The Valiant Sea

Daniel Fraser

Chapter 5: Daniel Fraser

I had run a couple hundred metres up the trail, I stopped, all I could hear was my own panting.

Gee I'm unfit...

There was no more snapping of twigs. The birds in the canopy of gumtrees began to sing to one another again. In relief I bent over with my hands on my knees to catch my breath, I was observing the dried leaves and sticks scattered across the floor of the bush. Once my breathing returned to normally I slowly straightened my back but my eyes still locked on the ground. That's when I saw feet...

They were a mustard colour, fluffy and covered in dirt. I apprehensively took in the golden retriever who's yellow fur shone in the sun pushing through the tree branches above. It sat before me, panting with a wide smile and cocked their head to side curiously when I smiled.

Remind me why I had been so scared of this cute little fluff-ball?

"Hi there, cutie," I cooed as I allowed the dog to smell my hand to test whether I was nice or not. When they started waggling their tail and giving a chirpy bark as they all but jumped onto their furry feet, I began to pat them. I knelt beside them and they rolled onto their back exposing his stomach, I scratched their stomach. The dog rolled back onto their front, I patted their back and head, spending a bit of time behind his ear. In the movies dogs seemed to always like that.

I know the dogs exuberance is washing off on me when I cooed: "Who's a cute little doggy." This dog made me not be able to stop smiling. More importantly, they made me not want to stop smiling.

When I stood up and stopped patting, the dog immediately whined and jumped to their feet. I looked down to find them giving me the puppy-dog-eyes.

How does this dog know how to use their cuteness so well?

I knelt down and the dog barked happily with their tail whipping the air. I patted it's head while let smiling. Then a thought crossed my mind:

Where is this dog's owner?

It must be one hell of an amazing owner, considering that this dog's name could literally be 'Happy.' 

I stood once more and turn to find then owner, ignoring the whines.

"Come on, boy," I encouraged with a pat to my leg. He bounded up behind me and then walks right next to my leg.

Well trained, too.

I faced forward with a smile and retraced my steps back down the path. But just as I had turned my head to the front, I rammed straight into something hard. But this time it wasn't a gumtree.

I landed on my already bruised bum. The dog yelped happily at whatever I had ran into.

Why do I always end up on the ground?

"Ouch," I groaned with eyes held tight in pain, I sheltered my red trickling nose with my hand.

"Shit," a scarily familiar voice spoke, "are you okay?"

If I know this person, why do they sound concerned?

I looked up to find a hand offered to help me stand.

"I'll be fine," I mumbled. The sun was shining directly in my eyes so I couldn't take in who was standing there. From what I could see was a tall silhouette of a muscled boy.