Little Wolf

Chapter Twenty

Jack made his way down the castle hallway, his eyes flickering about.

"Where you off to?" He heard a voice call out, following by footsteps. Thatcher soon appeared by his side, a grin on his face.

"Off to the forest, you can't come." Jack replied to his second in command.

"Off to see the elle loup fille?"

"Her name is Fire-Flower, Thatcher, and yes, I need to make sure she can translate words between us and the wolves." Thatcher nodded.

"So, just best friends huh? Nothing more?" Jack turned his gaze to him, rolling his eyes at his friend's idiotic expression. His eyebrows were raised, a stupid grin on his face as he started at Jack, waiting for an answer.

"What are you getting at?" Jack muttered, continuing on towards the castle entrance and exit.

"Well, you have never shown much interest in any women before, even the princess! Could it perhaps be because of this wolfish girl?"

"If I tell you the answer will you shut up?"

"Yes."

"Fine, yes I do have an interest in her, I'm, in love, with her, actually." It still felt strange to say it out loud. Thatcher nodded, an annoying smirk on his face, before walking away.

Jack came to a stop in the small clearing they always would meet up in. He took in a breath, listening to the sounds of birds chirping and the distant sound of the river. His eyes flickered from tree to tree before he opened his mouth to speak.

"Little Wolf, Little Wolf, are you here?" Silently he waited, watching the trees in front of him for any sign of her. He let out a quiet yell when weight fell onto his back, causing him to bend over slightly. He felt legs wrap aroid his waist and arms around his neck so that her arms rested on his shoulders. Laughter filler the air and he instantly knew who it was. He grinned, his hands grabbing her ankles to hold her up.

"You called?" She said in his ear through her laughter.

"Well yes, while this was not the greeting I expected, I don't mind." She rested her head on his shoulder, her body shaking with laughter. After a bit she calmed down and dropped down from his back. He turned towards her, grinning. She smiled, looking up at him for a few moments before speaking.

"Let's go to the river!" She quickly took off into the woods, heading towards the sound of the rushing water. Jack quickly raced after her.

He sat on the bank, watching as Little Wolf studied the water. A few moments passed and suddenly her hands darted into the water, the upper half of her body lurching forward with her. She lifted herself up and Jack noticed that she now held a fish in her hands. Her eyes were bright and she looked up at Jack.

"Nice job." He commented. She smiled and happily took a bite out of the fish, which Jack had not been expecting.

"Does it taste good?" He asked her as she moved to sit next to him. She nodded in reply, her mouth filled with the raw flesh and blood of the fish.

"Alright, well as long as you do not get sick. Anyways, I actually had something I wanted to talk about." She looked up from the fish, her eyes questioning.

"Well, you see, to be able to restore peace between our races, we need to be able to communicate with the wolves, we speak French, they speak wolf, so we cannot communicate." Fire-Flower nodded, understanding the situation so far.

"So, me and the hunters were hoping you could translate for both races. So we and the wolves could meet up one night and you translate what we say to the wolves and what the wolves say to us." She swallowed the meat in her mouth, licking her teeth clean of blood.

"I wou-d be fine with doing th-at." She said, meeting his gaze.

"Great, when could we and the wolves meet up then?"

"Wh-en-ever, you de-cide." Jack nodded, happy to know that the task of restoring peace might not be that impossible. He wrapped an arm around Fire-Flower, pulling her close as she happily ate her kill.