A lost tourist thought that a hungry wolf would eat him alive: the wolf slowly approached him, put its paws on his chest, began sniffing his face, neck, and then did this… 

The tourist realized with horror closer to night that he was lost in the middle of a huge forest. There was no connection, the phone had long stopped catching signal, and the friends he was walking with had already disappeared from sight.

He tried several times to find a familiar path, but everything was in vain — identical trees, darkness, and not the slightest hint of a road. When his strength began to leave him, he decided to stop and rest a little.

The sun had long set beyond the horizon, the forest plunged into cold and silence, broken only by the crack of branches and distant growling.

The air was damp and icy, his fingers numb, his teeth chattered from the cold. Fear gradually engulfed him — that sticky, paralyzing fear when you don’t know where to go, don’t know what to do, are afraid even to shout because you’re not sure who responds first — a person or a beast.

He walked, stumbling over roots, until he tripped and fell into a narrow stream. The icy water burned his body, the clothes instantly stuck to his skin, his breath was taken away.

He climbed ashore, trembling from the cold, and realized that now he had no dry clothes and no strength to go further. He collapsed onto the ground and understood — this was the end for him.

But at that moment a sharp howl sounded somewhere nearby. It was so close it seemed the beast was standing right behind him. The tourist slowly turned his head and froze. Right behind him indeed stood a wolf — huge, dark, with shiny fur and eyes glowing in the twilight. Behind it tiny silhouettes flickered — wolf cubs.

The man came up with nothing better than to lie on his back and pretend to be dead. He froze, trying not to move, not breathe, not look. The wolf approached, placed its paws on his chest, and began sniffing his face, neck, hands.

The man felt its hot breath, heard quiet snorting.

— That’s it… it will eat me alive, — flashed through his mind.

But at that very moment the wolf did something unexpected, leaving the man in shock

Suddenly the wolf whimpered softly, lay down beside him and… began licking his hands. Then his neck, then his face, as if checking — he was alive. The wolf cubs approached and began to repeat the mother’s actions.

The man could not believe his eyes. He lay, not moving, and the animals seemed to hug him, pressing their warm sides against him. The wolf lay down nearby, breathed heavily but calmly, warming him with its body.

He didn’t notice how he closed his eyes from exhaustion. The warmth of the beast gradually spread through his body, the fear dissolved, and he fell asleep.

When he woke up in the morning, the sun was already breaking through the branches. The wolf was gone. At first it seemed to him that what happened at night was a dream or delirium.

Only paw prints on the wet ground and several dark tufts of fur reminded him that it was real.