"Good moooorning!" My father's sing-song voice pierced the quiet morning air as he barged into our tent. Charles and I both groaned in annoyance and ducked deeper into our sleeping bags.

“Oh, come on boys! We got a full day of adventure ahead of ourselves today, we don’t have time for sleeping in!” we gave him no response, the warmth of the sleeping bag kept us trapped in our sleep.

My father stroked his chin in thought and said, “hmm, alright then, sleep well kiddos.” turning around he shouted out the tent door, “It looks like we get to eat all the bacon ourselves Dear!”

Charles and I scrambled out the tent past Dad and joined Mom by the campfire. Dad gave a hearty laugh as he joined us. “Don’t want adventure so early eh? Well whether you want it or not adventure always finds you... bacon or no bacon.” His smile dimmed for a second and seemed to look right at me. "We just need to make the best of whatever adventure life gives us."

...What? He didn't say that before... Wait... Before? Why did I think before?

I swallowed my bacon nervously, staring at my father.

"Umm.. Dad what do you m..." A loud roar shook the air around us. I jumped to my feet looking around for the source, but my family showed no reaction. Mom was smiling and serving a plate of eggs and bacon to Charles.

Dad was still staring at me.

A huge armored lion crashed into the view, toppling trees in its wake. It was running straight towards us! Fear spiked through me and I cried out "Mom! Charles! Dad! Watch out!" But they seemed oblivious to the beast. Mom and Charles were chatting away while eating breakfast.

A familiar pulling sensation started pulling me backwards, away from my family.

"Seth, live." Dad said, ignoring the cat-like creature as it reached mom and tore her apart with its claws and teeth.

Colors swirled and wrapped tightly around my chest and arms, tugging me backwards. I strained against the pull but my feet dug grooves into the dirt ineffectively. I was being dragged further and further away as I screamed.

"No matter what adventure comes next, live Seth." The creature slashed at Charles, knocking him down; eggs strewn across the ground. Lifeless eyes stared towards the sky.

"Go and live Seth." Dad's smiling face said before disappearing into the lion's mouth with a sickening crunch.

"NOOOO!" I screamed as I was yanked upwards into darkness.

>>

"NOOOO!" I woke up screaming and sweating. My chest and back burned and then I was screaming in pain instead of horror. I tried not to squirm because I was lying on my messed up back and that would've hurt a lot. So I turned over onto my side, off of both my back and my chest.

After a while I was able to get a hold of myself, taking shallow breaths and staying still. Everything burned, itched, and ached. Running for your life through a forest really took a lot out of a guy...

Also what was up with that dream?... You should've followed your own advice Dad. Of course I want to live, but I can't do much if monsters decide otherwise. Speaking of... Something attacked the kitty last night but for some reason left me alone. Why?

Groaning, I shifted over onto my knees to get a better look at myself. My entire chest looked like someone splashed it with rusty brown and black paint. The cordage I used to hold all the cloth bandages to my chest looked like it was doing its job so I didn't mess with it.

I think I'll leave this tied up tight just in case my wounds open up again. Which is going to happen when I move... Ugh... This sucks!

I still felt light headed and dizzy from the blood loss so I looked around for my bag. The light was getting dim, so I must have been unconscious all day. My bag was still by the fallen tree, where I had thrown it after grabbing the cords. It looked untouched, so whatever saved me left it alone and, after gingerly shuffling closer, I was able to grab some jerky to munch on. I sat back down, not leaning on anything because touching things with my back made everything hurt.

Halfway through the second strip of jerky a massive black wolf silently trotted into view holding a strange animal in its teeth.

I froze with the jerky halfway to my mouth, staring at the wolf with wide eyes. My hands started to tremble as fear squeezed my heart.

The wolf's pitch black fur was sleek, and the only other color on it that I could see was its golden eyes... which were looking right back at me. I was about to get up and bolt but it suddenly stopped, sat on its haunches, and tossed the dead animal towards me.

What the... the corpse looked like it was a big rabbit, but its fur was spotted with brown and green colors... camouflage? Wait, that’s not important right now! I looked back up to the wolf. It was looking at me like it expected something. Ears pointed at me, tail wagging furiously, and its tongue flopping as it panted. Oh! It doesn’t have spikes! Is this the same wolfy that didn’t rat me out to the others?

“Uh... thanks? Is this for me?” I asked.

It barked once, then pointedly looked at the rabbit then at the ashes of last night’s campfire... and barked again.

