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After experiencing the single most shocking, confusing, terrifying, unbelievable and just downright weird sequence of events in my entire life. I was at a complete loss as to what I should do next and I wasn't quite sure what to think or believe anymore. Reality seemed to be slipping from my grasp and my brain had turned to mush. It took an incredible amount of effort to keep my thoughts from drifting away like leaves on the wind. I was beginning to suspect that I may have crossed that fine line between the real and the impossible.

I was also questioning my sanity, the fragile thing that it had been those first few days. What I had experienced defied explanation so completely that I was at a total loss for words, or even coherent thought for that matter.

Impossible, that's what my situation was, completely and utterly impossible.

Yet, it was as real as anything I had ever experienced. I couldn't deny the solidity of the wood beneath my feet, the warmth of the sunshine against my face, or even, as difficult as it was for me, the existence of a creature that I knew could not and should not exist.

But it did!

To tell the truth, I was scared, terrified even. What happened to the world I knew so well? One minute it was all around me, real, unquestionable. Now it was gone, fading away like the memory of a dream, only to be replaced by an alien landscape and the even more alien creature in it.

The creature itself was perhaps the most compelling evidence of my continuing trip down insanity lane. An impossibility, it terrified me, yet it fascinated me at the same time. It was a wolf. That is as simple as I can make the description.

But it was not a wolf, and that was the most disturbing thing of all. It stood and walked on two legs as well as any human could.

It was about five feet tall and completely covered with a thick coat of fur and it had markings that could be considered typical for a grey wolf. It was near white on the chest, belly and the underside of the muzzle and darker mottled black and grey on the top of the head, arms, back and the outer thighs. Hints of brown lurked underneath the darker markings and the creature's face has an almost malamute-like mask to it, dark grey on the top of the head and lighter grey-brown around the eyes and muzzle, though perhaps not as sharply defined. A grey bar ran down between the eyes to behind its black nose while most of the rest of its lower face and throat were nearly white. There was a patch of grey on its upper chest, running horizontally across the collarbones with a point that ran a short distance down the longer fur in the center of its chest. Its fur was decidedly thicker around the neck and shoulders and its pointed, black rimmed triangular ears tracked me alertly. Did I mention that it had a tail? It wagged the damn thing like a dog. Overall, its appearance was pleasing from an aesthetic point of view and reminded me a bit of the Alaskan Malamute an old friend used to have. The eyes were what really got me though. They were a deep amber hue and I saw a disturbing and definitely un-canine intelligence in them.

It got worse. The really unbelievable part, the one thing that more than anything else that had me so thoroughly questioning my sanity, was that it talked! If that wasn't disturbing enough to throw everything I'd believed to date right out the window, get this: It talked all right and in some alien language, yet I understood it!

Every word uttered from its muzzle was somehow impossibly twisted into English in my mind. I nearly had a heart attack the first time it happened.

It was unbelievably creepy.

Looking on the bright side of recent events, if such a thing was possible at a time like this, I believed that I had finally found out who had brought me to this cabin and patched me up. On the not so bright side, I had just heard a rather unusual tale about how I arrived here. I wasn't quite sure what to think of it, but the Wolf swore to me that it is truth. Considering the events of the past few days, I'm not going to say that it's impossible, just merely improbable.

A brilliant circle of light suddenly appearing in the trees in front of the cabin? The light fading away to leave a hole darker that the blackest night? Strange things seen in that black circle? One injured and nearly frozen human deposited on the ground as the hole disappeared? Sounds like sci-fi stuff to me. The aftermath of that strange story had left me standing there in the crisp morning air shaking my head and resisting the urge to break out laughing. It was just way too strange.

Have you ever had one of those days when things get so weird that even the strangest thing seems routine?

If ever there was a day such as that, I was living it then. After then initial shock (Thank God I didn't have a heart condition) of being talked at by a large furry critter that I was pretty sure shouldn't exist, we started to have an actual conversation

It was amazing! Though at first I wasn't sure whether it was the voices in my head or the wolf-like creature seated before me that was doing the actual talking.

To understand in the slightest what I went through, imagine this. You must picture two individuals, one human and one, well, not so human, both of whom are very leery of being anywhere near the other. This unlikely pair find themselves sitting across a small stained and worn table in a cabin so cramped that their backs are nearly up against the opposite walls yet they are almost nose to nose. Throw in a healthy (and understandable) dose of fear, an impossible translation mechanism, a large serving of skepticism (on my part anyway) and you have one very, very, weird situation.

