Work Text:
The wolf pup
Kalani is on the run. She runs and runs. Onward, always onward. She travels through dense forests and dry deserts. Across and along raging rivers and climbing steep cliffs. Everywhere, she passes old monuments, ancient cities, buildings, and constructions. Remnants of ancient civilizations. She keeps going, only pausing to eat and drink, as well as short naps. She still has things she needs to do. She can’t let her pursuers catch up to her. If they do, it’s all over.
She’s passing through a rocky canyon when she hears it. The whimper of an injured animal. She moves around some fallen boulders and sees a small wolf pup, one of its hind legs trapped under a rock. When the pup sees her, it tries to wiggle away, but fails, whimpering with fear and pain.
“Hey,” Kalani says in the most calming voice she can manage, crouching down next to the poor animal, slowly extending her hand towards it. “It’s all right. Don’t’ be scared.”
The pup stops struggling and whimpering, though its ears are still folded back and its amber eyes are watching her every movement.
She considers leaving it and hoping it’ll manage to escape. Saving the pup would take up a lot of her valuable time. Especially if it’s also injured. But her conscience won’t let her simply abandon it. Besides, if her pursuers see it, they might kill it.
“I’m going to get you out of there,” she tells it, still speaking calmly, keeping her movements slow. She carefully reaches her hand towards the pup and lets it smell her fingers, then lightly strokes her hand over its head. The fur is coarse, a bit tangled, and sandy.
“Hang on just a little longer,” Kalani talks quietly to the pup as she moves around the rock and grabs it firmly, then pulls and heaves to move it off the young wolf. It’s very heavy, but she doesn’t have to move it far, just make it fall to the side and the wolf is free.
The pup carefully stands up and tries putting weight on the leg. It moves around carefully, maybe a bit stiff, but seemingly uninjured. It then yips happily and wags its tail.
Kalani steps back, glad the wolf is alright. She kneels down next to it and pets the wiggling ball of fur. The pup barks excitedly, all fear and weariness forgotten. Kalani smiles and laughs a bit when the pup trips over its own paws.
That’s when she hears a low growl behind her. When she turns around, she sees a whole pack of wolves looking down at her and the pup from the surrounding cliffs. They must be the pup’s pack, judging by how the pup barks happily and wags its tail even faster upon seeing them.
Kalani stands up and takes a few steps back as one of the wolves approaches. It goes to the pup first, nosing the top of its head, seemingly making sure it’s alright. Then it turns to Kalani. Its nose twitches as it smells her legs. It pauses for a moment, then huffs, turns its back to Kalani and starts nudging the pup away and back to the rest of the pack.
Kalani lets out a relieved breath as she watches the wolves leave, the pup and its pack returning to the shadows, moving towards the deeper and darker parts of the canyon. Watching the pup with its pack, its family, makes her feel lonelier than ever. She wishes her family was with her. That she, too, could go home.
But she can’t dwell on that now. She has to keep going, having already spent far too much time here. Her pursuers could be here soon. She must go on. For her own sake, and for her peoples’.