I don't really know how long it had been since I had passed out. When I woke up I felt a few things, dusk sunlight shining in my eyes, which I could only guess it meant this was the same day. Then I noticed I felt pain in my waist and my shoulder, and when I looked they had bandages covering them. Then I took a look around where I was at. I was in a cage.
I was about to panic, I was in a cage! I had been caught! They got me, they actually got me! But then I noticed something. Instead of this being some high-tech key pad cage it was just a simple dog cage, I swear it just had a latch, I could have opened it then and there but refrained, because I heard voices outside of the room I was in.
The door to the room opened and it revealed a woman who looked to be in her thirty's and a girl who looked about ten.
The girl spoke first, "Mom? Are you sure he will be alr-OH!" She took notice of me awake and just sat there as if I was a tamed animal. "HE'S AWAKE!" The little girl screamed.
"SHH! Be quiet! We don't know if he is dangerous Mia! You could startle it!" The woman seriously whispered.
"Sorry!" Mia whispered. They both took a look at me and started to step closer slowly. I didn't want to show anything to them so I just acted calm and just kept watching them while laying down as a dog would. I took a look to the corner to the room and noticed my stuff in the corner of the room, which this room was a type of guest room. So big question, how could I get out of here with my stuff, but without causing a ruckus?
So what I did was just play along with this, act like I was a dog for a little while, I mean they patched me up, so why not?
"So Mia, you said he came to you for help, or did you find him out cold?" The mother said looking at her daughter with a concerned look.
"I-It came to me I swear!" Mia screamed. That girl just lied through her teeth, well I would at least play along for her sake.
"Ooookay!" The mother said. She then opened the cage, "Alright, please come here, please don't bite me," She said scared. I calmly walked up to her on all fours and stood in front of her.
"Alright now, I am going to lay you on your side," She then started to push on my side but I simply laid down for her. "Alright, good, now I am going to check your bandages," She started to look me over and make sure the bandages were secure, "Ah, who could do this to an animal, especially one that is probably endangered, what even are you, I have never seen an animal with claws on it's wrists and chest? The things on the back of your head, and the fur pattern as well?" She then started fidgeting with my tail, "The tail shape is eve-WHOA!" She had touched my tail in a weird way that made me jerk it, and when I did it turned to complete steel, just went from being normal to being like a hard piece of steel, it was so weird, I lifted my head to look at it and the sight amazed me, I am able to do this now?
"What the hell?!" The mother said.
"SO COOL!" Mia said. She ran up to me and took her hand, balled it into a fist, and tapped on my tail, and what do you know it made a sound like what you would hear if you banged on a solid piece of metal.
"Incredible! What kind of animal is able to do this?" She then took a look at my face, "Wait did you not know that could happen?" She said to me. I just didn't reply at all, just stayed perfectly still. I then wanted to try something, I gave my tail a light flick and it quickly reverted back to being my normal tail.
"Wow, this just gets better and better! We should tell somebody!" The mother said. I was about to protest with a growl but Mia beat me to it.
"ARE YOU CRAZY! Mom, he was just shot out there! Think about it, if we told people him and his kind could be hunted down, we can't!" The mother looked at her daughter in shame.
"Ah…Your right, sorry I should think straight, anyway it seems his wounds are okay, so you should now be able to stand now!" I then got up on all four of my paws with my tail veering my backside and with feelers hanging on the sides of my head. Thankfully standing on four paws was just as natural as two so I was alright. "Okay everything seems okay now, looks like he can walk," The mother said.
"OH! CAN WE KEEP HIM?!" Mia asked.
"I don't think so sweetie," The mother said.
"Why not?!" Mia argued.
"Because from the stuff you brought back with him he must belong to someone, so if no one comes we can keep him, but if someone does then we have to give him back," The mother explained.
"Oh, okay…. So when can dinner start?!" Mia asked.
"I will get right on it! Your dad should come home soon, will be a great surprise when he comes home to see dinner already ready!" The mother said.
"Okay! I will stay with Azul!" Mia said. I gave a confused look and so did her mother.
"Azul? Is that what you want to name him?" She asked.
"For now, at least until we find out his real name!" Mia said.
"Huh? I like it!" The mother walked out of the room and Mia ordered me to follow her. I followed her on four paws into the living room where she got on the couch.
