Day Three: A faithful four-legged friend.
Little Hephaestion had always liked animals, it did not matter their size or their appearance, he just liked animals in general. Since the moment he was able to crawl, Hephaestion started to investigate his surroundings, being his mother's garden his favourite and most visited place in the house. The place was full of trees, flowers and weeds so it offered a variety of insects and little animals to investigate and, nobody knew why, but he always seemed to be surrounded by them. Everybody said that it was because the little boy was kind and had a heart of gold and because of that, the animals, even considered lesser beings, had that extra sense to discover goodness.
Luckily, the little Hephaestion had never contracted any allergies to any of them and the insects and little animals had been nice enough with him so none of them had ever stung or bitten him at all.
Toddler Hephaestion was sitting in the middle of a patch of green grass when he was surprised by the appearance of a colourful butterfly. The small insect flew around him, bating its brilliant royal blue wings really quickly and the fast movements of those little wings called the boy's attention. His eyes, a similar blue hue as the wings of the butterfly, followed the gorgeous and eye-catching insect and its subtle skipping from flower to flower but when the butterfly got further into the garden, Hephaestion decided to stand up in his still wobbly fat and short legs and went after the winged insect. The butterfly went on flying forwards, taking the little boy far away from the security of the garden and his house.
He went on walking and suddenly the little flying insect disappeared between some high branches. Lots of fat tears fell from those blue eyes and rolled down the chubby cheeks and the little toddler sobbed quite loudly at the loss of his new flying friend.
Tears and sobs came suddenly to an end when a big fat frog passed jumping by his side. The little boy turned, once more, into an explorer and happily tried to imitate the jumps of the interested green friend. His imitations ended with more failures than successes but Hephaestion was happy in spite of having his roundish knees covered in mud and stains of grass.
The fat frog was quickly jumping towards the small but deep lake that was on the furthest border of the Amyntoros' farmlands. Hephaestion continued jumping after the bouncing green friend and, as he was still a little boy, he did not realize that the soil around the shores of the lake was not as firm as the one he had been jumping on. The land, continuously damp due to the tiny waves that reached its shores, was always slippery and the grass in the vicinity of the lakesides was not so firmly attached to the soil as the rest of green patches in the garden.
The fat frog gave a long jump and landed onto a big white water lily and the boy, trying to imitate his new jumping friend, jumped onto another water lily, next to the frog's, without realizing that he was much heavier and that the small aquatic flower would not be able to support his weight. The little boy sunk almost immediately into the dirty and muddy water and a lot of that mucky liquid entered through Hephaestion's nostrils and his little open mouth. As soon as his head went underwater, he tried to open his eyes under the water but it was so dirty that he could see neither clear nor anything.
All the people, even the youngest ones, had an instinct of survival; that instinct kicked as soon as the little boy realized that he was in big trouble and that his parents were going to ground him until his puberty.
He started to move his short legs, kicking quickly while trying to get his head out of the water. His also short arms were moving too, keeping him afloat as soon as his head was out of the water.
But after some minutes, the strenuous ordeal was taking his toll on the tiny body. Little Hephaestion was getting tired of kicking and his low shouts of "mummy" only made things worse as more dirty water entered his mouth.
He started to whine and it sounded as a baby animal in pain or in danger. He was about to sink again when a big splash of water hit his face. He blinked many times to clear his eyes of the excess of water in them and he suddenly felt himself being lifted up by the collar of his long sleeping dress and, with his short legs still kicking in the air, he was taken out of the water and left on the lakeside.
Little Hephaestion was on his knees and hands and coughing water when he felt a warm tongue licking the side of his face. He lifted his head and he found himself looking into the yellowish eyes of a big wolf, which went on licking his dirty face as if little Hephaestion were one of the cubs in her pack.
- "Good doggie, save Phaistion" the two-year-old boy said while patting the wolf's silver fur.
Hephaestion approached his tiny mouth to the wolf's face and kissed the wet black muzzle. The toddler remained sit for a while until his cough was over and the wolf sat by his side, setting her big furry head onto the short legs and the rest of her warm body stuck to the boy's fragile frame as the animal had already sensed that the little one was cold.
Suddenly there were shouts and frantic movements in the woods; several pairs of heavy footsteps could be listened in the distance, covering different areas of the place and the shouts calling Hephaestion's name came from different voices too; his mother's voice was the louder and the one that sounded more desperate.
Footsteps and voices came closer and Hephaestion started to listen to them, he had been so happy with his new puppy that he had not paid too much attention to his surroundings. He was really tired and he had not realized that the temperature had dropped quite a lot due to the approaching evening and he had already forgot that his clothes were still drenched and pasted against his already cold skin.
