As the mouth of the den faced east, the rising sun bathed the sleepy trio in hot, fresh light. Marcus was the first to awake, and he was feeling famished.
”I should wake them up now.”
He lightly nudged the two squirrels with his snout; Cecilia waking up calmly, but Ronald being jarred, as though he were being attacked.
“It’s okay,” Marcus chuckled, “it’s just me. I’m going to go out and find breakfast for us. You can stay in here; I won’t go far.”
So the wolf stood up, stretched out his forelegs, and left the den in search of food. Ronald rubbed the sleep from his eyes and watched as he disappeared into a wall of green bushes and shrubbery.
“Did you sleep okay?” Ronald asked his sister.
“Yeah. Mister Marcus is soft.”
Ronald nodded, agreeing that he was like a fluffy pillow for them. He walked toward the den entrance and saw the smoke of the forest in the distance against the soft blue sky. Twenty-four hours ago, the whole wood was still there, and he and his sister were just waking up for the last breakfast they would ever eat in that orphanage. It was so eerie how twenty-four hours ago an seem like twenty-four years ago.
”How did it all happen? Who could’ve done this to us?”
As Ronald became lost in his troubled thoughts and imaginations, Marcus emerged from the brush, carrying a large leaf he used as a sack to hold what was likely nuts, fruits, and berries. He set it down before the two children; the sack unfurling and spilling out its delicious contents.
“Thank you Mister Marcus!” Cecilia happily expressed, seeing the bounty pour forth. She went immediately for the sweet and sugary pink berries.
“Thank you.” Ronald also replied, setting his eyes on some tasty acorns in the middle of the pile. In his mind, he was coming to trust Marcus a little bit more; first he helped them from the mud, then kept them comfortable in their sleep, and now he got breakfast for them. Perhaps Marcus was legit after all.
But then Ronald remembered that sad whimper he made last night. Was the wolf harboring some deep, unspoken thoughts he didn’t want to reveal?
“Did you eat?” Cecilia asked Marcus, seeing that he wasn’t partaking of the food.
“Yes, I ate before bringing this food over. This is all yours to enjoy.”
Ronald stopped eating at that moment. “Wait...what did you eat?”
“Nuts and fruit.”
“But...don’t wolves eat meat?”
“We do, but that’s not all we eat.”
- - - -
Ronald then squinted a bit, noticing a little discoloration around Marcus’ mouth.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Is that...red?”
“What’s red?”
“Around your mouth?” Ronald clarified, now feeling scared again.
Marcus wiped his paw across his mouth.
“Oh, haha, I thought I washed all of it off. How embarrassing.” He laughed. “This is actually orange though; I didn’t eat anything red.”
“It...it looked red to me...maybe it’s the light.”
Marcus could see the fear and skepticism overtaking the young squirrel once again.
“You think it’s blood, don’t you.” Marcus spoke in a statement rather than a question.
“...Is it?”
“Let me show you what I had; maybe you’ll believe me. Come with me real quick.”
Oh no, was this all a trap?! Perhaps this was set-up so Marcus would get Ronald by himself awa from the den and then gobble him up when no one was looking!
“Alright...” Ronald followed him, but stayed a few feet away at all times, and always kept his eyes on the nearest tree. He had to have an escape plan should the need arise.
Marcus stopped at a berry bush that had some orange berries scattered on it. It was apparent by the ones left on the ground that this was plucked from recently.
“I ate from this bush; see how these are the same color as what you saw on my mouth?”
Ronald picked up one of the berries and inspected it. “...I do...You were telling me the truth. I’m sorry.” He sighed.
“Not a problem; let’s go back to get Cecilia and start heading out.”
Ronald was amazed that Marcus was still letting him come along; his constant questioning and skepticism used to annoy his guardians at the orphanage, but Marcus didn’t seem to care that much.
Back at the den, Cecilia had eaten her fill, and her face was messy from the food.
“We’ll get you cleaned up at the stream, and we’ll be going.” Marcus announced.
