He folded his legs under him as a yawn rose unbidden by him and cracked his face in half. His long tongue licked at his snout. He was vaguely aware that his body had returned to its natural state. His paws were paws once again, and his fours limbs were of an equal length once more.

  His new relaxed posture put the young humans at ease as they chattered back and forth between them. There was gladness and excitement, cautious fear, and a small distrust. It wasn’t directed at him, he would have known if that had been the case, and it wasn’t directed at each other either. But there was something that he could hear in their voices that made them hesitate. He had come to know the sensation of mistrust very well in his short time among humans. It was not an emotion he cared to experience. Although he was sure that he would, in time, come to mistrust a great many things that humans made, spoke, and the actions they took.

  The young female approached him slowly with her arm outstretched. The male tried to pull her back, but she would not relent in her approach. Her hair was that of the sun, and it shown with the warm rays that reached down from it. Her fingers were soft and frail. He could have bitten her whole arm off without a thought or effort. Not that he would, he had never killed without being hungry. Although he knew others of his kind had been driven to such things in extreme circumstances. The young human reached out and gently pat his head in between the regal ears that crowned his head.

  He knew that the young human didn’t mean any disrespect but he was not used to being touched. He pulled his head away and nudged her arm with his snout. The girl didn’t seem to understand and tried to run her hand down his back. He bared his teeth and pushed his snout against her arm.

  The human male rushed forward and jerked her hand away from him. Then both of them stopped and spoke about him, pointing to his shoulder. He knew that he was wounded, but hearing concern about it from other creatures other than his pack was something new to him.

  The boy rushed through an opening in the stone block that he hadn’t noticed during the night and disappeared inside. The young female knelt down and hugged her knees with her arms. He saw that tears were running down her face and she gently rocked back and forth on her heels. Wounds and pain were a part of his life. He had seen many of his pack mates sustain injuries and death during the hunt. It wasn’t something to mourn, it just was. But seeing this young female human shed tears and smell of nothing but pain and sorrow, he could not help but feel sad for her. He wasn’t in that much pain and he gently nudged her arm with his snout, licking her bare skin. The young human stopped crying and looked at him with her big innocent eyes.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  The young male emerged from the stone block holding a bowl of some kind. He set it in front of him and backed away. He inhaled the contents of the bowl. It was clean water. He did not like the idea of being cared for. He had never been handed anything in his life before Tony and the cage. And here again he was being given things from complete strangers. Had he been back in his hunting grounds he would have simply walked away. But throughout all last night the only water he had found was the putrid shallow pools where he had first awakened. He was thirsty and still very hungry. With a grunt of swallowed pride, and keeping his eyes on the two young humans, he lowered his snout and drank deeply from the bowl.

  This seemed to please the young female who smiled widely and starting talking excitedly to the young male. He felt the soreness and pain in his shoulder, but it wasn’t as bad as it was last night. Still, with his thirst quenched he felt the tug of sleep upon him. He had to get up, sleep was death in his hunting ground and he knew humans could be more dangerous than any prey or predator. He stood up and his shoulder exploded in agony. He let out a whine but soon stifled it.

  The young humans looked at him in alarm, but thankfully did not approach him. He pushed back against the stone at his back as far as he could, its cold surface felt good against his burning shoulder. The young humans ran into the stone block leaving him alone.

  The dangerous tug of sleep upon his mind was getting worse. His eyes were getting blurry and his face cracked open as he yawned. He looked around him and saw the thin, tall stone he had climbed over the previous night, now towered over him. He would be able to get over it, he was certain of that, but with his shoulder hurting the way it was, he wasn’t sure he could do it right now. He didn’t trust humans, even though he knew the two young ones meant him no harm. Tony hadn’t meant him any harm either, and yet he was painfully aware of how that had ended. The young humans would not be far from their parents and it was they whom he worried about.

  His shoulder hurt too much and he slumped to the ground. He knew he was bleeding and tried to clean his wound as best he could. The slow rhythmic feel of his rough tongue upon his hurt flesh felt good and that added to the heavy weight of sleep that pressed down on him. He tried to stay focused, but no matter his efforts, sleep slowly slid over him like the curtain of night slowly sliding over the sky at the end of the day. His eyes closed and he knew nothing more.