May/June 2010

  At the creek, Arcadia was almost able to forget that she wasn’t like the rest of her family Somewhere on his travels, Conroy had found it. The human pup. He had brought it home for lack of a better thing to do with it. He had thought that maybe they could use it to teach their pups to hunt, but when he got home, another thing entirely occurred… *          *          * “Conroy, Conroy! Did you bring anything good? The pups are starving and we… why what’s that?” Mother Wolf asked. “What on earth did you bring a human cub for?” She pawed it, turning it over. “Bring it over and it can nurse with Blaze and Cassie.” “But Atalaya, I had brought it home for the pups to hunt!” “Well, it will help us someday if we help it!” Atalaya was a firm believer that if someone helped you, you should repay it, and vice versa. Because of this, many a time had she brought home a motherless cub and nursed it back to health. “We’ll call the human pup Arcadia, and I will raise it.” Conroy grumbled and growled at this, but not too loudly because mother wolves are very protective of their cubs, and although Arcadia was not a wolf, Atalaya felt very strongly about her already. Arcadia crawled over to Atalaya, where she was nursing Blaze and Cassie, burrowed herself between them, and began to suckle. Atalaya chuckled softly and glanced over to where Conroy had stopped growling and was sleeping peacefully. “You just wait,” she said softly, so as not to wake him. “This one will help us, you’ll see!” She had no idea how right she was, on that warm summer evening. *          *          * FOUR YEARS LATER Six-year-old Arcadia sat up quickly. What had woken her up? She looked over to Blaze and Cassie. One little tan bundle of fur told her that Blaze was still asleep, but where was Cassie? Arcadia looked all around the cave, then closer at Blaze, to be sure Cassie wasn’t hiding somewhere. She wasn’t. Cassie was always hiding, or playing, so Arcadia wasn’t worried. She was lonely, though, so she howled the “I’m here, where are you?” howl so Cassie would come back. In almost no time she heard a rustling in the forest, but it was not Cassie who stepped out of the bushes, it was Atalaya and Conroy. “I see you’ve woken up.” Atalaya nuzzled her human cub. “It’s a good thing, too,” Conroy added, “It’s time to go to the creek.” By this time Blaze had begun to stir. “Mamasha, Babashar,” he yawned, “where’s Cassie?” If wolves could roll their eyes, Conroy would have been rolling his. He had very little patience for cubs when they weren’t hunting, or sleeping. It was his turn to howl the “I’m here, where are you?” with a little more demand in it than Arcadia had used. It didn’t take very long before they heard the familiar rustling in the bushes. What was unfamiliar was the low growl that accompanied the rustles. Conroy growled back, unsure of what to expect. A dark ball of fur hurtled out of the bushes and landed on Arcadia’s back. Arcadia flailed her arms and legs, but to no avail. It was at times like this that she wished she weren’t so different from the rest of her family. She didn’t like having teeth that no one could feel when she sank them into a neck or an ear. She didn’t like not being able to keep up with even Blaze, the baby of the family. And she especially didn’t like how different she looked and smelled. Going to the creek was the worst, because she could see from her reflection in the water that she wasn’t like any of them. She only had fur on the top of her body, and it was red, not brown, like Blaze’s and Cassie’s. Not even black, like Conroy’s and Atalaya’s. Instead, hers was red, and in her eyes, red was the ugliest color in the world. Atalaya gently grabbed the neck ruff of Cassie, (for that’s who was on Arcadia’s back) and pried her off Arcadia. “Let’s go to the creek now,” was all she said, unruffled from Cassie’s entrance. At the creek, Arcadia was almost able to forget that she wasn’t like the rest of her family. She was having too much fun splashing around with them. *          *          * Arcadia sat up and stretched. After being at the creek, everyone had gotten tired and had drifted off to sleep. She had been sleeping under a large tree, in the shade, but now the sun had moved and was in her eyes. She looked around and found Blaze and Cassie just waking up and squinting because of the bright light. Blaze rolled over. “Where are Mamasha and Babashar? They were here when we drifted off!” “Don’t worry, Blaze,” said Cassie, always protective of her younger brother. “If they aren’t here, then we’ll just have to go look for them,” and she darted towards the nearest set of trees. Before she could step into the forest, though, Atalaya and Conroy came into the clearing. “Mamasha! Babashar!” Blaze whimpered with delight. “I was worried! I thought…” Here he broke off and looked hard at his parents. “What’s wrong?” He whimpered again, this time with fear. “Cassie, Arcadia, you come with me. Blaze, you go with Babashar.” Atalaya paused. A shot rang out, sounding much louder than it should, in the normally quiet wilderness. She and Conroy ran in opposite directions, Arcadia and Cassie following close behind Atalaya, Conroy carrying Blaze. Atalaya, Arcadia, and Cassie made it home safely, but Conroy ran for miles, with the hunter silently following. He could have gone for miles more, but he was carrying Blaze in his mouth, and that slowed him down. When he reached a little clearing he thought would be good for defending himself and Blaze against