Guardian of Evanacliffs

Living with the wolves

I woke up once more only this time shivering from the cold. It was freezing outside and I was still naked from the shift. I forced myself to stand but cringed immediately after placing some weight on my ankle. It felt like it was sprained badly. Luckily, me being a guardian meant fast healing. I calculated this injury to be gone in like an hour. I used the wall of the cave as support while crawling to the treeline. Which I regretted the moment I felt the cold morning wind. The sun was coming up, showing me a new day arrived. I ignored the wind as good as possible even though it was practically pulled me along with it. The treeline came in view and blocked the wind once I stepped into it. I gave a relieved sigh but never stopped walking. My ankle was pounding now which meant my healing ability was already kicking in. The cold reached deep into my bones which made me realize that there was no other way than to change back into the wolf spirit. At least the wolf would have some fur coat. So I started tapping into the essence of the wolf spirit to connect it to mine. My legs were dislocated with a soft pop before new cells corrected my bone structure into one of the spirits. The feeling of power rushed over me but vanished as soon as it came. It felt like the moon goddess was with me today. This gave me a slight smile in my head. I was about to walk to the north when voices came at me. It sounded like the hunters! Panic rushed through me as I ran to the west. They scared me even though I knew they wouldn’t expect me to live. My stomach was rumbling. How long had it been when I last ate? Yesterday morning I guess? “I think it is time to learn how to hunt a deer with this body,” I thought to myself. Putting my nose in the air, I sniffed a couple of times before a familiar scent came through. DEER! I started running in the direction it scent came from only to spook the deer and chase it off before even coming close enough to grab it. I leaped off a rock to get closer to it but went crashing down as I still needed to learn how to balance with this body. Well, this method didn’t work quite as I hoped it would. So I tried again. A scent drifted to me and I closed my eyes. It was a buffalo. That meant a big meal for me. Yay. I crouched down and moved slowly this time. Standing just out of view while spotting a little buffalo grazing the grass. I crawled closer and closer but stopped when the buffalo's ears perked up. It started to look around alerted but apparently though the coast was clear when it started eating again. It was time to take a chance. I started running, closing the gap between us before feeling a force knocking me into the ground. “s**t, it mommy buffalo is here as well”. The mother was standing protectively over the youngling while staring at me. I whined and turned around. “Why is it so hard for an animal to find food? Now I regret refusing the hunting lessons from my father. It could’ve come in handy now. Defeated I walked deeper into the forest. My stomach rumbled again from hunger and I felt the energy drain from my body. It feels like a wolf form costs a lot of energy and without food, there is no way to refill it. I went to lay down on a soft looking patch on the forest floor when I caught the scent of blood. I sighed and made my way over to the source only to find the wolf that saved my life. He was munching on a deer while others were playing and resting in the distance. It perked up its head and took a step back. This made me come forward with saliva dripping out of my mouth. The deer looked so good right now. I stopped in front of it and stared at the wolf. He was lowering his head and showed its neck as if to submit to me which I found extremely odd. I decided to ignore it and took a bit out of the neck of the deer. I spit it out when I realized, I grabbed a big piece of fur. Yuck. I took another bite, this time of the meat itself, and moaned in delight. After another 3 bites, I noticed a change in atmosphere. The wolves in the distance were coming closer and fear struck me as I was eating their food. The alpha male and female leaded the group closer to me. The group of 6 pulled the deer away while the alphas were sniffing me. I closed my eyes and hoped for the best. After a minute I opened my eyes again. The group and the alphas were walking away but to my surprise, the female turned around. She stood there and kept on staring as if she tried to tell me to follow them. So I did. I followed them as if I was part of their pack.