“Hey!  Charlie!  Move your bear butt!  It’s time to go. We have a schedule to keep!”

“Aw, c’mon ma’am.  Whay can’ we stay fo’ jus’ a li’ longer?  The folk here be mighty kind.”

“Sorry Charlie.  I know they like you, but a job is a job.  You can make friends at the next stop. Someone is bound to need your height or strength for something.”

With a huff, Charlie picked up the machine they used to lash together bundles of wood and set it down in the back of the truck.  Had he not been a Demono it would have taken at least four men to pick up that machine. Even his logging tools were specially made to take advantage of his strength: a ten horsepower chainsaw and a fourty pound maul axe.  

He sat in the cab of the big truck, rocking the large vehicle from his size, “when we gon’ settle, Patty?  Ahm tired ah movin’.”

“As big and friendly as you are, you can’t just settle with humans.  You know that. You’ll live too long, you’re too big, too strong. We need to find some of your own kind.  I know they are rare, but humans can’t handle all you have to offer. If that means moving from area to area doing logging and splitting, then that’s what we’ll do.”

They stayed silent for a while down the road but Charlie couldn’t leave the air stale, “whay you doin’ this?”

“Doing what?”

“Whay you tryin’ find me others.  You can’ like movin’ either.”

Patty sighed, “do you not remember?  How I found you ten years ago?”

“Naw.  Mem’ry naw so good.”

“You were beaten and left in a gutter.  Just a kid. Granted you were the size of a full grown man, but you couldn’t have been older than fourteen.  You never spoke of that night and I just nursed you back to health. You didn’t have anywhere to go and I needed workers so I showed you the ropes.  The rest is history.”

“Dun ‘member.  Jus’ ‘member workin’.”

“Yeah well you’ve always had a weird accent so I know you aren’t from anywhere in this area.  Hey, I see some smoke up ahead. Maybe there is another town. Think you’ll get some more work?”

“Maybe.  Jus’ wan’ rest.  Tired o’ movin’.”

“We’re almost there.  Look, they have a cozy hotel, a grocery store, and is that… a wolf?”

“Well I’ll be.  Sho is. Wonder if they’s mo’.”

“One way to find out.”  Patty parked her truck out front of the hotel and hopped out.

The wolf was already looking their way but bristled seeing Patty, “you!  We don’t want your kind here! You just cause us trouble! Go somewhere else!”

“Whoa, easy there, big guy.  I’m not here for trouble. I just wanted to talk for a friend.”

The wolf stalked towards Patty, “your friend is going to get you killed!”

“You leave Patty ‘lone.”

“Yeah, or you’ll-- oh.”  The wolf turned mid sentence to Charlie who had just extricated himself from the truck cab and was standing next to the hood.

“Leave Patty ‘lone.  She mah frien’.”

The wolf may have been seven foot tall, but he had nothing on Charlie’s ten, “alright, alright, but you two can’t stay here.  We don’t want humans seen around here.”

“Jus’ let ‘er talk.”

“Thank you, Charlie.  Sir, this is my friend I came to talk about.  I’ve been trying to find a home for him for ten years.  He’s been working for me but he can’t live among humans.  You know what happens when Demono live with humans for too long.”

“I… know.  I do. But he can’t live here.  This is a wolf den. We’ve not seen any Demono through here in the past fifteen years besides wolves.  I wouldn’t even know where to look for bears.”

“No one would know?”

“No.”

“Tired ah movin’.  Tired ah drivin’. Wan’ a place call home.”

“I know Charlie.  C’mon, lets see if there is a hotel farther up the road.”

A little ways down the road, Charlie was on the verge of tears, “ah jus’ wan a place call home, Patty.  Ah dun care if it with human or Demono. Jus’ wan a place tah call home.”

“I know, Charlie, I know.  Soon, hun. Another few weeks then we will see about finding you a place.  Maybe we can look again later to see if we can find you some bears.”

“Dun care ‘bout bears no mo’.  Jus’ wan’ rest. How far tah next town?”

“Probably another hour.  We can rest there, maybe stay a few days.”

Charlie sighed and leaned his head back against the back of the cab, “good.  Rest mah tail. Jus’ wan’ rest.”