Bloodfang

Four-Legged Thief

Drawing his knees up to use as a desk, Ricky started sketching the area, including the swimming pool and the stray leaf that floated atop the water. From there Ricky tried his hand at anything that caught his eye. He tried but failed to capture to squirrels chasing each other up and down a tree. He ended up just watching their antics versus trying to capture them. They moved way too fast! He did capture rather well, a fluffy gray rabbit as it sat quietly munching on some shrubs. He had not seemed to be afraid of Ricky. Neither had the blue jay who had sat perched on a limb not more than eight feet from where Ricky sat. It was nice, Ricky thought as he worked. He felt like he was one with nature. He fit in here very well. Even the animals seemed to think so, he thought fancifully!

Putting the last touch to the sketch of the jay, Ricky realized he neck ached. Placing the pencil inside the spiral of his sketchbook and shutting the book closed, Ricky rotated his neck, stretching out the kinks. He must have been working longer than he had realized. Ricky licked his lips, noting that his mouth was pretty dry, too. He was thirsty.

Swinging his legs over the chair, laying his sketchpad on the lounger, Ricky stood up and headed inside to get something to drink. Stepping into the kitchen he grabbed a bottle of water out of the refrigerator. Twisting the cap off, he took a nice long swig. The water was nice and cold, feeling refreshing down his parched throat.

Wondering what time it was, he looked towards the oven and was shocked to find that it was not even noon. To him it had felt later that. Though he freely admitted that he had no real concept of time. Yet another idiosyncrasy of his.

With his drink in hand, he left the house and walked back to the pool. He wanted to keep drawing for now. Though still cloudy the day was wonderful. There was no rain in sight. He was going to enjoy it, he thought as he looked around soaking up the warmth while enjoying the gentle breeze. He took another sip from his bottle and absently looked over toward his chair...

He stopped abruptly and dropped the water bottle from his hands. He barely heard the splashy crunch as it landed on the cemented walkway nor did he feel the chill of the water as it splashed onto his bare feet.

It was the wolf. It was his wolf!

Ricky stopped walking. He stared at the animal that stood over his sketch pad that for some reason now lay open on the ground.

Upon hearing the bottle drop to the ground, the wolf looked up at Ricky his gold eyes widened perceptively and his ears perked up in alert. Ricky let out a small gasp as their eyes met. They just stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the wolf quickly scooped up his sketch pad from the ground with his mouth and ran off into the woods!

Ricky could practically feel the wires in his brain fizzle as he tried to process what he had just seen. Long seconds ticked by before his brain quickly rebooted and he could grasp that the wolf had just stolen his artwork!

'Why had he done that?' Ricky wondered in astonishment as he automatically gave chase, in that moment completely forgetting the Mr. Hyde version of the wolf. As he pursued the elusive four-legged thief his mind searched for an answer, any possible answer that might explain why the wolf had confiscated his drawings in the first place. His mind boggled as it searched for an answer while at the same time his feet raced across the yard following the swiftly fleeing animal. Panicked, strangely exhilarated, and quite possibly a tad bit hysterical, Ricky suddenly had the hilarious thought, 'I've heard the old excuse that the dog ate my homework but he didn't think anyone had ever had to say the wolf stole my sketch pad!" Ricky huffed out a breathy chuckle as he darted around a few trees as he entered the forest.