Disclimer: Liberty's Kids belong to PBS/DIC. I own Jeune Louve (Henri's little wolf girl), Matthew Rungs, and his henchmen. For some reason, Ben's paper is called The Philadelphia Gazette on the show, instead of The Pennsylvania Gazette
The summer sun shone down on Philadelphia in 1776, and the populace of the town went about their business as usual, despite the threat of war. Vendors hawked their wares, from fresh produce to fine silverware and soft cloth.
James Hiller, Sarah Phillips, and Henri Lefebvre were doing the shopping for that night's dinner. They were expecting a visit from General George Washington, and they wanted to serve something special. Henri, of course, insisted on tasting just about everything they wanted to buy, "For freshness", he claimed.
James and Sarah just looked at each other and gave tolerant smiles. The young Frenchman was always hungry."Really, Henri," Sarah sighed. "You are going to eat the whole dinner before it is even prepared!"
"But, Sarah," the smaller boy replied, "we must make sure zat zee food iz fresh for General Washington's vizit."
"I think we can safely say that the food is very fresh, Henri," James laughed. When it was just the three of them, James took on a semi-leadership role. Semi, because he could never get much of anywhere with Sarah. The two assumed a "big brother-big sister" role for Henri, who --at eight-- was half as old as James.
A commotion in the Public Square caught their attention. A crowd had gathered around someone --or something-- that had set up there. James thought he caught a glimpse of a cage.
"Let's go see what's going on," James said. The three kids walked on over to the Public Square, making their way through the crowd in an effort to see what the excitement was. It was indeed a cage that James had seen from where they were, but the figure inside the cage caught them by surprise. As soon as they saw "it", all three let out a gasp of horror. Henri was the first of three to speak when they could find their voices.
"Jeune Louve!" was all he could say, his voice barely above a whisper. "Wolf Girl".
"Yes," a man who stood beside the cage replied. He smiled pleasently, but there was something about him the kids did not like. "A 'Wolf Girl'. I found her living in the forests of England, near Birmingham. Apparently, she was lost in the woods at a young age, and was found and raised by wolves. She's the only such savage in captivity!"
"That is barbaric!" Sarah exclaimed indignantly. "It's slavery!"
"She is wild; an animal," the man countered. "She is safest where she is."
"She is a human being!" Sarah glared angerly at the man.
"Who are you?" James asked. He wanted to know, because he planned to write about it in the Philadelphia Gazette. He hoped that the readers would be just as outraged as he, Sarah, and Henri was about the girl's treatment. He brought out his pad and pencil, ready to write.
"I am Matthew Rungs, businessman and explorer," the man replied. He watched as James wrote in the pad. "What are you writing?"
"I'm a reporter for the Philadelphia Gazette," James explained. "This is definatly a story!"
Sarah nodded her approval of James' endevor to write about the Rungs man and the Wolf Girl. She knew that he planned to write a story that --he hoped-- would get the readers to take action to get the girl freed, or, at least, away from this man who was exploiting her. Sarah would send a copy to her mother, the Lady Phillips, in London in her next letter.
Henri stood very close to the cage --too close, some would think-- as he tried to get a good look at the girl. She had white hair, dirty and unkempt, forming a snowy mane around her head. Her eyes were a bright purple, but looked to have an amber tinge to them. She wore a white wolf pelt, just as dirty as her hair. She wore a necklace of wolf teeth, and around her hands were glove-like leather straps with wolf claws attached in such a way that, if she made her hands into fists, the claws would extrude, as if natural to her. A leather belt wrapped around her waist. Her feet were bare, and she was covered in dirt.
All the better to look the part, Sarah thought. I am not so sure I am willing to believe that she is a wild child.
The wolf girl noticed Henri looking at her, not in curiosity or excitment, but more like saddness or pity. He seemed to want to help her in some way. Carefully, she approached him on all fours. She got as close to him as she could and sniffed at him.
His was a human scent, but not unpleasent, as the man and his helpers was. The boy's was a clean scent, as if he had bathed the night before. His hair and eyes was as brown as the soft coat of her wolf-brother, so far away, now. His skin was white, like her own, but not as pale. There was even a tan to it, as if he spent a lot of time outside in the sun. He was small, his head and shoulders barely reaching above the bottom edge of the cage.
Zhe lookz hungry, Henri thought. He gave her some of the meat he was carrying, holding it out in his hand through the bars of the cage.
She sniffed the meat in his hand. After determining that it was food, she ate directly out of his hand. His offer had been small, due to the size of his hand, and she ate the meat quickly, then licked his hand and fingers for any lingering piece.
"Get away from there, boy!" Rungs roared. He pushed Henri roughly away, then attempted to cover up his anger by pretending that he was protecting the boy from the wild girl. "She'll tear you apart the first chance she gets!"
The amber in the girl's violet eyes took over the rest of her irises, changing them from purple to gold as she snarled her anger at the man who forced Henri away from her. It took only a quick glance at the boy to assure the girl that he was all right. She shifted her gaze back to Rungs and growled louder.
