A Wolf Tail

A Wolf Tail

  

Death and darkness swell all around me as I sit on the ground with my legs crossed. I hear nothing but blood curdling screams and then suddenly, there is nothing but silence. The only thing in the air is the thick smell of blood and the faint smell of a cigarette still burning in an ashtray. Not long after, I hear a faint voice calling my name. Over and over. Again, and again. What have I done to deserve this hell? I look down and all around me and all I see is blood. Thick, hot, red blood all around me. My hands are covered in it and there is even some on my face. I can't contain myself anymore. I sit there quietly, under a single, flickering light hanging from the ceiling, laughing to myself I slowly slip into the madness. I blackout.

The next thing I know, I gently rub my eyes and then they snap open. There is nothing but darkness. My eyes slowly adjust, and I try to think back on what just happened but it's nothing but a blur. I feel the dirt path leading outside, of what appears to be a compound, under my bare feet. I look around and I start thinking about what I should do and where I should go. The thought of being lost in a new place and while being in, what I can only assume, an insane asylum sends a shiver down my spine, but I know I can't stay here. I must run. I swallow my fear and take off down the dirt path, rocks and glass shards cutting my feet with every step. The fear of being caught, now screaming in my head, I take a deep breath and exhale. I run into the woods and find a river. Wading across, I see a pair of eyes watching. I continue about my business but keep aware of the watching.

                As frightening as it was, there was just as much comfort knowing that something was watching. As frightening as it would be for this pair of eyes to be hungry, it gave me peace that if potentially something were to happen, maybe the owner of these glowing eyes could save my life. If not by protecting me, by destroying me. Slowly, I start to make camp. I keep my eyes fixed on the creature of the night and start a fire. I blackout again. Next thing I know, the sun is rising, and I've moved locations. Suddenly I'm in cave of some sort. In the back of the cave, I see the same glowing eyes as the night before. I slowly stand up and start backing towards the entrance of the cave. I hear a soft yet fierce growl. I stop, and the growling stays constant, so I take a start walking back in the cave and the sound stops. The growling creature slowly starts to walk out from the shadows.

It's a wolf but not just any wolf. This wolf had a deep gash over its left eye, a pelt darker than the blackest and most starless of nights, eyes a deeper green than the lushest forest, claws sharper than the sharpest katana, a bite more powerful than a grizzly bear, and a howl so piercing that legend had it that it could make your blood curdle, eardrums burst, and send the coldest shiver down your spine. This was clearly none other than Erida-Hades. Named after the goddess of hate and the god of war. She was merciless with her prey. She was looking at me with hunger in her eyes and I heard a soft growl from her stomach. She slowly moved closer to me; teeth bared. Right before we were face to face, she lays down and puts her head in my lap. A wave of relief sweeps over me as I look at Erida. I take a risk and start scratching behind her ears. A soft growl echoes through the cave but it wasn't mean or hateful. This was almost a purr but not quite. Erida then suddenly jumped up and started stalking toward the mouth of the cave and blended into the shadow. Just then, a badger walked by, and the beast killed it with one easy swipe. She carried it over to me as if she wanted me to eat. I slowly stand up, keeping my eyes on her the whole time. As I slowly back out of the cave to grab some firewood to cook the badger, Erida jumps in front of me and bares her teeth again. I take a seat on the forest floor, and she lay down on me again, this time full body, curled in my lap. I start scratching behind her ears again and under her jaw. She starts wagging her tail and doing the growl-purr again. It's the cutest and scariest thing in the world. Again, one wrong move and she could kill me in a heartbeat, then she'd probably devour it and tear it to shreds.

                I finally stop petting her and start picking up sticks. She looks over at me and attacks one of the sticks that I'm holding in my hand. I drop everything and curl in a ball to protect myself and she drops the stick and wags her tail. I slowly uncurl and look at her and then the stick and then back at her. I grab the stick and I throw it and she chase to get it. She's running faster than lightning. my eyes widen. She comes back with the stick, and I throw it again. While she's chasing after the stick, I pick up the firewood that I dropped earlier. She comes back, and I throw it again, this time in the direction of the cave. On our way back to the cave, I'm making note of my surroundings while picking up more firewood. Right outside of the cave I make camp. I set up the firewood and make a small fire, with a lighter I took from the compound, just big enough to cook the badger. Skinning it and chopping it up with a knife I also found in the hostile place I originally found myself in. I cook the badger to medium rare perfection and start eating. Erida starts licking her chops and I toss her a piece of the badger I cooked. Gobbling it up she looks at me wanting more. I toss her another piece and she catch it midair. I laugh a little bit and she starts wagging her tail. Erida then stops everything and her ears perk up and she runs from the makeshift camp. Puzzled, I keep cooking the badger, finish it off and put out the fire. Night starts to fall across the horizon and Erida still hasn't come back. I start to panic a little. I gather some leaves and I find some moss and make a small bed for myself in the back of the cave. I go to sleep and Erida is still missing.

