“Come on slowpoke! You need to speed up!” Maia cried to her friend Jill as they ran through the forest.
“I know! I’m going as fast as I can!” Jill answered back, slightly out of breath.
“I want to show you the place I found yesterday and it’ll be dark in a few hours.” Maia took off at an even faster pace than before, determined to get to her destination.
Finally Maia and Jill came out and into a clearing. Maia gestured proudly at the clearing. It was a beautiful place with a small, clear stream running through it, wildflowers circling the clearing, and willows sweeping low over the water. Suddenly Maia and Jill heard a whimper come from the bushes on the other side of the clearing.
Jill and Maia stepped closer to each other. “What was that?” Jill asked, a quiver in her voice.
Slowly the two girls Got closer and closer to the mysterious noise. Maia, the braver of the two, pulled aside the branches of the bush and they saw, to their astonishment, a large grey wolf. It took them a moment to realize that one of the wolf’s paws was stuck in a trap. The girls could clearly see the pain in the poor animal’s eyes. It was hurt badly and would not survive without help.
“We should go.” Said Jill, tugging at Maia’s sleeve, trying to pull her friend away from the wolf.
Maia was frozen by the piercing blue eyes that she found herself faced with. She knew that this was a dangerous animal and that she should be afraid of it, but for some reason she wasn’t. As she looked into the eyes of the wolf, eyes that were filled with pain and hopelessness, she felt something within her stir. It was as if this wolf could reach into her very soul.
Maia felt herself reaching out to the wolf and towards the trap without thinking. She registered somewhere in the back of her mind that Jill had run away but to her this was unimportant, all that mattered to her were the eyes of the wolf and the pain within them. Maia knew that she would do anything to make that pain go away and set the wolf free.
She wrapped her fingers around the cold metal of the trap. Surprisingly enough the wolf let her, as if it knew that she was trying to help. It just looked at her as she released the trap. Maia finally got the trap off of the wolf and she pulled back, sensing that the wolf would no longer tolerate her touch.
“You need a name.” Maia said. “How about Akiza.” The wolf looked as if she recognized the name like a dog would recognize their own.
Akiza stood and suddenly she and Maia were face to face. Both saw something in the other something that they recognized, something that they trusted. Within each of them was a pure innocence, something that was rare.
A howl sounded in the distance and Akiza looked towards it and howled back. She looked at Maia one more time before she loped into the misty forest. “I will never forget you Akiza.” Maia whispered.
Akiza looked back as if she had heard and Maia could have sworn that she had heard a faint voice whisper back to her, “I will never forget the kindness that you have shown me today and if you ever need me I will come.”
The mist finally obscured Akiza and she was gone. Jill then came running out of the woods, Maia’s parents trailing behind her. They all embraced her fiercely and asked if she was alright and what had happened. Maia didn’t answer any of them, she was too busy thinking about the wolf and the voice she had heard on the wind.
To this day Maia still remembers the wolf that had seemed to be part of her soul and the wolves still remember the kindness of the child in the woods. No descendant of Maia will be afraid of the woods because they know that no animal would dare to harm them with the wolves on their side.