The Wolf and the Hunter

Learning Something New

Connor had been gone a while, it seemed. The days became darker and shorter while the winds became colder. Soon, a light snow started dusting the frontier. It was quite the sight to behold, honestly. The last winter I had spent, I had spent it alone, slowly starving and strangled with depression. Now I was in a warm house with friendly neighbors, warm clothes, hot food, and last but not least, a kind-hearted native boy. Who would have thought a gunshot wound would have cause all this to happen.

The colder day of this November month, I stayed inside. No longer having a thick fur coat had its downsides. Snow melted when it would come in contact with my skin instead of forming an extra insulating layer, making me wet and chilly. Before you couldn't find me inside, now I hardly left. Unless I had the beautiful coat Ellen made me. It was a simple, dark brown coat with raccoon fur along the hood, cuffs, and hem of the coat. I loved it to pieces, but even that wonderfully made coat couldn't fully keep out the chilly airs the ocean brought to us.

So I was simply wondering the manor. Upstairs in the room adjacent to Connor's empty room was a large room with glass bookshelves and strange nick-nacks on the wall. Walking to one of the shelves, I carefully opened one of the glass doors. It was fully of dull, old looking books, but one caught my eye. A dark maroon color with faded golden writing on its spine. I reached to grab it, hesitating slightly, before carefully pulling it from its place, a visible streak of dust marking its removal from its resting place. The old book had seen better days. The maroon colored leather was cracked and chipped in places, the spine of it curving slightly alway from the bound pages near the top and bottom. Opening the book, I noticed the pages were dry, and some were wrinkled slightly.

"What do you think you're doing?"

I jumped in surprise, not hearing the old man's rhythmic steps or his strong scent of coffee as I was too focused on the book in my hands. Flushing with embarrassment, I awkwardly offered the book to Achilles.

"I'm sorry. I was only looking." I apologised, bowing my head. Achilles only shook his head before grabbing the book from my hand. He briefly looked at the name on the book before setting it back in its place.

"Just looking through an old journal, huh?" Achilles asked, suspicious of me. I blushed further, not looking in his eyes.

"No, only looking. Honestly. I um..." I faded out lightly, "I um can't read."

"You can't read?" he asked.

"No. My father didn't feel like I needed to know how, and then when I ran away, I didn't have anyone to teach me." Achilles hummed out, nodding before walking over to a different book case. He skimmed the backs of multiple books before pulling out an old brown book. He hobbled over to the table that was standing in the back of the room, becoming me over to him. Curiously, I followed and sat down when he took his own place across from me. Achilles set the book down and slid it towards me gently. I shot him a questioning looked as I turned the book to face me.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand?"

"I will teach you if you like."

An uncontrollable smile spread across my face at his offer, "Yes! Thank you so much!" I was about to jump out of my seat and go hug the old man, but he held his hand up before signaling back to the book. So I quickly sat back down and opened the book, moving in my seat lightly, excited that I was finally going to learn to read.

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It was a lot harder than I initially thought. All the different letters had so many sounds to them. At times, it would get incredibly confusing, knowing which sounds went with which letters and their order. But, Achilles was patient with me, gently coxing me to correct my mistakes and continue trying. While he was teaching me to read, he also taught me to write as well. I was so grateful for his teachings. Learning to read and write seemed to almost signify to me that I was human, not only wolf. I could try to live with normal people and, at the very least, act normal, even when I am far from.