How to Raise a Dumb Wolf - Chapter 59

Les fell ill.

Something had seemed wrong from the morning after they reached the royal palace of Micks. Aisha woke as usual and greeted Les, who always slept beside her bed. Ordinarily, he would have risen to nuzzle her, indulging in a little idle play before they properly began the day. This time, however, his response was unusually cold…

No. Cold was not quite the word. Les simply seemed unwell. Although he was awake and watching her quietly with those beautiful, clear blue-gray eyes, he did not move. He looked exhausted and listless.

“Les?”

Alarmed, Aisha jumped out of bed and dropped to her knees beside him, searching his body anxiously for anything amiss.

“Are you feeling sick? Is something wrong?”

Naturally, she received no answer.

Growing frantic, Aisha snatched up her wand and tried casting healing magic over him.

The more anxious she became, the guiltier Les felt. Even the slightest crease between Aisha’s brows made his heart ache, let alone seeing her like this. The truth was that he felt perfectly healthy and alert. He was only behaving this way because of what Queen Louisa had told him.

As the monarch of Micks, Louisa was renowned for her elegance. She had expressed herself with impeccable tact, but her meaning could not have been clearer. Les himself knew that continuing to share Aisha’s room was inappropriate. Before, he had been trapped by his identity as a pet and had no alternative. Now that Queen Louisa was willing to help him leave the room legitimately while also giving his human self a legitimate reason to remain at the palace, neither propriety nor reason allowed him to continue crowding in with an Aisha who knew nothing.

Her concern was plainly genuine. She truly feared something terrible had happened to him, and the sight left Les ashamed and heartsore. He wanted desperately to rise and rub his face against hers as he always did, to tell her that he was perfectly well, that as long as he could see her every day, remaining nothing more than a pet would be enough.

But he was a man—a real man, fully aware of Aisha’s charm and beauty as a young woman. From a moral perspective…

*I understand your difficulty, Mr. Wolf. I can only help while the two of you remain in Micks, but why not use this opportunity to step away from the influence of your animal identity and spend some time with Aisha as your true self? Maintaining two identities must be difficult for you too, Major General.*

That had been Queen Louisa’s final suggestion, and Les thought she was right.

“Wait here. I’m going to ask whether Professor can come, and then I’ll find out if the palace has a veterinarian. I promise I’ll be right back.”

Her healing magic had produced no effect, and when she felt beneath the fur at his neck, his temperature seemed normal. Sweat beaded across Aisha’s forehead. She hurriedly stroked the fur between his ears, pressed a kiss there to reassure him, and ran out to find help.

Queen Louisa sent people almost at once—far sooner than Aisha had expected.

“There is no need to worry. They are all highly trained veterinarians. I am certain they will find a solution,” the elderly maid who accompanied them assured her. “Her Majesty has already been informed. If anything unexpected happens, she has authorized your wolf to use any medicine or equipment in the palace.”

Aisha nodded gratefully, but had no attention to spare for conversation. Her gaze remained fixed on Les.

Three or four veterinarians who looked every inch the professionals gathered around him and conferred. One of them was also a mage and kept her wand in hand as she performed examinations the others could not. More than twenty minutes passed before they finally reached a conclusion: Les was suffering from the change in climate and had not adapted well to Micks. He needed to spend some time in an environment more suited to his natural way of life.

“Please don’t be too worried, Miss Byrd,” the mage among the veterinarians said with a smile. “There is nothing physically wrong with him. He only needs time to adjust. A suitable forest lies just behind the palace. You may not be able to see him as often or keep living together for the moment, but you can visit whenever you wish.”

The diagnosis finally eased the knot in Aisha’s chest. If the climate and surroundings were at fault rather than his body, it made sense that her healing magic had done nothing.

Once her relief settled in, however, a faint disappointment took its place. Aisha crouched beside Les and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“It will be like it was in Philray again,” she whispered. “I’ll come and visit you…”

Now that everything had been decided, there was no need to keep up the act quite so thoroughly. After a moment’s thought, Les lifted his head and nuzzled her in farewell.

…

The plan to take Les to the forest proceeded without incident. Perhaps the rest had restored some of his strength. Although he still appeared tired and weak after the examination, he could rise and walk there on his own.

He was a trained wolf and remarkably intelligent. As soon as they brought him to the forest’s edge, he seemed to understand what they wanted. Before leaving, he stood at the entrance and gazed silently at Aisha. Only after she waved goodbye again and promised to visit often did he leap into the undergrowth.

Les seemed noticeably more energetic the moment he entered the forest. Aisha breathed a sigh of relief and turned back toward the castle.

The veterinarians all returned to their original duties. Only the elderly maid accompanied her back to the palace, and the two chatted as they walked.

“…Come to think of it, you resemble Her Majesty when she was young, Miss Byrd,” the maid suddenly said, narrowing her eyes with a smile.

Aisha blinked and tilted her head. “Me?”

“Yes.”

The maid nodded gently.

“You are both beautiful, and both fond of animals. You are always with your pets. And… both of you possess something different from everyone else. I cannot put it into words, but it feels special and rather wondrous.”

