Marcus was very grateful to have woken up the following morning. The sky was soft and dark blue, signaling that it was almost time for adventure once again. He nudged Ronald and Cecilia awake once more and told them he was going to fetch them breakfast.
“It looks like it’s going to be a really pleasant day.” He remarked as the sky became awash in lighter blues. “Hopefully we’ll make the most of it.”
Ronald wanted to spy on him, but he didn’t want to leave Cecilia on her own, so he stayed put.
“The field out there is really colorful.” Ronald commented, seeing how the land to the south was swathed in yellow daisies.
“The flowers are pretty, can I go get one?” She asked him.
“Maybe later; let’s wait for Marcus to come back. We shouldn’t leave the burrow by ourselves.” He felt like a hypocrite saying that, as he did want to go outside by himself, but had to be the responsible older brother instead.
Marcus returned twenty minutes later with tasty food, though there were seeds this time because of all the nearby flowers. The children thanked him and began to eat.
“So, what do you think about maybe walking through these flower fields instead of taking the dirt road today? Compared to the road, walking on this grass is so much softer and easier on the feet.”
“I would like that.” Cecilia happily echoed, and even Ronald thought that would be more enjoyable, not questioning Marcus’ motives for once. He didn’t like the boring dirt path that seemed to go on forever.
So Marcus led them through the vibrant field of delightful daisies, and not only was the ground gentler on their feet, they were never far from a brook that wound its way through the land. There were also few other animals to even interact with and possibly threaten their lives. Along the way were things like ducks, geese, sheep, goats, cattle, deer, horses, and ground-dwelling animals like moles, groundhogs, and prairie dogs. There was initial alarm from some of these animals at the sight of the wolf traipsing through their territory, but seeing the two squirrels right alongside him assuaged their fear. He was not one of the ferals.
“How do you do today?” A friendly duck quacked at the trio as they walked by. “Are you new here?”
“I am doing splendid today, thank you.” Marcus politely replied. “We haven’t been here before, but it is lovely. We’re just on our way to the mountains.”
“Yeah, Mister Marcus is taking us to our new home!” Cecilia announced excitedly.
“Oh? Are you going to the valley between the mountains?”
“Yes. The forest we lived in burned down, so we have no where to live.” Ronald informed her.
“Goodness gracious, that’s so terrible! You poor things, I’m so sorry.”
“But Marcus has been helping us get to a new home; it was lucky that he found us because I didn’t know anything past the forest.” Ronald admitted.
“Well, that’s so kind of you to help them,” the duck remarked to him, “God bless your soul.”
“Same to you.” He smiled.
Just then, one of her ducklings swam to her to complain of her annoying siblings.
“Excuse me.” She said to them and went to set things aright and put her ducklings in a row.
“We can probably take a small break for a lunch right now.” Marcus announced, seeing it was about high noon. “We’ve made good progress so far; let’s keep it up.”
Marcus didn’t have to get food to them this time because it was all pretty much in plain sight all around them; berry bushes, flowers, and trees with nuts aplenty. The squirrels clambered up the tree trunk while Marcus stood by the river to snag any unlucky fish that happened to swim by.
After the kids had finished eating, they climbed back down the tree to drink fresh water from the river. The ducklings were playing and being noisy near the river bank, and their mother was keeping watch over them. She noticed Cecilia from the corner of her eye.
“Hello.”
“Hi,” the squirrel replied. “Something scary happened to us yesterday.”
“What was that?”
“There were some bad wolves that were being mean and they were looking for someone to hurt. They were yelling a lot.”
Marcus’ ears perked up as he detected what Cecilia was saying.
“Oh really? Did they try to hurt you?”
“No, but it looked like they were looking for someone to hurt.”
“Well that’s scary; I’ll keep an eye out for those wolves then.”
Just then, a rabbit hopped into the mix. “I couldn’t help but overhear; did you say two wolves were hunting for someone?”
“Yeah, it was yesterday.”
“That’s interesting, I heard about a wolf recently who has been put on all the towns’ most-wanted lists. I haven’t seen a picture, but I heard that he or she had done something terrible. Maybe that’s who the wolves were looking for.”
Just then, Marcus returned to pick up Cecilia and Ronald so they could continue.
“Welp, are you ready to go?” He asked Cecilia.
The rabbit interrupted him. “Do you know about any wolf that’s being tracked down for a crime?” He asked Marcus.
“Hm, I have not. What happened?”
“I don’t know much, but I just know there’s a wolf on the run that the towns and communities around here are trying to hunt down.”
“Well, I don’t know of such a wolf, but I shall keep my eyes peeled; thanks for the warning.”
Of course, the duck and the rabbit considered Marcus at first, but only for a moment. He seemed too normal and nice to be thought of as a criminal. Besides, wouldn’t he have been hiding if he were being hunted? It must have been some other wolf who was the bad guy or girl.
Ronald still wasn’t sure what to make of all this; Marcus had been the only wolf he had seen over the last two days, besides the two who were on the hunt yesterday. If Marcus was the villain being sought for, he was doing a fantastic job of playing it cool. He had hoped that it was all just a bad coincidence, as he was taking more of a liking to him as time went on. He was starting to think that Marcus was mostly trustworthy, despite some of the lingering questions he still had about him.
By late afternoon, the trio had stumbled across another hillside burrow Marcus wouldn’t have minded continuing a few more hours, except he didn’t know when they would find the next safe spot to spend a night.
