His forehead creased. “What are you so happy about?”

The she-wolf turned around and trotted back the way she had come. She stopped and looked over her shoulder at him. She wanted him to follow her.

Sighing he shook his head and looked up toward the blue morning sky, “What have you gotten yourself into now, I wonder?” This was said more to himself than to the wolf. He walked after the animal shaking his head.

The she-wolf started jogging once she saw he was following her. She led him away from the lake and deeper into the forest. His body was responding. He had no problem keeping pace with the wolf and he kept her in sight, even through the dense underbrush that they were passing through.

It seemed that their pace was increasing at a steady rate and before long he was in a full out run. He noticed that they were heading north once again. Why weren’t they traveling along the rocky terrain that they had run on for the past few days? It didn’t really matter to him except that having to run over bushes and around trees was a lot harder than running on open rock and he found himself wondering just how long he would be able to keep this up.

They raced through the forest. The she-wolf jumped and glided through the rough terrain. He let his long legs carry him over the underbrush and keep pace with the wolf using his long strides. He lost himself in the motion of the run, his legs pumping and his eyes moving back and forth between the ground and his guide.

They came upon a dense part of the forest, and they were forced to slow down. The wolf immediately turned westward, and he followed. He soon saw what it was that the wolf had seemed so happy about.

Lying on the ground next to a rather large, dead looking pine tree was the fresh corpse of a small deer. The she-wolf trotted around to the other side of the dead animal and sat down on her haunches next to the piece of denim that she had left in the dirt.

He wished that it hadn’t rained last night and that he had some dry wood. As it was, he didn’t have a way to cook the animal. He looked down at the carcass. It looked good. The dead deer had claw marks down its back and a very distinctive bite mark in its neck. It was fresh and flies hadn’t gathered yet, but they probably would, especially in the growing heat of the late morning. The thing had a pool of blood that was draining out of it and resting a few feet from the thing. The deer had not been eaten or disturbed in any way except that it had been killed. The she-wolf had not taken her share before she had led him here. She was going to wait and share the full kill with him. That is very thoughtful of you, my lady.

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His body would need the protein. He wasn’t going to argue that fact, but he had always been wary about eating raw meat out here in the wilderness. But he didn’t want the kill to go to waste either. He succumbed to his animal instincts and decided to eat the thing raw. He wrenched his knife free from its sheath and plunged it deep into the animal’s belly. With a forceful jerk he ripped the blade up toward its throat. More blood came gushing out of the animal and his hands were covered in the red ichor.

He reached his hands up into the animal and ripped out the heart. He raised it up to the wolf. The wolf sniffed at the upheld organ. He dropped it onto the ground at her feet, being careful to not have it touch the piece of fabric that was lying there. The wolf sniffed at it once more and then lunged at it with her jaws and in one motion the organ was gone, and her mouth was red with the blood of the morsel.

He smiled at her hunger and reaching into the deer once more he pulled out the liver and placed it at her feet. The wolf sniffed it and in the same motion as before the liver also disappeared. He continued to rip out the vittles of the dead animal and one at a time he placed them at the feet of his guide. She would sniff every piece of meat first then in one smooth, vicious motion she would devour the meat without remorse or hesitation.

He began carving into the flanks of the deer and shaved away strips of the rich red flesh and ate them raw. The animal flesh satisfied him in ways that fruit and vegetation just couldn’t do. He felt a slight twinge of guilt over not being able to build a fire and cook the animal properly. This meal might make him sick or kill him. He understood all these risks, but he kept eating. The meat was rich and good, and he couldn’t bring himself to stop till he was full.

Once he had had his fill, he cleaned the knife on the ground and sheathed it. He then tore into the animal with his hands mangling the carcass. He couldn’t just leave the thing having been obviously carved by a man-made knife. He dug his hands into it and ripped at the flesh. The she-wolf seemed to understand what was going on as well because she tore into the thing with her teeth, mashing and eating the animal.

After the deer looked as close to being eaten by wolfs as they could make it appear he stood up. He would love to go back to that lake and wash himself off. The deer’s blood was already drying and very sticky. He was afraid to touch anything. He looked down and saw that his knife’s handle was covered in drying deer blood and that would attract some unwanted attention.

He looked down at the wolf. “You wouldn’t happen to know where a guy could get cleaned up would you?”