Lost Amongst Many

Chapter 13

Inside were photographs. I had never seen them in my life, yet the individuals in the photographs were somehow familiar. Then it hit me. This was a photograph of my friends from my very very early childhood. They would be the same age as Mitch by now, maybe younger by a human year or two.

I had been separated from them because one had to take charge of an entire kingdom at the age of 5. Their names? Vikram and Lachlan. Both had peculiar accents, and they were both technically orphans. Lachlan had never spoken the first few weeks I had known him, and when he finally did speak, he spoke correctly, the same as I do. He does not have the vocabulary I have, but can get around with a sentence just as well.

I kept looking through the stack of photographs, and saw one that was not like the others. It was in color. The rest are all black and white from the old camera Mother used. It was a photograph of a small baby, wrapped up tightly in a blanket, settled carefully in a wooden box sitting at the foot of a staircase. The colors were faded, but it was still clear enough.

Mitch crawled into the cove, and looked at the color photograph in my mitt.

"That's creepy. It looks like Jerome."

"Yes. It does. But why? And how?"

"He did tell me he was orphaned when he was little. I think he said it was poachers."

"That makes sense. It is still sad. And who took the photograph and not the child?"

"Your mom? That's what this looks like."

"Or, my mother is the one who put him there. He grew up with Rob in that castle. He had to learn leadership to regain the alpha status. My mother understood that."

"Oh. Maybe we should head back. It's getting a bit late."

"Yes, it is. Very well."

Mitch led me back to the meadow of the pack and I curled up in my little alcove, falling asleep almost immediately.

I was rudely awoken by a net and bear trap. Upon waking up, I left my alcove to stretch as usual, and instead was snapped on by a bear trap, which snapped my leg, and a weighted metal net descended on my head. I was so stunned, I made no noise as a human carelessly lifted me, not bothering to loosen the trap on my leg, and ran.

I tried hard not to cry as the bouncing motion of running pulled the bear trap tighter into my leg. The net was heavy on my head, and I was basically very miserable. The human met up with others, and I was tossed into a carriage beside them. They dumped a large bucket of water on me, and my lava steamed and turned to obsidian. It was excruciatingly painful, but I kept silent.

They seemed disappointed by my silence, but ignored it. The trap was still tightening on my leg the longer it sat there, and I figured if it was not removed soon, my leg would require amputation. All the nerves and most of the muscles were already severed from the trap, so my leg was deemed useless now. But now it bled. Any more and I would bleed out.

As the humans drove through a nearby town, a young boy noticed me, and chased the carriage. Sneakily, he caught up, and tugged me off the carriage back. My legs hit the ground painfully, and I collapsed to the stone bricks against the boy who had saved me.

He carried me, limp in pain, to an adult a few meters away and the adult took me inside their home. The adult loosened the trap, and assessed the damage done. I sighed in defeat because I knew the leg was done. It had no function left. Of course, I have three others, but my weight would be strangely distributed now.

The adult finished taking the leg off, and wrapped it in cloth, finishing the wrap with durable medication tape.

"What's your name, creature?"

"Preston."

"Well Preston, you'll have to stay here until you can learn to- and properly- use three legs with ease. So that'll be a while."

"Very well. What shall I call you?"

"Me? Kara. The boy who brought you here is Kenny."

"Thank you Kenneth."

"No one knows my real name. How do you?"

"What? That is your name, is it not? I do not like nicknames."

"It is, it's just I've never heard anyone say it proper to me."

"Oh. Then I guess I need a place to stay until I am released. My home is in the woods."