Sentinels in the Deep Ocean

by StacyPlays

  Stacy had never seen so many dogs in her life! And they were each so unique. A young man walked along the row of cages over to where Stacy and the dalmatian were standing and introduced himself.

  “Hi, I’m Ezra,” he said. “Who is this?” He bent down and patted the dalmatian on the head.

  “I’m Stacy,” Stacy said, before she realized he was talking about the dog.

  Stacy decided to use her real name. She was tired of making up stories as she had with the farmer and the receptionist at the animal hospital.

  “I found this dog running around in the streets and was told I should bring him here.”

  “Great!” Ezra replied. “Well, you’ve definitely brought him to the right place. We take in stray dogs from the village and the surrounding farms and neighborhoods. Any dog who doesn’t have a home or has lost their owners is welcome here.”

  “Why . . . why wouldn’t a dog have a home?” Stacy asked. She assumed all dogs who were here had lost their owners and that their owners were out looking for them.

  “Sadly, sometimes people will drop dogs off here at our shelter if they don’t want them anymore. It could be a case where they didn’t get their dog spayed or neutered and it had puppies they can’t care for . . . or the dog is bored and chews up their favorite things and they want to get rid of it. Or, in very sad cases, their dog is old and will die soon, and they don’t want to have it around anymore.”

  Stacy bit into her lip to keep from crying.

  “There are people who would do that?” she asked Ezra.

  “Yes, unfortunately,” he replied. “But we are lucky because we have the facilities to take in all the dogs and keep them here until people come to adopt them. That’s not the case in every shelter. Sometimes dogs and cats have to be killed in order to make room for all the other dogs and cats they have coming in. Sometimes dogs only have a week or two to get adopted before they are put to sleep permanently . . . even if they are in good health.”

  “That’s . . . horrific,” Stacy whispered. She couldn’t believe that humans were so selfish and greedy that not only had they tried to take homes away from the animals in the forest by bulldozing the land, but they couldn’t even provide good homes for the dogs and cats they had domesticated as pets. How could they be so cruel?

  “Here, I can take him,” Ezra said, placing his own lead around the dog’s neck and handing Stacy’s rope back to her. “We’ll put up some flyers with his picture on them and see if anyone reports him as missing. But if not, he will have a blanket, a toy, and two good meals per day here until he gets adopted. I’m sure a beautiful dog like this will have no problem finding a loving forever home.”

  “I hope so,” Stacy said, giving the dog a hug and a pat on the head.

  “A lot of people want purebred dogs like dalmatians,” Ezra added. “Personally, I like mixed-breed dogs the best. Mutts are unique.”

  Mutts? That must be what Page and Molly are. That settles it . . . my favorite breed of dog is a mutt!

  “Well, I better go,” Stacy said. “My cat is next door at the animal hospital getting checked out.”

  Ezra nodded. “I hope your cat is okay. And if you ever want to come back—we are always in need of volunteers to help us give the dogs baths, feed them, and exercise them.”

  “I would love that!” Stacy said as she headed out the door. Stacy smiled. How wonderful if she could spend a few hours before or after her lunches with Miriam helping out at the Village County Animal Shelter. Stacy practically skipped back to the animal hospital, but her excitement faded as she remembered what was about to happen. She would be meeting with the doctor to learn whether Pipsqueak could be saved or not.

  Stacy was ushered into the room in the back and waited nervously for several minutes until Dr. Kay entered the room holding Pipsqueak.

  “It was just as I suspected,” she said enthusiastically, setting Pipsqueak down on the counter. “Pip is not a lynx. He’s a regular pet cat!”

  “A cat?” Stacy said incredulously. “Like . . . a normal cat?”

  “He’s definitely going to be on the larger side of domesticated cats,” Dr. Kay told Stacy. “I would guess he’s a lynx point Siamese mixed with a Maine coon breed.”

