Wolf Runner

I awoke in a cold sweat half way threw the night. I quickly brushed my brow trying not to think of the offal nightmare that had disturbed my sleep. I stood from my bedroll and pulled on my pants and my beaded shirt. I slipped my sandal on my feet and put my knife in my belt. I grabbed arrows and a atlatl then stood and made my way past where my sister lay fast asleep. I slipped past my mother’s and father’s bedrolls and silently made my way out of out wiki-up’s door.
I ran careful not to disturb the vermin of the earth or the fowl of the air perched in their trees. My running slowed as I heard the wolf call out to the moon. When the call stopped I reached the edge of the trees and looked up the rock surface that stood before me.
My family has always called my Flower Girl because I did everything with flowers when I was but a young girl. But I was a girl of adventure and danger now. Yet I am still called the same thing. I don’t understand that but not only that, I don’t understand my animal medicine…… I’m a wolf. As this thought entered my mind my hand moved to the wolf totem around my neck. I moved my hand away while the thoughts of how I received it flooded my mind with an ocean of memories.
I shook my head trying to get the memories to leave. When my mind was clear from the memories I made my up the rock face watching my every step as I leaped like a antelope from rock to rock until I was near the top of the cliff. I turned to see a wolf staring straight as me. I knelt hoping it would accept my presence here in its territory. It let out a low growl and moved toward me. I stayed still and bowed my head to let it know that I was not here to hurt him. Much to my surprise it came up to me and licked my nose as if I was its leader.


I woke from the dream that I had had every night for a turn of the moon now. I heard my mother calling out my name and stood still trying to figure out what my dream meant. “Flower Girl I have been calling for you for quit some time now.”
“Sorry….” I muttered under my breath as I let out a long yawn.
“Would you mind going out and gathering some berries for the hunting ceremony tonight.” She said lowering her eye brows at my messy hair. “After you fix up your hair.” She said handing me tightly woven string to tie my hair up with. She had made these for me since I was a little girl and they seemed to work wonders.
I took the string from her and smiled I then made my way outside to a small brook that was near our little encampment for the hotter days of the year. I leaned over the small river and peered into it splashing water in my face and pulling my hair back. I heard foot steps behind me but when I turned around much to my surprise my clans leader stood over me smiling down at me.
“You ready for your first hunting ceremony tonight?” He asked looking at my mess of what most would call hair.
“Yes I am.” I said smiling back at him. He was a nice man who never seemed to be in to much of a bad mood. “Oh and uhh..” I said moving a strand of hair out of my face that had fallen over one of my eyes. “I had the dream again…..” I said looking up toward him with a worried expression on my face. He knelt down by me and worked threw the knots in my hair.
“Don’t worry.” He said as he begun to braid my hair. “You know that it is just your animal medicine calling to you to no longer be mad at it….. If you must when the men go hunting tonight you can go to the area in your dream and speak to the wolf that is calling to you.” He smiled down at me and motioned to my now beautiful braided hair. “Loving Bear will be sure to give you her blessing if you just ask for it.” My smile grew at what he was saying.
“But my parents……” I said but he cut me off with his hand.
“I will tell them that you must take this journey on your own and that you must be aloud to do so.” He said smiling. I jumped into his arms hugging him tight. It was odd for most tribes to hug their leader but I could not help myself.
He held me close and silently whispered in my ear. “You should go when the wolf calls to you with his howl.” He then pulled away and smiled a encouraging smile. He then stood and went back to his other business taking care of the preparations for the hunt tonight.
I then stood and made my way back to where my mother was in the corner of our wiki-up finishing up the last touches on the basket I would be using to gather berries. She turned and smiled at me holding up a beautiful basket with thread running threw it with beads that were forming a wolf by a flower. “Wow mom… I…. I don’t know what to say.” I said amazed at how real it looked.
“I guess you can say that this is a gift for all of your hard work lately.” She said handing it to me.
“It must have taken you forever….” I said looking up at her but she was obstructed by the tears that were now brimming my eyes. I put it down and fell to my knees hugging her close to my body. I didn’t like the flower all that much but it was amazing what she had done just for me. She held me close and kissed my cheek.
“You have earned it.” She said in my ear. I then stood and wiped away the tears.
“I will be sure to gather as many berries as possible to repay you for this gift.” I said moving to pick it up. When I had it in my arms I moved to the edge of the forest and turned around and smiled at my mom. She smiled back but then her face brightened as if something had happened she had never imagined would happed had.
“Come here dear.” I heard from my left ear. I then turned to see my father standing tall. He held something in his hand. I didn’t know what it was but I moved to my father anyway. He pulled me into a warm loving hug as soon as I had gotten close to him. Then I felt him slip something into my belt. “There a beautiful knife to fit my beautiful daughter.” It was an amazingly crafted knife where the bone had but cut down to form a handle. It had a hole threw the bottom of the hilt where a string hung that held a object was a figurine. The wolf was howling to the sky and yet it was howling to me it seemed. It was the exact same knife that I had in my dream……my vision… I jumped into my fathers arms pulling him close.
“It is amazing father!” I said in an excited tone. “Why must you all spoil me so!......” I paused. “Did you get anything for Living Water?” I asked in a worried tone.
“Yes of course we got something for your sister!” My parents said at the same time. I breathed a sigh of relief and turned to where I had set down my basket.
“Well I must be off now.” I said touching my knife and my basket in amazement that my parents had taken so much time out of their time without me knowing for me! I then turned to the forest and went to my favorite place to gather berries in the forest. I began to run as fast as I could into the small clearing that seemed to have a million berry bushes. It was a far distance from camp so I could be calm and talk to myself without anyone over hearing what I was saying. “They spend all of that time on me! It’s amazing that they can care for me that much when I have been so rude to them for my name. I had done all of my duties without arguing with them though……. That must be why they did that for me!” I then made my across the clearing to one trap I had set up a week ago. I looked down at it to see it had caught a rabbit. Luckily it died instantly from the snare catching it by the neck. I removed the rabbit from the snare and made my way back to camp with my kill and my basket full of berries.


