PA 3.5: End of a Tail

Chapter VIII Part II

Once she was gone, Patches let out a sigh of relief and grabbed one of the half-filled bottles on the floor. He uncapped the first one, and immediately the overwhelming stench of medical alcohol hit his muzzle, making him reel.

"Ugh, this is worse than that cologne..."

He looked to Brownie, watching as her worried eyes stared at the bottle.

Patches smiled and upturned the container onto Brownie's uniform, soaking the cloth.

"Don't be such a baby- follow along with me, and you won't combust at the end of this."

Patches began to pour the 2nd bottle onto the corgi's head now. Afterward, he grabbed each empty container, dragged them and Brownie over to the bin, and put the plastic into the recycling. Brownie was staring at him with a weird, scared look, trying to find a way out of her situation, it seemed.

"What, just because I'm a murderer I have to litter?" he said to Brownie as if she had asked him a silent question. "Here, you face that way and keep quiet," he said, a joyful smile hiding his bloodlust.

Using the cover of the tree and shrubs, Patches hid himself and Brownie as best as he could from the way to Kemono Woods High. He waited, muffling his hostage with a paw, making sure she wouldn't give away the ambush early. He didn't have to wait long, however, seeing a pair of grey ears crest the horizon through leaves and trees, then an accompanying couple of orange ones and red ones. He bided his time, waiting for them to get closer.

Soon, the dogs came within earshot, and he could hear the husky amongst them speaking. "Heh, tell you what Rover, how about we set up a friendly game, like yesterday?"

Rover shivered, his paw still wrapped around his bat, which he occasionally widely swung when he got bored of not swinging it. "But we gotta show them that dogs are just as good sports as they are!"

"... And that dogs are better than cats at sports, right?"

"Yeah! W-Wait, I mean-"

Sparky sighed. "We can't be testing the relations between cats and dogs just yet. Let's just play it safe for now, alright? How about we ask her if she can play a smaller game of ball, between just a few of us."

"B-But..." he began to protest but frowned as Sparky gave him a stern look. "Aww... fiiiine."

Still clutching their scissors as hard as they could, Olive spoke up, "If it would make you feel better, I-I could try playing with you, Rover." They looked to the side, blushing a bit at the idea.

"Haha, yeah! I bet you would be a great umpire!"

Sparky looked a bit offended. "Rover.. are you being sarcastic?"

Olive seemed to ignore Sparky; their starry eyes focused on Rover. "O-Oh! I don't know if I'm good at all, b-but, I really want to try!"

"Oh! Baseball is easy, all you need is confidence; in your team, in yourself, in the throw, and in your swing!" Rover punctuated his proverb by swinging around his bat like a moron, making Olive duck as the thing barely missed their head.

"Aah!" Olive screamed.

"Rover!" Sparky barked out.

"Ah- Sorry captain!" Rover shuddered, saluting with his free paw while stiffly putting the bat at his hip.

Sparky had only the time to slow his pace and rub Olive's shoulder before a vicious, collected voice called out from the shadows.

"Hello puppies!"