Soft light drifted from the open window into the dusk outside. Air cooled and gentle wind rustled the branches. The pup, dosing softly with his large head on his paws, caught a sound from the dark woods beyond the fence and lifted his head, his ears perked up and alert. The old dog besides him also lifted his head and saw a small human figure furtively dashing from the dark tree line toward the house.
The old dog barked a few times to warn the stranger away, but grew quiet when the pup burst forward toward the stranger with excited joy, restrained only by the rope tied from his neck to the fence. The old dog watched a disheveled girl in a ragged, black dress step into the grass clearing lit by the diffuse light falling from the open window. The girl kneeled in the soft, upturned ground and tightly hugged and held the pup to her.
"I thought I lost you." The girl whispered softly, her voice breaking with emotion.
The pup huddled beneath her arm, his tail wiggling violently, but remained entirely silent. The old dog lazily wagged his tail when the girl glanced at him and came to nose her outstretched hand. The girl's thin, dirty face creased with a smile. Noises of movement came from the open window and the girl looked up sharply, focusing her hearing on the muffled words of people inside the house.
"...Are you sure, Harton? I do not wish to inconvenience you." A mild voice of a younger man spoke first.
"No, no, not at all, my friend... It will not be any trouble. I will stop by the Temple tomorrow..." The girl tensed up at the words spoken by the second, older man. Immediately, she moved to the fence pole, where the pup's rope was tied up, and began to pry open the knot.
"Very well. I really appreciate it. If only more people in Pharshena had your faith." The former voice came again.
"...It is truly sad, duellen Andales. It is as if this cruel winter has frozen all kindness in the hearts of men. I heard that in Graystone children left at the Temple doors were left to die in the cold." The older man spoke.
"True, sadly. Each town and village now keep to their own." The duellen sighed.
While the voices continued to quietly, the girl continued to work on the knot, from time to time glancing up to the window, to make sure that the shadows of the two men inside the house remained where they were.
"But, such things will never happen in Turstone. Laeden Gaedus will not allow it. He swore that he would take in any orphans that came to our Temple. God's love, not fear, should always guide our hearts and minds." The priest's voice held heartfelt conviction.
The girl paused for a moment in her work of untying the knot and looked up toward the window, her brows angrily drawing over narrowed eyes.
"I am glad to hear that, duellen. I am glad to hear that... It was a difficult winter. Perhaps, now that spring is here, the people's hearts will finally thaw out as well."
"Well, I really should be heading back to the Temple."
"Will you not stay the night? The gates to the city must be already locked."
"They will open the gates for me. Thank you for your excellent tea."
"You are very welcome, duellen."
The girl saw the shadows in the window get up and increased her effort to untie the knots in the rope to a frenetic pace.
The door of the house opened with a creak and two men stepped out to the porch. One of them had gray hair and beard. He wore a long sleeved worn out jacket with patches sewed on carefully on both elbows. His body bore traces of a powerful physical frame once in his youth. His wide shoulders spoke of his strength, but age had stooped his back.
The second man was thin and tall, and his face was completely beardless, which gave him the look of youth, but the pronounced wrinkles on his forehead spoke that he was not. His brown robe hung on his wiry body like a formless sack, tied up loosely around his waist by a black belt marked with a silver border and four ornate markings to signify his rank in the Order.
"Don't forget your satchel, duellen." The older man said and reached the travel sack to the younger, who took it with a grateful expression.
"And the road to Turstone is really not far from here. I will show you."
Harton headed away from the house, with the priest following behind him. By-passing the fence pole, his glance fell on his old dog enthusiastically wiggling his tail. The pup lay nearby, also looking curiously in Harton's direction. Pleased that they seemed to get along well so far, which probably meant that the pup did not have wolf's blood in him despite his looks, Harton lead the way.
"Take care, Harton. Thank you for the tea. And showing me the way." The brown-robed priest smiled at the older man gratefully.
"You are very welcome. And you can come and visit me anytime if you happen to get lost again." Harton chuckled lightly.
The priest waived at him and began walking down the road to Turstone. Harton watched him leave, sighed regretfully, and slowly headed back to his cabin.
Darkness fell by the time he reached it. Glimpsing his dog waiting for him by the pole, he went to him.
"Well, old Truhan, it is now just you, me, and the pup, I guess." The old man said.
For a moment, the old man stared at the empty pole, where he had tied up the pup he found earlier in the evening. Not believing his eyes, the old man went to the pole of the fence to check. The pup and the rope were both gone. The old man shuffled toward the fence and noticed a distinct impression left in the mud on the other side of the fence by a small, bare foot. The footsteps led into the forest.
"Hmm. Someone took you." The old man frowned at the foot print. He squinted at the darkness of the trees, but saw no movement out there. The old man then bent down and petted the fur of his own old dog.
"I wish you could talk, Truhan. You could tell me who it was that took the pup. I hope it's in good hands. I kind of liked the fellow." The old man muttered...
...
"But I don't want to be a boy."
"You remember better if you are in this form." The girl insisted, gently untying the frayed rope from around the little boy's neck. Trees towered above them.
"Just look what you've done. I left you for only a little while, and you got lost already. And, you fell into a trap."
"I don't remember that." The little boy stubbornly crossed his hands across his chest and pouted. The older girl sighed patiently.
"You sure did. You are lucky that old man didn't kill you when he found you."
"He liked me as a pup. He fed me. Why couldn't you just pretend to be a dog, too? We could have lived with him."
"You know why, little brother. After a while, we wouldn't just pretend to be dogs anymore. We would become dogs."
"Would that be so bad?" Little boy insisted stubbornly.
"It would not be safe." His sister met his green-hazel eyes, uncertain, and signed.
"I know you are hungry. I am hungry, too. But I couldn't find any food. It's too early for berries and those edible roots that our mother said were safe for us to eat. Remember what she told us? There are many things that taste good, but will turn your stomach sore, because they are poison. You know there is food at the temple. You heard what that priest said to that other man. It's going to be different in Turstone, you'll see." The girl extended her hand to him.
After a moment, the little boy trustingly nodded his head, and obediently took her hand...