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“Let’s stop here for the day. How are you two doing so far?”
“Honestly, I could use a break.” Ronald answered. “I’ve never walked this much in my life.”
“Me too.” Cecilia moaned.
“Well, good news is that we’re not far from the mountains now. I think we’ll be able to reach the base by tomorrow and start hiking our way to the valley.
“What? There’s going to be hiking AFTER we walk all this way?” Ronald complained.
“Well, yes, but we’ve already come so far; it’d be a shame to give up now.”
The three were able to gather food for themselves, as it was so readily available. Once again, the wolves from the day before never seemed to find them, and they came across no one else that seemed to be wolf-hunting.
“Hey, um, Marcus?” Ronald asked after finishing his food.
“Yes?”
“I’ve been wanting to ask you about something, uh, I hope you don’t mind.”
“I can’t promise anything, but go ahead.” Marcus gave his undivided attention.
“Well, for the past two nights, uh, I heard you make sad sounds, like, uh, you wanted to cry.I also heard you say a prayer.”
“You did?”
“I heard you say, um, “God, I’m so sorry for everything,” or something like that.”
Marcus’ eyebrows raised. “I had no idea you heard that; I thought you were sleeping.”
“I’m sorry...uh, maybe I should just forget it.”
“No, it’s okay. Were you going to ask why I said that?”
Ronald nodded his head slowly.
Marcus sighed. “Well, I didn’t want to mention this, but I guess there’s no getting out of it now. I have a confession to make to you.”
”Oh no...” Were Ronald’s fears going to be affirmed? Was Marcus about to fess up to a crime?
“I said that because, well...I lost someone very dear and important to me when my house burned down...and I couldn’t save her...”
Ronald and Cecilia remained taciturn.
“Her name was Diane, and...we had made plans to get married soon. She was everything to me; we were friends since childhood, and we wanted to share the rest of our lives together...”
Ronald was starting to feel worse for his unfounded skepticism of Marcus.
“I wish I could’ve saved her, but...I was too far from home. By the time I got there, the fire had already destroyed everything...including..h-her...If only I got there f-faster...”
Marcus had to stop speaking, feeling too hurt all over again. The children were stunned, especially Ronald. He had no idea Marcus was keeping all of that to himself.
“I’m sorry, Marcus, I...don’t really know what to say...”
“It’s fine, you don’t always have to say something if you can’t find the words.”
“I feel terrible that I doubted you so much before. You’re definitely not someone who likes to hurt people, and I just assumed you were going to eat me and my sister. Can you forgive me?”
“Of course I do, you didn’t know better, and you just wanted yourself and your sister to be safe. I didn’t want to bring it up myself, but now that we’re talking about this...are your parents, um, around?” He suspected they were orphans, but refrained from saying anything in case terrible memories would be evoked.
Ronald shook his head. “I lost them when I was six, and Cecilia was two. She never feels bad about it because she doesn’t remember them, but it hurts me every day. I feel so lucky that you found us when you did...it was only up to me at that point to take care of my sister, but I didn’t know what to do. If you hadn’t found us, we still would’ve been lost, and maybe we would’ve been eaten by a feral animal.”
“Unbelievable, you lost your parents, and then you lose your second home, along with the people who were caring for you...you’re so strong to keep going after all of that, and I now understand even more why you were so wary of me. You had lost so many people whom you loved, and the last thing you wanted to go through was losing your sister as well to a wolf. You were right to not trust me right away.”
The conversation had helped Ronald come to trust Marcus even further; he had never seen the wolf appear so vulnerable and lowly. The three of them all shared something unpleasant in common, the loss of people they loved, and perhaps their rapport with one another would help bandage their soul-deep wounds.
Before going to sleep, Marcus wanted to take things in a lighter direction and tell some bedtime stories to the two children, but with a twist. He told them a version of the Three Little Pigs, except the roles were reversed, and the bad guy was the “Big Bad Pig.” Ronald and Cecilia enjoyed that one. He also told his own version of Goldilocks in which the bears were replaced by gigantic three-headed aliens with green hair. It was silly, and Cecilia found it gut-busting. The crazy descriptions Marcus gave the characters were the funniest thing in the world to her, and even Ronald was entertained, finding out he wasn’t actually too old for these stories. Marcus was about to wrap it up before Cecilia called for a story featuring squirrels. He obliged, and told them about Snow White and the Seven Squirrels, and Snow White was actually a wolf. It was weird and amusing, and the children loved the content in light of their bleak circumstances.
“Well,” Marcus let out a great big yawn, “That’s enough from me tonight; I’m really tired.”
“But I’m not tired.” Cecilia yawned.
“Yes you are, you are very sleepy.” Marcus lied down, and Cecilia took her usual place in the crook of his foreleg.
“You should sleep too, Ronald.”
He nodded, taking his place beside Cecilia. His mind was still on his and Marcus’ conversation earlier; despite having learned a lot more about him, what happened with Diane raised more questions.
”What was she like? Why did the fire start? Why couldn’t Marcus save her? Where was the fire department? I want to ask him these questions sometime, but I think he’s a truly good person. I could see him as a dad someday; I think he really does care about me and Cecilia; he’s so much better than the grown-ups that looked after us at the orphanage.”
Ronald eventually went to sleep, and if he happened to hear Marcus make a sad sound, he’d know why.