After the Storm

It was still slightly dark outside, and the early dawn’s sunlight was breaking through the trees in the quiet, damp forest. The trees’ shadows were swaying as the light was gently beaming through the brush, warning all life that another day was at its beginning.

Running through the forest in the waking hours of the morning, was my favorite place to be. I could not wait to begin my day. Every night before laying down, I would excitedly anticipate the following morning. It was peaceful in the forest. I was at peace, when I was running, and I felt that the forest knew, and that was why it shared itself with me.

There were established, thin, sand trails, probably instituted by the multitude of deer that used to inhabit the thick forest hillsides before the Rebellion. The woods were, at one time, home to entire ecosystem that no longer existed, thanks to the Rebellion’s biological weapons. It was dense, uninhabited, and quiet.

Running today was a little tougher than other days. It was slightly harder to breathe in my rhythmic usual pattern, and my feet were having trouble finding the balance between holding me up and finding a good pace. It was always rough on this day to run. It was the anniversary of my Mother’s death and no matter how much time had passed, her absence hung heavy like an unavoidable fog throughout my life. I couldn’t escape it. It was just there, taking up space in an otherwise wide open universe. My feet remembered the loss of their foundation and were extra wobbly on this day. Which is probably why I tripped over a tree root that I had ran over hundreds of times before without problem, until today.

When I fell, I fell hard, like a bag of garbage being thrown to the ground. It took me a few seconds to realize what had just happened, because it was so unexpected. I just stayed face-down for a minute assessing my entire body for pain. Nothing was hurting physically, and as I was gearing up to have the cry of my life, I saw something that appeared to be a large pile of leaves breathing. I had to blink a few times to wash the tears welling up away so I could see clearly. I froze half with fear and half out of curiosity. The sunlight was gaining more territory and light was filling the forest at a precedented speed. The more light that was beaming through, the more I could see the fierceness of a creature that appeared to be larger than me, laying just beyond my reach. More sunlight beamed through and then I saw it, blood, dried to its mangled dark, gray, brown fur. I slowly pulled myself up to my knees to get a better look and leaned forward slightly. Whatever it was, it was injured, and I was scared. My curiosity won out over my fear and I slowly moved towards the beast and began to access its state of health. Gently, I began pulling off leaves in an attempt to find its head.

It had been decades since anyone has seen any animals living. I had never seen an animal in life before, only in books. Since the Rebellion, most, if not all wild life was wiped from the planet, from the use of biological weapons. The creatures that once roamed the land and skies were now the stuff of myths. Yet, here I was clearly seeing a beast of some sort before my eyes.

Still plucking the leaves one by one off slowly, I jumped back once I found its teeth. Its eyes were shut still and its breathing was labored. Based solely off of a book I once read, I would have to determine that this was a wolf of some kind that was laying before me, but I couldn't be positive. It was scary and beautiful at the same time. Tears began to well up as the overwhelming emotions of excitement, happiness and also sadness were all fighting for the dominate emotion. I had to help. I flipped from awe-inspired to assessing its medical needs. Following the blood stained forest floor to find the trail as to the source was of its injury, I quickly found that it was bleeding from its shoulder. There was a fairly large open gash running from his neck down his shoulder. The wound was deep and deadly. Without thinking, I ran back home quickly to get something that I could use to stop the bleeding.

My mom was a Medic in the Rebellion and we had more medical supplies than we knew what to do with. I was frantic and rushed. Throwing scrap pieces of wood and tools out of my way, as I unburied the over-sized duffle bag and held it above my head. I was startled when my Dad rushed into the garage with a wooden baseball bat held up. We both jumped at the sight of each other and then let out a large sigh of relief.

“I need this, Dad. I found a… a wolf, I think, in the woods and he’s injured. Will you help me save him?” I said quickly.

Confusion filled his face as he began to process the information I just gave him by replaying my words again. Standing in the doorway alone, blocking the only way out for me, I rushed towards him with the bag still above my head. He moved out of my way and as I passed him, he called back to me.

“Wait! Let’s take the stretcher too.” He said this in a calm yet stern manner. He went into the garage and came out again with a rolled up stretcher held under one arm and something in his hand, and we both rushed into the forest together.

