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A loud, violent snap pierced through the forest, disturbing perching birds and sending skittish creatures into hiding. It was not unusual for twigs and tree branches to break under the force of gravity or any other cause, but the sound was too fast and too clean to be natural. For a split second, the Iberian wolf's ears were piqued before whipping its nose around reflexively in response to the sudden pain shooting through its back leg. The teeth of a steel trap clamped down on its lower leg, rendering it immobile.
Attempting to pull itself out of the trap only resulted in greater pain. It could feel the metal burying further into its flesh, stripping away its fur and staining the ground red. Fighting against the aches shooting through its entire body, it turned around and gnawed at the steel in an attempt at prying apart even the slightest window of escape. The man-made metallic jaws were too strong for it to even budge, and so in defeat, it yelped and whined, hoping to luck out and receive some form of assistance. Its cries were almost as piercing as the initial snap, until they softened down to defeated whimpers.
From around the walls of the cabin, the wolf’s ears picked up signs of movement. It could not precisely discern the creature’s identity, but regardless of what it was, it made peace with its inevitable fate. Whatever it was, it would either turn away disinterested, leaving the wolf to slowly and painfully die of starvation, or the mysterious visitor was most opportunistic, and the wolf was a free meal served up on a silver platter.
As hopeless as the creature was, it still whimpered and tugged at its leg.
The culprit behind the movement made themselves known. From an initial glance, he appeared to be a hunter, as he was well equipped and carrying a gun in his hand. His clothing was stained red, and his short blonde hair was streaked with blood. Clearly, he had just claimed a prize just moments ago, and the wolf was next. Though its instincts were to bear its teeth and assume defense, the wolf was in no position to even bristle its fur.
The man caught sight of the wolf out of the corner of his eyes then walked up and knelt down in front of it. In a pitiful manner, the wolf locked gazes with him and wagged its tail weakly. At that distance, all it would take to kill it was a bullet to the forehead, a knife to the throat, or even a quick turn of its neck.
The two of them stared each other down. Perhaps the wolf’s mind was blurred by its acceptance of death, but the man’s eyes had the shine of one of the wolf’s own kin, though with a certain air of sadness amongst their obvious human appearance. He stood up and walked around behind the wolf, then pried the trap apart, freeing its leg.
The instant that it felt the pressure be removed from its leg, the wolf clumsily bounded forwards a few paces. Despite the sore wound that still lingered, the freedom was most appreciated. Before turning bolting off into the woods, the wolf’s eyes met the man’s once again. In that moment, it was unsure of what he was going to do. A significant distance now separated the two, but that didn’t mean that a single bullet could make its escape all for naught, no matter how fast its weary paws could carry it.
"Go on, boy," he said. "You’re free now."
Such words were not fully comprehensible to a wild four-legged creature. Still, his gun was lowered and he kept his distance, enough of a sign for the wolf to take this window of opportunity to run back deep into the forest, though this time, more aware of where its paws were stepping. No more wandering too close to cabins hoping for a quick and easy steal; deep in the forest was where it belonged blissfully unaware of any potential human inhabitants. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to the wolf, expecting to not run into any humans in the Spanish wilderness was a most improbable hope.
The wild wolf was only just that. The business of humans did not concern it, even if its leg was ensnared by the craftsmanship of human hands.
Its strides still had a limp to them as the wound was still fresh, but instinct drove the wolf to run as far away from the cabin in the woods as possible. After no men were within its sight, at least from where it stood upon the ground, the wolf slumped against a tree, exhausted. Its wound had clotted, exhaustion from blood loss still lingered. The wolf leaned up against the bark of the tree and drifted off to sleep.
In the middle of a most lengthy nap, it was disturbed by a strange itch upon its nose. It opened its eyes groggily, expecting to be greeted by the sight of some stray grass having worked its way into its nostrils. Swiping the blades away with its paws would be a simple solution to that issue if that where the case, albeit a bit annoying having to move while it was comfortable. Still half asleep, its nose twitched, body still weighed from exhaustion and slumber.
The culprit was not the grass, but rather, a butterfly perched upon its nose. Its wings were outlined in black and shimmered a brilliant copper-red in the sunlight. The temptation was strong…to put things lightly. The insect was rather bold for choosing to stand upon the nose of a predator. Not out of malice, but more so out of playfulness, the wolf softly nipped at the butterfly, but it took off flying before a tooth could snag on its body. Naturally, the sight of a beautiful little bug flying about was too much for a grown puppy to simply ignore. The wolf rose to all fours, body still heavy from exhaustion, but with rejuvenation nonetheless. It watched as it flew around, tail wagging, before clumsily attempting to bite at it once more.
