Monty’s Adventure

• Kova Rasmussen, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2021

Monty stared out the window at the sheets of rain pouring down outside. She sighed and turned away from the window. Her human was sitting still, staring at the black box that had moving pictures and made human noises. Monty looked back at the window. A dog was sitting outside. She jumped back in fright and scrambled back up onto the window, her oversized puppy paws flailing madly. When she reached the top again, the strange dog had vanished. ‘What was that?’ Monty thought. As she recalled the memory of the dog, she realised with a shiver that the dog was translucent and ghostly with blank, unstaring eyes. It had been silver, with long, silky fur and pointed ears. ‘It was a kind of beautiful, kind of scary dog,’ Monty thought.
Monty was a puppy who had been stolen from her mother when she was very young. She was a black Labrador, and she still could remember the scents and sounds of the forest where she was raised. Now she longed for that life back, instead of being trapped inside this human home. The rain had stopped. The human stretched and turned off its Loud-Box and came and patted Monty’s head and made some of its human sounds. Then it turned and opened the window a tiny bit, patted Monty on the head again, and went into another room in the house. Monty sighed. She had been hoping the human would open the window entirely so she could escape. But it was too narrow. She jammed her muzzle into the crack and breathed in the fragrant airs of the forest. She lifted her muzzle a slight bit and the window moved up! Excited by her new discovery, she moved her head up so that there was just enough room for her to wiggle out. She squeezed her shoulders through, then her belly, then her legs popped through so suddenly she fell out onto the wet grass, landing headfirst in a pile of leaves. She shook herself and padded off into the forest that was outside her human’s house…
Monty had fallen asleep under a tree, upon waking, she found herself in a foggy clearing under a full moon. Suddenly, a ghostly howling broke out from somewhere nearby. Something moved in the mist where the howling was happening, and the silver translucent dog stepped out of the mist and the howling ceased. “Who are you?” Monty asked the silver dog. “I am Star, the first wolf, ancestor of all dogs and wolves” she answered. Monty gasped. She was a wolf! Monty opened her mouth, but Star continued: “I have been sent to find one dog willing to do this mission.” She whined “I have looked for months, then I saw you. Are you willing to find the fabled Moonstone?” Monty felt a calm settle over her in the gaze of the great wolf. She lifted her head and looked into her silver eyes. “I will.”