Chapter 1 Vanessa #2
If I wanted to make a difference, I needed to stop the flow of blood, but I couldn’t really think of a way to do that without touching it. Which I wouldn’t do, of course.
Because that would be crazy. And I was not crazy. Sure, did I talk to my cats and my plants like they were humans? Maybe. But still, I knew better.
It couldn’t hurt to at least try to make a poultice, right?
I would have held the wound closed myself if I wasn’t at least a little bit interested in remaining alive. Instead, I took some of the deadnettle out of my bag and stared at it, wondering how I was going to make it into a poultice.
Normally, I would use my mortar and pestle or dry it and then put it in oil to diffuse. Considering neither of those were an option right now, though, I shoved it in my mouth and started chewing.
Fuck, it tasted bitter, like lawn clippings with a bit of an eggy taste at the end. Completely disgusting. Luckily, I didn’t have to fully masticate it, just get it into a sort of clumpy mixture.
Once I was sure it was right, I spat it into my hand. While my spit wasn’t exactly the best medium for a healing balm, it was better than nothing. I took a few hesitant steps closer.
It was hard not to be distracted by how truly magnificent the creature was. I’d known wolves were big, much bigger than we usually saw in movies—those were mostly wolfdogs, anyway—but it was another thing entirely to see it up close and personal.
Well, not too close.
The creature’s head was as big as my torso, his fur largely gray but with the occasional tawny undertone along his flanks and tail.
He had a white patch on his chest, and I would bet one on his belly too, but it was impossible to tell with all the blood.
Strangely enough, his paws also caught my eye.
Once more, I was struck by how much larger they were than a dog’s—nearly the size of my face.
The thought of being side swiped by that was sobering, and it stopped me from getting any closer.
I was in a bit of a conundrum. Although I wasn’t willing to get any nearer, I was still too far away to actually pat the poultice onto the wolf’s wound. And as much as my heart ached at seeing it in so much pain, I wasn’t stupid.
I supposed there was one easy solution… which was how I ended up slowly tossing gobs of deadnettle onto the wound.
It required me to chew two more mouthfuls of the bitter plant, but I managed to cover a good area.
It was impossible to tell for sure, but it looked like the slow, sluggish leaking of blood had eased off, reducing it to little more than a trickle.
I stood there a moment, just observing. I’d pretty much come to the end of anything useful that I could or was willing to do for the wolf. As tempting as it was to bury my hand in its impossibly thick fur, there were some lines I wouldn’t cross.
Almost as if the wolf heard my thoughts, it moved for the first time. I tensed, ready to run, but it only shifted its head enough to lap at the water.
That was a good thing. While I was by no means an animal expert, I’d volunteered at a lot of animal shelters, vet offices, and even spent one summer with a wildlife rehabilitation program to teach teenagers about conservation.
I missed being able to do that, but there just weren’t enough hours in the day.
I felt quite a bit accomplished when the wolf moved on to mouth at some of the deli-meat. It would probably take a bit of energy to chew, and I hoped the wolf would be able to simply swallow it down.
“There ya go,” I murmured softly, crouching slightly. “Just do what you can.”
It had to be my imagination, because it was far too soon for there to be any difference, but it looked like the wolf was breathing at a healthier pace. Then again, maybe my presence was just pissing it off.
“Come on, Ven, you’ve done enough here,” I said, falling back into my habit of talking to myself.
Considering I spent the majority of my time alone or with my cats, sometimes it was the only conversation I had.
It wasn’t as if my aunt ever wanted to talk to me anyway. That had ended when I was a child.
It was time to call the rangers. They could be of real help to the wolf. Hopefully, I’d given it enough of an advantage to last until they could arrive. Honestly, that was probably the best-case scenario.
I pulled my phone back out from the pocket I’d slid it into—so much for being prepared to call 911—and thumbed through my emergency contacts for the ranger number I’d saved a while back.
I went on enough hikes in the woods that I figured I should have it on hand, just in case.
