Shadow, unlike the other dogs, still had not used his words against another dog. The next morning Flare was one of the last dogs to wake up, but she did so with Shadow close by and waiting to ask questions.
"So where does the food come from in this joint? I'm so hungry, it's all I can think about..." He said while sniffing the air rapidly. There was a fantastic scent on the breeze, of meat being cooked on a grill somewhere in the neighborhood. Flare had to stop herself from thinking about it too much as well.
Before she answered, she cleared her throat and felt that it was super dry. With a pointed glance at Shadow, she started stalking towards the water-buckets near the tire. They had been cleaned and refilled to the brim last night. The rain was gone, but it left the ground sticky and sucky with churned mud.
Grey Dog was there to defend the water bucket, and depending on his mood she would or wouldn't be permitted to have a drink. Since Grey Dog had repeatedly marked the side of the white bucket, it was stained yellow in certain places and had a distinctive reek of his urine. She tried to ignore the overpowering scent and bent her neck over the edge to get a drink.
Just like the dozens of other times in the past long months, Grey Dog raised his head from his paws and leaped to his feet once he saw Flare drinking from it. He gave a guttural growl from where he stood, knowing that Flare would move away without a sound.
As she immediately turned away with her tail tucked, a more feminine voice spoke up from behind.
"Grey Dog, you haven't let any dog use your drink in days." She had the hint of a warning in her voice, and Flare almost cowered even more as she realized that Grey Dog might attack Mocha.
But he didn't. Instead, he lowered his head but kept up his growl as he looked at Flare. It was all Flare could do not to sprint back to her spot near the porch.
"But White Dog's bucket is over there," he argued back. "And the best breeding and fighting dogs should be the ones to drink from them."
"You're so selfish, Grey," she spat down at him from up on the tire. Flare's neck-fur stood up as she fully expected Grey Dog to lunge at Mocha.
"You know that she-dogs need proper nutrition if they're going to mate, just like male dogs." The hint of a snarl crept into her voice, as if she dared Grey Dog to disagree with such a fact. Flare almost felt like Mocha was standing up for equality among male and female dogs, until she remembered that Mocha accepted being controlled by a male.
"Go on and take a drink, tan-dog. I'll fight him myself if I have to." She seemed to know full well that Grey Dog wouldn't hurt her, though. But why? Because they bred together?
Brindle eyed Flare after she realized that the other she-dog hadn't moved a muscle on her command. The male dog's posture was still aggressive and his gaze was sharp as flint.
"Come away, Grey Dog," she growled in a commanding tone.
"You know you won't challenge me when I'm carrying pups, and you shouldn't be doing it to her, either." She rolled her eyes and started muttering to herself. "Male dogs think they have to control everything..."
Flare licked her lips nervously and drank the water with lightening speed as soon as Grey Dog joined Mocha on the tire. While she was finishing up, she realized that her belly felt a lot better and heavier. I don't think I've ever been allowed to drink my fill. Flare turned and beckoned with a flick of her ears at Shadow, who stood looking at her with his tail raised.
"This will be your only chance to drink for days, unless White Dog let's you use his..." Shadow looked pointedly at her, and she stifled a laugh at his expression, knowing very well that White Dog seemed to hate Shadow's guts.
Wagging his tail in appreciation, Shadow took a long drink and they went back towards Flare's area of flattened, dried-out dirt.
"Why can't all the dogs share water here?" Flare looked at her toes and tried to think of an answer. She hadn't the slightest excuse as to why the other dogs did it.
"They might think that there isn't enough to go around, but the human always fills them when they get empty..."
"Ah. So, it must be a dominance and control issue then," Shadow stated matter-of-factly as it became clear that Flare wouldn't finish her sentence.
"Everybody's like that here." She felt comfortable enough to scratch an itch behind her ear.
"Well, not us. You and me, I mean." Flare was taken aback that he'd used the phrase 'you and me.' Shadow had only been here for a night.
She decided to answer his earlier question about food.
"The Man will be coming out here at any minute. Very rarely the female will come out with scraps, which is-"
"I know what those are," Shadow cut in gently, before she could explain. He licked his lips and his eyes began shining as he thought about the tasty, salty scraps of food that the humans tossed to them.
