The third day..he was no longer alone though his new friend was different in all ways.. He had been running..Didn't know how long..just to get away..from everything..at some point he apparently fell asleep..because he woke up again, still afternoon - and saw this creature watching him. Terrified he grasped a stick on the ground to defend himself. But the big wolf just sat down not far away and started licking itself.. The wolf seems to be relatively young but already big. So the two of them both were seated and watched eachother without any sound. Nightshade did not at first dare to move just a little bit. Minutes passed by and the wolf stretched its body uttered a sigh and put its head on its front paws. It closed its eyes and soon seemed to sleep.. Nightshade still did not move and had kept the stick so firmly in his fist that it bleed..He finally fell asleep and woke up at daybreak - the wolf was gone. But next evening when Nightshade had made a fire the wolf came back, laid down not far away without a sound and intended to rest nearby as the evening before. Why?..Maybe it just looked for company?..It looked very calm and wasn't scared of the fire either. It was the first friendly being as long Nightshade could remember. He was not alone and the wolf maybe looked for companionship, too? The dark wood appeared much more safe with his new friend.. Nightshade couldn't go back, they looked for him..he remembered not all but the knife, the blood, the dead man on the floor at the inn..the last thing he really saw clearly was his drunken mother beaten up by yet another man passing by her life..Nightshade felt he had to protect her when she couldn't protect herself..His mother hasn't been sober for years.. What should he do now? This time of year no great problem, from early childhood he had lived of fish from the brooks, caught rabbits, eaten berries...but at wintertime? Finding a place where nobody knew him..He was only eleven but looked older, maybe someone would give him a job?..Nightshade shortly thought at his father he only got sparse glimpses at very few occasions when Nightshade was much younger..how does he looked and where did he live?.. - Maybe you was expelled from your family, too, wolf?..You came to me at full Moon so I call you Moonlight, if you don't mind?.. The wolf uttered a short sound as it was approved.. This image and scene from my fantasy novel "Sevaril" came to me and I had to do it. Nightshade, one of the protagonists - here in a moment of looking back to his past - is the great kingdom's Crown ranger of the North. Here he is keeping law and order in huge territories, only with a couple of dozen shall we say extraordinary gifted and skilled individuals, loved by commoners but most feared by wrongdoers. Have a great week end! :o) JohnnyC / Rhanagaz