The Catastrophe

The small body was prowling through the twilight of the forest with the nose in the air and not regarding any noises that the ground did under the small paws.
It was unusual for timber wolves to be up and active during the day. It was an hour before the twilight would begin, the time when the wolves usually left their dens.

But the young wolfess, barely six months old and still clearly having the proportions of a cub, had a reason to be up at this unusual hour. It had been increasingly difficult for her to escape her mother’s eyes during the night, when the she-wolf was awake and guarding her offspring.

Just the last night she had tried to go on an adventure, but her mother caught her and carried her home to take part in the lecture about hunting.

When the cub had been born, with her 3 siblings, her parents had given her the name Imyasel, which translated into “silver butterfly”. The reason had been her silver eyes, that sparked the moment she opened them barely two weeks after she was born and directly followed a butterfly, that strayed into the wolf den by accident. Back then her parents had found it cute, but her mothers attitude changed when she grew older, and the older female began teaching her cubs.

She had to find out, that her daughter, the only female of this litter, was a dreamer and had a very short attention span. She did not listen when the mother explained the movements for hunting but went astray to follow a new smell or chase a dragonfly.

Imyasel was very curious about everything around her, except for the lectures of her mother. She did not like to listen to her sermons, that always made her sleepy, but rather go on adventures.
While her brothers, often under the watch of their older siblings, playfought or trained their hunting with mice or bugs, her mind drifted off to far away adventures, a new scent that tickled her nose or she got distracted by a funny shaped cloud or the twinkling of the stars above them.

Not only her mother was nagging her all the time to pay more attention, but her older siblings, three girls and two boys at barely two years, complained about her all the time, because her mother had tasked them to keep Imyasel at bay and make sure she was not wandering off alone.
Every day they annoyed her by stopping her tries to explore something new by picking her up by her nap and dragging her back to the den, where they scolded her for a while.

But today she finally had been able to sneak out of the den. Luckily her oldest brother, who had watch, had fallen asleep and therefore she had been able to sneak around him. When she was out of sight of the den, she stopped caring to move silently but padded to further into the forest fast, finally able to explore to all her hearts content.

If she would have listened to any of her mother’s lectures, she would have realized how dangerous this was. Not only was she very visible during the day, but a cub alone in the forest with possible predators around was nothing more than the prey animal or even easier prey.

But the little girl had no care in the world. She did not know or regard any possible dangers around her, but only cared about finally being able to explore without her nagging mother.
Her only worry was, that she had to be back at the den when her mother woke up, but totally losing any sense for time and not knowing how to distinguish the time by the position of the sun, in addition of her not really caring to keep track of her path or landmarks to find her way back, she already was on the road to not manage to get back in time, that was if she found her way back at all until the night would start.

She loved the smell of the resin around her and the sounds of the birds singing high above her in the trees. Luckily for her, she did not cross any predator yet, only a small rabbit, that looked at her from afar for a few seconds, before it hopped away.
Imyasel chased after it, thinking that this might be a new friend to find, but the rabbit was too fast for her and she was so inexperienced in tracking or hunting, because of her neglection of training, that she just ran deeper into the wood without finding any trace of the smaller animal.

The rustling of the underwood under her paws and her happy laughter now and then shooed away all smaller animals long before she could see them. The scents around were to plentiful, that the little girl was unable to distinguish between them or even understand what animal produced which smell.

Her mother had taught them the other day about a few of the smaller animals and their scent, but like always, Imyasel had been too busy to watch some fireflies that danced above her nose. Therefore, the little bundle of fur was oblivious to the smells and just wandered aimlessly, forgetting time and her worries about getting home soon.

But there was so much to explore, that she did not feel bored, and she even learned a lot about the scent of plants. She found a few different mushrooms and now, that she investigated this on her own accord, she memorized the smells and soon she could at least tell apart the different trees and smaller plants she crossed and found a small river by following the scent of moisture in the air and remembering that this was how the river near their den smelled.

While she took a sip, just noticing how thirsty she was from running around for a while, she wondered if this was the same river than the one close to their den and this was the first time she thought about the den and remembered, that she had to return.

