PA 3.5: End of a Tail

Chapter XXI Part II

It was only then that Cujo peeked his head from the 2nd floor, looking into the living room from his height and seeing the mess of dirt that covered Rover. "What the hell happened?!" he demanded.

Brownie looked towards the dog's soft, worried features with almost a bit of disbelief. "What do you think? Your girlfriend's boyfriend just showed up!" before the dog could stammer out a response, Brownie added a change of subject, "Get the first aid kit- it's under the sink!"

"Sure, I'll get it, but-" the dog raised his large blunted black claws up to his head, scratching behind his ears as he continued, "that's uncalled for; she is not my girlfriend, and I'm pretty certain they're not dating either. That's just- ugh-"

"Oh my Dog, it's a joke!"

"I'm just saying, it's a bit rude, yaknow?"

Brownie's eyes sagged as she could feel her brain melting in real-time, sloughing out through her bandaged, bloodied ears and plopping onto the floor like melting ice cream.

"O-Okay, but, first aid kit, I'll go get it." Before he left, Cujo looked past Brownie, outside of the doorway in an attempt to get an idea of what had just happened. "Is everyone okay?" he asked.

"Noooo?" Brownie sassed, dumbfounded and gesturing to Rover.

"No, I meant is anyone else-" he stopped himself, sighing, "right, okay- fine, sure I'll get it." Cujo shook his head, then turned about, walking off to the washroom.

Brownie turned to Olive, nodding to get their attention. "Olive, can you help me with Rover?"

"Oh, s-sure," they muttered, lowering their paws from their face as they paced towards the large ash tree stump table and nervously began to reach for Rover's left side.

Brownie nervously chuckled, smiling in amusement as Olive began to help place Rover face-down onto the table, the terrier grunting and wincing all the while as exhaustion and pain kept him weary and silent. "Dog, if I'm the one ordering people around we really are screwed." Her attempts at humour hardly seemed to better the mood of either dog, and she ended her chuckle with a hearty exhale and dulled eyes.

Rover groaned suddenly, his squinted eyes growing soft as he let his body calm down.

"R-Rover?" Olive asked, lightly shaking the dog and barely getting a response. The pup looked from the terrier's head down to his letterman jacket, then finally saw the shards of wood and bark that had embedded into his clothing, and the larger piece which had stabbed itself into the back of his leg like a needle of a porcupine.

Brownie was quick to recognize the growing worry in Olive's visage, but before they could squeeze their eyes shut and let worried tears fall, she spoke up. "Olive, I'm sorry, but you're going to need to hold it together for just a little bit, okay?"

Olive shut their eyes, bringing their paws to their mouth to cover it anxiously. "O-Okay..."

Brownie let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks, I'm gonna go check on Coco, kay?"

Olive's eyes cracked open, and they reached hesitantly forward with a red paw. "Wait..." they squeaked out, voice barely audible with how meek it was. "W-What happened to Sparky..?"

A pang of pain hit Brownie's core, and she winced at the question. "I... ah, Olive..." she teetered out, grimacing at her situation. Her face went dark as she realized there was no way around it; she would just have to avoid it for as long as possible. "Just, eh, don't worry about Sparky right now, okay? Let's help out Rover and keep getting ready for the sleepover, yeah Olly?"