Healing Ties (Ties, Book 2) | ✓

Chapter 48

It was just barely light out when Fanner was startled awake by the sound of Danya calling Jasper's name. Yore's arm had been wrapped securely around Fanner as they slept, and it stayed there as they sat up together.

"Jasper's gone," Simon told them when he saw they were awake. "He's probably nearby. He wanders sometimes."

Yore got to his feet. "I'll shift and do a loop of the camp. He might have just woken up early and gone to play with some of the other kids."

Danya nodded. "Okay. I don't want to go running off into the woods on our own if he isn't actually lost, but..."

Yore crouched down to get ready to shift. "I'll be back in two minutes. If I don't find him, you won't be searching alone."

Yore shifted and then they watched as he dashed off through the camp, weaving through sleeping or barely awake figures. As he looped around in the distance to come back, Fanner saw him stop to nudge some of the other wolves awake with his nose. By the time he came back, he had six other wolves trailing behind him. Fanner wasn't very good at telling wolves apart just yet, so the only one he recognised was Slone.

"Jasper's missing," Danya told the wolves. "I just woke up and he was gone. He—I think he's just wandered off. He does that. He doesn't understand how dangerous the world can be."

The wolves were already sniffing around, and it wasn't long before one of them caught a scent. It was all the rest of them could do to run to keep up with the wolves as they followed the trail.

They stopped sooner than Fanner had been expecting and up ahead one of the wolves snarled, but Yore corrected them with a snap near their face and they settled down. When they caught up to them, Fanner saw what had upset the wolf.

Cookie. She was laying on her back on the ground, her body curved around Jasper who had his hand in her mouth. He pulled his hand out, a big, barely alive grasshopper sluggishly kicking in his grasp, and shoved it into his own mouth.

Fanner saw Danya lift his hand up, saw flame start to burst to life in his palm, and quickly stepped between him and Cookie. "It's okay. That's Cookie. She's a friend."

Danya reluctantly dropped his hand, the fire slowly dying down. "Oh."

Simon looked less convinced as he edged towards his son, who had gone back to digging around inside of Cookie's mouth. "How sure are you of that?"

"Absolutely certain," Fanner said as Yore began to shift. "It's a long story, but we've been through a lot together. I trust her and so can you."

"She may look like a beast, but she has human-like intelligence," Yore explained now that he was back on two feet. "She's a little strange, and certainly strange looking, but she's a friend."

"Jas, yucky!" Simon scolded as Jasper shoved another of Cookie's mouth grasshoppers into his own mouth. "Spit it out."

Jasper chewed quickly, and by the time Simon grabbed for him, he was already swallowing.

"Eating a grasshopper won't hurt him," Yore assured Simon. "It's just another kind of meat, at the end of the day. Not most people's favourite, but..."

Simon sighed as he picked Jasper up. "Well, thank you for feeding our son, I suppose, Cookie, but I'd prefer you just bring him back to us if he wanders off next time."

"We should give her the benefit of the doubt if she's been such a good friend to Fanner and Yore," Danya said as he walked over to them. "She probably couldn't make him go back without scaring him, but she managed to keep him from getting too far."