Writing Prompt 1: Silhouette
Explore the symbolism in 'Here Stands the Lone Wolf.' Try to uncover, in this evocative image, a short story or mythical animal tale.
Here stands the lone wolf, high up, watching, listening, silhouetted against winter trees, thin and narrow, the sky grey and cold.
Maybe the lone wolf is a metaphor for your path in life. Or the lone wolf waits for its pack. Or the lone wolf is, in fact, a statue representing a person, a place or a thing. You decide.
What story do you find here?
Lone Wolf
The afternoon sank into twilight, the sun setting fast behind the trees.
A four-legged figure stood still, silhouetted against the thin bare forest. His ears twitched and the fur along his back rippled as the sounds of nocturnal life grew louder. Birds shuffled in their roosting spots while small rodents snuffled at the ground. He stared out into the beckoning gloom. Bending his head down, he sniffed at the vegetation around his paws and licked the moisture from some blades of grass in a bare patch of ground.
A harsh sound penetrated the evening. The tallest of the trees swayed and shook in the sudden whirlwind of air. The machine hovered high above the animal. The wolf ducked and ran deep into the forest finding safety in a pile of soft undergrowth that had gathered in the hollowed-out trunk of a dead tree.
Voices murmured in the distance when the machine stopped and quietened.
Human voices.
The wolf lifted his nose into the air.
Smoke.
Ash began to drift slowly to the ground. Flakes of burning forest rested gently on the surface of his fur. The wolf tucked himself further back into his hideaway, his eyes the only bright pale light in the dark.
Torchlight swept through the trees. A crackle of fire grew closer. Something sharp struck his flank and he stumbled back in surprise before falling to the ground.
"Got him," said a voice. "Over here."
The last thing he saw was a gentle hand patting him as the sound of flames flicked at the land close behind them.
First posted December 2019 // Photo: Freya Chaytor - Wolf Conservation Trust, UK 2016
