Snow fell down on the Earth as gray clouds hung in the air for what seemed like years. The only warmth inside the little tent was the fire that cooked her next meal.
Nadia held her hands in front of the fire and then placed them on her shoulders, trying to heat up her heavily clothed body. Her breaths came out foggy like a dragon.
Nadia checked the tin pot of boiling stew. There were barely any carrots popping up from the broth. She exited her tent and headed outside to a box camouflaged in the snow. When she unlocked the box, Nadia reached for the carrots but suddenly stopped. She felt like someone was watching her.
She glanced around at the White Forest around her, which was quiet and lacked any action. Seeing no sign of a threat, Nadia shrugged and turned back to what she was doing.
All of a sudden, howls came from the forest. Wolves jumped out from the bushes and closed in on her, barring their razor-sharp teeth.
Nadia stepped away from the box and grabbed the knife at her waist. "Get away!" she demanded, stomping in the snow.
One of the wolves, who had black fur and amber-brown eyes stared at her, then at the box behind her. The wolf gave another howl and charged at Nadia, the other wolves going for the box.
She aimed the point of the blade at the stomach of the black wolf as it was already in the air, ready to pounce on her. The knife pierced into the wolf's fur as it landed on it. The black wolf let out a sharp yelp. Nadia tackled the wolf to the ground and pulled the knife out, leaving it to bleed out.
She glanced at the box just in time to see wolves searching through her winter rations and running back into the woods with sacks of food. "No!" Nadia cried out, running to the wooden box. The remaining wolves retreated back into the forest with her hard-earned food.
Nadia fell on her knees and sifted through the box, looking for anything that they left, any scrap of food.
None.
"No, no, no, no! My rations!" she quivered, tears escaping her eyes. All of her food was gone. There was no getting it back. The wolves were probably already eating it by now, enjoying the frozen deer meat.
Nadia wiped her eyes and went back to her little tent. Tonight, she was going to have to eat small, so she could save food for later. But what if she didn't have to save food? What if she could find where the wolves usually hung out and take back her food...if they didn't eat it all already.
Nadia scooped some stew into a tin bowl and devoured it, not leaving anything to waste. She was going to have to eat up because, in the morning, she was going to hunt down the wolves...and take her food back.
After cleaning up dinner, Nadia started to pack the tools and equipment she needed for early tomorrow morning. That's when she realized she didn't have any other weapon other than her knife at her side. She needed something that could take on all of the wolves.
Nadia hunted by setting up a slingshot somewhere and placing her knife in it. When her prey came into range, she would pull a rubber band back that held the knife and release it, sending the blade through the animal. Nadia used to have a bow and arrow two years ago, but she lost it while running from a furious ice-breathing dragon she tried to steal an egg from.
Her gaze swung over to the wall across from her in the tent, gazing at the abandoned cot under a wooden shelf. The cot used to belong to a friend named Petya, who Nadia met when they were both children. They lived with each other for seven years until he unexpectedly went missing late at night. She remembered him grabbing his black and red bow and arrows to head out for a hunt. She hadn't seen him since.
Another hunter in the area reported that Petya was pulling an arrow out of a wild boar when a pack of wolves approached him. Petya grabbed his hatchet and swung at a few, but one grabbed him by the leg and dragged him into the forest.
The hunter did not see anything else because he raced back to his cabin to get help from his family. When he returned to the site where Petya was attacked, only his black and red bow was left behind.
Nadia peered at Petya's bow that hung over his cot. She never used it after he went missing because it was his favorite bow, and it was the only thing that was left of him. Petya's life was the bow. Nadia felt close to him when the bow was in the tent.
But she was going to have to use it to defend herself. Petya was going to have to defend her.
Nadia's hands trembled as she lifted the sacred bow off the mount with such carefulness and examined it. Her fingers trailed down the upper limb and then found herself clutching the grip. It felt weird to be holding something that belonged to someone else. She didn't think she deserved to hold it. Petya was such a skilled archer. Nadia hadn't shot an arrow in two years.
"Be with me, Petya," she whispered. "Give me your power and strength to help me defeat these wolves."
Not long after the sun cast its glorious light upon the Earth, Nadia prepared for her battle with nature. The first step was to zip on three layers of clothes, then her heavy winter coat. Afterward, she trapped her gear on a sled and left the campsite.
Nadia had no idea where the pack of wolves usually hung out. She'd have to track them down by looking for any fresh footprints or blood. She just imagined she would walk forever until she found the wolves.
