【子世代-生活即是一切/路平這個姓氏】 (更新: 二十三章(下)- 5/1）

Silver Reflections Shine Under Moon light

“Rhawoooo!”
 
Dated back to the 60s, a time when the moon shines sliver bright in the clear night
sky there will always be a mystical and powerful howl could be heard clearly from
the forest that near the village located in rural London.
 
This particular howl is so powerful it is capable of piercing silence of the night, stirring resting animals. A howl 
so moving it makes the people of the village near the forest gossip the next
morning, bus inspires a girl’s imagination and a heart for doing something
extraordinary.  
 
This girl,called Helen, was 13 years old, and simply from her bedroom one could see how
found of nature and animals she was. A shelf full of biological animal books, sketchings
and photographs of animals pasted on the wall neatly; not to mention a desk
with some half-finished sketching, an opened book and notes placed on it.
 
Every time the clear howling sound appeared, she will walk toward the window lean on
the sill, gazing the forest not too far away with curiosity in her eye. She
listened to the sound with a careful and thoughtful heart and imagining how the
wolf looked like and how other wolves gathered around it.
 
In her imagination she pictured a wolf with beautiful smooth long hair that shines
sliver under the bright moonlight perched on a great cliff in the middle of the
forest howling as if with all of its energy and with its head raise up to a degree
that its nose almost point to the sky. A great pack of followers gathered
around it, they rise up their heads and howl as well. The pack beautiful all
right, but it’s obvious that they will never be as stunning the cause they
gathered.
 
In her mind wolf is a kind of creature so perfect in lots of ways, making her fond of
it very much, so much that probably the same as she fond of the animal itself. Wolves
are not only stunning at the appearance, but are also always with graceful
movements, loyal to their companions and family, and possess an untameable mind
throughout its whole life. It’s as if it’s almost a mythical creature.
 
“Didyou hear the thing’s menace howl last night?”
 
The man who was listening to these words nodded immediately and in an almost
frantically manner, trembling a bit.
 
“Yes…of course..., it’s was so clear that I suppose probably .... the whole village
could hear that cursing sound…”
 
To this point the first man’s face turned pale.
 
“Indeed,it’s like sound of Morus, the warning of…”
 
Helen who just passing by and on the way home after school, accidentally over heard
this dreadful conversation. When the word Morus being uttered she decide not to
listening anymore and proceeding her journey. And with tears in her eyes and a
rage for these peoples’ total ignorance.
 
She just could not understand how on earth the creature’s name could be so
notorious and distorted among the villagers? Of course she was aware the
superstitious nature of villagers, but still how such a gentle and beautiful animal
could be regarded as a monster or viper especially when it never caused any
harm to the village or any person in it.
 
That night she sat in front of her desk, reading a book about wolves with a really
tangled and sorrowful mind…Normally these words and knowledge brings her
happiness and fills her inquisitive mind towards nature, but for now every word
she read is just merely a small candy, it could only cancel out a tiny part of
the bitterness underneath it. It is a worthless effort and foolish to think
that the great bitterness could be solved just by these words.
 
“Ispossible to fight people’s ignorance?”
 
As the time passed, the feeling of just keep reading book this is pointless gradually
grew stronger, because she feel this could not changing anything in the end ,
at that point she was just agree on things she already agree on long time ago. And
just when she decided to give up this fight, a question suddenly come up.
 
For the answer of the question is positive, because she believes people could change. But
another, rather important question that she raised immediately, was “how?”
 
This question was a though one without doubt, especially because at the time the
only way she could think to proof wolf is not a bad creature is via evidence
from the knowledge she possess and the fact that people in this village are
super superstitious though most of them are fairly educated.
 
“Rhawoooo!”
 
After a period of awkward silence, a familiar sound suddenly appeared. It not only
broke the silence, but also offered her an answer.
 
“How could I never think about it?”Helen thought.
 
The excitement came with this discovery made her spring out of the chair, oblivious to the loud sound of the
chair scraping against the floor.
 
After that night she began preparing for the great journey. She even recruited her brother Bob, who was fifteen
and quite an adventurer himself for joining her on the journey.
 
