Wolf Child

“Mama, what is it?”

“I don’t know. I don’t recognize the smell.”

Mama picked the Thing up by the back of its neck. It was too heavy for her, so she had to drag it. Mama had another litter of puppies so she cared for the Thing like it was her own. She bathed it and gave it food. The Thing had light skin and no hair. Papa said he had smelled it once before, and that the Thing usually carried sticks that made a loud bang. After a bang, a member of the pack would disappear.

“Mama, why does this Thing not have a stick?”

“I think this one is a puppy still and has not learned to use it. Like how I teach my puppies how to hunt.”

“Do you think if we teach it to be one of our pack members it won’t hold a stick?”

“We will have to see when it grows up.”

About a week later, mama left my new siblings alone longer. They would stay quiet but the Thing would make this terrible noise. The Thing also started to get more hair, but only on it’s head. The Thing moved around a lot more. It wandered off more than mama’s puppies. The Thing started to be too much for Mama. It took Mama and Papa to get the Thing back in the den. Mama started to get weaker, too, because the Thing drank so much milk. 

“Mama, are you okay?”

“Just hungry.”

“Do you want me to go catch you a rabbit?”

“That would be wonderful. Thank you.”

While I was searching for a rabbit, I smelled the Thing, but a different Thing than the one that Mama found. I let out a low snarl. They started talking to each other but I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Then I heard a loud bang and felt something hit me in the leg. I scampered back to the den.

“Mama! I saw one of the Things! They were in a pack and they pointed their stick at me and then something hit my leg.”

One of my sisters from my litter came over to clean my leg. I pulled away when it hurt. She pulled a small metal bead that smelled like the Thing out of my leg. She showed it to Papa.

“Papa, what is it?” She asked

“They put the metal in the sticks then they press a button and it flies.”

After the pups were eight weeks, Mama started to wean them. Her puppies learned fast but the Thing wanted to keep eating. Mama tried nipping it on the ear and scruffing it but it wouldn’t stop eating. Mama just had to let it keep eating. One time mama had to climb on a rock to take a nap. The thing sat at the base of the rock and made the terrible noise. 

Once Mamas puppies were 6 months old, nearly all of them left but one of my new sisters. Mama kept feeding the Thing but it started eating the meat that we fed it. The thing also started eating grass. Mama thought it was sick at first but the Thing never threw up. When the Thing was a week after 6 months, it stopped drinking from Mama. The thing ate berries, grass, and meat. It still didn’t leave our pack. It started walking on two legs. 

By seven months, Mama was still bathing it. The Thing’s tongue was too small to get its whole body. It still couldn’t catch its own food so Mama would hunt for the two of them. Once I tried to take the thing out and teach it to hunt, but it was too slow. I also noticed that its teeth weren’t sharp. They looked like deer teeth. It could never kill a rabbit. The only thing that the Thing could do was play. The Thing was really good at playing. It didn’t bite too hard or play too rough. 

Over the next two years, the Thing got bigger than Mama, but she still treated it like a puppy. When Mama had a new litter, the Thing would take care of the puppies like Mama. The Thing would stroke the puppies and they would make happy squeaks. 

The bigger Things came around more often and more loud noises would be heard throughout the woods. The Things came closer and closer to Mama. They would start talking to each other. At one point, one of the Things tried to touch the little Thing that we found. Mama let out a low growl and snapped at them. She wouldn’t let them take any of her pack members.

One night, the Things came with their sticks. Mama and the other Thing were sleeping together and the pack was in the den. There was a loud noise and Mama was gone. They picked up the Thing and it started biting them. Mama taught it well. I heard one of the things yelp and they went away. The Thing went over to Mama and nudged her. I went over and gave it a reassuring lick, but Mama was gone.

The next couple of days, the Thing didn’t do anything. Papa and I brought food for it but the Thing ate very little.  It took a couple of months for the Thing to go out of the den. The Thing buried Mama by the tree where it was found. I helped it because it only had little claws. When we were done, we sat there for a while. The Thing looked at the tree then looked at me. 

“Why is Mama gone and why am I like the things with the sticks? I don’t like it.”

“Mama once told me that we all are going to die one day and some happen sooner than others. Now that you are part of the pack, you will never be like the other Things. You are one of us, and you will stay one of us.”