The conversation itself was, well... interesting, I guess you could describe it as such. It was rather one sided and somewhat inconclusive but I did at last get a couple of answers. The Wolf, I believe she said her name was Sharra or something like that, found me during that black hole deal three days ago, looking somewhat the worse for wear. She continued on to describe how she had seen me through the black hole and sensed that I was in trouble. She didn't know who or what I was at that time yet she still wished to help, something that totally surprised me. I knew of few people that would have had the same reaction in similar circumstances.

After that, the story becomes a little vague and I got the subtle feeling that she wasn't telling me everything that she knew. For what reason I did not know at the time, but it was unsettling and made me a little wary. She went on to tell me how she dragged me back into the cabin, cleaned me up and splinted my arm. According to her I was on the razor's edge between life and death by that point, and if that was truly the case, then I owed my continuing existence to her. That too was troubling, mostly because I had no clue as to how to deal with it at the time.

The conversation degraded rapidly after Sharra told her story, mostly because of my inability to grasp the powers of speech at the time. I looked dumbly at her and she returned my empty stare with a rather quizzical look, almost a 'curious dog' type of expression. My mouth opened and closed a few times but no words came out. Her ears flicked up, down, up again, stopped midway, down, up... etc. After a moment or two of that ineffectual stalemate, she said something about going and getting some food. Without another word she stood up and left via the front door and half ran towards the old shed. I followed her out after a moment and stood on the porch, waiting for the nice people in white coats to come and yank me out of my hallucination and give me a nice padded room and some free drugs to help me work out a few issues.

Thus ended probably the strangest half an hour of my life to date. I really thought I was going crazy and I was seriously considering looking up a psychiatrist when I got back to town. If I got back to town. The chances of that seemed fairly remote at the time.

I remember sagging against the wall of the cabin, and screwing my eyes tight shut. The beginnings of a migraine were beginning to cloud over my thoughts, and my broken arm was really starting to ache. However, the mere mention of food had perked me up a little. Apparently, I hadn't eaten for the better part of three days and my hunger had awakened with renewed intensity. I was pretty sure I knew what breakfast would consist of. The only thing I had seen around here that could pass for food was that slab of meat hanging in the shed towards which Sharra had departed several minutes ago. True enough, as I stood there thinking and doing my best to ignore the headache that was trying to take me over, she emerged from the shed bearing a chunk of meat in one hand and a long knife in the other.

I felt a touch of fear brush against me like a cold hand as my eyes fixed on the knife in Sharra's hand. I was in no condition to defend myself against any attack, remote as the possibility may have seemed. If Sharra had wanted to hurt me she'd had ample opportunity to do so any number of times during the two days when I was unconscious, but she hadn't. On the contrary, she had actually tried to help me. Still, I couldn't ignore the irrational thoughts that flew through my head. The primal fight or flight reflex kicked in.

I did neither. Instead, I stood rooted to the spot, muscles taut like bowstrings, waiting for the attack I was sure wouldn't happen. Sharra walked right past me, knife in one hand, frozen chunk of venison in the other and did nothing but give me a rather strange look as she disappeared through the door. As soon as she passed me by, I released the breath that I didn't know I was holding, and sagged heavily against the wall of the cabin, suddenly feeling very weak. I breathed deeply for a moment, waiting for my pulse to return to a relatively normal rate before I returned to the interior of the cabin

"Is something wrong?" Sharra asked me from where she was busy trying to hack the frozen slab of meat into smaller chunks.

Now that was the question of the day. The simple answer to those three words defined the last few days of my life to perfection, but I wasn't going to let it go at that. I paused for a moment, watching Sharra flick the knife up and down into the blood red slab of meat, and tried to figure out how best to put my thoughts into words.

"What do you think?" I asked, my words dripping with sarcasm. "I've just discovered that I've gone completely crazy. I'm in the middle of God knows where, talking to something that looks like a large bipedal wolf in a language that I don't understand yet somehow I do." I paused to take a deep breath. Sharra had stopped chopping at the meat. "To top it all off, I don't remember how I got here, though by the looks of me" I gestured to my splinted arm "It must have been an interesting trip." With that I collapsed into one of the chairs by the table. Sharra still hadn't moved.

