His wolf huffed. Wolves did not like to be compared to dogs, they thought they were superior. He barked and Faith praised him.
“You are such a good doggie. You and my other doggies saved me from the monsters.”
After about ten minutes of this, a scraggly little redhead popped out from behind some crates, next came a smaller, brown topped head. They slowly came out from hiding, walking toward Faith and Kane cautiously.
Faith smiled. “Hi. Do you like dogs? I have lots of doggies. This one is called Kane. There’s another around here you might have seen, and his name is Rane.”
Rane came in wolf form around the corner. Faith collapsed on the floor, wincing as the bruises and cuts made themselves known again. The wolves came to help her sit up, and she gripped Kane’s fur as she put her arms around their necks.
“See, my doggies are protectors. They look after me and only hurt the monsters. They’re really big, soft teddy bears.” She buried her face in their necks.
Muffled laughter could be heard now from outside, damn wolf hearing.
The two frightened girls slowly moved forward until they were just out of arm’s reach. Faith smiled. “Hi, my name’s Faith. Let me introduce you to Kane and Rane.”
The youngest little brown headed girl giggled. The redhead said, “They’re funny names, they sound the same. They look the same too, how do you tell the difference?”
Faith laughed and kissed Kane’s head. “You’re absolutely right there…argh, I don’t know your name. As I said, my name’s Faith. What’s yours?”
The redhead looked down at her feet and mumbled, “Grace.”
“Well, Grace, they have lots of differences, you just have to come a little closer to see them. For example, Rane is just a smidgen smaller than Kane.”
The girls took two tiny steps closer.
Faith continued, “Plus, Kane’s fur is more a dirty blond where Rane’s is tree bark brown.”
The girls took another step forward.
Faith turned to the youngest. “What color doggie would you like…sorry, I know Grace’s name but not yours, so can you tell me your name?”
The little girl grinned. “Sophie.”
“Sophie, I almost have a rainbow of dogs, so what color doggie would you like?”
Sophie took the last step to Faith. “I want a white snow doggy with big water-colored eyes. As you know, the monsters don’t like water or cold things. We tried to get close to water, but we must have still been too far. Did you go in the water? Is that why you don’t got a shirt?”
Faith smiled. “You’re right, Sophie, the monsters don’t like water, and you were just a bit too far from the water. My shirt got wrecked helping fight the monsters, but don’t you worry about that, I have lots of clothes at home. So let’s find you a doggy protector. I have the perfect one for you. His name is Griffen, and he’s even more of a teddy bear than these two.”
There was a whole lot more laughter outside now as Griffen came in slowly. Sophie gasped and ran to Griffen, petting and hugging him as she chanted, “I love you. You’re going to be my best friend and save me and my sister from the monsters. I bet they’ll be scared of you, because you’re the color of snow and your eyes are blue like water.”
Griffen plopped down in front of Faith.
Grace sat down next to her sister, tears running down her face. “I wish we’d had a doggie protector so I could have saved our dad.”
“I’m so sorry, Grace, but you can have a protector now.”
“But I don’t have anywhere to keep it now. My dad’s gone, and I don’t have a Mum anymore either.” She was crying so hard it was tough to hear the last bit.
Faith moved over and hugged the girl. “Would you like to join my special family?”
Sophie stopped kissing Griffen to say, “Me too, me too. Grace and I are always supposed to be together, that’s what Dad said.”
Grace nodded. “Okay, but can I have a Mummy doggy, please?”
Faith smiled at them. “Ah, sweetheart, I can get you one of those, lat—” Suddenly a beautiful black wolf with brown eyes came running in and licked Grace’s face. Faith nodded to Della, Kane’s mother. “This is a Mummy dog. She’s come to check on her babies.”
Grace and Sophie looked around and as one said, “I don’t see any babies.”
“Why, we’re hugging her biggest babies. Do you want to know something? These are only three of her babies, she has ten all up.”
“Wow.”
“Would you like to come with me and meet her other babies?”
Both girls nodded.
“Okay, kiddos, we’re going to go outside. There will be some people, and more doggies. But we’re going to go to a big white van.”