AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘You know, we’re in the bayou…you really don’t need your fur, do you?’ She smiled cruelly.
‘You know, if I peed on you, it might neutralize the smell,’ I offered.
‘How about I just throw you over, and then you won’t worry about smelling me. We can be twinsies.’
I curled my lip, growled, and walked over to Kaye, lying down by her feet. At least she didn’t stink, plus she would pet me when I wanted it.
Kaye started running her long, deft fingers through my fur for a few seconds before going back to her weapon. I swear that thing was already clean two minutes ago. Between Rave steering us to the Wicked Witch of the Bayou and Kaye polishing the metal off her weapon, I was getting no love around here.
“Why do you think he attacked us?” Kaye finally spoke, pausing her polishing and stroking that puuurfect spot behind my ear.
‘He was probably a spy for the witch. A look out for her and to slow us up. He smelled familiar. I think he was at the house, in the weeds,’ I supplied while I was in bliss.
Rave relayed my words, and my blissful mood jerked to a halt.
“Really?” Kaye asked and gave me a quizzical look.
‘Yes! Now get back to petting me. I need a rubdown. This stress does NOT do well for my fur.’
Rave snorted.
“Do I want to know what he said?”
“No.”
‘No.’
She shrugged and focused back on me, which I definitely wouldn’t complain about. “Hmph, either way, you’re probably right, Thorn. Good thinking,” she said. Her deft fingers worked wonders on my shoulders, and I couldn’t help but settle down, close my eyes, and relax as they talked.
Their continued banter was a gentle reminder of how lucky I was to have them. The family that rescued me from a certain death. Without the Fates stepping in, I would probably be decaying somewhere six feet under. Wait. Or would they have just fed me to a lion in another enclosure?
That day, thirteen years ago, still lives on in my vivid memory.
I was trying to play with my brothers and sisters, but they would purposely leave me out. I thought it was because I was the runt, but now, looking back, it was probably the fact I was different.
There weren’t many people out staring at us, so it was easy to hear when they did come by.
“The sign says Fossa. They are carnivores from an island in Africa. Madagascar,” a man told the woman and little girl that was with him. I could only guess he was the father.
“Oh look, sweetie. There are babies,” the older woman squealed in excitement. Yep, she had to be the mother. The little girl was holding something that floated in the air as she peered in, but I didn’t pay too much attention to them. I went back to dealing with my own issues.
‘Oh, come on, guys, I want to play too. Stop leaving me out!’ I grunted. One of my brothers pounced on me and bit down hard on my ear, making me cry out, before taking off and leaving me by the watering hole. ‘Now you’re just being mean. It’s not fair.’ I whimpered and turned my back on them as they continued to play. ‘Fine.’ I sniffed, ‘I’ll just play in the water.’
“They are adorable. Don’t you think?” the older woman dressed in a flashy suit observed.
“They’re assholes,” the little brunette girl replied, grabbing my attention. She was looking at my siblings as they pounced on each other.
“What?” the father questioned, raising his voice and grabbing the young girl by her shoulders.
“Ravena Abigail Clarke!” the mother scolded the young girl, but she didn’t apologize.
“What? It’s true,” the girl said with spunk as she looked between me and my siblings. “That’s why he’s pouting and sitting by the water. They’re being mean to him.”
I glanced up and found the young girl pointing right at me. Shocked that she had caught that, I quickly backed up and lay down in the tall grass. I learned from the past that there wasn’t really a way to communicate with the humans that came to see us, so why try? If anything, if they thought you could understand, they poked and prodded you to death to make you do tricks for god-awful food or praise.
No, thank you. I’d had that done to me for two weeks until I learned to stop responding how they wanted me to. There was no way I was going to call attention to myself once again. No, sir, no way. I’d learned my lesson. I grimaced as my stomach growled and cramped, causing me to curl up in a ball and lay my head down on my paws. Hopefully, our trainer that came in here would actually have something to feed us that didn’t make me sick.
Soon enough, Mother called us into the inner dome to eat. I walked in and immediately groaned. The stench of raw beef and mice made my stomach roll with unease. Again!?! Where was the variety around here? They were going to starve me to death. There was an undertone of something else that smelled good though, but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was. Why couldn’t I have that?
