Thursday, May 19, 2005

Wolf's Nightmare

Gah! I have to post something-

A lone blade of grass shifted under the weight of early morning dew and began to bow down. The moonlight caught on the beads of water and the clearing began to glow like a field of stars. Wisps of clouds silently made their way across the morning sky. In the darkness, milky white flowers had grown out of the soil and were now begging for the sun to rise. They would soon spread their petals out to soak in the warm kisses of sunlight. Crickets chirped in the long grass and it seemed that the small meadow was slowly coming to life. Like a blank canvas, the sky waited for the touch of sunlight on the horizon. In the distance a bird sang to her lover. He responded, and their songs intermingled. Gentle breezes caused the leaves to flutter, echoing the forest’s whispers.
“Do you see that?” Deadeye stood at the edge of the tree line, looking out across the meadow.
“See what?” Infinity finished taking a piss against the side of pine tree and walked over to see a buck grazing in the meadow.
“Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner.” Deadeye said as he licked his chops.
The two wolves gave each other grins and then moved swiftly to gather a hunting party. Within moments, they were surrounded by a hungry pack of other wolves. They barked that a deer was alone and in the open. Several wolves followed Deadeye and Infinity back through the woods.
The predators.
The glow of the dying moonlight caught in their eyes as they focused on their unsuspecting prey. The buck was finishing his meal of grass and dew-soaked clover when he heard the sound. His ears perked up and he looked around the clearing for the source. Nothing. The forest was quiet except for the rustling leaves and chirping birds. The crickets had quieted, and what could cause that? Fear gripped his heart as the scent of wolf caught in his nostrils, and then he ran. His heart was pounding in his chest as the beasts came at him with snapping jaws, their howls riding the wind all around him. His powerful legs pounded the ground and mud kicked up in the snouts of his pursuers. They were right on his heels.
Sweat soon covered his flanks, and each breath felt like wolf jaws closing inside his chest. A sharp pain caught his left haunch as a wolf snapped his teeth across, drawing blood. The buck was satisfied for a moment as the sound of a yelp and bone breaking caught his ears. Wolves did not stop to care for their fallen. What would be the point of doing that?
Umano stumbled and fell in the grass. He tasted blood in his mouth. The blood of the deer and the blood of the wolf. He tasted the fear in the deer’s blood and the thrill of the hunt in the wolf’s blood. He coughed, and blood splattered out onto the grass. The blood was mostly his own.
“Fuck.” Umano barked.
Blood poured out of the wound in his snout, and his head hurt too much to bark more than a curse. Morning was almost here and he wouldn’t be enjoying the taste of deer flesh this morning. He felt the dew soaking into his fur as he lay down to rest for a moment. The world spun under his limp body, and the darkness took his mind.

In the darkness of his mind the beast came for him. He had been drinking from a pond when the dark form stepped out of the shadows. It stood like a man, but he was covered in black fur. Night had fallen; the sky was filled with clouds. The pond dried up, and the grass turned black and brittle. The man that was a wolf galloped into the blackened meadow from the dark forest beyond. Umano ran from the beast, but his paws found no purchase in the wastelands. The wolf that was a man threw him to the ground and landed on top of him. The beast held Umano firmly and bit into his exposed neck.
The wolves in his pack abandon him. They smell the human in him, and drive him away now. He makes tools, and becomes more like the man in the wolf. He cooked his meat before consuming it, and used a spear to hunt his prey. He wants to hold his cubs, but the female is protective of them and drives him back. Why don’t they understand that the primal hunt was not as important as the lives of the pack? Then he is the man, and he is naked. He is alone in the woods, and he is ashamed.

When Umano woke, he found that the sun had risen high into the sky. The blood from his nose had clotted over, and caused the fur on his face to harden into a spiky mask. His mouth had gone dry while he slept, and his stomach began to rumble. A pair of vultures had been watching his still body, but flew off to land near the forest’s edge after seeing him rise unsteadily to his feet. Their was no wound on his neck, but he felt a strange humming sensation there. It felt almost like a hive of bees were moving around inside him, and they were trying to escape out the side of his neck.
“Nasty kick you took there.” Deadeye walked up licking his chops, and Infinity was beside him.
“There is still some of that buck left if you feel like it.” Infinity rubbed his nose up against Umano and smelled his scent.
“That would be nice.” Umano followed the two wolves back to the rest of his pack.