A Short Story

[ScarletTheKitty]

I sat silently, watching the plane fall. It went down. Down. Down into the lake. I backed into the little cave as water splashed all the way up to my ledge on the cliff. I whined silently before walking back out on the ledge. A human. I had seen one of those before- after all, I had been raised in a zoo.

The human collapsed. Collapsed. On the ground beside the L shaped lake. I smelt blood, even all the way up here. He was hurt. And not moving. He seemed no threat. No harm. I padded out of my cave the back way- the way that led to the steep side of the cliff. I was able to get down fairly easily as long as I chose my footing wisely.

I stood about 10 feet away. This human had not moved. Was he dead? No, I smelt no death. I walked closer. And closer. And closer still. He did not move. I was standing over him. He did not move. I nudged him. His head rolled away from me. I jumped back slightly when I saw the nasty cut on the side of his head. I licked it clean, feeling bad for the human. I licked a few more of his wounds before turning and padding away silently.

He seemed to have a hard time getting around. The human, that is. I sat and watched quietly from my cave. Watching him, I did not feel quite as lonely as I usually did. I was a loner- not part of a pack. I had no other wolves. None. I always watched the pack from a distance, as I was this boy. But this was different. He was much more interesting. He never ceased to amaze me.

Time passed. Much time. I watched the boy everyday. I would sometimes hide in the woods behind him, when I was feeling brave. He interested me, the way he caught food, the way he made things, the way he moved. Always so still, so…stiff, so quiet. Well, not always. He made noises sometimes.

A roar. A loud roar- what was it, I wondered. The boy seemed to perk up at the sound. He rushed around, looking anxious. I whined. The noise hurt my ears. It was loud. Loud. So very loud. I did not like it. Suddenly, something blocked my view of the boy and I knew what the noise was. A plane. The thing that had brought the human here….Was another coming?

The boy. The plane. The other human. Gone. They were all gone. But where? Where? Where had they gone? I waited. Waited. Waited. They did not come back. Gone. All gone. Alone. I was alone. Again. Alone. By myself. Alone. I alone. I had given up waiting. They weren’t coming back. Gone.

From then on, I lay alone, watching the peaceful woods below me. The pack. Gone. They had gone too. I hadn’t seen another wolf in a long time. I was alone. I was sad. I had nothing but the woods to keep me company. As beautiful as they were, they were not enough.

I could've stopped there, but I was in the mood to write

Until one day...

Just when I had started to think my only options were to move, or be lonely for the rest of my life, it happened. I saw the glint of her eyes in the woods. A wolf. A wolf like me. Alone. In the beautiful woods. Unwilling to give it up- this part. This wonderful part of the woods. Like me. Two faes, alone in a part of the woods. Alone, but not alone.

We sensed each other’s presence. Neither one of us confronted one another for awhile, though. Too shy. Too afraid. Too used to being alone. When I finally got the guts too go down and meet her, we became friends quickly. She had been watching the boy as well. All the animals had. We shared my cave and all the food we hunted. Supported each other. It was a good friendship. And even though we both missed the human boy, we both eventually forgot him and got on with our lives. We lived alone until another pack moved into the area. A pack. Wolves. We left them alone.

My friend and I died old wolves. Still alone. Alone. My friend had been killed by a bear, hunting. I was luck enough to go peacefully. I know we were both glad that we had lived a good life. That we had became friends. Friends. Alone. Alone, but not alone. Friends. Alone, but not alone.