Wolf Dog

By: Rain-Wing-Dragon

     Out in the middle of the Langwood forest lived a family of four. Mother, who was tallest of all. She is very wise in age and cares for everyone by cooking and keeping the house clean. Father oldest of all in the family, he has a rage problem. He is the one who provides money to support the family and comes home drunk with ale every other day from Halkalberry Gin. Though he is known to be a vicious hunter and his favorite kills are the haunting savage wolves that live in the forest near the town. Eldest child is tall, sweet, strong, and not very smart. Eldest child does most of the heavy lifting chores around the house. Youngest child is short, slim, clever and devilish. Youngest child would fix the worn down house they lived in and do away with the pests that filled the forsaken lone land

The family of four lived well with one another, living in their own lives avoiding the other. Mother keeping food on the table, Father walking in drunken, mad, and hungry. Eldest child reading books, and Youngest child trying out new tinkers.

One harsh winter night, Eldest child was chopping up wood for tonights fire and food when Eldest child heard a harsh whine not far off into the woods. Off Eldest child went axe in hand closer and closer to the sound of the whine. In the middle of the woods laid a baby wolf half freezing to death in the storm. Eldest child ran over and picked up the pup and covered it with it’s wool cover and raced back home.

Inside Youngest child was working on a new tinker and Mother cutting radishes for soup that night when Eldest child came in banging down the door wolf pup in hand. Racing over Eldest child loaded up wood and started the fire laying wolf pup near the the fire.

Mother came over knife in hand looking at Eldest child and hiss, “We can not keep it here, Father will be home soon and want it dead and eaten.”

Eldest child cried in return, “It could be useful to us alive! It can learn to hunt and track the game during the harsh winter.”

Mother stood still for a minute then went back to preparing tonight's soup, “Put it into the shed child and get back out to work Father will be home soon.”

Eldest child smiled with content and went outside and locked it in the shed. After finishing the wood for the night Eldest child went inside and sat down for dinner with Mother, Youngest child, and Father, who at the time was red in the face and drunken with ale, for dinner which happens to be Father’s newest kill an Albino Elk. The animals horns and bloody tail were in a buck by the door. Eldest child shivered as he ate and swore to teach Wolf Pup to hide when father was around.

Months went by as Eldest child trained Wolf Pup to help load wood, plow the spring fields, hunt, and most of all to be quiet, when Father was around so not to get caught. Soon Youngest child became fond of Wolf Pup and started playing with Wolf Pup, chasing it around the field and such. It even helped Mother out during the spring digging holes for the seeds and chasing away critters. As Wolf Pup got bigger Eldest child and Youngest child built, now called Wolf Dog, a makeshift shed out in the woods so that Wolf Dog would not be brutally slaughtered and hung in the house by Father’s hands. Later that week, a really fearsome storm it Langwood and killed most of the crops the next morning. So Father and Eldest child had to ride into town and sell what they had to make winters set pay to live on. While they were gone, Youngest child looked after Wolf Dog and  to make sure Wolf Dog was locked in its shed at night. The day before Father and Eldest child came home Youngest child forgot to lock Wolf Dogs’ shed and Wolf Dog got out. While Mother and Youngest child were waiting the next morning by the edge of the land near the rockedy road, Wolf Dog got inside the house and destroyed it. Wolf Dog tore up the beds, ate all the food and dropped everything on the floor. Wolf Dog clawed all the wooden posts that held the house together. Once Wolf Dog was finished it fell asleep on the floor next to the fire. When Father, Mother, Eldest child, and Youngest child entered the house Father turned a crimson red and yelled his head off.

Father roared “WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO MY HOUSE AND WHY IS THERE A FLEA RIDDEN MUTT ON MY FLOOR!”

Eldest child called back “ Wolf Dog is my pet I have trained him to do lots of things around the house to help. I will send him far into the woods and let him loose. Please Father do not shoot Wolf Dog.”

Father stood on still for a second then stormed out of the house and road down to the Halkalberry Gin. Mother, Eldest child, and Youngest child all worked in silence to clean up the mess Wolf Dog made.

The next morning Eldest child took the shotgun and Wolf Dog out deep into the wood where Eldest child told Wolf Dog “Go into the woods and never return or I will have to shoot you dead.”

Wolf Dog was hesitant and didn’t move for awhile. So Eldest child loaded up the shotgun and shot at the ground. This gave Wolf Dog a fright and ran off into the woods. Weeks went by as they were before Wolf Dog and none of them have seen or heard from Wolf Dog since. On the fourth week gone, Father left for a long trip through the forest to get more meat that would last through the winter. Father came through the door of the house bag in hand after two weeks gone. Father announced “I have made a great hunt and have gifts for all of you!”

He dropped the bag and shuffled through it handing Mother four spice satchels made out of fur and hide. He then gave Eldest child a new fur pelt blanket to curl up in while reading books. He gave Youngest child special muttons with claws so that he does not harm himself with burns and can cut things easier with his tinkers. Lastly Father mounted on his chair the puffy soft tail of his great hunt and sat down for that night's dinner of radish soup with salted-wolf meat he had cleaned in town the night before.