She looked down at me, "Come on Azul! I know you can get up here!" So to make her guess correct I jumped up easily up on the couch and laid down.
She thankfully had turned on something fun to watch, family feud! I enjoyed watching the show just because I can prove that I am smarter than most of the people who get picked for the show, and of course Steve Harvey makes it so much better!
So a few minutes into the show we already have some dumb-asses. The question was about which alcoholic beverage would you serve during a party, and one of these idiots said water! WATER! Out of all things, could have said beer, wine, cocktail! But no water!
I actually busted out laughing in my very noticeable growling laugh! Once my laughing fit was over I noticed that Mia was just staring at me like I had two heads. I just looked back at her with a deadpan expression. She was trying to contemplate what I just did but I saw her smile.
"I guess it was pretty funny! Even I know that isn't alcohol!" Mia said. THANK GOD! Nearly blew my cover there, but some animals do laugh, just look at hyenas!
Mia's mother seemed to call her and me apparently into the kitchen. When we got there she set up Mia with a plate at the table…..while she set up a bowl of dog food for me….yeah no. I turned myself around after looking at the food and walked back into the living room.
The mom came into the room and noticed me on the couch looking unsatisfied. She had the bowl in her hand as well. "Come on Azul! This is good food I promise!" She held the bowl up to my nose and the smell just disgusted me. I growled at her so that she would get the food away from me. Thankfully it worked and she backed off. She seemed to notice my disinterest in the food and she walked off into the kitchen where I presume she had given up. I heard water running in the kitchen and I heard someone fidgeting with the counters. She entered back into the room with the same bowl, but this time around instead of having stupid dry food she actually had cooked steak.
"I can't give you much now so don't beg for more!" She then put the bowl on the ground in front of the couch and I got up to meet it. I grabbed a piece with my teeth and she seemed satisfied with that and headed back to the kitchen, once she did I went to using my paws to eat instead of my teeth.
About an hour had passed and I noticed it was seven o'clock. Everything had settled and the family seemed worried about why the dad hadn't come home yet, but my worries were elsewhere, I needed to get out of here and get back to Bruce, but I still had to find a way out of the house. I was walking back to the guest room and as I did I noticed a family photo on one of the tables. I took a good look around to make sure no one was looking and stood up. I looked closely at the photo in front of me and my heart sank!
That hunter, the one from the woods, was the same one that was in the picture. An innocent hunter, just minding his own business, living with his family, killed just because they were after me. These people made me sick, every day the body count grew and grew, and the more it did the more pissed off I got.
All of the sudden I heard the doorbell of the house ring and hid in the backroom for safety. I heard voices from the front door and I heard the mother start answering questions…then she started denying something…..then I heard her silently crying. I heard the people at the door apologize to her and tell her apparently that her husband went down fighting. I heard Mia in the other room not noticing a thing. I walked out from where I was on all fours once I heard the door close and saw Mia's mother on the couch crying covering her eyes with her hands. I jumped on the couch and got her attention by tapping my paw on her. She uncovered her tear filled eyes and looked at me, she then quickly reached out and took me into her arms and started wailing. All I did was wrap my arms around her best I could to give her comfort. After about a minute of just sitting there Mia walked into the room.
"Mom? What's wrong? Why are you crying?" She asked innocently.
"Uh," She let go of me and got up, "Honey there is something I have to tell you," She said still tearing up.
"W-what is it? Mom your scaring me," Her mother then got her knees and hugged her daughter.
"Your father's gone honey," She said.
Mia pushed away, "G-gone!? What do you mean gone!?"
"Honey, he was found out in the woods, these people attacked him, and he….he…he beat them, and probably saved us," The mother said with tears falling down her face.
"No….NO! I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!" She ran to the back and I quickly rushed by her before she could close the door to the room. She shut it and locked the two of us in there.
"Mia please come out!" The mother screamed while banging on the door.
"NO! I WONT TILL DAD COMES HOME!" Mia screamed and then sat down on the floor laying her back on the wall.
"She's wrong…..she's wrong….," She kept repeating. I walked up to her on all fours and laid my paw on her shoulder. She looked up at me, "How did you get in here? DON'T TOUCH ME!" She screamed and knocked my paw away.
