Red Hot Gardener

As rare as it may have been, Aliana's ability to read came from the strict regiment of trainings and brutal lessons the slavers had put her through as a puppy. "No use having a dumb bitch for a slave" they would tell her while the older slaves taught her what she needed to know. It wasn't a skill she practiced often, so it took her a few moments to comprehend what the young lord wrote, but she always got there eventually. The young boy looked surprised and excited to discover she could communicate with him, and he emphatically began to wipe the message away and write more for her. Ali watched with curious eyes as he scribbled out another message, noting the little grin and wag of his tail as he did. Was she the first wolf he'd communicated with for some time? She quietly wondered how many other wolves in the pack would be able to read his messages or interact with him in some other way. No wonder he was so excited!

She read his first message slowly, letting the words form and sound out in her head. A smile slowly formed over her face when she grasped the meaning, a soft giggle escaping her at the thought of his grandmother scolding him for not acting a gentleman. He wrote out another message, introducing himself by a name that spoke of highborn lineage and was entirely unpronounceable in her mind. She stared with stunned aqua eyes, reading his name again and again, but finding it no easier to enunciate. Her shoulders slumped and ears flattened; Ali didn't want to mispronounce the name of the young lord. How embarrassing that would be! "Takē," she said, speaking slow to make sure she voiced the syllables correctly. She glanced up to Takeshi, looking to him for approval that she was speaking correctly. "Takē. Is that right?"

He asked her name, and Aliana bowed her body before him in an elegant arch of her back, feeling it was much more necessary now given that he was a highborn wolf. "Of course, My Lord. My name is Aliana. You may address me by whatever your heart desires." As property, she had been called everything from her name, to Slave, to Girl, to some very unsavory words she dared not repeat in the presence of a minor. Whatever he deigned to call her, she would accept. That was the way of being a slave. Surely he would be able to recognize that in her, right? The qualities and traits of a wolf so far below his station that marked her as property and not a person.

"Aliana"