THE YARD

Chapter 2

In the few times she'd seen The Man come out to feed the dogs, she had witnessed the brutality of pack structure and punishment. The male dogs bit at each other's lips and noses, occasionally full-on brawling and snarling over the food rather than eating it first. Grey Dog and White Dog fought over food the most, which was the unofficial names that they called each other.

Brindle Dog was the female, and Flare noticed that she fought the least. She was still bullied and shoved aside from food or the best spots to lay, but she didn't respond with full-on agression like the male dogs did. In fact, Flare had not seen her fight any dog yet. She defended herself with a snarl and flash of teeth but always turned away immediately after.

The puppy had no idea how old she was, but she was certain it was much older than herself and Jax. She had the movement of experience, but didn't seem old enough to be slowing yet.

Jax, the black-and-white bully breed was nearing his full height and weight, which wasn't much compared to the other dogs. And Flare always found his face to be strange because of his pushed-in muzzle.

Flare twitched a scruffy golden ear and finally lifted her head as she heard steps come closer to the back door. It swung open, and instead of The Man walking out, a female with a much lighter scent and long flowing hair appeared. Flare had of course been aware of her prescence in the house via scent flowing from the door's cracks, so it wasn't too much of a surprise to see her come out of the back door. She stood up, but wasn't too eager about being tramples by the other dogs.

Then something else filled Flare's senses. A delicious smell wafted from the woman, or something she was holding. In her arms she held a bucket of dog food. So White Dog, Jax, Grey Dog and Brindle Dog all piled around her excitedly, wagging their tails. They were behaving much better than they would have if The Man were feeding them today, and didn't seem to mind as tails whapped faces and paws stepped on one another.

Then Grey Dog leapt all over her legs, though- coming close to knocking her down as she made her way farther into the yard where the mud gave way to grass. The dulled meaty scent of dog food followed her.

Flare noticed that the human also held a sack with weird looking stick-items jumbled together inside. All of the dogs could smell the dog-food in the larger bucket container, and especially the stick things packed into the clear bag.

She began speaking in a baleful voice that the dogs heard as a jumbled non-coherant language, and lifted up the food higher while dipping her hand into the bowl to scoop some out. Instead of dumping it straight on the ground in a pile, she flung some this way and that, so that the dogs scrambled over each other in a hustle rather than fighting over one huge pile.

That human seems to understand things better than The Man, Flare dawned as she eyed her. She had fed the dogs in the grass instead of dirt, and made sure each one had gotten something.

But all too soon, she quieted down and stopped flinging out food. Flare bit back a small whimper as she realized she had just sat there and watched the human as every other dog ate but her.

I missed my only chance! She was preparing herself to slink around the others nervously, to search for crumbs, when a quick movement caught her eye.

Jax and White Dog had both snuffled towards the same spot of grass, and Jax began snapping his teeth as White Dog's nose touched his.

As the dog's began and snarling and sizing each-other up the human made a sharp, high-pitched noise, which caused the dog's head to turn sharply her way.

She flung a handful of the meaty sticks from the bag one way, and then the other. Flare's stomach made a churning noise, as if it were ecstatic that there was still a chance at getting something. Anything. This time, she stood up hopefully and waited to pinpoint her gaze on the next item thrown.