“So...where is this place that we’re going?” Ronald asked.
“It’s a small town in a valley wedged between the mountains to the west. I hear it’s peaceful and beautiful there.”
“That’s far, but I’m willing to see it for myself; maybe it’ll be awesome.
“I’m sure it will be.” Marcus was sincerely enthusiastic.
“So, that reminds me of another question I wanted to ask...if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t; go ahead.”
“Alright...so how come you are also finding a new place to live? Is your house also gone?”
“It is...” Marcus answered with a nod.
“Did you also live in the forest?”
“No.” He shook his head. “But my house also burned down.”
Ronald was shocked by the coincidence. “Wow, so you too? I’m really sorry.”
“Thanks; what a bad day that was, but I look forward to having many good days in the future.”
“I do too; I hope both our wishes come true...” Ronald let out a little smile, thinking about putting these woes behind him and having a normal life again.
With that, the trio set out for home. Marcus led them to a stream first to get himself and Cecilia cleaned up.
“You should wash up too.” He said to Ronald. “You were in that mud last night.”
He did as Marcus said; the wolf starting to remind him of his parents, and how they always insisted he wash himself before eating, or going out to play. He watched as Marcus held Cecilia up to look for and get rid of her remaining dirt stains.
“You must have gone on quite an adventure yesterday.” Marcus commented as he cleaned her.
“You could definitely say that.” Ronald nodded with a chuckle. “It felt like a thousand miles.”
“And it looks like it too!”
So, the bath took longer than Marcus first thought, but they finally felt clean and ready to set out.
It was a pleasant, early fall day, a nice day for an epic journey. Ronald’s mood right now was that he could trust Marcus; seeing him clean and groom Cecilia made him look very dad-like. On top of everything else he’s done for them, that wasn’t a stretch. Cecilia never knew her real parents, having lost them just two years ago, when she was too young to remember them. On the other hand, Ronald was six when he lost his parents, and he remembered enough to have an idea of how moms and dads raise their children.
”I guess it’s nice that Cecilia is seeing what it’s like to have a mom or dad; Marcus is already better than the guardians we had at the orphanage.”
Their journey took them along a dirt road that stretched onwards towards the mountains. The sheer sight of its endlessness made Ronald groan
“It’s not that bad; it should only be, like, twenty miles.” Marcus casually stated as though he waked that much every day.
“Twenty miles may as well be twenty-gaziliion miles.”
“Don;t think about how far it is; try to enjoy the journey. We’ll get there before you know it.”
“Do you know any games?” Ronald asked.
“Like what?”
“Games we can play while we’re walking?”
“Oh sure! Have you played “I spy”?
“I haven’t; how does it go?”
“Okay, so one person picks something from their surroundings, but doesn’t tell it to the other player. Then, the person who picked the object has to give hints to the other player, and that player has to guess what it is. I’ll go first so you get the idea.”
Marcus took a few seconds, and then finally started. “I spy with my little eye...something that starts with a C. Cecilia, you can play too.”
“Hm, C? What starts with a C around here...Is it Cecilia?” Ronald took a confident stab at it.
“Nope, but good guess!” Marcus replied. “It is something...white.”
Ronald looked around a little harder, but never turned his eyes upward. Thirty more seconds passed by and he still didn’t know.
“And also puffy.”
With that hint, Ronald’s eyes beheld the sky.
“Clouds!”
“You got it, nice! Want to pick one now?”
“Yes. Let’s see...” Ronald looked around himself for the most obscure detail he could find; give Marcus a challenge.
“I spy with my little eye...something that starts with a T.”
“Trees!” Cecilia belted out.
“Nope!”
Nothing jumped out at Marcus right away, but had no problem taking his sweet time.
“T, T...is it toes?” He guessed, thinking Ronald was going for something not obvious.
“No, but it’s closer.”
“Ah, so a body part, maybe? Teeth?”
“No, but it is a body part.”
“Oh...so is it the...tail?”
