"Freeze! Federal officer! Put your weapon down now!" The shot had come from behind me and to my right and now there was a voice as well.
I didn't understand the words exactly and I was prepared to leap anyway, but the man seemed to stagger suddenly and for just a second or two I wondered if he'd been shot. It was merely surprise though, shock perhaps and he was still holding his rifle, still pointing it at me, but looking confused and plainly unwilling to leave himself defenseless in front of some naked and obviously crazed girl.
"Put the rifle down or I will shoot you!" The voice said and I looked to see another man, dressed in brown with a shiny jacket and a smaller gun, a pistol in both of his hands. He was pointing it at the hunter in front of me, crouched slightly and staring intently down the short barrel.
"She's gonna kill me! Shoot her!" The hunter said and he was looking at me mostly, but his eyes were darting to the other man constantly as well.
"This is your last warning!" The man in the jacket either didn't believe the hunter, or didn't care what I was going to do. He just wanted that man's gun on the ground.
"Okay okay...Fuck!" The hunter yelled, putting his gun down slowly and that's when I finally relaxed.
He couldn't hurt Chance now, not with his rifle on the dirt. My mate was safe and I didn't have to attack him. I felt my whole body seem to collapse then, as if that realization drained every ounce of strength I had and I just fell to the ground. I was crying, I realized, but it hurt to keep my eyes open. I was tired and my head was pounding and there was a ringing in my ears from the gun shots. I just wanted to sleep. I was so tired and cold, and I curled up.
"...up now. Hey, wake up." The man was touching me, washing my face with some water from a plastic bottle and wiping at me with some cloth.
I blinked at him and I had a headache. I couldn't have been asleep very long, I didn't think. I reached for my temple and there was a large cut on the side of my head, just under my hair where it started growing. The wound was still open and wet and I looked at my fingers, seeing them red and sticky with blood. Some fifteen or twenty feet away the hunter was sitting on the ground facing me. He had his hands behind his back and I guessed he'd been handcuffed, because he didn't look very comfortable to me.
"Let me clean that up." The man was saying and I realized I was covered now with his jacket. It was shiny and green with patches sewn on it and inside it was soft and warm with a flannel lining.
"You took a pretty good lump." He frowned and I caught his eyes for a second and they were green, darker than his jacket, and warm with a little gold. He wasn't so old, but strong and confident and his hands were gentle.
"She's crazy! She tried to kill me!" The hunter was saying. "Look at her, she's nuts! You oughta handcuff her, not me!"
"Quiet." The man said over his shoulder then he looked at me. "What's your name?" When I didn't say anything, he spoke again. "I'm Frank, okay? I'm with the Fish and Wildlife Service. I'm a police officer, nobody's going to hurt you."
"Police." I said weakly and nodded and I was remembering the grey man who had come to the house when my Master had died.
"What's your name? Can you tell me?" He asked me gently and he was pressing his neckerchief against my head.
"Dare." I said, licking my lips and looking into his face. "My name is... Dare."
"Dare, okay." He smiled. "That's a nice name. How did you get up here and..." He couldn't help but smile, "...Why are you naked, Dare?"
I just shrugged, giving him a small smile of my own, even though it hurt some to do it. He tried asking me other questions too, where I lived and if I had relatives nearby, but mostly he was asking the same questions in different ways and I really had no answers.
"Okay, I got the bleeding stopped, I think...But, here, keep some pressure on it. Can you walk?" He asked me finally. "Can you stand up? My truck's back that way..."
"Yes." I said slowly.
I did standup, slowly with my head still pounding as I pressed that cloth to the cut, but it wasn't terrible. I'd survive it. I let the man's jacket fall from my shoulders and I started walking away, down the hill the way I'd come following the deer. I looked over my shoulder, down the other way and the deer was dead already, the wolves working to divide the animal's carcass between them
"Hey...Hey, hold on! I need you stay with me, okay?" The man seemed surprised that I was leaving and I looked over my shoulder at him, but I wasn't going to stay there.
"Shit, she's crazy!" The hunter laughed. "You better get her!"
"Miss...Uh, Dare! Hold on..." The man wasn't chasing me at least, nor drawing his gun to shoot me and I wanted to go home.