She looked around and wondered where the right way back to the den was. A look up to the sky, between the treetops, revealed that it was still day, so she sure had enough time, but even though she did not like to abandon her new won freedom just yet, she knew that her mother would give her hell if she ever found out. With a sigh she decided to turn back.

There was just one problem. She had no idea where the den was. She looked around but other than the river she only saw trees. She did not regard the landscape around her on her way to the river and therefore did not even know from which side she came.

If she would have listened to her mother’s lectures, it would have been easy for her to just follow her own scent, but the little girl did not think about such a thing. She did not even notice her own scent that led north between all the other alluring scents around her.

Imyasel ran back and forth a few times to decide where she wanted to go. One idea came upon the little thing. She knew there was a river near their den, and she was at a river as well. So, if she followed the river, she should reach the den.

Inexperienced as she was, she did not remember that she ran downhill from their den location. Thinking that she was smart, with the idea to follow the river, she padded along the river downstream, and therefore away from their hideout rather than towards it.

The sky above her began to darken and she wondered why she had not reached their den yet. She surely had not gone that far away.

A thundering howl made her stop in her tracks and wince. She knew this howl. It was her mothers howl but the more concerning thing for her was, that even though she could hear it clearly in the evening gust, it sounded far away and from her back. She realized that she had taken the wrong way and turned around.

Another howl echoed through the forest and there were more than one. A choir of howls answered her mother and Imyasel wondered if now the whole pack was looking for her. She began to ran, but the area picked up quite a steep and uphill she was exhausted after a few jumps and had to fall into a walk again.

Two more howls and now Imyasel noticed that something was off. This did not sound like the howl her mother used to call her. It sounded more like the one time, when a bear had walked into their territory and when they warned the pack. Something must have happened.

Imyasel had not paid much attention to the lectures of her mother, but after the bear attack, she had been reminded multiple times what this howl meant for the cubs. Crouch into the next hiding and wait for the relieve signal to be sounded.

Even though Imyasel was a dreamer and could be a scatterbrain when her mind wandered off, she felt the danger in the air. It felt like the whispering of the trees died down and they listened in to the noises that the little wolfess now heard with beating heart.

The howling died down and she heard growls and roars. The roar did not sound like the bear back then, but also not like a wolf. It sounded sinister and frightening and the little furball began to shiver and her steps, shaky on the uphill course, started to shiver.

She knew that a fight was going on and she also realized that her running towards it would mean that she would be in danger. Even if she rarely listened to her mother, the imminent danger and the frightening noises that hovered through the forest made her look around in panic.

There were some big rocks next to the river a bit upstream and she could see a small gap between them. She gathered the last of her energy reserves and sprinted up to the rocks, to squeeze herself into the small gap. She found it to be a small hole between the rocks and with a bit of digging in the wet soil she could make it big enough to squeeze in deep enough to reach a dry spot and that she would not be visible from the outside, or at least she could not see the outside anymore.

Shivering and trying hard not to whimper, just like her mother had told her in the past, she waited there and listened to the diabolic sounds. She barely remembered the time with the bear but the fight this time seemed to last much longer. The growling and roaring, whimpering of some wolves, groaning of some unknown enemy and the sound of claws clashing with the rock echoed through the silent forest.

Everything around held its breath, just like the little wolfess, that shivered in her hole and hoped that it would soon be over, and she would hear her mother’s relieving howl.
It took so long, that the little exhausted girl finally fell asleep, shivering all the time until her slumber took her into a dark world that was filled with growling and snapping and big scary shadows, that made her whimper in her sleep.

When Imyasel woke up, it was silent again. She did not know how long she had slept. From the entrance of the hole, she heard the mumbling of the river again and she felt a cold shiver run over her still moist body from the gust of wind that entered.

She listened but there was no sound. No howl, no growl, no whimper, and no groan. Only a soft whistling of the wind and the gargling water nearby.

The little freezing thing wondered if she maybe slept too long and missed her mother’s howl. She was not sure if it was safe to leave her hideout or if the fight was still going on in silence.
She waited, listening to the mumbling of the river and the tune of the wind. She did not notice that she fell asleep again every now and then while waiting.

