Chapter 163
A Wolf at Play
The wolf could smell food, and he was hungry, starving even. He couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten, couldn't imagine the taste of food. His mouth drooled at the smell.
But it wasn't food he was excited about.
He waited in the room they always appeared in, his tail wagging happily without his consent.
The puppy would come first, as he always did. The wolf was eager to see him, to play with him. He was so bored, and hungry, the others cured the former and distracted him from the latter.
The smell of food was almost overwhelming for a moment as the door opened and the puppy leaped out, but the wolf didn't care, he chased the puppy out of the room as he always did. Barking with unfelt irritation that they were late. The puppy just barked back, the wolf had no idea what that meant, but the stag entered not long after so he didn't bark again. The stag was the boss, he knew that now. If the stag was late there was a reason for it.
The stag nudged him in the side in greeting and there was a squeak from on top of the stag's head. The wolf hesitantly sniffed at the rat. It didn't retreat this time instead just squeaking at him again.
Without warning the puppy barked excitedly and rushed out of the room. The wolf looked at the stag who held his head high and followed the puppy. The wolf took that as permission to follow.
They'd stopped at the door, the puppy's tail was moving so fast the wolf wondered if it was going to fly off until the puppy noticed it moving and started chasing it. The stag watched him for a moment and shook his head as though swatting a fly. The wolf looked around but didn't see the fly anywhere, maybe he was trying to remove the rodent from his head. The wolf could have helped with that if he hadn't been distracted by what the puppy was doing now.
It pushed on the door with its head. The wolf tried to tell him it was pointless, but none of the others understood his barks before, so he wasn't surprised when the puppy continued trying.
He was surprised when the door squeaked open, not the kind of squeak the rodent makes, but a louder squeak that hurt his ears. The wolf wasn't bothered though, not by that anyway. He'd jumped back about five feet and was growling at them and the door now.
This was new, the wolf didn't like new things. Not unless it was his new friends, he liked them, but this... This was scary.
He could see through the door. He could see the sky looking as it always had through the windows but this time there was no dirt and grime blocking his view. This time, he could see little pinpricks of light littering the darkened sky of a world that he'd never really thought existed. He could see the grass, blue to his eyes accustomed as they were to a lack of light.
The puppy was standing in the grass, barking cheerfully at him. It seemed to want him to follow it, but the wolf wasn't stupid. He didn't know what would happen to him if he went through that door, was it some kind of killing magic? and the outside was death? Was the puppy dead now? The wolf barked at him to come back, a little growl in his voice though he'd been trying to be encouraging. He didn't want to scare the puppy, puppies are so easily scared though. The puppy didn't come back. The wolf wanted to bring him back, he needed to protect the puppy, the puppy didn't know what he'd gotten himself into, but the wolf was scared to go through the door.
The stag stomped on the ground and the wolf whimpered, he needed to go after the puppy, bring him back. He knew that, but he was scared, couldn't the stag go? The stag snorted at him, and he could feel it urging him to go after the puppy.
The wolf whimpered again and stepped closer to the door, sniffing it as though the magic that let him see into the other world would be revealed to him through his nose. No magic revealed itself and the wolf tried to bark at the puppy to come back one more time, but the puppy only ran further away. Did it know how worried he was about it? Probably not, puppies weren't very smart.
The wolf gathered his courage and stepped through the door. Whining in expectation for the pain of death, but he felt nothing. Was dying painless? He didn't know, he'd never died before but the experience wasn't as bad as he'd expected.
Everything smelled weird, nice, but weird. Sniffing the floor didn't make him want to sneeze and there was a freshness in the air he'd never experienced. If he was dead now he didn't think he minded all that much.
The wolf looked back at the door, the stag now attempting to maneuver his strange head decorations out of it with the rodent's help. When he finally got out there was no doubt in his stride as he exited the door fully.
The puppy barked happily running around in circles again. The wolf ignored him, too interested in this strange new world. If the stag wasn't worried then it must be okay, so he sniffed around learning about everything around him. Discovering the grass and the weeds and the dirt and the fence. He saw pinpricks of light and other buildings around the other side of the one he'd just come from. The wind in that direction smelled tasty.
The stag stomped his foot, huffing at him again and the wolf looked back, realizing he'd started heading for the smell. The puppy had stopped running around and had lowered itself to the ground whimpering, but the stag's head was still held high, confident and proud.
The wolf looked back towards the smell, he was so hungry, before looking at the stag again and barking an argument. The stag didn't reply, only stood there confident that the wolf would obey. The wolf flattened his ears and tried to look sad, but the stag didn't stand down. After another longing look towards the source of the smell, the wolf dragged himself back to his friends, the puppy immediately leaping up and barking in excitement. The stag nuzzled him in encouragement.
The stag led them to the other side of the building, away from the tasty smell. There was so much that was new, smells, sights, sounds, it was overwhelming. He'd always had walls surrounding him, imprisoning him, protecting him. It was both invigorating and terrifying to enter a world so much larger than his own.
If he was dead he didn't want to come back to life.
The wolf sprinted off ahead of them. He could run without interruption for the first time in his life, and it felt incredible. Looking back to make sure he was going the way the stag wanted he saw that they had picked up speed to catch him.
He couldn't allow that.
They didn't have a chance of catching him, he was too fast, sometimes he'd slow down long enough for the puppy to get close and then sprint off again just to tease him. He always got a growling bark in reply. The stag was more interested in keeping them all in sight then actually catching him, but when the wolf pounced at him the stag played back, stomping the ground and leaping from side to side. He played differently than the wolf or even the puppy. He didn't run around or bark, even in play he spent a lot of time standing still and observing. He was interesting to play with, he didn't move like the wolf expected him to and that made things fun.