I'd let Joe look at my head and maybe try to tell him what had happened, but mostly I wanted to see White Cloud and especially Red Crow, if I could. This had to be my dream. I'd followed the blood, but I didn't know what it meant, or what I was supposed to do now. It had to be the dream though, that was my only real thought, and I wanted to ask someone about it, someone who would know.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Oh man, what happened?" Mike was there when I got home and he was yelling for his brother, Jay, and they worried over me together.
"Go call dad." Jay said a little impatiently and he was just helping me to my bed mostly.
I was very tired and hungry and I must have looked terrible after three days sleeping outside and then getting in a fight and knocked on the head. My brothers were there, barking excitedly at first, pressing their large bodies against mine and sniffing at me. I wasn't in much of a condition to do anything but sleep though and so that's what I did, getting on our bed and quickly joined by Bush on one side and Bandy on the other. The two dogs pressed their bodies close and licked at me while Barley paced the hardwood floor and he was a little agitated it seemed, probably at the smell of my blood and the two strangers I'd been so close to that day.
The antiseptic smell of the doctor woke me up, as well as the unhappy barking of my brothers who weren't letting him get close to me. Joe was there now and despite his best efforts to get the dogs away from me and the bed, they weren't willing to leave and didn't want that doctor in their room at all. It took me a minute or two to realize all that as I felt very foggy and finally I let Joe call me to come with him. I reluctantly left my brothers and went into my Master's house, into the front parlor so that the doctor could look at my head in peace.
"This girl doesn't belong by herself." The doctor was saying, wiping at my head with something stinging. "How long since you ate anything?"
I just shrugged and looked at Joe and his two sons who were standing there looking uncomfortable, as if they might be in trouble now because of me.
"You've lost a lot of weight since the last time I saw you." The doctor told me. "This cut isn't so bad, you don't need stitches. Hit your head on a rock or something?"
I wasn't talking and the man knew me well enough by then anyway not to expect any answers. He spent his time chiding me about eating and taking my vitamins, about cleaning myself for ticks because they could make me very sick if I wasn't careful. He was speaking to me, but most of his words were meant for Joe and the big Indian was nodding and agreeing, and the doctor wasn't terribly happy about any of it.
"You should think about getting the girl some real help." The doctor said finally. "She can't take care of herself and whatever you people might think, she isn't an animal. I'm going to check on her in a few days and see how she's doing, if the girl's like this..." He shrugged. "... I've got a responsibility to report it, you understand?"
Joe nodded and he didn't look too happy either and whatever it was the doctor meant by that, I suspected it wasn't anything too good for me. I'd never liked him anyway though and I just stared back at the man as he looked at me for a long moment and when he left finally I felt much better.
"You need to stay around here for awhile, okay?" Joes was bathing me in my Master's bathtub and I'd protested at first, but the Indian hadn't let me refuse. "You have to eat more, that doctor was right. You're too skinny now and you're a mess."
I just shrugged, resting my chin on my knees as I hugged them to my breasts. I was sitting in the warm water while Joe just gave me some time to soak in it before he washed me properly. I couldn't even remember the last time I'd had a hot bath in a real bathtub. I had some memories of it maybe, but they seemed to belong to someone else. I tried not to enjoy it, or to give Joe any direct answers, pretending like I didn't care or understand what he was saying.
"This isn't what your Master would want, Dare." Joe told me softly and that cut through me like a knife, the truth of it, and I wept quietly while the man bathed me.
By the end of it I was clean, for the first time in a long time. Joe had washed me several times in fact, letting the dirty water out and refilling the tub three times. His hands touched me everywhere, his big fingers surprisingly gentle and there was nothing sexual about it, even as he washed my sex and anus, soaped my breasts and everywhere else. I felt very much as if he were a father to me just then and I felt ashamed of my behavior. My Master would not have wanted me running off the way I had, neglecting my brothers and even a dog has responsibilities, I realized. I had to take care of myself better and keep my spirits up somehow, but it was hard and my resolution was fleeting as the last of my bath water swirled down the drain.
Joe dried me thoroughly and I felt better and I must have looked much better as well. He'd washed my hair as well and forced me to sit on the closed toilet while he brushed it. I had burrs and hopeless tangles that he struggled with and I growled softly as my scalp burned under the ceaseless tugging. His sons were preparing dinner for us and I was hungry suddenly, impatient as the Indian dragged the brush through my long black hair. He wondered aloud if he shouldn't cut some of it, just to even it up some and I narrowed my eyes slightly, not sure if I wanted my hair cut or not. It was awfully long by then and the ends were split and frayed, but I did love the way it covered my back when I lay down, like I had real fur and it would keep me warm during the winter.