Only when the light fell through the entrance of the little hole and painted the soil to her feet, she realized that she had waited the full night. The fight surely had not taken so long. Maybe her mother was still waiting for her, or they were looking for her.

It took a while before the girl could squeeze back out of her hiding. Her paws had fallen asleep from the cold and when she was finally out, groaning in pain from the blood returning into the paws, she turned to the river because she felt a big thirst. The scarce light around her was enough to reflect her mirror image in a small puddle next to the river, inside a small dent in a rock. She saw that the white fur under her jaw, that extended under her chest and belly up between her legs to her tail base, was dirty and wet. The gray fur that covered the whole rest of her body, except for the black patch of fur on top of her head, her shoulders, her back and her hind like a cover that was put on top of her, looked dirty as well and had lines of dirt in it.

Her crystal-white eyes, that depending on the light could either appear pure white or silver, looked wondering into this image of herself that seemed to alien and at the same time familiar.

It took a minute until she turned her head back to the river to drink some more and quench the thirst inside her. Then she looked around. It was still silent, and the wind was even colder outside. She froze with her wet fur and started to shiver again.

Carefully, now looking around her not for adventure or in awe of the wonderful world, but fearful and alarmed, she started to run upstream. The blood that started to rush through her body stronger because of the exhausting exercise warmed her up and drove away the last bit of numbness in her paws.

The forest seemed too strange to her. Much different than the day before. It had been even more silent then, because the wind picked up now, but there was an eeriness around, that she could not describe. The atmosphere around her was crushing and Imyasel whimpered a few times, when her gaze fell upon a big shadow, that then turned out to be a tree trunk or a rock.

She did not know how long she took. She felt tired after a few minutes already, but she continued to run along the river and the steep got softer. Her legs started to get used to the exercise and even though she still breathed heavily, and her paws hurt, she got used to the feeling and started to just concentrate on the way in front of her.

Finally, she remembered the area again and found herself at the spot where they usually drank. It was not far to their den. She picked up on speed and turned away from the stream towards the well-known path home.

It was strange how silent it was around here. Even though it was day, she could not hear the breath of her mother and her siblings when she stood in front of their den. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath, just like last night.

“Mom?” Imyasel asked unsure. It was frightening that there was no one at the den entrance. Did they maybe move to a different den?

She walked inside and saw the big pile of fur, that was her mother, instantly. She let out a sigh.
“Mom? Why is non one at the entrance?” she asked softly, not to wake up her brothers and sisters. She could see one of her older siblings laying at the far end of the den with the face towards the wall.

Her mother seemed to sleep very deep and Imyasel started to climb on her body to get into the warm belly area. Weirdly enough her mother was not as warm as she used to be.
The strong smell in the den now caught her attention. She knew the smell but it did not directly click for her.

She reached the top of her mother and let herself glide down, giggling from the tickling feeling of her fur at her belly.
Another small body lay between the legs of her mother. There was no motion in either body and she felt something damp and sticky at her paws when they hit the floor.

She nudged her brother, because from the size it could only have been one of her brothers of the same litter that was between her mother’s legs, to let her squeeze in with him between her front legs, but he did not react.

“Common, I am freezing. Let me have some space as well.” She complaint, but even her mother did not react to her tries to nudge her leg so that she would lift it and let her daughter in. Was she still mad at her?

Imyasel did not notice that the light gotten darker and it started to rain outside. Only when a sudden lightning struck, she winced. The bright light of the lightning had given her a vision of the inside of the den. The sticky liquid on the ground was red and she saw that the head of her brother also was read. Without knowing why, she started to shiver.

Her head turned towards her older brother at the far end and with the next lightning, she saw a set of deep cuts in the flank and back of the 2 years young wolf.

“Mom, they are hurting.” She plead to her mother, turning to he and pushing her with her paws now. How could her mother not had noticed that her own sons were insured?

Another lightning struck and Imyasel stopped in her movement of another push. She saw the gorge of her mother in deep red. It looked like big teeth had pierced her throat and ripped the flesh away.

“Mom?” the little girl did not even notice that she started to cry. Her body and subconscious already realizing what her mind was slow to accept. “Mom wake up!” she cried.

