A Scar Under The Full Moon

Pixabay

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“What a beautiful full moon,” Terry murmured to himself after seeing the moon in full bloom atop a fire lookout tower.

“Scar should be showing itself soon,” he added.

Scar was the name that Terry gave to a particular white-furred wolf that lived in Yellowstone National Park. The wolf in question has a scar near its right eye that might have been caused by another animal; a bear, or possibly another wolf.

“There he is!” Terry exclaimed excitedly after looking at his night vision binoculars.

Terry had been observing Scar ever since he had seen it drinking at a spring that was less than 700 feet from his fire lookout tower several months back ago. After observing for so long, Terry learned that Scar wasn’t a member of any of the nine wolf packs in the National Park.

In other words, Scar is a lone wolf. Moreover, the wolf should be leucistic.
Leucism is not albinism. Although they share the trait of having lacking pigmentation, leucistic animals don’t have the pinkish-red eyes which were the trait of an albino.

Terry watched the white wolf drink from the spring through his night vision binoculars in silence. Having observed the animal for so long, Terry had grown some attachment for it. Besides the wolf’s magnificent white fur, the thing that truly attracts Terry to the wolf was the animal’s lone nature.

Indeed. Similar to Scar; the 30-year old Terry is a lone wolf as well. He hated being in a crowd and prefer being alone. He has very few friends and never married nor does he plan on marrying anyone soon. It was for this reason that Terry chooses to be a fire watcher since fire watchers are alone most of the time.

“Too bad I’m not allowed to get near him,” Terry sighed.

Wolves are wild animals after all. Although Terry felt some sort of connection to Scar, it won’t change the fact that it’s a wolf and should not be approached.

Terry put down his night vision binoculars after Scar left. But instead of going down for some much-needed sleep, he stayed till midnight while admiring the beautiful silvery moon.

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The next day, Terry woke up still feeling a little groggy because of sleeping late. After cleaning his body he ate his breakfast and went to the radio room where he would report to his supervisor the events of the previous day.

After doing all of that, he went to his fire lookout tower with a small radio at hand. He put the radio on the small table and started searching for a good FM station after seating down. And after finding the FM station he wanted he tuned in while observing the park for any sign of fire.

Most people would find the job of a fire watcher boring but not Terry. Although he’s in the middle of nowhere with no people except for the rare campers and trekkers passing by, he still enjoyed his job very much.

“I guess it’s going to be another boring day,” Terry said to himself while looking through his binoculars. “Not that I particularly mind.”

The entire day passed without anything exciting happening. And as for people, there’s only a group of three men that passed by during the noon and no one else. They were carrying bags and were most likely campers or trekkers.

After watching the final ray of light die off, Terry returned to his cottage which also served as his office to cook dinner and for a little rest.

“Did Scar go hunting? I didn’t see him all day...”

Through the entirety of the day, Terry was looking for any trace of Scar but failed to see even a shadow of the white-furred wolf. Although a little disappointed, it was nothing new. After all the national park is just too big and densely populated with trees so unless he’s extremely lucky, it’ll be very difficult to find a single wolf with all of the greeneries around.

Later that night he returned to his fire lookout tower while carrying his night vision binoculars. Looking at the sky, Terry saw a waning gibbous moon. Although the night was a lot darker compared to yesterday night and its full moon; it’s shouldn’t be a problem for Terry to spot the wolf, Scar.

“He’s late…”

A deep frown appeared on Terry’s wide forehead. He’s been waiting for more than an hour now and yet there’s still no sign of the white-furred wolf.

“Did something happen to him?”

Terry was starting to get worried. Having observed Scar for many months; Terry had learned what time the wolf would usually appear for a drink in the nearby spring. Besides the few rare occasions where Scar was almost half an hour late, the wolf was almost always on time.

One could even say that scar was religiously following a certain routine – never breaking it. This was one of the reasons why Terry was so fascinated by the white-furred wolf. After another twenty minutes, Terry finally saw the wolf approaching the spring. It was limping.

“He’s injured!”

Seeing the wolf limping, Terry instantly knew that it was injured. Instantly, Terry focuses on the wolf, checking its body for injuries. But because it was night and his night vision binocular could not differentiate colors; Terry had a hard time spotting the injury.

But by straining his eyes and through sheer effort, he finally saw what seemed to be a gunshot wound on its left hind leg.

“Gunshot wound!”

Terry stood rooted on the spot after knowing what had injured the white-furred wolf. He had seen gunshot wounds before and Scar’s wound was without a doubt caused by a gun.

“Did one of the campers or trekkers shot him? Or maybe… it was done by a hunter?”

Terry shook his head. Now’s not the time to ask himself questions. He must quickly do something before things get worse.

Having thought of that, Terry went down the fire lookout tower and rushes, not towards the injured wolf but to the cottage. Although he wishes to care for the wolf’s wound himself, he still knew that he should report the incident to the park rangers.

After finding the right reception, quickly reported the incident to the park rangers. And about an hour later, a helicopter arrived at his place.

The number of wolves inside the national park had been dwindling over the years due to various circumstances. As such, every single wolf was a subject of protection. Although humans are not allowed to interfere with the natural order inside the park; they could still act if a wolf or any other protected animals were injured by humans. Scar falls into this category.

It didn’t take long for the rescuers to find Scar thanks to his tracker. After putting the wolf to sleep with tranquilizers, the rescuers airlift Scar out of the park using the helicopter while Terry helplessly watches.

A month later, under the light of the beautiful full moon; a white-furred wolf approaches a small spring and started drinking from it. A few minutes later; the wolf turns around to leave but not before glancing at the tall tower atop a hill in the distance.

The End

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