A Woman in the Company of Wolves

Four years, four years of searching and hoping against hope to find his baby girl.  There was not much left of his dear mother, whom his youngest child had gone off to see, but other than some charred clothing, his daughter was nowhere to be found.  Paw prints outside the home led many to believe wolves had a part to play, that they must have taken his beautiful daughter.  But as the days turned to weeks, the weeks to months, and now the months to years, many say it is time to accept that his little girl is gone forever.  However, a father’s love can go on forever, and with each hunt, he prayed he’d find her.  This particular hunt was different, it had been a very heavy snow laden winter and the sudden heat wave had caused massive flooding.  The once white covered forest floor was now muddy, leaving deep indentations in the ground with every step.  

Proceeding carefully, he came upon some tracks; multiple tracks of wolves, yet one set of tracks among them looked human.  The tracks headed up towards the mountains, but where did they originate?  Following the tracks backwards he came upon a small opening, a cave.  Cautiously he stepped into the cave, his feet meeting water.  Clearly the melting snow had flooded the cave, forcing the wolves to leave, but what of the human tracks that was in their company.  Carefully he began searching the cave, not much appeared to be there, but as he turned to leave discouraged, something caught his eye, something red.   

Floating in the water was a small crudely made book.  The binding was red string, its front and back a leather animal hide, and keeping it tied shut, a red ribbon.  He caressed the ribbon, the color reminded him of his daughter, it was her favorite color.  Pulling the ribbon he untied it and gently opened the now heavily water damaged book.  It was a diary, the words bled into each other making many pages illegible, but some sentences were clear enough to see.  The first page made his heart leap in his chest. 

It was her hand writing, she was alive, the wolves had taken her.  The remainder of the page was too damaged to read so he began flipping through the pages, finally some more writing could be made out.

People were close by, why didn’t she call out for help?  A few pages further in a line stands out, he reads it, then reads it again, confused.

Expecting, expecting what? Why is she excited about this?  His breathing hastens as he furiously flips through the pages for the answer.

She had children with a wolf.  He leans against the wall of the cave, not sure whether to be glad to find out his daughter is alive and that he is a grandfather or enraged that she appears to be willingly remaining with the wolf and bearing him children.  Unsure if he should continue reading he slowly starts flipping the pages, but page after page seems to be destroyed.  Since the diary was floating face up, majority of the back pages had been submerged.  A small sentence seems to have survived the long submersion.

She’s been gone 4 years, if they are 3 years old, then it was not too long after her disappearance that she conceived.  The book slips from his hands, landing open in the water.  As it sinks down three words catch his eyes and he realizes that his little girl is gone and all that remains is a woman in the company of wolves.