If there was one thing in my life I’d learned, it was that the worst tragedy one could imagine was often right around the corner at any time.
Before I could hit the number, a noise sounded in the bracken of the forest.
That wasn’t entirely unusual. It was a forest, after all. But the way the hair on the back of my neck stood on end had me whirling around, my hand already reaching into my pack.
It turned out my instincts were correct, too, because there were two very angry-looking bears about twenty or so feet away from me, and I didn’t mean the fun, leather-clad kind.
That wasn’t good.
I breathed in slowly through my nose and considered my options. I could run, but that would draw their attention to me and trigger their prey drive, which I definitely did not want. However, their focus seemed entirely on the wolf and nothing else.
Were… were they the ones who had hurt him?
It was ill advised to get involved in the matters of the animal kingdom. It was a cruel world, and sometimes interfering caused more harm than good. In reality, I should have just left and let nature do what nature wanted to do.
Instead, I reached into my pack and pulled out the flare gun I kept for emergencies. Sometimes I biked back from work extremely late, and one never knew what could happen in the darkness of the night.
“Get away!” I screamed as loudly as I could with my heart downright thundering in my chest. Oh, God, was I going to show up in the news as some moron who thought they could take on multiple wild animals?
Maybe, but large predators could occasionally be chased off if you made yourself the loudest, most disconcerting prey they’d ever encountered.
I fired the flare, then immediately started waving my arms as I screamed.
It was… a real scene, if I was being honest, but I wasn’t sure it was enough, so I stopped waving one of my arms long enough to pull up siren sounds on YouTube.
It was probably just adrenaline and my habit of anthropomorphizing things, but I swore the bears exchanged a real look before turning around and ambling off, disappearing into the verdant green.
“Holy shit. Did that actually work?”
I couldn’t believe it, and I allowed myself a single victory cheer before remembering there was a wolf behind me. Right.
I whirled back around. The wolf had finished the water and the food, its head nestled on the ground, and its eyes closed. If not for the steady rise and fall of its side, I would have thought it was dead.
I needed to get it professional help. The whole bear thing had distracted me. Looking back at my phone, I dialed the number, but it didn’t connect.
“What the hell?”
I tried again, then saw the I had no signal. Rolling my eyes, I grabbed my pack and started to head toward the road.
“You’re not allowed to die,” I called over my shoulder. I couldn’t believe I was having casual conversation with a real, actual freaking wolf. “I put too much work into you, got it?”
Of course, it didn’t, but it made me feel better as I marched to the road. Thankfully, my bike was still there, and I sat down next to the tree as I called the number.
Explaining the situation didn’t take very long, and I was relieved when they said they were sending a couple rangers my way. Hopefully, they wouldn’t euthanize the wolf instead of helping it, but I knew better than to ask. Sometimes it was better to stay in the dark.
Twenty minutes later, two rangers pulled up in a truck, which was much faster than I had expected. I had been down to wait for an hour, which really would have ruined my plans for the evening, but it was what it was.
“Can you show us where the creature is, ma’am?” one of them asked after we’d exchanged polite greetings.
“Yeah, right this way.”
I followed the trail exactly, the bloody patches browner than anything else, but when we passed through the cluster of foliage that led to the wolf, there was nothing there.
“I swear it was here,” I said, throat tight with surprise. Surely I hadn’t imagined it all, right? Maybe I really was crazy.
No, my water bowl was still there, exactly like I left it. So, unless I was seriously hallucinating, it all had happened.
“Don’t worry, ma’am. We can see something wounded was lying here,” one of the rangers said, polite as ever. “We’ll take a look around. Why don’t you head home?”
“Y-yeah, I’ll do that,” I murmured, cheeks still pink. Had the bears circled behind me and gotten the wolf? If they had, there would be so much more blood and viscera, right?
What a strange ending to the whole thing.
I grabbed my bike and started pedaling again. Certainly not what I’d expected. It was definitely a story, though, no matter how one shook it.
Man, I wished there was someone I could tell about my adventure, but who would believe me?