The Great Grey Wolf Moves On

 

Bitterroot Mountain Range, Idaho.

            “What do you think it was that the shining One gave you, Ralph,” asked the newly aware Wolf.
            “I think it might have been just the ability to see right and wrong separately from my own desires,” said Ralph. He looked like he hadn’t really put that thought out in words, as if it were a bit of a surprise to him also.
            “I think that without knowing the words “right” and “wrong”, I might have just been reacting to things like something rolling downhill. I think those words imply choice or judgement, which then implies that there is some judge that is separate from the self. Then, we have something to deal with!” said Ralph.
            “I don’t think that you were ever crude or simple,” said Ramona, “even without language.”
            “Maybe not, or maybe that’s why I was able to receive from the shining One. It’s a mystery to me,” said Ralph. “Many of our kind would have run the other way, at least, or maybe attacked him.”
            “It is a mystery,” said Ramona. “But I have to admit that I didn't know you before you spoke.”
            “You certainly weren’t savage the first time I saw you, Mona. But you were very clever! I remember that shining pool of water in the moonlight..”
            “I was merely bathing! Can I help it if you were wandering around by the river in the middle of a spring night?” asked Ramona.
            Wolf looked from face to face, smiling. He knew love when he saw it, with or without the word.
            But in a return to the subject of their conversation, Wolf said, “so, I would guess that whatever was given to you in that moment, you passed on to me. Therefore, this blessing or healing or development is transmissible!
            “You have made me a carrier of a type of fire,” said Wolf with a distant look in his shining golden eyes. “I wonder what I could do with these coals, Ralph? Could I set the people of my home forest afire with speech?”
            “What have you done to me, friend?” cried the Wolf suddenly. “You have shown me a terrible choice!”
            “It doesn’t have to be terrible. When you and I met out by my cedar log, it wasn’t a terrible meeting,” Ralph reminded Wolf.
            Right about then, with the fire burning down to coals and everyone talking around that fire, down out of the tree tops drifted Maeve on her silent black wings. She located Ralph and landed on his shoulder. Looking about, she saw the Wolf, so large, grey and fierce looking.
            “Who are you,” said Maeve.
            “I'm a chance encounter, in the flesh,” said Wolf.
            “Who are you, raven,” inquired Wolf.
            “I am a watcher and a messenger,” countered Maeve. “I have the ear of Ralph, himself!”
            “So, you do!” laughed the Wolf.
            “This is Maeve, the greatest of the Ravens,” said Ralph. Maeve took a bow, with closed eyes and widely spread wings.
            “Ho! Madam Maeve, how did you come to speak as a man or a woman, in fact?” said Wolf.
            “All ravens speak,” said Maeve, “but not all of them know what they're saying.” She loved saying this.  It gave her the giggles. “I picked it up by paying attention and possibly by having a penchant for research and observation.  My children say the word ‘snoopy.’ However, it is the parent’s fate to be tried in the court of his or her own children.”
            “I think it would be a worse fate to be tried in the court of one’s own mind,” said Wolf. The shaggy grey head looked from person to person before speaking.
            “I was going to say it was time for me to be moving on and thank you kindly for the fine dinner and the conversation, but it seems that I must go home instead,” said Wolf.
            With that, he rose to all fours and as quietly as he had appeared he left the Home Clearing, headed in the direction from which he had come.
            Ralph, Ramona, and Maeve watched him fade into the dimness of the forest.
            “I liked that Wolf,” said Ramona.
            “I like him too,” said Maeve.
            “A real lady charmer, that Wolf,” laughed Ralph. But in his secret heart, he was wishing Wolf success, seriously.