Minu
Name means "paradise"
Info to come!
Name means "paradise"
Info to come!
A Chance Encounter...
It was Polonium's least favorite kind of day, one where the summer sun scorched in the sky and the very air was heavy and hot. He was thankful for the clouds brought by the evening and the cool relief of the night. He carefully emerged from his hiding place behind a fire escape in a dark alleyway. His stomach growled, protesting. He had spent the day in fetal position, hiding from the noisy city and the abominable heat, and he had not fed. The city had not stopped when the sun went down, if anything, it was more offensive now with it's blaring lights and honking taxis, but he could hide no longer. He needed food.
Polonium stepped down onto the pavement, which still felt warm to his touch, the tar soaked with heat from the day. He shook his fur out, but could not get rid of the feeling of mugginess. With a sigh, Polo flattened his ears and emerged onto the sidewalk of New York, New York.
It was a city unlike any other he had visited. Everyone seemed busy enough that he could slip down the sidewalk unnoticed, skulking with his side scraping against a building. He watched tennis sneakers and big square boots and dainty high-heels march back and forth. Too many people. And more importantly, no food. He moved onward.
Polo had just escaped the chaos of the street into a darker alley of town when he was rewarded by the sounds of tiny claws scuttling in the shadows. Prey! His stomach rumbled again at the thought. He flattened himself to the ground and raised his haunches, taking careful stock of the space around him, the dumpster, the two mothy streetlamps, and the barbed-wire fence, all of which were potential hiding places for his quarry. There were too many conflicting smells in the alley for him to decipher one trail, so he followed his ears instead. It sounded like it was between the dumpster and the fence. Carefully, carefully, now.
There was a moment of complete silence before several things happened all at once. Polonium pounced. Somebody screamed. A scratching, scraping sound rattled Polo's ears. He dug in his heels quickly and skidded to a stop. The screaming subsided. Polo twitched his left ear and took a careful look around.
Standing on the other side of the fence, nearly invisible in the darkness, was a wolf. A wolf! From between her ears sprouted two tiny antlers, velvety like a young buck's, which were hopelessly tangled in the barbed wire. Two damp tear tracks ran down her face, but she looked at Polo with bright eyes.
"And what on the good Earth was that for?" she inquired. She grimaced as she turned to get a better look at him and the wire cut deeper.
"I apologize." said Polonium coldly, still slightly disappointed that he had found a problem instead of a meal. He contemplated his discovery. Could he leave her? Well, technically of course he could. Could he leave her with a clear conscience, though? This looked like a mess he didn't want to be dragged into, and it wasn't even his fault she was stuck. Was she even stuck? Well, he might as well find out. "Are you stuck?"
"Yes." said the wolf with a little laugh. "It's a bit of an interesting yarn, to be honest. I was crawling under this 18-wheeler, you see, and..."
Polo tuned out her prattle. No, he probably couldn't leave her like this, could he? He flattened himself to the ground and inched his way beneath the fence. He felt the sharp barbs along his back but he was careful that none of them stuck or cut deep. Maybe thick fur was a blessing after all, even if it made the summer heat uncomfortable. Once Polonium was on the same side of the fence as the other dog, he turned his attention to freeing her from the wire.
"Then the light turned green, so the motorcycle just came and ran right over the--"
"Yes, interesting. Can you hold still for a minute?"
The other dog obeyed, but looked affronted. "Well, friendly pup you are! You haven't even told me your name!"
"Stop wiggling. And you haven't told me yours either." said Polo with a mouth full of wire.
"It's Minu." she said. And waited. Polo continued untangling the mess of wire.
Minu waited some more, then cleared her throat a little bit. Polo sighed.
"Polonium."
"You don't talk much, Polonium."
Polo pulled the final barb out of Minu's antler with his teeth. The loose wire sprung back and slashed across his face, leaving a tiny welt on his cheek. He let out a hiss and fought the desire to curse.
"There. You can go now."
"Well, gee, thanks!" said Minu with a winning smile. Polo sighed again. "Oh, are you hurt?" Minu's expressive eyes grew sympathetic. "I'm sorry that happened on my account. Is it deep?" She approached as if she intended to lick the wound. Polo flinched away.
"I'm going back to my hunt." he announced. Minu opened her mouth as if she was going to speak. "Alone." Polo clarified.
"Oh, well have fun then. And thank you - hey, will I see you again?"
"Probably not." said Polo sadly. He didn't have time to explain to her that New York would only hold his interest for another few days, then his wanderer's spirit would drive him off to somewhere new.
...But as it happened, Polo dwelled in the Big Apple nearly a week and a half, and that evening by streetlight was not the last he saw of those bright eyes and fuzzy antlers.