The Beggening, Part 3

      I finally got used to the idea of being in the zoo after a month or so. All I had to do was ignore the stare from the hideous human faces, get used to having an actually meal every day, and ignore the aching feeling every time I thought of home. The other wolves were friendly enough, but I had a feeling this was only temporary. Soon my pack would come and rescue me. All I had to do was sit tight. Alas, this was not the case.

      One very hot, cloudless, sunny day something absolutely awful happened. I was playing with the younger wolves (who, in a normal pack, would be babysitting the pups anyway) in the little shade that our enclosure had. The sun was beating down and our thick coats weren't helping. No one wanted to go into the small pond because it was warm and practically steaming. Not many humans were at the zoo either. Even Tirra was being affected by the heat. She seemed like she didn't have it in her to boss us around today.

      Suddenly, Qin looked up from playing with me and sniffed the air. "I smell... smoke," he said. I stopped and sniffed too. Sure enough a rough, strange odor wafted into my nose. "What is smoke?" I asked. "It's the stuff fire spits out," Igna replied solemnly. Before I could ask what a fire was, a wave of heat barreled into me. I wheezed. "Run! Go! Get out of here, all of you!" Poutner barked. He was on his all four paws, hackles up. He smelled entirely of fear. I looked where he was staring and saw red, flickering stuff consuming half of our encloser. The other wolves scrambled into a panic. We ran around looking for an exit. All of a sudden I knew what fire was.

    Then a blood curdling screech rang in every corner of our encloser. I finally found a small hole, big enough even for Malidy, the biggest of all of us. "Over here! Quick!" I cried. I scrambled through the hole before I could get trampled. I ran out into the middle of the zoo. A quick look behind me and I saw Poutner sitting and watching us from inside as the flames grew stronger and stronger around him. "Go!" He yelled, "Don't mind me! It is my time!" And then all heck broke out in the zoo.

-howl on