I wake to the sound of rustling and movement of my soft, warm blanket. Blanket? The memories of the previous day come flooding back into my mind bringing me back to reality.
The wolf stands up, stretching himself before investigating the sound that woke us up. I still don't understand this animal.
Wolves are pack animals and rarely live alone, so why is this one alone or does it have it's pack close by? Will they be a threat to me or will they be the same as him? Or is he a lone wolf? Is that why he's keeping me around? For company?
I'm getting lost in my own thoughts again, only snapping back to reality when the wolf growls softly at the bushes nearby, slowly making his way to the bush when a startled rabbit hops away at the wolf's growl.
I giggle at the situation when he turns to looking like he was gauging my reaction before making his way to me and sniffing my face.
I flinch a little, unsure about it's intentions but soon realise he meant no harm to me. For my sake, I decide I'm gonna call this wolf 'Gray'. Atleast for as long as we're together, and I can come up with a name I actually put a little effort into.
Gray moves away from me and stretches his body as I get up, my legs still sore from all the walking I wasn't used to doing. We walk to a small creek, it's gentle current flowing quietly. I wash my face and my body as best as I can while Gray drinks water from the stream.
I walk around the cave, that was slowly becoming my safe space, while Gray either follows me or is out doing whatever he does presumably hunting. The trees around here have such luscious and juicy fruits I can't seem to get tired of them, and soon they become my staple food. I gather wood for fire during my morning walks along with fruit and work on building fires in the evenings.
Soon this has become a routine for Gray and me for a week. I start to become anxious with the lack of progress in understanding where I am and what I'm going to do. I tried to landscape the place around the cave for the whole week while out gathering wood and fruit but I could not see or identify anything that could possibly help me find my way back home.
I could tell that Gray as picking up on my unease and seemed to try to comfort me, but I didn't know how to explain what I was looking for to him. I have never seen another wolf anywhere near us or any trace of wolves other than Gray around us.
He must be a lone wolf.
This poor thing must be so lonely that he adopted an out-of-place human as it's companion. As much as I loved being around him, I still needed to get home to my family.
At the end of a whole week since I ended up here, we were sitting by the fire with Gray sitting with his tail in my lap and his back facing me, snoozing peacefully by my side when a distant howl pierced through the quiet night.
Gray jolted upright before another howl came from the same direction. Gray let out a low growl before sprinting into the forest leaving me alone by the cave.
"Gray!" I call out as he gracefully dodges the trees and shrubs without looking back.
I contemplate running after him but I would be no match to his speed and even if I did, what could I do? Fight wolves or something else? Shit! I feel so useless. I'm completely clueless and helpless with the works of this world. I could hear more howls and yips in the distance. I have to stay put.
I hope for Gray to come back safe and go into the cave. I keep the fire burning outside to ward off any animals and secure the makeshift alarms I set up over the past two days. With my makeshift bone dagger sitting by my side,I wait for Gray to return.
I wait for hours, dozing off for a while in between before I see dawn breaking through the horizon. The alarm bells are go off spooking me into jumping out of my spot. I was in possible danger and I had to face it head on this time.
I slowly move towards the entrance of the cave so I can see the intruder before it can see me. How I hope it's just Gray, but I have to be on my guard in case it's not.
"Stay put! I don't want to scare her!"a deep voice booms and I stop dead in my tracks, ice filling my veins and my heartbeat ringing in my ears.
A human.