That night after the ceremony I made my way back to our wiki-up to gather everything I needed for the trap. I recalled everything I had done in the dream and after I did I quickly slipped out of my ceremony shirt and into the one that I had worn in the dream. It smelled of elk and other land animals, but never the less I put it on and pulled on my sandals. I slipped my knife into my belt and grabbed my bag filling it with the rabbit we had cooked that night. I then made my way past everyone that was now fast asleep. I turned to the trees and began my run to the rock surface I would meet the wolf that was now calling my name.
I made my way up the rock surface bounding from rock to rock quickly. When I reached the top I heard a low growl. I turned to see the black wolf in my dream staring back at me with metallic blue eyes. I knelt down and waited not moving a musical hoping it would not hurt me. It lowered its shoulders like a bull getting ready to charge, and slowing approached me. I held my head low, but amazingly it came to where I knelt. It rolled over onto its back below me and began to lick at my face. I smiled showing my teeth and the wolf whimpered. I quickly closed my mouth and nuzzled the wolf on the nose. It licked my face again and rolled back over onto its feet while I stood to make my way back to my clan’s encampment to tell them what had happened.

On my way back I heard screams of war. I then began to run when the smell of blood and smoke invaded my senses. I ran up to see my leader and the one who would take over when he died leading out warriors to fight and kill the invading tribe. My father saw me and made a motion to tell me to hide. I turned and ran to hide behind a large tree. I watched from the shadows as my whole tribe was slaughtered. The invaders attacked without caring who they killed even slaughtering the children. I turned and ran; I could hear the foot falls of some of the invaders following close behind me. I ran as hard as I could running up the rock face that I was on when I met my new wolf friend.
While I ran I tried to figure out why they would attack us.. We were a humble loving tribe who had never made any enemies. So why were they attacking us now? When I reached the top my eyes grew large at the sight of a wolf pack of around ten. They all stood in a defensive stance. I ran past them standing behind them I turned to see the two men that had followed me. One held a spear, while the other held some sort of piece of wood that had a thin string in between the two tips. This weapon was the one that had killed my leader by flinging an arrow threw his heart. I turned ready to avenge the death of my leader to see the wolves attacking and killing the two men.
I ran up to the man with the strange weapon and jumped on his back quickly slitting the man’s throat with the knife my dad had made me. I stood blood across my face like the demon himself and bared my teeth at the two lifeless bodies now in front of me. I had done it! I had avenged my leader’s death like my father had always said I should, if he were to be killed.
I looked around counting the number of the wolves that had helped me. There were nine not counting the smaller young wolf that hadn’t attacked. I turned and noticed I had left my bag up on top of the cliff when I met the wolf I had seen in my vision. It was empty now because the wolves must have been hungry and eaten all of the rabbit that was in it. Then it hit me, the wolves must have saved me as if to repay for what they had eaten, kind of like how my tribe traded with other tribes for items they needed.
My family traded some of out berries for meat when travelers came threw our encampment. We used to always trade traps for beads and baskets. We even traded elk skins for moose skins. We always traded for something we wanted or needed for something the other person needed. My mother always told me that you should give them back more then you got because the gods asked us to.
At this memory I broke down into tears knowing that my mother and everyone else was gone. The leader wolf came and licked me trying to comfort me, but that just made my tears fall quicker when it brought back memories of how my leader would always wipe away my tears. The wolf leader let out a low whimper and laid down by me. I laid down by the wolf and the rest of the pack came around and laid down on or next to me.

