Maverick’s tongue worked its way over Pine’s small body. The little girl started to calm under his reassuring touch and deep voice. Slowly but surely her unique colors started to be revealed by his pink tongue. White blazed from her nose up to her forehead. Brown and tan covered her eyes and the sides of her face while black tipped gray ears twitched under the big male’s cleansing tongue. Her neck was a rich brown mixing with grey around her throat. Over her shoulders and back tan, black, and white mixed the white giving way to the darker hues further down her spine before reappearing again in purity at the tip of her tail. Otherwise grey ruled her body save for the tops of her feet and the front of her back legs. As small as she was she could have almost passed for a fox, though her forest eyes clearly held the intelligence of a lupine.

She was moved onto her back.Once again her little voice rumbled and she pawed at Maverick’s big nose. She struggled against it for a moment, knowing even now that being on her back meant submission. It meant she might have lost. She grumbled, but finally he had finished his work of cleaning her. Rolling back over, her eyes widened at his words. Her stomach answered him again before she could. “Food?” She asked, speaking to him for the first time. Her knowledge of language was limited, but she understood ‘hunger’ and that ‘food’ was the thing to fix it. Forest eyes looked hopefully up at him, tail thumping softly on the ground she had curled back up on. Her face fell when he stepped away from her. ‘Stay’. She had heard that before, too. She could not remember which happened first, her disobeying the command, or the lack of return forcing her to venture to try to find life. Either way, she lowered herself to the ground and curled into a tighter ball as she watched his red body walk away from her.

Incredibly soft whimpers escaped unbidden from her vocals while she waited. She was not yet at an age where she could trust that what she could not see was still there. There was a very real chance that this big man who had come into her life so suddenly had just as suddenly walked out of it. Breathing deep and fast, her sides heaving, she quieted her voice while still lingering on the brink of fear while she waited. Excited happiness flooded her along with Maverick’s scent on one of her quickening inhales. Immediately her fear vanished and she quivered with her joy of seeing him return. Still she obeyed his command of ‘stay’ until he was right above her. Unable to control herself any longer, and fueled by the prospect of food, she danced on her white paws, jumping at his mouth with nips and licks. Mice dropped at her feet she launched herself onto them. Bones hit and missed her baby teeth, occasionally stabbing her in her soft gums causing her to cringe. It was food though. She did not seem to care about this discomfort when instinct told her to eat. The first two mice were crunched into oblivion. Pine eyed the third mouse, unsure if she should eat it or save it for fear of lack of food later. Decision made she started munching on the third mouth with slightly less vigor compared to the previous two.

As she ate her eyes shifted back to her savior. The forest depths studied him closely. Her parents had brought her food, cleaned her, cared for her. Until now they had brought her comfort. She knew mom and dad, the differences between them. Maverick was male. This could only mean one thing.

“Are you a dad?” She asked, head tilted to the side, a mouse tail hanging from her lips.