Davion couldn't believe how much time they had wasted talking about his relatives. While it was nice to air out his grievances to someone, this really wasn't the time for it.

  "What do you think we've been doing?" Miss Wolf asked, tilting its head to one side.

  He waved his arms around as he said, "We're talking in the middle of the forest surrounded by fog. What else does it look like?"

  "You're the one to start the conversation, and it's not like we are just standing around. We are walking towards the exit."

  "Are we?" the dog asked as it scanned their surroundings. "I can't tell."

  Whatever the wolf intended to say next was interrupted by the sound of rustling.

  Not again. Please don't be the huntsman or the other wolf. I have enough running for a lifetime.

  Surprisingly, luck was on their side this time as a familiar old woman stepped out from the bushes. Davion breathed a sigh of relief, and his tense shoulders relaxed before stiffening again. His eyes widened as he stared at the old woman, wondering how she got there.

  The last time the trio saw her, she had been arguing with the huntsman. There was no way she could have found them before the huntsman, especially since she didn't look worse for wear, like she had simply gone on a leisurely stroll around her backyard. What confused him even more was that she should have come up from behind them, but instead she stepped in front of their path.

  What was going on?

  "Oh, I finally caught up to you. Are you alright?" the old woman asked as she hurried over to them.

  Davion didn't get a chance to retreat as she grabbed his arm and pulled him close to examine him. Not moving a single inch, he allowed her to feel his face and arms to search for any injuries. He hissed when her hand brushed against a scratch he hadn't noticed on his hand.

  "Oh dear, you're hurt," she murmured as she held his injured hand.

  "I'm fine. It's just a scratch," he said, tugging his arm.

  "Oh no, you don't. You should still get it cleaned. It can get infected."

  "It's just a scratch."

  "Oh, you wouldn't say that if you had heard all the times a scratch turned out to be more serious."

  Before he could protest again, the dog chimed in, "Just lick it already, and it'll be good as new. I don't see what a big deal it is."

  "He's not a dog like you," Miss Wolf said. "Licking your injuries isn't good for a human."

  He wrinkled his nose in disgust.

  "Oh, hold still and let this old lady take care of it. Don't you trust your grandma?" Seeing that she wasn't going to give up, Davion silently watched as the old woman pulled a handkerchief from her blouse and wrapped it around his hand. "There. That should do it."

  Davion took back his hand, and the group stared at his bandaged hand.

  "I'm impressed that a blind old lady can pull it off," the dog muttered.

  Miss Wolf threw a look at it. "Shh. She can hear you."

  Then they glanced towards the old woman, who acted like she hadn't heard anything.

  "Uh, thank you, Grandma," he said as he lowered his hand.

  "Oh, it's no big deal. Anything for my granddaughter," the old woman said, patting his head.

  Suddenly, a large shadow lunged at them through the fog. Without hesitation, Davion knocked the old woman out of the way while Miss Wolf and the dog dodged in the opposite direction. It took him a moment to realize it was the wolf from before as he scrambled back, dragging the old woman with him. The wolf snarled at him before being tackled by the dog. They rolled across the ground.

  The dog snapped at the wolf's face. "Stay away from them."

  In retaliation, the wolf swiped at the dog's face, forcing it to retreat. "Pathetic. To think my own twin would side with humans."

  "Wait. You're twins," Davion said in disbelief.

  He had noticed the similarities between the three animals, but he waved it off as an animal thing. Lots of animals looked alike. It never occurred to him that the wolf and dog were siblings, much less twins.

  Hold on a minute. How does that even work? One's a dog, and one's a wolf. Unless one of them is lying, there's no way they're related.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  "So that's how it is," Miss Wolf said as it joined him.

  "What are you talking about?" he asked, ignoring the old woman's confused questions.

  "They're hybrids. A mix of wolf and dog, which isn't exactly uncommon. It seems that they chose different sides. One chose to embrace their wolf heritage, while the other chose to be a dog."

  Davion didn't get a chance to ask further as the wolf demanded, "Isn't it pathetic to be a dog? Isn't it the same as rolling onto your back and exposing your stomach to them?"

  The dog didn't answer as it growled and bit at the wolf, who darted out of the way.

  "What's wrong with showing off your stomach?" Davion whispered, afraid he would be heard.

  "Well, it can mean a lot of things, like showing trust or submission. It's clearly implying that the dog is submitting to humans," Miss Wolf said.

  "Why would it think that?"

  "Well, dogs are domesticated wolves."

  "I didn't know that." He glanced between the fighting twins. "What should we do?"

  "I suggest you stay out of it. You're a lot more fragile compared to them. If you get involved, you'll only get yourself hurt."

  He hated that Miss Wolf was right. Even though he wanted to help the dog out, the fearsome fight between them left him quaking in his shoes. Last time, when the wolf and Miss Wolf fought, he hadn't stuck around long to see the fight, but he couldn't imagine it being this bad.

  Miss Wolf nudged his leg as if to comfort him. "Just trust them."

