Another car whizzed by me.
I was tired, cold, and lonely, but determined to get back home to Lido, Skil, and the rest of my pack.
"Hm," I thought. "It would certainly be faster and easier to ride back to town in a car." The next time I heard one coming (from miles away, because I can hear pretty well), I was daydreaming how nice it would be if the driver stopped and opened the door to let me get in.
Almost reflexively, I found myself praying to Kax. Out of habit, whenever I get stressed out, I pray to Kax for help. My prayers are not the formal, "get on your knees" type. Nope. They happen more in the moment, mostly when I need help or when I have to make a decision. This time, my prayer sounded like this:
"Could you get one of these drivers to give me a ride?"
I didn't hear any answer.
However, something gave me the idea to concentrate on the mind of the approaching driver and think about what I wanted to happen. Even more than that, I saw another mental movie, this time, of myself showing the driver a mental movie: the driver stopping the car in front of me and offering me a ride.
I shook myself.
What a weird idea!
"I must be over tired, to have all these visions coming at me."
I said it to no one in particular. Oh great. Now I was talking to myself. That's the first sign of insanity, right?
I had never heard of anything like this before. I was thinking, "Where in the world are these visions coming from? Am I a nut case now?"
But, then I thought, “What do I have to lose? If I die, I'll be reborn. It's not like I'm a helpless human. They really should be afraid of hitching rides."
All this happened in a few seconds. The car was still behind me. I still had time before it passed me by. But what was I supposed to do? How was I supposed to give the driver a vision?
Wait a sec.
"Kax! How do I give the driver a vision?"
I didn't hear any answer.
Following a sudden inspiration I had, I concentrated and closed my eyes. In my mind's eye, I searched for the driver's mind.
There it was!
With my eyes closed, it was as if I could actually see the driver's mind. It looked like a bundle of strings that I knew were thoughts and feelings, coming toward me at sixty miles per hour. It had a blue-ish color to it, which something told me meant the driver's mind was calm.
Focusing my inner eyes on the driver's mind, I made up a movie in my imagination, and I concentrated on showing my movie to the driver. My movie showed his car stopping a little ahead of where I ran. Don't ask me how, but just from the sound of it approaching, I knew to show his 2006 Chrysler 300C in my mental movie. It was so dark out I just left the color gray, figuring the color wouldn't be important, and then the car turned out to be a dark slate gray.
My suggestion took.
The driver slowed down, and then stopped.
I kept running until I got near his car, and then I stopped, out of his reach. Just because he stopped for me didn't mean he wouldn't hurt me.
I'm a Kaxian, so the rules are different for me than they are for humans, especially young humans. I tell you this because what happened next would almost certainly not happen for a human.
Concentrating on the driver's mind again, I showed him another mental movie. This time, I suggested that if he opened the passenger door, I would jump in, as if it were business as usual.
Making a funny face, the human walked around the car, opened the passenger door wide, and stepped back.
Sure enough, I jumped in, as if it were business as usual and he had been letting me into his car my whole life. Which at six months was not very long, but you get the idea.
Well, I had a ride to town. How about that.
My belly was full. My bladder was empty. I had a few hours to kill, and it was warm in the car.
I fell fast asleep.
Yawn.
Blink. Blink.
When I woke up, it was because the driver was snapping a leash onto my collar.
Wait a minute, what?
"Come on, Dog. You can't sleep in the car. That's it. Come on upstairs." He gestured toward a stairwell in a white-stuccoed twenty-unit apartment building, which was in a complex with ten other such buildings. The place looked neat and smelled clean. It was quiet. All the lights were out, as it was still the middle of the night. And then he said something that decided it for me.
"Millie is going to love you!"
That sounded encouraging! And, as it happened, I did need a place to live. I could smell scents from my pack, distantly, but I definitely smelled them, which meant they would smell me and know where I was.
Yes, he did have a leash on me. He probably thought I had no choice. But, I chose to stay with him. I was looking forward to meeting Millie. She must be a human, because I didn't smell any recent non-human scents on him.
"You are one lucky dog, or maybe I am one lucky guy. I was planning on getting a dog, to please Millie. I already bought dog food, dog dishes, a leash, and a collar. I just got a free dog, and it looks like I can go get my money back for the collar. All in all, you cost me less than fifty bucks!"
"Happy to oblige," I told him.
Of course, all he heard when I spoke was the noise a wolf makes when it barks.
Still, I wanted to get along with my new human, so when he spoke to me, I looked at him and wagged my tail.
Before we got to the stairs, I got a vision of his apartment, and it did not have a doggie door like my parents' humans' home had.
Uh oh!
Think fast!
I played him a mental movie of walking me over to the nearby tree.
My suggestion took.
He complied, and I did my business.
We went up the stairs, and he opened his apartment door with his key. Sure enough, there was no doggie door. Good thing I had thought fast. Excited at being let inside his den, I paced the whole place in the first thirty seconds.
