Oh my god oh my god oh my god. Did this psycho wolf just drop me a glare?!
She did, she totally did. It lasted for like half a second but I still saw it. I freeze, water lapping at my knees, one paw lifted where I’d been about to take a step. This is a bad idea. I should have swum away, or… or run away, or… or…sprouted wings and flown away. Anything to get away from the woman who promises not to eat me as long as I play with her!
Okay. Deep breaths, Lefty. You can do this.
I slowly extract myself fully from the water, violent shivers wracking my small body the further up onto semi-solid land I’m able to drag myself. The psycho wolf repeats my name in a way which makes it sound like someone’s just joyfully swung round a tight corner. Left – wheee! There’s a pause and then I think she’s making the ‘ee’ sound again (maybe she likes it??) before adding a random ‘to’ on the end. Leftyto? Lefty’s toes? I blink several times in quick succession while she giggles, not getting it. How am I supposed to decipher this weird woman’s brain? I run it through my head again a few times, squinting while the wheels turn in my brain. Lefty-to, Lefty-y-to, Lefty…
Eto. Oh.
I knew that.
She leaps towards me, baring her super sharp teeth. I do what any reasonable person would do in this situation and fall back on my bum, squeaking like my Uncle Kacey the time mum caught him with a lady who wasn’t Auntie Myla. I lower myself as far down as I can to the ground with her this close, at least trying to get below her so that I appear submissive (as if I haven’t already done that). We’re the same, sure. We’re the same in the same way a cat is the same as a mouse. Totally the same.
“Um, sure.” Ugh, my voice is pitched higher than a baseball. I cough, pretending I have something in my throat, and then try to lower it and throw some gravel in so I sound more manly. The result makes me sound like a puppy trying to voice-act a lion. “What do you want to play?”
LEFTERIS
homeless two year-old cub. bugs suck.