A Cute Little Sneaky Soother - Part 1

The next second the large yellow eyes just vanished just like that in thin air. I searched the place around but found nothing there. My legs buckled and I collapsed on the floor, wondering in fear if the creature was still out there and wanted something I probably couldn't give.

A sharp bark from the bushes startled me. I started to drag myself away quickly from the neatly hewed hedge when out popped a grey and white furry head with pointed ears.

Curious to see what it was, I moved closer carefully. It looked at me with doleful eyes, cautiously moving towards a frozen me. The small creature sniffed around me and I sat there calmly, to my astonishment, watching every movement it made.

Then it put its furry paws on my knee and pulled the brown paper bag on my lap with his canines. It must have smelt the meat inside and sniffed it along with me for trust issues.

"Oh, was it only this little pup?" I said as I lightly scratched the place behind its ear and let it snack on the small piece of tender rabbit meat in my hand. "I might as well take you home and feed you a little more."

The strange thing about the pup was its glowing amber-yellow eyes, a similar kind I had seen a few times. That's when I understood that I hadn't picked up any pup other than one that belonged to the wolves. For a second, I stood in complete silence, watching its movements.

Then, with a painful heart, I set it down on the pavement and said, "Wait here. I will bring you something to eat."

But my mind had other plans. I wanted to run from there, inform the animal shelter if I could and go back home to have nothing to do with it. At the same time, my heart wanted me to help it out as it was rather harmless. But I wasn't ready to deal with wolves just yet, not after the experience or dream that occurred years ago came back into my head.

I decided to just walk my way home, where I should sit for a while and think my decision through. So I stood up from my place, dusted myself and walked the path towards my home.

Every few minutes, I would feel some strange eyes on me, causing me to turn around but find nothing. After turning every five minutes ten times, I knew for certain that I was being followed. So I decided to take a turn around a corner and try an open but not lonely place.

My gut still told me that something or someone was looking at me. Then I decided to sit down on a bench and munch on a biscuit. And from the corner of my eyes, I saw the pup still looking at me with those doleful eyes.

"You followed me till here?" I exclaimed at it and caught it before it could run away. "Why are you following me when I would have come to fetch you?"

It wriggled its petit legs, trying to probably get away from my grasp. It was one queerly bent leg that took all my attention away from scolding it for disobedience.

"You sprained your leg," I said with concern. "Is that why you have been following me or are you really hungry?"

I took out my small piece of handkerchief and wound it carefully around its injured leg. I looked into its eyes and found no change in them. They seemed rather docile now as the creature had stopped escaping from my grasp.

I set it down on the bench beside me and gave it some more meat. I couldn't give more from the pack and would have to get home to buy more for it using my allowance. I sighed as I knew that I would have to take the pup with me and take care of it until it could find its way home.

This time I walked home with it in my arms and it slept comfortably, nuzzling its snout in the crook of my elbow of one arm and tucking its furry tail on the other.

~

"Why would you do that?" I said with indignance as he sent the pup running into the bushes with his harsh animal commands of shooing them off.

"What?" exclaimed Arhan. "You know dogs aren't allowed in our household. Do you want to have to wash yourself —"

"That was not a dog!"

"I am sure that's a husky! Are you doubting my senses?"

"I am sure it isn't one. It didn't even snatch the biscuit from my hands! It only sniffed around for meat. And for heaven's sake, it's a small injured pup. Anything could happen to it!"

"That's enough!" thundered my mother's voice. "You two can argue about that later. We warned you, Asmah, that we won't tolerate any strays in the house. They belong to the streets."

"But Mum, that is not a stray!"

"I don't want to hear anymore. The more you talk, there will be greater punishment in store for you. Since you talked back to your brother, you'll do his side of cleaning the house and he'll rest as he has been in the kitchen all day cooking your favourite dish."

I looked at my brother but he said nothing. Not a word of defending me this time. The poor hungry creature had run away towards the hedge and must have gotten lost already. I was ready to let it go after feeding it, yet none in my family wished me to keep that pet for a moment.

"I might as well not eat," I said through gritted teeth and marched upstairs to my room. I slammed the door hard enough for it to be heard in all corners of the house. Then I plopped onto my bed, hugged the pillow and let a few tears wet the pillow cover.

'You're a cry baby,' I heard those mean voices taunt me. 'There's not a thing you can do without shedding a few tears.'

The childhood fear had taken over me and now I clenched my jaw as I tried to hold them back. The day wasn't going great and the coming days weren't going to be cheerful either after having 'her' in them.

I heard a knock, and then a plate being dragged across the floor before the door was shut again. The haunting silence greeted me along with the smell of the food. I didn't get up to fetch it although I knew how much effort had been put into making it, especially my brother who had tried to do so in a long time.

The last time we had eaten together was more than a year ago when he wasn't in college yet. Being a brilliant minded student, he had passed out of high school a year or two earlier than people of his age. And thus, he has been away for more than a year, trying to fit in with everything around him.

Seeing him after a year should have made us very friendly, but we were still acting like kids. There was still not an opportunity that he would miss to tease me or irk me. As fun as they are, I never got the chance to do it on him very often. And when I was mad at him, he would play with Aysha, making me burn with jealousy at times since they would completely forget about me or ignore me on purpose.

Still, I always had a soft heart towards animals and feeding them would make me a lot happier than doing one of my hobbies. And over time, it had become one of my favourite things to do if I ever got the opportunity to do so.

For pushing away the hungry creature like that, I couldn't have my dinner. Not when it had its favourite bite in it. It was as though I had to punish myself for letting the little wolf run away when it wasn't my fault. Or maybe it was just because I felt very sorry for it and I wouldn't be able to take a bite until it had one too.

I looked out the window into the midnight blue coloured sky, watching the stars twinkle. The lights outside our villa shone dully on the leaves of the tree right outside my window. Amongst them stood a small silhouette, making me jump in fright and sit hard on the springs of the bed.

The pounding sound on the windowpane made me search for my phone. I flashed its torchlight on the window and opened my mouth to scream. Then I sighed with relief and looked at it in amazement.

The one who had poked and stuck its nose on my window wasn't any thief. It was the cute little wolf pup that had come searching for a sorrowful me.