Anfal Ouali is a twelve-year-old student going into the seventh grade. Her journey is about to take flight in the world of fantasy. She relishes writing, baking, and basketball. Also, in her leisure time reading is one of her top priorities. Anfal mostly prefers books consisting of action and horror elements.
RAVENOUS FRIEND
by
Anfal Ouali
The boy was frozen in petrified silence. The lingering mist swirled amid the burly redwoods. The fog lapped at the creature’s dark pelt, seemingly melting through the beast’s charcoal-tinted fur. A breeze buffeted the boy’s fair hair, and his breath caught in his throat as his eyes locked onto the beast’s; a deep xantho hue.
A wolf. The boy thought with sudden recognition; his pondering didn’t disrupt the tensionously deafening silence between them.
Rather than snarling, the wolf released a fearful whimper despite its obvious sinewiness, making the boy truly observe the creature. The wolf gingerly took a paw step toward the boy. Instead of the rigid terror he felt when he first gazed at the magnificent canine, the boy’s heart burst with euphoria. Particularly, he felt at ease with the wolf, as if tranquility had spread throughout his torso.
The creature’s demeanor, beauty, and friendliness deeply astounded him. Before he could reach out his hand to the handsome wolf, a sharp screech made him drop the twigs he had clutched. It was too far to make out the dialogue of the yell.
Before the boy could even console the wolf, it had turned tail and bounded through the underbrush, alarmed by the sudden noise.
The boy scowled, loathing whoever terrified the wolf away during their mesmerizing moment. The boy sighed and dearly hoped he would cross paths with the creature again soon, for he resided rather close to the forest.
As the boy bent to pick up the sticks he dropped, the voice sounded once again:
“Ashton, where’re you?” Now he could make out who called.
“I’m coming!” The boy, Ashton, boomed to his sister and quickly followed her voice.
His sister was perched on a log near a dimly lit fire.
“What took you so long?” Ashton’s sister growled as he tossed the twigs into the fire, which emitted a soft crackle.
Ashton gazed at his sister and said, “Lily, I—you won’t believe this—” And he gushed on, telling her of the wolf while they toasted marshmallows by the fire’s radiance.
“So…” Ashton’s sister Lily muttered, “You just saw a wolf and reached out to touch it?”
Ashton sighed indifferently. “It wasn’t a belligerent creature; it was calm. You have more of an aloof nature than that wolf.” He jeered playfully.
Lily glared at Ashton and tossed her hair with sixteen-year-old pride. “Yeah, well, Dad told us not to go make friends with bloodthirsty animals; he did tell us to toast marshmallows and get home for supper,” she emphasized.
Ashton obliged, but his thoughts were swimming with the wolf's features; he was desperate for its presence. It was as if meeting the wolf was an addiction. Ashton was determined to attempt to reunite with the creature once again.
* * *
The boy, Ashton, gained the opportunity to meet the wolf; his father kept meat in their freezer due to owning a butcher store. Ashton silently dragged gargantuan slabs of raw meat to the forest in secrecy.
There, in the silent midst of the trees, the wolf always pads to Ashton and ravenously consumes the butchered meat he buoyantly provides. Once a week, every summer midafternoon, the boy does this feat, feeling content as his canine companion licks its chops after a satisfied meal of stripped flesh and frigid steak. When his parents interrogate him about the missing meat, Ashton doesn’t meet his sister’s dubious scowl and fibs without a twinge of remorse. He continues to gaze at the wolf by sharing their meat.
With every slab, the wolf develops into a more immense specimen, with a burlier chest and wider shoulders, not to mention its glossier pelt.
As the tedious summer heat melts into something rather chillier,
disappearing meat amongst his family finally raises higher suspicions. As Ashton hoisted a particularly large slab of steak, Lily snuck up on him in a malignant manner.
“Ashton! What are you doing?! Don’t tell me.” Lily chuckled, her voice heavy with poisonous sarcasm. “That’s for your wolf friend.” She paused as he gaped at her; her olive complexion was scrunched up in fury. “I’m not an idiot, Ash. I knew you were up to something! Mom and Dad are going to hear about your actions!” With that, she marched into the living room.
“Stop!” Ashton screeched, and he panicked in horror.
If his parents were conscious of his canine companion, they would leave him stripped of any friendship. Besides, bonding with a wild creature made Ashton feel as if he had obtained a purpose.
Before Lily reached their parents, Ashton acted. He burst through the front door; adrenaline and ecstatic hope drilled him onward. He skidded to a stop as he reached the thick forest.
Calling for the wolf, having faith the gorgeous creature would come. To his jubilation, the wolf slithered out of the darkness between the trees. It seemed to decipher why Ashton had longed for it.
The wolf bound back down the path Ashton had come from. Its jet-black fur was a blur of speed.
Hidden between two minuscule trees, Ashton peered through a crevice and saw his family wandering the region around their residence, horror-heartedly calling for him. His wolf swiftly raced toward them, and as his kin froze at the sight of the creature, they yelped in petrification. Ashton ripped his gaze away as a snarl echoed across the area, and each of his family’s screams were abruptly cut off.
The wolf trotted back to Ashton, a crimson liquid staining its fangs and muzzle. Ashton felt not even a lingering feeling of guilt. His wolf morphed into a demented human figure who wasn’t as immaculate as the wolf. Its shoulders were thick tufts. However, Ashton was vaguely conscious of this oddity. The word skinwalker burst through his conscience. Regardless, Ashton gazed joyously at the figure who once was his wolf.
“Come,” it hissed smoothly. Ashton never peered back at the bloodied heaps of his kin on the leaf-strewn earth. He merely followed his ravenous friend.