Eyes of the Wolf

17
I woke abruptly when something big and wet touched my arm. Having never left the dark of the forest, the rays of bright moonlight cascading into the clearing were like the sun. I was on the ground, for some reason, though this time I was on my back. My abdomen was complaining about being stretched, and complained all the more as I tried to use it to get up. Wincing, I finally got upright when I used my hands, but they hurt too. When I brought them in front of me, palms up, I was shocked. The palms and fingers had all been rubbed raw and bloody, and the more I moved them, the more the scabs cracked.

Something whined in front of me. I looked up to see the large bronze wolf walk over. My breath caught in brief fear—his white paws were barely smaller than my head, and I did not want to see the teeth. He stopped in front of me, making eye contact with me briefly before he carefully dropped his nose to my palms. I stiffened, but somewhere in the back of my mind I realized that if he wanted to eat me, there wasn’t much I could do about it. His nose hovered inches above my hands. There were streaks of rusty blood on some of the white markings on his face, but he pulled away from me with a growl. Somehow it didn’t seem to be directed at me. Standing a few yards away now, he watched me, then turned to the side and dropped to his belly. When I didn’t move, he gestured to his back with his nose.
Hesitating, I walked over to him and swung my leg over. He rose to his feet, and I grabbed at his fur to stay on. The hair on his back all stuck up, from the back of his head to his tail. After I was secure, he moved off into the forest.

The trees grew thinner after awhile, and I could see things out of the corner of my eye. I clenched my hands around the wolf’s hair again as his muscles bunched beneath me and he leapt clean over the small fence separating the national park from the thinning trees in front of us. When I looked around, I recognized the houses outside the woods as those from my own neighborhood. I swung off my guide, who seemed determined to keep his eyes away from me. His hackles were still up, and his blue eyes seemed to glow.

I turned to walk out of the trees when I heard another set of footsteps and a faint jingling. A silvery wolf emerged from the trees. It glittered like moonlight embodied, and its eyes glowed pale blue just as my guide’s did. I glanced at its neck and saw a blue tag attached to a camouflaging silver choke chain. A kind of horror settled over me as I looked back at the wolf, but it—he—was looking at my companion, lips drawn up over horribly large teeth. The bronze wolf turned to face him and snarled. Both sets of hackles were up as high as they could possibly go. I stood frozen as the silver one lunged at the bronze and grabbed at its throat, and they were immediately in a nasty dogfight of massive proportion, which made it all the more horrible. Yips, snarls, growls and whines were audible through the struggle, though I could never tell which wolf they were coming from. The bronze grabbed the silver by the throat and threw him, the wolf falling just short of me. I squealed as he landed and the bronze jumped at him—seemed to jump at me. I backed away and tripped again, but still scrambled backward. Their teeth were crimson. The bronze grabbed at the silver’s neck and yanked, pulling on something silver. The wolf at the end snarled and rolled, pulling back, and the white-streaked wolf released with a yelp. They panted. The silver turned to me and came toward me, and I couldn’t move anymore.

He crept slowly up to me, his head low, his ears flat, his tail stretched out behind him. I watched, my body numb to any signal my brain could impose upon it. Finally something clicked and I spun and tried to run, though my legs were still weak from earlier. Footfalls pursued me, and I flinched when there was another snarl. Despite better judgement, I looked back to see a gold wolf, smaller than the other two, imposing itself between me and the silver wolf, who seemed about to attack when he spun and snapped at the bronze wolf with its teeth in his flank.

The newcomer turned and shoved at me with his nose, pushing me away from the fight. I obeyed, sheeplike, trotting ahead as he herded me to my house. I heard a high yelp behind me, and I turned, but I was pushed again. In this manner, I got to my house, the sounds of raging wolves fighting following me all the way home.

:o3

We came up on my driveway. The gold shadow looked up at my house, then looked back at me with bright green eyes.

*Nod if you can hear me.*

I jumped at the voice in my head. The wolf huffed, and continued, *That’ll do, I guess. Go inside—it’s not quite two yet. You fell. DO NOT speak of us.*

I felt my breath coming in shorter, and I kept eye contact with the gold wolf. Despite being noticeably smaller than his—packmates?—he was still taller than me.

*Do you understand?* he demanded.

“Yes,” I squeaked.

He whuffed again. *Get inside and stay in there.*

I hesitated and nodded. My door seemed ages away when I was being watched by a gargantuan wolf, but I managed to get inside. Looking outside my front window, I couldn’t see the wolf anymore.

“Maya?” my dad called from his room.

“I’m home,” I returned. “I’m gonna get in the shower.” Feeling the complaints of my body, I abstained from letting out another groan.

I was gonna need a lot of hot water.