Loving and Learning

Early Gift

The pups were in the backyard, all mostly play fighting. Dolly and Dylan were in the back doing target practice with Dante and teaching him how to aim with the kibble machine. While he was doing better than expected, he still missed quite a lot.

"Ugh this is hard." Dante groaned.

"You need to relax bro, you're trying to rush it." Dolly said. 

"And work on your posture a bit, you're too low to the ground." Dylan added.

Dante rose a bit to reposition himself, looking at the bowls in front of him; all all in different positions for him to practice on, trying to focus his attention carefully. The machine started back up and kibble quickly shot out. He let himself relax a bit and allowed his gut instincts to take over.

This time he got most of the bowls.

"Awesome bro!" Dolly cheered.

"In no time, you'll be an expert. Alright I think that's enough practice for today. We'll work more on it tomorrow." Dylan said.

"Finally." Dante said, relieved.

He removed the nozzle off his back and took a drink of water in a nearby bowl. The hot weather really hadn't helped making things easier.

Ring Ring.

Dante's ear twitched at the faint sound of a bike nearby, one familiar to the family.

He snuck away to peek over the backyard wall to see the mailman making his way to their street up front, a large box behind him that was being dragged in a wagon. Dante quickly jumped over to make his way to the front of the house to meet the young mail person.

"Yes! It's here!" Dante said.

The mailman stopped his bike and grabbed the box, though he jumped a bit at the sound of Dante's barking and turned to see him waiting at the doorstep.

"Don't, don't bite me. I still have teethmarks from last time I delivered mail here." The mailman said.

"I'm not interested in biting, I just want my mail. Besides I have no idea where you humans have been." Dante retorted.

Not like the mailman could understand him anyway, he put the package down the top of the doorstep and quickly got on his bike and rode away, not wanting to alert the rest of the family of his presence. Dante was pretty glad about it anyway. Unbeknownst to anyone, he ordered this a couple days ago and didn't want it to be seen by any of his siblings or parents.

Except one.

He pushed the box towards the wall and scanned the backyard, looking for one particular pup.

DJ.

DJ was nearby with his drums out, getting ready to play for the family. Dante didn't want to draw any attention, he noticed a small pebble on the ground and grabbed it and tossed it next to DJ who quickly heard it landing and looked towards Dante's direction, who was motioning his paw to come over. Though confused, he moved away quietly and went over the wall to meet Dante on the other side.

"Hey Dante, what's going on, and what's that?"DJ asked.

"Oh I just wanted to show you something. I think you'll love it." Dante said.

He lead DJ while pushing the box to the front of their house so they could do this more privately.

"I wanted to do this now before your birthday comes up, I don't want to draw attention to it." Dante explained.

"Wait....is this.....a gift?" DJ asked.

"Just open it up." Dante said.

DJ did as instructed and used his claws to tear through the tape on the box to free the top. He opened the two folds and inside was a lot of styrofoam peanuts, which he dug through and pulled out a large black guitar case.

"What the? Dante is this?" DJ asked.

Dante remained silent while smiling and DJ opened the case to reveal a white guitar with a red inner section in the center. DJ's jaw dropped in awe and shock.

"Whoa you....you got this for me?" DJ asked in disbelief. "How did you?"

"I had some money from my allowance." Dante answered.

He decided he wasn't gonna mentioned that he was gonna be Triple D's servant for the next few weeks for this.

"Figured you should have something from your birthday that you enjoyed, even if it's early." Dante explained. "Maybe you and me can jam out if you want, or do sessions with Elvira. She and her brother play a guitar and drums."

DJ was still staring at the guitar, marveling at it and rubbing his paws down it. DJ was rarely one to get emotional, but Dante could see what appeared to be a small tear trying to form in his right eyes, however DJ placed the guitar down and quickly hugged Dante.

"Thanks Dante, this.....this means a lot." DJ said, rubbing his eyes in secret; though Dante could feel him doing so.

"You're welcome." Dante said, embracing his younger brother.

"You think we could do a private session with Elvira soon? I wanna try this guitar as soon as possible." DJ asked.

"Alright, alright. I'll see if I can schedule a time with Elvira and her brother, you will like them. Elvira reeeally go all out on the drums, you'll be impressed." Dante stated.

"Sweet, I'm gonna go hide this now." Said DJ.

He placed back the guitar in its case and pulled it back inside the house, with Dante discarding the box into the dumpster.

And in a rare time in his life, he was unaware he was being watched by a figure in the distance, hiding in the shadows, and fueled for a need for revenge.

"I knew this would happen. He's put his guard down."

And watched him follow DJ, his spirits higher than ever. Now was a perfect time to strike.

"Time to get even."