"Anyways, it's mostly The Man who feeds us. And he only throws kibble into the dirt and grass, so it's every dog for herself."
"Or himself," Shadow added as the tan female dog had to try not to roll her eyes in amusement. We know you're a male dog, Shadow.
"So go for it quick as you can, but watch out for Grey Dog and White Dog. If you get close to their muzzle, they'll fight over the food with you, and then neither of you will get to eat it because somebody else will have." Flare paused hastily. She felt like she'd never spoken so long in her life.
"And maybe Jax, too. If you don't want to get into a squabble with him. Sometimes he just cares about the food, and other times..."
"I can handle myself with Jax," Shadow said too quickly, as if he wanted Flare to know that he wasn't scared or helpless. Flare saw playfulness gleaming in Shadow's eyes a moment later, though. He focused on the ground.
As a piece of grass twitched from the wind, Shadow moved to pounce on it with his paw outstretched. He pounced on several pieces of grass, and then stretched out near her again in the dirt. He rolled his shoulders into the warm earth, snapping at any flies that came nearby. Soon after, a dog barked in the distance and Shadow barked back at it repeatedly, even after Grey Dog gave him a narrow-eyed stare. The whole time she'd been watching, Flare had sat still as a stone. She wished she was confident enough to behaved that way. How is he so comfortable here, playful, and.... Carefree?
The handle jiggled and the door to the back of the house opened. After Flare's escape attempt last night, she expected The Man to close any doors behind him quickly and firmly. And that's exactly what he did.
He said something short and snappy in that guttural gurgling tone that some male humans have, and right away most of the dogs sprinted to his feet. Jax, as usual, was the instigator of jumping on the human, so when he began doing it all the other males besides Shadow did as well.
The Man made a high-pitched whistling nosie through his mouth, and Flare flinched without meaning to. How did he do that? She knew that dogs couldn't make that sound. It startled her time and time again.
Most of the dogs knew that The Man did this when asking the dogs for their patience, or at least for them to stop scratching and jumping, but today Jax didn't stop.
"Jax!" White Dog's voice was like steel, but still the black-and white bully didn't quit. White Dog's wrinkles became more profound as rage and impatience crossed his face. "We aren't eating because of you!" He snapped and lifted up off of his haunches.
Flare knew what was coming next, so it wasn't much of a surprise when White Dog came right up to the human's feet and chomped down on Jax's lower spine. It still made her nervous, though, and even more so as The Man seemed to be looking on as he patiently waited for the dogs to end their gruesome squabble.
Jax's head flicked back and his brow knocked into White Dog's but it didn't last long after that. White dog became enraged and stomped his feet down on Jax anywhere they could land. He was able to do so even with Jax standing, since White Dog was so huge and Jax was stout and short.
Jax was no doubt been in less pain than bite wounds would've caused, but Flare still turned her head away as she saw the older male's claws scrape and rip through the softer parts of skin. They left red marks between his thin black-and-white fur.
Then, Jax was spun around in a circle on his back as one of White Dog's legs missed aim and bulldozed into his stomach instead. With the accidental blow, White Dog had pushed Jax away from The Man, and now he sat there with his haunches folded underneath him, looking up at The Man with the most non-threatening and pleased expression she'd ever seen him use.
"Hey! I was behaving..." Jax began but all the dogs ignored him, because just then The Man finally flung the entire contents of the bowl across the yard; some landed in the dirt, some in the grass. A few even flung as far as near the tires.
Flare leaned towards an empty space of patchy grass that was swamped with the scent of kibble. Working her nose through the strands, she found a handful of pieces and split them between her teeth. She made sure to keep well away from the other dogs, but in the end felt that she was nowhere near satisfied or full from the meager amounts.
The young tan dog sighed and flopped down in the small slab of shade that the porch provided. The stone was rough and cool against her shoulder as she laid her head on her paws, her stomach gurgling for more. She waited in silence for The Man to go to his truck and leave, as per his daily occurrence, but he stayed in the house.
