Episode 2

(click here to read Episode 1)

I tried not to panic, but I felt my breathing quicken into swift, shallow breaths. My head started to spin from the adrenaline and fear. “Wha’do we got here, boy?” I heard the bigger one say. “A human” I thought.I still couldn’t see well because of the brush, and the angle I was hanging, but I had heard about these before. He’s probably the one that set this trap for me. As he got nearer, the smaller, faster one unfroze from his stance and removed the glare I could feel on the top of my head. I heard the animal panting, a wolf. This man had a wolf. This could not be any worse. 

I couldn’t keep myself from trembling, and there was a sorrow I felt overcoming me. I was going to die. 

The brush parted and I started when the wet, sniffing, nose of the wolf touched me. Both man and beast jumped back in reaction to mine. “She’s alive, Joe.” The man leaned back in, I could see his lower half now. Brown boots, denim pants, both wet from the early morning dew. “looks like she’s caught in mah’ fence, Joe, an’ from the looks of it she did’er self some harm tryin’ t’git loose. Let’s have a look-see.” “Bleh!” I let out a bleat as my sensitive leg reacted to the man’s touch. I was so angry, this was all his fault. But I was so exhausted, and maybe if they just killed me and ate me I wouldn’t have to hang here any longer. The man extended his arm and I heard a “pop!” and my legs thudded to the ground. I let out another cry as the throbbing became hotter in my legs. though my neck was stiff, I was finally able to look back at my legs, and there was a strand of gray briers embedded in the blood-caked fur on my hind legs. “Think she’ll make it, Joe?” The small, black and brown wolf looked up at his master, then back at me, tail wagging. I looked up and saw a brown belt, faded red plaid shirt, sleeves rolled up revealing dark brown skin, work gloves holding grey pincers, broad shoulders supporting a green bandanna tied around a thick neck, and a pair of gray eyes under a straw hat. “Well, Joe, we still need’a make aw’ rounds. I ‘spose I’ll rig this wire here till I ‘kin come back’n fix it propa’. This’un’ll have’ta tag ‘long seein’ as she’ll be favorin’ huh hind legs fo’ while. C’mon then lil wild sheep.” He clipped the brier down even shorter that was still hooked into my legs and used it to tie back onto the brier hidden in the bush. He then cleared the brush from it and I saw that this brier was long and was growing on a long row of little bare trees that went for over a mile it looked like. He then picked me up (I couldn’t help but wince and bleat out again) and put me around his neck, holding onto only my front legs. This man and his wolf then continued their path walking alongside the “barb fence,” he called the brier. the wolf chased other sheep away from the fence and the man walked, letting out whistles and “hoops” and “hups” and “get on’s” to tell the wolf where to go. The man stayed close to the fence reviewing it. Maybe looking for more sheep caught in it. If he was going to eat me, he sure was waiting an awful long time. Maybe he would bring me back to his den and share with his pack. My mind started to drift. The rhythmic trudging of his man’s steps made my mind churn. I wonder where the rest of my herd were, I wonder if this man found them too. I wonder if my mother ever lived through something like this, maybe this is what happened to her. I felt my eyes start to get heavy. I had had so little and such miserable rest last night, I was still exhausted, and the initial adrenaline rush of being found was wearing off. I was thinking about everything, and then I would open my eyes, not realizing that I had let them close. I fought and fought, but I suppose I lost. I woke up with my legs tied, in a wooden cave, alone again.