She was just sitting there in the fetal position, I could se tears roll down the sides of her legs. I felt sorry for her, she was going through the same experience I had to go through not too long ago. Well let's just say I felt sorry for her and wanted to help her out.
-Hey, I know the feeling,- I said to her. Her eyes widened and she looked up at me. She seemed dumbfounded, not just that I talked, but that I was now standing on my hind legs. I then got down on my knees and hugged her, -It's okay, I know what it's like to lose family, all too well,- She then started crying hysterically and wrapped her arms around my head. She kept crying and crying, with no end in sight.
-There, there, just let it all out, I am here for you,- And that is just what she did, she kept crying and crying, with me being there to support her. Once she was finally done she looked up at me.
"How, how can you speak?" She asked.
-I am not speaking, you are hearing my thoughts,- I explained.
"What? Oh…okay, well how can you do that?" She asked.
-I don't know, I was basically able to do it as soon as I was change,- I explained.
"Changed? What do you mean?" She questioned. So I gave her a rundown of everything that had happened to me. The more I told her about it the more upset she became.
"I can't believe that happened to you, I am so sorry!" She said.
-It's fine, I still have people who are there for me,- I said.
"But…but my dad, was he already dead when you found him?" She asked.
-Yes….I am sorry, there was nothing I could do,- I apologized.
"Did….did you beat them, did you beat the people who did that to him?" She asked.
-Yes, I made sure they could never do what they did to your dad again, they wont hurt you, or your mother, oh! Here!- I walked over to a piece of paper and grabbed a pen. I wrote my name and my number on it.
-If you ever need help from me just call okay?- She took a look at the number and the name an seemed interested.
"Your name is Xeta?" She asked.
-Uh-huh!- I replied.
"Cool name!" She said.
-Thanks,- I said.
Just then we heard a knock on the front door. Mia opened the door and walked out of the room with me following on all fours. Her mother had opened the door and was talking to someone. I walked up and saw who it was, it was Bruce!
"Ma'am my friend was out in that woods too! Please I just need to know if you have seen him, five foot six! Dark, blond hair! Please!" He said.
"I am sorry, I haven't seen anyone like that," She said.
-BRUCE!- He heard me and jumped.
"Are you okay?" Mia's mother asked.
-Bruce listen don't freak out! You see the dog standing next to the kid behind the woman!? That is me! I am not kidding, please listen here is what I need you to do!- I said.
I walked up to the door and acted happy to see him, "XETA!" He screamed.
"XETA?! Wait…this is your dog!?" Mia's mother asked.
"Yes ma'am it is! I lost him out in the woods a couple of days ago, been looking for him since!" He repeated what I was telling him to say.
"OH! So the stuff that was with him must be yours, I will go get them for you!" Mia's mother walked to the back of the house and grabbed my stuff and handed it to him, "Here you go, I swear keep up with your stuff and Xeta please?" She said.
"I will ma'am, I am sorry for the trouble," He said.
"It's fine, hope you have a good night, I need to work on calling some family members," She said walking into another room.
"Bye Xeta!" Mia said hugging me. "You stay safe," She said normally, "and I will call you if I need to okay?" She whispered.
-Okay, you got it, stay safe okay,- I said.
"Okay!" Then me and Bruce started to walk to the woods while Mia closed the door to her house. As we walked far enough away as to where I felt I wouldn't be seen I stood up on my hind legs.
-So my dear friend, would you be a pal and me my wears!?- I exclaimed.
"Well if I had any doubts that it was you they are gone now, man I hate when you do that!" He said while tossing me my sword and cloak.
-So, how the hell did you find me anyway, not that I am mad even though I told you to stay put but still!- I said.
"Well after you attacked I ran off. I had stayed put at your 'wolf cave' and then I heard a gunshot sound off. I traveled over there and found a bunch of bodies and blood. I called the cops to I.D. that hunter and they took him off. I noticed a trail of blood leading from the scene that led all the way to the person's house, so here I am!" He explained as I put my sword on me and got my coat on.
-Well I guess that makes sense, thanks for getting me out of there,- I said.
"No problem, but you do owe me something!" He said.
-What's that?- I asked.
He paused for a moment before speaking, "An explanation!"