The forest fell away, its vanguard pines like lonely soldiers staring at the sky. He left them all behind, and even when he fell back to a languid trot he moved on up. Sunlight lanced down clean and clear against the white wolf’s hide; bored with trying outrun it Vafri searched his mind for something else to do. The lingering scent of pine still tickled in his nose, and drew out a sneeze when he slowed yet more to walk across the naked hills. Halfway to his goal he forgot why he wanted to get high and wondered on it for a moment. Night made better climbing; day’s single eye just burned and fizzled on his fur and made the air too hot. And daylight sky was too big, more like emptiness and silence. His ears twitched.
The silence always hit him hardest.
Struck by a sudden pang of curiosity, the big wolf paused and swung his snout down toward the forest. Still the trees stood solemn in their places, needled arms outstretched despite the constant lack of threat. Vafri always thought the pines stood far too serious; he like the hushed whisper of grassland better, or the halfway laughter of the snowdrop flowers. Suddenly the earth felt warm beneath his paws and dark eyes narrowed, Vafri sighed. The day dragged on filled up with white noise, with the skitterings of little lively beasts and all their mundane nonsense. Vafri watched the forest like it worried him, though in truth his mind was spinning back to things he thought of when he walked alone with nothing better to do – thoughts like who might live here, who might find him, what they might do… Surely bigger beasts than wolves prowled in the hills. Surely bigger wolves than him imposed some order here. He thought of running off again when something caught his eye.
White flashed down by the trees – like doves, like sunlight on the water. He recognized the gait of a wolf, and slowly lowered down his head to blink across the space. Run, urged that part of him that thought of mundane things like hunting and sleeping and staying alive. The other parts keened toward the stranger, and suddenly adrift inside his own head Vafri skirted back down toward the trees. He moved low, like a hunter except jerky movements of his long legs hinted more at fear. All the while his dark eyes followed her, that stranger in the trees. Did she see? Should he stop? He never knew just how to act around the others, whether he should run or fight or cower on the ground. Mother’s lessons got so hazy… half-remembered things all jumbled up inside his head. He should have paid attention more. He should have kept an eye on things that mattered.
Giving up his flighty posture as a coward's stance and not at all desirable, he hesitated nearer to the strange wolf and pricked up his ears. Worst it can do is try to kill you, Vafri tried to reassure himself. It looked small, at least. ”Oy!” He shouted out before his brain could think up anything quite stupid for his mouth to say. At least when he made it loud his clear voice sounded confident, full of assurance – contradictory to the way he stood with his head down and his weight shifting from side to side. Vafri made an effort to lift up his head and took a step downhill, caught between deciding if he ought to be the owner of this conversation. Rolling on his back to someone smaller felt too irritating to be done so early in the morning, but getting his feet chewed off might hurt. ”You, uh, what are you doing?” It came out like an accusation anyway and Vafri cocked his head, eyes narrowed. |