My new human's apartment was all beige inside: beige carpet, beige walls, beige doors, even beige furniture. There wasn't anything extra, like the bookshelves, buffet, wardrobes, and decorations my parents' humans had. There was a couch, a TV, a desk with a computer, a bed, and a dining room table. That was it. Everything smelled new. Well, except in the bathroom. And in the kitchen. The kitchen smelled much better than the bathroom!
There was no one else in the apartment, so while he changed into his pajamas, he spoke to me often. That suited me. I would just as soon know what was going on.
"I guess you'll be OK here in the apartment tomorrow while I'm at work."
"Sure, that suits me fine."
"I didn't get you a bed. You can lie down on the floor to sleep. Stay off the couch."
"OK."
"Millie is coming over tomorrow night for dinner. Ooh wee! She is going to love you!"
Once more, mention of a human who was going to love me made me glad I had decided to stay with my new human. I smelled her scent here. She had been in his den before, but only in the first room. She probably wasn't trusted well enough to be in the whole den, like I was. I would have to be a little cautious when she arrived.
I followed my new human into the kitchen and sat down to wait for him to talk to me some more. While I waited, I cleaned up some food spills on the kitchen floor. Mmmmm, this one was beef stew. Ooh! And this one here was ravioli! I found a few more places to clean up, on the cabinets as well as the floor, and for a while I didn't notice how quiet my new human had become.
However, once he had instructed me to stay off the couch, he proceeded to ignore me as he microwaved a frozen dinner, grabbed two beers out of the fridge, and vegged in front of the TV until he slumped off to bed.
I was still full from the beef I had been abandoned with, but it alarmed me just a tad that my new human hadn't offered me any of the dog food I could smell from where it was stashed in a closet.
Oh well. I was feeling a little smug in my new abilit
y to suggest actions for humans to perform. I could always suggest that he feed me, and perhaps I would, in the morning.
For now, I had a roof over my head, and the carpeted floor looked far more comfortable than sleeping in the pack's mine. I was back in town.
* * *
Neya shook herself.
Disoriented, she looked around the cave where she had slept. It was the same cave she had just been dreaming about, but instead of her own pups and her (!) mate, there were her mother's pups, and her mother. Her father must be out hunting with the rest of the pack.
What an odd dream she just had! It seemed so real. And what kind of wolf had her dream mate been? Like no other she had ever seen before, that's what kind. His scent reminded her of the space aliens her parents had warned her about, those the humans called "dogs." Still, he'd been handsome.
He had given her his full attention, too, unlike the wolves in her pack, who were always half concentrating on prey or on human threats, or both. He had been play fighting with her, but unlike the touch of her litter-mates when they play fought, his touch had felt gentle, loving even.
How could she remember his touch if it was just a dream? It had to be more than a dream. He had been so real, so much fun, so attentive to her. They had hunted, nested. And they had been together so long, and had pups, and...
"Neya!"
"Yes, Mother!"
"Come help me wash the pups."
"Coming, Mother!"
"And remember, call me Fleek now. You are just about grown. It's time you used names."
"Yes, Fleek."
Neya and her litter-mates were not quite full grown, but already her mother had another litter. She was training Neya to care for them so that Fleek could fulfill her duties as the alpha female of the pack.
"First, wash the largest one. In this litter that's Belg. Wash his face, his ears, his paws, and don't forget to wash his back side."
"I know, Mo... er Fleek."
Fleek sighed.
"Indulge me and allow me to tell you again. There won't be many more times."
Neya raised her ears up, to show her mother, or rather, to show the alpha female of the pack that Neya was listening.
"Your father, whom you are to call Scur from now on, will soon take me along when the pack goes hunting. He will expect me to attend all pack meetings and to help him keep the pack in line. As soon as these pups can eat meat and no longer need my milk, you will be their caregiver."
Neya understood. It had been the same when she was one of the weaned pups. Fon had taken over as her caregiver. Her mother had just been the alpha female of the pack, not paying Neya much attention at all, until she had decided to make Neya the caregiver of this litter.
"How soon will that be?"
"They will only need my milk for three more days."
Neya washed Belg as Fleek had directed, to show that she had been listening. It wasn't a bad duty to have. She actually enjoyed caring for the wolf-pups.
It reminded her of the vision she was now sure had been her future, though, and her thoughts soon returned to her dream mate. Clem was his name. He had brown, black, and white fur, instead of smoke-colored fur such as she and her wolf pack had. He would stand out in the desert, but he would blend in up here in the mottled shadows of the pine trees. He seemed to know how to fight. She wondered if he could hunt, but she was sure she could teach him, if need be. She already knew the ways of the hunter, even at nine months old.
"Mo... er, Fleek?"
"Yes?"
"Will I have my own mate some day?"
"You might."
"How would that happen?"
"If a lone wolf leaves his pack and comes to claim you as his alpha female, then you and he could go off alone together and start your own pack. That is what your father and I did. The whole pack is our offspring. That is the way a pack is formed."
Neya wanted to ask her mother if her father had come to claim her first in a dream, but something made her hold back. Well, why kid herself. She knew what held her back.
Her mother, no, the alpha female of her pack would not approve of Neya's mate being mostly a "dog," and not a wolf like her father.
Did Neya need Fleek to approve her choice of mate, though?