A loud sneeze left his tiny button-nose and the wolf got closer to the toddler to share her body heat. Suddenly, while she was lying spooning the tiny frame, she pricked up her pointy ears as she listened to a twig breaking nearby. She stood up, set in front of her human cub and adopted her defensive posture. As soon as Amyntas and his wife appeared in front of them, the she wolf showed her sharp and dangerous teeth in a really menacing way while she stood up fully, on her four legs and showing, once more, her full height and strength.
- "Phai baby; stay calm, don't move and the wolf will not harm you" lady Amyntoros told her little baby in her softest voice. She was already feeling calmer because she had given him a quick look and he seemed unharmed, just dirty and wet.
- "No mummy, big doggie save Phaistion" the little brunette informed his mother, using his baby talk, and feeling happy.
He stood up and immediately hugged the wolf's thick neck. The furry animal lost a bit of her menacing posture and turned her head to lick the little boy's nose and mouth, just to check that he was doing fine after his fall into the cold dirty water of the lake. The boy returned her caring gesture with a big and sloppy kiss on the animal's nose and then they both sneezed.
The fierce warrior looked at his youngest son and smiled widely because the great future his mother had foreseen two years ago, the very same day he was born, it was beginning to come true. The tiny boy had not only survived the fall into the lake but he had also tamed a she wolf, a great feat for a boy of only two years. Maybe, one day in that bright future that was already waiting for him, his little Hephaestion would be a tamer of men.
Boy and she wolf started to walk towards Hephaestion's parents and, as soon as they got there, the she wolf stood in front of her little charge as if she was still guarding him. Lady Amyntoros looked at the animal with a worried and puzzled expression in her face but Amyntas understood the situation quickly. Moving very slowly, he knelt in the same spot he had been standing and left his weapons by his sides. Then he proceeded to stand up again, as slowly as he had moved before, and outstretching his arms in front of him, he showed his bare hands to the wolf, letting know her by that gesture that he did not intend to hurt her.
The she wolf looked backwards to look at her little human cub and then forwards to look at the other two human beings facing her, finally, she gently pushed little Hephaestion towards his parents without taking her yellowish eyes from them.
As soon as lady Amyntoros had little Hephaestion between her arms, she sat on the grass and quickly took the wet sleeping garment off and wrapped him in her wool cloak and then she started to rub the tiny limbs and hair to get him warm. The she wolf sat beside them and offered her own coat of thick grey fur to warm the little one. Lady Amyntoros caressed the animal's head and whispered a "Thanks" against it. It was, in that instant, that an understanding was born between those mothers, in spite of their different nature.
His husband helped her onto her feet and they started to go back to their house with their precious treasure safe and sound. A low whine made little Hephaestion open his cyan eyes, which had been closed for a while due to the previous ordeal and his mother's comfortable and warm arms. The little boy saw his furry friend, lying on the wet grass with her head resting between her front legs, and her eyes had the saddest expression the little boy had ever seen.
- "Come doggie, come home with Phaistion" he called the wolf with his little head resting onto his mother's comfortable shoulder.
The animal immediately understood the little one's command and lifting her strong and heavy frame from where she had been resting, she followed her new human friends.
The woman wrapped the boy tighter in her arms and against her chest and she walked quickly towards the big farmhouse. The she wolf stopped and lay outside their front door, as if she did not want to enter the house in that moment but it also seemed that she did not want to leave Hephaestion alone. She found a comfortable place and after walking around it for a while, she finally threw herself onto the floor by the front door.
The little boy's adventure in the woods and his fall into the lake did not go unnoticed and both parents told the boy off for escaping and putting himself in danger. However, the telling-off lasted nothing, little Hephaestion got a serious ear and throat infection due to the dirt that had entered in them during the fall and a high fever attacked the little body. His parents, brothers, relatives and all the people working on the farm were really worried because after a week, the boy did not get better.
The she wolf that, by now had been named Sotiris and that it meant Saviour, had not left the boy's bedside and she had even dared to lie next to him on the bed, licking his hands as if she could bring him back from his delirium. Nobody knew if what she did helped or not but, after sleeping next to the boy, sharing her body heat with him, the illness attacking his body disappeared and the boy recovered his health.
Sotiris became an important member of the Amyntoros family and it was normal seeing little Hephaestion and his she wolf pet and guardian walking side by side. Where one was, the other one was too.
She was Hephaestion's most loyal friend and nobody dared to set them apart so it was not strange to see them together travel to Mieza where the young master was going to study under Aristotle or later seeing them go into battle together.
Unfortunately, Sotiris died after the battle of Chaeronea and her friend and owner of her heart cried her death bitterly, finding no comfort.
Hephaestion took Sotiris back home and buried her near the lakeside where she had saved Hephaestion's life and the man planted wild blue flowers to remember her.
He swore not to have another pet and he kept that promise until his own death.