"So, she is your niece?" Bobby questioned Melissant as she refilled his cup of coffee. He lifted the mug to his lips, taking a sip from the cup as his eyes traveled to the girl in a corner booth, her attention focused on her books.
"Yeah," Melissant answered, glancing at her niece.
"She is the quiet sort." Bobby turned his focus back to Melissant as he questioned her.
"Yes," Melissant sighed. Her niece was not always the quiet type; she had always been reserved, but she was once the life of the family until things started going badly for her.
"You're worried about her?" he asked, placing his cup on the counter and reaching for a cigarette. Melissant narrowed her eyes at him. "Bobby, you know the rules: no smoking inside the diner," she scolded. Holding his hands up in surrender, he placed the cigarettes back in his pocket. "Why do you seem so worried about her?"
"She has only me left, and the way Eliza died, it is not right, and I can tell she feels all alone. She looks to be healing well, but I know she has had nightmares," Melissant answered.
"Was she dreaming of the death of her mother?" he questioned, looking back at the girl with a very familiar chain around her neck, with the pendant hanging at the bottom.
"I don't know; she never told me about what the nightmares were about, but it seems to have gone away." But he could not stop staring at the pendant carrying the symbol.
"Well, that is good then," Bobby told her with a smile. No one should be reliving the tragedy over and over.
Raven sat in the booth, engrossed in her homework. Her eyes lifted to the group of teenagers laughing loudly across the diner. A small smile spread across her face, but somehow she was envious of their carefreeness and joy.
"It's tragic about the girl, isn't it?" a voice said aloud, catching Raven's attention.
"Yes, I heard the sheriff has dispatched rangers to track down the animal responsible for the attacks; I heard they think it could be a wolf," Aunt Mel responded, pouring coffee into the group of men's cups as they continued their discussion.
"They've found an injured wolf but decided to leave it be," Bobby said, glancing at Raven with a somber expression.
"Is no one going to rescue it?" Raven asked with a hint of concern in her voice.
"No, the wolves aren't supposed to be here. It's better and safer to let it die," another man answered coldly. Raven sat silently for a few moments as they continued their conversation, indifferent. She quickly packed up her belongings.
"Hey, Aunt Mel, I'm heading out," she called in a hurry.
"Okay, I will see you later," her aunt replied warmly.
She knew that she should not be this stupid to look for an injured animal, but it did not feel right to know something needed help, and everybody was looking away; based on the conversations, they were looking for another animal but thinking that the wolves could be responsible for it.
The crunching leaves under her feet matched the rhythm of her thoughts.
CRUNCH, CRUNCH.
She stopped, listening intently for any sign of the injured wolf.
"You're okay, Raven. It's just an animal," she whispered to herself, trying to shake off the fear. Resuming her walk, she suddenly heard footsteps approaching. Her body tensed, and a shiver ran down her spine.
Someone was following her.
With a swift motion, Raven turned to confront her pursuer, only to find no one there.
"Dude!" she heard a shout. Two guys were walking on the trail not far from there. They must have been the source of the noise.
The guy who exclaimed to his friend caught Raven's attention: "You won't believe what I found!"
"What did you find?" his friend inquired.
"He said there was a wolf with a massive stomach wound, lying there." Raven's heart missed a beat. She halted and silently took cover behind a tree to watch the two friends.
"Really? Where?" his friend asked as they walked.
"Near the stream." So the wolf had crossed the stream to this side.
"I want to see it." The other guy told his friend.
"Okay, but we must hurry; other animals might come to finish it off."
"I didn't know wolves were around here; there have been no reports of them on this side of the stream."
"Well, we're lucky to see one. Let's go before we're caught and blamed for something."
"You know what we should do afterward?" the friend questioned, halting their movement.
"What?"
"Explore the abandoned house on the mountain."
"No way, dude, that place has ghosts. I'm not crossing the stream," he told his friend.
"How do you know? No one has been near it since the incident." Raven trailed them at a distance, inadvertently stepping on a stick, the noise causing the friends to halt.
"Did you hear that?" one asked, turning to look back. Raven quickly pressed herself against the tree, hoping to remain unseen.
"Hear what?"
"Man, why are you so jumpy? It's probably an animal."
CROAK
Raven clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle a sound as her heart thumped wildly. A raven perched in the tree, eyeing her. Since the funeral, ravens had always been around, following and watching her. She peeked from behind the tree; the boys had vanished, likely spooked by the bird.
She turned back, only to find that the raven had also disappeared. Stopping at the stream, she listened for any sound of the wolves that did not want her to cross.
"They could still be out there, Raven."
Raven crossed the stream, rushing to find the wolf.
Raven searched along the stream for any sign of the wolf but was disappointed to find no signs of it. Blinking back tears as she climbed over the fallen tree, she knew the wolf was out there needing help. It broke her heart. Nobody deserved that much, much less any animal. As she turned around after not finding anything, a sound from behind caused her to freeze.
"Grrrr."
Turning around, Raven's gaze fell upon a ball of fur hidden between rocks; shallow breaths left the wolf.
'It's struggling,' she noted.
'But it's still alive,' she thought with relief.
Raven hurried to the wolf, before she slowed to a cautious walk, not wanting to intimidate the creature. She approached it slowly, noting its labored breathing.
'It's dying.'
The wolf's eyes met hers.
"I'm just going to check on you, okay? I'm here to help," she whispered, kneeling beside the wolf.