For the journey, they brought lots of usual things with them, but there was one thing they struggled to decide whether to bring: a camera. The decision was difficult because though cameras are greatly
improved make it portable now, but it was still kind an expensive product at
that time in history. Plus, both of them thought it might not be appropriate to
use flash when they try to take photographs of wolves.
 
In the end, they still decided to bring it with them, but on the strict condition, that they must not use the flesh of
camera toward any animal.
 



 --
The night they planned to plunged into the wood finally came. It was 1962/2/20.
 
It was also a night with clear night skies. Approximately eight o’clock beside the entrance of the forest.
 
“Are you ready?”Bob asked, while looking into the forest with little bit of worry in
his eyes.
 
Helen took a deep breath, and said with an excitement that could not been buried.
 
“Yes, I born ready!” Helen replied instantaneously with great confidence.
 
And after a quick exchange of smiles with as much confidence with Helen’s words, they
both put on their serious face, turned their back to the village they familiar
with, and marched toward the area that they only be able to learn from limited
amount of documents without any hesitation.
 
Although the fact they pretty much only have maps and a few documents to study form and
as references before they head in to woods - this was probably the only thing
that they could do except gathering things and bring an adventurous mind and
heart-, but they did not let this limited or downgraded their journey, because
through study of maps and docs they gain enough knowledge of the forest and
know few possible spots that those wolves will meet.
 
So in the forest, they naturally did not have hard time. Instead of being spooked by
sudden rustling sounds, they constantly stay aware of the surroundings and kept
reaching and investigate the spots they thought those beautiful creatures might
appear.
 
“Rhawoooo!”
 
On their way to a glade, the sound of the creature they are seeking suddenly
appeared.
 
Judge from the volume of the howling and the large numbers birds flying from the tree,
they knew they were headed at right direction.
 
As they approached, they heard other slightly different howling sounds intermittently. Now there were was no doubt they were getting close.
 
“Rhawoooo!”
 
This time they were already peering from trees that grew around the edge of the glade.
 
The scene in front of them now was breathtakingly beautiful, the same as Helen had imagined…
 
So beautiful that as if it’s a sense only in the fairy tale or dream. The sight was so sensational and surreal it momentarily left them paralyzed in shock.
 
Helen just could not resist the magic. She could not help but surrender to the temptation deep in her mind to
approach the great wolf.
 
When she came back to her senses again, she was already in the few meter radius from where the great wolf was
perched. Now except from the great wolf, other wolves originally circled around
it were all standing on their foot and staring at her.
  
Thought she come back to her senses but obvious not her judgment because rather than
being shaken out of her paralyzed state by the other wolves surrounding her and
walk back a bit, she continued to stare at the wolf with a dreamy expression on
her face.
 
Great tension filled in the air. At this very moment, perhaps except form the great wolf itself, no one know what
to do next. No one dear make any movement.
At this moment the great wolf seemsbecome a king, rather than just leader of the pack.
 
After few second, the great wolf’sears stick up, shaking a bit and it turning to the direction where the girl
stand , it approaching with a slow and graceful manner.
 
Sensing this the wolves between the great one and the girl moved to two sides of a  straight road for the great one to passing through. As for Helen she bowed without thinking about it.
 
 When the girl straightened her back again, the wolf was already stopped, standing in front of her; and so close to her, that she noticed that there’s some wired scar scattered on it’s skin, suggesting the
great wolf might have been attacked by a human before.
 
This made Helen feel deep sorrow and pain in her heart.
 
Meanwhile, the wolf stared at her directly and quietly as if able to see through her and judged her soul.
 
The wolf step back a bit and make a friendly growing sound. This drew back Helen’s attention immediately.
 
For the first time, their eyes met.
 
This is an epic moment, as if theywere not human nor wolf anymore, just two equal soul and life that be able to
connect together.
 
At this point Helen came to a realization that they are both a part of this world, equally important and both of
them are important components that together build this world. And thus, everyone should
be equally respected.
 
The wolf suddenly winked it’s eye and tilt it’s head a bit as if to say something, and amazingly Helen understood
what it wanted to say.
 