Aisha knew it was probably nothing more than the polite flattery offered to a guest, but she was embarrassed all the same. She smiled shyly.

“Thank you… Um, does Her Majesty keep a pet too?”

This was not the first time Aisha had heard a palace servant mention Queen Louisa’s fondness for animals, yet she had not seen any pet belonging to the queen.

The question seemed to startle the maid. After a moment, she answered softly, “Mm… In truth, Her Majesty never kept another pet after William ran away.”

“William?”

“Yes. He was a cat Her Majesty kept when she was still a princess—a beautiful white cat. To this day, I have never seen another cat as lovely. And he was remarkably clever and well behaved, almost as if he could understand human speech. No wonder Her Majesty never found another cat that measured up afterward.

“You know, for various reasons, Her Majesty has never left Saint Regin. The previous king and queen rarely permitted her even to leave the palace, so that cat was almost her only friend. She took him everywhere. I doubt anyone but Her Majesty would lecture a cat about the customs of the kingdom, theology, and matters of faith.”

The maid smiled at the memory.

“Her Majesty had her own ideas about governing and warfare even then. She rarely had a chance to go outside and was a carefree young princess, yet she seemed able to understand anyone’s suffering. She even knew the pain war would bring and always opposed it. She explained all of that to the cat in perfect seriousness. Wasn’t she a kind princess?”

Aisha nodded.

Stories from the queen’s past could only be heard within the palace. The tale felt wonderfully new, and even seemed to lessen the distance between Aisha and Queen Louisa.

After a pause, Aisha asked, “So… what happened to the cat?”

“He ran away,” the maid said. “When the princess first brought William home, one of his hind legs was injured. As soon as the wound healed, the cat ran off. No matter how intelligent he was, he was still a stray. I suppose that was inevitable, and the princess never wanted to lock him away.

“The poor princess was heartbroken for a long time after William left. She always tried not to show it, but I knew.”

The elderly maid actually held a high position at court. As chief lady-in-waiting, her rank was equivalent to that of a senior court official. She had clearly served Louisa for many years. As the story went on, she did not even notice that she had slipped from calling Louisa *Her Majesty* back to the familiar title she had used long ago: *the princess*.

Aisha smiled but did not correct her. For some reason, though, the story left her feeling low.

Come to think of it… her life with Les had also begun when he was injured. Unlike William, Les had not left after he healed, and later he had somehow found her all the way in Vitas. But… would he eventually decide to go somewhere else too?

Aisha sighed.

…

Life in the Kingdom of Micks still required just as much study as life in Wold. Only the manner of learning had changed.

Aisha slept poorly that night. Without a wolf lying quietly in her room, everything felt subtly wrong. The next day, when she accompanied Eric Green to meet the court mages, she remained distracted. Fortunately, the day involved only introductions and no important magical discussions. Eric and the others assumed she was shy and nervous and paid no mind to her poor showing.

The minister presiding over the meeting was very old. His long white hair nearly covered his eyes. Every few moments, he had to lift a hand to brush it aside, then press his face close to the lengthy parchment in his hands. He spoke at a painfully slow pace, and his address of welcome was both interminable and dull.

Halfway through, one of the middle-aged mages employed by the royal palace of Micks rose and interrupted him.

“Administrator, perhaps we should take a short break. It has already been an hour and a half. Mr. Eric Green and his students must be tired as well.”

The elderly administrator looked hesitantly at the parchment, of which he had read only half, then raised an aggrieved face toward the resolute mage. At last, he nodded with great reluctance.

The instant the nod was complete, Thorne collapsed against the back of his chair and released an enormous yawn without the slightest concern for appearances.

“…So boring,” he said.

Aisha gave him a helpless smile. She had spent the entire time thinking about Les in the forest and had not even noticed how long the speech had gone on.

Still… keeping her eyes open for so long was tiring. She rubbed them, then turned toward the window, intending to rest her gaze on the plants outside.

The moment her eyes passed through the open window, they stopped dead.

Les!

Wasn’t he supposed to be in the forest? Had he already recovered?

Aisha stared at the gray giant wolf standing on the garden lawn not far away, facing the window and looking directly at her. She shot to her feet, called a hurried goodbye to Thorne, and raced outside.

“Hey, you—”

Thorne began to call after her, but before he could finish, she had left him far behind.

Aisha ran breathlessly onto the lawn outside the meeting room, flung herself at the giant wolf, and wrapped both arms around his neck.

“Les! You—”

Before she could finish, the giant wolf in her arms trembled. Her arms began to rise. Her gaze traveled upward. Then her balance shifted without warning, and she found herself lifted sideways off the ground.

She blinked in confusion. When her eyes opened again, Major General Wolf’s face was startlingly close to her own—because he was holding one arm beneath her shoulders and the other behind her knees, carrying her like a princess. His expression was acutely awkward.

“…My apologies.”

Major General Wolf turned his head away, trying to conceal his embarrassment.

“I happened to be passing by and saw you through the window, so I…”