
Username: BP
Kennel Number: 1
Name: Don
Gender: Female
Breed/Species: Canine
Personality:Story
A true love story.
Everything to gain. Nothing to lose.
If only you can keep hold of yourself.
I remembered the last time I looked my mother in the eyes. I was still small, wobbly and unstable on my own four paws. When I'd found her and her mate, who was not my father, but a replacement of him since his death, they were arguing. I didn't know what everything meant, but I could grasp enough to realize that it was about me. It was a dark October evening and the air was crisp and cool. I felt the leaves crackle under my paws. Curiously I looked at my mother, Aerlyn, while hidden behind the trunk of a tree trying to understand what it was about me that was so important.
Aerlyn looked perplexed. "What do you expect to do with it?" she growled at my, as I'd been told before, stepfather. Decode, who was he, claimed that he wouldn't harm it. I supposed "it" was term for me.
"What do you want from me?" he exclaimed. "What is it? You'll get it."
Aerlyn pondered this for a moment. "That jewel you found earlier by the lake," she decided. "The purple one. It's mine."
I knew of the gem they spoke of. It was a diamond-shaped violet crystal, with ice colored specks glowing from the inside. None of us had known what it was when Decode had discovered it, but mother supposed it was worth a lot. We could get a nice den or cave, or up to ten full deer with the gem she'd said.
"Take it," Decode agreed, and shoved the crystal at her.
My mother chuckled. "You don't know what you've lost, Decode Iris."
"I do know what I've gained," he said sternly. My mother's grin flipped to the opposite. Then, quickly, she scooped up the purple jewel in her jaw and sped away without warning.
I remember being scared. I remember the sick feeling in my stomach, knowing she wasn't coming back. I remember screaming and hurdling myself out from behind the trunk of the tree, screeching "Momma! Momma!" only to have Decode block my path and try to console me. "What have you done?" I accused him, tears leaking down my face. "Why did she leave me?"
Decode held my broken body in his paws, and he sighed. "She was going to leave anyway, Don. I couldn't have stopped her."
Realization hit me. "She was going to leave me?" I choked out. The sobbing was worse then.
"Yes," Decode murmured. "But I have you now, girl. Don't worry. Don't cry."
"Why would you want me?" I spun around and screamed at him. "I'm nothing!"
"I love you Don," he told me. "Even if your mother isn't worth it, you're still my daughter, and I love you." I fell to the ground in a heap of tears and frustration. Decode sat by me and stroked my fur. "I'll look after you. Don't worry. I'll look after you."
___
I was almost 15 now. Decode and I still lived in the same small cave we'd stayed in since Mother left. My stepfather said that she'd made a life for herself out east. He'd never been to see her, but he'd heard things. My Mother got around. So, no, I hadn't seen her since the day she left. It was amazing to me though, that a man who was not even my father would give up his prized possession to keep me and keep me safe. But over the past year, Decode had become sick and seldom escaped his room in the old cave. I vowed to supply him with whatever he needed, and at the moment that meant hunting.
Here I was, in the middle of the forest mid-winter, scrounging for food.
WIP
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Apple Cider