Synopsis: Zoe is a leading executive at her company, has two wonderful kids, and by all measures appears to be leading a regular, well-adjusted life. When her daughter Talia one day tells her about a holiday she had never heard of before called Wolfenoot, a day intended to celebrate the kind actions of others towards their doggy companions and receive gifts from the Spirit of the Wolf she dismisses her daughter's boundless creativity. One day however, Zoe finds herself face-to-face with the Spirit who notifies her of an imperative mission that only she can fulfill. To prepare herself for her new life she will have to learn what it means to be true to yourself and extend compassion to others before time runs out.

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The Spirit Of Wolfenoot (Pt. 1)

by K9Lupus

Zoe Murkin refused to believe that she was going to have to tell the other executive staff she would be late presenting her quarterly report today on account of a missing Transformers shoe.

“Eli we need to go! Just put something else on and get downstairs.” Zoe shouted as she stuffed a last-minute attachment to her report into her briefcase. Her fingers fumbled with the brass clasp until she heard a satisfying click. Eli's little voice carried through his shut door. “But it's my favorite! I know I can find it!”

Zoe's daughter Talia patiently waited tucked up against the post of the front door. She was content to rub her forehead across the reversible sequin fabric of her backpack, turning it from gold to silver back to gold once more in varying patterns. Another muffled toss of clothes and toys was heard from upstairs. Zoe pressed her thumb and forefinger hard against her temple and loosed a clenched breath.

He didn't use to be this way when his father was still around.

With a begrudged sigh, Zoe trudged up the stairs and opened the door to her son's room. She scanned the room with the calculated sharpness of a mother with far too much experience at this kind of task. Likely spots were examined first. Her hands ran along the edges of furniture where all manner of toys, crumbs, or other objects could be found, but none were the item of her son's pressing need. Zoe paused to regroup her thoughts, then spied a large, flipped over yellow truck she had gotten for Eli for his birthday last month. With a nudge of her foot, she flipped it over to reveal the missing shoe which Eli immediately snatched up with joyous relief.

“Put it on in the car.” Zoe ordered, leading her son with his one lone shoe strapped to his foot downstairs as the trio finally loaded up in the car to start their days.

It was a calculated risk. Zoe knew all of the speed traps where the officers usually posted, and slowed down appropriately only when needed. The speedometer read 15 over the limit nearly the entire way to the school. She made it there in record time, gave each of her kids a quick kiss on the forehead, and bolted out of the school parking lot towards the office downtown with a fresh, curved tire skid bisecting the nearby crosswalk.

*******

Zoe had never been more thankful for the shoddy pipework of the office than when she hurried inside the building, heaving ragged breaths when she spied a bright yellow poster strapped to the notifications board. All regularly scheduled office events today had been delayed to accommodate multi-floor inspection on corroded water pipes. Zoe treated herself to a quick cup of coffee at Tino's Coffee Shack across the street, and presented her report to the satisfaction of the other regional staff managers. She left the office that day feeling over the moon and unstoppable. Once in the parking lot, she slipped into her car and sank deeply into her car seat, finally relaxing long enough to munch on her guilty pleasure of a tuna wrap slathered with gourmet tzatziki sauce.

Through countless nights of lost sleep, clocking out late, and volunteering for whatever committee request would come up, Zoe had skyrocketed through the ranks of the PRM Marketing And Relations firm. In her five short years there she had become a valued asset for the company. Everyone knew her, for better or worse. She often told her coworkers that her sometimes excessive efforts were to provide the best she could for her kids. In part that was true. However, the long hours and new normalcy of fatigue had also served as a comforting veil from the unpleasant thoughts that would intermittently furrow their way inside her mind.

Eddie's passing had struck with all the unforeseen terror of a submerged, hidden beast rising from the depths to swallow you and the life you once knew whole. Sometimes Zoe would lay awake at night in her bed and unconsciously reach out to draw the warmth of his body towards her, but her fingers would only brush across the cool, silken bed sheets instead. She could still vividly see the smile on his face with his goofy dimples framed by the loose curls of his auburn hair. It was only a normal trip with his friends. Same as every year since his college days. To think his goodbye that day was his last after so many just like it had come before still confused the scarred portions of Zoe's heart she hid beneath her ceaseless work ethic.

