Exploring Horizons - Chapter 5
Lizzy, Karuna, and Christina walked into the cabin. They were greeted by Everest, Marshall, Yeshe, and Rocky.
"Guys, this is your new granddaughter Jȁschke but you can call her Christina," said Lizzy.
"You are the most adorable little girl I have seen since my pups were born," said Yeshe, "Welcome to the family. We are all here for you if you ever need anything."
"Christina, would you like to meet your new, uh, wow, uncle?" laughed Everest showing her Denali.
"My Uncle is younger than I am?" said Christina, looking up at Lizzy.
"Well, Everest is my mom," said Lizzy, "She just had Denali last week. So yes, he's my little brother and that makes him your uncle even though he is younger than you."
Christina giggled, "That's funny. He has spots like Marshall, but they are lighter in color."
"They are actually just starting to show up," said Marshall, "They will get darker as the weeks go by."
Christina smiled and licked his nose. He squirmed and She giggled "He's fuzzy. I love him already."
"We have your room all set up for you," said Rocky. 'The walls are bare except for a poster I put up for you. It's a map of the entire area. But you can decorate the room however you'd like it."
"A real room, not just a kennel? Can I have a poster of Five Finger Death Punch?" asked Christina.
"I really love this kid already," laughed Marshall. "They are my absolute favorite group right now."
"Really?" asked Christina.
"Yes, and one of my favorites as well," said Rocky, "I also like Linkin Park, but my favorite is Ice Nine Kills."
"Wow, I've heard of them," said Christina. "So I can get a poster?" she looked up at Lizzy and Karuna.
"Of course honey," said Karuna, "If you ask nicely, I bet grandpa Rocky has one already in the study."
"As a matter of fact I do," laughed Rocky.
Lizzy and Karuna tucked Christina into bed that evening. They explained their room was right down the hall and if she needed anything to come tell them or call out and they would be there. They were just about to turn out the lights and Christina asked if they could leave them on.
"How about we leave the door open and the hall light on for now," said Karuna, "I'll get you a night light tomorrow."
"O-ok," said Christina quietly.
"How about I stay with you tonight?" asked Lizzy.
"Would you please?" asked Christina.
"Of course," said Lizzy, "You go get some sleep Karuna, you have to work tomorrow."
"Both of you can still call me if you need to," said Karuna.
Lizzy and Christina snuggled up together and drifted off.
During the night Christina cried out and began thrashing. Lizzy squeezed her pulling her close and she quit struggling, snuggling into her mom's fur.
"Oh, my sweet baby," said lizzy petting her head, "What horrible things have you seen? I'm afraid we have a long way to go to get you totally comfortable here."
A few hours later, Christina dropped into a deep sleep. She was walking through a bright white room.
"Jȁschke?" said a voice.
"Hello, Great One," replied Jȁschke.
"I have a gift I'd like to offer you," said the voice, a great white wolf came from the mist..
"You've given me somewhere warm to stay and new people to take care of me," said Jȁschke, "I couldn't hope for more."
"Oh, little one," said the wolf, "You have seen so much pain and aged so much faster than I'd hoped. But this gift will help you move on."
With that her parents walked into the vision.
"Mom! DAD!" cried Jȁschke, running to them.
"My sweet Jȁschke," said her mother, as she embraced Jȁschke. "We asked if there was a way for us to speak to you."
"We wanted you to know we are watching and see that you have finally been adopted," said her dad, as he also embraced Jȁschke.
"They are really nice people," said Jȁschke.
"Honey, They are your parents now, they were chosen by the Great One himself," said her mother. "That doesn't make us any less, we will always be with you. But it's ok to talk to them about what happened. They can't help you if they don't know."
"And it does not take away from us for you to call them Mom and Dad," said her father. "We love you and they were both chosen by the Great One to take you in and make you a part of their family."
"You have so much to offer the world," said her mother, "You just need to accept that change happens and we don't always understand why. But you have to move on, you just need to remember we are always watching and we are already so proud of all you've done and all that you will become."
"I love you both so much," said Jȁschke, "I miss you, and I promise I will never forget you."
