Fourteen

STACY WOKE UP. It was still dark out, but she was surprised to see that Atlas, Ribsy, Everest, and Paisley had managed to lift the boat off the driftwood logs as the morning tide came in. They want to leave? Now? Stacy hesitated . . . she knew today was the day they should try to sail toward the little islands on the map. The weather had been calm last night, and with Page and Molly gone and Pearl completely healed, there was nothing standing in their way. Stacy hadn’t planned on setting sail for the islands until the sun had come up and they could see where they were going, but now that she thought about it, it was smarter to do it in the cover of darkness, to be sure they didn’t run into any other ships. Besides, who knows if I’ll even be able to get the boat to work. This may end up being just a practice run.

Stacy donned the yellow rain jacket, as the sun was still not up and Tucker was not around to make the boat’s cabin warm. Stacy wished Tucker was there just as much as she wished Addison was with her. Addison would know how to sail this boat better than me. She would have read something in a book sometime or at least have better instincts about it. I don’t know what I’m doing.

Stacy climbed the couple stairs from the boat’s tiny cabin and looked around the sea cave. The tide was high, causing the boat to rise in the water to the point where its mast was almost poking the top of the cave. Everest and Noah were pulling up the boat’s anchor that had been keeping it in the cave. The boat began to glide out of the cave with the current, and with one last powerful tug, the two wolves heaved the heavy metal anchor on deck.

Stacy’s legs wobbled as the boat rocked up and down with the ocean’s powerful early morning waves. She grabbed onto the closest wolf to her—Ribsy’s bony frame—and steadied herself. What am I doing? I don’t have the foggiest clue how to captain a sailboat. I’m going to get us all killed. Just as Stacy was about to tell her wolves that she wanted to literally jump ship, Atlas sprang into action. He unfurled the boat’s sail and instructed Noah to tie a knot at the base of the mast.

“Atlas!” Stacy exclaimed. “Of course!” Atlas took his position at the front of the boat and filled the sail with a powerful gust of wind. The boat surged forward, cutting forcefully through the water. Stacy was amazed and let out a huge sigh of relief. Atlas can do this. He can control the wind! He can do things like use the wind to jump really, really high or send a gust of wind to push me backward to save me from falling off a cliff. Of course he can fill a sail with it too!

Stacy looked behind her as they sailed away from the coast. She could still see the small sea cave, the cove, the rocky point, and the villagers’ beach, but all those landmarks appeared smaller and smaller by the minute. She looked above the cove to the series of switchbacks that Basil and Wink had run up on their way home to the taiga. Stacy felt a little nervous about traveling even farther away from her home—and from Page and Molly, who were probably already back in the cave with Milquetoast and Pipsqueak—but Stacy knew she would be safe with her wolves. And by that, Stacy wasn’t just thinking about Everest and Noah. Sure, she felt completely safe in their company. She always had. But she also felt safe with Atlas, Ribsy, Paisley, and Pearl. They were part of her crazy wolf family now—a fact that Stacy couldn’t be happier about.

Stacy looked one more time at the fading coastline in the distance and then reached over and hugged Paisley as she turned to face the rising sun. Stacy squinted to look around the boat at her new pack. Paisley was standing next to Stacy, her bandanna rippling in the wind. Atlas worked the sail while Everest stood near the ship’s wheel, guiding it every so often to keep the boat on course. Noah was at the very front of the boat, basking in all the water droplets that were spraying up in his face. Ribsy was lounging in the ship’s cabin. Stacy turned around in a full circle. Someone is missing. Wait . . . where’s Pearl?

Stacy ran into the cabin to see if Pearl was hiding on the bench or somewhere Stacy couldn’t see from the deck. But only Ribsy was down there, sprawled out on the cushions Stacy had cleaned. Stacy was about to rush back out onto the deck to tell Atlas that Pearl was missing when something caught her eye. She climbed up into the large porthole above the platform that Ribsy was sleeping on and pressed her nose to the glass. There was Pearl, swimming alongside the boat, weaving gracefully through schools of fish and stingrays. Wow. She really is like a mermaid. Stacy happily sat curled up in the porthole watching Pearl swim for what must have been close to an hour. The agile wolf never tired, and Stacy never tired of taking in all of the interesting marine life they were passing: jellyfish, cuttlefish, sand tiger sharks, and eels. Suddenly, several gray shapes appeared swimming next to her. Stacy focused her eyes and gasped. Dolphins! A pod of ten or fifteen dolphins caught up to the sailboat and began swimming around it. Stacy ran out of the cabin and onto the deck just in time to see one of the dolphins from the pod leap out of the water and jump completely over the bow of the boat. Mouth agape, Stacy watched the dolphin as it soared in the air. Pearl followed the dolphin’s lead and also jumped out of the water and over the sailboat. Stacy almost couldn’t believe it. But of course, she did believe it. These wolves were incredible and, as far as Stacy was concerned, there was nothing they couldn’t do.

Atlas lowered the sail and slowed the boat down while Noah jumped into the ocean to join Pearl and the dolphins. The pod stayed with the boat for twenty minutes or so, and in that time, Stacy and the other wolves were so busy watching Pearl and Noah playing in the ocean with the dolphins that they didn’t look up once. If they had, they surely would have seen the ominous black clouds roll in and the lightning striking the ocean in the distance. . . .