Do you ever think of Jack just out there and he sees a wolf who somehow feels close yet distant and he gets startled at himself for thinking "Hi, pa" Because I do :')
oh!!! why did you say that to me.
ok. fine. you asked for this. retaliatory devastation incoming.
there’s a random event at beecher’s hope where you can find charles talking to jack, where he implies he’s been teaching him to track animals, and remind him you can tell if a set of bones belonged to a bird because they’re hollow. it’s kind of cute and a little silly, since charles pulls a piece of wolf dung out of his pocket (?) to show jack, and the kid asks if he can keep it— if john is nearby, jack will ask if he can take him hunting sometime.
so maybe, years later, he finds tracks around the beecher’s hope land leading back to tall trees, and recognizes them as wolf tracks. he never finds any traces too close to the house, and it’s just the one wolf as far as he can tell. odd, as wolves usually travel in packs.
and he’d know it doesn’t make sense, and his ma would tell him he’s being silly, but it makes him feel almost at ease. there’s a dangerous predator prowling about, and it could hurt the livestock or rufus if he isn’t cautious, but something about it feels familiar. safe, even.
he doesn’t tell his ma, so as not to cause her any more worry than she already has to deal with, and he doesn’t engage with the wolf either. it doesn’t come any closer, but he can tell it’s still there. there are tracks left just outside the fences. scraps of fur, sometimes dung. rabbits, beavers, and deer carcasses found further into the trees.
one day, nearly two years since pa’s been gone, he sees it. he’s hunting for dinner that night, since ma has been too lethargic lately to go into town, when a lone howl alerts him to its presence. it’s standing in the snow, at the foot of nekoti rock, staring at him. it doesn’t move to come closer. jack lifts his rifle, but the wolf gives no indication that it plans to attack, or even to give him the time of day. instead, it turns away and stalks off leisurely into the trees, searching for its next prey elsewhere.
if this were any ordinary wolf, jack might track it and put it down now, just to prevent any future incidents— but it doesn’t seem like one. there was something in its eyes, something in the way it held itself. something he hesitates to give a name to.
but he could swear, the presence of the wolf— even at the times he can’t see it— makes him feel the most at ease he’s felt since beecher’s hope was attacked. it’s not enough to fill the hole left there in the aftermath, and it never will be, but it’s enough. for now.