THE YARD

Chapter 8

Flare waited all night until the very last cricket stopped chirping, and every one of the man's friends climbed into their rolling-dens and went home.

Just an hour or two before dawn broke, she heard movement from beyond the fence. The shed door opened, and soon after the back gate did as well. Flare saw the rust-stained metal sheets that were the shed walls quickly before The Man shut the gate with a hefty push. Though Flare knew almost nothing about people compared to other dogs, she felt like his body language was not positive and stayed away.

Grey Dog stepped through first, his leash bouncing around his neck as he loped almost cheerfully into the yard with his stump of a tail stuck up in the air. He had blood on his pelt, but most of it wasn't leaking from wounds. The stocky male seemed scraped and breathless more than wounded.

Flare didn't need to ask who had hurt who more during the fight; Shadow came right behind his haunches, looking like he'd been thoroughly unprepared for the entire ordeal he had just faced.

That is an exhausted dog, Flare thought as he moved with shaky legs and his head lowered. The poor male had ashamed body language, his tail tucked hard as he followed The Man alongside Grey Dog.

Shadow approached with his head and tail lowered, and as The Man unhooked and withdrew Shadow's leash, the brown dog flinched involuntarily.

Why? Flare asked herself. Such an easy touch couldn't have hurt him.

But then one of his ears twitched so rapidly that Flare knew there had to be something wrong with it.

Dried blood had turned this particular ear red, alongside a newly-forming scab with a mess of sticky, spiky fur.

Flare approached in a crouch and then stilled so she could look. Her ears flattened and her tail dragging along the ground. The Man was busy with un-looping the heftier leash from around Grey-Dog's neck. He then busied himself finding the chain's end and securing that around Grey Dog's neck instead.  This was routine for after every fight, which made Flare feel better about unfreezing in front of The Man and other dogs.

She could see that Shadow's floppy ear had been split down the middle halfway up to the top of the ear. Instead of one ear-flap, he now had two thinner ones. And it looked like it would only close up half-way after healing, because it was split so far apart. While she examined it, The Man untied Shadow from the leash and clipped his chain on as well.

That must hurt excruciatingly bad, she sympathized just as a wave of shame swept over her. This was half Flare's own fault, because she hadn't said anything to Shadow about The Shed. She could've warned him, but her shyness and social awkwardness up until now had prevented her.

"I'm sorry-" Flare began in a tiny voice while still flattened against the grass, fully expecting Shadow to be resentful.

"What, this? It ain't nothing," Shadow interrupted as he looked up. The she-dog felt a tingle of relief as she saw his tail raise and give a small wag. His shoulders and head were still slumped, though.

Flare felt a tinge of pain in her chest, knowing very well that she deserved to be scorned for ignoring Shadow's plea for help earlier. She turned her head away and looked at the grass, which was little more than a dark mass of stems.

"-ain't never been in a fight before." Grey Dog's gloating filled her ears as he aimed his words in their direction. The larger male was chained to the dog house nearest to a corner of the fence, which every other dog had gathered around. He growled in a teasing tone and rumbled on in a condescending way about Shadow's defenses. There was a sinking feeling in Flare's stomach as she listened, knowing that Grey Dog would go on about it until Shadow reacted.