The sky was overcast as Ponderosa made sure that she had all of her things collected and Prince Nathaniel bundled warmly and ready to go. She wasn’t sure what the plan was now that Princess Iredys was dead. Was Prince Kelton going to continue the journey to the summer castle, where he would have spent the rest of this month with Iredys? Or did he plan to head back to Greywolf Castle because she was gone? Ponderosa had just picked up Prince Nathaniel to tie him against her chest for travel when Prince Kelton stepped into the room.
He held out his arms and Ponderosa passed Prince Nathaniel to him. “How’s he been?” he asked.
Ponderosa smiled with a nod.
Prince Kelton smiled softly. “...Anything?”
‘Anything?’ Ponderosa furrowed her brow in confusion for a moment before she realized what Prince Kelton was referring to. She softened her expression and shook her head.
Prince Kelton sighed, but nodded as he turned his attention to Nathaniel, who shifted a little in his arms. “I still plan to head to the summer castle,” he said, looking back at Ponderosa. “I hope….”
Ponderosa nodded her understanding.
“I’ll have you ride in the carriage with Nathaniel and I, in case he needs anything while we travel.”
She nodded again.
“Is there anything else you still need to gather?” he wondered, looking around the room.
Ponderosa shook her head then shouldered her bags, ready to follow Prince Kelton out to the carriage.
He had her climb in first before he followed with Nathaniel still in his arms. Once they were settled, the carriage started off. Ponderosa kept her attention on the world outside. It was fascinating to her to see fields of snow as undisturbed as the snow in the trees behind her home. Only the occasional trail of a passing herd of animals postmarked the otherwise pristine blanket. When the trail got rough, she almost wished to be riding a horse instead of being inside the carriage. However, she knew that being in here was better for Nathaniel than tied to her chest while she rode.
As it was, they stopped every few hours so Ponderosa could change the cloth diaper Prince Nathaniel wore and provide him with some nourishment. She made sure to take a dose of the herbs that would help her produce breast milk in the hope that she would be able to nurse Prince Nathaniel soon since they didn’t have a goat with them, and going to the summer castle meant that they would not be able to procure one.
When they stopped to camp for the night, Ponderosa thought she saw a wild dog skulking about in the trees not far from them, but it didn’t look like a dog she had seen before.
“Ponderosa, what is it?” Prince Kelton asked.
She pointed to the trees where she had seen the dog, just to have it step into sight before it bound off again.
“What is that?” he wondered.
Ponderosa shrugged her shoulders.
“Whatever it is, we’ll keep an eye out for it.”
She nodded then took Prince Nathaniel from him when he started to fuss. Ponderosa headed back to the carriage where it would be warmest to change him and feed him. She took a little extra time to massage her breasts to help stimulate milk production while she was alone. They had been aching a little off and on all day and she hoped that it meant that the herbs were working. She was just about to pull her dress back up when Nathaniel let out a noise that caused a yellowish liquid to squirt out of her breasts.
Ponderosa was surprised, but then smiled. That was exactly what she needed for the young Prince. She picked up Nathaniel and teased his lips with one of her nipples. He rocked his head and opened his mouth a couple times before he finally latched on. His tongue tickled a little as it stimulated her nipple to get it to release more of the premilk she was now producing. She smiled while she watched his eyes roll around in their sockets while he ate. He seemed better sated now that she could breastfeed him. She had just gotten him to latch onto her other breast when there was a light knock on the carriage door.
“Is everything alright, Ponderosa?” Prince Kelton called.
She pulled back the cover on the window just enough for him to see her face before she nodded.
“Do you need anything?”
Ponderosa shook his head.
“Alright.”
Prince Kelton stepped away and Ponderosa thought she saw the strange looking dog off in the distance again, but thought nothing of it as she turned her attention back to Nathaniel. He burped and a little bit of the premilk came up. He whimpered and cried when she took her breast out of his mouth to clean up the spit up, but quieted down again once he could have her nipple back in his mouth. Nathaniel’s suckling slowed to a stop as he fell asleep. Ponderosa adjusted how she held him and rubbed his back to see if there were any bubbles that needed to come up. Once she was satisfied that they had all come up, Ponderosa covered her tender breasts then prepared to leave the carriage.
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She opened the door just to be faced with a large, whitish-gray, long eared dog. Ponderosa cried out in alarm and backed into the carriage, but she had opened the door wide enough to let the dog follow her inside. She whimpered as she held Nathaniel securely against her chest and curled up on one of the benches. She could hear the knight and Prince Kelton shouting as they approached the carriage, but her focus was on the dog in front of her. The dog’s face looked more feline than canine, but the long ears definitely reminded her of the Cayos that ran around the more desert parts of Abundare. Its blue-green eye had a thin and pointed pupil like a cat’s and its light brown eye had more of the rounded pupil like a dog’s. Its body was sleek like a feline, but it had large paws, like the timberwolves. Its long thin tail split in two one third of the way from the tip and was covered in long, whitish-gray fur.
