The Cynic and the Wolf by Julie Steimle (ebook voice reader TXT) 📕

Shuddering, Audry rose.

She dashed out of her room and down to the kitchen.

The kitchen was now vacant. Realizing she had been upstairs a while, Audry started to panic. The wolf could be dead.

She rushed out into the main lodge.

The lodge was full of people. Most were thawing from the cold. Nearly all were gossiping about the gunshot they had heard. Was it a new gunshot? She wondered. Or the same gunshot as before? Audry didn’t hear another one, but she had busy inside her room. Her heart pounded. She had to find a ranger and tell him what she had discovered.

Searching, her eyes found Mrs. Gruber.

Audry went right to her. "Did you find the hunter?"

Turning to her, Mrs. Gruber said, "Not yet."

Wincing, Audry wrung her hands. "Did you check near the den under the fallen tree?"

Preoccupied, Mrs. Gruber turned again from the staff member she was speaking to, "Excuse me? What den? Why?"

Groaning with agony, Audry said, "I was checking my footage at the rabbit warren and—"

"Audry, the rangers are all over rabbit warren," Mrs. Gruber said with longsuffering.

"I know," Audry said, "But when I… I was out there and I, kinda sorta had an incident with the wolf."

Mrs. Gruber's eyes went wide on her. "What?"

Several others stared at her.

"I didn’t want you to panic," Audry said, wincing. "But he was shot."

Setting a hand to her forehead, Mrs. Gruber looked faint. "Oh my heavens."

"I was in the den at the time when he ran in," Audry explained. "The wound was in his leg, and I—"

"The wound was in his leg?" Mrs. Gruber looked hopeful.

Audry nodded, feeling confused. "Yeah. I tranquilized him and took it out."

Mrs. Gruber stared more.

"Don't look at me like that," Audry said, pulling back from all those staring faces. "I am an animal rescue worker, you know. I had all the equipment with me."

Right there, Mrs. Gruber fell on her knees and murmured a silent prayer, gazing upward. Then she jumped up and grabbed Audry, kissing her on her cheek.

"You are an angel from heaven." The woman was crying, yet smiling.

Audry was confused. "Yeah… Ok… but, uh, somebody really ought to go to that den in case the hunter tracked the wolf down. I mean, I thought I covered up my tracks really well, but uh… the hunter probably saw I was there and—"

One of the rangers in the room was already on his radio, calling it in.

"An angel," Mrs. Gruber murmured. Then she started to cry. "Oh, that was so close…"

Those staff members with them shared confused looks.

One whispered, "I had no idea she liked the wolf so much. I thought it was just the Deacons."

The other staff nodded.

With all the commotion and now left with nothing but waiting, Audry decided to go to the dining hall to get something to drink. Mrs. Gruber went with her, deciding that she also needed something to settle her nerves.

"I hate full moons," the woman muttered. "Nobody ever leaves them alone. Somebody always finds them, and then there is chaos. How does he live like that?"

Not sure if the woman was talking to her or just to herself, Audry just sat there at a table. She just wanted news that the hunter was caught.

"You can't blame his mother for leaving," Mrs. Gruber muttered more, shaking her head. "It is such an awful truth to live under…. And the hunters. They will never leave him alone."

Was she talking about Rick or the wolf? Audry was confused. Mrs. Gruber most definitely was. Conflating the two together was beyond weird.

"…Well maybe he really is here to study," in walked one of Rick's Brown University friends, talking to another in their group. Almost the entire bunch was there, like they were in search of him.

"And that's what he's been doing?" Brittney asked, looking entirely skeptical.

"I think he is avoiding us," Onea said.

Some of the guys cringed, agreeing with the ladies.

But his roommate shook his head and replied, "No. Rick doesn't… well, ok, maybe he does sometimes avoid people. He was sleeping in the kitchen earlier. How were we to know he had a late night last night? But I really do think he is actually studying. You don't know him like I do. He hits the books hard. And if he thinks you are a distraction, he will dodge you."

"But where is he?" one of them asked. "He's not in his room."

"Maybe he is in a spare room," someone muttered.

"He's not here anyway," Amber said, looking around the cafeteria. Her eyes set on Audry, but then quickly moved away. The ladies of the group had seen her, but they were decidedly avoiding her. Her earlier antagonism had been enough for them to want to avoid her.

"Maybe he met up with his father," one of the guys said. "You know he likes to go eat out with his dad around the full moon."

"That's right." His roommate nodded, swelling with reassurance. "He's probably not even on the grounds."

"What do you mean eat out on the full moon?" Helen asked. "You make him sound like a werewolf."

"That's the joke," one of their friends said, chuckling.

Rick's roommate nodded also, laughing.

"I don't think that’s funny," Brittney snapped.

"That's because you don't have a sense of humor."

