The Rainbow Wolves

Posted on August 3, 2005 by Jenna

← Previous | Next →

Red Wolf is Blood Wolf.

One day, the seven wolves visit the flowers. The flowers are great perfumed nests of petals, large enough for three wolves each to frolic in their heart.

Today the wolves do exactly that!

The wolves descend into the flowers. Their iridescent wings retract under their coats. Their tongues loll. Then they roll in the pollen. They run and leap from flower to flower, spreading the pollen from one to the next. They frolic. They are beautiful.

Then Rex is there. Rex has a gun. Rex is shooting at Yellow Wolf.

Yellow Wolf is the wolf without recourse. Its body is wrapped in cheery yellow cerements, patchy and ragged.

“Git wolves! Leave my flowers alone!” shouts Rex.

Rex is a farmer. He believes that wolves are a serious threat to his flowers. In fact they are very peaceful and noble creatures.

“I’ll kill you!” shouts Rex.

The wolves scatter under the gunfire. They fly away, away, away.

Yellow Wolf is bleeding. Blood is pulsing out, dry and yellow, through the cloth. Yellow Wolf has been hit.

And Red Wolf turns.

Yellow Wolf whimpers. Yellow Wolf arcs away from Red Wolf. Yellow Wolf is afraid.

But Red Wolf’s teeth are sharp and shiny.

They make Yellow Wolf new again.

The Rainbow Wolves and the Filcher Vine

The seven wolves are the guardians of little girls’ dreams. They are creatures of rainbows and flowers and soft fuzzy blankets.

One day, the seven wolves visit Jane. She is sleeping. There are filchers there.

Filchers have bulbous bodies. Their necks are long and they crane their heads back. Filchers wear tuxedos and they have very long fingers. Sometimes their fingers are as much as five miles long, although this is unusual and makes it very hard for them to get their rings on and off.

These filchers are growing from a filcher vine winding up from the floor. They are stealing Jane’s dreams.

Blue Wolf is the wolf of endless water. Blue Wolf is the wolf of the cold alien depths. Blue Wolf is the wolf that takes away your breath, the wolf that crushes you, the wolf that chills you and batters you and drowns you. It is the wolf that makes you say “blub blub blub” before you bloat down in the deeps.

Blue Wolf drags a filcher down to drown. The filcher’s long thin fingers protrude for a long moment from the water, clutching at the air. “Blub blub blub,” it says.

Then it goes down; and there is not even a turmoil in the deeps.

Orange Wolf is the wolf of nuclear fire. Everybody is scared of Orange Wolf. Orange Wolf is the wolf that kills silently and in brightness. Its vest is orange and marked with the radiation symbol. Its hat is an orange chef’s hat, its top blooming outwards like a mushroom’s cap. Orange Wolf has happy eyes as it kills.

Orange Wolf eats the filchers. It eats the filchers all along the filcher-wolf front. Their deaths are silent and their deaths are bright and Orange Wolf’s hat wobbles wib-wib-wib between its fuzzy ears.

Indigo Wolf is the wolf of the void. It is the wolf that the filchers fear most. But one of them is brave. It meets Indigo Wolf’s eyes. That is its mistake. Now it floats in an empty place forever and it will never see its home.

Violet Wolf is the wolf of rot. It makes the filchers sick just like bad medicine. They have pustules and chancrous growths. The living filchers envy the dead until suddenly Orange Wolf eats them. Yum! Pustulent filchers are the most delicious kind of all.

But the filcher vine is still there. It’s still growing filchers, growing them like grapes or zits, popping them off the vine when they’re done. They’re still stealing Jane’s dreams.

So Green Wolf says, in the rumbling voice of the earth, “Rainbow wolves—assemble!”

The wolves run together then. They are seven streaks of seven colors. They are blurring as they run until there is only color: a crisp and beautiful rainbow that splashes against the filcher vine and burns it bubblingly away.

Such are the things that the rainbow wolves do, when filcher vines are found.

What Happened Afterwards

The seven wolves scatter in the room. They roll and dance and play. They are very happy that they have beaten the filchers. Green Wolf even barks!

Blue Wolf puddles and splashes.

Green Wolf tumbles and runs. Where it runs the grass grows. Where it runs there is the green and the shade.

Orange Wolf licks at its flank. A filcher-vine thorn has ruptured its skin. Hard radiation is leaking out.

And Red Wolf turns.

Indigo Wolf is sick. Indigo Wolf’s fur is falling out. Indigo Wolf is retching. That’s because of Orange Wolf’s radiation.

And Violet Wolf turns.

What happens then is not for children’s eyes. So Yellow Wolf opens its mouth and exhales darkness and silence.

Certain things take place, that are not seen.

Then Orange Wolf and Indigo Wolf are new again.

Hooray!

+ Show Comments
filchersjanethe endless hungry void