“Yep!”
“That was a tough one. You want to pick next, Cecilia?”
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“Okay! I spy with my little eye...uh, what does ground start with?”
Ronald laughed. “It starts with a G, but did you pick...ground?”
“We’ll let her go again.” Marcus intervened. “You could describe something about what you see if you don’t know the letter it starts with.”
“Oh, okay. Uh, I spy with my little eye...something brown!”
“Let me guess, is it the ground again?” Ronald asked.
“Nope!”
“The trees?” Marcus added.
“Nope!”
“Oh...is it me?” Ronald guessed, guessing she took his idea of going with a body part or person.
“Yeah, I picked squirrel.”
Two hours later, the trio had made it to a small town on the side of the road. The sun was higher in the sky, and they were feeling hot and sweaty. Plus, their voices needed a rest, as they played the game the whole time.
“There are some trees over there; you two go rest over there and I’ll bring a snack from town. There’s also a stream there for you to have some water.” Marcus gestured to a small park on the edge of downtown.
“Okay, we’ll wait here.” Ronald and Cecilia went to lie down under the shade of the nearest oak tree.
“You know, today’s turning out not so bad.” Ronald commented. “I like Marcus so far.”
“Me too, I like him more than the grown-ups at the forest.”
“So do I. I feel bad for thinking he was a bad guy before, but he’s not like that at all.”
Cecilia closed her eyes and napped as she waited for Marcus, but her brother stayed alert. Even though they were in a town, it didn’t mean they were safe from potentially dangerous animals.
He watched some of the other animals and people playing in the part. He wanted to play too, but he was in the middle of a grand voyage and had no time to play. Marcus would probably be back soon anyways. They’d eat, and then probably just hit the trail once again.
While he watched a human sitting by the pond and feeding some feral ducks, he noticed another human putting up on an edifice what appeared to be a poster. It was probably nothing special, but his curiosity was stoked nonetheless. After the man had finished nailing the poster to the side of the brick wall, Ronald glanced at it, and his heart nearly skipped a beat.
”Is that...Marcus???”
He couldn’t believe his eyes; the face of a wolf occupied much of the space on that poster. Was it actually him, though? Above the face read a singular word in bold, and all-caps.
WANTED
”Huh? Why is he wanted? What does that even mean?”
The child hadn’t ever been exposed to the meaning of a WANTED poster before, but it didn’t look like a good thing. He didn’t want to leave his sister here alone, but he was dying to know if that was actually Marcus’ likeness plastered on that wall.
”I’ll be fast.”
However, just as he was about to go, a voice stopped him.
“Where are you going?” Marcus called after him.
“I...uh, nowhere. I thought I saw something strange, but it’s nothing.” He lied.
“Sorry, that took longer than I planned; there was a long line. Are you cool with us just leaving now to make up for the time? We can all eat a little later, unless you’re hungry right now.”
“Um...yeah, we can just do that, I guess.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. Sorry, was just thinking about, you know, stuff.” His eyes shifted here and there.
It appeared as though Marcus didn’t see the poster, or he did see it, but was trying to play it cool and not arouse Ronald’s suspicions. He wanted to bring it to the wolf’s attention, but at the same time, he was afraid to do that.
“Well, feel free to talk to me if something’s bugging you.” Marcus offered, seeing Ronald was clearly troubled about something.
The three resumed their journey; Cecilia being back from her nap. The two children opted to stay in Marcus’ shadow for now, seeing it was their only shade from the sun. It wasn’t until early afternoon that they were all feeling really hungry again, and stopped to eat their snacks.
The poster was still on Ronald’s mind, but he started to think nothing of it. Marcus wasn’t a bad guy, as far as he could tell; that could’ve been any wolf. Besides, he didn’t even know if being on a WANTED poster was a good or bad thing; it looked bad, but maybe he was wrong.
As they were eating, Marcus picked up a couple of voices from far away, voices that he recognized. They were yelling, and they set him on edge. His heart began to race.
