The Unwanted Winter - Volume One of the Saga of the Twelves (95 page)

After more time had
passed, she was able to piece together the ragged memories of the
dawn of her life into something more linear, something she could
follow more readily. Her past, herself and the world she had grown
up within, unfolded like road map, becoming ever more expansive
with each passing revelation.

I am Kenai.

She lay near the front of
the cave, at the very edge of the warmth of the fire they’d let
burn down to pulsating, smoldering coals of crimson. It still gave
off tremendous heat, but was much less illuminate, so the Guardians
could sleep undisturbed. She lay on all fours, her head nestled
atop her huge front legs, her jaw balanced over the joints just
above her paws. Her eyes were open and alert. If anyone or anything
was to come from behind the heavy blanket blocking the entrance to
the cave and the drifted wall of snow beyond, she would be the
first upon them and the first to raise alarm. Since, they couldn’t
mount a
real
watch over the children, her mother had thought it prudent
for one of the Fist to remain awake throughout the night just in
case. One couldn’t afford to take chances here in this mixing
world. There was no telling what was out there, roaming the land,
blizzard or no. Kenai had agreed and immediately volunteered to be
the first to preside over the children as they slept.

She was on the last leg of
her watch. Garfield would take her place soon. He would stay
watching over the rest of them until everyone awoke and resumed
their wait for a break in the weather. She could see the Guardians,
laying this way and that atop the boughs of vegetation she had
gathered for them to use as beds. Beds they had improved over the
past two days, making them even more comfortable and
warm.

She could hear their
breathing as well. It was a chorus of deep wellings, shallow sighs,
the occasional snore or sniff, the odd whimper or sleep-slurred
word, mumbled mush making no sense. Their individual scents hit her
sensitive olfactory senses in waves. Despite the fact they were
covered with the fruity fragrances of the soaps and shampoo’s
they’d used earlier, she could make out each of them by smell
alone. The simple trick of negating the unwanted smells from her
mind, allowed her to know them. Their odor could tell her much more
than her eyesight ever could. She knew who was sleeping peacefully
and who was on the verge of nightmare. She knew who was restless
and who was awake, staring up at the ceiling, hoping against hope
they would awake in the morning and everything would return to
normal.

She smiled inwardly at the
indomitable wellspring of belief in each and every one of them. Her
heart was warmed by the strength she could sense within them all,
courage and determination in such depth they themselves didn’t know
it existed yet. They would eventually. They would see with time.
She wouldn’t be surprised when it happened. Rather, she would be
expectant, for she had smelt it upon them while they slept, when
their minds were at rest. Without thinking, she pushed aside more
scents. She cast out the male muskiness of Joaquin, the sweet,
perky aroma of Sophie and all the others until she could smell only
three of them. They were the ones she’d been thinking of moments
before, her three young, former masters. She had watched Elena and
Mikalah as they had learned to walk, was by his side whenever
Anthony would run amok and play.

Elena Herrera – the
earthiness of sun-warmed leaves.

Mikalah Herrera – the
pungent nectar upon the petal of a flower.

Anthony Herrera – the
spicy richness of musk of a boy in the flush of puberty.

She’d been only five weeks
old when she had met them. It was the Lady with the Long Hair,
Elena, Mikalah, and Myelly – the girls’ mother – she’d seen first,
over the edge of the large box her and her littermates were lying
within. It had been her home during their stay at the Dog-Pound.
She remembered their large faces looming over hers. Their broad
smiles and soft voices were still vivid in her mind. Elena had been
no more than a year and a half old. Mikalah was an infant of seven
months, just learning how to sit up on her own. They had all seemed
huge to her back then, as she peered at them with eyes just barely
accustomed seeing the big, wide world beyond the warmth of her
mother and the great nipple that gushed with the milk she had
coveted as a pup.

The next thing she had
remembered was the box closing even as her mother’s massive nose
sniffed worriedly within one more time, making certain her pups
were unharmed as the box was shut and lifted. All she could make
out was the excited voices of the humans who hadn’t only adopted
her, but her mother and all of her siblings as well.

The ride to the home of
the Lady with the Long Hair had been noisy and full of much
jostling and bumping. She, and her brothers and sisters, were
tossed about the box situated in the back seat of the horseless
conveyance powered by a mysterious, foul smelling liquid - of all
things.

A car
, she thought absently.
Leave it to
Humans to invent something as outlandish as that!
she mused in the dark, recalling how Myelly had
kept opening the flaps of the box, so her tiny, precious little
girls could gaze inside and “make sure the puppies were
ok”.

Round-faced Mikalah had
stared at them with her big brown eyes sparkling with delight.
Every time the car ran over a particularly large bump in the road,
it would make her and her siblings squeal in protest at being
bounced. Mikalah would bubble with wondrous giggles at their
itty-bitty sounds.

Elena had peered from a
farther distance, a brightly colored pacifier bobbing up and down
as she sucked upon it with gusto. Her eyes were bunched by a grin
hidden behind the plastic nipple in her mouth.

A few minutes later, they
had arrived at their new home, nestled within a hilly corner of
Highland Park, abutted against the tiny city of South Pasadena.
Kenai remembered hearing more voices as the box was carried up the
long flight of stairs, through a gate at the side of the house and
finally into the backyard where the Lady with the Long Hair placed
the cardboard carrier on the ground. More voices had joined the
fray, deeper, masculine, followed by the high-pitched tones of
another, who excitedly yanked at the flaps of the box and peered
within.

It was the first time
Kenai laid eyes upon Anthony. He was a mere seven years old with
short, wavy hair and the largest pair of brown orbs she’d ever seen
on a human as small as him.

