I couldn’t understand why they took such a dislike with me when the rest of the pack had come to accept me. I gently nudged my way out of the wolves that were crowding around me.  They finally got the hint and stopped pestering me, walking off to find a shady place to lay and rest.

I moved as slowly and carefully as I possibly could and walked over to the deer leg. Lifting it with much effort, I dragged it over towards the black wolf. It whined a little and took two steps backwards. The boy’s face was tense, his jaw flexed as he stared at me. I saw his jaw ripple and felt the sting of criticism in his gaze.The wolf’s expression? That, I couldn’t quite comprehend since I was hardly attuned to wolf. With much effort, I dropped the deer leg in front of the two of them and bowed my head low as a sign of respect.

The black wolf tentatively and slowly took a step forward. Before any more progress was made, a huge puff of warm air came blowing down at the hair on my hair and I looked up to see the big silver wolf standing tall behind me. The black wolf whined softly before lowering its head to smell the deer leg. All this while, the boy was peering out from the fur at the top of the black wolf with the largest eyes I had ever seen. They resembled the saucepans that we occasionally used when we had proper food to put on the table. His wild curls peeked out like untamed fur. In one swift move, he leaped from the back of the black wolf and followed its example to sniffing the deer leg. To my horror, he dug his bare hands into the meat, tore off a small portion and shoved it into his mouth.

Raw.

Yuck!

The blood tripped from the sides of his mouth as he hungrily grabbed more meat. The silver wolf which was standing behind me moved forward and shoved the boy away with a gentle push with its nose. It then proceeded to dig into the raw meat along with the black wolf.

The boy, slightly grumpy from being denied of food, made his way to my side. His eyes were now void of the earlier skepticism and reproach as he crouched on his fours with his bare arm against my clothed one.

“Hi,” I ventured.

He simply looked at me with a puzzled expression. And then he proceeded to leaned in close. The more I backed away, the more he moved forward. Until my back was up against a tree and I had no way to go. Until his face was just inches away from mine. He then used his bloodied fingers to lift my upper lip, causing me to cringe of the smell of animal blood that wafted into my nostrils.

I sure hoped that I didn’t have bad breath because he continued to take a whiff of my teeth. After what I decided to be a long enough moment to be spent on my teeth, I turned my head away. Maybe he saw it as an invitation play because he jumped on me, causing the both of us to tumble and roll in the dried leaves of the forest floor. Before I could get a hold of my bearings again, he pounced on me once again and I tried to wrestle him off me. But my child arms were no match for his well-muscled ones.

Pretty soon he had me wrapped in his strong lean arms and his face brought out into the most dazzling smile I had ever seen. It was utterly mesmerizing and I couldn’t help but think that a face like his would make many girls in the village jealous if he would just clean up a bit. As I continued to stare at him awe-struck, he noticed that I suddenly went very still so he released me from his grip. As I faced him, it struck me that he was a human boy. Just like me. He could be my friend.

Friends. A luxury that I had never had in the village. The other children avoided me like plague. Perhaps their parents had warned them not to interact with me for fears that their children might follow my footsteps.

Now that the opportunity arose for me to gain a new friend, I jumped right at it. I was determined to make this boy my friend. So I decided to start by teaching him how to speak because communication was important in any friendship and it was evident that he had no words by the way he couldn’t even undertstand the most basic of words: a greeting.

“Haiiiiiii.” I waved to indicate what it meant.

He tilted his head slightly and lifted his hand to copy my action. His mouth formed a shape but no sound came out of it.

“Haaaaa----iiiiii.” I repeated, placing much emphasis on each syllabus.

“Haaaaaa…” A sound! I almost jumped for joy. “Haaaaaiiiiiiiii.”

“That’s right!” I was ecstatic. “That is a wolf. WOLF. WOOO-LFFFFFF” I pointed at a wolf laying beside us.

“Wooooo…..fffffff” He tentatively tried to imitate the way I said the word, staring at my mouth and copying the way I shaped and moved it.

“Wooooollfffff.”

“Wooooofffffff.”

“Almost there. Wooooooolllllffffff”

“Wooooooolllllfffff.”

“Yes yes yes!!!” This time I could hardly contain my excitement and jumped up in exhilaration.

He too mimicked my actions and started jumping up and down.

Then he pointed to himself and said, “Wwooooooollllllf.”

“No. No. No. Boy. Boooooooyyyyyyyy.” I pointed directly at him.

“Booooooooyyyyyyy.”

The time flew past as I sat with the boy, trying my hardest to teach him some simple words. Hi, wolf, boy, tree, deer were now part of his vocabulary. I really had to give myself a pat on the back; the patience required to teach him each word was immerse and no easy feat for a spirited boy like me.

Soon, the sun was starting to set and I took that as my cue to leave. As much as I hated to leave the company of the wolves and especially the boy, I knew I had to return home. So I bade them farewell, although I wasn’t sure if they understood. As I walked away, the big silver wolf rose to follow me. I couldn’t have that. A sighting of the wolf would send the village into chaos. So I did my best to shoo them away and prayed that they would not come looking for me.

As I trudged through the forest towards the village, my lips involuntarily curved into a wide smile. This was where I felt like I truly belonged. My spirits were very high as I scaled the fence once again. The day’s events were still fresh in my mind as I landed on the grounds of the village with a soft thud.

“What are you doing, boy?”

All traces of the bliss I was feeling drained out of my body as dread took its place. I slowly turned around to come face to face with the village’s butcher.

The same one who was in charge of the storage where I stole the deer leg from.

All colour drained from my face and a loud ringing deafened my ears.

Screwed.

I was so screwed.