Wolves and Men

The elements were winning.

He closed his eyes against the thunderous pain that throbbed inside his head. He just wanted to go to sleep. He had been up for so long with only a nap to sustain him. He let his legs fold underneath him and he slid down to sit inside the crevice. His wolf guide was forgotten for the time being and he was happy to rest. With his eyes shut against the harsh glare of the sun and warm rock radiating heat through his fur vest and pants he smiled as he felt himself drift off to sleep.

A rough, wet texture pressed against his face and hands. The sensation tickled, but he didn’t want to open his eyes, he wanted to keep sleeping. The sensation become more of a pressing and nudging and he tried to push it away. His hand pushed up against soft, warm thick fur and his eyes shot open. He was inside the crevice that he had followed a she-wolf into the night before. The wolf was pressing into him with her nose urging him to move. She had been licking his face and he saw the piece of denim that she had carried with her all night lying on the warm rock bed close by.

He allowed her to help him to his feet. He was more than a little groggy and he found it difficult to keep his balance. He put his hand on the crevice wall to steady himself and pulled it away from the hot surface. His legs didn’t want to respond and when he took the first step, he had to catch himself before he fell flat on his face. His headache had not gone away, and he was even thirstier now than he was before he went to sleep. It was his own fault he knew. Never fall asleep in the sunlight it just makes you more dehydrated than you were before. He had learned that from some people who lived out in the desert, back when he was still living in the land of normal civilized people.

The wolf had already picked up the piece of denim and was walking ahead of him keeping a wary eye on her charge. If this wolf actually cared about him, and he believed she did, then she was truly a remarkable creature and he found himself wondering what he had done to deserve the nurturing care of a she-wolf. He stumbled forward as his legs and feet remembered how to work again and he followed his guide.

They moved at a slower pace. His whole being protested moving at all and it was all he could do just to keep moving. The wolf was not oblivious to his drop in energy, and she contented herself to steadily keep only a few steps ahead of him.

He came to the realization that the crevice they had been traveling had been widening. He also realized that it was now slanted downhill. The sun was well past its zenith and soon the high walls of the crevice would cover them in shadow. He silently thanked the goddess for the anticipated reprieve of the heat of the sun, even though he knew that the stone would hold the sun’s heat for a time his feat would get some respite from the burning surface. He sighed gratefully and continued to follow his four-legged guide.

They continued to follow the crevice. The sun slipped out of sight and shadow covered him. He saw the harsh line between light and shade displayed sharply on the rock wall. The crevice must have changed direction and instead of traveling east they were now traveling north.

How long would he follow her? That question was not something he had thought of before that moment. He had started by wanting to get that piece of denim back from her. He had followed her out of danger and out of his valley. He had followed her into the mountains and now at the point of exhaustion he followed in her footsteps, why?

A piece of evidence that he wanted concealed from the cops could answer one or two of those questions but not all of them.

Why was he following her?

He didn’t have a good answer except he had an instinctual urge to follow her. It wasn’t so much intuition as it was the primal urge that he had been feeling more and more often in the past several months. The she-wolf was obviously aware of him. She had maintained his speed, not hers. She had come back and awoken him from his nap in the crevice and she was very deliberate in how she made him understand to follow her last night. This was a very special wolf. She had intelligence and an awareness that some scientists might describe as an evolutionary step for the species.

He laughed out loud to himself. Who was he kidding? He was no scientist and besides her behavior could just be that of a mother. Had he been adopted by a she-wolf? The thought was almost too ridiculous to entertain. He couldn’t keep a straight face as he allowed his laughter to echo off the walls of the rock. The she-wolf looked over her shoulder, the piece of denim still secured in her jaws. The look she gave him if she had been human would have been one of puzzlement and perhaps exasperation. Wolves felt emotion, this he knew, but giving human explanations to wolf emotions was something he had always scoffed at. And now look at him, describing a wolf with human traits and quirks. He shook his head and snickered at his own stupidity. The wolf turned back around and continued to walk on.

As the sun’s shadow line disappeared from the crevice entirely the wolf turned sharply and followed another shallow crevice. The mountainous rock was not barren here. Over the shallow walls of this new path, he could see colors, some dirt, and off in the distance he could just make out the top of trees. He could have cried. Trees meant food and shelter but most importantly, it meant water.

The copse of trees seemed to be the wolf’s destination and they walked directly towards them. He supported himself on the rock as twilight settled. The old man must have already lost his battle with the ocean and soon the cold night of autumn would be fully upon them. The wind seemed to pick up speed now that they were outside the protective walls of the deep crevice that they had followed and soon he was shivering. The wolf seemed to sense this and pressed herself against his deer skin pants. He could feel her warmth through the fur of his pants and he was grateful for it.