Chapter One\ulnone : The Hound
\par \pard\nowidctlpar\fi720\sl480\slmult1\parThe smell of the forest hit her first. Pine and moss and sweat-touched fur.\par
It was right again.\par
And so was she.\par
Her paws were on the ground. She could stretch her back and scratch herself as needed and she had a tail again to keep her balance.\par
She felt how strong and wide her jaw was now, and she tested her teeth by gnawing at a branch on a tree at her side. It snapped instantly, cleanly, just as prey would when she was ready to chase it.\par
She could hear the distant call of a bird, and the splash of a fish in the water, not far away.\par
She tried out her strong legs, and discovered she could run as fast as ever, leap over fallen trees, then turn around in a flick of movement and be racing back the same way again.\par
That was when she nearly careened into the bear.\par
And remembered why he was here. \par
The bear who had been a man, whose story she had heard when she was a princess.\par
The one Prince George had brought her to, the one who had challenged her, then watched her change from woman to hound.\par
Where was Prince George? And the princess?\par
The hound had not seen them leave. She had been too busy rediscovering herself.\par
Now the bear sniffed in her direction.\par
She sniffed back, and approached him slowly, head down to show that she would not attack. Her lips twitched and she caught a snarl in her throat. The bear made a wordless sound like a groan, then gestured with one large paw toward the rocky part of the forest.\par
He took a step in that direction, stopped a moment. Waiting, but without threat.\par
She thought briefly of the year she had spent as human, when she had never been allowed to choose anything for herself. The boots she had had to wear, pinching at her feet, the gowns that were \ldblquote suitable,\rdblquote the words she was expected to say, the curtseying, and smiling.\par
But that was gone.\par
She was a hound again. And the bear was an animal, like she was.\par
So she lumbered cautiously alongside him as they crossed twice over a cold stream and approached a cave.\par
The bear entered it.\par
She moved across the rocks and peered inside.\par
The bear settled at one end of the cave, stretched out on the floor near the back, with his side to rock. She could smell water in the air, and then heard a drip of it. It was falling on the bear, but he did not complain.\par
He waited once more.\par
She moved forward, then tucked herself in closer to him, letting her legs curl up underneath her. She could feel the brush of his fur against hers.\par
She shivered. Then moved closer to the bear, until she could feel the hurried breathing of his chest against her. \par
Gradually, it slowed. And she slept.
\par The next morning, as the two drank by the stream, a group of rabbits crossed their path.\par The hound held back, allowing the bear the first kill. But his attack was so loud and wide that by the time he had the first rabbit in his mouth, all the others had scattered.\par The hound spent long minutes chasing them, but they were gone, and so was any other hope of game that morning. The woods were silent with animals warned by the great noise of the bear and the lingering scent of death.\par Angry, she returned to the stream, expecting the bear to have eaten his kill.\par Yet the bear held out the rabbit, freshly cleaned in the stream and an hour dead.\par She took half of the rabbit meat, and left the other half for him. He had killed it, and must be offering half as recompense for ruining her chance to get her own.\par But the bear would not eat his half of the rabbit. He pushed it towards her.\par She pushed it back to him and whined.\par He turned away from it.\par She growled at him. How could he be so stubborn? She knew he must be as hungry as she.\par But he would not take it.\par So she turned her back on the meat.\par They went back to the cave, her stomach only half full and his entirely empty.\par What was wrong?\par She could speak the language of the hounds, but he could not. She could understand the language of humans, but he could not speak it. And he could understand the language of humans, which she also could not speak.\par \pard\f0\fs20\par \f2\par \par \par \f0\par
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