"I didn't get enough," Shadow grumbled as he approached with his head lowered. His tail was straight and stiff as if he were annoyed. Flare couldn't blame him; she'd been hoping desperately for some scraps herself.
But she bit her tongue, resisting the urge to tell Shadow that he would never, ever get enough. Not while they were trapped here.
~
That day, The Man stayed home. And as the gentle breeze of a cloudy spring day was tugged into the windy, cricket-chirping night of evening, he came out of the back door with seperate leashes.
All the dogs automatically knew it was a fight night. It was really just a matter of what two dogs would be chosen, if it was just two.
Flare had been a pup the first winter when she'd shown up here. But during the second one, she saw and heard things through the ears and eyes of an adult.
One night, it had been frigid cold and snowy underfoot. Most of the dogs had taken refuge in the dog-houses or huddled together for warmth. But, even do late into the night, the dogs began to hear cars pull up just behind the fence or near the front of the house. They all knew it meant The Man was preparing for a dog-fight that he would host himself. What they hadn't known was that The Man was going to fight all three males on the same night. And all at once.
Some animals, like Grey Dog and Mocha, had looked a bit excited at the prospect of an upcoming fight during these cold and boring months. Though exhausted, Grey, White Dog and Jax exited The Shed with a piercing satisfaction. Flare didn't know why- perhaps they savored the violence, or maybe it was something more simplified. As her eyes traveled over the others, she wondered as much.
White Dog looked excited by The Man's appearance, and ignored the other dogs completely to wag his tail and stare up into The Man's face.
And Jax looked apprehensive but excited, so maybe he was just glad for something different to happen. After all, it changed his usual routine of bored lounging around and talking too much to dogs who didn't listen.
The leashes jerked around as The Man leaned down to pet White Dog, one of the few she had seen him interact with them. He straightened abruptly as soon as Jax jumped into his face, but Flare was watching the leashes. There was two.
The Man moved on from White Dog and made his way over to the tires, where Grey Dog was already loping towards him.
The male Pitbull let his tongue roll out in excitement as the leash was tossed over his ears and hugged his neck.
"I fancy a fight tonight. Been too long." He licked his lips and looked up at The Man, his dark eyes shining. "So who's it going to be, White Dog or Jax?"
In response The Man picked his way over to Shadow and Flare, avoiding piles of feces that he could no doubt barely see. The two dogs were a few feet apart. Flare instinctively stepped away as the man's giant boots plodded closer, and she felt her fur lift up in nervous anxiety. She ducked her head and loped closer to the house and farther away from him, not wanting the leash to come anywhere near her and lead her to that awful shed.
But clearly, The Man had been after Shadow all along. He tossed the leash over Shadow's head, who had a startled expression on his face.
"What's happening? Are we going in his rolling-den?"
Grey Dog laughed at that, while everyone else seemed too shocked to reply. Flare wondered if they were suprised because Shadow was being taken to the shed just a day after arriving in The Yard. She wouldn't know, as she had never seen another new dog show up.
"Do you have clouds in your head? We're going to the shed to fight, Brown Dog!"
"Fight what?" Shadow said, bewildered, but he was already being tugged away by the man. Flare caught a glimpse of his eyes, light brown and frightened, through the legs of The Man as he walked.
Shadow seemed to sense that Flare was looking at him. He flipped his head back and moved to the side to call out to Flare, just as he was about to be yanked beyond the fence opening.
"Flare, help me! What's happening? What do I have to fight?" His voice became farther away, and then muffled as the door to the gate was closed.
A small twinge of panic coursed through Flare's muscles, and as soon as the gate shut she sprinted to the back fence, barking Shadow's name. Somehow she should've thought to warn the brown dog about The Shed before this.
"He'll be fine; Grey Dog won't kill him." Mocha's voice sounded scornful. Why is it beneath her to act worried about another dog? Flare wondered, but really her thoughts were elsewhere. Another minute or two passed by, and she couldn't hear much coming from The Shed.
"Did Brown Dog call her Flare? What's that?" Jax asked, talking to both of them at once. He was laying with his legs sprawled out again near Flare's part of the yard, and had to raise his voice to be heard.