Dawn comes around and she finally comes back. She gives my face a lick and I wake up. She had been out hunting all night. I rub the sleep out of my eyes and get licked again. I couldn't help but think that it was a little strange that wild animal liked cooked... well semi-cooked meat. She had brought me an owl, a rabbit, a squirrel, and she caught a trout in the nearby river. I slowly get up and stretch. As I do this so does the beast. I start up the fire again and through on the fish, I descale and gut it and toss it to her. It's gone in two seconds flat. I gaze in amazement. I skin and put the squirrel on the fire next and I toss it to her, then the owl. By then she seems satisfied, so I cook up the rabbit for myself. Delicious. She places her front half in my lap, and I pet her head and she falls asleep. Morning comes in what seems to be a few moments later and Erida doesn't seem to be herself. She seems irritated and depressed. She doesn't go out for her morning hunt and she's moping around the cave. She doesn't go out for her morning hunt, and she doesn't go lay in the sun like she normally does. Anytime I try to get near her she growls at me and when I try to leave the cave she jumps up and guards the entrance with snarling teeth. I don't know what happened. She literally snapped overnight. Suddenly she picks up on something and snarls at me as if she's telling me to stay and she bolts out of the cave. Shocked, I stay in the cave. I watched Erida run away from the cave and run into the trees, faster than lightning. I black out.

I wake up around dusk and once again, I'm covered in blood and my heart is racing. Panicked, I search my body for cuts, gashes, and wounds. When I see that I'm not bleeding, I look around to see where the fresh, red, hot, sticky blood is coming from. I make a makeshift torch and walk to the very back of the cave. There she is. Erida. Bleeding in the back of the cave. She has claw marks all over her. I tell her I’ll be right back, and I run out of the cave and gather a lot of water-soaked moss to clean the wounds and cobwebs to stop the bleeding. I run back to the cave and see her breathing shallow and heavily.  She's losing blood fast. I rush over to her, and I use part of the moss to clean the wound and the other part to hydrate her. After I think the wound is clean enough, I see the severity of it all. I cover the wounds with the cobwebs and put pressure on the wounds to stop the bleeding. Once I see that the bleeding had stopped, I tell her I'll be back again, and I go hunting. I spear a few fish and catch a few squirrels. On the way back to the cave, I pick up more cobwebs and more watered moss. Erida is still in the back of the cave, she hasn't moved but her breathing is better. I change out her cobwebs and set a squirrel in front of her and she just sniffs at it. She lets out a sigh and tries to sit up. Letting out a painful cry, she collapses again. I watch her as I'm cooking my fish. Seeing and hearing her in pain hurt me inside. Once my fish was cooked, I walk to where she is and start eating. She looks at me with begging eyes. I can't tell if she is begging me to help her with the pain or if she's begging me for my food. I break off a piece for her and practically put it in her mouth. She swallows. She starts sniffing the squirrel again and looks at me. I laugh a little bit and tell her she's spoiled. I cook up the squirrel and put it in front of her again. She sits up a little bit and devours it. Laughing, I scratch behind her ears and then I give her more water.

To Be Continued

 

Reviews

[Ana]

"maybe the owner of these glowing eyes could save my life. If not by protecting me, by destroying me" I love that line, I don't have a very big vocabulary to describe what it is but it is a good line! I saw that one of the tags for this said insane asylum. Is this character actually imagining all this while they're in an insane asylum? Your description is amazing, I liked that I could see the details.

[Author Gus]

I think the best thing for it is to watch formatting. Adding indents and spreading out your paragraphs so that it is more visually appealing. Small font and big blocky paragraphs just make the read appear more intimidating to the reader. We want to make out work appealing so as to invite others to work all the way through it.

I do think that this was an interesting idea and I felt like much of the story was symbolic of what is really going on with the insane patient, although I can't say that I've really put my finger on exactly what that is.

Altogether it is a good piece and I hope that part two emerges someday!