Summer Heat - Chapter 1: Babysitter Duty

"I thought you like your sister?" The lioness looked at the wolf boy with a surprised look. Like herself the wolf was an antromorph, the next evolution of animals.

There were animals that were just like their ancestors but everyone just called them the "Ferals" while the evolved races were either called "People" as whole or by their species, like for Mara a lioness. The world Pan did not know anything about humans like in our world. You could say it is a parallel world where most is just like in ours but instead of humans the ruling species evolved from different animals and kept parts of their features. The size of each People was very similar. You could only see a difference in their height or weight for People where the ancestors had been either extremely small or big like a mice or an elephant. The difference between them was rather slim. You could compare it to the difference between the traditional Asian citizen to the big African people in our world. Most of the evolved species were mammals like lions, horses or bunnies. Reptiles like alligators or lizards were a minority. In most cities they were respected but there were factions that discriminated against them. In the city of Sol, in middle of America, around the area where Kansas City is in our world, there were very few reptiles but they were treated like any other and in this city the equality of all races was working. I brought up the similarities with our world only so that you can envision them better. As a final word in the comparison: Pan does only have 8 big realms that are at the locations of the continents in our world and they are named the same like we name them. America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, Arctic and Antarctica. We will now leave the comparisons and return completely to the story.

"I do like my sister." Replied the Wolf. His name was Zennith Moons but everyone just called him Zen. "You know that I like her, Mara. How could I not. She is smart, beautiful, obedient and fun." He felt his blood get into the head from the look of his class mate and cubhood friend Mara Briggins. Being a lioness she was a small bit higher than Zen with 174 while he only had 170 but it was so minimal that he could just look forward to lock his blue eyes with her red ones. "It is just that my parents always do what they want. They go on a journey and I have to watch her." He kicked a stone away and was distracted by the tail of Mara swiping from one side to the other. Her fur was yellow like those of most lions and is was bright in the sun. "You should be used to it by now." Replied Mara. She knew the white furred wolf since they both were cubs.

She was half a year younger than him. Her birthday was the 12. of August 2000 but he had been a so called "Millennium" child being born at the 1. January 2000. He already was 16 but Mara would have to wait a bit over 1 month until she finally would turn 16. Both of them were in the final days of their school life. In Pan all adolescents became adults by law with 16 and normally ended their 10 years of school around this date. Only a few days until they would get their graduation and then they could look for a job or a university if they wanted to be managers or lawyers. Mara knew that Zen did not want to be any of this. He did not know what he wanted to become in the future but decided to take a break of half a year or longer. He had all the time in whole Pan to decide because his parents were very rich. They owned a big villa and in addition a mountain with a big forest that was just an hour with the car away. But this was only their property here. Mara knew that they had at least ten more houses and territories in America and the same in other countries. Some of them were given to relatives or the put it up for rent. Mara's own parents were not poor but also not as rich. They had told Mara that she needed to find a job after she graduated in 10 days. They left her time until the end of August but then they would kick her out of the house. It was only natural with her having three younger siblings and their parents working both every day to feed them.

"It is okay if it is just for a week or a month." Zen complaint. "But they want to make a world tour for three months. And they are not only not taking me with them but making me the babysitter for my sister." "It is not like you had any plans right? Or did you decide to find a job with me?" she answered. Zen shot an angry look at her but it softened when he remembered that she was a bit sad about her parents kicking her out soon. "No, that's not it but... you know we could have done something together or I could have helped you to find a job." He tried to make her happy again. Zen and Mara had been together every day since their cubhood and he cared for her like for his sister. "Want me to come and visit you every day?" she asked and smiled at him. "You are always welcome, you know that." The bell rang and the hurried into the class. Zen was still in a bad mood when the class started but he followed the instructions of the teachers. The class now was only preparation for the children. They already completed all the tests and soon would get their grades. Now the teachers told them about different jobs and helped them to decide what they wanted to do next. For Zen this was not interesting. Even when he always looked like he slacked off he was top of his class with all As. But all the purposes of the teachers did not interest him. He was completely amiss of an idea what he wanted to do. He just knew that he did not want to go to university. His father wanted him to take over his company as a manager. Maybe he would think about the university later but at the moment he had enough from school. He could also become a fashion designer like his mother. But even if he was into fashion and made sure to wear the latest trend he was not so much of a designer. His sister was more creative than him in this resort.

When school was over he said good bye to Mara and walked to the parking lot. With all the money his father had he could have hired a driver like they did in the past years but Zen loved the freedom of driving since he got his license at the start of the year. For him this was the freedom of an adult and he pursued his father to let him drive. His father insisted to get him a car with the latest drive safety that would warn for collisions and even steer and break on its own in dangerous situations but he accepted the wish of his son. A smaller wolf, standing at 133cm, jumped at him and greeted him with a big hug pulling him out of his thoughts. "Have you waited long Zen?" she asked and he ruffled the head of his sister and laughed. "Not long Si." The real name of his sister was Sierah Moons but he founded this nickname when his sister asked why all called him just Zen and that she also wanted a nick name. She was ten. Her birthday had been the 3. May 2006 and like Zen she had white fur. Her eyes were different. The right eye was blue and the left was green. Some said that this was a sign for a blessed child, others said it was a memento of their ancestors. "What will we have for food today?" his sister asked and let him go while entering the back seat of his car. "What would you like? We can have Pizza or Sushi or maybe Curry?" - "What about Chili?" she asked and her eyes glowed. "With extra meat." Zen smiled. He knew that Chili was the favorite food of Sierah and he had to admit that he liked it as well. "Okay, Chili it is." He replied.

