The Lord answered my prayers.

Something – someone – an angel - grabs the back of my neck and my entire body goes limp. A searing pain shoots through my heart and for a second I’m certain I’m dead. This is like being electrified, burnt and frozen simultaneously. I can’t breathe. I can’t think. A bolt of lightning sears through my body making my fur stand in end even in spite of the wet. Static tingles through my paws. The river fades away into nothingness, replaced by an image of a night’s sky, illuminated with all the colours of the universe. I stare into the rainbow of darkness, watching as the stars shift and spin, forming two new constellations: a pair of wolves. The star wolves turn and run across the sky, shoulder to shoulder.

As quickly as it comes, the illusion vanishes. I’m back in the river, my heart throbbing, breath in short, sharp spurts. My jaw slackens, releasing the bough, and I hurtle backwards. Whoever grabbed me heaves, dragging me sideways towards the shore, and somehow I have the presence of mind to kick my legs into gear. I scramble, digging my claws into the mud and throwing my full weight forward. The river screams and snatches in protest, but she’s no match for me and my angel. I stumble into the shallows of a river beach, gasping, legs quaking, soaked to the bone.

Whoever it was who grabbed me has released me. I glance up to get my first look at her and lose my breath all over again.

She – she – she –

She’s –

…a real life angel.

I AM NOT KIDDING.

My brown eyes lock on to her pale ones, without a shred of doubt the colour of an angel’s wings. Her amber-gold coat is warm like the sun, glowing with a soft sheen of health, magnificent where it drips mud and water. This girl could roll around in bear dung and still be the most stunning creature I’ve ever had the fortune to meet. Lucky? Me? This isn’t luck – this is fate. I can feel it tingling through my body like electricity. This might sound crazy, but I know, looking at her, that we’re meant to be together. I have to spend the rest of my life with this person because my heart would blacken and shrivel the second she turns and walks away. It beats now in my throat, faster even than the river was.

I should say something. I need to impress her. I need to. There is no way she’s going to let me tag along after her if she realises what a disaster magnet I am. I need to be smooth, cool, charming; I need to overcome a lifetime of being a loser and win right now, because this is everything.

Suave, like Uncle Kacey. Come on, Lefty. You can do this. Just say… just say…

“Uhh?” I say. I want to die.

LEFTERIS
homeless two year-old cub. bugs suck.