A boy and his wolf
"Gaelte, the Night Mother is in the village! She wants to see you."
Gaelte gave the boy a nod of acknowledgement. "I'm coming. You run back and tell her."
As soon as he was alone again he let out a sigh. The visits had become something of a chore. He didn't see his mother near often enough, but lately she had such strange ideas. He wondered what animal she had brought this time.
"I'll be back tomorrow," Gaelte said to the Sea Pixies watching him from the shore.
In response the tiny creatures waved their limbs and dived back underwater. At least he had been able to finish feeding them. That was important for them to stay obedient, even if he wasn't fishing today. It would be a while until the shoals returned.
Gaelte packed up his stuff, stood up and headed back to the village. His ever-present minder closed the distance, but stayed silent. Really, as if he needed someone to watch over him. He was already eight winters old! And it wasn't as if he could drown anyway! The sea wouldn't hurt him.
'Hopefully Mother didn't bring a snake again.'
Snakes were boring. He had kept it a while to make Mother happy, but one day it had gotten away and he didn't try very hard to find it again. Fortunately Mother didn't seem to mind. In retrospect the birds hadn't been that bad. He hated birds and they always tried to steal his catch, but they made funny sounds when you killed them. At least they had not been boring.
As soon as the village came into view Gaelte spotted his mother, towering over the tents. Mother was good at towering.
"Hello, Mother."
A moment later he was lifted into the air and subjected to a hug. When he was set down again Mother had shrunken to a more human size to talk more comfortably.
"Gaelte, my son. Look how big you have become. You will be a man grown in no time at all."
Gaelte puffed out his chest in pride. At least his mother acknowledged that he no longer was a baby that needed constant watching.
"Look what I brought you. Meet your new friend!"
Mother produced a bundle of pelts from somewhere and carefully set it down on the ground. Gaelte approached carefully and began to undo the bindings, ready to back away at a moment's notice. Sometimes Mother didn't seem to realize what animals were safe to be around for humans, as exemplified by the lynx she had brought a few weeks ago. The scratches had hurt.
A snuffling sound came from the bundle. Then the last binding became loose and a wolf pup poked its head out, eyes still closed.
"I found him when I was exploring with my husband. He was the only one still alive from the litter. His mother tried to kill an ox and it didn't end well for her."
Gaelte wasn't really listening. Instead he focused on the wolf that tried to nuzzle his fingers, tiny teeth gently poking his skin. He knew of wolves, of course. The hunters talked about them and sometimes you could see some in the distance. They were mostly too shy to approach humans, though. The facts that they hunted birds and didn't bother fishermen made them okay in his opinion. Perhaps this one would turn out interesting after all.
"Thank you, Mother," Gaelte said, cradling the cub in his arms.
"I see you are already becoming fast friends. You are such a smart boy. Well, I have to go now."
Fortunately the cub already had teeth and could deal with solid food. Gaelte had no idea where he could have gotten milk. It wasn't as if animals let humans get at that. Still, the cub was far too young to deal with solid pieces of flesh. Instead Gaelte had some of his attendants help him chew pieces of vernison to turn it into pulp. The feeding he did himself, of course.
For a while it was touch and go despite Gaelte's best efforts, but in the end the pup pulled through. His eyes opened and he began to put on weight. Then he began to walk. He never went far from Gaelte, though.
That wasn't to say there were no problems. The wolf was still a wolf and Gaelte had to assert his dominance to keep him from starting mischief or, on several occasions, attacking other people. It was more play than real, but Gaelte enforced strict discipline. The people were nervous around him, but nobody dared to do anything as long as the animal did no harm. Everybody feared the wrath of Mother.
"The Sea Pixies were much easier than you, Wolf," Gaelte said to wolf one evening, "But I still think you will be worth it."
He had been thinking about how a wolf could be useful to people. Not for fishing like the pixies, of course. Hunting was a possibility, but that wasn't a trade Gaelte knew anything of. No, he had something different in mind.
When the shoals returned it was time to put his thoughts to the test. The fishermen left the village to camp on a spot of coast closer to where the fish gathered, to dry their catch on land while they set out to sea for another day. Gaelte accompanied them with his own boat as he had done the last couple of years, but this time he had a passenger. Wolf had grown big and his adult fur was coming in.
Wolf whined heartbreakingly when Gaelte left him on the shore, but a firm look got him to calm down.
Not much happened during the day. The catch was as good as always when Gaelte worked his trade. At one point there was a faint howling on the wind, but it was hard to tell over the sounds of the sea. Then it was time to return. As soon as he neared the shore Wolf came running, splashing through the water before Gaelte could even land. He got quite wet from Wolf's greeting.
One of the old fishermen laughed. "That's a right sea wolf you got there, boy."
"A guard wolf, more like. Look at the tracks," another fisherman said, voice much more serious.
A fisher who was also a hunter examined the tracks more closely. "This is from one of the brood of Rashelki, may the Hunter protect us."
A short discussion followed. Apparently the essence drinker had tried to lay in wait at the bottom of the bluff. It would have attacked the first man back at the shore and drag him off, before any of the rest could come to help. Only Wolf had driven it off before it could do any harm.
Gaelte smiled. "See, I told you Wolf would be useful."