"Do you desire comfort?", she asked.

Her words rang out around her, their sound quickly absorbed by the misty green woodland.

She had stopped walking, and now stood still, listening. Her heart beat a little quicker in her chest.

Perhaps she had imagined it?

But no. There was the warmth and presence of another being still at the edges of her awareness.

Its heart beat like hers, but slower.

"I desire the meat that you carry", said the wolf.

The voice had come from behind her, where she knew it would be. It was not the kind of voice she had expected from a wolf.

It still had rasps, and rattles - a hungry intensity to it, yet there was something else there also...

"Which meat is that?", she asked, mentally tracing out the path to her dagger for her right arm, a wicker basket upon her left.

"You needn't fear me ..., lady", said the wolf, sensing, or, perhaps smelling, the shift in her resolve, "I mean the meat that you carry in the wicker basket upon your left arm".

The voice was level, and seemingly calm. It had not moved closer, nor further away, appearing to have halted in place as she had. The wolf spoke more clearly to her than many humans did.

Nevertheless, she had no desire to risk her life by denying it. Besides, once the basket was down, and the wolf distracted with fresh meat, she could run, climb a tree, or prepare herself better to fight.

She slowly lowered the basket to the ground, keeping her eyes forwards, and bending her knees so as not to startle the voice with any kind of sudden movement. Her glazed eyes probably saw forest, and the misty, bark-laden path ahead of her, but she was not really looking outwardly at all right now.

She stood still and waited, beside the basket. The wolf had not moved. She could sense it watching her with... consideration...?

"Will you have enough?", the voice asked. She narrowed her eyes in confusion.

"Ordinarily a wolf would not concern themselves with the wellbeing of one carrying meat... be it on their arm... or in their arm", she said, stiffening slightly.

A pause. She sensed a slight amusement... mirth, in the presence.

"I need no more than that which you obtained from the town butcher earlier today."

Her eyes again widened. She could not tell if they were already wide to begin with.

It was the beginning of winter, and the sizable amount of meat she had indeed procured from the town butcher earlier that day was to be stored in the cool shelf to the rear of her home. It was partially preserved with salts already,

but the rapidly descending cold from the mountain would have seen to keeping it for at least a month. However, starving to death wasn't exactly the most pressing thing in her mind at this moment.

Had it been following me? Watching me? Or was it merely so naturally skilled in scent that it could tell even the color of the paper in which the meat was wrapped?

A moment passed, and she sensed the voice was waiting for her to respond. Ah yes! It had asked a question.

Despite the immediate threat that such a happenstance would usually place upon one's life, she found herself smiling... ever so slightly.

It was care. The wolf... cared. Her instinct of self-preservation and defense melted into a curious generosity. Her body relaxed muscles she hadn't realised she had held.

The voice... the presence... it was so gentle in itself that it, in turn, fostered warmth in her reply. She carefully turned to meet their eyes.

"Please", she said, "I will be just fine. I feel that you need this far more than I do."

The wolf's eyes were golden brown, and shone like rare stone. Even in this intensity, she could see the intelligence, the kindness, so unlike a common beast, behind them.

The wolf closed its eyes gently, and lowered its head to its outstretched forepaws in a show of reverence. As it returned from its bow, it opened its eyes again.

"You see far more clearly than many a human", said the eyes, "and the gift of wolfspeech is exceptionally rare among the two-legged... yet, you are no witch."

The wolf padded silently up to the wicker basket, taking the handle in its jaws gently, as if cradling an egg.

It looked into her eyes once more, held her gaze briefly, and then was gone, vanished into the swirling mist and dense undergrowth.

A bird trilled, and insects returned to life. When had they ceased?

Her heart quietened in her chest as the world swam back into the ordinary around her. Was it real? Had that just...?

But her basket was gone, and with it, her supper for the evening. She shook the remains of the glamour from her mind, and began the long walk back into town.

Tonight, dear fediverse, I came upon an urge to write. So infrequently do these vivid scenes possess or hold me of late that I immediately took to the keyboard. This story I have written for you, and for myself. So if you are possessed to indulge in its brief interlude from reality, please leave me a comment.

#shortstory
#excerpt
#spontaneousfantasy
#wolf