I sat hunched over the table, and ran a hand through my unruly mop of hair. "Everything is wrong." I muttered.

After a moment of deafening silence, there was a quiet reply, almost a whisper.

"I am sorry."

I looked up to see Sharra regarding me with a look of profound surprise showing on her canine face. The knife in her hand wavered, then dropped to the table. "I did not mean it like that" She dropped her gaze for a minute, but when she met my eyes again, there was a sadness showing in those amber depths.

I opened my mouth to say something but she beat me to it.

"I can understand that you blame me for what has happened" She said, ears and tail down, as she put the frying pan on the top of the old cast iron stove and then bent down to add some wood to the fire.

I was stunned. My frustration evaporated in an instant. She thought that I blamed her for my troubles?

"Sharra" I said in a tired voice "I may be a little grumpy about having been dragged around and not having any say in the matter, but I sure don't blame you for it." With those words she perked up a little. "Actually," I continued on "I think I owe you my life, or at the very least my thanks for dragging me inside before I froze to death."

Her tail began waving gently from side to side and a faint smile grew on her muzzle. I gave her a tight smile in return. She turned her attention to the frying pan on the stove for a moment before turning back to me. "I had thought for a minute that the anger I felt build up in you was directed at me."

I pondered that for a moment, my hand absent-mindedly scratching through the stubble on my chin. "No, That's just me getting annoyed with a situation I have no control over. It's hard to be in a good mood when I have a splitting headache and my arm feels like it's on fire."

She stared at me intently for a moment, her black nose twitching before she turned to stir the sizzling meat in the frying pan. The delicious aroma of frying venison filled the air, making my mouth water.

"I cannot do anything for your headache, but after we eat I may be able to help you with that arm. The meat is almost done" She said with her back towards me. I sensed an uncertainty in her words for some reason.

Do something about my arm? I wondered what that could mean. I knew of no cure for broken bones other than time. Hopefully she didn't mean cutting it off...

Short moments later, she was holding out the frying pan at arm's length, offering me the contents. I grimaced as I look at the meat. It was still ninety percent raw and barely thawed. It figured. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that a wolf would eat nearly raw meat.

"Uh... Sharra, I can't eat it like this. It has to be cooked more."

"Cooked more?" She asked with a surprised look.

"Yes." For some reason I opened my mouth and showed her my stubby teeth. "Different teeth, different body."

She paused, uncertain. Then surprisingly, she chuckled. "I suppose you are right. I did not think of that. How much more would you like it... 'Cooked'?"

I thought about how to explain that for a moment before I stood up. "Here, Sharra, sit down and eat. I can cook it the way I like." She looked at me warily for a moment then put the pan down on the table and snatched a few pieces of meat with a hand, leaving the majority of the meat in the pan. Once again, I was surprised by her actions. I doubt that many humans would go to such lengths to help an unknown creature.

I checked to make sure the fire in the stove was still going strong before I placed the pan back on the top of the stove. Sharra sat down at the table and began to eat her meal with obvious relish.

For several minutes, the cabin was silent except for the sizzling of frying meat and the sound of a large wolf enthusiastically chewing her meal of three-quarters raw venison. There was much on my mind and it was in a rather distant manner that I tended to my breakfast. At least, that was until the smell of burning meat jolted me back to the present. I quickly snatched the pan from the top of the stove, threw it on the table in front of a very startled Sharra, grabbed up the knife and attempted to stir the chunks of meat around before they became permanently bonded to the frying pan. Cooking on a wood stove is a little trickier than using a modern electric unit. Getting the heat right is quite difficult, and only having one good arm to put to use didn't help matters much. Sharra watched me curiously as I juggled the pan on and off the stove repeatedly, trying to avoid carbonizing my breakfast any further.

When I judged the meat to be cooked thoroughly, I grabbed the pan and returned to my seat at the table. Using the point of the knife, I skewered a still sizzling piece and then blew on it a bit to cool it off. I plunged it into my mouth and rolled it around as it was still quite hot. Sharra was watching me with a very strange look on her furry face.

"Hot." I told her between intakes of breath.

She sat there as still as stone with the same surprised look on her face. An ear flicked.

Finally, I chewed and swallowed, the unseasoned flavour of the venison bringing back memories of when I used to go hunting with my father.

