapping if someone had ran. He heard and saw nothing. Curious he went over to the bed of his truck to see what had landed in his truck. Rummaging through his tools and cooking supplies he found a small crystal ring. Picking up the ring, it was more solid and stronger than any ring he has seen before.
Michael was mystified, he looked up and in all directions, still he could not see or hear anything out of the ordinary. It couldn't have been the boys, he heard them running off in the opposite direction. Michael examined the ring for a few seconds longer, and held the ring up in admiration. He slowly put the ring on his right pointer finger it barely fit. Almost instantly Michael felt as if a blast of energy hit his body, gasping he took a deep breath. A calm soothing warmness came over him. He liked the ring.
"Dad, are you coming?"
Micheal's eyes flashed shut and opened again. The look in his eyes changed slightly almost as if he was coming out of a trance. Micheal remembered what he was doing. He was alert again. Hopping out of his truck, he carefully grabbing his gun he made his way to the forest after the two boys. He started off through the woods, watching for the small troden down plants or broken branches. Those boys weren't to hard to follow the way they carelessly ran through the forest.
After minutes of walking, Michael came to a hill and started to make his way to the top. Hearing his son he could tell the boys were just on the other side of the hill. Wanting to see the wolf he quickened his pace. Upon reaching the top Michael took a deep breathe and looked down the hill. Through the thick branches and scattered evergreen trees he caught a glimps of the wolf. It was indeed the largest wolf he had seen, it was pure black and could have easily been over one hundred fifty pounds. Benjamin had a small metal pan of water that he had pushed towards the wolf, but it seemed to be uninterested. Michael quickly descended down the hill, and cautiously approaching the wolf.
The black wolf lay sprawled on the ground motionless ignoring the boys almost as if it had given up on life. A big metal jaw was tightly shut on the wolf's right hind leg with dried blood matted all down the leg. Michael crouched over and gave the wolf a sedative to put it to sleep. then knelt down at the wolf's feet examining the leg that had been caught in the steel jaw trap. The jaw of the trap had penetrated the leg deep, and the skin was ripped up and down from the wolf struggling to get free. There were claw marks on the trap where the wolf had tried to rid itself of the trap. Dried blood was all over the trap and the ground.
"Benjamin, come help me take this off him" said Michael grabbing the trap on the wolf. Michael started muttering to himself under his breath. Benjamin looked into Michael eyes and could see empathy and affection for the wolf. Michael was against torturing and killing animals for fun, and he hated people that used steel traps. Scott watched as Michael opened the steel jaw trap with Benjamins help, and set it aside.
Michael put his hand on the wolf and instantly pulled back as he saw what he could only describe as small bright yellow substances jolt from his hand into the wolf. He was startled yet a calmness over took him. As he was looking at his hand for abnormalities, Benjamin and Scott looked at each other confused.
"Dad?" Are you okay? Did you cut your hand?"
"No I'm just trying to figure out what that light was."
Benjamin looked at Scott bewildered. "What light? I didn't see anything."
Michael's head shot up and stared down Benjamin and switched his gaze to Scott. "What do you mean you didn't see anything, Something happened when i touched the wolf." Michael became a little nervous."Maybe I'm just not feeling well. Can you boys help me get this wolf to the truck? We can set up camp and we will drive down to the clinic at home and come back tomorrow."
"All right, sure Dad." Benjamin beamed with excitement. It was a long time since they had a wolf in their animal clinic at home. Benjamin noticed the odd ring on his dad's finger, it looked as if a yellow river was flowing through the ring. "I like your ring dad!"
