The Crystal Wolf

Meredith , 7^th grade

                I have no idea how I got here, or where I am for that matter. But everything around me was golden. Except the cat; she was a blinding white, brighter than the sun, so bright normal people wouldn’t be able to look at here without losing their vision. She kept growling to me, and sniffing me cautiously. I kneeled down and let her sniff my forehead. Then I felt excruciating pain as her gentle fur touched my skin. It felt like someone was stabbing me with a burning knife and pouring salt onto the newly revealed flesh. But nothing happened. She backed off purring and the pain vanished as quick and as sudden as it had come.

                Then I woke up. Rays of light filtered through the dark shades and filled the dreary room.  I heard knocking at my door and quickly got up and put on a shirt and pants as my mom came in.

                “Joshua! I thought you were going to clean up in here!” She shook her head slowly. “You can’t just keep all your trash on your desk, and why do you have a pile of dirty clothes over there??? I bought you a laundry basket and I expect you to use it.” She took one more look at my room, frowned, and walked out. I sighed and started picking up a few pieces of trash and dumping them in my trashcan.

                I was a mess I realized. No wonder my girlfriend dumped me for some dork. I wasn’t sure when the last time I had showered been, and I knew most of my clothes hadn’t been washed for the past few weeks. I made a mental note to pick up a few things from my floor before I went to bed tonight, or early tomorrow morning, I guess. I wasn’t sure when the last time I fell asleep before 2 am was. I got my skateboard and skated down to the gas station to get myself breakfast. A Snickers bar and some Mountain Dew filled my empty stomach as I skated down to my friend’s house.

                I rang the doorbell and an elderly Hispanic lady answered the door. “Hi Jackie, is Nicole around?” I asked and the housekeeper quickly shooed me inside and got me a glass of orange juice.

                “She is up in her room,” replied Jackie, “I will go get her.” She turned and walked up the wooden staircase towards Nicole’s room. Nicole was like my little sister. We had been friends since we were toddlers in preschool, but never more or less. Seeing her face everyday made me feel warm inside, as if she were a candle in the middle of Alaska. But I would never date her, it would be too awkward if we broke up, and I’m not sure I would be able to go on without her on my side, always teasing me and being my younger sister I never had.

                Nicole pushed me lightly from behind, and I jumped, spilling my orange juice down my shirt, and breaking my train of thought. 

“You might want to find someone your own size to beat up.” I said jokingly, and she punched me playfully on the shoulder.

                “Aww… but your sooo easy to hurt.” She grinned and hugged me. I pulled her hair lightly, and she laughed.

                “I should’ve known you were going to do that,” she said, “so what’ve you been up to lately?” she asked.

~’~’~’~

                “Hey mom, what’re you fixing for dinner?” I asked as I walked into the door after spending the day with Nicole.

                “Lasagna; your favorite.” She smiled and turned back around to finish her sauce. I hurried upstairs before she had the chance to ask me if I had cleaned my room yet.

                I plopped down on my small sofa and flipped on the TV. I looked through the guide then turned the TV off. I decided I’d just take a nap.

                The white cat purred to me as I found myself surrounded by golden columns. “What are you trying to tell me?” I asked. As if she can actually understand me! I thought.

                “Well that was rude. I’m not an idiot you know.” I turned around expecting to find someone, but all I saw were the golden columns. “Down here, smarty. And you think I’m the one who can’t understand anything.” All I saw was the white cat, smiling.

                Wait, I thought, cats don’t smile…. I picked up the cat, ignoring the searing pain in my hands. “What, I mean who are you?” The cat grinned. I was really puzzled.

                “I am Cynthia. I am the ruler here. But there have been problems with my kingdom. Men, bad men, are trying to destroy my kingdom and use the gold for there own fortunes. WE have always been kind and peaceful, and we do not wish to fight these men.”

                “Wait, you’re a ruler…No offense, but your kind of a cat.” Cynthia glared at me. “Anyway what does this have to do with me?”

                “You have to find the Crystal Wolf. It is a shield and can protect my kingdom from the evil men who have been trying to tear it down. But you must hurry. They will be here soon.”

                “But why me? Why can’t you do it yourself? You’re all magical.” Cynthia purred.

                “Yes but I cannot travel through our two universes. Only you can. And by the way, I am not a cat. I am a human, well sort of. I can turn into a cat to hide myself from enemies. I think it is safest to do so until I know where the men are.” She smiled. “You must hurry. Goodbye.”