If the wolf truly intended to kill the butterfly, it could’ve shredded its wings with ease. As the butterfly flew off, the wolf trotted after it with happy strides. The wolf’s eyes were shining with the copper-red reflected by its wings as it happily continued hopping up and biting at the air around it. Without any destination or goal in sight, the two traveled across the woods by each other’s side, going back and forth almost as if they were teasing each other. Even after their bursts of energy had simmered down, they continued traveling leisurely by each other’s side. It was a strange friendship between two of mother nature’s seemingly different creatures, though the true demeanors of a rugged wolf and a graceful butterfly were more alike once the conflict of species was set aside.
As the wolf continued to trot along, eyes fixated on the butterfly, it was not paying much attention to the path ahead of it. Without its focus elsewhere, it could very well spell disaster for the wolf who had already proved itself to be most clumsy and careless. It was most unfortunate to have seemingly not learned from its mistakes, as it was once more stopped in its tracks, only this time by walking directly into something. Perhaps from sheer secondhand embarrassment, the butterfly flew away becoming lost amongst the trees. The wolf did not notice its departure, though it mattered not as it would be unable to chase after it. At that moment, it had far bigger problems to deal with.
The wolf had walked right into the legs of a woman. Curious. Hasn’t it run far enough away from any human-claimed land? The wolf looked up at the woman and tilted its head, addressing the situation. Neither of them spoke as the wolf wagged its tail while the two of them attempted to figure each other out.
The woman spoke to the wolf, her look of curiosity turning into a smile,
"Aren’t you a darling little thing?" she said, kneeling down to its level.
It took a step back cautiously, but by the tone of her voice, she seemed more endeared than anything. Still, the wolf held its ground, but allowed its tail to continue wagging as its nose twitched towards the woman.
"You remind me of someone familiar," she observed.
She reached forth and gently ran her fingers through the fur on the side of the wolf’s face. Though it was little perplexed, the wolf accepted her gesture and happily leaned into her touch. She looked at the wolf with such fondness as if she were reconciling with a friend long assumed lost. But the wolf had only just seen her for the first time mere moments ago. What else could possibly share the same brilliant blue eyes as the wolf? Who or what could the woman possibly be thinking of that she saw it even in a wild animal?
It would certainly be one hell of a coincidence, but an option at hand wasn’t entirely impossible.
The wolf nudged her hand aside and softly clamped its jaws down on her short dress, which was reminiscent of the butterfly that had accompanied it earlier. It looked up at her, then tugged on it.
"Hmm? Do you have something you need to show me?" she asked.
Releasing her dress from in between its fangs, the wolf bounded back a few paces and barked at her. It could all be for naught; it had no way of knowing if there was any correlation between the two. There was no guarantee that he would even still be there once the wolf backtracked towards the cabin. Nonetheless, it was worth a shot, as the wolf was in debt to the hunter regardless. With more curiosity rather than certainty, the wolf wagged its tail. At the very least, she harbored a little bit of interest in what the wolf was pulling her aside for, despite her apparent preoccupation. For a moment, she looked back, before deciding to follow the wolf back through the woods.
With a pleased bark, the wolf started to lead her back towards the cabin. As it ran ahead, it kept its ears up, listening for any traces of that man along the way. On an occasion, it would turn its head around and check that the woman had not lost sight of it, but her pace never once slipped. Navigating through the trees and traps of debris, she moved akin to a nimble black cat weaving through obstructions like they were nothing. Thus, a most unexpected yet potentially disastrous question presented itself: Was it truly wise to potentially reunite a man with the spirit of a canine and a woman with the soul of a feline?
An animal cannot think with such human logic. Still, it instinctively worried, as the off chance of bringing back a most hated rival could undo every ounce of goodwill within that hunter for freeing the wolf from the trap. It was too late to turn back, and so the wolf did not allow itself to miss a single stride on the hunt for that man.
From a few paces behind the wolf, the woman observed the wolf as it led her through the forest. Blue eyes and smile aside, he truly was the spitting image of him. What stuck out to her the most, though, was the wound that it bore upon its back leg. It was quite fresh, as its fur was still stained red with blood. And yet, despite this, it was still running forth through the woods seemingly on a mission.
"Leading me around while acting like you aren’t dragging an injury behind,” she thought out loud. “If I didn’t know better, I would think that you knew him personally."
⋆˚⊹𓃥 🦋⊹˚⋆
The two of them had diverted off course in search of the origin behind a most fearsome roar. Two separate goals kept the two united; the wolf felt a duty to stand up for its territory, while the woman had a feeling of who had ventured this far into the wilderness stirring up trouble with the locals. With every holler and roar, the wolf’s ears pointed in the direction of the sound. Eventually, they were led to a dead end, where one more step forward would send either one of them tumbling into an arena below.
The fall onto the ground wasn’t a concern. Rather, it was the massive, humanoid-like creature thrashing about. And fighting it was that same hunter that had pried apart the steel jaws to free the wolf’s leg.
If there was any time to repay its debt, it would be now. The wolf barked loudly a few times. Briefly, the fighting ceased as both man and abomination stopped to look towards the wolf.
