Sam walked a dirt path, the smell of pine filled his nose as he stepped on dead needles. His breath clouded the air, but the forest remained colorful. He watched as squirrels scurried around him. He adjusted his brown cap and switched his sack of potatoes to the other side of his shoulder. The sack was about half the size he was, -but he was the oldest and his dad had left before he was born. His sandy hair tickled his forehead as he made his way up the biggest hill he’d ever walked over. When he reached the top, he could see smoke rising above the forest where his house should be. His stomach growled at the thought of his mother cooking his favorite stew over the fireplace. Then his free fist clenched at the thought of Mathew taking his share of the food. He started to walk faster, but by the time he reached the bottom of the hill he tripped on a rock and the sack of potatoes hit the ground, half of them rolling away from him. He grumbled and started picking them up. He heard a soft whining in the distance.
Sam froze, his head staring in the direction of the sound. Then through the songs of birds he heard another whine. “Hello?” Sam said. He took a few steps towards the sound, his foot crunched on a pine cone as he went closer. Then he saw movement through a few bushes. Sam grabbed the longest stick he could find. Then he heard growling and Sam looked back to the worn dirt path where he had let his sack of potatoes stay. If his mother were there she would have told to keep walking or he wouldn’t get any seconds for dinner. But as he looked into the now still bushes he had to know. He had to know what creature had caused so much pain and suffering in his village.
With trembling hands he moved the stick into the bush. The growling got louder and Sam dropped the stick as soon as the creature had a hold of it. It moved out of the bushes shaking the stick in its mouth and tossing it to the side. It stared at Sam with its pale yellow eyes, this was it, this was the creature that had taken so many children his age. Then it began to whine again and turned towards it back leg and started to chew on it. Sam could now see that the creature was caught in a bear trap and had already chewed through some of it own fur. The wolf then watched Sam as he stepped closer and took out his last slice of bread out of his handkerchief. It wagged its tail as Sam threw it at him. “My mother said my father liked to feed wolves,” Sam began. “She said the village hated him for it, but she also said one day they was in the woods and this big bear tried to attack them when they were com’en home. Then this big wolf and his pack chased’em off.” The wolf’s tail stopped wagged and it again returned to chewing on its leg. It watched as the boy came closer, “I’m gonna help you cause I think I probably owe you one.” He stared into the wolves eyes as he reached for the bear trap and the wolf looked away. “But if you try to hurt me I’m never helping ya again you hear?” It took all the strength he had in his little arms to open the the trap. The wolf licked his face when he got his leg out, there were two deep wounds on both sides of his leg, but the wolf didn’t seem to be bothered by it. “This doesn’t us friends,” Sam said. “An’t nobody gonna want us together, so scram.”
Sam walked back to the dirt path and picked up his sack of potatoes and the wolf followed him. “I told ya to scram.” He threw a rock towards the wolf, but it didn’t move. Sam glared at the wolf, but it didn’t seem bothered by that either. “Fine, but my mother better not see you,” he looked at the wolf with the corner of his eye when he said it. Sam walked all the way to the cabin with the wolf behind him.
Prompt: Write a story about a child who frees an animal.
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