"It's her name, clearly." Mocha said pointedly and smacked her lips together at the end. So Jax annoys her, too, then.
"Tan Dog doesn't need a name. Her name is Tan Dog." Flare blinked in surprise, and felt a suppressed growl building up in her throat. If only Jax would let the names thing go. He acts better than other dogs, which makes him worse!
"Tell me about it," muttered Mocha, who was clearly being sarcastic. But it went right through Jax's ears, who began relaying his reason further, making both Flare and the brindle Pitbull more annoyed by the second.
While Jax blithered on about names, and how he was the only one who had a proper name, and so on and so forth, Flare's ear-tips were stretched to the extreme. She heard nothing from the shed yet, but automatically her ears swiveled in a different direction as she heard a few more cars pull up.
Nearly one after the other, the engines were cut off and footsteps rounded the fence to the shed. Flare waited even longer, agonizing second after second, as voices filled the empty sound behind the fence. At least they haven't started fighting Shadow and Grey Dog yet.
She then heard more car doors open and slam shut as three or four humans exited one. They, too, rounded the fence, and Jax barked at them half-heartedly.
"The Man has more friends over than usual tonight," Jax observed, although he was just talking to hear his own voice at this point. "And they're getting louder and louder back there."
"Oh my Dog, I can't listen to this!" White Dog called out from next to the trash can. He often went over there to smell for morsels after the humans brought the trash out. Very rarely, they dropped some trash item or another on the ground outside, and even more rarely you could find that it was food.
The much older male, with lean legs and a ghostly pelt covered in scars, had always been the least concerned and the least enthusiastic about the fights. Even though he accepted them as The Man's will, he seemed to enjoy gloating about his victories the least.
"Must be 'cause that Brown Dog is new..." Jax let his words drift off into silence and then picked up where he had left off, as if one of the others were waiting for him to finish. At this point, Mocha and White Dog had moved so far away that they weren't hearing Jax anymore.
Flare wasn't listening, either, her ears trained on the murmuring and outbursts of laughter from the humans just beyond the fence and a thin layer of metal. Shadow's in there. Is he scared?
Several long moments passed. Her ears picked up on Jax's intolerant babbling again as he spoke up louder this time.
"Hey, Flare-."
"Actually, Tan Dog-" he corrected himself. "That's a stupid name, and it makes no sense. No dog can flare or mocha, and that's not a color or a thing." Flare didn't comment, although personally she thought his statement was the dumbest of the century. She didn't even turn her muzzle to acknowledge that she'd heard. Her initial concern over naming herself, and what that name actually was, felt like an old decision. Besides, the name had been for herself- not for other dogs to use. Who cared if they did? The things Jax does to get someone to talk.
"You know, White Dog doesn't seem interested in much of anything tonight- but we could mate while he's over there," Jax commented thoughtfully. Or at least, as thoughtful as you could sound about a topic like that.
Flare intitially cringed. Since this morning, she had pretty much forgotten about that. But there was no ignoring the scent that pooled from her urine, or the pheromones that she emitted just by sitting there.
She wanted to curl her lip and snarl. She wanted to take her long, white fangs and sink them into Jax's little triangle stub of an ear, but...
Flare didn't feel the rage that she needed. She looked down as Jax, his short and stocky figure with his muscular legs spread out behind him, his face full of old teeth-and-nail injuries. He had a wide-set jaw but a short muzzle and flattened nose.
Flare felt like she could defend herself against Jax, if it came down to that. But for now, she kept her head fixated on the back gate and let her hackles rise, rather than forcing them down. For once, she shot a piercing gaze at Jax that was more than enough of a message.
Flare sat there as the long pain-staking minutes dragged by. Eventually, the sound of Jax's droning and the human's chatting to each other turned into cheers and belly-deep growls alongside serious snarls behind the metal tin. More often that not, a snarl turned into a yelp of pain or the thump of muscle against a hard floor. Flare heard it for what felt like hours, as teeth snapped and high-pitched squeals of pure terror erupted from one dog's snout or the other.
Why didn't I try to help Shadow?