It's been two mornings, Shadow. Where are you?
Flare shook her ears as water trickled down them. She hated sitting out in the rain, rather than next to the porch with a bit of shelter.
Her thoughts were tugged towards Shadow for the dozenth time. I know I shouldn't expect him to come back- but he said he would. Flare frowned and flopped her head on her paws. Now she had hope, and may end up all the more hurt in the end because of it. She had hardly spoken a word in two days.
Although- the female begrudgingly had to admit that her stomach felt better recently. Crow had been letting her eat alongside him. Guilt had crept through her belly for two mornings, the other dogs being told to stay back while she ate.
I havent eaten so much in... Ever. She licked her lips, more content now. It was odd not having the distant aches of hunger pain.
"Ready to talk yet?" Crow said idly as his tongue out in a yawn. A droplet of water hit it, and he licked his mouth. His paws stretched out before him, toes spreading. Flare felt a small ebb of annoyance at him asking again.
Perhaps I'll say something this time- since it seems he won't hurt me. Flare wasn't fully sure, but doing nothing while waiting for Shadow was pushing her bordem beyond it's limits.
As the rain created a pitter patter noise all around them, she raised her voice to be heard.
"Of what?" Level but slightly curious, she kept herself guarded.
"Well, to start- it seems like you still have Brown Dog on your mind. He won't come back for you." His sentence was tinged with a growl, as if he could hardly stand to speak of the hound.
Flare turned her head away, not wanting to belive it or speak of Shadow with Crow around.
"Sorry, I just wanted to help you get over the runty mutt." Flare's shoulders tensed, for she knew well that Shadow wasn't a runt.
"How about we play in the rain? I saw you playing with a stick with Brown Dog," he growled softly. Flare's hackles raised- she didn't like how she was being spoken to.
"You've no idea about how to speak to others, do you?" She parted her jaws to let out a snarl without a second thought.
"You're so unpleasant," spat Flare. She hoped he realized that it was in intended insult format. But, just as Flare began to regret her tone, Crow flicked his ears dismissively.
"I suppose not. Anyone who I conversed with in my previous Yard was ill-tempered or defensive." Flare studied her long toes, sleek with short yellow fur. Her claws were white, the opposite of Crow's dark nails. Finally, she peeped out a catious reply.
"Were you born there?"
Crow seemed a lot more comfortable than Flare. He stared at her and laid down with his shoulders loose and head up, tail curled limply beside him.
"Yes. Are you asking for more information than that?" He dawdled, sliding his eyes away. Flare literally had to force her own eyes not to roll.
"Sure-" she said dryly.
"Okay-" he said in the same tone, mocking her. Flare flattened her ears and felt her muzzle twitch. Now I'm definitely in a bad mood.
She sat stiffly with her eyes looking towards the end of the yard, towards the fence she had seen time and time again. It was rapidly growing dark in the rain- and alongside it came a mist that was difficult to see through. Flare couldn't make out any of the other dogs in the yard, or smell them.
"I would have to admit that my life's not been a comfortable one," he began with slow admittance. Crow's attitude seemed to be gone, for now at least.
Good. His soaked ears were pointer than usual, and slick from the rain.
"I take it no other dog's has been either- apart from those tiny dogs that are sized similar to cats."
What're cats? And... There's dogs out there that are smaller than Jax? Flare faintly wondered, but allowed him to continue on. She kept a watch on him from he corner of her eye. The black male's furry ears repeadedly twitched as raindrops hit them. His pelt was almost fully drenched, causing him to look thinner and showing his true frame.
"The tiny dogs were allowed to live indoors," he explained. Flare finally looked his way, her nerves a bit less ticked off as she listened.
"I would see them through the den's opening often, and they'd be allowed outside for mere minutes a day. But us... A much larger pack than this; we lived our lives outside. The masters fed my mother and father, me and nine of my litter-mates. You see, I never experienced a fight near my own Yard before this. We had no Shed or otherwise." He grunted and pointed his nose towards the back gate in an obvious gesture.
