The Call of the Wild The Mind of Kiche By Elaine Li 8-3

1: The Beginning My name is Kiche. I am a wolf and dog mix breed and have spent most of my life treading the fine line between home with humans and home in the Wild, the place of my birth and the place of my death. I grew up with the gods of the world, the humans. However, I fled when a especially harsh famine swept over the lands and I joined the wolves, starving and hunting the gods and any creature we could kill. This ended shortly after all remained of my pack was me and a male wolf, One Eye. After his miserable death, I was forced to look after our only surviving cub cowering in literally a cave and only exiting when hunger was certain. He stayed in the cave hiding in the shadows, fearing the light as I hunted for the food that became scarce as the days grew cold and harsh. As he grew, my cub developed no appearance of a dog, which was pleasing and he began to hunt as well after his curious adventures outside the cave and proved to be fast but still weak.

2: The Return The day finally arrived when my strange past caught up with me. The sound of my name rang into my years, ringing with a familiar tone, one that I had dreaded and at the same time yearned for for years. I left the Wild with my cub, later named White Fang, and rejoined the kin of my former god, leaving behind the freedom with heavy consequences.

3: The Departure After a while, I was taken a foreign place, forced to listen as the cries of White Fang grew more distant and as I sailed away to an unknown land. It was many months later when I killed my new owner who took the time to beat me every day. I fled into the wild and chanced upon a white sleek male wolf. After he died as well, I traveled for a year with my cub, seeking the part of the land in the Wild that I once called home and lingering on a forgotten memory.

4: The Stranger One day, when I was running with my cub, I saw a streak of sleek grey wolf fur. I turned and saw an odd silver wolf and a sharp memory that I could not reach flashed briefly in my head. The stranger appeared strange, a tough wolf in a human camp. My cub and I fled then, but before I did, I saw reorganization and friendliness shine brightly in the wolf’s eyes.

5: The End My death occurred in the Wild, after the death of my cub, when the winter froze us where we stood and chilled us to the bones. Unable to survive, I lay on my side in the deepest part of the Wild, waiting for the silence that overtook everything. Before I closed my eyes, I remembered White Fang, my forgotten cub and wondered where he was now.