Rising Sun Valley The Reclusive Wolf

Kisu sighed and looked up toward the sky. It was a crisp blue. He took a deep breath and let it out. Three years since he had been with a pack; he caught prey alone, slept alone, howled alone. Even if I eventually found a pack, I will always be alone, he thought. He looked a short way to his left and contemplated the scenery change, parallel to the direction he was walking. Instead of a never ending expanse of flowers, he saw a forest of cottonwood trees. Pausing to look around for a moment, he decided to finally head for black section of timber, so drastically different from the colorful scenery he had entered into hours before.

The shade was cool and refreshing. He lifted his scarred face upward, as if pointing it towarm sun; but, Kisu reveled in the darkness. It felt safe to him. The darker the better. And as he walked deeper into the woods, he seemed to get what he wished for. Only slight breaks of sunlight popped in through the high, dark trees. As the sun began to set, fewer and fewer pokes of light broke through, until there was nothing more. It seemed to have gotten severely dark, very quickly. Kisu stopped for a moment and pondered what he should do; try to look for food? He was slightly famished. Maybe find an area to sleep? Or maybe I should keep going. Sleep tortured him these days and left a bad taste in his mouth. Ultimately, he decided to continue on.

Kisu pushed forward, keeping himself aware of the surroundings. It was an everlasting blanket of darkness in the forest, so he had to rely on his nose and ears for now.

He was slightly startled by an unforeseen, distant scream. He braced himself; but, as he heard another cry nearby, he realized they were just foxes. He let out a sigh and relaxed. At least he knew they were present, now. It was probably too dark to catch one of them, and Kisu hated the texture. Not enough fat for me, he thought, and then shook his head and smiled at his pickiness.

There were more and more depressing howls from the foxes as he ventured further into the dense woods. They were so frequent, Kisu was beginning to get annoyed. He growled loudly, and the cries fell near him, and then far away after it seemed to have been passed on that there was a predator in close proximity.

A while later, Kisu heard a slight murmur. His ear twisted and he picked up the far-off conversation of two wolves. He narrowed his brow in irritation and pivoted himself to the left. He didn't want to deal with anyone else, and going deeper into the woods would probably do so.

He continued his journey. Here and there, the density of trees began to break up, but the thickness of the trees, along with the gloom, always came back. Unanticipatedly, Kisu came upon a semi-large lake, the moon's light making a crisp white line in the surface. The ebony trees were pulled around the body of water, coming up to the lake's edge. He shrugged. Might as well drink. He lowered his head to the full pool for a drink and began to draft it into his mouth, all while watching the wood's edge on the opposite bank.

The story continues here