'Don't be afraid,' she reassured herself.
'Don't be afraid. It's just a wild, injured animal. It won't attack you, Raven.'
GROWL.
'Or maybe it will,' she reconsidered as the growl rumbled through the air, but she could see the severity of its injuries from the blood loss.
"I'm going to look at your wound," she said, edging closer to locate the injury the man had mentioned.
Her eyes found the gaping wound; it required stitches.
'What can you do, Raven? You're not equipped to help,' she thought, frustrated.
With bloodied hands, Raven frantically searched her bag for her phone, quickly grabbing it to look up the vet's number.
'No service.'
Staring blankly at her phone, Raven tossed it back into her bag.
"I'll be right back, okay? "
Not that it could go anywhere.
Crouching beside it, she laid everything down and gave the shocked wolf a reassuring glance.
"You're going to be okay." She couldn't bear to see others in pain, especially animals harmed by people. She brushed her hand over its fur, then slowly poured water from the vase onto its stomach to wash away as much blood as possible. Taking a jar full of yarrow leaves, she hesitated, then extended her hand towards its mouth, but quickly withdrew as the wolf snapped at her.
"You need to eat this; it will help," she insisted, pushing the leaves into his mouth.
While dabbing the wound clean, she noticed that the belly was swollen.
"You're expecting?" she exclaimed in shock, and the wolf met her gaze.
Upon closer inspection, she realized the wound wasn't as large as she had feared.
"The wound isn't so big, but I'll have to stitch it closed, okay?" she whispered to the wolf. Grabbing the needle and thread with an unsteady hand, she held the needle up along with the thread, pulling the thread through the small hole and making a knot at the bottom. Raven leaned down, pulling the skin together. Although she did not like to touch anybody, she needed to help the wolf. She glanced at the wolf to see that she was asleep. Then she began working. Once she was done, she shrugged off her flannel shirt, tying it around the wound to cover it. Raven sat back, watching the wolf sleep.
"You will be okay," she whispered, clutching the jar of homemade paste. Gently, she applied it across the wound, silently praying that her efforts were not futile and that it would bring healing. "That's creepy, bro," a voice remarked from the trees.
"Are you okay?" they inquired, gesturing toward her blood-stained clothing and mud-smeared hands.
"Uh, yes, I'm fine," she replied, her voice a mixture of confusion and reassurance.
"So, do you normally hang out in the woods or look at dead animals?" With a composed stance, Raven fixed her gaze on them.
"My family owns the cabin close by, and on my way, I spotted the wolf and tried to help the wolf," she clarified. Their heads turned sharply towards the growling, a clear indication they were not alone. The guys ran away only for a familiar face to step into sight. The man from earlier, Bobby, rushed to her, picking up the wolf.
"Help me get her to the truck."
Raven walked alongside him and got into his truck as he sat in the back with the large wolf. Raven quickly got into the driver's seat.
"Drive to my clinic; it is across from the diner," Bobby instructed her. Raven drove out of the secluded part of town to the back of the clinic at Bobby's request. The back doors burst open as a guy rushed out.
"Why is she here? We do not need her." Pointing to her.
"Just leave her and help me," Bobby told him, carrying her into the clinic.
Raven waited outside the room they had disappeared to; minutes had passed as the guy rushed out, not sparing a glance at her. Turning to look through the small window, meeting Bobby's eyes, he lifted his hand, telling her to come inside. Bobby stared down at the wolf.
"You did a great job with the wolf; she will be fine," he told her softly. A sigh of relief left her, glad that the wolf would be okay.
"So what happened to your head?" he questioned out of the blue. Her eyes snapped from the sleeping wolf to meet Bobby's eyes.
"I slipped and hit my head," she told him.
Nodding his head, he let out a breath. The door suddenly slammed open, and the two of them faced the girl about their age rushing into the room. "I heard you brought in the wolf everybody had been talking about," she rushed out, coming to the table to stare at the wolf.
"Raven, this is Wren; she comes here now and then to help out as a volunteer. And she sometimes forgets her manners," he said matter-of-factly.
"Sorry, I was just glad you decided to get the poor creature; anybody else would have finished it off." She whispered, staring at the wolf; her eyes snapped to her. "I haven't seen you around here; you must be new."
"I just moved here," Raven told her. "You helped Mr. Bert, right? Zane said you were with Mr. Bert when he spotted you outside, and by the looks of it, you helped," Wren said, gesturing to her bloodied clothes.
"I did not do much; Mr. Bert did the rescuing," Raven explained.
"Well, I am sure he could not have done it without you. Since you helped, I take it you are an animal lover, which means I have made a new friend," Wren said excitedly.
Raven stared at the overly excited girl, glad to have made a friend.
"Okay, now, you have to go back to work, Wren," Bobby said from behind them, having thought he had already left the room.
"Okay then, I will see you later, Raven," Wren called out as she left the room.
"She is a nice girl, and I am sure that when you go to school, she will be happy to show you around," Bobby told her.
"I don't go to school."
You don't go to school?
"I am homeschooled," Raven explained.
"What happened?" Bobby asked.
"I got bullied at my old school, so I switched to homeschooling."
"Well, thank you for your help with her. I am sure she will make a full recovery." He said, offering her a smile. Slinging her bag over her shoulder and leaving the vet and heading outside, the boy from earlier glared at her.