The wolf stopped in his tracks when he saw the water. A large lake shimmered in the dark night, reflecting the moon and the stars above it. The puppy and the stag caught up with him, their forms reflecting in the water beside his own. He'd never seen so much water, sometimes the roof of his own world would leak and he'd see little puddles of it on the ground, but this was a really big puddle. How much must the ceiling leak to create a puddle like this?
The wolf pawed at his own reflection in the water, coming out with only a wet paw. It wasn't a real wolf, just water trying to trick him. He growled at the water, telling it he wasn't as stupid as it thought he was.
There was a great splash, disturbing his reflection and ripping a growl of surprise from his throat. He heard the stag snort and saw his puppy pop up in the water, it's fir soaking wet and looking surprised. The rodent squeaked at him, and the wolf got the feeling that they were laughing at it. Could puppies swim? He wasn't sure and that made him nervous when the puppies head went back under the water he panicked and jumped in after him, splashing the stag and the rat, who were still laughing.
The puppy didn't seem all that worried when the wolf dragged him out of the water, he just made sure to shake himself off as close to the stag as possible. Ignoring the stag's irritable stomping. If puppies could swim it hadn't made much effort to do so.
The wolf snuck up behind the stag before shaking himself off, since it had managed to evade most of the puppy's attempts. It jumped, knocking the rat off its head and gave a snort, attempting to rub it's head on the grass, though its antlers got in the way again. The puppy barked out its own laughter, rolling around in the grass as though showing off that it didn't have annoying bits preventing it from moving freely. The rat squeaked from its place on the floor. The wolf wondered if it was hurt but it seemed to be moving just fine. The wolf lowered its head in front of the rat, unsure if it wanted another ride. He knew the rat was scared of him, but it hadn't flinched away when he'd sniffed it so maybe it would let him carry it now. It seemed hesitant, looking back at the others, who were now fighting and barking at each other, before slowly and deliberately climbing onto the wolf's head.
He could feel it shaking, but he was really happy it had decided to trust him. It flinched and hid behind his ear when he tried to tell it so, but he didn't mind.
There was another splash and this time the stag was the one in the water, though how the puppy managed to push the stag in there he didn't know.
This time the wolf laughed as well, its own wet fir heavy on it's back, now they'd all been in the giant puddle but the rat and the wolf really didn't think it was a good idea to throw the tiny creature in such a large puddle. Surely, it would drown.
Both the wolf and the puppy had to help the stag out of the water, its paws were so small it slipped around in the mud as it tried to free itself from the water. It tried to shake too, but its fir was so short it didn't spray anyone. It huffed at the puppy who spun in a circle. Puppies always had so much energy to burn, the wolf wondered if he'd acted that way as a puppy. He couldn't remember ever being a puppy but being with his new friends made him feel like he was one. The puppy gave him the energy, the stag gave him rules and the rodent made him feel small.
The wolf barked, startling the rat on his head and ran at the stag and the puppy. Both jumped away though while the puppy growled at being frightened the stag jumped back at him, stomping on the ground and lowering its head to poke him with its head ornaments. He barked back jumping away from its points and trying to not get poked when the puppy pounced on him from behind finding enough strength to pull him to the ground. It barked in triumph, but the wolf didn't allow it's victory to last before it bounced back at him pulling him into the mud surrounding the lake and forgetting about the little rodent who was squeaking in his ear. Now it was all covered in mud too.
At some point in the night, long after the wolf had stopped caring if it had died or not, the stag stopped their play with an unquestionable stomp and its tail raised as it looked at them. The puppy's head tilted curiously at it and the stag shuffled its head again and this time the wolf was sure that it hadn't been swatting at a fly. The puppies ears flattened but it barked excitedly at the wolf and ran off into the tree line. The wolf chased him, of course. He could have caught the puppy easily, but that would be mean. He let the puppy win, it was only a puppy after all. The stag followed close behind him keeping up only because he was allowing it. The rat was now safely back on the stag's head, he hadn't managed to convince it back onto his head after he'd dropped it right into a puddle of mud.
The wolf recognized the building the puppy was leading him too and stopped. Not yet even inside the fence, he refused to take a step further, growling at his friends. The stag stomped at him and he knew what it wanted, but he didn't want to obey. He didn't want to go back inside. He liked it out here, he didn't want to go back into his prison.
Stomping again and snorting at him, the stag insisted and the puppy whined, even the rat gave a tiny squeak. He couldn't refuse all three, no matter how much he wanted to stay away from that house. He followed slowly, checking for permission to run away every few steps, it was never granted.
The wolf entered the shrieking shack faster than he'd exited, but no less unwillingly. Learning there was a whole different world outside his door changed the wolf, he felt different now, less angry, less hungry, more... Remus.
And though Remus didn't want to go back inside, he trusted his friends. So he didn't have to fear his prison, he knew they'd free him again next time.
A/N: If you guys like my writing check out my new short story on Amazon. It's called The Theft of Thor's Hamster, and it's under the author name Evelyn Michelle. It's a modern retelling of a Norse Myth, and it's hilarious. Sadly I can't link to it, but I'll stick a link in the facebook page if you're following that. Otherwise, you can just search the title on Amazon. It's only $0.99, and if you're in Kendle unlimited you can read it for free, so check it out and leave a review.