How about a little bonus content, as promised. I was inspired by the recent wolf releases in Colorado and a video of a beautiful black wolf tearing out of his cage and into the woods, away from his captors, with nary a glance. The story of two wolves has evangelical, good versus evil connotations, as well as a purportedly Cherokee legend that has been referred to repeatedly in many recent films, according to wikipedia. What if they were merely differently colored animals of the same species, much like differently colored skins on the human species? Food for thought, discuss amongst yourselves (or in the comment section).
When a wolf meets a wolf in the woods... Like all territorial wolves, they size each other up. One is a little smaller than the other, gray, female, sad and lonely. The other is a beefy, black, male, and, oddly enough, also lonely. They keep their distance, and one drops its long snout to the ground as if to sniff for territorial scents. She seems to hum into the dried grasses she uncovers from the snow. His pointy ears perk up and his eyes focus intensely on hers. He also drops his snout and hums into the dried stems at his feet. She bounces nearly three feet straight up in the air with a little yelp. A big grin spreads across her face. As she relaxes to the ground, she says, "Awesome. I thought you might be a Netah! I couldn't find your scent anywhere." She licks a ball of snow from between the pads of her toes. "I'm new around here. My name is Lyla. " He tilts his head to the side as if to hear her better. "Lyla? Pretty name," he says. "I'm Joe. Funny the no scent thing gave me away." "Well sure, but only Netahs know that's a thing with us. Also, I have yet to meet a wild wolf who knew how to use the undernet like that." He snuffles and blows out a cloud of breath. "Fair point. What brings you to snowy Colorado?" He also settles to the ground, happy to rest after a long day of hunting with no luck. "Well, I used to live in Oregon, but the humans caught me and brought me here with a couple of my brothers and cousins." "I heard the humans were doing that. I also assume you let them catch you?" "Obviously!" "Oregon is gray. You wanted to spend some time in the sun?" "Can you blame me?" Lyla's stomach grumbles loudly. She looks at Joe with a blue eye, giving him her most alluring look. "You got anything to eat around here?" With a soft chuckle he answers, "Sure, follow me." He gets up slowly, his tired muscled complaining. They lope over the hill and around some boulders and through aspens, whose branches sway overhead. He stops near a stand of ancient pines decorated with inches of snow. He ducks down into the dry well of the tree and disappears. Lyla hesitates, but since she is hungry and lonely and he seems kind and is ruggedly handsome, she follows. Hidden in the well is a low doorway from which warmth whooshes out as he opens his door. Inside a soft light reveals a couple of low sofas in front of a pellet stove. Joe shifts into his human form and runs a hand over his nappy hair. He watches Lyla enter, shake off the snow, and then shift into a lithe young woman with silvery blond hair and soft blue eyes. He nods and turns into his kitchen, standing in front of his fridge, assessing. "Well, I have some left-over soup, some chicken wings, and a couple of trout we could slap on a sandwich. What sounds good?" Lyla wants to say 'one of each', but knows that would be impolite, so she asks for the soup and soon they settle down on stools at his kitchen counter to share their dinner. And that is how a Netah gray wolf from Oregon met a Netah black wolf in Colorado and they were no longer lonely.
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