The light poured on top of me as I opened my eyes. It was bright, so many things to see. So many colors, so many shapes. Naturally, curiosity led me from the nest. The many short days I spent in that small whole under the tree were dull. My eyes adjusted to the limited light I had in there. My ears adjusted to the sounds, and my nose to the smells, my paws to the feeling of dirt under me as I waddled my way around.

Mother never let me wander out of the whole. Saying things like, “It’s not safe,” or, “Your too young,” but this never stopped my curiosity from bringing me to the wide open space that the exit showed me my future. Outside was so wide, so colorful. Much more bright and spacious than the small den.

As the days slipped onward, so did my size. I grew, bigger each day. Each day my father would bring new prey from The Outside and I would no longer drink the warm milk from my mothers glossy belly. My paws didn’t fumble when I walked, and they didn’t catch my ears. My tail grew bushy, and longer, my grey pelt the same. Finally the day came.

My mother led me outside the den for the first time. It was enormous, so many things too see beyond the bland walls of the cozy den. The trees so big and swaying outlined against the blue and white sky. The sun blazed over head, and the ground with it’s grasses and flowers called to me, brushing against my paws. I realized how small I was, out there in huge wide world. The den was tiny in comparison the the rest of the forest, and with days to come, I learned the ways of the forest, enough to call it my own.

I learned the ways of the pack, learned to hunt, and fight, and run, and dig. I learned how to use my ears and nose to track my prey. I learned how to swim, and chase after my prey, to feed to pack, to follow the prey as they migrated, to stay away from the humans with their sticks of fire.

The forest is part of me, and my pack, and even from the beginning, when I first opened my eyes, I felt one with it, and even now, as I hunt, I can still feel it. In my bones, on my fur. Part of me, as I live on.