• Sitting by the warm fire, I heard the crackle of twigs and leaves nearby. Something was in the woods, with me, when I thought I was alone, stranded here. I hoped it wasn’t something that saw me as its next meal.
    My stomach grumbled. I hadn’t eaten since last night.
    I whipped around quickly. What I saw made me wish I never had, I averted my gaze downwards immediately.
    What I saw was a face so fierce, it was frightening to look at. The raw, rugged wilderness that was the only excuse for the fur-tipped ears sent chills down my spine, when I was already cold enough. What I saw before me was not a wolf, but a man.
    His hair was blue, but almost black. The midnight blue fringe of his bangs covered his brows and added to the severity of his eyes. Amber, but not the simple butterscotch bronze, but the brilliance and color of the setting sun, like the flames of the fire before me. They were angled and almond shaped, but the pupils were a black line similar to a cat’s. Dark blue lashes framed his eyes and made them glimmer with golden heat. His face was of a sandy, smooth complexion. He was probably not much older than I was. I wanted to stare at him in awe, but my heart trembled every time my eyes rose and settled on his face.
    I was so focused on his face; I didn’t notice how odd his body looked.
    He was of normal build, probably more muscular, but he wasn’t with gladiator muscles or bones showing. The man was wearing only two layers of clothing. Oatmeal colored sweater and a dark chocolaty brown coat over it. He wore simple charcoal grey cargo pants that puddled around his brown, leather boots. It was not much, especially in these arctic regions of northern Quebec. I wondered why he wasn’t dead by now. Wonder as I might, he looked nothing short of heart-stopping.
    “Leave,” he growled, his words dancing on his smooth paled pink lips. His voice was commanding, yet graceful. I felt it was somewhat unrefined and ravenous; it broke the peace and tranquility of the silent, snowy wood.
    “I’m stranded here,” I mumbled in a small, passive voice; afraid to disagree with his ferocious air.
    “Then don’t regret what will happen,” he muttered, his voice icier and colder than the frost that clung to the trees.
    I was terrified by him, but who did he think he was? I was angrier now. I dare him to hurt me.
    “Just who do you think you are?” I burst out hotly, blood boiling, yet my hands felt numb.
    He looked taken back, as if nobody had ever spoken to him the way I did. Probably no one ever did, because they weren’t so foolish.
    “Who do I think I am? I’ll tell you. I can strangle you right now, and you will never know. That is what you should keep in mind now, if you want to live and see tomorrow,” he roared.
    “I dare you!” I shouted. I weighed my options.
    I was probably going to die if I did listen to him and leave. I had happened upon a ready, small, fire by chance, and I wouldn’t be able to light another fire.
    If he killed me, I would probably die quicker and without pain.
    An awful snarl distorted his features as he was about to slap me. He lowered his hand back to his side, but he quickly grabbed my arm in the same motion. He thrust me on the cold, wet blanket of snow that littered the ground. My face stung and burned with cold tears. I felt them crackle as they turned to ice on my cheeks.
    I turned around to look at him, only angrier. I was going to die, but not without a fight.
    A pained look made his fierce features soften.
    “Get up!” he commanded.
    ` “What if I don’t feel like it?”
    “Then I won’t help you!”
    I reluctantly got up. He pulled my parka’s hood and dragged me behind him, like a dirty, rabid dog. I struggled to free myself from his grip. That only resulted in the bitter wind’s fingers cutting into the warmth of my back.
    “Stop that!” I shouted. “You’re making me cold!”
    “Well you can deal with it, can’t you?” he muttered rudely.
    Hot, scalding tears rose to my eyes. I felt little rivulets of ice form as they ran down my cheeks. I felt my face go numb under its thin layer of frost.
    I wished with every bit of me that I had never boarded that plane to Manitoba to visit my parents. I didn’t even want to see them. I had liked life with my grandparents just fine. An involuntary sob broke out of my lips as I thought of my grandfather, and how kind and gentle his manner was, much unlike my animalistic captor. I still couldn’t believe what was happening to me.
