Upon Three Paws

Chapter 9

Setting the Pace

This morning when I woke up, I woke up to Fesco's fingers in my face. Their sudden appearance has set me on edge, and now whenever he goes to reaches too close to my limit I back away growling.

For an hour it's been like this, and I'm starting to feel the exhaustion of evading, and rebelling against him sinking in. Fesco must have noticed it too because he's pushing my boundaries harder every time. If this keeps up much longer, I'll be forced by mental exhaustion to allow him to pet me.

From my peripheral vision I can see his large green hand slowly creeping its way towards me once again. I don't noticeably respond until I am able to feel the heat radiating off his skin. When I do respond it is only with a slight growl and barring my teeth at it.

Instead of retracting his hand like all the other times, he just freezes and remains reaching halfway up to my back.

After maintaining a staring contest I quickly lose interest in the challenge and wearily rest my chin on my front paw. When he sees that I'm not on the verge of biting or scratching him, his hand ever so slowly shifts towards my shoulders. The natural body heat he projects seems to be unhealthily high, but I still have no clue as to what his species is so I can't judge.

A growl grows in my chest and springs out my bared teeth as he gently strokes my back. I've officially lost the last streak of rebellion. I have to admit that the heat coming off him happens to feels nicer than the heat from the dim red light, but it's still a hand. Something that the cold creatures, humans, used against me.

My muscles relax as he pulls his hand away and draws it back to his project. Fesco has somehow managed to win over half of my trust. The stubborn instincts that only ever allowed affection from my siblings, have been challenged and won over. Hopefully he won't try that again anytime soon, or else I can actually see myself growing comfortable in his presence over the next week.

Why do I have to need a pack? I sigh to myself, shifting onto my good left side and shutting my eyes. That way I don't feel like my upper body is suspended in the air. You miss having a family. The small voice echoes in the back of my head, it must be part of my instinct. You miss having a pack. You miss caring for someone, being loved. I shut that voice out.

Curiosity gets the better of me and I open the empty link I have with them.

"Rain, Sun, Twig, Ash, Dawn, Streak, I miss you all. I hope you're okay wherever you are."

Like every other time, all that I hear in response is silence. The only way I know that they aren't dead is because of how my voice doesn't bounce back to me. If that ever does happen, I don't know what I would do.

They're okay. I shake off all these sad thoughts.

It takes awhile, but I eventually manage to doze off. Not too deep though as the shuffling of Fesco moving around the room keeps me partially aware of my surroundings. Aware enough that my ears perk up at the sound of him taking my food and water bowl away.

My stomach isn't used to eating meat everyday, so if he does come back with more meat I can tell that the act will allow him to win over more of my trust. Only now am I realizing how moving food is for me. The cold creatures only gave us the milk and a bit of meat once. All of that so they could examine us in our sleep without us fighting back. It wasn't until years later that I realized they must've drugged it. That fear is everlasting when finding food I didn't catch myself.