  Stacy took in this information slowly. If Pipsqueak is just a big cat, that means that he and Milquetoast will be able to play together. And he won’t get bigger than Page and Molly. And he won’t compete for food with my wolves or want to hunt in the taiga—I’ll be able to keep him fed just like Milquetoast with the salmon and trout Noah catches. We will be able to keep him forever in the cave! Unless . . .

  “But is he going to get better?” Stacy asked, looking up at Dr. Kay. “He seemed so sick.”

  “He was very undernourished, and his little body was beginning to shut down,” she said. “You found him just in time. A few more hours and he would not be with us anymore. We’ve given him some subcutaneous fluids, some standard shots, and some antibiotics. He also has a nasty case of worms in his stomach, but this medicine will clear that right up.”

  Dr. Kay handed Stacy a bag containing several oral syringes filled with a thick yellow liquid.

  “Give him one of those twice a day until you run out, and then his appetite should come back,” she said. “In fact, I bet his appetite will be pretty insatiable.”

  Stacy wasn’t entirely sure what that word meant, but she knew one thing for certain, and it was the only thing that mattered to her in that moment: Pip was going to live.

  Four

  STACY SAT AT her desk in the back of the cave and stared at the runes in her journal. It was the next day, and Pipsqueak was already showing signs of improvement. She had been giving him the medicine, and he had slept for a long time, almost the entire night. Everest had woken up with him very early and helped him to take a few bites of pumpkin. It was now late afternoon, and he’d eaten a portion of fish around noon and even showed a few signs of wanting to play with Milquetoast. Stacy hadn’t nearly enough money to pay the bill for Pip’s care, but Dr. Kay told Stacy she could work off what she owed by helping at the animal hospital in the summer when Stacy wasn’t in school. Stacy hadn’t bothered to tell Dr. Kay that she didn’t go to school. Stacy hadn’t decided what to do about Miriam’s offer. She still wasn’t sure how she really felt about it. She also wasn’t sure what Addison would think, and she didn’t want to tell any of the wolves just yet, either. She had been trying her hardest not to think about it ever since she got back to the taiga, which had proved impossible. Stacy suspected Everest already knew.

  Stacy put the thought out of her mind again and went back to looking at the rune in her journal. Lqcca. Auiom. Patpb. Irrpe. This has got to be another language that I don’t know. Stacy was frustrated. If I can’t figure this rune out, how am I supposed to go to a school where I don’t know anyone and I haven’t learned any of the things they’ve learned? I will definitely be the dumbest one in my class. Maybe Miriam was just trying to be nice.

  Everest walked over from where he was watching Pipsqueak and nuzzled her shoulder. You must know what I’m thinking about, Everest, but nothing has been decided. Everest gave her an understanding nod. Just then, Addison walked over to Stacy. The spectacled wolf bent over Stacy’s shoulder, looking at the runes. The two of them stared at the page until Stacy’s eyes hurt. The unfamiliar shapes all began to blur together for her. Suddenly, Addison nudged Stacy’s shoulder, breaking Stacy from her trance. Stacy looked to Addison, whose eyes were darting around wildly at Stacy’s scrawls. Then, Addison took her nose and pressed it to the page of Stacy’s journal, dragging it down the letters.

  “L . . . a . . . p . . . i . . . s,” Stacy read aloud as Addison moved her nose. “Lapis!”

  Stacy jumped up from her wooden stool. I know that word! Stacy knew lapis lazuli was a deep blue metamorphic rock found in caves. The words aren’t meant to be read horizontally; they’re written vertically!

  “Addi, you’re a genius,” Stacy said, rubbing the wolf’s
head and sitting back down. She quickly read the rest of the words. Quartz. Citrine. Copper. Amber. Garnet. All gemstones. Was the tundra explorer also a geologist? Was this just a list of the various rocks she’d uncovered in the different biomes she’d traveled to?

  Stacy walked over to her rocking chair and sat down. She wasn’t sure what she had expected when she began her translations, but this certainly wasn’t it. She’d hoped the rune would have contained some secret information about the wolves—something the tundra explorer couldn’t risk writing down so that just anyone could find it and read it, but something important that needed to be recorded. Something someone like Stacy—a person who also knew the rune language and about the wolves’ powers—would need to know. There had been no traces of gemstones in the glacier cavern and no mention of mining in the first entry of the journal Stacy had translated. What am I missing?