Ponderosa’s attention was distracted when Prince Kelton yelled.
“Are you and Nathaniel alright?”
“Yae,” she called back, causing the cat-like dog to tip its head to the side.
“I’m going to open the door on three. One…”
The cat-like dog sniffled the bundle in her arms and wagged its tail.
“Two…”
It circled on itself a couple times, causing the carriage to rock before it laid down.
“Three!” Prince Kelton yelled, as he yanked the door of the carriage open, poised to strike.
He hesitated when he saw the animal laying calmly on the floor of the carriage with its back toward the door.
“What the heck is that?!” Sir Fran exclaimed.
“A Dinakal?” Prince Kelton replied, confused.
It made a sound akin to a grunt followed by the rhythmic rolling of a purr.
“Dina… what?” Sir Thomas asked, shifting beside him.
“A dog not native to this region,” Prince Kelton explained. “What is it doing out here?”
“You can question it later,” Sir Gruph said as he stepped closer to the carriage. “Right now, we need to get it out of the carriage.
The Dinakal growled in warning as Sir Gruph reached for it.
Prince Kelton stopped him. “We don’t want it to harm Nathaniel and Ponderosa as we try to get it out. …Does anyone have some jerky on them? Maybe we can coax it out with food.”
“Here, Sire,” Sir Juleak said, handing him a couple strips.
“Thank you,” Prince Kelton said as he took them. He then held the longest strip toward the Dinakal. “Here kitty puppy. Come here.”
The Dinakal stopped growling, but it looked uninterested in the food that Prince Kelton was trying to offer it.
Prince Kelton continued to offer it to the Dinakal while he motioned for Ponderosa to try and move closer to the door.
As Ponderosa started to shift on the bench, so she could reach the door, Nathaniel made a noise that caused the Dinakal’s head to raise and its long ears to perk up. Ponderosa shifted away a little more and the Dinakal turned its head as if to get a better view of them. It thumped the end of its split tail against the floor of the carriage as Ponderosa slowly lowered one of her legs from the bench. She started to lower the other when the Dinakal stood and yip purred as it wagged its tail faster. Ponderosa recognized all these things as playful, non-threatening actions.
“Ponderosa?” Prince Kelton said when she stopped.
She pointed to the ground with one of her hands and the Dinakal sat.
“Wild animals don’t do that,” Sir Gruph said.
“That they don’t,” Prince Kelton agreed.
Ponderosa handed Nathaniel to Prince Kelton so she had both hands free to grab her writing kit. The Dinakal shifted and whine-meowed as if it wanted to follow Nathaniel, but it stayed put. Prince Kelton and Ponderosa were both confused by the reaction, and more so when the Dinakal growl-yowled when Prince Kelton started to pass Nathaniel to Sir Fran. He paused and Prince Kelton brought Nathaniel closer to his chest again. The Dinakal grunted and purred. Prince Kelton tested it out one more time with the same result.
“She seems very protective of the young Prince,” Sir Fran observed.
Ponderosa pulled out a sheet of paper. She held her ink jar in one hand and her quill in the other. ‘It is my guess that this Dinakal belonged to someone,’ Ponderosa wrote. ‘Not only is she well behaved, her coat is well maintained, and she doesn’t look like she’s been in want of food.’
“But that doesn’t explain her protective behavior of Nathaniel,” Prince Kelton said quietly.
‘She has decided that Nathaniel is her Human,’ Ponderosa wrote.
He looked at her strangely.
‘A few of the women I’ve helped over the years have had a dog, and I watched the animal exhibit similar behaviors as the newborn was passed around. Quiet when given to certain people, borderline aggressive with others.’
He hummed and nodded.
‘I also get the feeling that there is more to this particular Dinakal than meets the eye,’ she wrote, a small smile lifting her lips.
“I don’t understand,” he said.
‘You will if you allow her to come with us.’
Prince Kelton studied her face for a moment. The light of hope started to fill his eyes before he cleared his throat. “We’ll let her stay for now,” he said. “But if she does anything to threaten the lives of any member of our party, that will be the end.”
Ponderosa nodded her understanding. She put her writing kit away as Prince Kelton and his knights walked away. The Dinakal whined and shifted where she sat. Ponderosa reached out to pet her and touched their foreheads together.
‘It’s you, isn’t it, My Lady?’ Ponderosa thought to her.
The Dinakal licked her face and made her giggle.
Ponderosa kissed her forehead then climbed out of the carriage. The Dinakal followed behind her.