"We know you won't," said her mom, "We love you too."
They faded from the vision.
"I hope this will help you," said the voice, "You still have hurdles to jump. But you will be great at whatever you decide to become."
Christina awoke and realized she was snuggled into her mom's fur. She smiled and burrowed deeper into her fur and fell back to sleep. Lizzy felt her and woke, kissed her head and returned to sleep herself.
The next morning Christina was sitting up waiting for her mom to awaken. Lizzy opened her eyes and saw Christina sitting there.
"Is everything ok honey?" asked Lizzy.
Chistina nodded. "The great one let me speak with my parents," said Christina. "They said it's ok to call you and Karuna mom and dad. If that's ok, I'd like to do that."
"I would be honored if you choose to call us mom and dad," said Lizzy, "I will never try to replace your mom, but I want to be the mom, your mom would hope I can be in order to fill in her place, since she can't be here."
Karuna heard them talking and walked in. "How are my two beautiful ladies doing this morning?"
"Dad, we're doing good," said Christina. "But my birth mom said, I need to talk to you about what happened so you both can understand. I hope talking to them will help with the nightmares, but if not, I know you will be here with me."
Karuna was shocked to be called dad and his eyes immediately watered up. "Just let me make a call. Then when you two get up and ready, come to the kitchen. I'll make breakfast while we talk."
Karuna called and spoke to Buster, "Say no more bro," said Buster, "This is how we take care of each other. You take as long as you need. Gale and I will come by after I get off this evening to meet your new daughter."
Lizzy and Christina walked into the kitchen. Karuna was already making breakfast for the three.
"Ok honey," said Lizzy, "You tell us as much as you feel comfortable telling us. But first let me tell you my story."
Lizzy went on to explain being thrown into a dumpster, the ranger found her and took her to that same shelter, of Marshall and Everest coming and adopting her. About the nightmares she had until Karuna heard her and helped her through her fears and struggles.
"Mom, that does help a little, but let me tell you everything from the day the robbery happened," said Christina, and then she began her story.
"I was just a baby pup only a little older than a month old, I could see and was just beginning to speak. Our owner Sangye, my parents, and I had gone to the store. We were shopping when a man ran in and was screaming at everyone. He was waving around a thing I found out later was a gun. When he pointed it at us mom and dad jumped in front of Sangye and I. He yelled something and Dad jumped toward him trying to grab the gun. There was a loud noise and dad fell down. Mom cried out and then she fell down too. Sangye shoved me out the door and yelled at me to run. I ran as fast as I could. I found out later that my master was killed also. I didn't have anyone else so I ran to the forest. I stayed near the place where people would come and picnic. They had those special trash cans that the bears couldn't get into but I'm smarter than a bear. I think I might be stronger than one too. Anyway, I lived like that for several months until Ranger Smith caught me one morning. There hadn't been any picnics because of all the snow. I was hungry and was trying to find something to eat when I walked up to the place where he stayed. He called me over and fed me chicken, it was really good. He asked me if I knew where my parents were and I started crying. He held me for a while and I told him about the bad man. He told me he had heard about the robbery and that they had caught the guy. From there He took me to the shelter and they started helping me with my nightmares. Then you guys came and adopted me."
"Oh baby," said Lizzy, "You've had such a rough start, and you have seen so much hurt. I love you like you were my own and our love will continue to grow. Your parents and owner sacrificed themselves to try and protect you."
"But it didn't help," whimpered Christina, "Mom and Sangye both died too."
"But honey," said Karuna, "You lived, They all gave their lives so you could live. 'Greater Love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for others.'"
"That's a nice saying," said Christina.
"It's from the New Testament, John 15:13," said Karuna, "It's my favorite verse. You know some time you'll have to hear about your grandma Yeshe's story. She was shot defending Lin, one of the monks at the retreat."
"There are monks here?" said Christina, "One's like Sangye?"
"Yes, yes there are," said Lizzy. "Why don't we get cleaned up and we'll take you on a tour of the retreat and then Adventure Bay."
"That sounds fun," laughed Christina.
I want to thank DaytonGamingGames02 again for allowing me to continue to use his OC Jȁschke.