Make it right

N/A · 04-09-2021, 06:14 AM

Life was full of ups and downs. Sometimes you could be on top of the world, happiness filling every waking moment. Other times the world, the gods, or whatever else you believed in... they let you know that you really had no control over anything at all. Ithaca had experienced both ends of the spectrum. She had known the purest joy. A husband. Happy little children. A wonderful home. What more could she want in life? It seemed as though her joy and happiness would never end. Perhaps she had been too sure. Too happy, if that was possible. In an instant, all of her happiness was swept away.

A plague. An illness. A curse? Whatever it was, it ravaged the pack. Each and every wolf wasted away to skin and bones before eventually dying. Her family. Her husband. Her pups. One by one, they fell. Everyone but her. Somehow, she was immune. Ithaca dissolved into sorrow. She cursed her immunity. Why hadn't the gods taken her too? Was she being punished or was she being rewarded? It certainly didn't feel like a reward.

The grey woman had stuck close to her home for a while, burying the dead and trying to figure out what she was going to do with the life that she had left. Weeks or months later, she decided to leave. There was nothing left for her there. That chapter of her life was done with. It was over. She needed to decide.

Ithaca had always been the optimistic sort. The more she moved, the better she felt. For the rest of her days, she would carry the love and sorrow for her departed family, but they wouldn't want her to admit defeat and she didn't want to admit it either. Eventually she left the lands that her pack had claimed for generations. With each step, she worked to set her mind straight.

She probably should have chosen a different direction. As far as the eye could see there was nothing but snow. It was terribly cold and without the warmth of other bodies to sleep with at night, each moment of rest was unsatisfying. As she passed through a wide canyon, Ithaca looked to the sky. Dark clouds were slowly rolling in. The promise of more snow, she thought. It would be best to find shelter and so she sought out a cave or at least a divot in the great stone wall. Eventually a cave came into view but she wasn't the first to find it. A young boy was speaking to an eagle seated on his back. A boy out here all alone? Perhaps he needed some company. Coming up beside him, the lightly striped lady looked into the cave and nodded. "Why yes, I do think we should look inside." With a wink and a friendly smile, the woman led the way into the cave. As she did so, the first heavy snowflakes began to fall.

"Ithaca"

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