"Maybe just this much, what do you think?" Joe was pinching just an inch or so of hair between his first two fingers, holding it up for me to see and then we heard my brother's barking, warning us that a stranger was here.
"Who's that now?" Joe asked himself mostly and he glanced towards the closed bathroom door.
The dogs didn't like strangers and they never had. Our Master hadn't raised them to be overly friendly with people they didn't know and so when strangers would come to the house they were always there, outside to challenge whoever it might be and tell the stranger that he wasn't welcome. That's what they were doing now and we could hear their frantic barks, loud and sharp and not dangerous, not yet, but if the stranger wasn't careful the tone would change and the dogs become nervous and angry.
Their tone did change as I followed Joe towards the front door and the porch beyond, but my brothers were calming and that seemed unusual. There were very few people who could settle my three brothers down that way, Joe being one of them and his sons of course, White Cloud as well, but if it were the Indian medicine man the dogs wouldn't have challenged him at all. Each truck and car and machine made by men has its own sound and we knew all of them well. This wasn't White Cloud, or anyone else we knew and we stepped into the dying light as evening was just settling on the reservation to find a big green truck parked behind Joe's.
"Yeah, yeah...Sit...Go on, sit down." A man was saying and my brothers were still barking, but they weren't angry, they were cheerful I realized. "You're a big boy, huh...What's your name? Come here...You like that?"
"Bandy." I said and I was walking towards the man, down the short steps while Joe remained behind me.
"What's that?" He smiled at me and even though I was naked and still damp from my bath, most of his attention was on my three brothers as they capered for the beef jerky he was feeding them.
"His name..." I pointed at the dog. "...Bandy."
"Bandy, huh?" He chuckled. "Okay."
"Bush...and...Barley." I nodded, pointing at the others and Barley ran over to me at the sound of his name, his head against my belly briefly and taking a sniff of me.
"And you're Dare." He nodded as well. "Sorry boys, that's all I got." He was patting Bush on the side, slapping his hand against the dog's ribs with a heavy, pleasant thudding sound. "Sorry bout that."
"Hey there." Joe made his presence known and the man looked at the Indian.
"Evening." He said, "...Uh, I was talking with a fella outside the store there, um...Red Crow? He gave me directions."
"Red Crow sent you here?" Joe asked.
"I'm Frank Sawyer." The man nodded. "I wanted to find out...Stop it..." He pushed Bandy away as the dog tried to shove his nose into the man's jacket pocket, looking for more jerky. "...I wanted to find Dare and make sure she was okay."
He was looking at me now, giving me all of his attention and I swallowed hard because this man wasn't like the others. My brothers could sense it and he had no fear of them at all, he'd met all three of the dogs and turned their suspicion aside easily. Now they were merely anxious for his attention, showing off the way boys will, the way they hadn't done for anyone since our Master had died so long before. I felt my heart getting thick and my blood seemed thin, close to my skin and making me warm despite the cool night which was growing quickly around us.
"You're a park ranger or something?" Joe wondered.
He was looking at the truck with its decorations on the door, a symbol of some kind like a shield, the same as the patch on the man's jacket. Joe was also seeing the gun on the man's hip maybe and wondering probably why this man would come here looking for me. He might have wanted to arrest me or something, but I knew he wasn't here for that. The man had nothing but good intentions, it was radiating out of him and I blinked hard at that. I was afraid to think what I was thinking just then because unlike my brothers I did have a sense of time, of before and after, and today and tomorrow. Not a good one, not like a real person did, but enough to be afraid of what the future could bring if I wanted something too much and didn't get it.
"Fish and Wildlife." Frank said, playing with the dogs and looking at me, curious why I was naked but for a collar around my neck, wondering who Joe was and why I was there at all, maybe why he was there too.
"I found Dare this morning, she was, uh..." He smiled at me, "...She was fighting with a hunter, about to get herself killed, I think."
"How's that?" Joe asked and the man's tone had made it sound like he was joking maybe, but we both knew he wasn't.
"A fella I'd come across, he was just off the reservation hunting." Frank explained. "It was all legal until the buck ran onto the reservation and he followed it."
