Aurora looked into the flowing river at her reflection, she had beautiful raven black hair and grey eyes that shine in the sunlight. She closed her eyes and imagined she was riding the wind, free as a bird, she had fur which it was blowing as she went and…

“Aurora! The hunting party has returned!” Her adopted mother Nova interrupted her thoughts. Nova is a beautiful black and brown wolf. Aurora came into their lives eight years ago on a cold winter night, she was left by her human parents but the wolves never mentioned anything about it, they have always told her she was born furless and that she was no less important than the other wolf pups. However, Aurora had always wondered why her siblings grew up faster than her, she always just thought it was a part of being hairless. 

“Hey, sis! Time to eat! what are you staring at?” her sister, Amity, a beautiful gray/brown wolf questioned with a tip of her head. “Nothing, just looking at the water,” Aurora barked back. 

They made their way to the kill pile and picked out a crow and settled down to begin plucking the feathers. 

“Hey Ro-Ro, what you got there?” Aquila, her brother, another grey/brown wolf asked wagging his tail and before she could answer he picked up the bird and tossed it to Aurel, her other brother basically a twin of Aquila, grey/brown wolf had caught the bird in his mouth then went down into a play bow and barked through a mouthful of feathers, “Hey sis, keep away.” He then ran and Aurora took chase.

“Oh, it’s on!” Aurora exclaimed. 

“Hey! Aurel, over here!” Amity squealed, wagging her tail and getting down so she had her paws stretched out and her tail up wagging happily, her hind legs raised so she was now in a play bow. 

“Here you go!” Aurel tossed his head and threw the crow up into the air as soon as Aurora had gotten to him.

“Hey dad, wanna play?” Amity yipped. 

“For sure! This old man still has some pep in his step!” Ace yipped.

They played that game all afternoon. They finished and ate, then they settled down for bed.

“Sleep well little one,” Nova whispered and tucked Aurora close to her to keep her warm, Aurora was snuggled in tightly between Ace and Nova.

“I will Mom, night Dad.” Aurora promised and closed her eyes, allowing sleep to take her over.

A couple of years later, Aurora was exploring as she always does but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw a hunter. She drew her lips back in a snarl and charged at the hunter but he simply laughed and kicked her down.

“Well ain’t you just the wildest thing I ever saw. What’s your name kid?” the hunter questioned. 

Aurora whined as his foot met her chest and when she regained her breath she tilted her head in confusion and tried to sound out what the hunter had said, “K-k-i-i-i-e-e-d?” but it only lasted a second, she then howled to alert her pack. 

In a blink of an eye her pack surrounded the hunter snarling and Ace looked at Aurora, “What happened!?” he growled.

“I was just exploring when I saw this hunter and I tried to attack but he hit me with his hind leg so I decided to howl out for help. I think he may be dangerous. Should we drive him off?” Aurora yapped.

“Not yet, I’ve got a bone to pick with him and he’ll regret the day he touched you!” Ace growled then leaped at the hunter and pinned him down. 

The hunter struggled to break free only keeping away from his snapping teeth by pressing his gun onto Ace’s chest keeping his face only inches from Ace’s.

His pack felt helpless but after getting over the shock of what just happened they rushed to his side as Ace was rolled off. Aurel and Aquila started to circle the hunter when out of blue Amity let out a battle cry and the moment the hunter had turned to face her she had grabbed his gun and ran like wind. The hunter tried to go after her but her brothers had stepped in the way signaling the pack to do the same. As Aurora took her place beside her pack she growled and the pack took one step snarling in unison which sent the hunter running for his life and the brothers of Aurora and a few other pack members made sure he won’t come back. 

Once they had returned Amity had already gathered the pack so Aurora could make sure everyone was there and safe. 

“Are you sure you're not hurt,” the worried cry came from Aurora who was checking Ace over.

“Yes I’m fine, stop fussing over me,” Ace calmly barked to reassure Aurora.

“If you're sure, then I will leave you be but let me know if anything changes.” Aurora yapped a speedy reply. 

She had so many questions, what did the hunter mean by kid. All her life she had been Aurora, the wolf pup, not once was she called a kid, then something clicked. She had seen a kid before, skipping at the border between the forest and the human place, and she never noticed it before but she looked just like this kid. No fur, long skinny legs, ears that poked out on the side of her head, and a flatter face. The pieces were all coming together but if she wasn’t a pup, then Ace, Nova, Amity, Aurel, and Aquila weren’t her family! She was human and they’ve been lying this whole time. 

“You liars, I’m a human! You’ve been lying this whole time, I can’t believe I didn’t notice it sooner!” Aurora whined.

“Aurora, we wanted to tell you but we were afraid of how you would react. You are no different than us.” Nova desperately cried

“Yes I am.” Aurora whined and continued, “Tell me how I really came to be in the pack.” 

“We found on a cold winter night, you were just a baby when we found you, we immediately fell in love so we raised you as one of our own. You are my daughter, wolf or not.” Nova tried to console her but it was too late, Aurora knew the truth.

“If I’m not a wolf, then I’m no daughter of yours!” Aurora growled and turned and fled.

