When Jay woke up, she noticed that her mate, D’Leh, was still gone; Jay
must not have slept as long as she thought, because he had left to look
for food before she had dozed off.  If it was too cold for D’Leh to
hunt, as it usually was now that winter was coming, he would sneak off
to a nearby town—which was conveniently less than a mile away—to search
for food there.  A wolf-dog by the name of Balto had saved the town’s
inhabitants from a terrible epidemic just over three years ago, and as
a result, the people there were now more accepting towards wolves; she
and D’Leh were able to occasionally able to get handouts from the
people there.<br /><br />However, in the current weather, Jay found it hard
to stay outside of the small cave they stayed in for long; she
definitely would not be up to walking two miles while it was this
cold.&nbsp;&nbsp;However, despite the cool air she could feel blowing across the
top of her back from the mouth of the cave, her body was comfortably
warm on all sides.&nbsp;&nbsp;She stretched her neck, craning her head backwards
while she opened her mouth in a wide yawn, displaying a set
of&nbsp;&nbsp;dangerous-looking teeth, which were backed by incredibly strong
jaws.&nbsp;&nbsp;The back of her head bumped into something soft; she looked
around, and saw the reason why she had been so warm, and another reason
that she wasn’t outside looking for food.<br /><br />She was looking at the
front leg of an enormous wolf-dog.&nbsp;&nbsp;His name was Shadow, and it was
because of him that Jay and D’Leh knew about Balto; Shadow was his
son.&nbsp;&nbsp;He had left the town for a long time before eventually returning
when he met them, and he had since left the town almost every week to
stay with them for a few days.&nbsp;&nbsp;Even though Shadow was not a pure wolf
like Jay and her mate, he was about twice her size; in her current
position, Jay’s entire body length was about as long as the area
between his front and back legs, the paws on which were almost large
enough to cover her entire face.&nbsp;&nbsp;She was currently pressing her body
hard against his to keep warm; she and D’Leh had met Shadow about a
month ago, and they had become great friends—in fact, the only
creatures Jay loved more then Shadow were her mate and a dog named
Arank, who had raised her for almost her entire life.<br /><br />If Jay had
not known Shadow so well, she would have wondered why the other side of
her body was being kept warm as well.&nbsp;&nbsp;She looked over anyway, and saw
what was probably the most intriguing thing about Shadow: his tail was
longer that her entire body; normally, he would curl it around to
shield his face from the cold, but he now used it to keep her warm.&nbsp;&nbsp;In
fact, Shadow’s tail was so long that even if D’Leh were lying between
Jay and Shadow (which he occasionally did if it was very cold), it
would still nearly reach the side of her head.&nbsp;&nbsp;Another aspect of
Shadow that Jay loved was that—given the fact that his mother was a
husky—he had very thick fur.&nbsp;&nbsp;It was as if his entire body was like a
large cushion for her to rest her head on; once, Jay had turned around
in her sleep, and found that she had nuzzled up to one of Shadow’s
flanks.<br /><br />As she laid the side of her head on the snowy floor,
Jay’s thoughts quickly turned to food again; with winter coming, they
needed as much food as possible.&nbsp;&nbsp;Oddly enough, when Jay had once snuck
some food from the town, she had found that what turned out to be her
favorite thing to eat was not any type of meat, but a small, round,
sweet object that the humans apparently called “cookies.”&nbsp;&nbsp;When she had
eaten one, she became very hyper, and was eager to eat more, but the
humans told her that if she ate too many, they would make her sick.<br /><br />Jay
felt a tickling feeling on the underside of her chin; she pulled her
head back and shifted her view once more to see the last foot or so of
Shadow’s tail moving up and down.&nbsp;&nbsp;As she looked towards the front of
his body, Jay saw the tip of the tail flicking about in random
directions.&nbsp;&nbsp;She chuckled quietly as she watched it; oddly enough, this
was the only part of Shadow’s body that moved as he slept, while the
rest lay still as a statue.&nbsp;&nbsp;Jay looked back at the spot about ten
inches from the tip of the tail, licking her lips, and before she knew
it, she was committing her bad habit again: she had scooped Shadow’s
tail into her mouth, and had started to softly chew on it;
unfortunately for Shadow, about two weeks ago when Jay was sleeping
with him, she had made the strange discovery that the thick fur of
Shadow’s tail smelled like—of all things—cookies.&nbsp;&nbsp;At that moment,
instinct seemed to kick in, and she had started chewing; of course, it