"It’s that dog again!" he said.
Pleased to have been remembered, the wolf barked and wagged its tail. The look of surprise on his face quickly turned to disbelief. The wolf turned its head to the side and notice that the woman who had accompanied it now stood beside it. The smile on her face told the wolf all that it could possibly need to know.
"Did you miss me, darling?" she said.
"Ada?" he said in shock.
The creature swung its arms towards the man, and he just barely escaped with his body in one piece. There was no time to spare in awe of the coincidence, so the wolf leapt down from its position into the arena with the man. It almost knocked him over as it ran past his legs, then firmly planted its paws in the ground and barked as loudly as it could. The monster turned its attention to the wolf, clearly irritated by its barking, then stomped forth towards it. Using its small size to its advantage, the wolf avoided being slammed into the ground by its fists, escaping between the monster’s legs and taunting it once more.
Growing increasingly frustrated with the little pests circling around and stinging its body, the monster turned towards the wolf and let out an earth-shattering roar. Raising both of its arms up in the air, it ran towards the wolf, fully intent on smashing it to a red stain in the soil. To its right was a building, to the left was the wall, so the wolf braced itself to once again slip out from beneath it and avoid the aftershocks of its slam.
While the monster was focused on eradicating the ear-splitting headache, it had failed to account for Ada, who was watching the man and the wolf run and poke at the monster like desperate little ants. The monster leaned back, winding up a slam, but something shot around its wrists and bound them together. Losing balance, it tipped onto its side, where a black parasite wiggled out of its back from the impact against the ground. The wolf ran up to it and sunk its fangs into it, revolting taste on its tongue be damned. The man was furiously sawing away at the parasite, holding down the flailing appendage with one hand.
The final nail was put into its coffin by Ada, who blew the appendage off with one clear shot from her handgun. With one final dying roar, the monster’s convulsing stopped, not even twitching when the wolf’s paw pried at it. The man and the wolf turned to look at her, who simply lowered the gun and looked at him with a sly smile.
“Getting yourself into trouble again, Leon?” she said.
At least the wolf now had names to put to faces. Though, it couldn’t help but feel as if it had become an unwanted extra in a party of two.
“I had things perfectly under control before you even got here,” he argued.
Even the wolf didn’t believe that, expressing its disbelief with a bark.
“Under control?” she said, nudging him back with the tip of her gun upon his nose. “The little mouse I saw running in circles says otherwise.”
“A certain cat just couldn’t keep her paws off of another’s prey.”
“You’re acting like you aren’t enjoying it.”
The wolf barked a few times, almost as if to remind the two that it was, indeed, still present. It was bracing to pry Ada away at a moment’s notice, but to some reason, Leon seemed rather happy to be stuck between her and the corpse of a monster. It was at just the right height to bite onto her dress and tug her away, but that smile that he was suppressing made the wolf think otherwise about its actions. After having to sink its teeth into the nastiest earthworm yet, it was a bit irritated to have been forgotten so easily. It simply sat down on the ground, grunting a little under its breath.
“Really? In front of the dog?” Leon said.
The wolf’s eyes looked up as if to say, Oh, now you acknowledge me.
“Bothered by a little puppy, are we?” Ada poked.
“I think the dog’s the most bothered out of all of us.”
Which, wouldn’t be a lie. The wolf had fulfilled its duties; it had no reason to hang around these two any longer. Ada turned to look at the disgruntled canine, as if finally realizing its presence despite numerous barks and growls.
“This cutie? Bothered?” she said, crouching down to squish her fingers in between the fur on its cheeks.
Its tongue hung out as it raised its head in pleasure. The attention wasn’t so bad…when it could actually get some. But it seemed as if someone else wasn’t too happy with Ada’s attention being directed elsewhere.
“That thing could have fleas,” Leon said.
As if that stopped him from freeing the wolf’s leg from the trap just earlier.
“I’ll remember that next time you’re covered in dirt with a bullet hole in your chest,” Ada said, still petting the wolf.
Leon apparently had nothing to say about that, as he crossed his arms and looked away with a huff. The wolf let out a huff too, though not for the same reasons.
“Jealous of a wolf, are we?” she said.
“No.”
An answer that neither Ada nor the wolf found very convincing. Taking advantage of his guard being down, Ada grabbed Leon by the shirt and pulled him down to her level near the ground. The wolf stood there, tail falling down, and tilted its head. Sticking around would bring it no further benefit, as its presence was seemingly only being used to provoke Leon.
With the path ahead now being opened, the wolf took advantage of the two being preoccupied to make a stealthy departure back into the woods. There was a lesson to be learned here about straying too close to human establishments, hoping to score easy pickings. As a result, the wolf was to carry a mark of its foolishness upon its back leg everywhere it went, until the day it died and flesh rotted into the ground.
Sometimes, the wolf would think back to the clever Ada and cocky Leon, whenever a butterfly landed atop its nose.