Ty awoke around midnight and buried her face in her pillow, breathing her own hot breath. She turned on her back and looked to her side, seeing that Flint had been watching her the whole time. The blueness only showing partially from his half closed eyes. Ty gently stroked the pups back with two fingers and he was soon asleep again. She too, was soon fast asleep.

“Ty” she groaned.

“Ty”

“Huh?”

“Hey, you slept till you got home and all through the night-Can you go to school today?”

Her eyes widened at the thought of Flint. Where was he? Did her father see him?

“I just feel like I need to stay home today” she paused and bit her lip then looked up at him. She studied her fathers face, looking for a sign of amusement of what she had done but there was nothing but mild concern.

“You rest now” he smiled and she nodded. Just when she heard the front door close she threw the sheets off of her and looked on her bed. Nothing. She flew off the bed and checked underneath and all over her room where the pup could have squeezed through. Still nothing. The house was torn apart by Tyrens furious investigation and finally she stopped in the kitchen and stood silently, looking around sharply and listening intently. Small growls came from under the dining room table. She kneeled down and saw Flint growling and nipping at Yankee, the family cat or what seemed like a family. It was only her father and herself for her mother had died when she was very young. Ty shook the thought out of her head and watched Yankee bat the pup with his paws. She stepped in and picked up the squirming wolf, not yet ready to back down. She couldn’t possibly wonder how the pup had gotten off the bed, much less out of her room, but he was a wolf. Fifteen minutes later, she walked along the broken trail to Cody. The boulder came into view and she swallowed hard and stared down at the brown stain that covered the earth’s surface. Where the mother had lay dying and had died. The pup, as smart as he was, recognized the spot immediately and squirmed in her arms. Ty thought for a moment and sat the pup down, who loped to the spot where his mother had been. He sniffed around and looked up at her. She looked back down at him and kneeled. Flint ran up to her and she picked him up and walked further along the trail, talking to him.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get you some milk soon, I promise” the pup barely paid any attention to her, from being to preoccupied with looking down at the forest floor.

They soon made it into Cody and she walked into a store that competed against her fathers but the two men both knew each other well and only joked about competing.

“Hey Ty”

“Hi” she had utterly forgotten the man’s name.

“Well, what do we have here?” she paused and considered her answer before speaking again.

“German Shepherd”

“Shepherd eh?”

She nodded and saw the man stroke his beard in consideration.

“It almost looks like a-”

“I just need three bottles sir” Ty gazed at the man

“Where’s the pups mother?”

“Died, giving birth” she replied confidently.

“I see” he placed the bottles on the counter and she slapped the money down on the wooden counter.

“Thanks” she mumbled and walked opened the door.

“Hey” the man said as her reached for the knob. She turned and looked at him.

“I won’t tell” he grinned and winked. Ty nodded once and walked out of the small town onto the trail once more. Struggling to carry the bag of bottles and the pup, she put him down and sat on a dead tree stump. He sniffed around until he took an interest to a pine needle. Which was soon gnawed to shreds. She picked him up and made it home a few minutes later. Flint wandered around the house and stared up at Ty as she fixed a bottle for him. She fed it to him and watched as he sucked it up and curled up, closing his eyes.

The day was slowly drifting by and Tyren stepped out onto the porch and inhaled the mountain air. She knew she couldn’t keep Flint forever and when that time came, he would have a good area to stay in, plenty of food and shelter, with a running stream a half a mile away. The thought already saddened her but she shook it off. That day would come but not for a while. Flint awoke soon after and scratched at the door from the inside, she opened it and let him onto the porch. He wagged his tail and walked over to her, still slightly unsteady from his nap. Ty lifted him up and sat, putting him on her lap. She would soon have to feed him again.

“Soon, you will have to eat meat”

“Give it two more weeks and say goodbye to milk” a smile crossed her face as he tilted his head up at her. She paused and thought about what she had just said.

“That will be fun” she said sarcastically. The cabin felt better then the heat outside and she fixed another bottle for the pup, which mechanically put him to sleep. This was good, for her father would be home soon and she would hate to have to deal with Flint squirming around everywhere. Ty picked up the sleeping pup and walked to her room, placing him on her bed. She crawled in beside him and read her book for a bit, until she heard the front door open. Tensing at the sound, she made sure the pup was under the sheets and out of view. Her door opened and her father stood in the doorway. That amusement she had looked for earlier was there now and she knew that he knew.

“Where is he?”

“Who?”

“Tyren, where is the pup?”

“Who said I had a pup?” anger flared in his eyes.

“Give him to me” he said in a still calm voice that rising by the second. Ty pulled the pup out from under the sheets and placed him in her father’s hands. She watched his reaction but his face showed nothing. He looked over the pup and Flint stared back, now fully wide awake. When her father spoke again, it was gentle and understanding.

“Where did you find him?”

“By his wounded mother”

“What happened?”

“Jeremy Capps shot her” her voice hardened. Her father shook his head.

“Dad, I had to save him, he would have died and not from starvation or a predator”

He knew very well what she was talking about. Capps would have been thrilled to kill the pup as well. Her father studied the pup again.

“He’s only about a month old”

“That’s what I figured too”

“You’ve been feeding him?”

“Yes sir, a bottle every two hours”

“Good” he nodded and looked at her then smiled.

“Just like your mother” she stared at him, her mother had died of a horrible car accident that led to a death. The thing that haunted her was that she had suffered for some time before she had died. She didn’t answer her father.

“You do know we can’t keep him?”

“Yes, but we can’t release him now”

“No, we can’t” Ty thought for a moment.

“Dad, how did you know I had him?” he smiled.

“You really thought, he had gotten out of your room himself?” he chuckled and walked out of her room, leaving Tyren flabbergasted.