"Chance." I glanced at Joe and he'd heard the name before, the Indian had some idea I was mated as he'd been at my Awakening ceremony, as well as spoken with my Master often enough.
"Chance...The wolf, you mean?" Joe looked at me and I nodded happily, even though he couldn't know why I'd mention him.
"What's that?" Frank looked between us. "Wolves? Yeah, there's a pack up there and I think the guy was ready to shoot them." He shrugged. "They're protected but they were taking down the buck when I got there. He wasn't too happy about that."
"Who are you?" Mike asked suddenly as he and Jay came around the side of the house, probably wondering where the dogs were and why they had gotten so quiet.
"You get that dinner ready?" Their father asked.
"He's a ranger, dummy." Jay nudged his brother in the ribs. "Yeah, pop." He whistled for the dogs, patting his thigh and trying to call them. Mike was trying too, but the boys were more interested in Frank and they didn't know dinner was waiting.
"I'm Joe, anyway, those are my boys. We watch the place." My friend said and he was coming closer, probably to shake hands with the man, or something.
I felt light inside and I liked the way the man was looking at me, the way he wasn't shy of my nakedness for one thing. How he didn't look or away, or stare really, but just looked at me the way my Master used to. With something like amusement maybe, and some pleasure, like maybe he was looking at something he knew nobody else could see. He was sharing a secret it seemed to me and I barked sharply, laughing despite my desire not to as I told my brothers that there was food waiting. I ran off playfully, racing around the house and they were right behind me then, barking and happy with my sudden mood.
I was flirting, I knew, and it made me feel good as I took one quick glance over my shoulder and it was an invitation for the man to follow. I wasn't sure if he understood that, or even if I did, but it was there all the same and I was almost too excited to eat. I was very hungry though and pulled my damp hair out of my face and held it twisted in my right fist as I pushed my nose into the big bowl I shared with Bush. We ate hungrily, especially me and my appetite filled me as I tasted real food for the first time in three days, or perhaps it was my improved spirits. I was being greedy, growling and using my shoulders to shove Bush aside, snapping at him as the big dog growled back at me and it was fun.
I'd expected to find the man there when I lifted my head, licking my lips and feeling warm and full inside, but he wasn't. We were alone, my brothers and I, and so I washed my face and even brushed my teeth, as I hadn't done that in awhile and I suddenly wanted to groom myself. I did it quickly, happily nervous at the thought of being caught by the man as I performed that distinctly human ritual. I didn't want to let him see me that way as it was embarrassing for some reason that I can't properly explain. So I was quick and grinning, barking softly as I scrambled onto the bed and my brothers joined me. It was always our custom to lie down after eating and they'd missed me.
Barley licked my thighs while I pulled myself against Bandy, hugging his softly furred neck to my breasts and reaching down his soft belly to feel his sheathed penis. It was thick and bone-like even while he was relaxed and I played my hand along it while I spread my legs for Barley's tongue to go higher. He was sniffing my sex, licking at me slowly and tasting nothing but my recent bath, which was not very interesting to him. I kept my eyes on the door, wondering and hoping the man would come in to find me. I was waiting for him and pretending that I wasn't, telling myself not to want anything, but inside I was helpless. I'd felt his presence and he was the one I'd been waiting for, all of us, and my brothers had already accepted him.
Fate had led me to him, my dreams coming true and Red Crow had shown me the way as he'd promised. I'd followed the blood, that trail in the high grass and I'd met my challenge and been saved by that man. He'd come back, looking for me and finding me, and all he had to do was come the last few steps. I watched the door anxiously, barely breathing as I clung to my brothers, kissing Bandy's neck and squeezing his cock gently, feeling my wetness growing beneath Barley's tongue as he tasted me finally. I was eager and excited and my heart threatened to burst and all the man had to do was come through the door.
I'd crawl to him with my eyes down, scenting him and licking at his fingers. I wanted to feel his touch and hear his voice and I promised myself I'd answer his many questions, for a day or a week, however long it took to satisfy him and then I'd speak no more in that strange tongue. He had to understand me; I'd seen it in his eyes. He was the one and I was delivered to him, waiting and wanting and staring at that door, willing it to open. He'd be my Master, I was sure of it and the world would be right again. Joe would tell him about me, White Cloud would explain everything; it was all clear to me how the future should unfold.
