PA 3.5: End of a Tail

Chapter II Part II

"Scream and r-" the terrier was about to ask in disbelief, but cut herself off. "No, why would I do that? You helped us- you let us... do something important." She kept on staring with her yellow irises. "Thank you."

Then she noticed the stare he was giving her. Circles contained the eyes in concentric rings, defined and deep. He was pissed.

"Or- I- I'm sorry!" she stuttered out quickly, whirling her paws infront of her self to dissuade his glare. "I d-didn't mean to sound so creepy, I'm sorry, I'm just stressed- j-just-" The dog shut her eyes and folded her stomach so that her frizzy hair sunk down to her feet. "I just don't know what to do and- and..." She began to breathe heavily and quickly, ending in coughs.

"Shush," Patches spat. "I appreciate it, but, I'm not really in the best of moods right now." He felt the grip on his wrist loosening as he paced closer to her. "I'm an orphan, so maybe we go back to your place to talk? Haha." He smiled, getting ready to stab her jugular when she looked back up.

The terrier clutched her chest as a pain contorted her face. She looked down to her heart as if it were just stopped. She quickly darted for something at her hip that wasn't there. "Where-" her paws frantically patting her hoodie and her uniform.

"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" Patches laughed at own his joke pretentiously, taking his first step within arm's reach of her.

She barreled back against a tree, pressing her palm against her chest like it'd make her heart start beating again. "N-Not that bad... Not- Okay, I'm okay."

He giggled to himself. "You know, it's really not a good idea to startle people like you did. What if I had a panic attack?" Patches stuck out his tongue. "And, well, you saw me. I was hiding from everyone, why would you think it would be a good idea to speak to someone who's hiding?" he said, smiling and gesturing as if he was the most intelligent dog on earth.

She tried wheezing out some form of begging. The whimpers were sharp and not even the group of pups that had just passed by had heard her. 

"My, you meeting me, today of all days, and then this..." He drew his knife, freedom found in how tightly Dell's eyes were squeezed. Patches played with it, twiddling the weapon in-between words.

The loser kept the conversation one-sided with her hacking coughs. Each threw her body like a ragdoll, knocking her limp.

"... This really just isn't your day, is it?" He put the knife back in his vest, more comfortably now. "I guess it's not mine either..."

Patches demeaned himself under his breath as the adrenaline wore off. The student wheezed as Patches kept his attention on her and returned to the adjacent tree, sitting down at its roots.

Minutes passed as both dogs calmed down, and Patches rested his arm on a knee while staring up at the birds fluttering through the trees thoughtfully. "I used to sit down with a friend just like this. We read books until it got dark. I really miss that."

A smile curled up the side of the dalmatian's face as the nostalgia hit. It felt nice to relax in the dregs of the warm sundown on an autumn day. "You wouldn't happen to have any literature, would you?" he asked wistfully.

She took a very, very deep breath. "I-I'm-"

"Ugh, stop stuttering," he demanded. "It sounds so sad. Breathe, relax."

The pup held her breath for a moment, coughed, let loose another pained tear, then spoke again and slowly, so she wouldn't make any mistakes. "I'm sorry... It's really hard to speak properly r-right now..."

Patches hummed in agreement.

"Sorry... I never- my n-name is Dellanor," she said after a moment of pause. "Well... I guess it's more of my middle name? I mean, I don't-" she wheezed out a word, covering her mouth with a paw as it turned into a squeaky cough and then relaxed, "S-Sorry. But- my friends call me Dell, and stuff, s-so..."