A small Carpathian village, next to a dense forest, to which the end of the edge is not visible. And there lived in this village a little five–year-old boy Kolya and he had the only friend — a wolf named Gray. They were born, one might say, on the same day. The local idiot drinker Peter brought a puppy to the very christening of Kolya.
Parents did not dare to refuse a gift on such a day. They took the puppy, handed Peter a bottle, and everyone was satisfied with that. Of course, then no one could have thought that the puppy would turn out to be a wolf.
Time passed … Kolya and Gray were growing up. «Bosom friends» — that’s what the villagers called them. Where Kolya is, there’s gray, where Gray is, there’s a boy to look for. And one day in the fall , trouble happened … Kolya’s mother’s birthday was attended by relatives from the city.
The wolf, of course, was put on a chain and the boy was very upset because he had completely different plans for that day. The parents, busy with the guests, noticed the boy’s disappearance only in the afternoon. The whole village was searched, no one saw Kolya. And only one old mushroom picker seems to have seen him in the morning under the forest, but I’m not sure for sure, since his vision is no longer the same…The parents searched on the outskirts of the forest, but did not find him. Meanwhile, it got dark. Villagers began to gather in the boy’s house. Someone joked to unhook the wolf: «let him look, although it’s useless, not a dog after all …».
The wolf, freed from the chain, rushed towards the forest and disappeared into the thicket of Carpathian grasses. People split up and moved out in search of the boy.
It was the third day of Kolya’s disappearance. In the courtyard of an empty house, a wolf was lying, with his arms wrapped around him, an exhausted Kolya was lying, dirty scraps of clothes barely covered the boy’s small, fragile, scratched body. They were seen by the same old mushroom picker who was passing by. The whole village immediately gathered, an ambulance was called, and parents were found in the forest. The gray one remained lying in the middle of the yard. The swollen neck of the wolf said that most likely he was bitten by a viper. In the direction of the forest stretched a trail on the damp ground. Gray, already dying with the last of his strength, pulled his friend to people.
The last thing he saw were people in white coats and a boy’s leg swollen from a bite. The wolf tried to lick her, but his strength was leaving him. He left this world happy, he knew his best friend would live.People were amazed by the wolf’s human act. They were crying, the whole village was crying. Gray was buried on the edge of the village near a large pine tree. The villagers erected a beautiful monument at the burial place of the wolf.