"Careful, folks," he warned, playing up to the girl's sudden change from placid to ferocious. "You'll never know just when she'll turn on you." To emphasize the danger, Rungs took a stick and poked it through the bars, feinting with it. With each feint, the girl was forced back into the far edge of the cage.
If the man thought that this would stengthen his arguement, then he was quite mistaken. At least, where James and Sarah were concerned. And the girl had already won Henri over.
The three left the Public Square, heading back to the newspaper office. They had a story to get out, as fast as they were able.
I'll get you out of there, Henri promiced silently. I don't care what zat Rungs man zays. You zhould not be in zat cage. You WILL be free!
"We saw the most abhorrent behavior that any human being can ever..." Sarah fumed.
"This man has this girl in a cage, and he claimed that she was a wild wolf girl," James explained to Ben and Moses, who gave the kids puzzled looks.
"James has the story," Sarah added. James showed his notepad to Ben Franklin. Ben read over what had been written, noting James' eye for detail. Moses looked over his shoulder to read it, as well.
"And you think that printing this in the Gazette will moblize the people into turning against this man and free the girl?" Moses asked.
"It's worth a try," James replied.
"Yez," Henri said passionately, "We muzt free her!"
"The girl seems to like Henri," Sarah smiled.
"That's something in her favor," Moses smiled. He left the room to begin cooking dinner.
"We'll discuss this with General Washington," Ben said. "He might think of a way to make this Rungs fellow let her go."
"I hope so," Sarah replied. "I truely hope so."
General George Washington sat with Ben, Moses, and the kids at the dinner table that night. James was wondering how to bring up the subject of the wolf girl. He wanted to get started on the plan for freeing her. But how to start? First, they had to enlist the General's help.
"James, Sarah, and Henri ran across something --interesting-- today," Ben began.
"Oh?" Gen. Washington replied, intrigued. "And what might that have been?"
As calmly as he could, James explained about the wolf girl. It was plain that the young apprentice journalist was still feeling his anger toward this Rungs man, and was fighting with himself on keeping himself calm in front of the General, Dr. Franklin, and the others.
"If she was freed," Gen. Washington asked, "what would you do with her?"
"Teach her to talk, and read, and write, and..." James began.
"Make her civilized," Sarah finished.
"Can she be civilized?" Ben asked.
"I don't know," James admitted. "But I'm willing to try. We already have a start: She likes Henri. If freed, she'll respond to him."
"Alright," Ben said. "We have a goal for after she is removed from Rung's control. What, then, is the plan for the actual removing?"
"Can't we juzt make heem free her?" Henri piped up. He wanted to free his new friend as soon as possible.
"Not if he has legal ownership of her," Gen. Washington pointed out.
"That's horrible!" Sarah cried. She hated slavery in any form.
"We could contest his claim," Ben put in. "Although what arguement we could use, I'm not entirely certain."
"Meanwhile," James said, "we can write up the story in the Gazette. If our readers become as outraged as we are, Mr. Rungs may fall to popular demand."
"We can only hope, James," Moses replied. "We can only hope."
The next day, the following appeared in the Philadelphia Gazette:
"Yesterday, a Mr. Matthew Rungs appeared in Philadelphia with what he calls an 'animal' in a cage. This 'animal' was, in fact, a young girl. He claims that she is savage and wild, and safest where she is. But is she? What right does this man have to keeping a human being prisoner?"
The article went on to tell about the girl's origin, and how she may yet be civilized, if given the chance. By noon that day, at least half the town was with them in this strange battle.
Rungs was furious, to say the least, when he read the article. He was ready when the reporters, backed up by Ben Franklin, Gen. Washington, Moses, and a good number of the townspeople, confronted him.
"Mr. Matthew Rungs," Gen. Washington addressed him sternly. "By order of the Court of Philadelphia, you are hereby ordered to release the wolf girl that you have in your custody."
"Are you mad?" Rungs countered. "If you release her, she'll attack anyone she gets her hands on and rip them to shreads!"
"Nevertheless," Ben replied, "the court order has been signed, and you must release her. If you do not comply, you'll be arrested, and she will be released anyway. The only difference is, one way, you will retain your own freedom."
"Which will it be, Mr. Rungs?" Washington finished.
Rungs growled in frustraition, then turned to unlock the cage. As he drew near, the girl growled at him, then lept in an attack. How she hated the stink of this man! Startled, he drew back, then smirked and turned around to face the mob.
"See?" he said, as if her actions was enough to sway them to his side.
"Oh, hogzwash!" Henri snorted. He boldly approached the cage, then turned to Rungs and said, "Key, please, Monsieur Rungs." The man gave him the key. "Merci," Henri smiled, then turned back to his task. With a turn of the key, the cage door was unlocked and it swung open. The girl lept out, crouching on all fours.
