The Falconer and The Wolf

Some forests shunned the encroachment of Man. The elders of the kingdom which grew in the forest's shadow told grim tales of those foolish enough to venture into the fearsome trees, or who came too close to the malevolent but intelligent beasts. The falconer grew up in the shadow of the forest, and knew all of the stories well. But when the king's soldiers pursue him, he feels little choice but the flee into the forest's forbidden embrace with only his hawk and the clothes on his back. Now, he faces the forest's wrath and a deadly winter, poorly-sheltered in the bones of an abandoned and overgrown army outpost. When a wolf takes the life of his only means of survival –his hawk– the falconer can only despair and suffer through very few choices, each possibility grim. But he fails to remember that this is no ordinary forest... ... and the wolf is no ordinary wolf. Novelette.