“In a pack, there is no lone wolf. His greatest strength: His brothers. Bond beyond blood they become one.”
-Unknown

This story begins with a man and a woman who fell in love. It was in the Dakotas, just after the Civil War where an Indian man was driven out of his tribe, and lived on his own. While traveling, he met a widowed white-woman who had a daughter of the age of twelve. The man and women fell in love, and had a child together. They called him Tristan, after the husband that the woman had lost. From the very beginning, they could tell that he would be a strong, healthy child.
    But their happiness could not last. Word of the couple’s marriage spread, and some thought that any person who breeds with a savage is an abomination. So, in late July, a mob of men out for blood set fire to their home, and the family fled into the forest. The man was shot, and the woman fell to her knees and wept at her husband’s body. The daughter, knowing that her mother would die no matter what she did, took the child out of her mother’s arms and ran. Tears were shed when she heard another gunshot.
    For hours, the girl with her half-brother in her arms ran until she could run no more. She rested by a tree and laid the boy next to her. He began to cry and squirm. The girl, who’s name was Helen stroked Tristan’s forehead with her thumb, and hummed a lullaby, which calmed the baby.
    “It will be alright,” said Helen, and then smiled. “We will be safe.” But then the sounds of the mob were heard, and the girl began to panic, looking for an easy escape route. She looked back at her brother and found his asleep. She found an abandoned rodent hole at the base of a tree and placed him in there, covering his body as much she could with the cloth he was wrapped in and leaves and other things on the forest floor.
    Helen heard the voices of the mob getting closer and fled, leaving her brother, hoping he would be safe. But it was the last time that she would ever see her baby brother.

