Chapter 8

As she slowly made her way towards the pinned wolf, Natalie kept her eyes locked onto the adult wolf's eyes. This in itself would determine how the entire scene played out after they were done. Canines, either wild or domesticated, established dominance through three key signs. The more dominant of the wolf kept their eyes on the eyes of the other canid, their tail stood up, and the ears are forward and attentive. As long as Nat kept up with at least the eyes, the wolf shouldn't see her as beneath them and decide to go for an easy meal.

The strange thing about all of this however, was the fact that the wolf she was approaching was acting slightly differently than she expected. Their eyes were similarly locked onto hers, but the tail and ears were in a resting position. Almost as if she trusted Natalie as a member of their pack, like she was family. All it gave Nat however was a warm, yet confused feeling as she did not know what to make of this at all. Once in front of the wolf, instead of moving around to immediately check on the leg, she crouched down towards the prone wolf, which was now just a meter away. "I am going to move around you now, and test some feelers on your leg. If you feel any pain, please let me know immediately. Just, try to avoid biting me. Please?" The wolf just stared at her for a second, then nodded.

Moving around to the tree, she noticed one of the pups had come over to see what she was doing. It just sat down on the other side of trapped leg that she was on and just watched. Shaking her head lightly, so she would not be distracted by the cuteness, she then moved her gaze towards the trapped appendage. Upon closer investigation, she noticed that the three had landed on the metatarsal bones right below the wolf's ankle on the back right leg. "Damn, it sucks that we are out in the middle of the mountains, cause we are going to have to hope it sets right. If I could do surgery on that foot, I would in a heartbeat. At best this will be six weeks to recover. At worst, you could be looking at over two months. And these words probably mean almost nothing to a wolf." As she said that, she turned her face to get met with probably the most blank stare she had ever received. "Long time to heal." Hearing that, the female wolf had a troubled look on her face.

Turning her attention back to the tree, she noticed that the pups had already started clearing dirt out to slide the foot out. Quickly taking her pack off of her shoulders, she pulled her folding shovel off the back of it and started moving dirt. As she did, she noticed that the pups watching her had multiplied. Three of the five were now watching her with wide eyes, most likely surprised and in awe of her ability to move a lot of dirt quickly. Just imagine the holes they could make with that! Giggling lightly at the thought process, she continued to move the dirt away. She had to move deliberately, so as to not accidentally stab her patient with the giant, and now dirty, metal instrument.

After about 10 minutes of shifting dirt, finally she saw the wolf's leg relax and slide out from underneath the tree. That was accompanied by a slight whine, then a strong exhale of relieved breath. Natalie put the shovel down, and got closer to the wound. It looked like there was some bleeding coming from the leg, however it did seem straight and true. Hopefully, that meant that it was just some minimal closed acute fractures on the bones, as they were one of the nicer ones to heal. "Before you bleed too much, I'm gonna wrap up your leg. Its gonna feel a bit weird, but you are gonna have to bear with me on this, okay?" Noticing the wolf nod once more, she turned her attention to the pups. "Hey little ones, want to help me help her?" seeing that the three that were watching her dig nod enthusiastically, she continues, "I am going to need you to find me some of the straightest sticks to can find me. Can you do that?" As she finished saying that, the three pups headed off in three different directions to go and look for the straightest stick that ever sticked. The other two seemed content to just sit by their mothers head, nuzzled up against her.

Pulling out her first aid kit, she grabbed a bandage and started carefully wrapping up the wolf's leg. Thankfully, other than a couple of flinches, she got the area around the wound wrapped up in no time. Just as she secured the bandage, she heard a dragging sound coming from behind her. There she noticed that one of the pups was dragging a sizable stick,  while the other two were carrying a similar sized one together. Thanking them, she quickly used the sticks to make up a splint to help secure the foot in place. "There we go, all done." she said, looking at the female wolf. "Hopefully, this heals as fast as it can."

As she started to get up, she heard the wind pick up in volume to the east. As she looked that way, a green wave of light and wind passed over top of the mountain in front of her. It moved so fast, that before Natalie could even attempt to scream in fright at the oncoming wave she was engulfed in it. As soon as it hit, it was gone, and after turning to the west, she saw it quickly disappear over the mountains. Turning to the wolves, the pups probably were mirroring her look of confusion on what just happened. The mother wolf instead had gone wide-eyed, almost as if a giant amount of understanding and knowledge had just been found out. Like a kid learning that their parents had been Santa Claus all along.

With a single bark, the adult wolf got all the pups to change their look from confusion and into a ready state. Confused by what was happening, Natalie looked back and forth between the wolves, wondering what was going on. Another bark, and all the pups started running at her, with the mother wolf getting up and turning towards her. But as Nat saw them touch her, one by one the pups seemed to enter her. As the momma wolf entered her, Natalie was left alone in the moonlit clearing. She sat there for a few minutes, before finally saying, "What the fuck?"

Huge thanks to Jake, Viktor, and Kevin for supporting me and my writing!