Believe - Chapter 9: The human

Imya woke up from being grabbed by something. Instinctively she tried to wiggle out of it and kicked around. Something grabbed hard in her neck, at the spot that made her body get stiff and pull the energy out of her limbs. She lay there pressed on the ground and opened her eyes to see what caught her.

He was clearly a human, just like the one she had seen a few nights ago. This human however was much closer and had her restricted on the ground. She made low growling noises and looked at him with big frightened eyes. She tried to free herself but the human was much stronger than she was. He pulled her up and held her in his hands. She dangled down a bit over the ground and felt the ground under her move. This human carried her just like her mother did in the past. He did not go far but sat down in one of the big things that Imya saw the night before. From outside the window light was falling into this big den. It was bright and Imya knew that it was still day and that this was the light of the sun and not the moon.

The human put her down on his lap and his other hand descended towards her face. Imya tried to bite and keep him away from her but her teeth could not reach his hand. He evaded her mouth and caressed over her nose and face and ruffled her ears. At first Imya still tried to bite the hand and she was afraid but soon she noticed that this hand was soft and caring and did not hurt her. The opposite was true. It felt nice and somehow made her calm down a bit. She stopped trying to bite this creature but accepted his touch and stopped growling. Her nose wiggled while it took in the strange scent. Imya never had smelled something like that. Only the white thing around her leg had have a bit of this scent as well all over it.

"I see you already calmed down." Imya looked to the cat that lay down on the ground and looked up. "Don't worry. He does not want to hurt you. Actually, he wants to help you."

The cat was the only creature she could at least trust a bit even though she still was not sure if she did not try to play tricks on Imya. At least the touch of this human did not hurt yet and Imya decided to spare her energy for the moment she maybe could escape.

The hand from her neck was removed and Imya tried to jump down on the floor but the human held her back softly. He held her leg and even though she tried to bite him again to get him to let loose he held pressed her against his stomach and held the leg separated. With his other hand he began to fumble at this white thing around her leg and then it loosened and came off. What seemed to be like one thing happened to turn into a long thin layer of soft material that got longer and longer the more the human circled it around her leg. In the end, it fell to the ground and Imya looked at her leg. Her fur was a big red from blood and brown from something else that smelled very awful. Imya detected that this was the smell that she had noticed before when she sniffed at the white thing.

The human took something out of a bowl and Imya heard water splashing. Something wet was pressed on her leg that was as soft as a tongue and then it licked around her leg and soaked her fur. If felt warm and hurt a bit when it was scrubbing over the wounds. Imya growled a bit and tried to break free again but she was not strong enough to break the hold of the hand and arm of the human.

When he put this wet thing back into the bowl she saw that her fur was clean. Even though her wounds burned, they seemed to not bleed because no red strain was visible on her leg.

Then the human came back with another soft thing that was dry and thing licked off all the wetness of her leg.

The human now pulled something small that was brown and wet at the tip and had this horrible smell and touched her wounds with it. It stung strong and Imya howled in pain and tried to struggle again. For a second her leg seemed to slip out of the grasp of the human but he gripped and she could not move again.

A new layer of this white soft stuff was softly wrapped around her leg. The burning sting faded away and the pain in her leg subsided. It felt warm and when the human was finished with wrapping this white thing around her leg she was put on the ground and quickly tried to get as much distance between herself and the human. She still stepped carefully on the injured leg but it did not hurt as much with every step now.

"This brown water is not very pleasant, is it?" the cat asked. Imya still whimpered a bit from the burning pain. "What is that? Why did this human do that?"

The cat ran her body along Imya and purred.

"He wants to help you my dear." She laughed. - "Help me? It hurt very strong." Imya protested. "What is this white thing?" she tried to pull the white thing off again but the cat stopped her.

"I told you to not remove it, didn't I?" she scolded Imya. "I told you this night already that it is called a bandage." She explained with a softer voice. "A bandage makes it heal faster. Just like this brown water. The humans call it iodine. It smells horrible and it stings but you will see, tomorrow you will not feel much pain in your leg anymore." Imya looked at the cat with unbelieving eyes. She had seen one of the older wolfs getting hurt a few month ago and it took weeks until he could stop limping.

"If I were you, I would rest today. The sun is already going down. I know you wolfs are active at night but you should just lay here and enjoy the warm house as long as you stay here. You will heal faster if you just stay put." The cat led her back to the big white soft thing where she had rested the last night. "This is called a towel and it is very comfortable." A cold wind brushed over them and a loud crash came from the other side of this strange den. Imya, who was just about to lay down, stood high on her feet and bared her fangs towards the expected attacker.

"No worries, this was just the dor. The human left the house and will only come back late tonight."

Imya slowly calmed down and finally lay down on the towel. "What is a house?" she asked and the cat stretched and yawned. "You would call it a den maybe. This thing we are in is called a house. This is where the humans live. And those who are privileged to live with them like me!" she made a gesture that showed that the cat was giving high value to being with the humans.

Imya was not used to be awake during the day and the stress she had been in from the treatment of the human exhausted her and she fell asleep again soon.

She woke up once much later when it was much darker and only the warm fire and a smaller one on one of the strange rocks in the middle of this house was spending light to this den. She had to go through the same treatment as during the day but this time she kept a lot calmer and it also did not hurt that much. The human lay down on some big soft rock in the other corner and Imya spend the rest of the night with asking questions to the cat and learn more about the strange 'house' thing that they were in and the humans.