The Howling of a White Wolf

The Howling of a White Wolf

I looked around me to find I was surrounded by the winter forest, 
There was a good six inches of snow on the ground
And in front of me a small camp fire was blazing.
Cross-legged on the snow across from me she sat
The fire between us we sat in the snow
The silent forest brooding all around us 

She looked different this time

She always looks different

She is a shape-shifter 
We have known each other across many lifetimes

A beautiful white wolf skin cloak hung over her shoulders
The lamb wool cloak she often wears was gone
The wolf’s head was still attached to the cloak
And I had the odd feeling the wolf was watching me over her left shoulder
Watching me, staring at me with cold, wild, crystalline blue eyes

Her body was covered only by a long linen shirt and she wore no shoes
Her bare feet were covered in the snow as we sat quietly by the fire

I sat watching her, and she was busy carving a stick into a spear point

Her obsidian knife made paper thin shavings in a pile next to her on the ground

She would reach down and throw a hand full of shavings into the fire every few minutes

The thick fur of the cloak was pure white and the eyes still shimmered blue

I stared at the wolf skin, I had never seen a white wolf before

It's noble head hung lifeless over her shoulder

I stared at that, 

She read my thoughts, as she often does 

And laughed....to me the sound of her laughter 

was a symphony of scintillating joy. 

"Why did you kill such a wonderful creature to create a cape?

Surely you could have made one of cloth ? " I asked her. 

She laughed again ...she laughed like the sound
...of rushing water tumbling over stones
She stood with a little jump...then swiftly swooped down to the ground

Dropping the fur from her shoulders onto the snow in front of her

She took the skin in her hands...the two front legs,  and rubbed them together 

The skin was instantly covering bones, full flesh beneath the fur appeared. 

She bent forward and shook the wolf’s body twice, 

Pressing on it’s ribs and then the chest began to rise and fall on it’s own

She stood up and the wolf got to it’s feet. 
He began to dance around her wagging his tail

Then lay down flat, next leaping up and began howling 
...deep and strong and clear he howled into the bright sky

She looked at me, held out her hands and laughed her magical laugh…

“You have been in the world of three dimensions for too long! You are forgetting so much!” 

She bent over and took the wolf’s paws in her hands and gently tossed his body across her shoulders returning him to his previous (seemingly lifeless) state. 

“Finish this”, she said, and then she was gone, she evaporated into the air like a wisp of smoke. I was left sitting there by her fire, surrounded by the forest covered in snow, left alone with only the sound of her laughter...

She laughed like the sound of rushing water tumbling over stones

Her memory of her voice hung in the air echoed by the sound of wind in the high branches.

WLS