“You want me to eat it now?” It barked again. “Uh... I don’t think that I can get a fire going right now with my cuts.”

I jumped as it growled in displeasure.

“Don’t you growl at me...” I glanced down to check, “Missy! My chest and back are messed up, and they’ll start bleeding again with all that effort it takes to start a fire!”

She whined and plopped down, resting its head on its paws.

“Don’t worry about me, I have some jerky that I can eat. I’ll be fine for a while.”

She barked and suddenly lunged forward towards me. I screamed, trying to stand up to get away, but I was too slow. She trapped me! Paws planted on either side of me, and she was... she was licking me? Her broad tongue painted my face with slobber.

“Gah! Stop, stop that!” I yelled, trying to push her away.

After getting a few more good licks in, she finally stopped and sat back, grinning stupidly.

“You!” I gasped, wiping slobber off of my face. “You freakin chihuahua! You scared the crap out of me!”

I had to take a few deep breaths to calm myself. My chest and back was pulsing with pain, and was probably bleeding again.

“Ok, you seem to understand me pretty well... Do you have a name?”

She just looked at me and huffed, as if saying “Really?”

“Right... that was dumb. You can’t talk... um ok, how about I start listing some names and you give a small, tiny, quiet bark at the one you want me to call you? Sound good?”

She barked.

“Ok, Steggo... Doggo... Blacky... Escuro... Shade... Shadow... Darky... Trotter... Trotts-McGee... Come on, these are great names!”

She growled.

“Ok ok... how about Lobo?... Lupo?... Lupus.... Ookami.... That’s it, I’m out of ideas.”

She growled again.

“What? It’s hard to come up with a good name on the spot, and I’m not going to be stereotypical and name you Fenrir.”

She barked. I stared at her for a full second before shaking my head.

“No. Nope. I refuse to call you that. From now on I’ll be calling you Ms. Nora Aurora Midnight the First. Nora for short... Don’t you laugh at me!” She was rolling on her back, chortling away. I crossed my arms and huffed. When she finally stopped I asked, “Is your name even Fenrir?”

She shook her head no with a grin on her face.

“Are you fine with me calling you Nora?”

She barked. Alright, now that that is settled...

“Nora, I have some questions. Can you bark once for yes, and growl for no?”

She barked.

“First Question, and this is very important, please answer honestly. Are you going to eat me?”

She growled with a roll of her eyes.

“Phew. That’s a relief. Anyway, you can obviously understand me. That must mean that you’ve encountered humans or, more specifically, English speaking humans in the past. Correct?” Bark. “Do you know where any humans are now?” Growl. Crap, there goes the easy way out...

“Alrighty then... How long has it been since the last time you’ve seen another human? A few days? A few weeks? A month? A few months? A year? Two years? Three? Four? Five?”

They were all growls. She kept growling until I said thirteen years.

“It’s been thirteen years since you’ve seen another human?... that’s really disappointing to hear. Can you guide me to where that was? Maybe we can find clues...”

She growled.

“I gotta say Nora, these aren’t the answers I was expecting to hear... Oh! What about other people that aren’t humans, but are sapient like us? Are they around somewhere?”

Another growl.

“No Elves or dwarves? No nothing?”

Growl.

“Well, how far have you explored around here? Have you gone far?”

Bark. Well shoot.

“And you can’t guide me to where you last saw a person?”

Growl.

“Ugh, why not? Do you have to stay around here with those other wolves?”

This time Nora just shook her head no. She brought a front paw up and patted her chest, then looked up at the sky. I looked up as well. The sky was already darkening, the moons doing their best to shed light. I was confused and was about to ask, but it hit me.

“Oh... are you like me? You aren’t from this world?”

She barked.

“So the last time you saw a person was not in this world?”

Bark.

“And you’ve spent the last thirteen years in this world? Have you been looking for people all this time?”

Two barks.

“Oh man... this sucks. Can you help me explore areas where you haven’t searched yet?

Bark.

“Cool... Civilizations are formed near water, so I think that if we follow the river I saw over there.” I pointed, “then eventually we’ll run into one. That was my plan at least, what do you think?”

She barked. No wonder she seemed happy to see me.

“Alrighty then, that’s what we’ll do tomorrow. For now, I’ll finish off this jerky, then get some sleep.”

Nora just laid down next to me and watched as I ate, tail wagging.

This is really weird...