Status: such writer's block should be reserved for things like The Hot Zone. >.<
Eyes of the Wolf
Chapter 11
11
Despite my misgivings prior to picking up the phone, Niko and I had been talking for two hours when my dad leaned in my door and reminded, “Don’t you have dogs to take care of?”
“Crud!” I swore (albeit mildly). Niko laughed from the device in my hand.
“Talk to you later, Maya.” And he hung up.
“Do you need a ride?” my dad queried from my doorway, eyebrows up.
“No, I’ll run,” I said, scrambling to relocate my shoes. He shrugged and disappeared, presumably to the living room. Jamming laced footwear onto their corresponding limbs, I hopped through the living room and out the front door.
The air outside was warmer than that inside my air-conditioned house. Listening to the mingled, rhythmic beats of my feet hitting the asphalt and my loose jeans clapping against each other, I ran down the street and turned the corner.
I looked up at the sky, admiring the dusky blue-grey it was turning, even though dark wouldn’t arrive until after eight. The moon shone brightly overhead, just over three-quarters visible. Be it five-thirty or not, the sun beat down on my skin and pressed in on all sides, bringing me to a sweat even more quickly than I normally would have come. Ignoring the pressure-cooker weather, I forged on until I got to Jazz’s house.
My hair was lank and wet when I came through the door. I moved to the garage and let out the puppies, who immediately accosted me from all sides, jumping at my legs and even snapping at my belt loops. Laughing, I scooped one up. It was a glossy female, her ears forward and the rest of her black-and-tan body already bigger than a Jack Russell terrier, even though she was nowhere near full size yet. She licked at my face, a little roughly, and I put her down before she made me drop her due to her squirming in my arms.
I ran outside with them. A couple of laps around the yard were almost responsible for my collapse, but I made it to the concrete porch and sat, bracing myself for the tidal wave of puppies against my stomach and chest. The red that had torn at my shoelace—distinguishable by the white stripe down his chest—clambered over his siblings and licked at my face. After all the puppies had played themselves exhausted, he perched himself on my lap and lay down, with the air of someone who doesn’t intend to move anytime soon. Smiling absently as I petted him and any other pups that noticed me after one of their romps, then got up several minutes later to clean up their pen and refill their dishes.
:o3
Thankfully, it was a bit cooler when I ran back home at seven (apparently I had been with the dogs for longer than I had thought). The sky was definitely beginning to change colors now, but it was still plenty bright enough to light my way home. I ran with the same dogged determination that got me to my original destination.
Suddenly I saw movement to my right. I turned and looked to the trees. My neighborhood was built bordering the edges of the National Park, so the trees were, obviously, not much of a surprise.
However, the big, bronze-colored wolf with the white on its face and legs was.
My blood seemed to pulse in some distant, other body as I met its blue eyes. The white on its face stretched from its nose up to its forehead, with little branches snaking around the sides and over its eyes. The ankle markings stretched up, trying to touch its knees and hocks but falling just short. The tail had a stripe that looped once near the tip.
The instant stretched in an almost otherworldly fashion. I watched the ribs expand as the wolf whuffed once, turned slowly, and crept back into the trees, dismissing me. It took another instant, much shorter than the one preceding it, to plug my brain back into whatever outlet it had escaped. Why had a wolf come so close to people? It—He, I corrected, having caught a glimpse of the evidence—hadn’t seemed rabid…And he had been huge, even for a wolf! He far outsized the Dobermans I had just left—he was more the size of a pony than a dog.
I walked back home, showered in icy water, and crawled into bed after feeding my fish, successfully avoiding thought pertaining to anything.
Despite my misgivings prior to picking up the phone, Niko and I had been talking for two hours when my dad leaned in my door and reminded, “Don’t you have dogs to take care of?”
“Crud!” I swore (albeit mildly). Niko laughed from the device in my hand.
“Talk to you later, Maya.” And he hung up.
“Do you need a ride?” my dad queried from my doorway, eyebrows up.
“No, I’ll run,” I said, scrambling to relocate my shoes. He shrugged and disappeared, presumably to the living room. Jamming laced footwear onto their corresponding limbs, I hopped through the living room and out the front door.
The air outside was warmer than that inside my air-conditioned house. Listening to the mingled, rhythmic beats of my feet hitting the asphalt and my loose jeans clapping against each other, I ran down the street and turned the corner.
I looked up at the sky, admiring the dusky blue-grey it was turning, even though dark wouldn’t arrive until after eight. The moon shone brightly overhead, just over three-quarters visible. Be it five-thirty or not, the sun beat down on my skin and pressed in on all sides, bringing me to a sweat even more quickly than I normally would have come. Ignoring the pressure-cooker weather, I forged on until I got to Jazz’s house.
My hair was lank and wet when I came through the door. I moved to the garage and let out the puppies, who immediately accosted me from all sides, jumping at my legs and even snapping at my belt loops. Laughing, I scooped one up. It was a glossy female, her ears forward and the rest of her black-and-tan body already bigger than a Jack Russell terrier, even though she was nowhere near full size yet. She licked at my face, a little roughly, and I put her down before she made me drop her due to her squirming in my arms.
I ran outside with them. A couple of laps around the yard were almost responsible for my collapse, but I made it to the concrete porch and sat, bracing myself for the tidal wave of puppies against my stomach and chest. The red that had torn at my shoelace—distinguishable by the white stripe down his chest—clambered over his siblings and licked at my face. After all the puppies had played themselves exhausted, he perched himself on my lap and lay down, with the air of someone who doesn’t intend to move anytime soon. Smiling absently as I petted him and any other pups that noticed me after one of their romps, then got up several minutes later to clean up their pen and refill their dishes.
:o3
Thankfully, it was a bit cooler when I ran back home at seven (apparently I had been with the dogs for longer than I had thought). The sky was definitely beginning to change colors now, but it was still plenty bright enough to light my way home. I ran with the same dogged determination that got me to my original destination.
Suddenly I saw movement to my right. I turned and looked to the trees. My neighborhood was built bordering the edges of the National Park, so the trees were, obviously, not much of a surprise.
However, the big, bronze-colored wolf with the white on its face and legs was.
My blood seemed to pulse in some distant, other body as I met its blue eyes. The white on its face stretched from its nose up to its forehead, with little branches snaking around the sides and over its eyes. The ankle markings stretched up, trying to touch its knees and hocks but falling just short. The tail had a stripe that looped once near the tip.
The instant stretched in an almost otherworldly fashion. I watched the ribs expand as the wolf whuffed once, turned slowly, and crept back into the trees, dismissing me. It took another instant, much shorter than the one preceding it, to plug my brain back into whatever outlet it had escaped. Why had a wolf come so close to people? It—He, I corrected, having caught a glimpse of the evidence—hadn’t seemed rabid…And he had been huge, even for a wolf! He far outsized the Dobermans I had just left—he was more the size of a pony than a dog.
I walked back home, showered in icy water, and crawled into bed after feeding my fish, successfully avoiding thought pertaining to anything.
♠ ♠ ♠
I know it's short, but that shouldn't prevent anybody from commenting...It's the little button with the....well, something next to it and it says "comment"
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