Their parents already had left this morning. He knew that they would be alone in the house. Despite all the money they had they did not have a personal. Only when his parents were home they had their personal secretaries with them most of the time but this did not happen often anyways. His parents were usually only at home every few weeks and when Zen turned 16 they stopped hiring babysitters and had him step in for his sister. He had guarded his sister in the past as well but most of the time there had always been an adult with them for emergencies. Now they would be all alone in the house. Only on Fridays like today there would be the cleaners but they should already have left by the time they came home. Zen was used to be alone with his sister and in secret he liked it that way. They would play and watch television or he would read a story to her. Part of why he did not want to get a job was that he feared that he had to leave home and Sierah and that he would be apart of the one person that meant more than anything else for him. For his parents he did not feel this way. Even in his childhood they had been away most of the time. Either his father was on a tour for his company and his mother went with him or she had to go to a fashion show and he accompanied her. Either way they were out of the house most of the time and did not even come home for sleeping most of the days. Zen was raised by house keepers and nannies like his sister. Not that there had not been fun and nice nannies in the mix and he turned out okay but it was not the same as the warm love of a parent. He had spent a lot of time with Mara and her parents who cared a lot for her and her siblings. All that Zen knew about parental love was, what he experienced at his best friend's place.

The drive home did not take them long. After 20 minutes he pulled up the driveway to their house. It was one-kilometer-long but without having to look out for any other cars he floored the gas and reached the big entrance area fast. "You should change and get ready for the dinner. I will just park the car." Zen let his sister out of the car and drove more carefully to the garage. The doors in the house were electronical locked and his sister knew the code so he did not have to worry about keys. When he got into the kitchen he dialed the number of the food service to order their dinner. His parents had left him with his own platinum credit card that he got on his 16. Birthday and the dinner service already knew the house and the code for the gates at the entrance. They were coming once or twice a day to bring food because despite all the times and good grades Zen had he was a terrible cook. The mood that had been bad this morning directly changed when Sierah was around him and now he was all happy and humming a song while he waited for the delivery of the food. The rest of the evening was like any other. He watched a movie with his sister after Lunch and then they went to bed.

The next week was like any other and at the end they had the graduation ceremony. Zen looked dissatisfied when he watched all the other parents praising their cubs for the good grades and for graduating school and becoming adults. He had managed to get the permission from school to invite his sister to the event even though she normally would still have classes today. He was happy to have her and even the parents of Mara congratulated him for coming out at the top of all graduates but even if he despisedand hated his parents sometimes: at this moment he secretly wished that they were here and their missing was a big spear in his heart and he was not able to be as happy as all the others looked at this day. Soon school also ended for all the lower grades and Zen saw them streaming out of the building. Sierah ran to a few class mates and greeted them, said good bye for the summer vacation and hugged a few of her closer friends.

"Aua." Zen turned around when someone pinched his arm. "Jealous about them?" Mara whispered and giggled. Zen knew that she noticed him watching his sister and also that she knew what he was angry about. "Not a bit. I will have her for the rest of the summer because of some useless old grumps just flew off and did not even consider coming to their son's graduation event." Mara just lay a hand on his arm and put her head on his shoulder while she purred. He always loved the vibration of her purr. Wolfs were not able to purr like that and if felt relaxing. "Sorry to make you worry." He added and touched her hand to thank her. "I know you have no responsibility in all this." - "Don't worry about it. I know your parents and I know that it meant a lot to you that they would be here. Do you want me to come to you this evening?" Zen looked at her and then at her parents. He knew how proud they were of their daughter and that they did not want to let her go so early but had to. He also knew that she wanted to spend every minute with her siblings as long as she could because she did not know where she would find work. "It is okay. You should celebrate this day with your family. Don't worry. I got Sierah with me. I will not be lonely." He forced himself to laugh and his thoughts away from his missing parents and started a conversation with the Briggins. He liked the family. They were warm, caring and he always liked to hold a conversation with Mr. Briggins, a farmhand at the edge of the city. Mara's mother was a casher in a supermarket in the center. They were normal people. The world they lived in seemed so different than his own but this had always been the reason why had secretly envied Mara deep inside. They did not have as much money and stuff as he did but they had enough for their life and they had a warm family. His sister came back from her friends and he drove her home. Summer vacation started. He wondered what they would do. Maybe go to the beach or go tracking in the mountains. He would do whatever his sister wanted him to do.