The Boy Who Was a Wolf

Once there was a boy. An ordinary boy. Like you, perhaps,
if you are one. Or like that one you know. That strange
one, who keeps to himself.

This boy lived like all normal boys in the day. He went to
school, he read books, he drew pictures and went for
walks in the woods and across the hills.

But every night he climbed out of his window and he
became a wolf.

Wolves are different from the wolves in fairy-tales. He
never ate anyone’s grandma. He never ate little pigs,
either, nor did he try to blow their houses down.

What this wolf liked most was to run across the grassy
hills with the stars above his head.

He would run until he didn’t know where he was anymore
and just keep running until he found himself back in bed, a
boy again, at the start of another day.

One night the boy climbed out of his window but he didn’t
become a wolf. Instead the wolf he usually became was
standing next to him.

He wasn’t very afraid. He knew this wolf very well. After all,
he was this wolf half the time. “Hello”, he said.

This was a little silly, because wolves don’t understand
words. But the wolf cocked its head slightly, which sort of
meant the same thing as saying “hello” back.

The wolf began to trot off a little distance, and stopped
and looked back at the boy as if to say “are you coming?”.

The boy looked up at his open window, down at his
pyjamas, and decided to follow.

Rather than go out onto the hills, the wolf led the boy a
different way, because this night was different from the
others. He took him into a dark wood.

A little afraid, the boy followed, trying to tread exactly
where the wolf trod. The wolf turned back every once in a
while, to make sure he did not get too far ahead.

Eventually they came out into a clearing. Here the wolf sat
down and waited for the boy to catch up.

The moon was high above them, and the sky was full of
stars – more than the boy had ever seen, except with his
wolf eyes.

He looked down at the wolf, and the wolf looked sad. It’s a
little hard to say how it looked sad, but the boy could see
in its eyes that it was.

“Don’t be sad, wolf” he said, gently stroking its muzzle. But
the wolf couldn’t help it.

“Just look at all those stars” said the boy, pointing out all
the hundreds his eyes had never seen before.

But when the boy looked down again, he was alone in the
woods. The wolf was gone.

The boy was scared. “Wolf!” he called out, quietly. But the
wolf did not return.

Taking a few deep breaths, the boy decided to make his
own way home. The wolf could find its way here, and he
was the wolf, so he could find his way home. It would be
easy.

He turned around and set out into the woods. He couldn’t
find a path, but he made his way through the trees. Every
now and then a twig scratched his face, or his arms, but
he kept going.

Eventually he came out onto the hills where he had run as
a wolf, but he was exhausted, and he could not run
tonight.

He turned towards home, and walked with his head down
all the way back.

Eventually he climbed back into his own window, into his
own room and lay down in his own bed. “I did it”, he
thought to himself. “I hope the wolf is alright”.

The next night he was too tired to climb out of his window,
still exhausted from his long night in the woods.

The night after that he felt angry at the wolf for leaving
him there alone in the woods, and decided not to climb out
of his window to teach the wolf a lesson.

But the night after that he remembered that the wolf had
looked sad before it left him. The boy realised the wolf had
not wanted to go.

He climbed out of his window and went to look for the
wolf. He went to the dark woods first, although they
frightened him a little, but he could not find the wolf there.

Next he went out onto the grassy hills where he knew the
wolf loved to run. But he could not see the wolf in the
bright moonlight.

“Where can he have gone?” thought the boy. Just then he
heard a strange sound come across the hills, a faint
echoing cry.

It was the wolf. He heard the wolf howl, and the howl was
the saddest sound he had ever heard.

He felt sorry for his wolf, but he realised that the wolf
could not come back. “Goodbye Wolf” he shouted, and the
sound echoed across the hills into silence.

And, sadly, he made his way home.

Over the next months he forgot the wolf, and carried on
with his life as boys tend to.

But the wolf never forgot the boy.

THE END.

Written 20th June 2006

Ready for something freaky...I've had that dream 22 years ago and have only ever told 1 or 2 people...I used to keep dream journals for deciphering dreams at a later point...

Thank you for sharing this. I really enjoyed it!

Your writing is lovely, tzb.

I wish there was words to describe how beautifully this is written...

Thank you

You get me hooked and then end it like that? (Shakes fists in the air).

I love this story , its about letting go and how sad it is to let go, the wolf has to let the boy go because the boy cant ? Its very beautifull

Reminds me so much of one of my favorite songs ever:
The Child is Gone - Fiona Apple

here, if it doesn't work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC7svmK0uBs

Beautiful, tzb