The Dirty Paws

Chapter 3: The Runaways

Claire went quiet. There was a long awkward silence, and only the sound of dripping water could be heard once again. "Listen, if you don't wanna talk about-" Mai started but was interrupted by Claire "Yes, as I said I ran away. But as to the whole reason why.." she got quiet again and didn't finish her sentence. "I understand, you don't have to tell me. We're still almost strangers to each other. If you wanna talk about it, I'm here to listen anytime." Mai said with a calm voice. Claire raised her gaze and looked straight at Mai's eyes, like that sentence was something she never had heard before. Right then Mai noticed how full of life Claire's eyes really were. They looked like they had seen everything, but were still hopeful. Mai decided he wanted to cheer up Claire. "Do you happen to do quadrobics?" he asked as he got up. All of a sudden Claire's expression changed to a bright smile, and she jumped to the ground on all fours. She showed her dog mask back on her face, and stared at Mai waiting for him to join her. Mai laughed, and ran towards Claire on all fours tackling her to the ground. Claire quickly got loose of Mai's grip and attacked him from the side. They kept play fighting like puppies for half an hour, which felt like just a few seconds to Mai. He hadn't had this much fun in years. Both of them were sweating and huffing like crazy as they flopped on their backs next to each other on the hard rock floor. Both began laughing uncontrollably. After they had calmed down, Claire turned towards Mai and asked "How about we travel together? We're both homeless runaway therians, a perfect match!". Mai turned on his side to look back at Claire. Mai hadn't even considered traveling with someone else, mainly because he didn't have anyone to travel with. After a few moments, he nodded. Claire jumped up and ran around the cave laughing and jumping around. I finally got a friend, mom! She thought to herself while practically jumping around on the walls. Mai couldn't stop laughing watching Claire's strong reaction. Maybe having travel company isn't that bad after all.. he thought to himself.
"I couldn't have been more wrong.." Mai mumbled to himself as he and Claire were walking through the forest a day later . They had spent the night in the cave, and left the next morning. Mai had no idea what he had coming: a non-stop talking machine. Claire chatted non-stop about random topics at lightning speed, and because of that Mai had no time to understand anything Claire had said the entire conversation. "And then, he just ran away! Can you believe that? Oh and guess what, there's a new cafe nearby that has heavenly lattes!" "Wow.." Mai mumbled with his last energy, even though he hadn't understood anything Claire had said. All of a sudden, sunlight hit Mai's face and a strong warm wind blew at him. Mai gazed up and saw a wide flower field surrounded by trees in front of him. There was no other human to be seen. His tired face lit
up in a matter of seconds. He turned to look at Claire, and got caught off guard as he suddenly noticed how different she looked in the sun. Her blonde hair had turned golden, and her blue eyes shone even brighter than before. Her usually active self looked so calm and free, as she stared at the fields. All of a sudden, Mai's thoughts were interrupted by Claire grabbing his hand and dragging him to the open fields. They ran at full speed. Mai felt like he was flying. He had never felt this feeling before. It felt like freedom. He finally felt what he had been looking for for years. He finally felt alive. But all of a sudden their careless running was interrupted by a loud scream "Kyaaaa!" coming from above them. Before they had the chance to react, someone flew right at them tackling them to the ground.