Of Waves and War

28: her heart is loyal

Penelope

Something is different this morning. I wake up, almost cheerful? Then I hate myself for it. Something feels right somehow when it shouldn't. I'm waking alone again. Am I used to his absence? Finally? How dare I be? And yet there's something like happiness in the morning air. The birds are singing, I can't remember the last time they did that.

I get dressed hurriedly and go down to breakfast. Telemachus is still out so it's just me and the dogs. I fill their bowls and open the back door, whistling for them. they come running in happily, pausing to only lick my hands before going to their respective dishes.

"Argos?" I frown. Eulises' old dog, the last puppy that lives that he had raised. The dog is an old creature now, rich chocolate fur now peppered with grey. Since Eulises left the dog has sat sentry by the back gate to the garden, daily, waiting for his master to return. He would stray only with extreme cajoling from Telemachus, but never go on long hunts or stay inside.

"Argos?" I wait till the others are done to take his bowl. Poor old dog, are his joints finally too stiff to get up?

I check his spot at the back gate. Empty, he's not sitting there anymore, nor is he anywhere in the garden.

"Did any of you do anything with an old dog?"

Much swearing, I knew these cymbals would be useful.

"All of you, idiots, have you seen an old black dog with a silver muzzle and flop ears? If you hurt it or locked it outside the gates then I will give my boy leave to hunt you for sport is that perfectly clear?" I ask, holding the cymbals at ready, as I lean over the balcony of the upper story to address the suitors who are piled in the main hall. They were asleep.

"What--?"

"No---,"

"Those dogs try to bite us—,"

"But while you're here—,"

"Okay, if the dog is not back by sunset then I expect payment from all of you for the animal's worth because I blame all of you as you're the only people here and my husband's prize hunting dog is gone," I say.

More than likely the old dog wandered off to die quietly in the woods, as cats and other wild things do. But I might as well extort the suitors as they are here and could potentially be responsible. I do hate them.