Finally, after two hours of endless wandering, Nadia found fresh footprints in the snow close to a frozen lake. Pushing tree branches away, she peeked down below at the frozen lake from a hill. The same pack of wolves that stole her food lay in the snow, energetic pups frolicking around and some wolves clawing through the ice for cold water to drink.
Nadia nocked the bow with an arrow and aimed at a red wolf below. When the point of the arrow was centered on the wolf's head, she released the string.
Nadia heard a loud yelp and a crunch as the wolf's body fell into the now-red snow. The other wolves rushed over to the dead body of their fellow crony, shocked by what had happened.
The wolf with black fur and amber-brown eyes looked up at the hill Nadia was on, spotting her through the trees. It howled and ran up the hill with other wolves.
"Crap!" Nadia grumbled, running into the forest. It took a lot of work for her to run in heavy clothes with a backpack and sled full of gear in the thick snow.
The pack of wolves almost immediately caught up, encircling her with their lips curled and incisors displayed.
Nadia nocked Petya's bow with another arrow and shot a gray wolf.
The wolves attacked, their claws slicing through the air.
She stabbed one in the stomach with an arrow and shot a few. Two of her arrows went through the heads of two wolves. It was weird using a bow and arrow again. Nadia had to get used to it again after a long time without it.
Suddenly, the black wolf pounced on her, pinning her body to the ground. The wolf was shoving her body deeper into the snow, its claws tearing into her clothes.
Nadia tried to wrestle the wolf off, but its paws pressed firmly on her chest. She unsheathed her trusty knife and minorly sliced it across its chest.
The wolf barked but didn't take its paws off her, smacking the blade out of her hand.
Nadia reached behind her back for Petya's bow and put it around the wolf's neck, choking it with the string.
The wolf's head leaned forward to where its wet nose touched hers, gagging and struggling for air. For a moment, the wolf looked down at the black and red bow and stared at Nadia's face. Its big eyes opened wider.
The wolf wiggled itself out of the bow's chokehold and stood back from her, allowing Nadia to stand up and load Petya's bow with an arrow.
In a strange flurry of icy blue dust, the black wolf began to form into a tall shape. Nadia watched with bewilderment, unable to comprehend what was happening. She lowered the bow in her hands each second she witnessed this strange metamorphosis. Eventually, it collected into the form of a man.
In the final stage, the figure that once was blue dust came to life. The man had pale skin, black hair as dark as coal, and hazel brown eyes. The most noticeable element on him was a white cloth wrapped from his right shoulder down to a bloody spot on his stomach. The man that was standing right in front of her was...Petya.
"Petya...?" Nadia said with shock, dropping the bow and arrow to the side. She stepped closer to him cautiously, just in case it wasn't the real him and an enemy.
"Hey, Wolf Hunter. Good to see you," Petya's good-natured voice said, calling her by a nickname he'd called her ever since they were children. They used to play a game where they pretended to be fearless warriors, and her warrior name was Wolf Hunter. He was the Snow Soldier.
Nadia ran up to him and gave him a big hug. Petya groaned a little bit, which made her draw back. "Sorry..." she apologized, forgetting about the wound on his stomach.
Petya smiled and pulled her back into the hug, his arms wrapped tightly around her back. Nadia finally pushed herself away, feeling the need to ask him multiple questions. "It's been so long! What happened to you?!"
"When I was pulling my arrow out of a boar I shot, wolves surrounded me. I tried to fight them off, but then one caught me by my pants and dragged me into the forest. In there, a weird, old, blue-colored wolf came up to me and...died, I guess. It turned into that blue dust you saw me turn into. My body absorbed the dust and turned me into the leader of the pack. He wanted to pass it on before he died. I always wondered though...was that wolf a human too?"
Nadia shrugged. "Probably. All I know is that you're never going on a hunt without me ever again."
Petya chuckled, then recognized the black and red bow behind her. "Is that my bow?"
She jumped a little, embarrassed that she was using his bow like how a younger sibling would use an older sibling's toy. "Oh, sorry, I was just using it to find the wolves. I didn't use it the whole time you were gone, though!"
He smiled. "Keep it. You have a pretty good shot with it." After a brief silence of Nadia getting her thoughts straight, he said, "Let's go get that food the wolves stole. Sorry about that, by the way, I didn't even know that was you. Sometimes that blue dust magic makes me have wolf behaviors, and I don't even remember who I am for a little while."
"It's alright," Nadia said. "I still had enough food for dinner."
Nadia and Petya walked further into the forest with their arms around each other's shoulders, happy and joyful that their friendship hadn't broken even while one person was a wolf and the other was the one hunting the wolf. The precious diamond hadn't split.
The End