excerpt
The Wolf
George left Vratsa behind him, and after he walked for three hours, he came close to the Balkan Mountain range. He kept on going, knowing that with every step he took, he was coming closer to his destination. This was a thought that truly calmed him, and without any unexpected incident, his day passed as he covered the distance, he believed he had to cover every day. He followed Highway 15, which the next evening would bring him around the next big city of Botevgrad, 55 south of Vratsa. But for now, he was walking uphill and soon had to go off the road to find a place to spend the night.
Upon leaving the road, he climbed 100 meters, thinking it would take him another full day of walking to pass the mountains. He also knew that once he passed them, he would follow the valley southward until he came to the Struma River, called the Strimonas River in Hellas. The Struma River would be his landmark.
He noticed the trees around him weren’t too high nor too dense. He stopped at a little plateau and gazed around the surrounding area. The open area provided him with a good view of everything.
He walked further and found a spot between two trees and a big boulder on the far side. That spot welcomed him as his place for the night. He put his backpack against the boulder and gathered a bunch of leaves from a tree, which he used to make a makeshift bed onto which he laid his sleeping bag. He gathered a few pieces of wood and created a circle of a fire pit with a few rocks. He arranged the firewood and lit it with the help of some toilet paper. In a minute, his fire was ablaze.
Manolis Aligizakis 