Cody breaks me out of my reverie by returning to my side and nudging me with his nose. I snap back to attention and look down at him as he yaps at me. His eyes look happy, but I detect a hint of sadness within their depths.

Our journey together is coming to an end. That thought saddens me. I don’t want to leave Cody now, but I can’t take him back to the city. It just wouldn’t be fair to lock him up in our small house while we all run about our lives and go to our various jobs—and I can’t have him running around loose in the city. That’s crazy!

Mama would never agree to him staying with us either. I don’t even have to ask because I can already envision her rolling her eyes as she crosses her arms over her chest and murmuring, Um hm? Girl, that beast is not gonna set foot in this house, d’you hear me?

Definitely not going to go down well with her.

As excited as I am to return home tomorrow, I really don’t want to part with Cody. The thought of leaving him now, tugs painfully on my heart.

This is exactly why I tried to leave him when I did. I don’t do goodbyes. It’s just easier to say goodbye when he isn’t there.

I run my hand through his fur once more. At least I will still have you for tonight, right?

Wiping the tears from my cheeks with the back of my arm, I pull myself together and trudge forward with Cody by my side.

Weaving through the wildflowers as the moon peaks out from over a mountain, the encroaching darkness takes on a faint silvery hue, giving everything the illusion of mystical enchantment. Even Cody’s fur seems to shimmer in the moonlight.

He keeps pace with me, perhaps sensing my complete and utter exhaustion as I drag my determined body across one of the most magical expanses of land I have ever seen.

When we reach the cabin, the windows are completely dark. Heavy curtains hang over them on the inside, but even then, there is not a hint of light around the edges.

It must belong to a seasonal hunter. With the weekend over now, he must have returned to the city. With no one inside, I hesitate at the thought of trespassing, but who would know? Surely, if I am caught, he will understand my dilemma and allow me to stay for the night. He wouldn’t kick me back out into the wilderness—that would be barbaric.

Still, as I climb up the porch to the raised cabin, I knock on the door to be safe. He might be sleeping for all I know, and that’s why the lights are all off.

As the seconds pass and there is no answer or movement from within, I bang my fist on the door and start calling out to whoever might be inside.

Silence is my only answer.

Cody, who had been sniffing around the porch, yips softly at me under the window to my right.

I turn to look at him and see the wooden box he is standing in front of. It looks like some kind of storage chest with a lock reflecting the moonlight on it, but next to the chest is an empty clay flowerpot. Cody nudges the pot with his nose and looks up at me expectantly.

“What is it, boy?” I hobble the few steps toward him, groaning in pain.

He licks my hand.

My jaw becomes unhinged and I practically fall over. Well, I do fall to my knees before him, but I almost lose my balance as it happens.

“Did you just lick me?”

Ignoring my astounded demand, he whines as he nudges the pot again with his nose.

I’m still in shock over the lick. A wolf licked me. Oh my god.

As if rolling his eyes at me, he groans and tips the pot over carefully with his paw. It rolls away a few inches, revealing a silver key underneath.

My eyes widen. “No way.”

Maybe it’s the exhaustion, but I’m too stumped to move and instead just stare stupidly at it as it gleams in the moonlight. My brain is too beat to register everything now. It’s incredulous to find the cabin after so many days of wandering around in the forest, but to find it empty with a key hiding nearby? What are the odds?

As I stare dumbfounded at the key for a minute, Cody picks it up in his jaws and looks at me. My gaze follows the movement of the key from the wooden floorboards to his mouth. He cradles it carefully in his teeth and he huffs through his nose. The air brushes against my face and causes me to blink.

“Oh… Oh, yeah,” I say, turning over the hand that he licked.

He drops the key in my palm. Dazed, I wrap my fingers around it and pull myself back up to my feet. Stumbling to the door, I slide the key into the lock and turn it with ease, hearing the click of the metal shifting within. Turning the doorknob, I gently push it open and peer into the darkness within.

“Hello?”

Faint moonlight blankets the darkened space within as the door creaks open. I reach inside and feel along the wall for a light switch. Pausing over the nub, I flick it with my fingers, but nothing happens. If this cabin does have electricity, it sure isn’t working for now.

“Oh well,” I sigh. “This is still better than sleeping under a tree.”

Cody slips into the cabin from behind me as I search the darkness for anything that might be useful—a flashlight, candles, anything.

My hands brush over a little table with what feels like an oil lantern on it. I pick it up and hold it up to the moonlight from the open door. It looks like an antique, but I can hear a little bit of fluid swishing around inside that must be the oil.

Now, if only I had a lighter…

I put the lamp back down on the table and feel along its surface for a lighter. I find a little knob and pull open the drawer attached. I feel around inside and find a bunch of matchboxes. One of these will do.

With lamp in one hand, and matches in the other, I hobble out to the porch where the moonlight makes it possible to see what I’m doing. I’ve never handled an oil lamp before, so I have to be careful not to burn myself as I try to figure out how to light it.

Fiddling around with a silver knob, I can see the wick moving up. This must be where I light it. It takes me a few minutes, after yawning three times, to figure out how to open the glass chamber to light the wick. By then, Cody is sitting next to me, watching me light the darn thing.

Black smoke wafts up the glass shaft from a large flame and I turn my nose up at it. It stank. It shouldn't stink, or create black smoke, should it? Maybe I need to turn the wick down and make the flame smaller? I turn the silver knob in the other direction, and as the wick slides down the slit, the flame gets smaller and the black smoke vanishes, along with the odor.

“There,” I say triumphantly as I hold up the lantern, “We have light.”

Cody grins back at me in the lamplight, but my grin is even larger.

Getting to my feet, I turn around and let the light fill the cabin. The lantern’s light isn’t very bright, but it’s enough to reveal that the space within isn’t overly large, but it’s not tiny either. The main space is open, containing a worn-out couch and a beat-up recliner. I toss my backpack absent-mindedly on the sofa as my eyes continue to scan the space. An open, eat-in kitchen is behind the furniture with an old wood-burning stove. Along the right wall are four doors. I drag myself to the first one closest to me and open the door to find a bedroom with a king or queen-sized bed with a dresser along one wall. The next door reveals a dingy little bathroom with simple fixings, but I have my doubts about there being running water for the toilet, shower, and sink. The next door opens to a storage closet, with linens on one side, and canned food on the other. Finally, the last door opens to another bedroom, identical to the first one.

I walk straight into the last room, set the lantern down on a chipped nightstand, and collapse on the bed.

The sheets are a little on the musky side. Who knows how long these have been here? They’re probably infested with bugs too.

Groaning, I force myself up and rip the sheets from the bed and toss them on the floor. “Stupid smelly sheets,” I grumble under my breath as I examine the mattress for bugs. It’s hard to tell in the lamplight, but it looks fine.

“Good,” I growl, pulling my butt up and dragging it to the storage closet.

All of the sheets in the linen piles look old and thin. I use my nose to sniff out one that doesn't smell like an armpit and drag it back to the room, grumbling tiredly to myself in the process.

Cody just sits in the living room, watching me drag my worn out body to the bedroom and make the bed. I don’t care if it’s even pretty, just as long as the sheet is on.

Cody walks to the room and watches me through the open doorway when I’m done. I scowl at him and point. “You. Bed. Now.”

His tongue rolls out as he jumps to his feet and in three strides, is in the room and on the bed.

I pull a sheet up to my chin as he settles in behind me.

I’m fast asleep within moments of him curling up behind me, and sighing as he slips his arm around my waist and hugs me close.