Neya thought not.
She was still a child yet, but so was Clem. She guessed it would be six more moon cycles before Clem was grown. It would be three moon cycles before Neya was grown. For a while yet, they both needed their parents' protection.
Neya felt excitement, relief, and a little fear at the realization that, once they were both grown, if Clem came for her, then she would go.
Chapter 6: Business
Fortunately, my full bladder woke me up before my new human went off to work in the morning. Unfortunately, he wasn't awake yet. He might be mad if I woke him up, but the memories now told me he would be even madder if I urinated on his floor. This time, I decided to listen to the memories.
I reached out with my mind and found his mind. His sleeping mind was a calm blue, easy to penetrate. I wasn't sure that he would remember any mental movie I played in his dreams, so I suggested to him that he needed to wake up. I wasn't aware of knowing how to do that; I just did it as if I lived inside his body and was willing it to awake. I could tell once he no longer slept. His mind was more purple than blue, but still calm. I played him a mental movie of the two of us walking outside.
It was a short walk, but I did my business.
Sure enough, he was about to leave for the day without feeding me. I had to suggest that he fill my bowls: one with some of that dog food he had bought and promptly forgotten about, the other with water.
Dang!
I should have suggested he give me some of the raw hamburger he had in the refrigerator! How stupid of me! Well, there was always this evening, after he came home. MMMmmmmm! Now I had something to look forward to.
Finally, he left for work. I listened to make sure he got in his car and had driven a good ways away, out of human hearing distance, so that I was free to do my real business.
"Clem reporting for shut-in duty. My new human is out for the day."
Most of my 20 pack-mates' replies were distant, but they were all glad to hear from me and curious about my new human and home.
"Clem!"
"Heard you had an adventure!"
"Glad you're back, Buddy!"
"How's the new home?"
"We missed you!"
"Congratulations on finding a home so fast!"
"What's your new human like?"
"Is he kind?"
I told them how much I missed them, too, and how I wished I could be at the mine with them, but I was shut up in a little apartment without a doggie door. I answered all of their questions. Yep, I'd had an adventure, alright. I told them about my first car trip in the front seat in this life, and how I'd foolishly thought my parents' human was going to bond with me. I explained how I had been distracted with food and then abandoned.
A strange hush came over the pack when I told how I had felt the mind of the driver, and...
And then I was hushed, too.
I could not speak.
I didn't know why; I just couldn't.
The next thing I knew, Heg was on the other side of my new human's front door, telling me very quietly that I was never to speak aloud about feeling anyone's mind, seeing colors around minds, mental movies, or suggesting anything to anyone.
In fact, it was so quiet because Heg wasn't even speaking aloud. I knew he was there. I could hear him breathing. I could smell Heg's scent.
I was not hearing Heg's voice, though. Rather, I was seeing pictures in my mind that I knew Heg was putting there.
I saw myself sitting quietly where I was, not speaking. I saw myself putting pictures in another Kaxian's mind. (Wow! This works with our kind, too, and not just with humans!) I saw myself putting pictures in Niques' minds! (Whoa!) I again saw myself sitting quietly, not talking, only this time I w
as with Lido and Skil.
Wow!
First of all, whoa!
This works on Niques! I remembered the picture I had seen in my mind, back at the mine, of all of us as one big pack of wolves hunting prey that was tunneling. I wanted to ask Heg if he had put that picture there.
There it was again. I saw the picture in my mind again, only differently, from the perspective that Heg must have had when he put it there. But there was more. I saw the picture going into each human's mind, one by one. I saw it going into each miner's mind, and even each Nique's mind.
I let the surprise and delight that I felt exude from me, so that Heg would know my reaction. Some confusion seeped in to my emotional web, though. Why did he use pictures rather than mental movies? Why did Heg make his suggestions to one of us at a time? Now that I stopped to consider the idea, I was fairly certain that I could suggest to whoever was in my range, no matter how many that was, all at the same time. Couldn't Heg do that?
Apparently not, and without realizing it, in my confusion and desire to get answers, I must have broadcast a mental movie to Heg of myself suggesting to everyone in my range at once, because now I felt a surge of excitement from him.
Once more I saw a picture of myself not talking. Then followed another picture of me just with Heg. Then followed another of both of us not talking aloud. I understood: I was not to speak about the power of suggestion to anyone but him, and then only in our minds, so no one could hear.
"I understand."
I said it so quietly that even if my human were home, he wouldn't be able to hear me, but Heg could hear me through the door.
"Good. As for your new duties now that you are a shut-in, you will be a relay. Listen for messages with your name in them. If you hear one, then pass in on in the opposite direction."
"Got it. Is that all?"
"I have to go see some higher-ups about the other stuff we discussed. I am almost positive they will want me to train you in that."
Again, I got the image of me sitting near Lido and Skil, not talking to them.
"I understand. Heg?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry about starting to talk earlier, about what should remain unsaid. Will there be trouble over it?"
I reached out gingerly to Heg's mind, and put a mental movie of me reaching out to my human's mind there, and then the mental movie of me talking to the pack earlier today.