Blanchette puts her red riding jacket on, “mom, I am visiting granny for the weekend.”
“Take these for her,” Blanchette’s mother passes her a bag full of groceries.
Blanchette leaves with her helmet under her arm and her riding gloves in hand. She loved the freedom her little scooter gave her and could not wait till she is old enough to get a motorbike. She puts the bag of groceries down and puts her helmet, followed by her gloves, on. She gets on her scooter and starts the scooter. She rides to her grandmothers’ cabin that is not too far away from their house. They owned a couple of hectares of forest land that was passed from generation to generation in their family.
Blanchette loved visiting her grandmother’s cabin at the edge of the wood. She gets to fish and live wild with no worries. The forest is also home to a pack of wolves, but they never came out of the woods. No one has ever actually seen them, but you could hear them howling at night. Next to the woods is a cozy little town. The town had a population of about 900 people.
Blanchette rode her scooter to her grandmother's as the sun started to set. Unexpectedly her scooter blew a tire and Blanchette got flung of her scooter. She did not get hurt but her grandmother’s groceries got scattered all over the place. Blanchette pushed her scooter off the path and gathered her grandmother’s groceries. She did not have a far way to go and decided to take a quick walk the rest of the way, leaving her scooter behind.
Blanchette smelled a familiar smell in the air. She does not know why but she always had a good sense of smell and hearing. She stood still for a moment to listen, but she heard nothing. In the distance, she could see her grandmother’s cabin lights. She brushed off the smell and decided to ignore the urge to go off the path into the woods. She felt a strong force inside of her calling her, begging her, but she did not understand it.
Ever since she turned 16, she felt almost as if in-love, so much so that she broke up with her long-term boyfriend who she loved. She does not know why, but all she knew that even though she was fond of her boyfriend, Seth, she just knew that when she turned 16 she fell out of love with him but at the same time in-love, but the love she felt was not for Seth. When she was with Seth it started to feel as if she is cheating. She does not know what came over her on her birthday and took it for hormones as she had her 1st period that day.
She was always worried that something is wrong with her as all her friends have been getting their periods around about the age of 13.
Blanchette stood still again, listening, and smelling. ‘What is that smell, so welcoming, so different,’ she thought, continuing her walk.
Blanchette hears the wolves howling in the distance but she is not scared. She hears panting behind her and stop and turns around. She sees the biggest wolf ever and gasp. She did not know wolves can grow so big. She stands still and strangely finds herself not scared at all. The wolf limps closer to her. She reaches out her hand and the wolf touches her with its snout and puts his head under her hand. Blanchette thought it very strange behaviour for a wolf. She looks into his golden-brown eyes and feels a sense of belonging. The large wolf’s fur is a creamy light brown, almost white in colour, or perhaps it is just the moonlight making it appear so, she thought.
Blanchette reaches down to have a better look at the wolf’s paw, “what happened to you?” she asked not expecting the wolf to answer. To her, it appeared like the paw have been bitten. She grew up in this forest and this is the first time she ever saw a wolf in the flesh let alone such a large one.