Simka and I had love at first sight, but my mother barely survived his stay at the Blackrock estate. Not only did the wolf cub spoil things, but he also scared her on purpose, which is why we all experienced many unpleasant moments. But I was able to insist on my own and pacified both of them – the simuran and my mother too. Surprisingly, my father only chuckled as he watched our battles and flatly refused to take anyone’s side.
– Simka? – I called again, hearing some rustling in the lush thickets of the garden euonymus.
This time we didn’t have to wait long, and from the largest bush, a smiling wolf’s face, white with green spots and stripes, looked out.
– Are you here! “I exhaled with relief and, easily jumping over the window sill, hugged the simuran, who did not stick out of the bushes completely, but only up to his neck. “Is it just me, or have you grown up again?”
Simka licked my nose, making me wince and wipe myself off. I couldn’t talk to him mentally, but the simuran understood me perfectly, and I understood him too.
When I was sent to a boarding school, Simka followed me and lived secretly here in the vast park. How he managed to get food, I never found out. He probably hunted chickens at night in the surrounding villages. Or on rabbits and birds in the mountains, fortunately his wing had grown together long ago, and he flew perfectly. But I would rather believe that Simka steals food from the local kitchen. I heard the housekeeper swear at the cook, and the cook at the unknown thief.
To prevent Simka from being caught, because he is so clean and all white, I regularly tinted his fur with green pigment, which my sister taught me to prepare. Fortunately, the ingredients there were trivial. Now the dye had almost peeled off from the simuran’s fur, and he amused me with his spotted colors, which hid him so well among the white-green leaves and gave my winged wolf a particularly hooligan look of a warrior on a mission. Sometimes they also paint their faces like this in order to be more invisible. As Talaria says: “Rely on magic, but don’t make a mistake yourself!”
– Simka, do you have a letter? – I asked.
The head dived into the bushes, and then looked back, and the simuran put on the ground the leaf crumpled into a ball that I had thrown out the window earlier. I smoothed it out, folded it into a neat rectangle and put it in a special pocket on the magic collar, which was visible only to me and Tali, and also did not interfere with Simka at all.
– Give the letter to Talaria and come back. Yes! I'm leaving right now, not in the morning. First to the Travel Bureau station, remember? My father and I arrived there, and you found me.
Simuran growled affirmatively.
– Here. From there a stagecoach from the academy will pick me up. I’m sure you’ll quickly catch up with us, especially since the road is already familiar to you. All. Fly, don't delay. I want to please my sister with the news as soon as possible.
I kissed my pet right on his wet nose and climbed back out the restroom window. The window was too high. I didn’t calculate something when I jumped out, so I hung on my elbows, vainly groping along the wall with my feet, trying to find at least some kind of support. She found herself. The forehead of a wolf placed itself at my feet and easily lifted me up. Climbing onto the windowsill, I smiled at caring Simka and thanked:
