1499. “You may be interested in Agnes’ experiences when she submitted her first painting to her first group show but that happened many years ago,” said the Duck. “But what about Otis that we left close to death, in the back of a peasant cart high up in the Alps, tied up and helpless and at the mercy of several men of dubious character, habits and intent. When he awoke from his dream, you remember his dream I presume, the one about being swept away by a river, his first reaction was amazement.
1500. He had never been in the back of a cart before, and added to that, he had never been tied up either. But he soon figured out the situation. He recognized right away the very wheel that had been repaired by the blacksmith’s boy and his father, so he knew that he was at the mercy of those three men who were headed south with the old cart.
1501. He imagined that if they had known he was a wolf they would have done away with him on the spot, but since they had rescued him they must have assumed he was a dog. What did they want with a dog? That was the question. There were several possibilities. If they were starving they might cook him for dinner. Perhaps they liked dogs and their most recent one had died. Perhaps they wanted to sell him to a dog collector, or use him for a guard at night, he just did not know.
1502. His first opportunity to see what the future had in store for him happened at dinnertime. He was untied, attached to a leash and a collar, and fed dinner. He was not fed scraps as he had expected, but he was given the same fare as his captors, some wild rabbit garnished with rice and vegetables. Otis wolfed his dinner down.
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