The adrenaline was pumping now, but if we were going to save him, we had to get the bleeding to stop immediately. I knelt down and unzipped the bag, but before I could look, I heard my Dad say, “Here, use these. They will force the blood to clot.” In his hands he had some Yarrow plants that he was squeezing together.

He wasn’t looking at me, his eyes were fixed on the beast. His eyes were welling up with tears as he put his hands on the animal to solidify the truth of what was happening. He violently blinked away the emotion and placed the unrolled stretcher at its back before he said, “We need to get him back to the house.” I nodded in agreement.

Very few words were exchanged as we worked to gently roll the wolf onto the stretcher and strap him in gently. Dad strapped us both to the stretcher and we pulled him onto the path and then towards the house. Just before we reached the grass of our yard, we were stopped by another wolf standing alone with its back arched, large white teeth showing, and a low growl coming from his mouth. I was frozen still, half with fear and half with awe stricken excitement. Slowly, Dad reached into his pocket and pulled out a sparkling pink stone locket and raised it up as if to show the wolf. The sunlight now beaming through the forest with an intensity that was behind our urgency, gleamed onto the Rose Quartz, Heart-shaped Locket that my dad was holding up almost as an offering to the wolf before us. The wolf softened and turned his back to us as if to lead the way to the house.

In that moment, I had so many questions, but the only one I could verbalize was, “Why did you show him Mom’s locket?”

He wouldn’t look at me, just kept facing forward with his eyes never leaving the wolf in front of us. Quietly he said, “We have to hurry, if we’re going to save him.”

The locket story could wait. I did desperately want to help this wolf. We reached the house and managed to maneuver the injured wolf inside. It was Spring time, but still quite cool and our fireplace was already a blaze. My dad and I laid him down gently in front of the fire and began to assess his wounds. Our house was a small cottage, surrounded by woods and we didn’t have much besides firewood and blankets in spades. The cozy house seemed quite tiny once the wolf was laying beside the fire. I moved our chairs and table out of the way and made room for the giant patient that was taking up residence in our Family Room.

Dad said quietly as to not spook the wolf, “Go and get a glass of water and set it here on the table.”

I did as he had asked and set the glass where he had directed me to and waited for the next command. The other wolf was outside pacing, howling, and making me nervous.

My Dad stopped and looked up at me and said, “I’m not sure what more we can do. It seems he needs stitches, but I’m not sure how to do that. Your Mom was the Medic.”

I took a deep breath and replied, “I can. She taught me and I remember. I’ll stitch him. First, we have to clean the wounds.”

Dad grabbed the glass of water and placed the crystal heart-shaped locket inside the glass while he whispered something I couldn’t hear as he gently poured it over the open gashes on the wolf.

“There it is clean now.” He said quietly.

I pulled my mom’s suture kit out of her Medic Bag and began to slowly stitch as I quietly prayed over the wolf. It was as if the stitch or my words were magic, because he slowly began to open his eyes with each stitch and soft pat of reassurance. I was completely entranced by the moment and didn’t realize that my dad had let the other wolf inside the house also as they watched with silence as I closed the wounds and cleaned away the dirt and blood with the one glass of water that seemed to never empty as long as the locket was inside of it. The wolf’s breathing began to relax and ease into a more restful state. Just as I was finishing up the last stitch, I looked at the face of the poor beast laying beside me and made eye contact. I grabbed the glass of water and began to pour from the glass into its mouth and he began to drink slowly.

Something told me was going to be alright. I could breathe a sigh of relief, knowing we rescued an animal. An animal that only existed in fairy tales, and not in life, at least up until this morning. I sat up and turned to notice the other wolf sitting right beside me and his face in mine was startling but made me smile anyway. He licked my face, which made my Dad gasp out loud and I giggled in response. I stood up slowly and looked at my dad for my next direction.

He wasn’t looking at me. He was looking past me at the two enormous beasts that were taking up the majority of space in his house. Without looking at me he said, “You cannot tell anyone about this. If one person finds out we have that Locket, the world will be at war again. Do you understand?”

I nodded puzzled by his words, but understanding their severity.

Dad began again this time with anger in his voice, “Do you understand me?”

“Yes, Yes I understand, Dad.”

“I wasn’t talking to you, Kate.”

I slowly looked to the wolf next to me who was making eye contact with my father, and then nodded in a deliberate motion of agreement.