I went through the same procedure with the next piece of meat, and the next, etc, until there was nothing but grease and burnt fragments left in the pan. I leaned back and stretched and let out a sigh of contentment. Now that I had some food in my belly I felt a lot better.

"Thank you for the meal, Sharra. I feel a little more alive now." Her tail wagged a few times as she looked right at me, a questioning stare but also uncertain somehow. For a long moment, no words passed between us and I began to get a little uncomfortable. It was Sharra that broke the silence first.

"Do you want me to try to heal your arm?"

I stared at her, brow furrowed, not completely understanding what she had said. "Heal my arm?" I asked uncertainly.

"Yes." She nodded her head. A rather human gesture, I noted.

Now I really was at a loss for words. How did she plan to heal my arm short of waiting for about six weeks?

"How the hell do you plan to do that?" I asked uneasily.

"Some of my people have the talent to heal certain types of injuries." She looked away from me and a hint of sadness crept into her voice. "I have the ability to do so, though it has been some time since I have had to use it."

I was stunned to silence. Sharra's statement was so far beyond strange that I had no words to describe it. Part of me wanted to break out in disbelieving laughter at that insane proposition. Yet, another part of me, the part that had trusted her so far, told me to give her idea a chance. I was at loss as to what to do, torn between belief and disbelief. Out of the blue, I decided that since everything that had happened to me to date had been unbelievable why not take another step in that direction? I would let Sharra do what she could. There was the possibility that she might actually pull it off. If she did, it would sure beat waiting around for a month or so for my fractured bones to heal.

"Okay Sharra, do what you can." I said resignedly. "What do I have to do?" I was rewarded with an immediate grin and a few thumps of her tail against a leg of the table.

"Put your arm up on the table"

I did so, wincing as I placed it on the rough surface of the table.

She scrutinized my arm carefully before turning her eyes up to my face. I matched her gaze. There was compassion there and I questioned why she was doing so much to help some strange creature that she had just met.

"I have to remove the splint. This will hurt." She spoke quietly, almost apologetically.

"I don't doubt it." I gritted my teeth, waiting for the inevitable pain. A sharp intake of breath rushed through my clenched teeth as Sharra gently unwrapped the bandages around my arm. The pain was unbelievable as she lifted my arm and removed the two pieces of wood that she had been used to splint it. A whimper escaped through my clenched teeth as I looked for the first time at my bruised and swollen arm. The pads of Sharra's fingers were surprisingly warm against my skin as she probed here and there, determining the extent of the damage.

She looked me directly in the eyes. "I think that I can heal this." There was a hopeful tone to her voice. "I need you to relax as much as you can. Focus your thoughts elsewhere, think of something restful. This will take a few minutes"

With that, she placed a hand on each side of my arm and closed her eyes. I tried to heed her advice, but it was very difficult to do so. What I had been through in the last hour did not make for restful thoughts. Nevertheless, I was able to relax somewhat, and my mind began to wander back to happier times...

I looked up, startled. My arm had begun to grow warm where Sharra's hands were pressed against it. Unbelievably, the pain began to diminish. My mouth hung open, but no words came forth. Suddenly, her eyes snapped open and those amber depths pierced right through me as though I didn't exist. Then without warning she began a low chant.

I was absolutely astounded by the clarity of her voice. The low rhythm of the chant slowly entranced me and I began to feel very strange, very detached. Then suddenly I was floating up and away from my body. Everything around me was surrounded by a peculiar aura of shimmering, dancing colours. I was able sense the world around me like never before and I felt more complete than I ever had in my entire life.

I was alive!

My point of view drifted upwards, right through the roof of the cabin and out into the brilliant sunshine to mingle with the twisting smoke rising from the chimney. As I looked down over the forest and the hills, I could feel in me the lives of the towering trees, even the lives of the animals in the forest as they went about their business. I was struck with wonder at this new sensation, and I really had no clue what it was all about. The voices of the forest whispered in my ears. This place felt like home to me, more like home than anything I'd had in my old life. It felt like this was where I belonged, where I had always belonged. I was at a total and complete loss to explain it until Sharra's voice echoes in my head.

Everything is connected to everything else.

Realization was sudden and I felt Sharra's gentle presence in my mind. Somehow, I understood what she was doing even though no words passed between us. I looked down through a suddenly transparent cabin roof and saw where she sat quietly across from her. I could feel things moving and shifting inside my arm. Sharra's presence was near, questioning, checking, asking how things felt as I floated up in the sunshine.

