Tyler sat in front on the fire, doodling away on his handheld sketchbook, he figured he might as well finish his drawing he was currently close to finishing. As time went on however, the frost turned into snow and the boy was loosing his battle to stay awake. But at last, his drawing was complete, he'd even shaded with the last remnant of the pencil as it started to lose it's point. He looked upon his finished creation with a proud smile, even that was quite difficult as the cold had frozen his face like an ice block, whilst he could move his mouth. eyes and breath, it was becoming a very hard task to do.
an anthro wolf sat atop a cliff face staring out into the landscape in front of them. The sunset releasing an orange glow onto the land, casting everything in a mix of orange and pink. Around it's neck, was a titanium chain with a small ruby chem attached to it, small silver earrings on both its ears, a bronze coloured band was wrapped round the right forearm, whilst a long blanket of silver hair flowed down to the anthro's waist, adorned with feathers and braids in a native american style.
It's fur coat had a mix of greys, whites and reds, which were drawn in a two-tone pattern. The back was a charcoal grey with 2 stripes of orange fur leading from the back to it's short bushy tail. It's front was a brilliant polished white with a blend of grey, that lead down to it's powerful legs which belonged to a strong hunter.
Tyler thought of what to write at the bottom, he remembered something he'd thought of a few days ago, he wrote in the bottom corner of the drawing:
"The Lycanthrope Summer"
Tyler chuckled at the title he'd given it, but it was the best one he could come up with. He went through some of the pages, checking over all his other pieces. primarily wolves, but there were also foxes, red pandas, raccoons and dogs, he really like canines.
"I'd love to do some more artwork of them, i spent a lot of effort and time on it" Tyler said to himself, his voice barely heard over the whistling wind. His eyelids were already drooping at that point, but now were struggling to stay open, he was close to falling asleep right there, in front of the fire in the middle of nowhere.
The tired boy lifted his head up to look at the sky, he saw that the moon was full, and was directly over his head. The fire's glow resonated of the tree's, showering the place with it's orange glow. He looked over to his tent, the flap open slightly. his rifle laid near the entrance on a wooden log. close by in case he needed to grab it.
on his lap was a pack of dry biscuits and a few wrapped boiled sweets from his rations, it was about the best thing in those rations that tasted good. He would've set up his actual cooking rig, but he left it back at the camp.
Tyler shuddered, not just from the cold and snow, but remembering that night, it would be the last time he saw his friends, except Mitchell, but he was gone now.
ever so slowly, Tyler felt sleepy, he wanted to get into his tent and climb into his sleeping bag, but he couldn't stay awake to do that any longer. But, before his eyelids shut, he looked up, towards the woods. He stared, waiting for something, hoping for someone to help him, but, as he continued to look out, he spotted something.
Movement,
Someone or something was coming towards him.
And from what Tyler could tell by it's shape, it wasn't human. His hand automatically reached for his rifle, grabbing it and planting the stock into his shoulder as he stood up and continued to watch the figure as it got closer. Tyler's eyes had adjusted to the dark well, but even then, he was struggling to identify anything on the form like pieces of kit, outline of a uniform or weapons. Instead, all he could make out was what looked like hair or fur covering it, with what looked like a messenger bag on it's side.
What he could make out confused him for a moment, ears on the top of it's head? fur covering the whole of the shadow? and, a bushy tail behind it?
As Tyler went through his memories like a flip of a book page, he remembered the monster that tried to kill him, his eyes widened as he watched it get closer to him, close to the light of the fire. Before he could yell and order the thing to stop where it was, it stepped into to glow of the fire, it casting enough light for Tyler to clearly see what it was.
To say it surprised him was an understatement, it baffled maybe even astonished him at what was standing before him, he imagined the same kind of thing as the black monster, with messy dark fur and jagged teeth with the dried blood of it's last meal, but instead, what he saw was rather the opposite.
It was an anthro wolf, except it didn't look like some horrific creature, it looked beautiful and kind, it's fur looked clean, warm and fluffy. It's eyes casted a soft glow, the iris was a shiny gold as they stared back into Tyler's own brown eyes, to Tyler, they almost looked human, too human. It had a bag on it's right side, olive green with a small white circle with a red cross in the middle.
Where did it get that?" Tyler wondered as the 2 stood still, staring at each other as the wind blew around them, for what felt like an eternity.
Then, as it seemed nothing would happen, the wolf opened it's mouth and spoke:
"Hello human, please, don't be afraid, I do not wish to harm you" it spoke to him, a beautiful voice coming out like a whistle in the wind.