"It's a family tradition," Rick's roommate said. "Sort of an easy date to remember. Dinner together on the full moon to catch up. You know. Quality time."

"That is so lame."

The group collected mugs of cocoa, then drifted out towards the lodge fireplace. Mrs. Gruber watched them, murmuring, "He could do with better friends than that…"

Audry had to agree.

"You should go on to bed," Mrs. Gruber then said to her, looking tired.

"But I want to know if the wolf is ok," Audry murmured, gazing towards the main window again.

Patting her knee, Mrs. Gruber sighed heavily. "So do I. But I don’t think we will know until tomorrow." She then rose and headed toward the kitchen. Audry watched her, having the feeling that the woman would stay up anyway until she got complete news one way or the other.

As for herself, Audry sat there a while, thinking.

All this fuss over one wolf. It made no sense. Admittedly, it was an amazingly unique wolf. In the den with it, Audry had felt a sad kinship to the animal. She wanted to save it because it desperately needed to be saved. She had even wanted to stay with it, because it had seemed so lonely. But she knew the wolf would eventually wake up from its drugged state, probably still hungry, and it would be dangerous as it was wounded. But there really wasn't anything else she could do. And thinking on that, Audry decided it probably was a good idea to go to bed. Though it wasn't very late, she was tired.

She weaved her way through the crowds to the back room doors and went through. She cut through the kitchen where Mrs. Gruber was brewing up another pot of hot chocolate, most likely for the rangers and guests. Going up to her room, Audry drew in a breath and wondered.

Was that wolf ok?

Undressing, then climbing into bed, Audry picked up her Kindle and read a few more chapters before going to sleep.

She didn’t have one nightmare, that night, despite the absolutely psycho day.

Chapter Nine

Morning, Audry woke, stretching and feeling somehow incredibly rested. It was a weird feeling, especially since she had broken up with Harlin yesterday and she had just been in close proximity with a wolf who had been shot not too long ago, a wolf who could have bitten her.

Getting out of bed with a hop, Audry went down the stairs and into the kitchen, ready to get her last meal there before going out to collect the rest of her things. The first thing she noticed was that the kitchen was warm this morning. The second was that all the staff was chattier than usual.

"…I know! He was caught red handed shooting into an animal den."

Audry stiffened. The hunter had found the wolf after all. Poor thing.

"At least he is off the lot, finally,"

Looking to Mrs. Gruber, Audry expected her to be in tears. But the woman was bustling about, bright and happy. She was making the usual fare, this time scrambled eggs with the bacon and sausage. But once she saw Audry, she got tears in her eyes. For a second Audry thought she was going to break down into sobs after trying so hard to keep herself together for the staff, but the woman grinned even wider, grabbed Audry by head and kissed her on the top of it. Letting her go, patting Audry's head, she said, "Dear, sweet girl…"

And immediately she pulled out the best vegan breakfast Audry had ever seen. There was a fruit salad, quinoa, chickpeas, and tofu 'omelet', which Audry loved. For a second Audry was stunned. But then she realized why.

"The wolf's not dead?"

Mrs. Gruber shook her head. "No. They got the hunter in time."

"Oh, thank heaven." Audry leaned against the table, entirely relieved.

"All thanks to you." Mrs. Gruber beamed at her.

Audry's face felt hot as her chest swelled with pride. She dug into her breakfast with pleasure.

When she was nearly done, Audry noticed that Rick had not come down. Usually he came down not long after she did. Not that it mattered, but the break in pattern made her feel uncomfortable for some reason. She liked consistency. It had a good rhythm. She was about ask Mrs. Gruber about him when the notion that he probably had caught a cold and was probably sick in bed came into her mind. He had, after all, gone out in that weather without his coat.  

Finishing up, Audry cleaned her dish and utensils and set them into the dishwasher for sterilization. Then with a hop up the stairs, she went back to her room to dress. She had to collect her things after all. She was done with her project and that room would be needed that evening for the extra staff staying on for the New Year celebrations.

It took a few minutes. But Audry also made her bed and cleaned out the drawers, setting her things onto the mattress so she could quickly pack them for her departure. She had all the equipment cases to fill also. Taking them out, Audry counted how many cameras she had left to gather. Not counting the broken camera, she was almost halfway through the collection.

Blue sweater. Warm mittens. Wool socks. Audry was prepared for the last go out into the snow. She hopped down the steps to the kitchen with her handy camera, pulled on her winter boots, and got on everything else, wrapping up so she could bear the wind chill, which Audry could tell was blowing away the storm clouds because the sky was a clear blue. She stepped outside into the frigid air.

Snow had been shoveled away from the door, but piled in heaps around it. The end of the toboggan was nearly a foot embedded in the snow. Oddly enough, the chicken was entirely alive, sitting on top of the