I don’t know what to do about feeding this wolf following me around. It’s not like I have any idea on how to hunt or capture small animals that he could eat. I’m a city girl through and through. Never even had a pet before either.
Although, with Wolfie walking next to me, the thought of getting a dog didn’t seem too bad. Someday, maybe.
I follow the stream for a few miles, and the wolf seems completely uninterested in leaving my side. I turn to him and try to shoo him away, to convince him that he’s better off without me, but he just wags his tail a little and gives me that panting, tongue-rolling out grin.
Stupid animal.
“Fine,” I sigh, “Stick around. Don’t expect me to feed you though.”
I spy a blackberry bush and eat a few of the ripe berries, but it’s insufficient for my appetite. I eat as many as I can before I can’t take any more of its tart flavor. Blackberries have never been one of my favorite berries.
Sitting down on a rock, I decide to take a little break from all the walking.
The wolf stops and lies down in the shade a few feet away from me, watching me as I massage my feet.
Why doesn’t he just go already?
He huffs a few moments later. I’m guessing he’s bored, or maybe hungry—probably both. He gets to his feet and begins to sniff around.
I watch him, but feel inclined to just sit and relax for a bit. A nice breeze blows over the creek, and I'm content to just sit and take it in for a change.
He circles around a tree and then disappears from my line of vision.
His absence makes me realize how much I’ve come to appreciate his company after such a short period of time. He is king of the forest, after all. He knows how to survive—I don't.
Maybe he’ll come back? I whistle and wait.
I look up at the sky peaking between the leaves in the trees high overhead. I can’t see much, but I can just sense that it's getting later in the day and night will be upon me before I know it.
Then what will I do?
A soft howl greets my ears and squeezes my heart. I’m positive that’s him responding to my whistle, but what does it mean?
“Please, come back,” I whisper.
For the first time in years, I feel truly alone—and lost. I still don’t know how I came to be in the middle of the wilderness, far away from home. It makes no sense at all.
I rub my temples, feeling a headache set in. Now is not the time to get a migraine. I don’t have my migraine medicine with me, and my migraines can be strong enough to knock me unconscious.
Maybe that's it? Maybe I had a migraine?
That still doesn't explain how I came to be out in the middle of nowhere with no memory. My migraines have never affected my memories before.
It’s probably a hunger-induced headache. I get those sometimes.
I wonder again at the possibility of someone slipping something into my drink at the club with Ava. It's totally plausible. And with my migraine medicine, maybe there was a bizarre chemical reaction that induced the short-term amnesia?
“I bet that was it,” I mumbled to myself just to fill the silence.
I wish I knew who the jerk was that slipped the drug in my drink. I’ll kick his sorry ass to the curb so he’ll never do this to someone else.
But the question still remains: how did I get here?
I sigh as a twig snaps in the ferns ahead of me.
Seizing up, I stare in alarm as the ferns begin to move.
But it’s just my wolf friend.
“Holy jeez, you scared me!” I clutch my chest as my heartbeat begins to slow and I see he has something in his teeth.
He puts down a bushel of green plants and nudges them with his nose before sitting back a few feet away and staring at me expectantly.
My dark brown eyes shift from him to the plants, and I realize that the plants look familiar. Curiously, I crawl the few feet separating me from the green stems and I’m surprised to see what must be a wild-grown variety of asparagus.
“Food!”
It wouldn’t have been my first choice in veggies, but a starving girl can’t be picky about what’s safe to eat in the forest. Forcing myself to eat asparagus would have been me in the city, but I’m too hungry to care at this point.
It tastes like asparagus, albeit a bit woodier in flavor, but it makes my stomach feel a little bit better.
Wolfie waits as I chow down. He lies down with his head between his paws and closes his eyes. He looks so peaceful, and I wonder if he managed to catch a mouse or something to eat while he was gone.
Once I’ve eaten all of the wild asparagus, I’m still hungry, but what else is new? I need protein—specifically meat.
“I really need to figure out how to catch and kill an animal, don’t I?” I tell him. “That will be much more satisfying, I bet.”
I love meat, all kinds, and I’m not picky about it. I could really go for a nice juicy steak right about now. Heck, even some greasy fried chicken would do (although my stomach might not be to happy with all the oil right now).
He doesn’t even glance at me—not that I figured he would. I’m talking mostly to myself to fill the silence, and talking to him felt less awkward, even if he couldn’t talk back.
“So, how long are you going to follow me around?”
He continues to ignore me, so I pick up a pebble and toss it gently at him. It grazes his left ear, but he definitely gives me his full attention then as he lifts his head and tilts it as he looks back at me.
I grin. “I asked you a question.”
He yawns.
I can’t help but burst into fits of laughter. Everything is just so ridiculous, I can’t even believe it has happened.
“I ought to be thanking my lucky stars that you and your buddies haven’t eaten me yet,” I say with a cock of my head. “But I guess your jaw’s a little tied up right now, so killing me might be a bit tricky, eh?”
He lowers his head and closes his eyes.
Sighing, I decide to give the wolf a name since he now seems to be both my guide and my shadow. For some reason, I know that he's a male rather than a female. Call it instincts, but whatever.
And 'Wolfie' isn't going to cut it.
"I'm going to call you Cody." I don't know why, he just looks like a Cody to me.
He peeks at me from one eye for a moment before closing it again and huffs.
I rub the chills from my arms as I look up into the sky and see it beginning to darken. I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but I hope it will bring me closer to civilization—and a hot meal.
Cody yawns, gets up, turns around, and then lies back down. He’s peeking at me through half opened eyes though, that much I am sure of.
I wish I could figure him out, but I can't. He's a wild animal, but something about him is tame and gentle.
Or maybe he's just biding his time, gaining my trust, waiting until his wounds heal before he attacks?
I scowl at myself as I rise to my feet and look around for a place to camp out for the night. How ridiculous, and yet probable, it all sounds.
Cody raises his head when I begin my search for shelter, and sure enough, he follows a few paces behind.
I shake my head. I don’t get him.
Abruptly, I stop, turn, and raise my arms above me in a bear stance. “Go! Be gone!”
Skittishly, he jumps back a foot and flattens his ears and snarls.
If it weren’t for the cotton wrapped around his muzzle, I might have been scared. However, the fabric muffles his snarl and his fierceness dies with it.
I burst into fits of laughter at his expense.
He lowers his head, growling indignantly.
“I’m just testing ya,” I say with a grin.
Seeing that he didn’t run off with his tail between his legs tells me that he isn’t afraid of me, but also that he isn’t aggressive. Yet, he continues to follow me, study me, and watch me from every angle, like a calculating strategist.
Wolves are pack animals and share a group mentality. They study their prey before they go in for the kill. They look for the weakest one to single out and separate from the herd and then they work together to take it down.
Cody, I observe, is no different.
He follows me around like a predator seeking a moment of weakness before he takes down his prey.
And yet, his eyes are soft and tell me a different story.