    The man that was dragging me along cast a glance at me.
    “Why must you bawl like a baby? Cry if you want, but do it quietly!”
    I stopped trudging through the snow. This was the feather that broke the horse’s back. If you would call it a feather. I had boarded a plane, not quite so voluntarily to visit the people I hated most in this world, and it crashed. I was one of the survivors. I strayed from the group, but found a lighter and lit a fire, then this man shows up. If you could call him that. He looked like a wolf or a wild cat, but it’s absolutely impossible to be anything like that in today’s real, modern, age and time.
    He continued to pull on my hood until he realized I wasn’t going to go anywhere.
    “Leave me alone and just let me die here,” I said quietly not moving my face; it was frozen over with tears.
    “Suck it up and come on,” he said releasing my coat.
    My bones almost shattered, as the cold of the back of my coat came into contact with my back.
    I shook my head.
    He put his hand on my shoulder; I flinched by instinct, I thought he was going to hit me. Sudden warmth flowed through my body, I looked at him quizzically. His face still shocked me.
    He looked at me, and I quickly lowered my gaze. His eyes were petrifying. I felt exposed, almost as if he was searching through me, through all my memories, my moments and my wishes just by looking at me.
    “Look at me,” he told me.
    “No,” I mumbled.
    “Stop being afraid, you have something to hide, I feel it,” he said glaring at me with kindled flame eyes.
    I quickly looked at his face, the soft fringe of his lashes contrasted with his untamed eyes. I noticed a glint in his left ear from the mid-noon sun; it dawned on me that his left ear was pierced twice. I wondered why he made me so scared. He just looked like predator and I felt like prey.
    He shook me.
    “I can’t. You scare me,” I admitted.
    “Good. Now that we’ve established that, I’m going to take you with me. I doubt you’ll live much longer like this. I’ll take you to meet Nature,” he muttered.
    “What are you talking about? What are you?!”
    “I’m human. I’m not a werewolf,” he rolled his eyes. “I can change myself to assume whatever part of my animal title that I want.”
    This was not happening. It’s impossible, is he telling me that he can change himself with some sort of magic?

    He growled abruptly. His features became more animal-like as he crouched into the snow, bringing me down to the ground with him.
    “Stay back,” he whispered, ears twitching.
    “What? Why?”
    “Shut up,” he hissed. He covered my mouth with a mittened hand. How warm his hand felt on my bitterly cold, chapped lips.
    I saw him transform before me. He suddenly turned part whatever he was and the fur on his ears grew longer. Fangs glinted in the sun, claws ripped through his mittens; it was as if I was staring at a midnight-blue human lion. Does that even make sense?! I thought frantically. I caught sight of a pack of wolves approach far across the clearing.
    A horrible, unearthly howl escaped his cat-like mouth. It was as if all the abraded wild, ferocious sounds in the entire forest were whisked into one eerie howl. It rattled the wind violently.
    I felt my spine swiftly straighten like an elastic band after it’s stretched.
    He ran; he was so incredibly fast he was halfway down the clearing once I saw a blur, which I guessed to be him. And he ran on all fours.
    He lashed out at the first wolf that encountered him. His claws caught the wolf in the middle of its snout. It howled in pain. The pack’s apprehensive growls turned into pitiful whimpers.
    I slowly inched away from the clearing of bloody snow. I rose to my feet, and a wave of exhaustion undulated through me. I had to keep going. I was so close to dying, I couldn’t give up now. I ran over brush and bramble, I saw my frozen breath in the air. I heard twigs snapping behind me. I felt my heart almost burst through my chest, partly from running when I was so tired and partly from the sheer horror that gripped me. I had to get away from that man, I had no clue who he was or where he was going to take me.
    A tinny voice whispered, how do you know you’ll survive? Maybe he was right. Maybe I would die.
    I felt sharp pain in the back of my neck, and all I saw was black. I heard silence. I still felt dreadfully cold.