Forever and Always

Chapter 6

Two months later

        "You can't do that! That's cheating!" Clara found herself being ambushed by six of the village children. They dog-piled on her, literally since she in her wolf-form. They each pinned down a paw, her tail, and finally one was right on top of her.

        "No! We got you! We got you!" They all chanted cheerfully. She felt the kid on top of her dog their hands into her fur and grab on tightly. The others were still wrestling with her paws. She twisted her neck around to look at them, and they all had huge grins on their faces.

        "I was going easy on you! Next time you won't be able to get me!" Clara easily shook every single child off of her and she stood up on her paws. She closed her eyes tightly and shook her body to fix the fur that was patted down by the child on top of her.

          "No! We can get you even if you were trying your hardest!" They tugged her tail, wanting to keep playing, but Clara just shook her giant head.

         "I'm sorry, I can't. I promised Bucky I would help him out. The goats are being very cooperative according to him." All the children moaned sadly and sagged her shoulders. "Buuuuttt..." she felt bad for ending the fun so soon. "The village is quite far away, and I'd hate to make you all walk. Hop on." All at once, they climbed on top of her, and for a second she thought they would bring her right to the ground. But she nice they all got settled on her back, she felt herself regain her balance. She waddled over to a bush, and using her paw, she took out her clothes from underneath some bushes, and picked them by her mouth.

      "Okay everyone," she said through a closed jaw. "Hold on. We'll be there soon." They all squealed happily. She trotted through the woods, the weight of all six children catching up with her total strength slowly. The sun and the weight beat down on her, and she couldn't cool herself down because she couldn't open her mouth the pant. But the kids were having fun, so she didn't want to complain. For the next five minutes or so, she took the kids on a little ride through the forest back to the village. Clara felt herself grow more and more tired, but then she picked up Bucky's scent which made her realize she was close. She picked up speed a bit, and soon enough she found herself coming out of the forest.

       "Okay guys, just over the hill. Hold on!" She felt all of their tiny hands grab onto her fur tightly, and she launched herself forward and up the hill. The children were screaming with delight. She sprinted as fast as she could, and within seconds she was at the top, looking down at the village. It was overcast in the area they were at, and the breeze made her eyes water a bit as she looked down at the village. She could see the goats grazing in the tall grass on one side, and on the opposite, Bucky was throwing bags of hay into a giant cart. He was wearing work pants and a sleeveless button-up, along with a dark blue sash over his left arm socket. In the center was the village they were currently stationed at.

She and Bucky tended to "village-hop" in able to help out with certain duties in certain places. She would usually do the babysitting gig while Bucky would do more of the manual work, but whenever she got the chance, she too would help Bucky out as well. They would spend as much time needed at their designated village, mostly depending on how much was needed to be done or how long it took to complete a given task, until they were called to visit the next tiny village. The villages were all spread out through Wakanda, so once in a while, Ayo would have to fly us from one place to another. They both enjoyed the movement though. Getting to see how different villages work and interacting with several different Wakandans kept Clara intrigued with her "job" in Wakanda.

         "This is the end of the ride. Everyone hop off!" She felt the kids shimmy off of her back and all at once, they ran down the hill back to their village. The smallest child, before following the rest of his friends, turned back to me and smiled.