The girl sniffed around Henri. He smelled familer, as if she had smelled his scent before. Then, she remembered. The boy who gave her food the day before! She then stood half-way up, greeting Henri as a dog --or a wolf-- would; by licking his face.
"Eazy, Jeune!" he laughed. Not knowing what else to do, he petted her on the head, as he might a puppy.
"Let's get her home and cleaned up," Sarah suggested. "Then, we can start teaching her." She turned and followed Henri and Jeune back to Ben's house.
"You'll all be murdered in your sleep!" Rungs cried. "Mark my words; you'll all be dead before dawn tomorrow!"
"We'll see about that!" James laughed. He followed his friends, with the townspeople looking on. Some had smiles on their faces, while others were concerned about what Rungs had said. Could the girl be that dangerous?
"Now, Jeune," Sarah admonished gently, "you need a good bath. Don't struggle so."
The wolf girl --named Jeune Louve, or "Young Female Wolf", by Henri-- squirmed as Sarah and one of the local women attempted to wash the dirt from her body. Another woman had cleaned the pelt, but brought it back, because Jeune did not want to give it up. Her jewelry was cleaned, as well.
Jeune sniffed at the girl. She had a strange scent about her, but there was some of Henri's scent on her as well. This calmed Jeune, as anything that had to do with the young Frenchman did. Henri was her friend --perhaps this girl could be so, too.
With some difficulty, Sarah and the woman had the wolf girl cleaned up quite well. Sarah then fixed her white hair, simply tieing it back into a ponytail, as she, herself, wore. Jeune quickly then redressed in her now-cleaned wolf pelt. She donned most of her jewelry, but distained the wolf claws. It was not until Sarah unstrung the claws from their current arrangement, and restrung them into simple bracelets, that Jeune once again donned the claws.
Cleaned up, though definately still a wolf girl, Jeune was led back to where Ben, Moses, James, Henri, and Gen. Washington was waiting. As soon as she saw her friend, Jeune loped up to him and started licking his face.
"She acts as if she was Henri's pet," James commented.
"Yes," Ben agreed. "We'll need to work on that. We should see if she can stand up straight."
"Let'z zee," Henri said. Carefully, he pushed her away from him, and held her so that she stood upright on her feet. Then, he let go, and she immediantly dropped to her hands and crouched, as she had done before. Again, she stood her up and let go, and again, she went onto all fours. He did this several times, but with the same result.
Jeune looked at Henri. There was something he wanted her to do, but she did not understand what. Her human mind noted that in her present position, Henri was taller than she was. But when he stood her up, they were about the same size. It would be nice if she could stand with Henri so that she could lick his face without jumping up on him. So when he once again attempted to stand her up, she attempted to stay up. Once again, she fell on all fours.
The next time he tried it, though, she stayed up for a longer period of time. When they saw that she was trying to stand, they smiled in approval. But it was Henri's smile that motivated her to try again. James went to the kitchen for a moment, then came out with some of the smoked meat that Henri had given Jeune yesterday. He handed a piece to Henri.
"Give it to her. It may help get her to attempt other things, as well."
"You mean," Sarah blinked, "train her like a dog?"
"Only until we can communicate with her," James answered. "Right now, she is like a dog --her mindset is, anyway. Training her like one --minus hitting her, of course-- might help. At the same time, we must treat her like a human being as well. It's a very fine line."
"Yes," Ben agreed. "A very fine line. We must take care not to cross it, or the results may be disasterous."
"Well, I shall be nearby for the next several days," Gen. Washington said. "If you need me, I'll do what I can. Good luck with your end of things. "I'm sure you can do the job."
"Thank you, General," Ben smiled. "Good night."
"Good night, everyone," the General replied, and left.
"Where are we going to put her, though?" Sarah asked.
"Yes," James added. "She only reacts to Henri."
"That is a problem," Ben agreed.
"She seemed to respond a bit to me when she was given her bath, and when I was doing her hair. She even let me restring her claws to better bracelets." Sarah nodded toward where Henri was feeding Jeune some of the meat. James, Ben, and Moses noticed that the girl no longer wore the claw "gloves", but claw bracelets.
"Then, maybe she'll slept in your room with you," Moses said.
"It's worth a try," Sarah said. She went over to the girl and took her my the hand. When Jeune looked at her, Sarah pantomined --it was the only thing she could think of to get her meaning across-- sleeping by folding her hands and laying her head on them, closing her eyes. Then she pointed to one of the rooms and tugged her toward it.
Again, Jeune's human mind interpurted the message: Time for bed. You can sleep in my room with me. Giving Henri one more lick on his face, the wolf girl followed Sarah into the room.
Ben gave Moses, James, and Henri knowing smiles. She would learn the ways of civilization. He wondered, however, what the war would do to her, for he was sure that was the direction the new country was heading.
Next: Chapter 2: Teaching Jeune. Henri, James, Sarah, and the others give the wolf girl her first lessons. Meanwhile, Matthew Rungs plots to recover what he has lost. Can the kids stop him?
Note: Kurama is my name on The Liberty Forum: