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One day a woman and her baby wandered lost, deep in the darkness of a forbidden woods. In the night the mother could hear the hoot of the owls and the wind whisper in the trees. With her child bundled on her back, she walked deeper and deeper into the woods. With each stick that cracked beneath her feet she stopped and turned to see if there was danger.
Her heart beat quickly. She tried to find a path that would lead out of the darkness, Away from the roots and trees that formed shadows of ghostly things that went bump in the night. When she could walk no further, she fell to her knees, took her baby from her back, and held it. The infant boy never once made a sound. He never cried or made noise, even though he must have been hungry.
The woman held her child and cradled him. “I do not know what to do” she wept. “We have been walking for hours and I must feed you. I have no food and we are lost in the night with all the creatures that are soon to begin the hunt to fill their own bellies. ”
The young woman wept for a long time. Then, she looked up and saw the stars through the branches of tall birch trees, “Help us,” she said as she stared into the glow of the moon. At that moment a great wolf appeared from behind a tree. The woman fell back. The creature was bigger than most wolves and thin like it had not eaten for days. Then, the bushes rustled, and out from behind them came three small cubs. The woman understood. This too was a mother looking for food.
The boys mother put down her child and said to the wolf, “Help us and I will help you. The great wolf with it’s grey and black supple fur glistened in front of the night sky. The wolf starred with her yellow eyes so deeply into the eyes of the young woman that it felt like the great creature was peering straight into her soul.
The woman placed her baby by the cubs. She kissed him as if for the last time. Then, the two mothers disappeared into the shadow of the trees. When the wolf returned, she gestured toward her cubs to follow her. She lifted the human child on to her back and began to walk into the dark woods.
Many moons came and went. The cubs grew. When of age they left to hunt and find new packs. The boy grew too. Not knowing how to care for a human child the great wolf rarely let the boy off of her back.
She tried to teach the boy to walk. He was so sad without his mother that all he wanted to do was lie on the ground. So taking pity, his adopted mother walked and walked with him on her back until one day the boy became so big and was so heavy she could walk no more. It was winter and her old body could no longer carry him. Gently, she placed him on the ground. The boy had little to wear, so when she placed him on the grass he quickly became cold. She knew that if he were there long enough he would surely die.
So, she curled up by him and kept him as warm as she could. In the night the boy became restless. It woke the wolf who watched as he left its body and went into the universe. She fell asleep and let her spirit follow the boy.
The next morning the boy woke and went to the wolf. He placed his hand on her face. “wolf?” he said quietly. She began to stir, “I thought you had died little one. I was ready to follow you into the universe so you would not be alone.” “No” he said, ” I had a dream. I dreamt that I was with a woman, and that she had long black hair. She held her arms out to me. She held me and hugged me and smiled” he said. “That was your real mother” the wolf explained. “She gave her life for you that we might all survive.” The boy was silent. For the first time he rose and began to walk. “Then I must survive. and So must you, or she will have died for nothing.”
The boy helped the old wolf up and began to walk through the forest until they came to a warm safe place.
Many years passed and the boy never left the wolf. He learned to hunt so she would stay fed. He found shelter when it was cold and rained. As she got older he cared for the aches and small wounds that she would get when she stepped on sharp sticks or stones.
The wolf became frail. She was as thin as the night she first come across the boy and his mother. “I cannot walk any further.” She said quietly. “I am old, my bones are brittle and I am tired. It is time for me to sleep.” the boy bowed his head and took a small breath. “Then I will find us a place to sleep.” He found a beautiful clearing with a small cave. The wolf moved slowly. “I shall only rest for a while,” she said. Then she closed her eyes and the boy watched as her spirit left her body.
The boy placed his hand on her fur and sat for a while. He sang songs that he heard in his heart, danced around her dances that he had never been taught. He knew these were the right things to do so great creator knew she was coming and that she was special to him.
Then, he walked. He walked through the woods until he was an old man. Eating berries like the bear, and running through the trees like the deer. Every once in a while he would see one of his brothers and they would hunt together. Then he would leave them and go off to journey again.
He did this until he too was too old to walk anymore. In time he found a small cave to lay down in. It is said that in the moment his spirit left his body, he saw the great wolf he had been with for so many years, and beside her his mother. They were there to embrace him, and greet him lovingly into new life, and so he would know he was always watched over and had never walked alone.