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Zoe's celebration of another successful day was short-lived however as she eyed the time on her car's digital display and nearly choked on the bite of wrap in her mouth. Through teary eyes she slammed on the accelerator to race back to the school. Her kids were sitting huddled in front of the activity room while the formless horde of other young boys and girls were scattered across the nearby playground. A little girl fell on her face, to which two older boys began to roar with laughter. Not a second later, one of the staff stiffly walked over to sort out the situation while another caught sight of Zoe idling in the lot. The woman wearing a sickening neon-green vest gave a quick message on her radio before waving the waiting kids over to join their mom.

Eli and Talia bundled there way into the back of the car, each carrying a large, paper bag full of assorted crafts they had worked on in anticipation of the upcoming Thanksgiving break from school. In the midst of fighting over what to show their mom at each stop sign or light they came across, Talia brought up one point that a friend had made at lunch.

“Hey Mom, do you think we can we celebrate Wolfenoot this year?” she asked with an excited lilt while her mother navigated a blind turn off of a stop sign to head towards the highway.

“I'm sorry sweetie. Can you say that again? What did you say you learned about wolves today?” Zoe answered with a lightning-quick jerk of her head towards her daughter before redirecting her eyes back to the road.

“Not actual wolves mom. Wolfenoot! Angie was talking all about it today. On Wolfenoot, the Spirit of The Wolf shows up to all those who are kind to dogs to give gifts. Kind of like Santa, but hairier. At least that's what Angie said. I've been kind to dogs this year. And the year before that. And the one before that too, so do you think we can celebrate it so I can get some gifts?”

“Me too! I've been nice to doggies too mom!” Eli piped in to a jabbing elbow by his older sister. Eli shoved her shoulder in return, knocking over a beaded turkey craft stacked at the top of Talia's bag to the car floor below. The pair fought against their seat belts to push the other as far away as they could in the confined space, and when that didn't appear to work they turned to yelling. Zoe sighed, attempting to recall the young lady's words at the parenting workshop.

How many breaths was it? 3...no no...it was 4.

She tensely loosed one breath out, then in. Then another. She had made it to the third when Eli's scream tore through the car.

“That's enough! From both of you.” Zoe swerved over to temporarily park on the side of a street within someone's driveway. In these frantic moments, small formalities were overlooked. Zoe's blazing parental stare was long enough to serve its job at stopping both kids cold in their tracks. Their heads hung down, and they folded their hands in their laps averting their mother's disappointed gaze.

“It needs to be quiet the rest of the way.”

“Ok.” they both answered in unison.

*******

The passing of time helped ease back Zoe's elevated mood, and so as she was tucking her daughter into bed that night, she stroked back a loose lock of her auburn hair and gave her the time she had previously ignored.

“Tell me more about this Wolfy-nooty thing you were saying earlier.”

“It's Wolfenoot Mom. You eat meat and cake, and howl with your friends. It all sounded like so much fun. Can we please celebrate it this year?” Talia pleaded, drawing the covers up closer around her face.

“When is this supposed to be? I've never heard of it before until you told me.”

“On the 23rd. That's what Angie said.”

“I'm sorry sweetheart, but that's not going to work out. That's the day after Thanksgiving, and we're already going to be at your grandmother's house by then. Plus I'm not sure how she'd feel about it. Thanksgiving is very important to her.”

“But mom, we never get to do nothing fun when we're there.” Talia said with a kick of her feet beneath the sheets. Zoe flashed her daughter a firm glance.

“Anything fun.” she corrected.

“We'll figure it out sweetheart, ok?” Zoe said leaning forward to kiss her daughter goodnight.

“Ok.” Talia answered unconvinced, then closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

*******

Zoe noticed that Talia did not ask again about celebrating Wolfenoot, but was grateful that the family did enjoy their Thanksgiving holiday together at her mother's house. Stories and laughs were shared. Much food was feasted upon; near comatose states of tryptophan-induced slumber following in their wake. It was a nearly normal holiday except for the one uneaten plate left out that needed to be sloughed into the trash in the morning.

That day, the day that was to be Wolfenoot, Eli and Talia begged their mother to bring them over to the local park which had a vast array of play equipment for their little hearts to enjoy. Zoe agreed to the suggestion, Talia leading the charge of their small band over to the park where they were let loose to enjoy themselves.