"Our Yard was extremely small, less than a corner's worth of this one in fact. So I had to be transported to other Sheds where the fights happened. One was underground," he rambled.
Flare tried to imagine two adult dogs alongside ten adolescents in one sqaure area of the corner of their yard, but she wasn't given time.
"But prior to that; My father and mother would bite, strike and claw us. They had little patience for the food we took, and my father-dog was especially brutal. I never truly knew where his aggressive nature came from until I grew a bit older. And I wasn't taken to my first fight until well after puppy-hood. I was put in the back of an open rolling-den and taken to an enclosed, loud place. My father was not with me, just my Man and many other masters with their dogs." Grimly, the male set his teeth.
"Because of the new place exposure," he seemed guilty to admit, hunching his shoulders.
"I was sort of on edge. And scared because of all the sounds. And so many humans at once- and other dogs." Crow defended himself. His eyes flashed over at her defyingly, his emotions switching fast as a tail-flick.
"But that wasn't what I should've been scared of. The master- well, he-" Crow's breath caught in his throat, and he gave a nervous whine of fear. His ears had titled backward, and the whites of his eyes were visible.
Then he shook himself, and buried his nose underneath his paw. He wanted it to look like he was hiding from the rain, but Flare knew he was just hiding himself from the situation. He's so vulerable, almost randomly... Flare thought.
"I did not want to do it. But he forced me- with his bare paws. Flare, they do not have claws but trust me- Their fists echo down into your flesh and bones, a sting that leaves bruises and broken bones for longer than just a few days. It rattles your teeth and gives you a claw-scraping headache. It's worse than getting bit by other dogs," he growled quietly. "You cannot defend yourself."
Feeling horrified, Flare tried to shut out his words immediately. But her thoughts flowed like spring water, thouroughly off-putting. What human does that? True fear echoed in her heart. She didn't want to believe that it was possible to be beaten by Man's hand. Has that been done to Shadow? Flare was suddenly glad that he'd escaped, but petrified that she herself still stood confined in The Man's Yard.
"The Man here does not do that to me. But I can tell from his stance and demeanor that he intends me to fight, so I do." He began again quietly.
"Throughout my upbringing occured many fights, and a long time of savagery between my family and I. But after what seemed like forever, my father and mother dog mated again. While she was with pups, many of my brothers and sisters began leaving the yard for good by hand of the humans." He snickered.
"I can't say I missed them. My father-dog always encouraged us to fight, and snarled in our faces. It rubs off on some pups, you know. 'Some day in life, you'll be an Alpha dog. But here, I am the Alpha', he'd say." Crow licked his lips, seemingly past his distraught point in the topic. Flare relalized she had been looking at him for quite some time, and peered back towards the falling rain again. It was quite dark, but late.
"I was second to last pup of the firstborn litter to leave that tiny yard. I came here. Haven't lived long, and yet I already know that I've been set up to be a fight-dog," he growled. "Given a choice in the matter, I'd live a different way. But I saw the world through my fence. It's jam-packed full of their seperate territories and rolling-dens. There's stone paths and humans everywhere. Food-bins, yes, but you'll get captured or smashed underneath the rolling-dens."
Flare had the impulse to ask how he knew so much about the outside world if all he'd lived was a life out of it- so she did. "For a dog that's lived in a Yard how do you know?"
"Me and many other siblings jumped the short fence and tried out running free. One of them died underneath the rubber rolling paws," he growled uneasily. "Her head was squashed."
Uncomfortable, Flare tried not to worry about all of these things happening to Shadow. Crow sounded like he knew what he was talking about. But Shadow's not a pup... He's been loose before. He should know how to survive... Right?
The sound of a squeaky door swinging open heavily distracted Flare. She stood up as her eyes adjusted to the light spilling out from the open doorframe.
It was The Man.
"It must be a fight night," said Crow excitedly. "Bit early for that, but oh well." He leaped to his paws, shot a glance at Flare, then bounded towards the porch.
Flare shook her head dissaprovingly. Why would any dog want to fight?
