The Lost Pup

Three

Upon my arrival, the walls seemed quiet. Almost too quiet. I double checked my surroundings ensuring safety before making my way over to the last few traps that were left unchecked the previous day.

Checking over and resetting the first three traps became easy. Arriving at the fourth I caught sight of a being. A fox to be precise. The animal looked to be young, almost innocent to the eye.

My heart fell upon seeing the fearful creature. Foxes were one of the few animals I never liked to attack. They were peaceful, harmless some would say. They never liked to cause problems with the territory wolves. All they wanted was unity between themselves and us wolves.

As I neared the creature, their eyes began to go wild, complete terror taking over their body once catching sight of me. Slowly lifting my hands in a respectful gesture, the animal slowly started to calm.

Closing my distance slowly with the trap, I undid the hooks, letting the little beast free. Thinking they would run off, I started resetting the used trap again. Taking my time, doing up the ropes and setting the new hooks in place.

Seeing my handy work complete I huffed in triumph before turning around ready to head to the next, only to catch sight of the little beast again. The little fox had been sitting there watching me closely with their beady eyes.

"Go", I whispered, "run home again".

The little beast continued to stare, refusing to leave. I turned slowly, making my way towards to next trap, only to see the little fox follow my movements, walking by my side.

I think I have found myself a new friend.

Looking down at the little beast as I continued my stroll to the next trap, I felt unusually pleased with the idea of having a friend.

"If you're going to stick around then I need a name to give you" I muttered softly.

The little red fox gazed up at me, almost pleading for a name.

"I'm not calling you lucky if that's what you're thinking" I chuckled "How about something simple, like Red?"

Not indicating any distaste or refusal from the fox, I decided on sticking with the name. It seemed to suit him ... or her. I will need to check that one soon to be sure.

"My name is Malia, it's nice to finally be introduced to each other"

With a little tap on my leg by Red's head, I knew my proper greeting was reciprocated.

Back to my original task at hand, we had arrived at our next trap. This one had been occupied with a small grey rabbit. Kneeling down at the little creature, I had noticed it was not breathing, must have been here since yesterday.

Red had caught my eye when I heard a little gurgle from their stomach. Watching as Red focused solely on the dead rabbit.

"You're hungry, aren't you?" I voiced, undoing the trap to grab the rabbit, I had held my hands out slowly to Red, allowing for a gentle mouth to carefully drag the rabbit from my hands. Watching fascinated by Red taking in his lunch, I smiled to myself.

My first ever friend.

It felt nice to care for a creature. It felt different for once and I quite enjoyed it. Smiling I turned once again finishing resetting the trap.

Once I had stood to my full height once again I heard a familiar husky voice in the distance, nearing the boarder walls.

"I'm telling you Ben, I saw her, she was right at the boarder. She ran into the forest when she saw me. I'm not making this up!"

"Man if she was there, which I believe she wasn't considering the laws in place of the boarders; she's long gone, or very likely dead." Presuming the second voice to be Ben, announced.

"Ben this was different though, she wasn't a rogue. I know a rogue when I see one. She wasn't. Her presence was protective, almost as if she owned the land she walked on."

"Tommy what are you trying to say? That she lives on the Oasis territory?" Ben gasped dramatically, before rolling his eyes. "Come on, you know that's crazy, no one has lived there since the war and anyone who does go across the walls into the Oasis never makes it back alive."

"I know it sounds crazy, but what if it's not? What if I am right? What if this woman lives there? What if she isn't alone? And by the way, stop calling me Tommy, you know I hate it." Huffed the familiar being with the piercing blue eyes.

"Okay Thomas! So what now? If she is real then she's a rogue wolf if she's by herself! If she isn't alone then it's not our place to cross into to another pack territory to just cure our curiosity. There's nothing we can do right now in this situation." Ben exasperated "I think we should leave this for now. I'm going to head back. I'm starving, my poor little body needs some food to continue being a big boy"

Turning away, I watched as Ben tripped over a branch falling face first into a small little pot of mud.

"Damn it! Not again" he groaned, slowly crawling to his feet to then stomp off like a little pup back where he originally came from in the woods.

I chuckled at the childish look he had shown only to turn back to see who I now know as Thomas, who was standing staring into the Oasis forest from the territory boarder.

"I know you're out there, somewhere." he muttered lowly before he'd dropped his gaze from the forest and turn to walk away.

Contemplating to grab his attention or not I finally decided on the latter, knowing it was safer him not seeing me. I knew better than to let that happen. He was already starting to question which I was worried about. I just only hoped he would drop the curiosity and leave the idea what he saw at the back of his mind.

I watched as he slowly faded within the tree lines. I released a breath I didn't know I was holding, before turning back to continue my trap checking. I had to keep moving, I couldn't let my mind dwell on the idea of the other wolf. There was plenty to do and I preferred to get back to my cabin before nightfall. Red had decided to stay with me the whole way back home again. It was pleasant to have someone to talk to the whole way back home again. It was a long walk being on my own and having a companion there was nice. Time seemed to have gone quicker the more I got to try and know Red.

Arriving back to my old little cabin I had set all my weapons down, deciding on cooking up another little feast. I hadn't managed to get much today, only another two rabbits in the remaining traps and a few lucky berries which would have to do for the evening.

Getting to work, I set up the small fire, giving it a good while for the flames to rise and to heat up the cabin. Turning away I started to skin the two rabbits until they were both a light pink colour only to then tie them to the metal rod and begin the same process as always at cooking my evening feed.

Red seemed to be exhausted since we had gotten back, so by the time I had finished with my rabbits, he was sound asleep not too far from the fire.

From this angle looking at him laying asleep, I could also finally confirm that he was indeed a male fox.

Clearing up my mess, I took a quick stroll down to the nearby river and had a long calming swim to clear away the stress and the sweat from that day.

I swam around until the clouds became pink and orange and stars started to cover like a blanket over the nights sky.

Feeling at ease I carefully climbed up out of the river water before dressing myself and making my way back to the cabin.

Ready for this day to finally end and for a new day tomorrow to begin.