Siberian Wolf smile
Burning Tunguska
It is day and there is a deep silence. He knows the sun never goes out this time of year. He wanders calmly, for he likes to move in the imperfect darkness of the undergrowth. But today there is an intense glow in the forest of ice-leafed birches, and the trees shine as if covered with sparks of fire. But it doesn’t matter how much light there is, he always follows paths that border ‘tween dark and light. There are hidden paths around every corner, and he stands with alert senses. There is the smell of mushrooms; there is the damp presence of lichens; there is the acrid smell of grasses growing in the forest shade; there is the powerful perception of Siberian cold. And here the cold never ends. He might stay quiet, but something has been tickling his nostrils ever since he arrived in this area, forcing him to lift his long snout from time to time to keep his bearings. It smells like a female and she must be very close. If he could he would smile, but he was not meant to. The silver-gray fur on his back is raised in the excitement of the hunt; a different hunt, a hunt he goes on to generate life, not to kill.
He already knows he belongs to her because she is the one calling him. Suddenly, however, her scent trail thins and he stops. He looks around with his dark amber eyes, and his whole body is watchful, vigilant. Then, the rustle of a step on the crystal ground alarms him. There she is. If he could smile he would smile at her. But he is not designed to smile. So he never did. Her fur is albescent, made bright by the strange light that surrounds her, because the strange light of this strange day has now grown stronger, as if someone has started a fire in the sky.
Just he doesn’t care about the sky.
He wants the ground.
He wants her.
So he looks at her. He lowers his head and begins to walk toward her.
But the trees begin to sway for the wind has all of a sudden risen. A wind that comes from above, swooping down. It is a warm breath full of something that he’s never smelled before. The female also holds up her snout and sniffs. The sky is changing color. Then, a flash of light, a wave of heat and a powerful boom. An intense brightness rips through the clouds and colors them with red flames and with the dark, violent gray of ash.
A deafening, hysterical hiss hurts his delicate hearing. He crouches in the shade of the trees. His heart beats faster, every muscle in his body tenses. The female looks at him in horror and runs to crouch beside him. And they stay there. A huge fireball bursts into the air, drawing a scorching line between the sky and the ground. And then the sky opens and splits in two, revealing the most intense light he has ever seen. And again something explodes, and then loud blasts of air come in waves, one after the other, creating a rush of air and a terrifying sucking that takes his breath away. Trees explode, swept away by the blast, falling forward and toppling over each other. And everything around burns and turns to ashes without a flame. For it is not the fire that burns everything to ashes: It is the air itself. If he could, he would protect his female. But he knows he cannot.
Finally, every shadow disappears and everything radiates with a new, alien light which penetrates his eyes and his body. When he turns to face the female, she has become almost pure light, and a white fire burns within him as well. And as he looks at her, the flesh of his muzzle burns and curls into his first and last smile.
The Tunguska event
On June 30, 1908, at exactly 7:14 a.m. local time, in Eastern Siberia (Tunguska-Pietrosa river basin), a glowing object appeared in the sky and exploded about 5 miles high, releasing the energy of several atomic bombs. The forest was leveled over an area of about 1,500 square miles; millions of trees were thrown to the ground, stripped of their bark and partially charred. All life in the area went incinerated. Fire, dust, debris, and steam were shot everywhere. The shock wave, got by seismographs, traveled twice around the earth. The most accepted theory to the present is that it was a meteorite.
Thanks for reading!
More on Tunguska Event
Books
The Tunguska Mystery by Vladimir Rubtsov.
The Fire Came By: The Riddle of the Great Siberian Explosion by John Baxter.
Tunguska: A Siberian Mystery and Its Environmental Legacy by Andy Bruno.
The Mystery of the Tunguska Fireball by Surendra Verma.
I wonder if you researched the Dyatlov Pass incident? Happened back in the USSR days and there are multiple theories about what happened. I should warn you that there are dead people involved.
History not taught in school. I guess because there a no solid how’s and why’s? Thank you for this, and what a way to tell this mystery through the eyes of a wolf.