  The bloody fight didn't last long, as the two sides were left panting and swaying unsteadily on their feet. Davion covered his mouth with one of his hands, feeling sick to his stomach.

  This was nothing like the violent video games he secretly played without his parents' permission.

  "Why are you like this? Why don't you understand? Don't you think it's unfair? Just because I'm a wolf, I'm treated as the villain. Do you think that's right?" Utterly blindsided by the wolf's words, Davion's jaw dropped slightly as it continued, "Weren't you mistreated because humans thought you were a wolf? Isn't that proof that you can't trust humans?"

  What was it talking about?

  Davion couldn't put his finger on it, but it felt like the wolf was somehow talking about two different things at once.

  "That's only because everyone mistook him for you," Miss Wolf chimed in. "Otherwise, no one would be coming after him to hurt him."

  The wolf snapped its head in their direction and asked, "Are you sure about that?"

  "Don't act like you're innocent. If you're really the wolf from the story, then you've done some things that would make humans distrust you. You can't pin everything solely on the humans. Besides, you chose the path of the wolf. It's not like you didn't have any other choice."

  "Don't talk about something you don't understand."

  "No, they're right," the dog said. "You could have chosen to live the life of a dog, but you chose to live as a wolf. Because of you, I was blamed for a lot of things that I didn't do. It was tough."

  "So you're saying everything is my fault. That I'm to blame for everything."

  "No, but the twin I knew wouldn't have ended up like this. What happened to you?"

  "Why do you care? You're the one who abandoned me."

  Without giving the dog a chance to speak another word, the wolf lunged at it. However, the dog was prepared for this and easily avoided the attack. Then it sank its teeth into the wolf's exposed throat and slammed it to the ground. The two struggled for a bit, kicking up dirt and dust, before everything settled down. The wolf breathed heavily, its chest rising up and down rapidly, while the dog continued to keep it pinned.

  "Looks like this fight is over," Miss Wolf said as she trotted over.

  Hearing those words was like a weight lifting off of Davion's shoulders, and he let out a sigh of relief.

  Something tugged on his sleeve, reminding him of the old woman's presence. "Sorry, Grandma. I didn't mean to ignore you."

  "Oh, that's alright. It really was nerve-wracking," she said.

  No kidding. I thought I was going to faint.

  Approaching them slowly, Davion asked, "What now?"

  "Well, we can't let the wolf keep roaming around. I'm certain he'll come after us again if we let it go, assuming the huntsman doesn't get to it first," Miss Wolf said.

  The dog grimaced as it released the wolf's neck. "I know they're bad and all, but they're still my sibling. I don't want anything bad to happen to them."

  "Well, you're in luck then. I'll deal with it."

  "You're not going to hurt them, are you?"

  "No, of course not. I actually have some questions for them. I suspect that they might have a clue about my sibling and a way to get out of this predicament we're in."

  Shocked, Davion and the dog snapped their heads toward Miss Wolf as the former asked, "What do you mean?"

  Miss Wolf focused its attention on the dog and said, "You mentioned earlier that they were different from what you remember."

  The dog nodded. "Yeah."

  "It might just be because you haven't been around each other in a long time, but there is a chance that my sibling did something to make them turn out this way. I need a moment to talk with them privately and see if I can get some answers."

  While the dog was reluctant to leave its twin with Miss Wolf, the rest of the group moved away to give them some privacy. Davion kept glancing back at the duo, wishing to stay and hear what they had to say, but Miss Wolf was adamant none of them stick around to hear their conversation. They watched from a distance as the two talked to each other. The dog's ears twitched occasionally as it pawed at the ground.

  He wondered what the dog was hearing. There was no way it wouldn't be able to hear the conversation. Everyone knew that dogs have better hearing than humans. The only way it wouldn't be able to hear was if they were really far away.

  "Oh, there's something I've been wondering about," the old woman suddenly asked.

  Caught off guard, Davion simply said, "Yes, Grandma?"

  "Oh, what are your friends' names?"

  "Huh?"

  "Oh, don't be shy. Why don't you introduce me to your friends? I really want to meet my granddaughter's friends."

  What is she talking about? Friends? Is she talking about Miss Wolf and the dog? Well, she is blind, and they are kind of like friends.

  "Uh, this is dog, and that's Miss Wolf," Davion said, pointing them out and feeling silly for doing it.

  The old woman blinked. "Oh, your friends have quite unusual names."

  Not wanting to continue the conversation, he simply nodded before remembering she couldn't see. He coughed into his fist as he felt his face flush with embarrassment.

  Miss Wolf chose that moment to call out to them. "We're done. You can come back now."

  The moment the group reached the two, the dog immediately asked, "What did you talk about?"

  Wait. You really didn't hear the conversation? How? We were literally just a few feet away.

  Unfazed by the question, Miss Wolf said, "Well, I learned quite a few things. One of them happens to be how to get Davion here out of this forest and back home away from this crazy mess."