  A week passed, and Pipsqueak continued to progress. For all his balking at having another animal in the cave, Everest had taken a real liking to Pipsqueak. Milquetoast loved Pipsqueak too and groomed him every day. He had finished his medicine and, just as Dr. Kay predicted, his appetite had returned. He could eat almost a whole salmon by himself now, which Stacy thought was a remarkable feat for a cat who was still so tiny.

  Stacy hadn’t looked at the rune since that first day back. She had set it aside and had been busying herself with chores around the cave. Since springtime was nearly in full swing, there was lot to accomplish. Stacy had worked for several days with Wink to chop wood to stack inside the cave, where it would stay dry. Spring was a strange season in the taiga. It could be sunny one hour and hailing the next. And there would inevitably be one or two surprise springtime snowstorms. Stacy wanted to have plenty of firewood to keep the cave warm.

  The next day, however, was sunny, and Stacy decided it was a good day for a trip to the river. Noah would be able to fish for salmon there this time of year. Stacy wanted to dry a lot of fish skin to have around as treats for everyone. She and Addison had spent a lot of time over the past week drying the fish Noah had caught on their tundra expedition.

  A trip to the river would also give Stacy the opportunity to wash all her winter clothes and store them for the season. And while they were there, she could forage for some wild asparagus. Sadly, it was too early in the year to find blackberries, Stacy’s favorite. But if she found asparagus, perhaps she and Addison could attempt to make the breakfast Stacy had eaten at the diner. She’d been dreaming about it ever since.

  Everest decided to stay with Pipsqueak and Milquetoast, along with Tucker, who was still sleeping more during the day than usual. And Addison had left the cave early to work the land over at the little grove where they farmed. Stacy suspected she wouldn’t have wanted to go to the river anyway. Addison hates it when her glasses get wet.

  This left Noah, Basil, Wink, Page, and Molly to accompany Stacy to the river. The six of them set off together. Basil wore a pack filled with Stacy’s winter clothes. Stacy carried her satchel, as well as a folded-up piece of tarp to hold all the fish Noah would catch. It was the same tarp her wolves had used to carry Noah into the cave a few weeks ago when he’d been unconscious from a tranquilizer dart. He’d been able to sleep off the sedation in the cave, but boy, was Stacy grateful they’d had the tarp with them then.

  The taiga was wet. Tiny droplets of dew were everywhere she looked on the way to the river, but Stacy knew the sun would soon dry everything up. A family of deer crossed in front of them, unfazed by Stacy and her clan, even Page and Molly. This made Stacy smile. She and her animals had truly become part of the forest. Stacy reached into her satchel and pulled out a handful of lingonberries to snack on while they walked.

  The group reached the river and walked north along the shore for thirty minutes until they reached the waterfall where Stacy had once rescued a small rabbit with Everest and Noah. The waterfall was powerful during this time of year when all the snow from the mountains was melting. Stacy was grateful for the thundering noise from the falls—no one would be able to hear them as they splashed, barked, and yelled. The six of them spent an hour playing and soaking in the small hot springs Noah located on the west riverbank near the waterfall. Noah and Basil had a swimming competition to see who could swim the fastest while Stacy and Page treaded water, basking in the warmth of the water and the midday sun. Wink decided to climb to the top of the waterfall and jump several times, and Molly—poor Molly—sat on the shore of the river, determined not to get wet.

  Eventually, Stacy and Page swam back across the river to where Molly was patiently waiting. Stacy spread out the tarp for Noah’s fish and got to work washing her clothes while Page and Molly napped. Basil decided to help Noah with his fishing while Wink was off gallivanting somewhere. Stacy finished washing her clothes and laid them out to dry. She took the tundra explorer’s journal and her own out from her satchel and began to translate another entry. When she was finished, she sat back and read it.

