"Ey! Kat! One of the wheels is looking loose!" Bill, my best friend in the gang, gets my attention from the driver's seat of the wagon behind me. 

"Which one?" I holler back. You have to be loud to be heard while traveling.

"Right side back, the wagon I'm on!"

"On it!" I snatch up a toolkit and leap from the wagon I'm riding on to the next. It's dangerous, doing it like this, but I've had four years of practice. They call me Kat for a reason. I can jump really well, and I always dodge falling to my death - almost like I have nine lives. I reach the back right wheel, sweep my hair back into a quick bun with a few strips of cloth, and lean down to take a look at the wheel. 

"The bolt's loose, Bill!" I yell to him.

Another voice joins the conversation. "Somebody didn't do their routine maintenance!" It's Keith, driving the wagon behind us. 

"That somebody was you, Bill!" I shout, laughing.

"Kat, why don't you go ahead and tell Timber that the bolt's loose?" Keith grins. He probably just wants to keep annoying Bill, but we should tell Timber that the wheel is loose.

I square my shoulders and hop onto the wagon that I was originally on. Then I hop to the next one, the one that Timber is driving. 

"Ay, Tim! One of the bolts on Bill's wagon is loose."

Tim glances at the sky and nods. "Kay. Thanks, Kat. Let's stop now. It's close to sunset, anyway. We're near enough to the settlement for protection."

Timber is our leader, meaning that they usually get to make these decisions and have the final say on where we go. They're a good choice for leader, in my opinion. Tim is strong, levelheaded, and smart. 

They sound the horn to stop for the night, and everyone unloads the wagons and starts setting up camp. Bill is crouched on the ground, tightening the bolt on his wagon wheel. 

"Having fun, Bill?" I walk around him slowly.

"Ha. Ha. As if Keith hasn't annoyed me enough already."

Elva, Keith's friend and wagon partner, is busy unhitching the animals - and arguing with Keith at the same time. I slip away to look at everyone setting up. Everything is going like normal. We roam the prairies and the forest trails and the fields, but our routine is the same. 

Wait a minute... My eyes home in on a shadow crouched near the wagons. Probably a little animal or something. But it's not a bad idea to investigate. I grip my sharp pocketknife tightly. We all have one of these, in case ropes get tangled or we need to cut something free. I approach slowly, then dive in.

"AAH!" There's a scream as the shadow recoils, but I have it by the arm and it's not going anywhere right now. "I'm sorry! I wasn't trying to steal anything! Let me goAAAAA!"

There's another scream as I pull the shadow off its feet. Now that my eyes have adjusted to the light, I can see that it's a scrawny boy, probably about fourteen or fifteen, with dark brown hair, brown-toffee colored eyes, and peach-toned skin. I have to suppress a laugh because those two screams were the highest I've ever heard a boy's voice go, and they were HIGH-PITCHED.

"Okay, but when we find foxes-" I say as I release the pressure just enough for him to stand up, "we bring them to our leader." I twist his arm around and march him back to camp.

"Welcome back, Kat..." Bill trails off as he sees what I'm pushing along in front of me. "WHAT THE-"

"I found a fox," I say without looking up, "and I'm bringing him to Timber."

I walk him over to Timber, who is standing near the campfire.

"Hey, Tim. I found a fox."

"Nice job, Kat. We'll need a questioning, of course. Leave him here and bring some rope, will you?"

We gather around the fire, Timber standing behind the boy, the rest of us across from him. He looks terrified, and I can't blame him. We look kind of rough. Also, he just got taken down by a girl. But this is standard procedure for foxes, as we call people hiding out around our wagons. Most are theives, some are spies, and some are innocent. It's hard to be too careful out here. Timber starts asking him questions.

"Name?"

"L-lenny."

"Last name?" 

"I... I don't have one."

"Orphan?"

"Uh, yes."

"Were you trying to steal from us?"

"N-no!"

Timber's grip tightens on his shoulder. "Are you sure?"

He mutters something under his breath, then lets out a small squeak. "I- I was trying to steal something! Please don't hurt me!"

"We'll see about that. Do you have a home to return to? A warm meal? A bed?"

He looks down. Not scared anymore. Defeated. "No."

Timber crouches down next to him. "How would you like to have a family that sticks up for you? A meal enjoyed with them each night? A promise of a safe space to rest after a hard day of work?"

"I would like that... but I'll never get it."

"Oh, you might. You might right now. Today. Lenny, how would you like to join the Wild Buffaloes? You'll get a family that cares about you. That sticks around. That gives you the basic things you deserve."

Suddenly, there's a spark in his eyes. They light up. "Yes. Yes!"

Timber's cold, hard, questioning look is replaced with a warm smile. They look completely different, and far kinder. 

"Welcome to the herd, Lenny Buffalo."