He had asked if he could
pick one of the puppies up. His grandmother pulled him back gently,
explaining the ‘mommy’ of the puppies would have to have the
opportunity to check on her offspring first before any of them
could touch them.

He had nodded solemnly and
true to the Lady’s words, the large head of her mother replaced the
vista before. Kodiak, though she hadn’t been named such yet, began
her inspection of her babies - with her eyes, her nose, and her
tongue. She had sniffed at them, licked clean those that had
defecated or urinated during the trip until she had been certain
they were all well. Then and only then did she back away, sitting
on her haunches as she was scratched and pet by the huge human
males of the household.

Anthony came forward once
more. He had been wide-eyed, filled with glee.

From the little form
comprising her, Kenai had turned to look back, stretching her neck
as far as she could, trying to get a better glimpse of the young
boy before her. She smelled him, registering the scent that marked
him as
him
,
already capable of storing it away for future use.

His grin was impossibly
broad as reached in to touch her.

She remained quiet under
the touch of his fingers, while her siblings began to yelp and
screech for food, the exertion of their trip had made them hungry
earlier than usual. Anthony reached under her chin, gave her a few
tiny scratches, and looked back at his parents and his grandmother
in awe. “She likes me! She just met me and already she likes me!”
the boyish Anthony had exclaimed, his voice so squeaky it almost
hurt to hear. He had turned back to her, shifting back and forth on
the balls of his feet. “Can I pick her up?” He was so excited even
then Kenai could see the boy’s father was a little apprehensive at
the thought of the young man handling something as small as her. He
could accidently harm her without meaning to do so.

“
Go slowly, Tony,” began
his grandmother. “If her mother growls or does anything indicating
that she doesn’t want the puppy to be picked up, you put the puppy
back down and pet the mother to reassure her.”

Anthony’s father had
nodded in silent agreement.

Anthony turned back to
her, edged his hands into the box, placing them with the lightest
touch he could muster under the pits of her forelegs. He lifted her
from her cardboard surroundings and into the air.

At once, her mother moved
forward to sniff at the boy’s fingers and arms, and gave Kenai
another quick once over, but didn’t make a sound. Rather, she had
licked Anthony’s hands, which made him laugh aloud, keeping a close
watch. Other than that, she didn’t do anything else.

Anthony had brought her
small body close to him and held onto her securely within both of
his arms, cradling her tiny body. For the first time, with someone
other than her mother, Kenai felt very warm and content. She had
placed her chin within the crook of his forearm and decided to
rest, glancing out of the corner of her eye at her alert, though
not nervous, mother, pacing at her side. This seemed to calm her.
She sat once more upon her haunches, staring from her to her
siblings still within the box, screeching louder with every passing
second.

“
Tony and doggie!” cooed
baby Elena all of a sudden. She’d been holding her pacifier in her
hand, her face bright with understanding.

The older humans had
chuckled.

“
Yes, Tony and doggie,”
echoed Myelly, who bent down to pat the toddler on the head,
holding the plump version of Mikalah in her arms. Kenai could still
recall her wild hair and ever-present smile.

Elena’s father scooped her
up in his arms and began blowing on her stomach, making unseemly
fart noises, which made the little girl squeal with delight. He
then pretended to be eating her guts, making her squeal and
writhe.

“
We should make an area
for them to stay,” announced the Lady with the Long Hair, “so this
proud mother here can feed her babies in peace.” She had scratched
behind her mother’s ears.

A moment later all of the
humans were off, on a varying number of tasks, all revolving around
the creation a pen where she and her siblings could live for the
time being.

As the others moved away,
for a short time, Anthony and Kenai were alone.

Her mother moved to follow
the box carrying her five brothers and sisters to where the humans
were setting up a canine nursery under a wooden canopy, covering a
twelve by twelve, concrete section of the backyard.

She recalled his voice
more than anything else, mostly because she hadn’t looked up at him
at the time. She’d been much too comfortable to want to move much.
“I like you, little puppy. My grandma says I can keep one of you
guys to have as a pet when you all grow bigger and have to leave. I
have never had a dog for a pet before, so this will be my first
chance to take care of one. I think I’m going to choose you, little
puppy. What do you think of that? Does that sound fun? Since we are
living here in the same house, wouldn’t it be nice to have so many
people around to love you and play with you? I will be your master,
of course, but you will still be able to run around and play with
whoever you want. Sound like a good thing? Do you want to
stay?”

Kenai had looked up at him
then. His voice was so plaintive, it had sparked her interest. She
had tilted her head to the side trying to comprehend why he would
change the inflection of his voice like that.

He had smiled at her then,
nodding as if he had made a decision of some import. “I think you’d
want to stay?” he mumbled.

Not really knowing what to
do, she did the only thing that came to her young mind, she licked
him. Her bumpy, baby-tongue made him jump as if he’d been tickled.
He laughed again and from afar came his grandmother’s
voice.

“
Tony bring the puppy,
son, it needs to eat.”

Tony turned and walked
toward the others, a sly smile bunching his lips to one side of his
face. “Yes, you
do
want to stay…, huh?”

Even today, a world away,
those images, when they surfaced in the mind of the bear-dog, they
made her smile uninhibitedly. They were so dear to her. They had
sustained her throughout her long and lonesome task of preparing
the way for the Guardians. It was astounding that one of whom just
happened to be the very young boy who had picked her out of a
litter of puppies and made her his first pet.

She inhaled his scent from
across the cave once more. It was different than it had been back
almost ten years ago, but the basic origins of his biology remained
intact. It was only the infusion of a hundred hormones at once
masking what she’d smelt that summer day, long, long ago. To the
part of her brain capable of identifying things via smell, he was
who he always had been, Anthony Herrera, the boy who chose
her.