Collaboration 3
By Ruslan Garrey & Elena Malkov
On and on the day goes, light flitting through branches of birch and maple. A girl runs along the trees, her breathing soft but labored, sunshine casting violently off her skin. The wolves appear on the crest of the hill, trotting at an easy pace, meandering through the boulders.
“Oh not this shit again,” she grimaces and spits.
She leaps up and takes hold of a branch, using the force of her fall to break it off the tree trunk. Holding the branch out in front of her, she twists her face, lets out a guttural howl, and charges.
The wolf changes tack and trots in her direction. As she jumps from boulder to boulder to meet it, a small brown owl lands on her shoulder and warbles “who, who, who?” in her ear.
The girl laughs, bats the owl playfully away, and throws herself into the air, careening towards the wolf’s unhurried shadow. The owl continues flitting around her head, flapping and screeching.
The girl accelerates towards the wolf, leaps off of a rotted tree stump and lands on top of it, wrestling it to the ground. She begins to rub its belly vigorously. “You old scamp!”