Paw Prints (1.1)

Chapter 14

 If only Bella were here. Then she would outsmart the other animals for me. The look of surprise on their faces would have been hilarious.

Except she's not here. She and the pups are somewhere in a tall silver building trapped in a cage.

Keep going with the positive thoughts, Lucky, I thought.

Woopedoopde.

"Hey," Sleek sneered.

I looked up at him in surprise. These past few days I have become one of the main hunters, climbing up the "ranks" of the herd. Now most animals came to me, for some reason.

"Sup," I said casually. I blanched, did I just say sup?! Oh my. I could practically hear Bella in my head: "tut tut, did you really say that?"

I mentally took a note to remove that from the story. They didn't need to know that, did they?

"There's this dog that wants to join our group of adventurers," he said.

I nodded. "And?"

Some of the porcupines started to chatter angrily.

"Who the quill are you?"

"You're such a pain in the tail."

"CAN I TRAVEL WITH YOU? I WANT TO BECOME A WILD DOG! YIPEE!"

Sleek pawed at his ears. He nodded toward the porcupines. "You never like the porcupines when they're angry."

True.

I padded towards the porcupines, avoiding their sharp quills. What I saw amazed me. There was an Australian Shepherd sitting and pawing at the ground excitedly.

It was a female.

Her blue eyes widened in surprise as she saw me. I have to admit, she was pretty.

Stop it, you already have a mate!

"Hello, my name is Lucky, what's yours?" I asked. "We don't see an Aussie around here that often."

"My name's Rose." She started to preen. "I want to travel with you guys. I'm tired of being domesticated. I want to live my life, my way."

"Sure, but you'll have to pull your own strings around here, and you have to hunt for others," I informed.

Rose nodded quickly. "Yes, sir!" She cocked her head. "What are you doing here?"

I sighed. "On a mission to save a special someone, I mean, multiple someones."

Rose eyed me weirdly. "Special? Hmm..."

I ignored that statement and turned to the porcupines. They nodded reluctantly. They all humphed and walked away. Porcupines are so grumpy.

Rose followed me around the whole day, making me nervous. What is she doing?

Weirdo, I thought.

"So," she said. "Who's this special someone you're trying to save?"

"None of your business."

Why did she want to know about this? It's probably nothing. After that, she apologized and we quickly became friends.

She reminded me a lot of Bella. She followed me everywhere. I found this a bit unsettling. My mind would eventually wander to Bella and the pups.

Would it be bad if I let someone else into my heart?

Hehe...