I see stars. They glimmer lazily around my head, jumping out of focus every time I try and look directly at them.

Hang on, there are no stars inside caves. I shake my head and the stars clear, mostly, but their brilliant light has left me half-blind in the darkness. My whole body is covered in a fine layer of rock dust which smells vaguely like earthworms. Ugh. I hate earthworms.

A voice penetrates the gloom, low and sharp. I jump in surprise and accidentally bang my head against the wall again, sending another spurt of pain through my already aching cranium. I spin around so fast that I get a crick in my poor neck and end up yelping with the pain of it all. Through the darkness, my eyes adjust just enough to make out the figure of another wolf, significantly bigger than me and sort of brownish in colour. To be honest, he could be grey or red or blue with purple polka dots, I can’t really tell in this light. I hone in on his face, horrified to find that the guy has two pairs of eyes! Is he a mutant? A monster? Not really a wolf at all, but some kind of magic demon pretending to be a wolf but doesn’t realise we only have two eyes?!

I blink a couple of times and my eyes adjust further, revealing that my new companion only has a couple of white specks above his single pair of eyes. Oh.

Now that it transpires he’s just a normal wolf like me, my brain flicks back to what he’s just said. Um, bears?!

“I’m not a girl!” I squeak in a high-pitched voice. Oh man, not doing myself any favours there. I swallow, take a breath, and try again. This time I’m compensating so much for the shrill tone I just used that my voice sounds stupidly deep and it hurts my throat to talk. “Are there really bears?”

If there are really bears… ahh, I don’t even want to think about it, but my brain is already pinging off different mental images, each one worse than the last. Alright, okay, back up, Lefty. It’s not like I’m alone. Wolves are stronger in packs, right? And I have someone right here who can help in the event of a bear attack. Assuming he’ll help me. I lick my lips nervously and drop down onto my belly, lowering my head in a sign of submission.

“Have you fought bears before?” I whine hopefully.

If he has, we’d make a good team. He can fight and I can run and hide.

LEFTERIS
homeless two year-old cub. bugs suck.