Page 9 of Fated to the Wolf Cowboy
Still, nothing.
There was not a single living thing within eyesight.
No signs of humanity whatsoever.
No one was coming to my rescue.
Panic bubbled up within me once more as reality sunk in.
In my paranoia, I’d left my cell phone back in the city. I didn’t know if real people could track a person’s cell or not, but I didn’t want a possibility like that to be my fall. Besides, I’d haveto shift back into my skin to use it and that couldn’t happen right now with a broken leg.
Before I was lost to the panic and fear welling up within me, that mysterious sound from last night sounded again.
My head whipped around as my heartrate spiked.
Moo!
I almost laughed as I realized what it was. It took me a moment to find it, but there not even a hundred yards away stood a big brown cow.
I sighed in relief.
“Hello, big guy,” I spoke to the animal as if I were speaking to an old friend. The words didn’t actually come out because I was currently a wolf, but in my head, it was as clear as if we were having an actual conversation.
Feeling relieved, I momentarily forgot all about my leg, until I tried to stand to go to him and instantly collapsed back onto the ground.
“Ow.”
“What’s wrong?” the cow asked me.
“I think I broke my leg,” I responded. “Can you go get help?”
“No.”
“What? Come on. You have to help me.”
“No.”
Without another word, he walked away.
“Come back here.”
“No.”
“You asshole. I need your help.”
“No,” I heard him say from much further away this time.
My heart sank.
That was weird. Did that really just happen? Maybe I hit my head on that stupid tree too.
I had always been able to talk to animals, but I’d never had one tell me no before. When I asked an animal to do something, they did it. Sometimes I didn’t even have to ask. Like those rats in the subway station. They’d know what I needed and wanted before I even formed the thought.
That was my power. I was the weird freak that talked to animals. Not only that, but I could command them, well usually I could. I didn’t quite know how to explain it, but it was like I could send a part of me with them, too. And when they returned to me, I could see and experience everything they had seen and done.
I had flown high in the sky as a bird and terrorized unsuspecting tourists as a squirrel. Once I explored a whole unseen world below the city as a rat. It was magical. As a child I hadn’t realized it wasn’t normal. Many called me a daydreamer as I laid there on the grass in Central Park with my eyes closed as I relived my little friends’ adventures.
Somewhere along the way I realized it wasn’t normal to talk to animals. And I also discovered that these adventures I loved were all because I commanded them to show me. Most of the time I didn’t even realize what was happening until after the fact. Again, like the rats in the subway.
