Page 17 of Blacktail

“Beg pardon?”

“No. I’m completely serious. If you can manage it, I’ve no doubt that your service to your breed will be rewarded in the afterlife.”

Blacktail cocked his head. He stared at the wall, horny and puzzled.

“Have you gone away? No? Yes? Perhaps even died? Could I be so fortunate? Helloooo?”

Blacktail sighed, then crouched low and sprang up the stack of red rock. He could not leap high enough to clear it, but he caught his forepaws on the top. After a few moments of mad scrabble with his hind legs he cleared the top, only to tumble over himself and land with a thud that knocked his breath away.

The world grayed out for a moment.

When his vision cleared, he stared up at the sight of beauty such as he had never known. A great she-dog was padding toward him, cautious but not afraid. She was his size, give or take. Her coat was pure black. Muscles rippled beneath her fur when she moved, rolled like waves, glinting in the moonlight. Blacktail opened his mouth to speak but found he could not.

I have never seen anyone so beautiful.

“Just who do you think you are?” she spat. “Hop back on over that fence lest I bite you about the ass and hindquarters. You shouldn’t be—Say…”

Now she stood over him. The scent of her drifted down like spring sunlight after a winter storm. She gave his rear end a quick sniff. Her nose was cold. It tickled. He wasn’t used to the greeting of equals after his long time alone on the hill. His eyes popped open wide, and only with great effort was he able to stifle a giggle.

Mercifully, her head popped back into view after only a moment or two. Blacktail rolled over and got his feet under him.

She backed up a step to watch him stand. “You’re not a dog,” she said suspiciously.

“Um, no.” The sight of her in motion washed away all thought. He stammered for a few moments, finally managing, “I’m Blacktail.” And her tail. Oh dear god, her tail. “Hello.”

“Are you a wolf?”

“Half wolf,” he said. His own voice sounded distant to him. His nostrils flared. Dear sweet god, what is that smell?

“Half wolf, you say?” She sniffed him over again, more carefully this time. “My, you are a big one,” she said. This time her nostrils flared a bit as well. “Where are you from? Not around here, that’s certain.” She went around to his hindquarters. “May I?”

“Hmm?” Blacktail had his tail tucked between his legs. He raised it now. “Oh. Of course.”

Her nose was cold, but at the same time, the best thing he’d ever felt. With embarrassment so deep it bordered on horror, Blacktail realized his prick was poking out. It was poking out quite a ways, actually.

She didn’t seem to mind, though. After a moment she moved back around to face him. Her chain clanked as she moved. “I think I’d remember if I had seen you before.”

His tail drooped back down. “I, ahem, that is to say, I have traveled from the far hill where I live. It has no name that I know of.”

“And your master? He lets you roam freely?”

“You mean my pack lord?” He was honestly puzzled. “I don’t, ah, have one. As such.”

“Beg pardon?”

“There’s only me.” His tail had somehow progressed from “droopy” to “tucked between his hind legs.” He raised it back up now, twitched it once—just a little—then went back to the defensive posture. “I am the whole of my pack.”

“Let me make sure I’m understanding this properly,” she said. “You live in the woods. By yourself.”

“Yes.”

“What about food?”

“Food?”

“Yes. Food. How do you eat?”

“Ah…well…When I get hungry, I go out and eat something. Several somethings, if they’re little.”