Image © Barbara w Beacham
WHERE WOLF
by John Yeo
He was a drifter who always moved with the whims of his ever-changing quest. A searcher for peace and serenity that drove him always ever-onward to new horizons.
No one ever really knew him, it was very difficult to penetrate the hard shell that obscured and shielded his ever hungry-mind.
He had a four-legged companion, a tame wolf, who travelled with him and rarely left his side. Rumour had it, he had stumbled across an injured wolf cub in the forest and nursed it back to health. The wolf just followed him wherever he went after that, and a deep relationship developed between the man and beast.
On the rare occasions his friend went missing, there would be several wolves howling in the night and his friend would be gone, sometimes for a few days.
Perhaps it was the need for human contact that led him to make his home near our forest encampment. We were a small community of self-sufficient small-time farmers and growers. The community accepted and welcomed him with open arms and friendship, as he drifted around doing small jobs and hard laborious work for food and drink. He was very fond of the homemade rough strong cider, that was brewed by one of our fruit growers.
One sad memorable week we discovered several dead sheep and a goat, killed by a predator and left half-eaten in the fields. Suspicion fell on the tame wolf and several of our menfolk approached the man and his wolf with guns.
There was unease as he stood facing these angry farmers without fear, the wolf just stood beside him.
"We've come for the killer wolf, step aside or die!" Shouted the leader.
"Why? The wolf is not a killer and he stays with me." Replied the drifter.
Then the wolf growled and howled, and looked at his friend, there was a moment of shocked silence as the drifter whispered, "Where Wolf?"
Moving on the fringes of the forest in the distance, cautiously stalking a wild bird was a full grown wild cat. There was a volley of shots from the men as the big cat fled into the forest and disappeared into the trees.
The next day the drifter and his friend were gone never to be seen in that part of the forest again.
Copyright © Written by John Yeo ~ All rights reserved.
INSPIRATION MONDAY ~ A prompt response for “INSPIRATION MONDAY:” ~ "ANGELIC PERSUASION"
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