White Wolf

A Story by Quartz

A story following an old Wolf that has been through a rough experience. What will he do when he hears crying of a child from the forest. This is Based on a dream i had a while back.

White Wolf

He heard it crying, it was loud and annoying, He tried to ignore it but it seemed to get louder. With a huff, He stood up and stretched. He was in his cave that His original pack used to live in, it was large enough for many of them, but they have since left Him alone.

He walked out of the cave into the rain, it was still night. He huffed again and followed the sound. He walked through the forest that once belonged to Him, He had fought hard for it to begin with but when His mate died, He lost the will to fight and was exiled. He passed a stream and took a quick drink, watching His reflection. He was large, He knew that from His time in His pack, He had a rare white coat and bright gold eye on His right and a grey one on his left, the left one was blind. The pack He was in was filled with an assortment of colors but He had been the only one with white fur. It was His pride, and She had liked it as well.

As He walked memories that He’d forgotten came to His mind. Hunting with His pack, following the Alpha before Him into a chase. Declaring His right to be leader to the Alpha. Defeating the Alpha in a long, painful fight that had cost Him His left eye. He regretted that fight, He had been young and foolish, He should have waited another season or two, been more prepared. He remembered His mate, She was the most beautiful of the pack and many wanted her, a part of Him had fought the previous Alpha to get her attention. She and Him had been inseparable the time after He had become the Alpha, until that one came and destroyed it all.

He found the source of the noise and was taken aback. It was one of their cubs, the animals that walked on two legs and carried the weird sticks. It was small and was lying on the floor of the forest crying. He walked towards it, curious. But then He saw them. The pack, not his, the one that killed His and took over His forest. They were getting ready to pounce. The fools! If they kill one of their cubs the weird animals will hunt them down and kill them all. He’d been told this by the previous Alpha on a hunt. He charged, letting loose a snarl as He did, scaring off the small group around the cub. He had flashbacks as He did so, to that day.

He had been patrolling the forest, enjoying the peace and quiet. In those days, the forest had been bright and colorful, now it was dark and dead. He’d heard the cries of His pack as He had returned, He had ran fast as He could only to find His mate standing against the wall, His own cub, barely old enough to stand, hiding behind Her. His cub, He’d been overjoyed to see his first child. It had white fur like Him, and it let loose a tiny howls and He had been filled with pride. His child would be strong. Would have been. Should have been. Around His mate the rest of his pack lay, they weren’t large or had many in the pack but they were strong. Each of them had taken down at least three of the invaders but the invaders had numbers and overwhelmed them. All that was left was his cub and Her.

He had charged in that day, similar to now. He grabbed the first invader in His jaws and threw it away. He was much larger than the invaders, He was the largest in His pack and He used that to His advantage. Before the first invader fell to the floor, He had grabbed another. They had responded slowly but now they were surrounding him, He didn’t care he fought with every bit of strength He had, determine to get to Her and His cub. It was then He finally saw them. He was bleeding, His white fur dyed red with blood, His own and the invaders, and He was panting hard but His breath stopped when He finally got close enough.

It was the invaders Alpha, He was much larger than the rest of the invaders, with bright red eyes and black fur as dark as the night. The invaders Alpha had His cub in his mouth and His mate was on the floor, blood pouring from Her neck. He let loose a howl and charged, letting His rage and grief consume Him. He had lost though. He was one against many and had to slink off to lick His wounds, alone.

Returning to the present, He grabbed one of the pack in His jaws and dropped it, then grabbed another and tossed it in front of the others. I’m here, fight me, He was saying. They were a small group, probably just hunting, and they were small, they ran away. He stood still listening for them trying to sneak on Him but all was quiet except the rain.

He walked over to the weird cub and gave it an appraising look. It was shivering, probably cold from the rain. He gave it a lick of affection, similar to what He used to do to His own cub when it started to walk and howl. The weird cub went quiet, and watched Him with big eyes. He walked behind it, giving a sniff here and there, before picking it up with His front teeth with its weird fur and carried it away. He was too far from the cave, so He went towards a hollow tree that He knew of. He had used it as a cub a lot when He was picked on for His white fur. It should be big enough, and dry enough for the two of them.

He kept thinking back to His cub and mate, over and over their deaths played in the back of his mind. He had lived every day since then trying to get the Alpha alone but he was always around his pack. He found the tree and placed the cub inside gently as he could. A snap of a twig came from behind him. He turned, expecting to see what was behind him. The Alpha was there, with the rest of the pack. They were large in number, but only the Alpha was as big as himself. He realised that he was surrounded but the weird cub could only be killed by getting past him.

The Alpha let loose a snarl. He returned the gesture. And the fight began.

*****

“Sarah!” He called out “Sarah! Where are you!”

He heard other voices around them calling out similarly. They had been at this all morning, she had disappeared yesterday and had been alone for all that time. They had had to stop for the rain last night, even though he had still wanted to go, no one would let him.

“Jim! Jim come quick” he heard a voice to his left call out

He ran towards it, holding his gun up so he didn’t hit it against anything.

When he got there all he could say was “My god”

The clearing was filled with bodies of wolves. Most were brown or grey but the two largest ones were black and white. The black one lay on the ground in the centre, covered in wounds and had its throat torn out. The white one lay in front of a hollow tree, almost looking like it was just sleeping. Behind the white wolf, inside the tree, lay Sarah, fast asleep.

He walked slowly towards the tree, wary of the white wolf. But when he got closer he saw that it was dead. The white wolf was covered in scars, and recent wounds but it seemed peaceful in its sleep. He reached in and woke his daughter.

“Daddy!” she screamed and grabbed onto him tightly

“Your safe, your safe” he kept muttering to her.

“The white doggy saved me” she said quietly

“What?”

“The white doggy, the bad ones were making mean noises” she said, “he scared them off, and told the big bad ones to go away”

“Yes, he did” he muttered looking at the white wolf. Did this wolf really protect his daughter, even if it cost his life? But why would it do that? He wished he could have known it’s story.