Evolution: Part 3

I had my hopes up for the first time in a while. They brought a new wolf to the labratory, and had quit testing and changing me. I was glad.

Except the white wolf was just...so mysterious, she never really talked. Never really was around. They humans kept her like a pet, I supposed.

So I was still lonely. Until the day they brought in one more dog.

Skidding in and whimpering it's head off, was a small black and tan, pointed eared pup on a leash and a muzzle around him. The humans growled something and picked him up, though his long black claws kept scoring over them and making them curse.

Now by puppy I mean almost a year old. This dog was huge, and I suspected that if I were a labrador still he would be bigger than me!

I had been asleep on the ground with a few humans keeping an eye on me occasionally, when they brought him in. Poor thing, I thought.

I knew immediately what they were going to do with him. He looked alot like the white wolf, and a bit like what I was, so of course he was perfect to experiment on.

The kid-teenager if you will-struggled to get free. The humans began to pass me and I narrowed my amber eyes, begining to turn to a fiery color. Snarling lowly, I spoke to him. "Calm down, you'll be fine."

He didn't seem very convinced, though he quit jerking around enough for them to bring the kid into the room, and slam the steel door shut.

I heard his occasional barking stop, and pricked my ears. They were already about to put the pup through surgery. My lip curled in disgust at the humans...I wanted to rip them apart. The kid probably was stolen away as well as I, taken from his owners and family.

Sitting down, my tail curled over my paws. I waited for someone, anyone, to come. Hopefully either the shepherd or the wolf would show up soon. I didn't even know their names.

"Will you stop?" Flattening my ears in suprise, I drew back from the white female. She had walked out of a room and I tried to follow, to ask her name, when she turned around and snapped.

"I...I just want to know your name," I choked out, my voice hoarse from not using it as usual.

Her ice blue eyes still remained cold and distant. When she didn't say anything, I took the oportunity to size her up. Oh, she was something. Tall, strongly built, but...beautiful, all the same.

Finally she spoke, growling slightly at me for staring. "I don't have a name the humans call me by, but my family named me Aura, after the wind."

It wasn't too hard to believe why. She was slender, and obviously built for speed as well as fighting. Her front and back legs looked strong. I nodded to her. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Aura."

Aura's ice blue eyes softened slightly, but only a bit. "And you are?" She asked.

"Luke..." I muttered, remembering what my humans had called me. "My name is Luke."

"Nice to meet you, Luke," Aura said, trying to get used to the name. "Did you see that other dog they brought in here?" The white wolf wondered, trying to start up a conversation.

I nodded again. "Yeah." My head tipped slightly, I just now realizing that she had an accent. I supposed I hadn't heard another dog in such a long time I didn't think about it.

Aura's voice was...not high pitched, or low, but slightly musical. I guessed that's what wolves were like, since their howl was a song each of them had to find on their own. I still hadn't found my song yet...I wondered if she did. It might have been easier, since she was a wolf, what I descended from.

Suddenly I realized I had zoned out, and she was still talking. "...I hope the pup is alright, they have knocked him out hard, from what I hear."

My ears pricked. "Wait, from what you hear? There are others?!" My heart skipped a beat. So my friends might not have been killed!

"Of course!" Aura exclaimed, "You did not know? Well then again they keep you away from the other side of the building, so it is not a suprise." She flicked an ear.

I went silent...My friends, could they be alive? Or was it just more experiments?

"Luke?" Aura flattened an ear in slight worry for her new friend.

I shook my head. "Just thinkin'."

The rest of the day we might as well have been cell-mates, we talked nonstop about all kinds of things. And I finally had a friend. Soon, if I found she was trusthworthy, I would tell her that I planned to escape. Maybe she would come along? I hoped so.

Hours later, we were fed by the humans and then taken to our cages. I was glad when they moved Aura's cage right next to mine, and for a few minutes at night we talked some more.

"We meet again," I laughed slightly.

"Yes, I suppose so." Aura yawned and put her head on her paws sleepily, though she faced me in case I wanted to talk to her.

Nearly asleep myself, I lay down on my side and stretched out a bit, then closed my eyes and waited for sleep to take over me.

Instead, right when I was the verge of dreaming, the steel door opened and made a loud creeking sound, as if scraping against the wall and floor.

I opened an eye, but Aura nearly jumped and lifted her head with narrowed eyes. I realized her ears were probably more sensitive than mine, even if we both had excellent hearing.

The boss-human had walked in with a few assistance, carrying a familiar black and tan body that I met earlier that day. That made me sit up and watch intentedly.

Putting the Shepherd into a cage similar to Aura's larger one, hers was bigger than mine, they left the room once it was shut tight and tripple locked, then typed in a password on a keypad on the wall, and were gone.

The lights dimmed almost to pitch black, but I could see the Shepherd's brown eyes glinting in the dark. Aura watched him, and I sensed worry coming from her.

"Are you alright?" Aura said outloud, the question aimed at the new dog.

"F-Fine," He stuttered, obviously still shocked. Nothing seemed wrong with him, thank goodness. The humans had only examined him, tested him, not taken him into surgery yet. For that I was glad. He needed some time to get used to his new life.

But the pup seemed to recover a bit, head lifting. "I'm Gunner."

Aura and I nodded to him in greeting, and introduced ourselves. Not only did I now have one companion, but two.