Chapter Ten - Missing
Howls in the night awoke the sleeping family, their baby wailing at the disturbance. The farmer, whose name was Johandar, shuddered. Despite having lived with the sounds off-and-on for eight years, he never really got used to it.
The creaking of the bed announced his wife, Arbonde, going to check on the baby.
Johandar sighed. The howls drifting in from outside belonged to the pack of wargs that lived on the farmland. They weren't regular wargs, though. Ever since Connan, Johandar's eldest son, had rescued a warg pup that he found while working in the fields from a hunter's snare, the pack hadn't bothered the farm. Even going so far as to protect flocks from wolves.
The only drawback of this unusual behavior was the howling. Every evening, just after the sun went down, the pack would start their cries. Johandar and his family had gotten used to the sound, but being able to ignore it took practice that the youngest children didn't have.
Arbonde's return drew him out of his reflections, and he realised that the babe had stopped crying. Johandar rolled over with a groan and went back to sleep.
Connan, as always, rose with the sun. Treading softly on the stairs, he made his way down to the kitchen.
Arbonde, the wonderful homekeeper she was, was already up and making breakfast. Fluffy was curled up under the table, snuffling and growling in her sleep. When he had saved her from the snare, Connan had taken her home to patch her up, and only let her into the wild again after a severe lecture from Johandar on the nature of wild animals.
Fluffy, as he had named her, had come back only weeks later though, and Johandar grudgingly let her stay. Just as long as she behaved. And behave she had. For eight years.
Now, sleeping under the table, she looked more like a huge, tamed wolf than an adolescent warg.
"Good morning, Connan," said Arbonde.
"'Morning' Mum," Connan then went about helping his mother ready the kitchen for breakfast.
One by one, children and Johandar meandered down the stairs, sitting themselves at the table, ready to eat. All except one.
"Where's Alif," asked Arbonde. Sending the family looking about to find their second youngest.
:::
"She must have gone outside," Johandar decided after much searching.
Arbonde paled. Fluffy's pack didn't normally attack the family, but it had happened before. She immediately herded the family outside.
