Samantha's Talent Read Online Free PDF Page B

Once the last bit of food was gone, Samantha had them sit in a circle with Tetmulic and her pups in the center. The pups were ready to play now and they did, with their mother watching benignly. It went so well that time flew and before Samantha quite knew what was happening, her father strode into the clearing by the waterfall and cabin.
    Ronald was wise enough to realize what was going on, but he was frightened. What if that mother wolf with the pups became agitated at his appearance? She might do anything, thinking she had to protect her pups.
    "Sammie," he said quietly. "It's time to go."
    "Oh, I'm sorry, Dad. I wasn't watching the time. Okay, everyone can pet Tetmulic one time to thank her for letting you play with her pups, then we have to go."
    Mr. Douglas held his breath as one by one, the children stroked the full grown timber wolf. It outweighed half of them, and could have ripped out the throat from any of them in a second, had it been so inclined. But after it had been petted by each child, the circle broke and the mother wolf made a gruff noise, telling her pups it was time to go.
    "Would you like to pet her, Dad? Her name is Tetmulic. She would like it, I think. She knows you're my father and we gave a lot of our food to her pups."
    The wolf strode quickly to the elder Douglas, but rather than stand still to be petted, she raised her forequarters and put her front paws on his chest. Dazed, he began scratching behind her ears and on the top of her head, wondering if anyone would believe him if he told this story. On the other hand, he suddenly decided not to say anything. The children's parents probably wouldn't be so sanguine about them playing with wolf pups and their mother as he was! However, he gave the mother wolf a piece of jerky he carried to munch on at times. She licked his hand in gratitude and settled down to begin eating the unexpected treat.
    Ronald thought Samantha could only communicate with selected animals. His wife didn't believe even that much. She thought her daughter just had a way with animals, and only some of them at that. Unknown to her parents, she could converse with almost any mammal, although she was very careful not to let them know how often and how varied were her trysts with her friends of the forest. Perhaps she wouldn't have gone into the woods so often had her mother allowed her to have a pet, but she was adamantly against it, since pets had to live inside homes during the fierce Alaskan winters.
    ***
    Despite her father warning Samantha to keep quiet about what happened at the culmination of her birthday party and Samantha asking the guests not to tell their parents, the story got out. As it made the rounds at school and among the townspeople of Wikluk it became greatly exaggerated, until the tale had Samantha leading a whole pack of wolves to the birthday party and subjecting everyone there to fear of being torn apart.
    Extremely religious individuals began whispering about witches and their familiars, animals such as cats that bonded with witches and did their bidding, according to legend. Of course most of the parents of her classmates knew she wasn't a witch or anything close to it, but then Sinuteit's mother passed stories around about evil Shamans from the olden days and how they consorted with special animals. The school children and teachers alike began ostracizing her. It became such a problem that one day she came home from school early, in tears.
    Elaine hugged her and tried to allay the hurt by treating it as a "passing incident".
    "I told you to quit pretending you can talk to animals, didn't I?" she asked.
    "But Mom, I can talk to them! I can! I can! I can! " Samantha said fiercely, for once tired of not being believed. She knew her mother was just trying to protect her but she was so upset the words came tumbling out in a burst of passion.
    Ronald entered the room at that moment. He quickly analyzed the situation, but had no time to stake out a position before