He had to hide.
“Hey kids, come over here, quick!” Marcus suddenly sprung up and darted to the left.
“Huh, what?” Ronald and Cecilia dropped their food and followed him into a grove of trees by the side of the road. It was dense enough to make hiding a cinch.
“Come on, keep following me.” Marcus continued leading them away from the road.
“What is it? Why are we in a rush?” Ronald asked.
“Did you see something cool?” Cecilia asked.
“I did; I just saw a rare bird over here and I wanted you to see it.”
“What does that mean?” Ronald asked.
“It’s a bird that’s hard to come across. It was very colorful, but now I’m afraid I accidentally scared it away.”
“Well, you did rush in here all of a sudden. Shouldn’t we have been quieter?”
It was then that the voices Marcus detected earlier had reached where the trio was sitting just earlier. The voices were from two other wolves; one gray, like Marcus, and the other, black. Marcus was able to see them, but they never saw him. The black wolf appeared to be sniffing the ground.
“This smell...it’s gotta be him!” He growled angrily.
“I smell him too, but why are these snacks here? This isn’t stuff he’d eat, is it? It’s kiddy stuff!”
“Maybe it’s to throw us off.”
“Let’s go the town and ask if anyone saw him lately. He can’t be too far from here.”
The gray wolf looked into the grove of trees, but didn’t see the one whom he nor his partner were looking for. They marched off to town, hoping there’d be some leads.
Meanwhile, Cecilia was still transfixed on finding that bird.
“I can’t find it.” She informed, feeling sad.
“Aw, well, maybe we’ll see it next time.” Marcus did his best to sound comforting, despite being filled with fear at the moment.
Ronald also heard their conversation, thanks to their loud voices. He too was alarmed; was Marcus involved in something he had no clue about? Who were those wolves? Was it actually Marcus they were looking for? Were they bad guys that wanted to hurt him...or was Marcus actually the bad guy, and they were the good guys trying to hunt him down?
The questions were relentless and pounding.
Marcus didn’t lead them back the same way they came, but continued through the trees. It was slower, but at least it was more scenic.
“Those wolves back there...who were they looking for?” Ronald wanted to see how Marcus would answer.
“I don’t know, but they seemed to be up to no good.”
“How do you know?”
“The way they were yelling, and just sounding so angry, like they wanted to hurt someone. Just to be safe, let’s stay away from the trail.”
Marcus’ ignorance sounded convincing to Ronald, but his skepticism was starting to rear its ugly head again. He still didn’t distrust Marcus, but he wasn’t sure if he was being honest about everything so far.
“How come they want to hurt people?” Cecilia asked.
“Sadly, there are people in this world who just like hurting others, even people that they don’t know.”
“But why?”
“I don’t know why, but it’s horribly sad.”
As day became evening, and evening became night, the trio had made decent progress towards the mountains. They didn’t see those two wolves again, but Marcus still seemed a little nervous. He would back sometimes to see if they were following them.
“Well, if those wolves were looking for us, we must have lost them. Or better yet, they weren’t looking for us to begin with.” Marcus said as he led the two squirrels into a hillside burrow. This place looked cozier than the den from last night, and better yet, there was no ash falling on them this time. It was also hidden from view by anyone walking along the road, as the burrow on the side of the hill facing away from it.
After a nice supper, the three of them settled down to sleep. Ronald and Cecilia were once again nestled in the crook of Marcus’ foreleg; the sister fell fast asleep, but Ronald, once again, was troubled.
”I can’t stop thinking about that poster, and how those wolves just happened to stop where we were eating. I just...I just want to trust Marcus more, but the more I travel with him, the more questions come up! There’s just something about all of this that doesn’t seem right...”
Meanwhile, Marcus made the same, sad whimper as from last night, but this time, Ronald heard a few low-spoken and somber words after it.
“God, I’m so sorry...I’m sorry for everything...”
Ronald’s eyes widened in surprise.
”Marcus? What the heck are you hiding???”