Live Wire

A full season had passed since his birth. Much had happened since then. Gone were the chubby legs ringed with rolls of baby fat; gone was the chunky belly that made him waddle when he walked. In their places were long, spindly legs and a ribby midsection. It seemed as though he'd gone from one extreme to the other. He'd gone from a butterball to something akin to a daddy long leg in a few short weeks. His appearance - too big feet, knobby knees and all - suggested he was about to hit one hell of a growth spurt.

So it was a shame, really, that so far only his body was maturing.

With a sharpened stick hanging out of his mouth and a terrified Amadeus clinging to his scruff, Jupiter streaked through the trees like a bat out of hell. Knowing full well that he as scaring his companion, the boy laughed maniacally as he suddenly veered off the path and jumped off a short rock face to a different path below. He was headed home. Skewered on the stick was a small groundhog; a casualty of the pit trap he'd made for monsters. He was taking it home to show off and yes, to share if anyone wanted it.

Skidding around an outcropping - and nearly losing Amadeus in the process - brought the boy to the clearing in front of his den. The sudden appearance of a rather large, unfamiliar adult standing in few feet in front of the entrance made him skid to a halt and lose both his monkey and his groundhog as the former was thrown over his head and the latter was flung off its skewer. "Oh!" he exclaimed in surprise. Amadeus, glad to be free of the menace, scampered up a nearby tree. The groundhog lay in a heap where it had fallen, too dead to care about the rough treatment it had suffered.

His surprise was short lived and soon replaced by suspicion and an innate need to protect what was his. Who was this man standing so close to his family's home? He was usually quite eager to meet new people, but it was one thing to meet someone far from the den and another to meet them on his doorstep. "I've never seen you before. Whatcha doin'?"

"Jupiter"   "Amadeus" ”You”