The Wizard's Herbarium: The Wolf Child

Part 34

By the time the apartment was beginning darken with the setting sun, Colt was yawning. 

After dinner, he'd spent time cleaning up. He even went back to the store, catching them just before they closed to buy another air mattress and sleeping bag for Kova, feeling guilty that he couldn't provide more. Caring for the child was a terrible idea. Colt could hardly care for himself, but it wasn't as though anything more could be done that evening. He couldn't kick Kova out to be alone in the forest at night.

Colt set up the air mattress in the bedroom since he had taken the living room. Colt told Kova that the bed was made up for him, but the boy was as unresponsive as ever.

When Colt did go to bed himself, he said goodnight, reasoning that he needed his rest.

Colt slept fitfully. He was woken up by every little sound outside the window, fearing that it was Kova running away. Each time, Colt opened his eyes to check by the window and each time he found Kova in the same spot he'd been left.

Somewhere during the middle of the night, Colt woke again. He lie there for a moment, trying to figure out what had disturbed his sleep. He glanced at the window just a few feet from him, expecting to see Kova's outline. When he didn't see anything, Colt sat up.

He peered into the darkness, feeling his heart begin to pound as panic rose up in him. It was another moment, with Colt preparing to get up to look for the boy when he saw that Kova was still there, only he wasn't sitting up any longer. The boy had slumped over to lie on the floor. It was difficult to see him, even though Kova was just a few feet away from him.

Colt thought about getting up to carry Kova to the softer air mattress he'd set aside in the bedroom, but Kova had grown up in a different world. Colt thought back to when he'd first met Ivailo, falling down into the cave. Kova hadn't been raised in a house where he was safe, and since Colt didn't want to startle him, he left him where he was and went back to sleep.

Dawn brought with it a sluggishness in his limbs that dragged him down. Colt hadn't woken up that many times during the night since Julien was a baby. He sat up, blinking slowly, and trying to pull himself together. As had become his habit, Colt glanced by the window. Next to the bowl of salad Colt had left the previous evening, was empty floor.

He kicked the blankets free around his legs and got to his feet. The sudden movement made him dizzy, and he swayed, his head spinning. Colt stood beside the salad that had wilted throughout the night, as though doing so would make Kova appear.

All around the town was forest. If Kova had decided to run away, then Colt wouldn't have the slightest idea where he'd gone. Maybe he went to Atticus, or to find Marrok.

Colt pulled on a hoodie and reached for his shoes. The cold, clamminess that gripped him felt the same as what he'd experienced after Julien's suicide. It was an awful feeling that Colt pushed down as far as it would go.

Just as Colt was about to step out the door, movement from deeper in the apartment made him freeze. There was the sound of fabric shifting and Colt glanced into the bedroom. Kova had curled himself up onto the mattress, not unlike a cat with his legs tucked up to his chest as he slept, as though to protect himself against some threat.

Relief made Colt's shoulders sag.

Colt toed off his shoes and pulled his hoodie off now that he wasn't going outside to look for Kova. He picked up the bowl of wilted salad that might have had a few bites taken out of it, but that might have just been wishful thinking on his part.

He set to making breakfast, wishing right then that he'd had a kettle or coffee maker. If there was any morning that he needed some strong coffee, it was that morning.

Fifteen minutes later and the pops and hisses of frying bacon filled the apartment. Colt tossed the pan and pushed the bacon around with a fork. It felt good to cook again.

The smell must have drawn Kova from the bedroom because he appeared beside Colt with mussed hair and rubbing at his eyes.

"It smells like meat," Kova mumbled.

"It's bacon," Colt said. "Are you hungry? You didn't eat much last night."

There was a hesitation that came from Kova, and a tension appeared in his shoulders.

When no answer came, Colt spoke again. "It's okay if you are hungry. If you're more hungry, then I can make more. I just want to make sure you get enough to eat."

"I'm hungry," Kova admitted, though it looked like it pained him to do so. "Growing up, Mother taught me that hunger was a weakness."

"Well, it isn't. At least in the human world," Colt assured, placing a few more slices of bacon into the pan.

Kova watched him finish making breakfast with wide, curious eyes. Colt had to warn him away from the hot stove when Kova extended a hand towards the burner, not unlike a toddler.

Kova did eat several slices of bacon and a few eggs at Colt's urging. He had to explain that eggs were kind of like meat in that they came from chickens. Once Kova tasted one, however, he told Colt a story of when he and Marrok sometimes raided hen houses. Though, they had to be careful because they could get hurt if they were caught by the humans.

"I like to eat them straight from the shell," Kova said. "I crack them open and then drink them."

Colt was not unfamiliar with raw eggs, especially fresh eggs. It was used in a lot of drinks in the restaurant industry and he'd tried a lot of dishes where raw eggs were used, but if he had to choose, it wasn't his favourite.

After breakfast, the happier mood that Kova had been in dimmed. Colt watched his expression falter. It was as though, with a full belly, that his brain once again realized what had happened.

Rest did amazing things for grief. In the throes of it, each time Colt got enough rest, it would come back with a vengeance. He watched the process repeat itself with Kova as the boy took up his post by the window to stare out at the trees, silent tears tracking down his cheeks.

The day progressed in silence. Colt felt like Kova's captor, as much as he tried to convince himself otherwise. Was keeping him locked in the apartment really the best thing for him?

Colt was trying to get lost in a book when Kova spoke up.

"My brother is going to die," he said. "Atticus won't let me be there with him, but he'll be sad if he has to die alone."