They sat on the porch together. Helen had brought her plate to the sink and returned to watch her huge friend work one of the bones over. He'd noticed her looking at him after a time, and had picked up the bone, carried it over in his mouth, and began on it anew right next to her, looking at her the whole time. The vibrations created by his teeth dragging over the bone were amplified by the wooden structure, and she also felt it through her bottom. There was some kind of power in those jaws, she thought as she sat cross-legged smiling at him, and after a minute, had swiveled one leg out to touch him. She looked at the sky.
The weather was changing quickly, and they both sensed it. There was a chill in the air now as the temperature dropped, and heavy clouds scudded in, leaving the clearing darkened. He stopped to look around and sniff.
"The environmental site I was looking at earlier was calling for some heavy weather, there's severe storm warnings up for all around here," she stated.
He listened to her, but didn't understand what she'd said about looking at something. He knew that there was bad weather on the way. He had his own indicators for that, and he could smell rain in the distance, cold rain, too. Something not normal for this area at this time of year, he knew. This wasn't the usual cycle of weather - there had been no steady build up of humidity that would be broken by the towering cumulonimbus clouds that might throw lightning and maybe even hail on occasion. This was something larger - a big shift in the air mass. Soon it would not be a good time to be a sailor out in deep water.
Helen looked at him, "What are you going to do, Buddy? Do you have someplace to go?" She didn't know how to handle this. She did trust him, but could he even handle being inside, as wild as he is, she wondered. She had a sudden mental image of him lifting his leg at the couch and squeezed her eyes shut for a second. But the thought of him outside in a bad storm didn't appeal to her either. She looked away wondering what to do.
That brought her gaze to the pot that she'd left out overnight with water for him. Her eyes widened and she got up to get closer. The pot was there still half full of water, but there had been a few donations. He followed her with his eyes, and wanted to run his head into a tree again. If she'd reacted badly to the work that he'd done clearing the beach, he just knew that this wasn't going to help at all.
Helen was staring at wildflowers laid there in the pot, their stems in the remaining water.
What the hell now, she thought? Somebody clears the beach, jams the inlet, and leaves me flowers? She felt an uncertain fear creep into the pit of her stomach. Did she have a stalker? Way the hell out here? She stood transfixed, and didn't notice the quiet clicks of his claws.
"Well this settles it for me, Buddy. You're staying right here tonight. That is, if you don't mind." She turned to smile at him, but he wasn't there. One soup bone was still waiting for him in the large steel bowl, the other lay there picked clean. She spun around and just caught sight of his tail and one hind leg as he vanished into the forest.
"BUDDY!" she called after him, and then added quietly, "please don't go now..."
He was running hard, cursing his foolishness. What had he been thinking? How was she supposed to react to this strangeness? To her mind, there could be no "Aw, you brought me flowers," There could only be the feeling of some unknown possible threat. He pushed himself harder, bounding out of the woods and tearing a black streak across the meadow directly into the cold wind. He didn't care about that. He had one thought that she would certainly interpret as more covert and strange behavior, but he knew something that she couldn't, something that needed to be done, and her uncertain fears be damned. He'd figure out later how to hide what he was about to do, that could wait. But he had to act now. He tried to run faster still as the cold rain began just a little.
He already knew that she kept the boat tied close to the dock, a little too close, and always on the channel side. If he didn't do something now, she'd likely find the boat and maybe the dock destroyed. He tore along the ridge as the rain began in earnest. He should be hunkered down someplace right now, he knew it. He looked through the bushes as he passed. There were no boats to be seen anywhere. He glanced down. The little boat was already pounding against the dock in the white-tipped waves.
He swung away and started to shift, his smooth bounding gait becoming more ragged and violent. This middle form was not as well suited for covering ground quickly, but paws and claws wouldn't be of much use to him in a minute. He lunged at the edge, and as he cleared it, he stretched out as a man in a long arcing dive.
As soon as he felt the water, he made for the surface, and swam in powerful strokes to the dock. Pulling himself up just enough, he glanced around furtively to see if he'd been noticed, but saw no one, and so he set about untying the lines. It was another full ten minutes of hard awkward struggle before the boat was on the sheltered side and the tethers left long to allow movement with the waves that might still find it. The best thing that he could have done, he knew, was to unmount the little motor and leave in on shore before pulling the boat onto the dock to turn it over. But there was a limit to everything, he thought, even what he was prepared to do for her right now. This couldn't be helped. Once he was done, another look around, and if there had been anyone to see him, they'd have seen a huge wolf step out onto the rocks to run up to the cover of the ridge in the silver wall of cold rain.
He tried to find some cover in the meadow, but there was no getting away from the biting wind and the hissing cold rain as he made for the woods. He had several holes to hide in, but he should have gotten to them before getting soaked. Once in the cover of the forest, he became a man again, wet and cold. But doing this allowed him to shed much of the water, and turning back into his middle form again, he could move through the dripping forest easily.
He checked one hole after another, the only one that was dry was now occupied by a bear, and even he wouldn't try to dislodge a bear from a den, not like this. The best that he'd be able to do was kill it inside the hole, and then he'd have a bloody and reeking hole - if he could even fish the carcass out of it.
Helen was inside the house as the storm hit. Even partially sheltered by some trees, she heard the pounding of the rain on the roof. She lit the woodstove and soon had some warmth from it to help keep the air inside dry, but she kept wandering to the front windows. She was afraid now for herself if there was someone watching her, but that was secondary to how she worried for her large friend out there someplace. Helen wished that she hadn't seen the flowers yet. She wondered if she really could have convinced him to come inside before the weather turned this sour. She loved a good storm - always had - once she was assured that there was shelter for her if she wanted it. But now, well there was just no enjoying this, not with the huge wolf that she now cared deeply for out there. She was probably worrying needlessly, and she hoped that was what it was. The thought of him out in this with no shelter, no place to go ...
A completely insane thought came to her as she pictured him in her mind. He was so bright, so intelligent. She had no doubt that if he'd been born with thumbs and could understand her, they'd have a lot of fun with it, but he could probably be kept happy and fascinated once she'd shown him how to work a mouse and use a computer very basically. She thought of children's programs, just basic shape stuff. It was a nutty thought that amused her as she pictured it, but she was at least a little bit certain that he was bright enough for it. It was probably just as well that he was the way he was. She laughed a little, imagining herself coming home to the island one day to find him bidding for a cat on eBay. The thought amused the hell out of her.
She saw him there on the beach or in the open meadow in her mind again. He was one fantastic example of whatever species of wolf that he was. She remembered what she'd inadvertently said to him about girlfriends and it made her sad for him again. He didn't indicate it, but she knew that he was proud of his place in the food chain here and he had a right to be. She thought about his shoulders and the way that he was built. He was big enough and powerful enough to take on at least one freaking bear without a thought to protect her blundering ass. It was her amazing luck to have met the Terminator of wolves. It was obvious that he sure liked her, she was still thankful for that. And damn, he was so gorgeous to look at.
She chuckled a little, remembering where his nose had been headed there on the beach. That wasn't ever going to happen and she resolved to pay more attention the next time in case it was about to, but ...