They crawled and tumbled through the bright tunnels connecting the various parts of the playground, hung from the hanging poles, and each inevitably bore their fair share of falls down into the woodchip piles below. But they were smiling and laughing all the while. To see her kids having fun, bundled warm and content, made all of her extra hours to get her current position worth it. A biting chill crept over her shoulder then. She wheeled around to find a mass of hanging, frosty mist floating aimlessly before her.

The mist swirled about her until it coalesced into the sparkling form of a large, shimmering wolf with fur like clumps of snow and eyes as blue as the coldest ice. Looking around, Zoe saw her kids immobile, frozen in their movement and expression, the rest of the playground hazy and unfocused.

“What did you do to them? And what are you?” Zoe asked with panic rising in her voice. The wolf's words back to her were frigid, flowing, and calm.

“They are safe. All will return to normal when we are done. I created this space for us to finally meet Zoe. As for what I am, the easiest way to explain would be that I am the spirit of the time your people now called Wolfenoot. I was borne of a time far before you or any may still remember, a time when humans were not so far away from the roots of the Great Tree. It was called by another name then, long since forgotten, but the energies of its intentions have awakened me anew.” the wolf answered.

“What do you want from me?” Zoe asked cowering back to use the bench in front of her as a shield if need be.

“It is strange to fear so greatly without coming to knowledge about a thing first. I am not here to cause you harm. You will know again the ways you have ignored with time. Praising and rewarding those who have served as boon and not bane to the natural cycles has been my purpose, but it is time that my role be passed to another.”

“You mean me? But what could I have possibly done to have something like this happen? How am I supposed to know any little speck about whatever it is you do?”

“You get caught up searching for ants when there is a vast hill before you. All will make itself clear in time.” the wolf said before stepping forward to breathe a frosty breath upon Zoe's brow. Zoe breathed in the cold air, her lungs filling to their maximum until she fell forward against the bench unconscious. The wolf's work now completed, it stepped away and gradually once more drifted back into a cloud of mist, vanishing into the sky.

Zoe awoke to the shoving hands and worried faces of her kids pressing against her.

“Mom! Mom!” they cried out.

She groaned, waved them off, then slumped forward to gather her thoughts. Her body shivered, chilled to the bone. She could recall the icy blue eyes of the wolf and her mixture of uncertain fear and awe.

“Mom! What happened?” Talia exclaimed.

“Just got a little dizzy that’s all. I must have gotten too cold without realizing it and took a nap. Let’s head home so I can take a nice, warm bath.” Zoe said while forcibly willing the shivers to stop. As they left the playground that day, Zoe attributed it to the cold feeling permeating her body, but couldn't shake off the distinct feeling that whatever had happened was not done with her yet.

*******

The next several months passed by with no further incident and so the strange encounter with the frosty embodiment of the spirit of Wolfenoot soon crept to the back of Zoe’s thoughts. She spent the rest of the winter season carrying out her life as usual balancing her work and maternal obligations. Winter gave way to spring, then summer. Before Zoe knew it, nearly a year had gone by since that fateful encounter.


One night after the kids had been tucked into bed Zoe walked over to the restroom to address an itch in her eyes. She flicked on the light and hunched over the sink, studying her eyes to find the pair of rogue eyelashes causing her discomfort. Instead what she found was a crescent of blue, a glacial fracture in the iris of each of her otherwise greenish-brown hazel eyes. She was baffled. Then she remembered a memory nearly forgotten now: a pair of icy eyes, and a message meant only for her.

It is time my role be passed to another.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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Commissioned short story for Internmatt @ dA! Part 2 will be soon to follow as Zoe's transformation heightens with all manner of consequences for her typical lifestyle. My friends and I actually celebrated Wolfenoot the year that it was announced, and we made our own little traditions to go with the day. It was a positive, fun-filled atmosphere so I encourage you all if you haven't done so already to check out the wonderful little spark of an idea that came from a child wanting to make a positive difference in the world. :)

Wolfenoot Info Here: https://wolfenoot.com/

Interested in getting a story commissioned by me? I am currently open! I'd love to get the chance to bring your ideas to life. My commission info can be found here:

K9 Lupus Commission Info

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