Chapter Eighteen

Armand and his friends and the strangers try to get to know each other.

    As we all walked to Shasta’s and Kyle’s house I noticed Quetzal positioned himself to walk beside Shasta.

    I saw her glance up at him but no smile appeared on her face.

    Quetzal was smiling down at her.

    I sighed inside. It seemed Shasta had cast another spell on Quetzal. The kind a female casts over a male, making him silly and helpless when it came to her.

    With those thoughts swirling about inside my head I glanced over at Miss Feather. She looked tense and concerned but still just as pretty as always.

    Suddenly she looked at me and our eyes locked.

    I smiled at her.

    She smiled back.

    I made to move closer to her when suddenly Mandie and Joshie came up beside me, one on each side.

    They looked up at me out of their large round grey eyes.

    One of them smiled, I had no idea which one. “Hi Armand.”

    “Hi. Which one are you?” I asked.

    “I’m Mandie.” And Mandie gave a high pitched giggle that caused me to think Mandie was female.

    “I’m Joshie.” Mandie’s twin said.

    “I have twin siblings. One is female and one is male but they don’t look alike like you two do.” I said.

    We were almost at the structure. Quetzal was even closer to Shasta now. He must not be bothering her, I thought, since she didn’t do anything to put him off.

    And Kyle didn’t act like he cared. I speculated they were not Mates.

    “Can we meet them?” Mandie asked.

    “Perhaps.”

    “Please!” Joshie said.

    “Tell me, and don’t be insulted or anything, but are you two males or females?” I boldly asked.

    They both burst into laughing again.

    “Armand!” Miss Feather said in disapproving shock.

    I made a little laugh. “I want to know.”

    Mr. Thunder just shook his head like I was hopeless.

    We were at the house now.

    Shasta turned to look at me, smiling now. “They do that on purpose, disguise what sex they are. They like to play tricks so no one here is offended by your question Armand.”

    I smiled, relieved, afraid for a moment or two I had made a terrible mistake. I waited for one of them to answer my question.

    Kyle glared at the twins. “You two need to stop doing that. You’re almost adults.”

    Mandie and Joshie giggled harder until they were bordering on out of control laughter.

    “Are you not going to answer our new friend’s question?” asked Shasta.

    Mandie took several deep breaths, trying to catch his or her breath, I still didn’t know which.

    Joshie stopped laughing. “We’re female. Both of us Armand.” She smiled sweetly at me.

    I found myself grinning back at her. Then I wanted to ask why she and her sister didn’t have tails like Shasta and Kyle but decided not to push it.

    Hopefully I’d be able to find out soon.

    “You’re lucky Armand you didn’t offend them.” Miss Feather said to me softly.

    Before I could respond to her Mandie hooked her arm with one of mine and Joshie hooked her arm with my other.

    “Welcome to our home Armand.” They both said simultaneously.

    “Thanks.” I said smiling.

    Miss Feather stood in front of me frowning.

    I looked at her, forcing up my eyebrows. She looked cute with that annoyed look on her face.

    Shasta opened the door to the house and went in. Then she turned to face us outside and said, “Our new friends we welcome you to our home.”

    Quetzal shot in right behind her and took his place beside her. I noticed she was wagging her bushy tail, batting his legs.

    He didn’t seem to mind.

    I went in with Mandie and Joshie clinging to me. Miss Feather and Mr. Thunder right behind me, Kyle bringing up the rear.

    The house was still lit up. I couldn’t see what the light source was. A quick look around showed the house was bare compared to Wolf People standards.

    There were large cushions scattered about the room and a few objects, decorations perhaps, sat on several shelves.

    I peered into a couple other rooms that had cushions large enough for a human size body to stretch out on covered with blankets and pillows.

    Bedrooms, I figured.

    “Sit.” said Shasta. “Let us talk a little.”

    We all sat, each taking a cushion or sharing one. Quetzal next to Shasta. Kyle by himself. I sat on one of the cushions and Mandie and Joshie sat on each side of me. Miss Feather and Mr. Thunder each sat alone on their chosen cushion.

    I thought Mandie and Joshie were cute but I was starting to feel alarmed. They were acting as badly toward me as Quetzal was acting toward Shasta.

    I looked at Miss Feather.

   She looked very unhappy.

    Oh no, I thought, this isn’t good, not good at all. She’s feeling jealous!

    But I couldn’t worry about Miss Feather just yet, as bad as that was. I looked at Shasta and said, “You have a comfortable home here. Very nice. Where are the rest of your people living?”

    “Not far from here. We are a connected group but need our space.” Shasta replied.

    “How do your people live Armand?” Kyle asked me.

    “We live in Packs in a Village. We all live close together. That is comfortable to us.” I told him.

    “Ah.” Kyle said. “Do you hunt and grow crops?”

    “We hunt. We only eat flesh.” I said.

    “We eat flesh, well cooked and we grow vegetables and take from the wild.” Shasta said.

    “We eat our meat raw.” I said.

    “Ew!” said Joshie. “Raw flesh!”

    I laughed. So did Mr. Thunder and Shasta.

    “We cook our meat. We would never eat it raw.” Shasta said.

    “We never cook our meat. That would be awful.” said Miss Feather.

    I could tell by her voice she was upset. I sighed slightly. I was going to have to reassure her and discourage Joshie and Mandie.

 

 

Reviews

[trish420]

Interesting twist with Mandie and Joshie. I wonder if there is a notable difference between them and the others what with them not having a tail? I like how everything is so descriptive with out being toomuch to read, it flows very well and just leaves me wanting more :-)

[Black Cat Fever]

Well, this Shasta seems to have some sort of strange influence on Quetzal and I bet Mandie and Joshie aren't so positive either. And poor Miss Feather, suffering from jealously!

[Theresa]

The two females have caught my attention. Especially how they cook their meat abd eat vegetables they seem more like humans then wolves and that makes me wonder if they are a threat to Armand and his friends since they dont seem like predators. I also like how Miss Feather is kind of jealous.

[Star Wolf]

Awesome. Curious about these new people, half wolf and half humans and the twins Joshie and Mandie.

Interesting creatures, these hybrids. They seem to live a bit more like people than wolves. I wonder what gives them their abilities and if they 'take that from the wild' as well. Very interesting!

[Jenny Nelson]

Nice! The info. flows well and the writing is done so as to enable the reader to picture what they're reading about.