Full Moon Pt. 1

Ash’s P.O.V.  :

                God I hate living like this. I thought as I ran from the merchant. For some reason, ever since I was five I’d been running from people. Either I stole something, I was trying to run from my past, or there was someone trying to kill me.  Now I’m sixteen. This has been my life for a couple of years now, I’m used to it.

                This time I stole bread and tomatoes. A pretty bad grab for the weight or it. But this merchant was slow, and he didn’t want to run. I looked over my shoulder.

“HA” I laughed, picking up the pace

                He fell behind, too tired to get the food that would’ve gotten him 1.65 of this town’s money. It was important to him, but he would get real business any other day. So what if I don’t have money to get food? There are tons of other people who are going to get his food by buying it. I ran just a little farther, making sure that if he was still following me, or was going to stalk me, that I had plenty of time to know if he was there or not.

                This proud walk I had after I got something came in. Almost like I was a master at taking things, even though I knew I wasn’t. After a grab and run like this, I was tired. Somewhere in the back of my mind told me to keep walking. So, I kept walking, but slowly, patiently.

                That merchant wasn’t following me, he had too much else to look after to care about what I took. On this autumn night, the air bit back. But I was used to the cold, and the hunger, and the pain. But I was used to it. The stars were bright, I looked up, appreciating the beauty I saw for a few hours of my life that made it all worth it. But as I was walking, I tripped over something. My bag went flying.

“Come on self, be quieter” I whispered, picking up my bag

                What I had tripped over, seemed to be a sack, a burlap sack. A traveling merchant must’ve dropped it.  I thought,  going over to the bag. But it was, at least seemed, to not be the shape of something a traveling merchant would sell.

“Only way to see is to look” I shrugged, pulling a corner of the fabric off of the object “My god…”

                This object was a baby. Not what I had been expecting. It could’ve been either a boy or a girl, but by the way it acted, it was a girl. Now I’ve never been a baby person, but a premature baby girl who was obviously only born a few days ago? This was something that really went deep inside me.

                I had been ditched as a baby too, growing up with a few strangers until they died of some disease. She kept her eyes closed, probably too tired to open them. Her little body curled up, trying to keep warm. I pulled the bag down a little more, exposing two things. One, a scar, from her right eye to her left shoulder. Two, dog ears. This baby has dog ears.

                They twitched, unused to the cold autumn air. She was precious, but very weird. But I wasn’t one to talk, as a kid I had hard enough times when I was growing up. Back then, I had this skin condition, I guess you could call it that. It wasn’t good and it kept people away. Her hands came out from the bag, they held onto my shirt, gripping with all their might.

                She was having a nightmare.

Her face looked pained, overly tired and scared. A small whimper came out.

“Hey” I whispered, holding her close

                Thankfully, her eyes fluttered open. A mix of red, orange and yellow. Like a fire. It was beautiful. She seemed scared, but comforted at the same time. She gave me a little smile, two small fangs showed through her little grin. It was adorable. Her hair was black, the inside of her ears, snow white. She reached up and licked my chin.

                Her dog attributes showing through, I smiled down at her. Normally, I wouldn’t do this, but this was different, and the normal wouldn’t cut it with this adorable girl. I stood up, grabbed my bag, and pulled my jacket out. No way was I going to let her be wrapped in a burlap bag. I wrapped my coat around her and balled up the sack.

                She had this little giggle, or maybe it was a little bark. I don’t know. It was just adorable. She curled up in my arms, loving my jacket. Her hair was soft, and her ears were softer. Somehow, someone had pierced her ears. How…? Pierced ears were rare around her, only nobles really had pierced ears. She had three little golden hoops lining both of her dog ears.

                Wait, does she have human ears? I thought. This was a good question to my mind, so, like any curious person, I lifted the hair she had, which to me seemed much longer than a little baby would have.

“Wow…” I said  

                She didn’t have ears. Well, human ears. It was weird to see, but not that weird to see. I pet her head, which she liked. Her little tongue stuck out right in between her fangs. Never before did I think that I’d be seeing a baby like this. Cute, but a little scary.

                As I held her she warmed up to me quickly. She had liked me before, but now she loved me. I pulled a little piece of bread off and offered it to her. Quickly she nipped it out of my hand and ate it. I laughed, it was cute and funny. She looked at me like I was crazy, tilting her head, unsure of what I found so hilarious. Almost right after I started laughing, I felt something else on her.

                A… A tail…

I pulled her out of my jacket and saw a black tail, about two inches around, maybe? Wagging like there was no tomorrow. I laughed even more, shocked, but excited. She was like a dog, a real dog. Her hands reached out to me, wanting me to hold her closer. I smiled and put her back in my jacket, her tail thumped against the fabric.

                She needed a name. Something unique. Something that would fit a half dog half human. Arie. Her name would be Arie.

“You’re cute. I’ll call you Arie” I smiled, walking, looking down at her

                She barked in this little happy way that I took as an agreement in her name.

“Alright Arie” I laughed, pulling off another piece of bread “Here you go”

                This time she licked it, the bread stuck to her tongue and she ate it. A funny, but adorable way to eat bread. She started kinda struggling in my arms.

“Okay?” I said, setting her down, unsure of what she wanted

                For a moment, she looked up at me. This big silly grin on her face, and her eyes full of adventure. She took off, running like I wouldn’t have thought she could. On all fours she bolted down the street, I took off after her.

“Arie!” I yelled a few minutes after this mad chase had started

                Almost instantly she stopped and looked at me. Her little limbs piled underneath her.

“Come here” I laughed, patting my legs

                She bolted back toward me and jumped into my arms.

“Come on then” I laughed even more, there was a little cove around here that I stayed in a lot.

                She made herself right at home, she was so sweet. I sat down and she curled up next to me.