They couldn’t understand me. My throat felt dry and my tongue was too thick. But I had to try again.
“Y-yes,” I said. “Yes.”
Chapter 42
Kim’s eyes widened.
Suddenly Paul jumped up. “Mom,” he shouted, running toward a pretty Legwalker with short brown hair who was threading her way through the crowd. “They found a wolf-boy. Can he stay with us, please?”
The female he called “Mom” had a round, friendly face. The way she looked at me reminded me strangely of Wolfmother. She stared at me for a while, then nodded and said, “We can take him home while we make some calls, see who’s responsible for him.”
“Not so fast, Mrs. Parker,” said the hunter called Mike. “This wild boy can wait in the town jail. He’s the one fixed it so all those killer wolves got away. Maybe they’ll be back for him—and we’ll be waiting.”
“N-no,” I cried, jumping up. Mike raised his rifle. One of the other hunters put a hand on Mike’s arm, pushing the rifle away, but he was frowning suspiciously at me.
I wanted to tell them they were blaming the wrong ones. “It’s the night creatures,” I wanted to say. “The wolves wouldn’t hurt anybody.” But I didn’t know the words. All I could do was shake my head wildly.
Another hunter spoke up. “It’s on account of him the beasts came to town in the first place. Living with a human boy, they lost all their natural fear of people. I agree with Mike.”
“No,” I said, struggling to get my awkward tongue around the sounds. “N-not wolves! N-not wolves!”
Another Legwalker stepped out of the crowd, holding the little Legwalker cub I’d saved from the night creatures. “Not wolves, eh? Tell that to my son, Benjy,” he said, staring at me stonily. “He was dragged right out of his crib last night.” He jutted his chin at me, looking like he wouldn’t mind dragging me off somewhere. “Right through an open window.”
Little Benjy looked at me with wide blue eyes. He clutched his bandaged arm to his side as if he was afraid I might sink my teeth into it.
“If our dogs hadn’t gone tearing after them, they’d have dragged Benjy right into the woods,” the Legwalker continued. “I got a pretty good look at them and they sure looked like wolves to me.”
All around him Legwalkers grumbled in agreement, nodding their heads and glaring at me.
My head was a jumble. I needed to warn them of the real danger—the night creatures—but without Legwalker sounds, I couldn’t do anything but shake my head and make a weird moaning sound.
“I think he’s trying to tell us it was some other creature that came after Benjy,” said Kim suddenly. “I told you I saw something really weird outside Paul’s window, right, Mom? Something horrible and monstrous. Definitely not a wolf.”
“Now, Kim,” said the Mother Legwalker in a warning voice. “I thought we agreed it was a raccoon you saw.”
“No way,” muttered Kim, so quietly that no one heard her but me.
“Yeah,” said Roy. He laughed and slapped his leg. “Maybe we got monsters in Fox Hollow. Big monster raccoons with glowing eyes. That what you’re trying to tell us, wolf-boy?”
Startled, I wheeled around to stare at him.
Roy grinned at me but there was nothing friendly about it. “Don’t look at me, kid. I’m not the one’s been seeing things. In fact, you’re the strangest thing I’ve seen in a long time.”
Kim’s mother clapped a hand on my shoulder. “I’ve heard enough of this,” she said. “I won’t have you badgering a young boy. He looks like he’s been through plenty already. He’s coming home with us and that’s the end of it. Come along, Paul, Kim.”
They helped me get to my feet and led me away. I could have run, but something inside me wanted to stay.
“I’d keep an eye out tonight if I were you, Mrs. Parker,” said Mike in a mean voice. “Those killers will be back. Might be they’ll come looking for their human mascot. You better hope he doesn’t help them get their big teeth into Paul or Kim.”
The one called Mom looked at me with concern and then shook her head, as if she didn’t want to believe anything so evil.
Paul and Kim led me through the crowd. People stared at me curiously. Some backed away as if they thought I might bite them.
I missed my wolf family terribly and I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be easy becoming a Legwalker.
Kim touched my shoulder.
“Do you have a name?” she asked. “Can you tell me what it is?”
So I told her. And wished I hadn’t.
Chapter 43
“Grrrrruff!” said Paul up close to my ear. Then he fell back, doubled over his stomach, laughing. Kim was biting her lip, trying not to laugh, too.
“Stop it!” said Mrs. Parker sharply. “You know better than to be making fun of people, Paul.”
We were walking down a wide path with big blocky structures on both sides. New words swirled around in my head.
People. Boy. Girl. It seemed the Legwalkers had lots of names for themselves and they all meant something a little different. Like “Mom” and “Mrs. Parker,” two names for the same Mother Legwalker.
“This is our house,” said Paul, stopping in front of the den I’d prowled around last night.
“First thing, we’ve got to get you cleaned up,” said Mrs. Parker. She fitted a small metal thing into a tiny hole and a piece of the wall swayed open.
The inside was not dark because of the squares—windows—which let in light. But it was full of strange, frightening objects. I stayed close to the entrance, ready to make my escape.
“Come in and sit down, Gruff,” said Mrs. Parker, heading deeper into the den. “Paul, shut the door.”
Paul nudged me inside and swung the entranceway closed behind me. It shut with a quiet click that echoed as