 A subtle smile formed on Helen’s face, and she put her hands together and face up towards the starry night sky.
 
The wolf made the same happy growing again, and approached to the girl again…
 
This time it was so close that part of its snout was be able to touched the girls chest and they could sense each
other’s breath.
 
The wolf then placed its snout up to her open hands, and drop something on them. 

It was a beautiful white fang; obviously not fresh fall of one, it seems it’s been preserved for a long period of
time.
 
 After receiving the fang, the girl keep looking back and forth between the wolf and the fang with an astonishing
expression as if all of things happening were a dream.
 
And when they thought things could not be even more astonishing, the wolf surprisingly drew a bit closer,
stretching its neck a bit to peck on her check lightly.
 
After this it walk back a few steps, still staring at her with its sharp eye , and truing back gracefully to walk
away with a kind of yapping sound. It was a sound that must be sound of recruiting
because it drove all other wolves together and walked behind it.
 
The girl still stood at the same place, watching them disappear into deeper part of the forest. Meanwhile, Bob,
who are had been a few meters away from the circle of the wolf, finally approached his sister.
 
“Hey, how’s that feel?” He asked with a curious tone.
 
“Utterly….fan…tas..tic..” Helen replied with a dreamy tone in her voice. Even now she continued to stare at the
little white shape that was getting smaller and smaller.
 
A beaming smile suddenly appeared on Bob’s face“Want to know something wild? I think I got the photo of
it....”
 
The girl turning her head toward Bob, and gasping and said: “No way…”
 
--
 
After they went home safely, first thing they did next morning was rushed to a local photograph store, and
borrowing their darkroom to print out their photo.
Yes both of them do know how to develop the film and print out black and white photo in the dark rooms.
 
They spent about 2 hours to get all of their photo printed out.
 
The photo almost like a portrait of the wolf, it include the wolf’s face, shinning reflection at the tips of its
fur and a pair of unfathomable beady eye.
 
With the photo they feel encouraged.with the white fang and their belief that people could be changed and
educated, they decided to host a town hall meeting to show their proof ,educating them in
a hope of shaking their old conservative and superstitious minds.
 
“The photo and fang my brother Bob showing now, along with our successful expedition it is all prove our belief
that the wolf is not in any way a curse for our village, nor vicious creature.
Instead, these wolves are intelligent being just like us….”
 
The atmosphere of the hall was so heavy that though the seats were nearly filled, it
still felt dry and lifeless due to most audience’s apparent disagreement. One
could easily observe their skepticism from their facial expressions.
 
In the end of the meeting Helen and her brother did not getting any applause; even
worse they received lots kinds of criticism from fellow villagers.
 
Thismade both of them almost feel like crying when they step out of the door after
almost all of the villagers left.
 
“Wait!!!!”Shortly after they leaving the hall a bunch of kinds suddenly appeared shouting
while running toward them.
 
Since the out come of the meeting was pretty bad, at this point they did not dare to
have put many expectation these kids.  
 
They turned, and Helen reply with an reluctant tone, expecting the worst:“What is…”
 
But after seeing jolly expression kids faces, she found her could not finish the sentence.
 
 
Before Helen could respond, one of the girls from the pack of kids said, though her voice shivered a bit “Big
sister, we believe in you!!We believe you really met the wolf and, the wolf is not a bad animal!!!”
 
All kids around the little girl were all nodding in agreement, smiling and saying yes.
 
This made a smile appeared on Helen’sf ace again. She came to a realization that people and society still be able
to be changed, it’s just a matter of time, wrong eventually will disappear. .
 
She also realized that although ignorance and wrongs still exist or may not be
easily changed, anything can be solved by the course of time. Thus, is vital to
believe in one self, sometimes one may feel alone, but when there are more
people believe in the same thing, ripples of belief will eventually from a wave
of change… While in knowing the truth one may feel lonely at times, it still
feels good when you meet people who believe in it as well.  
 
At this very moment both Helen and Bob do not feel sad anymore, they feel a happiness and a feeling of content
in their hearts. They know in the end this was a worthwhile journey to have.  

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