                I woke up, not knowing where I was. Then I realized, I was in my room, there is no such thing as Cynthia, and it was all a dream. But something in the back of my head told me that Cynthia was real and that I needed to save Cynthia and her kingdom. But I decided to ignore it all and call Nicole, she would know what to do.

                “Hi Jackie, is Nicole there?” I waited while Jackie climbed the wooden staircase and heard the faint knock on her door. Then I heard Jackie hand Nicole the phone.

                “Hey Niki, it’s Joshua, I’ve been having some strange dreams lately and I thought you might be able to figure out what they mean.” I explained to her about Cynthia and how she had been in my dreams the past few weeks. “Well, no. It all seems so real. It’s as if she’s really there. And every time I touch her, my skin burns until I finally can’t take it anymore and let go. It’s all so realistic.” Nicole told me that I should ask Cynthia where the entrance to her universe was, and then we’d figure out if all this was real or not.

                “OK I’ll ask her tonight, and do you really believe me? Because most people would think I was going crazy and send me to an asylum or something.”

                She laughed. “Of course I believe you, you’re my best friend. But, I have to go, so I’ll see you tomorrow and we can go find that hidden entrance.” She laughed again and hung up.

                I wasn’t sure that she believed me, but I had to trust her words. I decided to take a nap and see if I could talk to Cynthia again. But unfortunately, our neighbors were sawing their tree down so I couldn’t even rest for a second. Tonight, I thought, Tonight will be the night that will change my life.

                And it was. As I settled into sleep hours later, I white cat appeared and whispered;

“I cannot visit you tonight Joshua, they are here.

You must find the Wolf tonight or my kingdom will fall, and all my people

shall be killed. Hurry to the vine covered entrance, we believe in you!”

                I woke up immediately and called Nicole at once. “We have to go now. Cynthia and her people are in trouble, they will die if we don’t hurry.”

                “Okay,” said Niki, “I will meet you at your house as soon as possible.”

                “No,” I said, “We need to go now! I will meet you at the edge of the forest, hurry!” I slipped on some pants and a clean t-shirt and hurried out the door, sprinting to the forest at the edge of town. I don’t know why I thought the entrance would be in the forest, but it sounded like where a secret entrance would be, so I hurried on faster, barreling down the abandoned streets to where I saw the tops of trees in the distance. I heard wheels rolling down the street on the right, and I knew Nicole was coming on her skateboard.

                “Did you find out where the entrance was?” She asked as we came to a halt in front of the dark forest.

                “No.” I admitted. “But she said it was covered in vines, so let’s look around the pond in the center.”

                “Okay,” agreed Nicole. “But let’s hurry, I don’t like the idea of lurking around in the dark, especially here of all places.” She left her skateboard at the edge of the forest and we ran towards the lake a quarter-mile away.

                “This has to be it.” I said excitedly. It has vines covering it, and someone could easily fit through there.”

                “Yes, but half the things here have vines covering it.” She argued. “But go ahead and try.” I smiled; of course I’d have to go first.

                 “Well I guess I’ll just run at it like they do in the Harry Potter movies.” Niki shouted something like “no that’s the dumbest idea”, but it was too late. I hit the side of the rock and bruised my forehead.

                “WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?!?!” She yelled. “Harry Potter? I mean really, why would it be anything like that??? The author just made that up!” I thought it over and decided her words were true, but I was too proud to admit it.

                “Well how else am I supposed to do it?” I asked.

                “I don’t know, maybe by pushing on it first to see if it was hard or not!” She smiled. “At least you didn’t crack your head open though. C’mon we have to find this entrance.” We searched for another hour before we found a well hidden behind some overgrown vines.

                “This might be it. I’ll throw a rock down and see how deep it is.” I grabbed a small stone and tossed it down the well. We never heard the slightest thud so I decided I’d jump down. I didn’t tell Niki before I did it because I knew she would disagree and stop me somehow.

                “What are we supposed to do?” Asked Nicole slowly.

                “You wait here, if you hear a scream go get help, if I don’t make a sound, jump in!” I threw myself into the well before she processed the words, and clamped my mouth shut. I never hit a bottom, but instead I couldn’t breathe and then I was sitting on a clear step, the sun shining brightly overhead. And then suddenly I felt someone touching my arm and I turned to see Niki, breathing heavily, her face ghostly white.

                “Never make me do anything like that again.” She said. I smiled and told her I wouldn’t. I stood up and walked around.

                “Now what are we going to do?” I asked. Niki shrugged.

                “I have no idea.” We walked around for a bit before I realized that we weren’t walking, we were flying. There was nothing beneath us and nothing above us except the sun.