turned out that his tail <i>tasted</i> like cookies as well.<br /><br />When
Jay had first started this habit, Shadow had woken shortly after;
needless to say, he was very confused about what Jay was doing.&nbsp;&nbsp;As she
explained to him—her words muffled through the thick fur of his tail
(as she was trying to talk while still chewing on it)—he grew a very
puzzled expression on his face.&nbsp;&nbsp;Jay remembered worrying that Shadow
would think she was mental, but surprisingly, he was willing to accept
her strange habit; of course it took him some time to get used to the
fact that he may be woken up at any time to find her chewing on his
tail.&nbsp;&nbsp;Jay was elated; Shadow’s tail practically doubled as a blanket,
and now she knew that she essentially had a free snack whenever she
wanted!&nbsp;&nbsp;She remembered when D’Leh had walked in on them once; she had
thought that her mate was going to pass out from laughing so hard.<br /><br />Jay
knew she had to take a break from chewing Shadow’s tail soon;
constantly licking the thick fur made her tongue dry out.&nbsp;&nbsp;After a few
minutes, she let his tail drop out of her mouth; at the few inches
where she had been chewing, it was very wet- Jay wondered to herself
how long it would take for Shadow’s tail to dry out after she finished
with it (she allowed herself another laugh).&nbsp;&nbsp;However, she was growing
impatient; D’Leh would likely be another hour or so, and as good as
Shadow’s tail tasted, it could do nothing to stop her stomach from
growling.<br /><br />Jay’s frustration at her hunger began to take control,
and unfortunately, she let it out in quite an immature way: she pinned
part of Shadow’s tail to the ground, scooped it in her mouth again, but
this time, she was not so gentle; she half-knowingly pushed far
forward, so that the tail was close to the back of her mouth—where her
jaws were the most powerful—and bit down hard.&nbsp;&nbsp;A sharp yelp startled
her out of her state of frustration, now leaving her ashamed of
herself; she had hurt Shadow.&nbsp;&nbsp;Oddly enough, he did not leap about in
pain, but Jay saw a shiver go up his spine, and could feel the fur of
his tail bristling.<br /><br />Normally, Shadow took a minute or so to
fully wake up, but this time, he was alert within seconds; he
frantically looked around the cave before he seemed to put two and two
together.&nbsp;&nbsp;He looked back at Jay, who was happy to see that he was not
angry, but he gave what sounded like a bored sigh.&nbsp;&nbsp;Shadow looked at
the ground for a few moments; out of the corner of her eye, Jay saw his
tail flicking up and down again, while she mainly saw him wince every
time it hit the ground.&nbsp;&nbsp;“Jay, I can tell something’s wrong; what’s
troubling you?” he asked.&nbsp;&nbsp;Jay was startled; this was not what she had
expected him to say; “I’m just getting really hungry, and D’Leh hasn’t
come back yet; you’re able to keep me distracted for awhile, but I
can’t eat <i>you</i>, can I?” she replied.&nbsp;&nbsp;To her surprise, Shadow
laughed; “well, I can tell that it wasn’t for lack of trying,
huh?”&nbsp;&nbsp;Jay felt at where she had bitten Shadow’s tail; she could feel
two deep indentations in his skin where her jaws had been; “Shadow, I’m
so sorry,” she said.&nbsp;&nbsp;“Don’t worry about it,” responded Shadow,
“although maybe I should talk to my dad, and see if you and D’Leh could
live on our boat with us; that way, you wouldn’t be so hungry, and we
don’t have to travel a mile to see each other.”&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br />Even if Jay
didn’t want to live with Shadow and Balto, there was no way to say “no”
to his eyes; they were a beautiful shade of gold that seemed more
innocent than those of a pup.&nbsp;&nbsp;She couldn’t contain the excitement in
her response; “Shadow, that would be great, and I bet D’Leh would like
it, too!” she said.&nbsp;&nbsp;“Okay, lets wait for him to get back, then we’ll
tell him,” said Shadow, crossing his front paws and laying his head on
them.&nbsp;&nbsp;Jay hesitated for a moment, then began to chew on Shadow’s tail
again.&nbsp;&nbsp;“Remember, Jay,” he said; “I’m fine with you chewing, but don’t
do it too hard; I don’t really want to have part of my tail broken a
third time.”&nbsp;&nbsp;“Okay, shorry,” said Jay, her speech muffled through the
thick fur; Shadow smiled to show that he had understood, then turned on
his side.&nbsp;&nbsp;When Jay waited till she heard his breathing slow to
indicate he was asleep, she carefully shifted over to snuggle up
against his chest; it felt as though she might be engulfed by Shadow’s
fur there.&nbsp;&nbsp;She stayed awake for a few more minutes before the rhythmic
beating of his heart made her drowsy and her jaw—with Shadow’s tail
still inside—went slack, and she drifted off to sleep.