That night I had a dream of all of the children going fishing with the nets their mothers had made for them while the older girls went to gather berries and help their mothers with making baskets. The older boys would go hunting and make weapons with the Fathers while the mothers and older girls would watch the children.
It was a wonderful dream but I knew what was coming when I awoke. I didn’t want to get up but a wolf by me began to lick my face and wouldn’t stop until I got up. The wolves seemed to be quit a lot like my tribe. How they treated everyone as their sons or daughters and all of the children treated each other like brother and sister. We all had our homes close together just like how the wolves all slept close together. I missed how my people lived but the wolves would hopefully treat me as if I was part of the family like we always had with outsiders.
I stood and followed the wolves at a full on sprint to keep up with them. I never noticed how much my tribe meant to me until now. After I have lost them I have noticed how all along we were just a big family. My leader was our father and our Shaman was our mother. A low growl coming from a wolf knocked me out of my day dreaming. I looked around to see some of the men that had invaded us last night looking at the two men that we had killed last night. They spoke to each other in some odd tongue that I could not under stand. It was the men’s’ job in my tribe to fight but now it was just me and the wolves. I had to protect me and them and they had to protect themselves.
The leader of the pack was much like our leader. He got in front of the pack and me and growled deeply and menacingly. I turned and crouched ready to attack like the wolf by me. I was ready to fight back like my parents had always taught me. Right at that moment I gave myself a new name. I was no longer Flower Girl. I was now Wolf Runner. I would walk the world with the wolves and defend them to repay them for saving my life. I would never forget my life before but I would make a new life with the wolves. I would remember all of the lessons of life my tribe had taught me. I would fight the invaders until the end of time to avenge all of the ones who they had killed.
I jumped over the wolf in front of me pulling out my knife; I bared my teeth and ran to the men that had invaded yelling out my new name with the wolves close behind me, we jumped into battle ready to vanquish the invaders and take in any in need. This is my new life and the life I will live the rest of my life. I am Wolf Runner and I will avenge my tribe’s death with the lives of who killed them.



I awoke to the tongue of a wolf licking the side of my face. “Hi there little one.” I said reaching out and petting it’s head. It bared it’s teeth and backed away. I smiled. “Bring it on.” I then lunged forward and tackled the little wolf it snapped its jaws playfully. I then looked up to see then alpha of the pack baring it’s teeth.
I backed away and layed on my back hoping it would not hurt me. That’s when out of no where it flipped on it’s back to as if I was the leader over it. I picked up my bow and arrow I had made and my knife my father had given me. Then stood high about the wolf. I then leaned down and rubbed my face up against its muzzle. I then looked down. “Okay so you’re the male leader and so where’s the female.” I jumped startled at the noise of a low growl behind me.
When I turned around I saw a glimpse of the alpha female. I quickly got down on my hands and knees and waited hoping she would accept me. I looked up and smiled at the wolf. She was slowly moving toward me. Then I thought I’d try something new. I bared my teeth and let out a low growl. She stopped and bared her teeth. I growled again and moved forward ready to fight off this wolf. Then she too flipped on her back. I let out a laugh and stood. Now I could walk in peace without worrying about a wolf attacking me from behind.

I smiled and began to run in the direction I saw the men coming from. I ran for three hours and stopped. I turned around to see the wolves high tailing it right up behind me.