Samantha R. Cichella - A New Successor

Wolf woke up the next morning. Wondering what had caused him to wake so suddenly, he sat up. The first thing he noticed was that Virginia was no longer lying next to him. The second thing was the unmistakable aroma of bacon flowing in from the kitchen. Smiling to himself, he hopped out of bed and threw on some clothes. Making his way to the kitchen, Wolf’s mouth watered uncontrollably as he drew closer. He saw his succulent sweetheart standing with her back towards him as she leaned over the stove.

Being as silent as he could, Wolf made his way over behind her hoping to surprise her. All of the sudden a loud growl escaped from his stomach. He looked desperately for somewhere to hide before she could turn around but he was in the middle of the room.

Virginia turned and laughed at the look on his face as he grinned sheepishly.

“Trying to sneak up on me?” she asked, trying but failing to sound angry.

“No....well, sorta...I wanted to surprise you.” He put on his puppy dog pout, knowing what affect it always had on her.

Virginia couldn’t hold it any longer. She burst out laughing and ran over to him. “You know I could never stay mad at you, not when you give me that look.”

Wolf just grinned even more. Suddenly his stomach growled again, only louder this time. Virginia laughed again and went back to finish his bacon.

“Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes.”

A few minutes later, the two of them sat at the kitchen table eating. Wolf was on his fifth plate of bacon and Virginia was reading the newspaper. Wolf sat contemplating on whether or not he wanted to tell Virginia that he was homesick. He knew he should tell her, but was unsure of how she would take it. After all, she was so determined to come home during their adventure in the Fourth Kingdom. Wolf tried for the direct approach. Well, almost direct.

“Virginia,” he started, “Do you think that we should go visit your dad and Wendell for a little while? You know, just a short trip.” Wolf bit his lip and waited.

“I think that’s a great idea.”

“Really?”

“Of course. I was just thinking the same thing. We haven’t seen Daddy in awhile, and I still need to tell him about me being pregnant. I wonder how he’ll take it though.”

“Hmmm.” Wolf held back his sigh of relief. He silently thanked Virginia for being so understanding. He could tell that those were not the only reasons for wanting to go back. But he didn’t say anything. “So when do you want to leave?”

“How about tomorrow?”

“Sounds good to me.” Wolf finished the rest of his bacon and got up from the table. He gave Virginia a quick kiss and then took his dishes to the sink, then left for the bedroom to finish getting ready.

Virginia watched him head for their master bedroom in their huge apartment, courtesy of the Murrays. When Virginia and Wolf fist arrived back from the kingdoms, they had headed to see if they still had the apartment. As soon as they got to the hallway, Mr. Murray came running at them at full speed. He stopped suddenly when he realized who it was.

“Oh, it’s just the Master’s daughter. Do you know when the Master will be arriving?” Mr. Murray asked with a hopeful look on his face.

“Master?” Virginia turned to Wolf, only to find that he had a guilty look on his face. “Wolf...”

“Virginia, can we talk about this later please?” Wolf begged.

“When is the master going to be back?” Murray asked again. “We have given him our apartment on the top floor. He is too important to have a tiny little box like he did before.”

“Wait, so you’re saying that MY DAD is your Master? And that you are giving him your apartment?” Virginia asked, hardly able to keep the excitement out of her voice.

“Yes. But when will the Master be back? Will you be staying with him?”

“Yes, we’ll be staying in his apartment until he comes home, he should be back in a few weeks,” Virginia lied. She hated the Murrays, after how they had treated her father for years; she figured that it was only fair to take advantage of this now.

When Virginia and Wolf had gotten up to their new apartment, they found all of their stuff already in there. Along with a lot of new furniture that didn’t look too cheap. The Murrays came back every day to see if Tony had come back yet, and each time went away disappointed. Virginia knew that Tony would have to come here, even for just a day, so that the Murrays would be happy. Wolf had explained later to her about the magic dragon dung bean. He told her that it contained six wishes and that obviously, the whole Master thing was one of the wishes. It made sense, she thought, that must have been how Dad was able to talk to Wendell when he was a dog.

So now, back in the apartment, Virginia started cleaning up the dishes. She hadn’t told Wolf this but, she had secretly wanted to go back to the kingdoms for a while now. She knew that Wolf could not stay happy here forever. He needed room to run around, and she was sure that he missed all of the forests and the open spaces. Although, she had to admit, that Wolf had yet to complain about it. Probably because he was so determined to make sure Virginia stayed happy. She was grateful, but she wanted Wolf to be happy as well. She would feel guilty if she were the only thing keeping him from returning to his home.

Virginia did miss the kingdoms though. She missed her dad, and she missed Wendell too. At first she was surprised when she found out that she felt this way. After all they had gone through to find the mirror to get back here, now she didn’t even want to stay. She knew it had something to do with the fact that it was never boring in the Nine Kingdoms. When she was there she felt like she could actually belong there. At the time she denied it, but now that everything was normal again (Well as close to normal as you could get with Wolf around). She missed the excitement.

She finished up in the kitchen and decided to go and join Wolf and his packing.