Filthy Dog- Riren

Goodboy

After I got my horse tucked warmly in his stale, I turned to Eren who had taken post to guarding my back. 

"Come on Brat." Eren follows behind me as I lead him just behind the stables to a little area where we would normally groom the horses. 

"Sit." I walk over to a well plucking two buckets full of water, some horse shampoo, shears, and a detangling brush.  Upon turning, Eren is sitting patiently with his head facing my direction, he's a good boy at least.  I came to sit in front of Eren on a wooden stool "Alright brat, are you ready?" Eren doesn't give a reply besides standing to his full height which I take note that he is rather short, I wonder what kind of dog he is. 

I brush all thoughts away as I begin to dump some of the water onto Eren.  He shivers from the cold temperature but stays still otherwise.  Once damp enough, I proceed to massage the shampoo in, cringing at the way it turns brown almost immediately.

  I repeat the process with conditioner for a few moments but it still comes out dirty.  I keep conditioning his long unruly hair about several more times before his fur softens and the suds are all white.  Eren shakes his body wetting me in the process. "You shitty little brat, if you weren't clean I would beat you senseless." 

I grunt annoyed by Eren's non-chalant attitude and pick up the shears.  Eren starts to move back barking at me but I grab him by his fur tugging him back as gently as possible.  Soon enough I have Eren trapped between my legs, I took to work cutting his long hair as close to his body as possible. 

Once I have relieved him of his longer hairs, I take smaller scissors and cut precisely around the paw area and such.  Eren stayed still for the most person and stuck to whimpering when the shears got to close.

I then proceeded to brush is fur again cutting where needed and scrubbing the crevices that may have been missed.  By the time I am finished, Eren looks like a completely new dog.  He is noticeably smaller, barely coming up to by mid calf, his body is mostly a tan color, whereas his paws are a darker brown and so is if right ear, his eyes, which were recently covered by fur, are actually a bright green. 

Eren barks proudly stretching his adorable tail and walking in a neat circle.  I scoff slightly,  amused at his was of telling me he likes his new style, "Come back on brat, I'm sure there are plenty of shitier brats who are ecstatic to meet you.  Eren yips before coming to follow behind me into the base. 

"L-Levi what is that thing." Asks Petra Ral when I enter the base.  "This is Eren, my puppy." Petra squeals even though I can tell she has no idea what a puppy is, "What does it do? it's so adorable, can I touch it?" She questions in a flurry, though, before I can answer she is already on her knees cuing and petting Eren.  That stupid brat rubs his freshly cleaned body all over her happily accepting her praises. 

"Levi where did you find him, oh goodness, can I have one?"

"Tch, get off of Eren." I say before picking him up so Petra's filthy hands can't contaminate him anymore.  

"Petra, I want you to call all the soldiers on the base to the canteen, there I will inform everyone on Eren."  I say running a hand over Eren's body.

"Yes Levi." She says with a sloppy salute.

I grunt and Petra speeds off down the corridor to gather the soldiers.  I thought that meanwhile it would be ideal to get Eren checked or something so I decided, regrettably, to go to Hanjis base of operations. 

Turning and switching multiple corridors, I soon found myself before Hanjis door,  But never had I a felt more nervous.  It was eerily quiet in her room, a sure sign of something terrible.  I knocked twice on the door and waited patiently, and waited, and waited.  Just as I was going to knock a second time, the door suddenly swung open.  "Oh Levy Lev, what brings you to my humble abode."

" Check Eren, his heart, his vitals, and see if you can find any information on him at all." I say fluently. 

"Aye ye Captain." Hanji salutes, before turning back into the lair; I took this as my cue to follow her and promptly did clutching Eren closer to me.  "Actually I was just doing some research on Eren and found some pretty interesting things, though I'll need to run a few test in order to be sure." Say Hanji as we come to sit at a table in her dim light room.  "Do what you must Hanji." I mutter. 

Hanji stretches out of her chair plucking Eren from the ground.  He gives a yip of shock disliking the sudden movement, poor Eren, one moments you're shivering in a bush, the next your being examined by filthy scientist.  I examine from behind as Hanji listens to Eren's heart, checks his physical appearance, and collects about five tubes of blood samples.

"Here Levi, he is perfectly healthy from what I can tell, but I do have something for you, I made it while reading an old book on 'dog breeds' and how to train them." Hanji says, she is not very excited, or at least not as excited as she usually is.  It would be obvious so me even if I were a blind man. 

"Hanji, are you alright, you seem a bit troubled?" I ask sitting on a couch and crossing my legs. 

Hanji dropped whatever it was she was retrieving, "O-oh nothing Levi, just caught up in my experiments as usual." She picks up an circular object walking towards me. 

"This is called a collar, it was worn by dogs and put on by their owners as a way to say, 'I own this dog, so it is illegal to take them'." I cautiously accept the light weight 'collar' to examine it.  It looks to be fashioned from thick yarn and the string of our 3-Dimensional gear with two metal pieces and an adjustable latch. 

"I'm really happy I made it as small as I did, who would have known such a small doggy was hiding underneath that much fur, how did he get so hairy if he is so young, or at least young looking?"

I took that as my cue to leave before Hanji starts rambling about new experiments.  I nodded my head to Hanji who took zero notice but instead walked deeper into her room. 

While making my way to the door I knew Eren was behind me, because he is a good boy.  As soon as we reached the end of the corridor, I turned to Eren who was keeping his own walking behind me as fast as his little legs would take him.  In fact he was focusing so much he bumped right into my leg rolling over and barking softly. 

I chuckle then composing myself, picking Eren up from the ground.  "I'm going to give you this present." I state as a begin to fasten his collar around him, it seems slightly to big, even on the smallest adjustment.  Eren barks happily licking at my face, but failing because he is so small.

        He looks so beautiful in his new collar, my hands brush over his soft body and I hold him a little closer to my chest as my legs carry me to the canteen.