move. Right under the eagleâs nest. Funny, nobody comes out here except to dump fish remains.â
Nika turned her head and looked at the rock slabs and dense shrubs and their mirrored reflections in the lake. âI donât see anything. Maybe it was a squirrel.â
âBig squirrel.â Thomas laughed. He looked for a while longer, then pulled the starter on the outboard, aiming the boat back toward home.
Nika felt the breeze on her face. She felt pleased with what theyâd done. Those animals didnât deserve to live like that. Now they were free. And theyâd gotten back at Bristo for snatching pups and imprisoning animals. It served him right.
âHey, Nika, letâs remember to put the wire cutters back, okay?â shouted Thomas over the motor noise.
âYeah, okay.â She remembered dropping them by the cougarâs cage. She must have picked them up. âJust a sec, Iâll check my backpack.â She dumped all of the contents of the bag onto the bottom of the boat. âI donât see them. Are you sure you donât have them?â
âNo. You had them last.â
âOh, well, it doesnât matter, does it? No one will ever go behind that cage. I guess theyâre lost.â
âAre you sure?â Thomas asked loudly. His forehead wrinkled. She put up her hands.
As the boat gained speed, they looked at each other and shrugged. It was too late to go back. They could pool their money and buy another pair for Thomasâs dad.
Â
Releasing the animals felt good. In a way, it was like setting herself free. Nika loved that the foxes could now run and run through the damp earthy smells of the forest.
But by the next week, the secret about Bristoâs animals became heavier to carry. It wasnât that they told a lie. No one even asked them if theyâd caught fish on their supposed fishing trip. But it felt like a lie. When they planned it, she had been sure they were doing the right thing, but now the secret stuck in her throat. She found it hard to look at Ian when he talked to her, so she avoided conversation, except about pup care and dinner and the loon calls at night. She wasnât sorry about what theyâd done, but she couldnât figure out why she felt so alone. Thomas seemed to be busy all the time helping his dad build a deck. Added to that, Randall was still mad at her.
For Nika the best part of every one of the following days continued to be Khan. One thing was certainâhe liked her best. With everyone he met, except Lorna, the pup was friendly and relaxed, but when a sound scared him, he ran to Nika. When others were in the porch, he eased onto her lap to look at them. And when she was with him, touching his springy undercoat, rubbing his oversize feet, she felt whole in a way that she hadnât felt since her mom died.
Â
Nika settled into her pup care schedule, and the days ran together. She couldnât believe how big and agile Kahn was becoming. His legs got longer. His ears got taller, though the tips still flopped over now and then. Ian showed her how to make gruel for Khan, mixing formula, vitamins, and ground meat together to the consistency of lumpy oatmeal. Khan ate it from their open hands rather than a bowl and loved it. Ian said they would be weaning him off the bottle soon. He brought him deer feet and pieces of hide to drag about and use for teething. One nice thing about all of the quiet time with Khan is that she finished all of her homework, except science. And they had given her until fall to finish the pup project.
One day Zeus came racing up the path, his sharp barks announcing Pearlâs return. Nika let the dog into the house and watched while he made the rounds of the rooms, then plastered himself against the gate to the porch. Nika was amazed that he didnât seem upset. Instead he stared through the barrier, his tail moving in little interested twitches.
âWell, I guess
Nika turned her head and looked at the rock slabs and dense shrubs and their mirrored reflections in the lake. âI donât see anything. Maybe it was a squirrel.â
âBig squirrel.â Thomas laughed. He looked for a while longer, then pulled the starter on the outboard, aiming the boat back toward home.
Nika felt the breeze on her face. She felt pleased with what theyâd done. Those animals didnât deserve to live like that. Now they were free. And theyâd gotten back at Bristo for snatching pups and imprisoning animals. It served him right.
âHey, Nika, letâs remember to put the wire cutters back, okay?â shouted Thomas over the motor noise.
âYeah, okay.â She remembered dropping them by the cougarâs cage. She must have picked them up. âJust a sec, Iâll check my backpack.â She dumped all of the contents of the bag onto the bottom of the boat. âI donât see them. Are you sure you donât have them?â
âNo. You had them last.â
âOh, well, it doesnât matter, does it? No one will ever go behind that cage. I guess theyâre lost.â
âAre you sure?â Thomas asked loudly. His forehead wrinkled. She put up her hands.
As the boat gained speed, they looked at each other and shrugged. It was too late to go back. They could pool their money and buy another pair for Thomasâs dad.
Â
Releasing the animals felt good. In a way, it was like setting herself free. Nika loved that the foxes could now run and run through the damp earthy smells of the forest.
But by the next week, the secret about Bristoâs animals became heavier to carry. It wasnât that they told a lie. No one even asked them if theyâd caught fish on their supposed fishing trip. But it felt like a lie. When they planned it, she had been sure they were doing the right thing, but now the secret stuck in her throat. She found it hard to look at Ian when he talked to her, so she avoided conversation, except about pup care and dinner and the loon calls at night. She wasnât sorry about what theyâd done, but she couldnât figure out why she felt so alone. Thomas seemed to be busy all the time helping his dad build a deck. Added to that, Randall was still mad at her.
For Nika the best part of every one of the following days continued to be Khan. One thing was certainâhe liked her best. With everyone he met, except Lorna, the pup was friendly and relaxed, but when a sound scared him, he ran to Nika. When others were in the porch, he eased onto her lap to look at them. And when she was with him, touching his springy undercoat, rubbing his oversize feet, she felt whole in a way that she hadnât felt since her mom died.
Â
Nika settled into her pup care schedule, and the days ran together. She couldnât believe how big and agile Kahn was becoming. His legs got longer. His ears got taller, though the tips still flopped over now and then. Ian showed her how to make gruel for Khan, mixing formula, vitamins, and ground meat together to the consistency of lumpy oatmeal. Khan ate it from their open hands rather than a bowl and loved it. Ian said they would be weaning him off the bottle soon. He brought him deer feet and pieces of hide to drag about and use for teething. One nice thing about all of the quiet time with Khan is that she finished all of her homework, except science. And they had given her until fall to finish the pup project.
One day Zeus came racing up the path, his sharp barks announcing Pearlâs return. Nika let the dog into the house and watched while he made the rounds of the rooms, then plastered himself against the gate to the porch. Nika was amazed that he didnât seem upset. Instead he stared through the barrier, his tail moving in little interested twitches.
âWell, I guess