The boy woke up with small twigs, dirt and leaves in his face. He didn’t like that, so he cried. He was hungry, and wanted the milk from his mother’s breast. Where was she? Where was the younger mother, who tended to him also? Why was it so dark? And where was he?
   The leaves and twigs began to rustle and move. Something poked through them and nudged his chest. The boy stopped crying. Whatever had poked him was now sniffing him. A tongue erupted out of whatever it was and licked his chin. Now the boy began to giggle. He freed his arms from his swaddles and wanted to catch the sniffing/licking-thing. He was old enough to pull his head up and crawl and somewhat climb, so he emerged from the hole, leaving behind his swaddling and found himself very cold. He saw a creature sitting in front of him. It reminded him of his pet at home, which his younger mother called puppy. But this animal was much smaller, and the snout was shorter, and not as wide.
    It was small, yes, but it had fur, and his blankets felt the same. So this animal was like a blanket…blankets made him warm. The boy liked the idea of that, so approached the animal, which only made it back away. That upset the boy, so he cried, again. The animal noticed this and approached him and nudged up against him and licked his face. The boy stopped crying…again, and giggled…again. All was well. The boy hugged the animal close and exclaimed “puppy!”
   Something else crept up behind him, which cast a long shadow. He looked behind him, at first terrified, but when he realized what it was, he exclaimed again “puppy!”
    This was Mother Wolf, Beta of the pack—which was behind her. Five other wolf cubs—two female, three male—along with two adolescents—male and female—and three adults—two male, one female. They were traveling for food for the pups, which had become scarce recently.
    The pups swarmed the child, licking, sniffing and the occasional nip. They quickly learned that he didn’t like that last part. The pups acted as though he were their own brother, and in their vague speech, they called him Brother Wolf, or just Brother.
    Mother and Father Wolf noticed that this would be a problem. They knew that this squishy thing with no fur at all, and obviously couldn’t fend for itself —neither travel far distances—would be a favorite among the pups. Just one more mouth to feed, they all knew. Also, they would have to cut back on their travel time, or halt all together. The adults and female adolescent argued with the pups, saying that they would have to leave behind this inferior creature and move on for food. But the pups whined and howled, protesting that they should stay, and assist their newfound brother.
    In the end, it was settled that they would stay until the creature died, which they all knew that it would. So they found a sort of a cave formation near a larger than small river. The boy took turns with the pups drinking milk from Mother Wolf, and they played around near the water, splashing each other or kicking water in each other’s faces. The boy soon learned that nipping was apart of playing, and learned to tolerate it, trying it as well. Another thing he learned: he didn’t like it when hair got in his mouth, and that he didn’t have any teeth yet.
    The boy—now known as Brother Wolf—became tolerant of the cold, and the hot, and even pain, little by little. He could still only crawl, but he was sure good at it. It was not too soon that the pups switched from drinking milk from their mother to eating raw meat. He tried that once but it made him sick, so he continue to feed from his new mother, which he now recognized her as.
   You may think that he could then speak wolf, since a child from a young age lived around them. But let me tell you that there is no actual language that wolves communicate with. But there is Wolf Speak, which a combination of sounds and movements with different body parts. It is not like the way you and I speak, but it is more of communicating and understanding a basic message, wants and needs.
    It was getting to be the early signs of fall, and it was getting colder. Brother Wolf stayed inside more, huddled with a few of the pups and adults to keep warm. Two of the pups had become his best friends, whom he knew as Big Brother and Little Brother. The reason for one being that one was very small, even compared to the ever so growing wolf pups. One leg was slightly lame, but it didn’t bother him as much. Little Brother could do a lot more than Brother Wolf could, or would, and that satisfied him.
    Fall was approaching, the wolves knew it, so they did as much as they could to prepare the boy for the cold. They made him sit in the cool river for a while, everyday. And everyday the river would get colder, and colder. But the boy didn’t notice it, so he sat in the river, not needing to huddle up in the cave as much.
    That basically saved the boy’s life, because when winter came, it was brutal for him. He never went outside, and there had to be at least three or four wolves inside at all times so he wouldn’t freeze.
    He still drank milk from Mother Wolf, which concerned her, because she knew that she could not feed him forever. She fed him some milk for a meal, but also made him eat raw meat that she dragged back, a little at a time, then more, and more, until he did not get sick when he eat the meat. It was the same concept at staying in the water.
   Spring finally came, which was a relief for Brother Wolf because he had been inside for so long, and it was a joy to see the trees. But they looked different, more colorful in fact. He didn’t understand this, but he liked it. He made his way to the water, which was very cold, but it didn’t bother him. Brother Wolf found he enjoyed the water. Over time, by the time summer arrived, playing in the water and holding onto the pups had allowed him to learn to balance himself, and from balancing him self to standing, and from standing to walking. It had been thirteen summers since the pack had found him, and he was running. Mother and Father Wolf were dead, which made the two previous adolescents the Alpha and Beta. From the beginning, Brother Wolf was respected, but still the Omega, the lowest rank in the pack. For that, Little Brother treated him well, for if Brother Wolf were not there, Little Brother would be the Omega because of his lame leg.
    It amazed the pack that Brother Wolf had survived this long, for they were sure that he would not last that first winter. But now there were new pups, whom Brother Wolf loved. It was hard for him though, because he wished he could communicate about previous events, about good times and bad times, but there was no way to say that it Wolf Speak. There was no Past or Future, only the Present.
    Wolf Brother was totally immune to the cold and a little to heat. Pain did not phase him, most of the time, and he learned to create a contraption which was a stick that was bent by a string made from animal organs, and that allowed him to throw a stick with a sharpened and pointed rock tied to one end. He made multiple kills with it and the kills, mind you, were very big, even for a wolf to take down. He also had a sheath made from deer skin that held the objects within it. It also had a string around it so he was able to carry it on his waste.
    Now, some things you should know about brother wolf, is, he is, in fact, naked. He does not realize this, of course, but he does know that it is odd for an animal to not have fur, hair or feathers covering its body. Another thing, is he is very lonely. He knew that he could not mate with the other wolves because he was adopted, and they were not of the same breed. This upset him, because he now figured out that he was still a child, but that his childhood siblings were now mated and breeding, grown wolves. All, that is besides Big Brother and Little Brother had a mate and children. They were the odd ones out, so they decided to make it on their own, away from the original pack.
    Big Brother thought that they should find some other lone females. Little Brother agreed, along with Brother Wolf, but he found it somewhat saddening that he would not be able to mate with anything, because he knew that there were no others of he species and he was still a child. His brothers sensed this and decided that they would stay together, till death should it take them.
    They traveled many miles, making their way across forests, meadows and mountains. One noonday, fourteen summers after he was found, Brother Wolf and his brothers came to a hill in some yellow-grassy plains. They marched up the hill to spot game. But Brother Wolf say something very strange at the very base of the hill. The hill itself on the other side was very steep and he had to be careful not to slip on the soft dirt. What he saw was a box-shaped formation, with something that stuck out and smoke rose out of it. The structure was made of trees stacked on top of themselves. Beside it was a sort of pen with animals in it, milling around. Sticks that were driven into the ground had strings connecting them. Cloth hung over the string.
    And standing among all this was a figure. A figure that looked like something Brother Wolf saw in the water.
    Oh, how he was filled with joy! He had finally found what he had been looking for. It looked like him. It was one of his own. It was obviously female. She was making noises that seemed familiar to him, and she was feeding the animals, most likely to fatten them up to eat. He found another one like him.
    He was not alone.
    And that was Brother Wolf began to fall down the hill.

To be continued in Brother Wolf: Part II...