                Then I saw it. A small wolf; howling at the sun. “That’s it! The wolf! Over there!” I flew down towards it and it started growling. “No, I’m not here to hurt you; I just need the crystal wolf, where can I find it?” The wolf growled again, but bowed.

                “You must find the pack, and then kill the leader. His pack will eat him except his bones. They will form into a small wolf then turn to crystal. But beware, he is strong, and his pack is crazed with hunger.” Then the wolf turned and disappeared out of sight.

                “Well let’s go find the wolf pack and kill their leader.” I said and continued to fly north, well at least I thought it was north, we didn’t know what was up and what was down, what was east and what was west, well you get the point.

                This world felt like a dream. Flying with Nicole on a quest to retrieve a crystal wolf to save Cynthia… this definitely did not happen to all teenage boys.

                “What are you thinking about?” asked Nicole in her sweet, wondering voice. I smiled.

                “This all seems like a dream to me. You, me, flying, mystical lands made of gold. None of this makes sense to me.” Niki turned her head away from me, a sad expression on her face.

“I never said I didn’t like it, you know, the you and me part.” She smiled and opened her mouth as if to say something when a chorus of howls filled the air.

“THE WOLF PACK!” We both said simultaneously. A huge mountain rose ahead of us, with a meadow on the other side. We flew to the top of the mountain then fell onto a stone path.

“I guess we have to walk now.” said Nicole. I nodded and we followed the stone path leading to a valley below.

~’~’~’~

Black shadowy figures surrounded us, growling and snarling. Niki was panicking beside me, clutching to a stick she found on the ground. Whenever a wolf lunged at her, she would whack him on the head with her stick, making them yelp and back into the shadows snarling again. I had no idea how to get out of here. As the small wolf had warned us, these ferocious creatures were starving, and three times as menacing as a normal wolf pack would’ve been.

“What are we supposed to do now?” Nicole asked. Those words flashed images through my head. Niki asked me the same question on the clear steps earlier today, while we were in peace; alone. But now it was completely different; we were in trouble- multiple wolves snapping their fangs at our ankles, Niki and her stick, thumping it across all the heads. I kicking and punching the wolves that dared came near us. And then, two large paws stepped out of the shadows, and then a head and body emerged with it. A proud, enormous wolf stood staring at me. Its head came up to my elbow and it growled. Then it pounced at Niki. With reflexes like a cat she threw her stick at his head, and it yelped, slipping and turning itself onto its back, its stomach facing the air. I knew this was my chance, I jumped on top of the wolf and it made a coughing noise. I punched its neck and grabbed the stick now lying next to me. I jabbed at its throat, until a small stream of blood trickled out. I quickly got up and grabbed Niki by the arm. The pack, now realizing their leader was dying pounced on top of the large wolf and ripped him to shreds. Then I saw the pile of bones, they formed together to make a replica of the lead wolf, howled at the sun then shrunk into a small crystal wolf, the size of my hand. I felt sad for the leader, but it was the only way. The crystal wolf still stared at the sun, its nose in the air, and its left paw raised in the air. It would remain that way for a long time, I thought. Me and Niki climbed back to the top of the mountain and rose back into the air.

“It’s time to find Cynthia, and save her kingdom.” I nodded and grabbed Niki’s hand. Together we flew until I saw a small rock floating in the distance.

“We should head over there.” I said. Niki agreed and we turned slightly to the left and flew on until we landed softly on the gray stone. There was a small hole in the center, but not too deep. I stepped into it and appeared surrounded by golden pillars. But they were not still, like in my dreams. They were shaking, and some were crumbling and falling.

“They’re here.” I said slowly, anger clear in my voice. “We must find Cynthia quickly.” I walked around for a minute before I realized we were trapped between the circle of falling pillars.

“Where is she? We’re going to die here if she doesn’t show up! Those pillars will fall like dominoes once that one goes.” Nicole pointed to a crooked pillar that was swaying uneasily.

“I don’t know why she isn’t here. This is where we always met in my dreams!”

“That’s it! Go to sleep, you’re a teenage boy, even this noise shouldn’t affect you!” I nodded and after about thirty minutes I was dead asleep.

“You made it! Hurry give me the crystal wolf!” I took the small statue out of my pocket and handed it to her. “Thank-you, you have saved my kingdom, now it is time for you to go, you will die here without my protection, and I need to go secure this wolf. Good-night!”

I woke up in my bed, in my room, sweating heavily, the sheets all messed up. It was all a dream I thought to myself. All a dream. But the next day, Nicole smiled at me when I passed her on my skateboard.

“What a wild adventure!” she said to me.