The door did open and I lifted my head at the sound, but it was only Joe and I heard the man's truck leaving. I blinked at that and frowned. His sons followed the big Indian, Mike and Jay, and they picked up the empty bowls, taking them away while Joe looked at me.
"He was asking about you." Joe said and perhaps he sensed my curiosity and disappointment. "Wanted to know who you are, what you're doing."
I nodded slightly at that, but I was afraid more than anything else. Perhaps the man didn't understand, or didn't like me for some reason. What did that mean? He'd asked questions and then left. I dropped my head trying to tell myself it was alright, that it would take some time perhaps while the man considered me. I wasn't thinking as a person might, a girl. People required time and thought, and unfamiliar things were unwelcome to the human mind. I'd offered myself and my brothers had accepted him and I'd thought as a dog, expecting the man to take us, to take me. I had no Master, not anymore, and he must have known that by now. Joe would have explained, I was sure, so why had he left? It confused me.
"Seems like a nice enough man anyway." Joe spoke slowly, cautiously and I closed my eyes.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Dare." The man was there the following day, not long after I returned from my bath at the stream.
I looked at him, surprised and it was a cold morning with sun still behind the mountains, the whole world grey and damp. Joe's sons hadn't yet arrived and my brothers were outside, with him and content as he'd been feeding them once more, treats from his marvelous pockets. He approached me as I felt rooted to the earth and unable to move, my toes sinking into the soft ground. I lowered my eyes and I had it mind to crouch low and press my head against him, but he was reaching for me and I was filled with an exhilaration at his touch.
"I need to speak with you." He was touching my face, lifting my chin gently so I would meet his gaze. "I need you to be a woman for me, can you do that?"
"Yes." I closed my eyes as I said it and it was as I'd imagined.
"Can we go inside?" He asked and I nodded, leading him to the side of the house and the room I shared with my brothers.
"This is my...Place." I said slowly and I looked around the room, inviting the man to do the same.
"Joe told me about you. Your friend, the Indian?" He said and I was moving to the sink and using the hose to wash my muddy feet, although I wouldn't, usually.
"Yes." I agreed.
"He said that you're, um, Onijwa? Is that right?" He was smiling uncertainly at me. "A spirit, or a girl with an animal spirit?"
I shrugged and the water was cold as I washed the mud away quickly. My brothers had followed us and they were sitting on the floor, Bush laying down on the bed, watching us.
"I don't really know about that stuff." He shrugged then, as if apologizing for his ignorance. "I want to know about you."
"I'm Dare." I told him, turning off the water and then I did get on my knees, sitting naked and looking up at him.
"Right, no..." He smiled. "...I mean, uh...What do I mean?" He seemed confused and uncomfortable and he shifted his weight from one foot to the other as he stood there.
"They like you." I said, looking at my brothers and then pointedly back at him.
"The dogs?" He nodded, looking at them. "Yeah, I guess I always had a way with dogs, most animals really."
"People?" I wondered.
"What? Do I get along with other people?" He chuckled at that. "I get along, but...Well, I like being by myself too. I...I don't know."
"I don't." I said and then I had a thought. "I'm not...Crazy."
"I know, yeah." He looked at me. "I don't think you are, I just never... You're different. This is different."
"Different." I smiled. "Yes, I am."
"You're beautiful." He said and then closed his eyes for a second. "Sorry, I mean you're...Look, uh, I'm pretty nervous."
I nodded and I was nervous as well.
"Did you look for me?" I asked him.
"Look for you? Yeah, yesterday I asked around and..."
"No." I shook my head, frowning. "Before yesterday? Did you look for me?"
"Dare." He licked his lips. "I think I was looking for you all my life."
I smiled at that and nodded.
"It's crazy, I don't...I don't understand it, or this, or...You. Not yet." He seemed to be talking to himself as much as he was to me.
"Yes." I agreed.
"But I want to." He told me and the took a breath. "I think...I've dreamt of you, maybe."
"Master." I looked at him and the word was barely spoken, but we both heard it and he held out his hand.
I crawled over as a dog, shedding the woman he'd wanted me to be for that brief time and I could smell him and then taste him as I licked his fingers slowly, until he put his hand to my cheek and then into my hair, stroking me gently while my brothers watched. I growled softly, allowing the sound of my pleasure rising from my breast and I turned my head against his touch and smiled up at him, into his eyes and welcomed him home.
