This is the best time of the year to fall in love: snowy ground, star-sprinkled inky sky, foggy yellow street lamps, ghostly breaths, decorated fir trees, colorful lights, gifts wrapped in fancy paper, woolly scarves wrapped around slender necks, furry coats warming supple figures, mittens protecting delicate hands, falling snowflakes settling in women’s hair…
And yet, this is a bad season for the wolf-boy.
As the town people leave their homes and swarm on the streets, kindling the great holiday bonfire, around which they gather to eat and drink and sing and dance, the wolf-boy creeps to the outskirts of the woods to see the spectacle. Some hold hands, some hug, some kiss…
The wolf-boy is drawn to their inviting fire. And yet he hesitates. If he returns to his cave he will be lonely, and he will regret, and he will weep himself to sleep. But he will have the stillness and the quiet of a familiar place. And he will have bones to gnaw on…
What if the wolf-boy joins the town people? Will they welcome him to their holiday fire? Will they excuse his peculiar appearance and strange manners? Or will they chase him off with great noise?
The wolf boy sighs. He creeps back to his cave. He’s not yet done being lonely. Maybe next Christmas he will join the fire, if all goes well, if he will make it alone in the woods until then, if someone kind takes him by the hand and shows him the way…
Should the wolf-boy join the holiday bonfire?
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boy with a hat 
I hope he will understand that there is room for him at the bonfire.
But he’s afraid of people. 😦
Yes, it’s sad. He needs a manger with baby lambs. Oh wait. It’s quite a Catch-22. Very sad.
One must fight his fears, Wolf-Boy…
Oh poor wolf-boy
Definitely a case of nothing ventured, nothing gained…but if it was the wolf “girl” and if it was me…I would be too afraid that the people would be afraid, and I would retreat to my cave and gnaw on my bones, and continue to be lonely and sad….and just wait for a solitary kind stranger to take me by the hand. But that’s just me…and only if I was the wolf “girl.” 🙂
The wolf-boy will likely do the same. He is small and frail and shy!
Where’s the wolf-boy’s hat. Did he drop it when he got near the inviting fire?
Hats are not readily found in wolfish forests!
In the short term, he is better by the fire. In the long term, though, the cave is the only safe place.
That’s the best advice I got this year.
I just wish the poor wolfboy would find the courage 🙂
But maybe his not joining the fire is an act of courage…
hmmm how come?
Wolf Boys shouldn’t be alone at Christmas (I see that ‘inky’ has made your way into this story. To me you have painted the picture with your words that he is calling out for help. The art work, as is your story are beautiful Vincent.
‘Help!’
He says once more.
May a hatted woman have pity on him and take him to her inviting home.
I love how you describe december! Poor wolf-boy, I wish he simply did it – then he would know that the fear was the worst part :*o
Easier said that done, extrovert. 🙂
I’m not sure if I am though, it might just be lots of practise 😉 No Wolfboy should be afraid of people though, who cares what they think – they only think about what other people think anyways, and that should not worry a him 🙂 One other way to think of it: The times I feel I could die of shame because of something I said (that nobody else even remembers), are the times I know I’m alive… Now I’m just sharing MY techniques 😛 The cave is maybe safer, but the wolfboy knows he will regret returning there, and there’s a reason the saying ‘it’s better to regret the things you do’ is becoming a cliche…
I think that the wolf-boy doesn’t really need the company of all those gathered around the fire, but of only one of them, who can tame him, and teach him good manners.
An interesting and through-provoking concept…and we’ve all been “wolf boy” (or girl) in one situation or another…
Some peculiar persons tend to be wolf-boys most of the time. Silly them!
Since most of us are unable to understand the world as perceived by the wolf-boy, we would just assume that joining the bonfire would make him happier. But maybe it is better that he doesn’t go. Maybe he’s happy with his life as it is, and we shouldn’t decide whether or not he should go.
I am intrigued to know what he will do! 🙂
Well said Irish friend.
The wolf-boy shall to the cave!
Wolves have codes and rules which are very clear. People on the other hand only think that they do. Even those of us raised in a human setting cannot always be sure if we are reading human signals properly. He should trust his wolf given instincts, observe,sense, feel and share with the family that raised him and when the time is right he can rejoin the world of men and bring with him aspects of a higher nature.
I like your comment. 🙂
There are few things riskier than joining the bonfire when one has come to appreciate and enjoy solitude and even loneliness. One thing about wolves is that they mate for life. Perhaps the wolves have something to teach the boy.
Yes, they do. 🙂
It seems he needs a delightful wolf girl whose curls frame her cherub round face to squeeze his shoulders and urge him forward…i’d be that girl.
Wolf boy just needs to choose carefully whom he sits next to when he gathers by the fire. There is sometimes no greater comfort than the warmth of the fire, in the silence of good company.
you reinvent all my dreams. you’re so brilliant.
Were I that wolf-boy I might venture to the gathering to see if it was indeed a jolly time, if it was not then I may feel a bit better in my dear cave.