Wolf Girl

"Mommy, can I go out and pick some flowers for my hair?"
"Of course, baby. Take Blaze with you, don't stay out too long."
Kita nodded and raced off to find her wild, redheaded best friend. Her and Blaze were inseparable, as Blaze was only 2 days older than Kita. The girls lived on a big bus that could travel the whole world that they thought could travel the whole world. Kita had seen so many things in her short life, like the Statue of Liberty, all sorts of different cities and towns, and she met so many interesting people on her travels. Children and adults and street performers and circus performers, yet all of them were travelling the world in big buses like her own that she called home.
The two girls trampled out of the bus, squealing with delight at being set free from the small cavity of the bus. Their bare feet grazed the soft, green grass, barely noticing when blades would tickle their toes, or when ants would scale their small feet like mountains. They flew over dirt piles and flowers, each step adding another layer of dirt to their already caked soles. The girls locked fingers and spun in circles, allowing their momentum to keep them up, but eventually growing dizzy and they let go, landing on the earth with a soft thud.
"Look, Kita," Blaze said, pointing up at the sky. "The sky is smiling."
"Everything is smiling," Kita retorted. This was how Kita, and children everywhere, saw life. Because they were happy, the rest of the world must be, too. This was a case where innocence really is bliss. The girls rose and picked flowers to turn into crowns, and bouquets for each other and their parents. Proud of their masterpieces, the girls ran inside to present the vivid violets and tiger lilies to their respected mothers.
"Oh, darlings they're so beautiful!" they exclaimed upon their presence.
"We'll have to hang them to dry so we can remember this meadow when we leave," said Melodie softly. Melodie was Blaze's mom, and the driver of the bus.
Kita was bewildered.
"We're leaving?"
"Of course, Sugar Plum," Kita's mother, Rayne replied. "We still have so many sights to see and so many people to meet. Don't you like doing that?"
Of course she did. Kita's favorite thing was meeting new people and seeing new things. But the Meadow was her favorite. It was the quietest place they've ever settled. Usually they were in campgrounds with lots of other buses and people. Kita enjoyed having lots of friends to play with, but she was finding that solitude was when she felt the happiest. Her mother paid more attention to her, Blaze played with her more, and she felt more like a family. Kita saw a bear for the first time in this meadow, and possibly even a wolf, but it was too far away for her to be sure. Kita didn't want to leave her meadow behind. She wanted to stay forever.
"I have to go get my flower crown," she exclaimed, running outside.
"You come back right away," Rayne yelled. "We're leaving soon." She slipped a small piece of paper in her mouth. Kita knew what that stuff was. Her mother told her it helped the adults fight away the monsters that came to eat small children, but if children eat it, it makes the monsters stronger. That was enough to make her stay far away from it.
Kita wasn't really looking for her flower crown. She was looking for one last sense of togetherness, because she knew she would never find a place like the Meadow for the rest of her life. She smelled all the flowers, and listened to the beautiful sound of a forest full of birds. Kita sat on the grass and watched the ants crawl in and out of their hills, too young to understand its engineering but appreciating it all the same. She could feel her eyelids fluttering closed with the fading light of the sun....

It was pitch black. Kita sat up and rubbed her eyes, unable to hear anything except the cacophony of crickets and bullfrogs. She yawned and stretched, sitting up and looking around. Ah, her Meadow, safe and serene even in the middle of then night. She felt protected by just the trees around her. Kita was happy to call it home.
But it's not home she thought. Home was a big blue bus, and they were leaving the Meadow soon.
Kita stood and turned around to walk back to the bus. But when she looked up, there was nothing there. No warm light coming from the front steps, and no picnic table set up out front. There was no music coming from the bus, because there was no bus there. Feeling panicked, Kita whirled around to see if the bus moved. Kita began yelling names, any name she could think, each one growing louder and more panicked than the last. When she officially gave up after 30 minutes of yelling and running, Kita sat down in her perfect, safe, serene Meadow that once offered her so much solace, and cried. She no longer wished she could stay here forever. Kita no longer wanted this to be home. She missed her mother, and her father, she missed Melodie and crazy, wild, redheaded Blaze. Kita did not want to stay in the Meadow any longer.
In the distance, a white wolf watched.