Amity started to give chase, crying desperately out to Aurora, trying to make her come back but Aurora was too far gone and then Nova got in the way knowing that they would have to face the facts, Aurora wasn’t coming back. 

She ran and ran, her legs showing her the way to the human place, away from her forest home in which she had grown up in, away from the lies and to her new life, a human life. 

Aurora, now known as Mia Landlick by her new family who had taken her in and adopted her. Mia had learned how to speak in the strange language the humans called English and learned about the different body parts of a human. 

“This is a leg.” Emily, her new mom said and pointed to what Mia had now learned to be called a leg. She knew now that she had two of them, not four and that she was meant to walk on them not her arms which she also learned. 

As Mia got better at speaking, she began to write, it turned out to be her favorite thing to do. She also had a dad, his name was James, Aurora had learned many new things about the strange world she now lived in, and even went to school but when she wasn’t learning or playing with her friends, she wrote about the forest, about the wolf girl who grew up as a wolf. She didn’t know how the story should end so she decided just to draw the forest and her old family until she thought of an ending. 

“Mia, why don’t you go outside, you’ve been drawing all day.” James said. Mia was now 12 years old, she still remembers leaving her wolf family behind only two years before.

“Okay!” She said with glee. She skipped outside and decided to go down to the stream and collect some pebbles. A few minutes passed by since Mia went outside and occasionally she heard rustling in the bushes but thought nothing of it. Right when Mia turned to leave she heard a soft bark, she could recognize that bark anywhere. 

“Amity?” Mia spoke forgetting that wolves have a hard time understanding human language so she tried to remember how to speak wolf but before she had time to say anything Amity stepped out. 

“Hey sis, I mean Aurora unless you still think we're sisters, anyway it’s been a while.” Amity barked in a quiet tone looking hopefully at Mia.

“It’s Mia now and I’m sorry but you’ve lost the privilege of calling me sis.” Mia barked in a stern tone trying to get her point across and trying to speak wolf, “You need to go, if the humans see you, they’ll shoot you and I might be mad at you but I don’t wish you dead.”

“I understand your mad but…” Amity tried to explain but Mia quickly cut her off, “Go!” she barked, “You have to…” Before Mia could finish, Amity barked loud and clear, “Our family’s in trouble!” Amity continued as she saw Mia cast a look of concern, “The loggers, they’ve come and cut down all the trees and scared off all the prey. We’ll die if you don’t help us, we were family once, and family looks out for each other. Please, you're the only one who can talk to humans, we need you.” Amity finished and looked up with pleading eyes. A moment passed before Mia answered.

“I’m sorry but I have to be loyal to my new family. Goodbye, Amity.” Mia whined back her response, her voice unsteady and then turned and walked away only looking back to make sure she wasn’t being followed but she only saw the flick of Amity’s tail and she was gone.

Back in the forest the pack was preparing to leave to find a new home, Ace barked his words with fierce intensity, “We will have to leave, before the loggers get too close to us. This is our home, and I would die to protect it, but these are humans with monstrous machines. They can break a wolf in half. We have no choice but to leave.” Anxious barks arose from the pack and Aurel stepped up, 

“Where will we go? Didn’t we send Amity to fetch Aurora? I’m sure she’ll…” he was cut off by a soft cry from the back of the pack, 

“She isn’t coming back,” it was Amity’s bark, she continued louder this time, “She hasn’t forgiven us for lying to her. We have to leave.” 

“No, you won’t, because I am going to save the forest!” Mia barked. She came after all. There was hope left to stop the loggers.

The pack had spent the rest of the day preparing for the fight against the humans. “Get some rest. Tomorrow, we take back the forest!” Mia promised.

When the sun had risen, turning the sky a beautiful blue, the pack awoke and made their way to where the loggers were doing their dirty work at that time. As far as Mia could see there was torn down forest and deadly machines tearing town tree after tree, “It’s time to put an end to this,” She barked and led the pack down to where the machines were working. One stopped and a man popped out. 

“Kid, get out of the…” His voice grew unsteady and he stopped when he saw the wolf pack, Ace, Aurel, and Aquila stood to the right of Mia while Nova and Amity stood to the left. 

“You need to stop tearing this forest down or we will not hesitate to kill every last one of you until the forest is ours again.” Mia spoke with fire in her voice. The man told her it was impossible. He had declared war. Mia yowled to the pack to charge.

Wolves teeth met human flesh as they tore down every human in view. They fought hard, they had won, the forest was theirs. The pack watched as the loggers fled.

“You did it, Mia you…” Nova began to bark softly but Mia stopped her, “I’m not Mia anymore, I’m Aurora, the Wolfgirl and the guardian of this forest for as long as I live.” 

The baby who had once been a tiny helpless kid and now ruled the forest. As long as she lived, there would be peace in the pack. They would be under Aurora’s protection. Her family grew old and passed away. She took over as Alpha of the pack. She would live for many years to come and the book she had started had been finished. It told a story of a girl’s life, a girl who had lived for a purpose and how she came to be, the story was about Aurora herself, and the wild tale on how she became a wolf, the tale of Wolfgirl.