The Man grumbled in his incoherant language that flowed far smoother than a dog's throaty yips and barks. He isn't even looking for Shadow.
After stroking Crow once again he clopped forward in his heavy boots, tossing a leash over Grey Dog's neck.
With Grey Dog leashed, The Man picked his way across the yard on his odd two-legged frame. Black Dog followed The Man's heels closesly. He doesnt even need a leash. Flare's heart sank. Why is he so loyal to someone who ultimately causes his suffering?
The gate door was unlatched by the man's crafty hands, and Flare heard him latch it shut from the other side after he stepped through with the two dogs. Not a minute after did the shed door open, spilling out harsh orange light over the fence's top, and just barely illuminating the grass below it. Alongside it came the sound of many voices. They were the tones of men as they sat or stood along the edges of the shed, waiting for the fight to be initiated. Flare painted the picture in her mind from Shadow's explanations.
"I didn't even hear them arrive while we talked," Flare said aloud to not dog in particular. She shook out her drenched fur and padded through the puddles towards the dog houses. May as well wait out the rain in there.
As Flare made her way across the Yard, White Dog rose up from next to the fence. His large head and torn ears were all she could make out until he began loping closer.
"You two were brave, trying to escape. Shame that you couldn't make the jump, but- you could try now." Studying White Dog's broad face, Flare tried to detect any malice or jealousy in White Dog's voice, but couldn't. His stance was clean as well, paws tucked close together and head titled towards the back gate, rather than at her.
Flare decided it was safe to talk to White Dog since she wasn't in heat. "Why would you want to help me?" She settled on a straight-forward question that was right to the point.
"I admire young Shadow and you for trying to live a life beyond The Yard." White Dog's eyes looked tired and were stained below the lower lids.
"Then why don't you do that yourself?" She curiously peered over at the stoic white male. "You can jump the fence as well, you know."
White Dog heaved a ghastly sigh. He sat down on his haunches from afar, looking far less proud than he had before.
"Well, truth be told my spine and haunches are as sore as ever- I'm not sure I'd be fine after the fall down the other side," he admitted. He turned his head, floppy lips flapping a bit as he quietly talked.
"Besides, I don't want to die alone out there. My bones would not ache if I was not of old age; and I can tell I haven't got much time left in me." As White Dog exhaled, his body shuddered. He'd run out of breath from speaking for so long.
Of Flare's own accord, she crept closer. The hulking male dog had set his head in the grass. Everything about him seemed worn down.
"Pardon, White Dog- but you seem kind of alone already." Flare didn't need to point out that Jax had all but abandoned him. The black and white bully breed was far more independant now, and if not he was sticking closer to Grey Dog by the minute- who, mind you, pushed him away even more determidely.
White Dog simply huffed and Flare knew she wouldn't get a response to her statement. She heard the snarls, howls and yips of pain begin from The Shed, and hurried to continue talking.
"I wish you hadn't lived this life, White Dog."
"You as well, Flare." He seemed a bit pained, and this time, as it settled into silence White Dog' s breath was raspy. His bony haunches looked uncomfortable leaning against the earth, and Flare almost felt pity enough to lay beside him.
"I'd have ran away before now, if I could." Flare begrudgingly admitted to him from her standing position. Rainwater streamed down her spine. "But now I'm waiting for Shadow. So I'm not going to try and jump the fence yet."
White Dog did not respond again, and something about his silence told Flare that he probably didn't have anything positive to say about that scenario's outcome. Instead, the male dog soon began to fall asleep underneath the pelting of cool rain- his breath wheezing every inhale. Fairly worried about the old male, Flare resumed her travel across the Yard and towards the dog houses again.
She reflected on how White Dog had treated her since she'd arrived, and concluded that he could've shown more kindness. But this kind of life hardens a dog. It shouldn't, but it does. I don't know if I can say it's his own fault for being such a brute all those times before this... I just don't know. The tan dog sighed and shook her head. She watched the rain fall from the dog house until her final thought before falling asleep.
I hope Shadow hasn't forgotten me.
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Shadow