Storytelling Week 10: The Wolf Man

Michael walked through the front door after a long day of hunting in the grasslands. He was exhausted from dragging home the massive buffalo he'd shot. He placed his gun in the corner of the kitchen and walked around, looking for his wives. The old, wooden house was dark and cold.
He sighed, "They must be out with their friends... again," thought Michael. He then scavenged through the cabinets to find something to cook for dinner. All of a sudden, he went into a rage, punching in one of the cabinets which split in half and fell to the ground.
"That's it. I'm done with this," He cried aloud. "The house is disgusting, my wives don't ever clean, cook, nor do they appreciate me, and it's about time they started."
Around 10:30 that evening, his wives stumbled into the house slightly tipsy after partying and drinking with their friends all afternoon. Michael was waiting.
He stopped them and firmly stated, "We're moving. Go pack your things and have them ready to go at sunrise tomorrow."
The wives simply stared at him, nervous to say anything since they could tell their husband was upset. The wives immediately went packing, without a question as to the reason for their move.

The following day Michael and his wives travelled a hundred miles into a small cabin that sat lonely on the top of a rolling hill, out in the middle of no where. Every morning, Michael would go hunt and bring back food. In the evenings, he sat by the house at the top of the hill on a buffalo skull, watching to see where the buffalo were feeding.
The wives were finally doing their spousal duties. They were bored considering Michael had dragged them away from all their friends, so they had no other option than to keep busy by cooking and cleaning.

After three months of being out in their little country cabin, the wives began to get anxious.
"Sue, I'm bored out my mind. I hate living out here. I miss being able to hang out with all our neighbors! We always had such a blast with them, and now it's as if Michael is punishing us for our enjoyment there!"
Sue replied, "Karen, I completely agree. And honestly, Michael is starting to drive me crazy. He's so annoying, requesting us to clean and cook for him now that we have nothing else to do. Why do we need him anyways? We should just... get rid of him somehow. Then we could go back to how we were living our lives before."
For the rest of the day, the wives schemed as to how they were going to kill their husband. They decided they would dig a massive pit underneath the spot he sits every evening, then cover it so that he would fall straight in when he sat down.
It worked.
That evening, Michael fell into the hole, breaking an ankle, an arm, and a few ribs. As soon as they saw him tumble down, his wives packed up and went back to their old camp.

Michael spent the next week trapped in the hole, unable to find a way out. Severely depressed, Michael gave up trying to live, deciding he'd lay there and wait to die.
He eventually heard a whimpering, and opened his eyes to see a wolf peering down at him. It kept circling the opening of the hole and whimpering.
"Great. Now I'm going to be eaten by wolves," thought Michael. The wolf began to dig, and eventually dug to where he could reach Michael. Michael, unable to move from his injuries, was mentally prepared for the wolf to eat him. Instead, the wolf bit him by the collar collar, and dragged Michael out of the hole and all the way back to the wolf's camp.
By now, Sue and Karen had returned to their home town. They entered sobbing and wailing about how their husband got lost and died in the woods, but on the inside they were happy and relieved that they had succeeded in murdering their husband. The town was extremely sympathetic towards the two women, and adorned them with gifts of all kinds. The two wives finally had back their freedom.

A month passed, and the town's buffalo supply began to dwindle significantly. A trap was placed by the entrance to capture any animals that try to eat the buffalo. The trap had been broken.
Word was spread around the town concerning a new animal thought to live in the nearby woods... They called it the Wolf Man.
The town decided they needed to capture the Wolf Man and therefore protect their food supply.
A few men posted themselves outside the entrance to the buffalo gate, and sure enough, the Wolf Man appeared to hunt their buffalo. The men captured the beast and dragged it back to the middle of the camp.
"It's me, it's Michael!" cried the Wolf Man, "Please do not kill me!"
The men holding him down jumped up and away from the Wolf Man, partly surprised, but mostly terrified.
Michael stood up. He was a large, healthy man, and looked nearly the same with the exception of his massively large paws that had replaced his hands!
"Oh no! How could this be, I thought we'd killed him for sure!" exclaimed Sue to Karen. The two women stared at Michael, horrified, as if they were looking at a ghost.
Michael immediately began explaining to the town that his wives had attempted to kill him but he was saved by a pack of wolves.
The men that had captured Michael began to move towards Sue and Karen, both of which began screaming that Michael was lying, and they would never try to kill their husband.
But it was too late.
The men grabbed the two women, and dragged them away as they kicked and screamed. They were never seen again.

A Wolf
Source: Clipart

Author's Note: This is a retelling of "The Wolf Man" from Blackfeet Indian Stories by George Bird Grinnell (1915). The storyline is generally the same, except I told it from a different point of view, with more detail than in the original, and I changed it to a modern, more colonial time period. Also, I left out the part explaining what happened to Michael (who is left nameless in the original) when he got taken by the wolves. I kind of wanted to leave that a mystery for the reader in my story, but in the original, the wolves could talk. There was a blind, magical wolf who healed the man completely and gave him wolf hands and feet. So that's the story!