Reality slowly crept up inside her. It was not that her mother would not wake up. Her mother would never wake up again. The same with her two brothers. Her mind did not have the capacity to wonder about her other brothers and sisters or her father. The thought of her mother never speaking with her again shook her little heart and her eyes overflew from tears.

Imyasel buried her head in the fur at the chest of her mother and let her body collapse on the big wolf’s leg. Her paws rested on the hind of her little brother that shared the same fate as her mother.
She cried, without realizing yet what her world had become. Sadness, anger, fear, everything mixed. She did not know what happened or why, but her mother was gone. Only a cold corpse in the middle of the cold den.

She would never hear the laughter or the stern lectures from her. All the memories with her mother crossed her mind while she lay there, whimpering and crying, with her face buried in the thick fur.

The time she opened her eyes for the first time and had seen this wonderful and colorful creature, that she later learned was a butterfly. This had been the start of her interest into the outer world. An interest that the limits of the den never had been able to fulfil.

Then the face of her mother when she licked her and talked softly to her. Her father and her older siblings had been around as well. She remembered that they had all been smiles.
She had been the first one of her brood to open her eyes and she remembered that her mother told her often, that she had unique and beautiful eyes.

And Imyasel did not remember many times when they all smiled like that towards her. When she had grown older, they all had become upset with her for not listening or trying to go exploring. Her older brothers and sisters had always been very rough with her, when they took her back to the den. And her mother had given her long lectures and stern reminders every day. But her voice, even then, had always been soft. The same as her howl. Therefore they had called her Silkhowl. She had been the opposite of Imyasel’s father, the alpha of the pack. He had a thundering howl which was the reason they all called him Thunder.

Imyasel wished she had listened to her mother more. Now that she would never hear her soft voice anymore. Why had she been so obsessed with the outside world. Why had she not been like her brothers. Would the family then have loved her and smiled at her more?

She had been bad and nasty by running away. She remembered that she felt powerful when she got away without her sleeping brother noticing, but now she wondered if all this happened just because she had sneaked away. Was it that she was the cause of all of this? Was someone punishing her family for the mistakes Imyasel had done?

The tears did not want to stop and soon the girl was so exhausted, that she tumbled from the leg and onto the sticky ground at her mother’s belly. She crawled into the fur, as if she was trying to hide there.

The body of her mother was not warm like she remembered it from the countless cold nights, but her thick fur still shielded the pup a bit from the cold air and made her feel a but warmer.
Imyasel curled up in a ball, snuggling against her mothers cold and dead body, and buried her head in her fur again. She continued to cry until she fell asleep.

When the girl woke up, the silence around her was deafening. It hurt her ears like a big pressure. She could not even hear the rain outside, or the wind when the rain stopped.
The den was sometimes bathed in the rays of the sun at day or in a mild silver light from the moon and the stars at night.

The little wolfess just lay there, with her eyes closed, unmoving. She cried whenever she was awake and the smell of her mother, that fainted more and more each time she woke up and was driven away by the smell of dried blood and old flesh, got into her nose.

She did not get up; she did not move out of her curled ball or give more sounds than a whimper in her cries. She lay there motionless, as if she was waiting to join her mother. The day passed and the night, then another day and another night and the small body even stopped to shiver, exhausted and gaunt, weak from the lack of food and the constant crying. Her body lay there motionless, just like the carcass that she snuggled up against. She ignored the nagging feeling of her stomach, unwilling to leave her mother’s side, waiting.

Imyasel did not know what she was waiting for herself. But no matter how long she waited, nothing happened. No one came and her mother only felt colder every day. The dreams of the girls were scary and filled with her mother that was complaining about her being late again. But even though her mother looked angry and stern at the pup, the little wolfess longed for the dreams to hear the voice of her mother. But whenever she woke up, there was only the whistling of the wind breaking the silence. Her ears did not pick up any other noise.

Whatever the little pup waited for, and she wondered about it herself sometimes when she was awake, it was not arriving. Nothing happened. The third day came to an end, and the small wolfess still lay there, not knowing what to do next. A weak bundle of fur that was still barely warm, next to cold bodies in an even colder cave.