The sun is shining ever faithful as it always has on me, the wind is cold and blistering but my spirit feels truly free.
I hear off in the distance the sound of cars honking and whisking by, but I'm surrounded in mother nature and I don't even wonder why.
I feel the warmth come from the sun and wrap my soul in love, despite the chilling feeling that the wind is swirling up above.
I look up to a mountain where the sun has slowly start to set and I think to myself quietly "oh how lucky can I get?"
The sun begins to sink behind that noble mountain top and as it falls behind that stone I too feel my heart start to drop.
I listen to the howls of night, coyotes, wolves and towering beasts, the howls and moans of pure wild slowly creeping on my flesh to feast.
They never make their presence known but they are near me and of that I have no prayer, I know I am kneeling closely to that of mother nature's lair.
But frightened I am not as I have sat here all night and day, the beasts sought to attack my meager self but slowly walked the other way.
So I listen ever closer as I hear them begin their right, the sounds of them chasing their prey slowly fills the night.
My legs have turned to numb now as I kneel naked in these wood, and the sacrifice that I am making I know somehow is for the greater good.
I've gained knowledge on this road here, this path I've chose to walk, despite the dangers of the world and the beasts of which I am stalked.
I climbed down from atop that mountain where I met a most humbling friend, that storm that had haunted me so long, myself it was in the end.
And as I stumble to my car to dawn the clothes I had left in there, a single rogue wolf approached me calmly and stared upon me with icy glare.
He looked straight into my soul as if my flesh was not even worn, though it would have been just as easy for him if my skin he would decide to torn.
Then he turned to walk away and glanced at me just once more and the look he gave to me was the same I had myself during the war.
I understood what he said to me though not a syllable was rolled, "you and I are just the same, warrior souls who paid the toll".
As he disappeared into the night as quickly as he had came, I heard another voice whisper softly my forgotten and yet common name.
"Jacob, please don't leave me here, don't leave me this way to die" he said, "my legs and wings are broken, I cannot run nor can I fly."
I looked around so vigorously to find this crying being, I could not nearly believe my eyes with the creature I was seeing.
A raven calling out to me, with both legs and wings so cruelly broken, I picked up that Gray Raven and took our meeting as a token.
I brought that Raven home with me and began to nurse it back to health, the sight of that Gray Raven leaving me was worth all the world's wealth.
At first that Raven walked, then he began to flap his wings, the beauty of his tiny wing span made my spirit so serene.
Then he took off in an instant as if the wounds were never there, but he flew back by me slowly to give me a thankful stare.
And just like that he vanished but I knew most certainly not for good, I'd find that Raven any time I wandered through that wood.
"Broken legs and wings I had, a kindred spirit I so fortunately found, never once would we be apart dear brother, even when I'm not around."
That's the last thing Fenrir said to me, that Gray Raven I had him named, I knew his words were not for nothing, I knew he meant what he exclaimed.
Now I sit here ever watchful anytime I see a Raven pass, I think to myself so calmly, "is that my Fenrir returned at last?"
©jarnmarr
J