  Spent the day with the male on the tundra, exercising his abilities, several of which have developed since I’ve come to live here. My current hypothesis is this new (or ancient?) species of wolves develop and deepen their powers throughout their lives. Whether they are born with them or they evolve, it is unclear, and I do not expect to know until our first litter of pups are born. His abilities are extraordinary—he can summon fire, freeze and unfreeze ice under his paws and, what is perhaps his strongest and oldest ability, he is able to show me past events by triggering memories in my mind—memories that are not even mine, but are his. I’ve taken to calling him Ames—short, of course, for Amethyst.

  Stacy stared at the last word of the journal entry. And then remembered the elder wolf’s piercing purple eyes. His name was Amethyst? Stacy flipped back to the rune she was trying to make sense of and then looked around at the wolves who had come to the river with her. Noah’s blue eyes: lapis. Basil: citrine. Wink was back from his adventure, the now-setting sun glinting off his deep brown gaze: garnet. It’s their names! Everest’s eyes were silver like quartz, Tucker’s were copper, and Addison’s were amber. Stacy looked at the rune. It all made sense to her now. The rune was a perfect family tree. Stacy’s wolves were the descendants of the tundra explorer’s two wolves: Amethyst and Diamond. Diamond. The wolf with prismatic eyes from the vision! Their mother! And by that logic . . . there were two other wolves living in the mesa, Alpha and Beta, and . . . and four wolf pups! Stacy sat in stunned silence. Diamond was crossed out in the ice cave and Ames was alone. I think that means she died. But there might be more magical wolves in the mesa? And maybe that’s where the tundra explorer is too. We’ve got to go to the mesa!

  Stacy knew this wasn’t the ideal time to take a trip away from the taiga, since Pipsqueak was only just regaining his strength, but the more she thought about the idea, the more she had to admit she liked it. Every other time she and her wolves had left the taiga, it had not been of their own volition. They were running away from guns: hunting rifles and tranquilizer darts. This time will be different. This time it’s on our terms. And Tucker will probably want to stay behind with the cats, which would be good since he still needs plenty of rest.

  Suddenly, Everest bounded into view, panting heavily as if he’d just sprinted from the cave to where Stacy was sitting on the bank of the river. Oh, so you heard what I’ve been thinking about, have you, Everest? Well, let me have it. You probably think it’s a terrible idea, right? Stacy looked up from folding her clothes and into Everest’s big gray eyes. She was surprised. You . . . you want to go? Stacy saw it right away in his expression. Longing. And Stacy understood completely. If there was even the smallest chance that she could find her family, she would jump at it. Her parents had died in a tragic accident—an accident she had survived. Stacy didn’t like to think about it too much; she was happy with her life in the taiga after all. But she couldn’t blame Everest for wanting to find more of his kind. And it had been her idea anyway!

  “Everyone, gather round
,” Stacy said to the others who were still splashing around at the river’s edge. “We’re going back to the mesa!”

  Five

  STACY POURED A large handful of pumpkin seeds onto the top shelf of her bookcase, where Fluff roosted. A few days had passed since her epiphany about the possible existence of a mesa wolf pack. Stacy’s group had been preparing to leave ever since.

  Addison surprised Stacy by deciding to stay behind in the cave with Tucker and the cats. This made Stacy a little sad. After all, it had been Addison who led them across the tundra and deciphered the runes that led Stacy to theorize that there could actually be wolves in the mesa with similar powers. We need Addi to come, don’t we? I still can’t read the runes without translating them first. On the other hand, it did make Stacy feel better that someone was staying with Tucker as he continued to recover. Pipsqueak’s recovery, however, had been nothing short of miraculous. The little guy was chasing Milquetoast around the cave practically nonstop at this point—pouncing on him and wrestling at all hours of the night (much to Everest’s chagrin).

  The cats were a handful now, but Addison would keep everything in order while the pack was away. She’d be able to continue all the spring planting in the garden and keep the cave tidy for when they returned. It was a good plan.