Strange, inexplicable things happened below me. There was a transfer of some sort of energy from the dancing, shimmering aura of the living forest outside straight into Sharra. I could see the tendrils flow into her body from the trees, the air, from the very earth itself. In her they were condensed, coiling tightly, changing colour and coursing down her arms to flow into my arm. There was a glow around my forearm and I felt the energy burn there as bones slid and healed and renewed under Sharra's impossible touch. I was in total awe of the things I saw and felt. Never would I have ever conceived that such things were possible. It was absolutely astounding.

Soon, I felt a gentle tug and heard a soft voice call me back down towards the cabin. I didn't want to go. It was so nice up there, no pain, no worries, no troubles, but I realized that it couldn't last. Reluctantly, I let myself drift down, the whispers of the trees fading into silence and then suddenly I awoke as if from a dream. The vision was gone. I was sitting at the table, Sharra was across from me and looking very, very tired.

"How's your arm?" She asked in a haggard, worn out sounding voice.

Numbly I flexed my fingers. There was no pain. Not quite believing it, I lifted my arm from the table. It was still bruised, scratched and swollen but the bones were healed!

"How?" My voice trailed off into stunned silence.

Sharra stifled a yawn. "All life is connected. It is possible for some people to draw on the life energies around them and use them to heal." She yawned again. "But there is a price. The healer takes on the pain of the injury during the healing process, and it takes a great deal of strength to do it successfully. The Healer is left very tired and weak after a healing." She could barely keep her eyes open by this point and she looked about to fall asleep right there at the table.

I was shocked to utter silence. This went so far past anything that I would ever have believed before, but it had just happened, so denying it was not an option. It was in a state of complete disbelief that I bent my arm this way and that. I poked at it, stared at it, even twisted it gently. The pain was gone and it functioned as well as it ever had. I looked over at my healer in stunned silence. Sharra's head was down on the table now and she was apparently asleep. I looked at her with a newfound respect. She didn't know who I was, or even what I was, yet she had gone out of her way to help me and even heal me. She had even trusted me to the point where she had put herself in a very vulnerable position. She was so tired after healing my arm that she could have done little to defend herself had the need arisen...

I found my voice at last, and it sounded very strange in my ears. "Thank you Sharra." I choked out, knowing that I should probably say more, but also knowing that the words to do so were beyond my grasp. I owed her everything right now and I wasn't sure how I could ever repay that debt.

My only reply was a couple thumps of her tail against the chair and a small grunt. She really was out cold.

I sat for a moment and watched her. This was so strange. I felt so out of place, so detached from everything that surrounded me that it felt like I was an observer from another world. Now that I think about it, perhaps that was not so far from the truth.

I leaned forward and watched Sharra as she slept. I listened as her breathing slowed to a regular rhythm. So alien, but in a way, not so different from me. There was something about her that seemed so... I don't know, familiar maybe? I wasn't sure, but it was an unshakable feeling that hit me every time I looked into her eyes.

I shook the feeling away. I desperately needed to get my thoughts in order. I stood up and stretched my legs by walking around the cabin a few times. I tested my healed arm by cleaning up the mess made from breakfast. Sharra started snoring gently.

When I was done cleaning I stood before the table, wondering what I should do. I didn't think that I should leave Sharra sleeping at the table, it just didn't look comfortable. Besides, after everything she had done for me, she deserved better. I bent forward and carefully gathered her into my arms, her fur warm and soft against my skin. She stirred weakly and her head lolled against my shoulder. I carefully made my way over to the makeshift bed that I woke up on in the morning and gently put her down on the hides.

I stood beside her for a moment, watching the slow rise and fall of her chest as she slept. She stretched, eyes still closed, and rolled over to curl up into a ball on the hides. My eyes went from her to my recently healed arm. I clenched my left hand into a fist several times, still not believing what Sharra had done for me. I needed to sit and think things over for a while, I told myself. Something very strange was going on here and I didn't understand it in the least.

I stooped and picked my jacket from where it lay on the floor by the bed. After I put it on, I headed out the door.

The bright sunlight made me blink painfully as I waited for my eyes to adjust to the glare. I set my thoughts towards going on a long hike.

I shook my head as I began walking down the trail that led towards the distant valley. I had lots of thinking to do.