Part two

When Rocky went to sleep Ani decided to talk with Claw about the daemon hound that had once slept at the foot of his bed some nights. Claw was willing to tell their tale of how they met and exactly what had occurred.

It was late and I was on a prowl, a wolf has to eat. I decided to be lazy and pick through the garbage before actually going on the hunt. That's when I spotted the mutt lying in an old doghouse. He was terrified, his body bleeding and a human walking over. He told Rocky that his body shouldn't be destroyed and couldn't wait to see him soon. This angered me that a human had wrongfully harmed a daemon. I didn't want the human to see me so I waited for him to leave; he had chained Rocky to the doghouse. Once he was inside, I walked over and nudged him with my nose to see if he was alive and he whimpered. He was terrified of me and cringed further into the tiny doghouse. "Just relax" I told him, "I'll get you out of here.". Then I chomped the chain and pulled him onto my back.

I carried him back to my den and transformed, taking my human shape. He was already in his and I laid him on the cot. It took some time to bandage his wounds but I managed. Unfortunately he didn't trust me to bandage the one up his thigh, but it had stopped bleeding so I didn't bother. When he finally woke and was somewhat civil tongued, we talked.

He told me he was searching for his human, but didn't tell me by name who his human was. He told me everything that transpired after he ran away when he was burnt. But our conversation didn't last long. His thigh had started to bleed again; the human had torn the flesh off part of his thigh. He was in pain, and decided to accept my help. When I bandaged the wound he laid a hand on it and realized that I hadn't hurt him, he's got an odd way of thinking.

"So he told you what my father did to me?" Ani sighed.

"Yep, not that it bothers me to know I'm not a talker. But Rocky, he something special, after I bandaged his leg he fell on his side. I knew it wouldn't stop bleeding unless he put pressure on it. But he was in no condition to move or speak." Claw shrugged.

"What happened?"

"I laid my hand on his thigh and put the pressure on it. He was unnerved that I was touching his leg and tried to pull away. I ran my free hand through his hair, telling him that I had no intention of hurting him like that."

"Did he trust you?"

"Surprisingly he did, but afterwards he got sick. It was winter in the human world and by the time I'd taken him to my den he had hypothermia. He was frozen and I had to keep him warm, or he'd die."

"Why save him if you're a loner?"

"I'm no loner, most of my pack died years before. I needed a companion and he seemed like he was loyal seeing as he was assaulted trying to find you."

"This is my fault." Ani ran his fingers through Rocky's dark blonde hair.

"If blame is to be place then it is to be on the human who harmed my lover."

"But it's because of me that my father burned him the first time. He was protecting me, my father locked him in a wooden cage and set if on fire."

"But you saved him, you set your father's sleeve on fire so Rocky could escape."