Jagger woke to the rushing whirl of the waterfall. He felt groggy, but the
sleep had refreshed him, so he was ready to face the day. He stood up, stretched,
and walked through the curtain of water and onto a nearby rock. This rock was
part of a chain that Jagger used to get from frothy water onto firm land. Today
the rock was slippery, signs of a rain that had come and gone.
The forest was sun-filled, with beams of light penetrating the lush green canopy
and giving whatever they touched a sheen of gold. Dust motes danced under the
sun, and the leaves on trees were swaying gently to the wind, giving the forest
a feeling of lively joy.
Jagger surveyed all of this for a moment with great contentment, then turned
and scrambled back through the waterfall to see to the pup--aah, yes, Cheppie
was his name.
Cheppie was slowly awakening, his long ears twitching as he got used to the
strange sound of rushing water. He lifted his head and opened one eye, then
the second, and then he sat up. "Where am I?" he asked.
Jagger laughed at the comical sight of the confused pup. "You're in my... den,
you could call it. My home. I carried you here, away from those coconuts."
"Oh." Cheppie plopped down onto his paws and swished his tail back and forth.
"Why am I here?"
"Well--I--" Jagger wasn't sure what to say. What had happened to the pup's
parents? he wondered. "Say, Cheppie, where's your parents?"
"Mama and Dad and I were in the den when the coconut tribe attacked. I 'member
seeing Mama hit a coconut on its shell... then I woke up in a net. And then you
saved me..."
Jagger felt a stab of pity for the Gelert as he realised suddenly that Cheppie
was probably never going to see his parents again. His uncle had told him of
vicious coconut attacks on Mystery Island, and how the coconuts were cold and
brutal. Few ever survived to tell of such an attack... Poor pup. To be tangled
up in the affairs of a coconut tribe.
But it wasn't like his Gelert family could help it. Who ever heard coconuts
this far north anyway?
"Well, Cheppie..." he said thoughtfully. "Listen. Here's how it is. I'm a lone
Lupe, and I've lived here for lots of years by myself. I'm not a pet Lupe; I'm
not part of a pack... I'm just a loner, you could say. And I've never taken care
of a pup before. So I'm gonna give you a choice: I could help you try to find
some civilization, where someone could adopt you and take care of you; or you
could stay here, in the wilds, with me. And lemme tell you, living with me isn't
exactly easy. I move a lot, I hunt, I do lots of things you might not be up
to. But if you want to stay here until you're old enough to take care of yourself,
I promise I'll look out for you.
"So. What do you say?"
Throughout the speech Cheppie was watching Jagger intently. At the end of it,
he sat up again, his absurdly long ears drooping right onto his face, and smiled.
"I'll stay with you!" he cried.
Jagger didn't know why, but he felt a sense of pride that the pup had chosen
him over civilization. "All right then, Cheppie. Now--I didn't get to tell
you this yesterday, but my name's Jagger. All right?" The pup nodded. "Then
let me show you around my territory; it's quite large."
Jagger led Cheppie through the waterfall and into the forest, stopping here
and there to show him significant landmarks. He took pride in the way the pup
was so eager to learn everything, from how to hide from predators to where the
best Pickulsaur eggs were found (Jagger thought the eggs were the best food
in the world). The pup was so full of energy, so joyful, so enthusiastic, that
Jagger was sure that had Cheppie been a Lupe, he would have been alpha pup in
a pack. But maybe all Gelerts were like this, and he just hadn't taken the time
to notice.
Finally, after a meal of Pickulsaur eggs and berries, the duo made their way
to their last stop for the day: the very border of Jagger's territory, a low
cliff that was the beginning of a series of long and treacherous mountain ranges.
"All right now, Cheppie, this is the very border of my land," Jagger said.
"Beyond this is the territory of the Whitestone Lupe Pack, and they and I don't
really get along. Mebbe had something to do with the fact that I refused to
join them... They disapprove of errant Lupes... But anyway, this is the Northern
border of my territory, so make sure if you're out alone you don’t go past this
place. Right?"
"Right," answered Cheppie.
Jagger was just about to say something, when he heard a sound in the distance.
His ears perked up, and his tail started silently twitching. Something was not
right. He could only hope it wasn't one of the coconut tribes again...
"Listen, Cheppie, I have to check something out," he told the pup. "Stay here,
and don’t worry. I'll be back soon. Just--stay here, that's all."
"Okay," replied Cheppie, lying down and curling up into a ball.
Jagger padded silently away from the pup and in the direction he heard the
noise, his ears alert for any more sounds. And there it was again--a kind
of rustle in the bushes, followed by some footfalls, as if someone had done
something and then stepped aside to admire their work.
As he kept creeping forward, he heard the footfalls again, except this time
they were retreating, as though whoever made them was leaving...
Unexpectedly he stumbled upon an empty clearing. Cautiously, he crept forward,
looking for anything out of the ordinary...
And suddenly he was filled with pain; when he looked down he saw that his left
back paw was caught in some sort of big metal contraption: a trap. He growled,
not wishing to howl and be caught by the poacher who set this trap, but it was
too late. A man stepped out of the bushes; a leering, triumphant man. Jagger
knew what was going to happen to him: he was going to be taken to the nearest
pound, where he would be adopted by some caring but unhelpful family; he would
never see the wild forest again; Cheppie would be left all alone...
At the thought of Cheppie Jagger's wandering mind snapped back into reality.
He had to get away from here, find shelter, get out of the trap... In desperation
he threw himself out of the clearing and into the forest, his trapped paw trailing
behind him. Even with the trap he was faster than that pitiful human was, and
he ran at almost breakneck speed, leaves and bushes whipping past him, putting
as much distance between himself and the clearing as possible.
Finally he lost track of his pursuer, and allowed himself to slow down. The
sky overhead was darkening, a sign of another fast-approaching rain. He had
to find shelter--Cheppie--shelter... He had lost so much juice that he was becoming
delirious. He saw some kind of huge tree ahead, and plopped himself down under
its great overhanging branches.
After a lot of hard work and pain, he managed to get the trap off of his leg.
As soon as he finished that, he lay down onto the moss and let out a soft and
sad whimper.
As the rain began to steadily fall, the mournful Lupe let out a howl...
Cheppie had been content to lie on the soft and enticing moss for a while,
but after his efforts at getting to sleep failed, he began to be bored. Jagger
had said that he would be back soon, but it had been ages, or so it seemed...
in the distance thunder rumbled, and clouds obscured the sun. It was going to
rain again soon, and Jagger still wasn't back...
Just then a raindrop landed squarely on his nose, and Cheppie decided to take
cover. There was a crack in the cliff nearby, and even though it was just a
slit in the rock, he decided to shelter in it. Just as he squeezed himself into
the crack the heavens opened and the rain poured down.
As he stared out into the now bleak and dull and sopping forest, Cheppie realised
that he was afraid, more afraid than he had been with the coconuts. Where was
Jagger? What had happened? Why--and suddenly his thoughts broke off as in
the distance he heard a wild Lupe howl.
It was then that Cheppie realised that he was all alone.
To be continued... | 
