The Wolf & Yearning

Chapter Seven

"At firzt, I though' he waz a dog."

    "Don't tell people that," WuguLang growled.

    "Shu' up," XiangWang said, pushed the pile of cookies at him. "He'z zenzidive abou' the whole dog/wolf thin', zince wolf iz hiz name. He hadez being called 'mongrel'."

    XiangWang leaned back at the table, the memory slipping and sliding, like pictures clothing his brain.

    The metal trashcans in the alley kept banging and getting knocked over. XiangWang watched the form climbing into the cans, nuzzling into the trash.

    His birthday was coming up. He wanted a dog. He was going to get one. No one would find out. He saved his bowl of congee, clunked down the steps with his crutch, rubbed his nose. He coughed, but the fit wasn't as bad as some. Granny was going to be mad when she saw the congee splashed all over the floor.

    XiangWang watched the dog for a while, was quiet at the other end of the alley. Someone put clothes on that dog. But as soon as it heard the crutch clack on the stones, it dug a hole in some dung and hid itself.

    "Id'z all righ'," he called. "I won' hur' you."

    He wobbled down the alley. "Come 'ere, boy," he said. He decided it was a boy. He whistled for it. Sort of. "Come on. I brough' you zome congee. You wan' zome nize, yummy congee?"

    XiangWang held it out, whistled again, but it was more like sputtering and spittle was spraying everywhere.

    "Come 'ere, boy."

    Finally, XiangWang got close enough to the dung heap to see it.

    Red eyes.

    XiangWang jumped back. Lots of animals had red eyes, XiangWang thought. He couldn't think of any though. White rats. This wasn't a rat and it definitely wasn't white. And this wasn't a reflection. Its eyes were actually glowing red.

    XiangWang swallowed the spit thickening in his mouth. "Come here," he said, holding the congee out as best as he could, leaning on his crutch. "Can you zmell tha'? Id'z yummy congee. The bezt kind. Granny made it. Come here."

    The thing crawled out. XiangWang steeled his little body. He couldn't run if he wanted to. He was perfectly still, bravery keeping him where he was. Actually paralyzed with fear.

    It had a human face, but those weren't human eyes. XiangWang just read about that. That was a demon.

    "Wha' are you doin' here? You should be in Xialiu," XiangWang said. "Did you ge' lozt?"

    The demon walked like a dog and had black claws instead of human nails. He sat like a dog, but he picked up the congee bowl like a human and gulped it down.

    "Iz tha' good? Do you wan' more?"

    The demon lowered the bowl, curiosity playing in his glowing eyes.

    "If you come with me, you can have more."

    The demon pinched his eyes, his long lashes close together, making his eyes pinpoints.

    "Okay, I'll ge' more, then will you come?"

    The demon sat there staring at him, but he wasn't touching the bowl.

    XiangWang took it up, clunked down the alley as fast as he could. He didn't realize the demon was following him. Granny wasn't in the kitchen when he got back, so he got a chair, climbed up to the pot of congee by himself. The demon snatched the bowl as soon as he turned around.