Shadow and Flare's claws clacked against pavement as the leashes pulled them onto a street. The woman was walking fast, seemingly agitated and in a rush.
Flare's eyes and ears devoured everything she saw and heard. Cars were far and few in-between, but they glided down streets at a slow pace, nothing on them appearing to move but the wheels of their body.
She had never seen a car from the outside of it, she realized. She didn't remember a world beyond The Yard. Her ears flicked forwards, then back again as she heard the squeals of car breaks or the whish of the woman's purse sliding across her body.
The grass out here was much thicker and greener, without the acidic constant watering of dog urine to flush out the color. Flare bent her head every two seconds to smell it, but was always jerked uncomfortably by her neck away from the ground.
She began to grow frustrated at the fact that she wasn't allowed to stop and investigate scent-marks from other dogs. There was no chance for her blackened mood to fester, though, because they soon reached a busier road. The cars whooshed by one after another, and occasionally a loud honk rang out. Flare, begging to feel overstimulated, bushed out her fur. She preffered the quiter sounds of side roads rather then a city main-street.
They passed by a human who held a rectangular device in it's hands, not even looking down towards the dogs as they walked slowly past. Flare tried to sniff the pant leg of the new human, excited. It looks like a female. Do all females have scraps? Does this one?
Flare was disappointed when the leash jerked her back to her reality. Whatever this was created for, it does its job too well. I can hardly breathe with this twine around my neck. How do the male dogs stand those heavy chains they always have to wear?
Then she realized, there would be no more chains. Wait. Maybe.
"Where do you think she's taking us? I'm sorry, I know I already asked," she added when Shadow gave her a sidelong glance.
"Well, I've thought about it a bit since then. And she must be taking us somewhere... somewhere, I don't know where, that we'll be transferred over to other humans.
Flare blinked, skeptical. Like to another Yard full of fighting dogs? "Why?" She had to ask.
"I'm not sure why, but humans always want dogs in their control. So, if we aren't The Man's dogs anymore, or in his Yard... it only goes to stand that we'll be taken to a new person."
Flare sighed, knowing she shouldn't have asked. She looked up and realized they were walking in the middle of a throng of happenings. There was bike racks lined up alongside business buildings, food-scents wafting from their whereabouts. A mother maneuvered her stroller around the two dogs, then stopped at a building and pushed her way in.
Along the edge of the sidewalk they were occupying stood trash cans, recycling bins, people and cars. There was no grass far enough that Flare could reach, so for now she didn't have to worry about her head being jerked up when she lowered it.
The shapes of the buildings were different, and some were stone or wood. Others has smooth cement walls or paneling, but they were all fairly close together. Some alleyways showed between the buildings, but they too were shrouded in fog.
Above, the sky was misty-grey. The clouds had no shape to them, but covered the world above in a massive sheet of white.
The two dogs and the woman were an odd sight. The woman had very tight clothing, and the dogs appeared dirty and disheveled. Shadow was even holding his injured leg off the ground. Flare knew that if she asked "Does it hurt?" Shadow's response would be a lie. He'd continuously tried to cover up his injured leg, but now he wouldn't even let it touch the ground.
As Flare swerved around a throng of three humans walking close together, her leash tugged her sideways. Without notice, the two dogs slowed and were forced to wait as she pushed open a glass paneled doorway.
There was White pawprints painted along the green door, but Flare had hardly a second to look before she was pulled through the doorway.
Shadow's eyebrows went up in surprise, and Flare naturally tried to dig her claws in and back up. However, her neck was pulled forward by the leash and so her body followed behind.
It immediately felt unnatural and closed-in. Flare's claws skidded across the smooth floor and she was dragged toward a half-wall made of brick.
Beyond the half-wall sat two women, both wearing similar dark blue clothing and rectangular name-tags amongst their chest areas. Flare could just barely see their faces above the wall, her ears swiveling nervously.
She turned her head and looked behind her, back towards the door. The fact that she was in a building right now felt weird.
There was two plants nearby framing the exit, as well as more pawprints crawling up the wall as if some creature had tried to climb the ceilings.
"I've been to a place like this once," Shadow advised quietly into her ear as he stood much more maturely next to the woman. His leash was slack rather than pulled taunt, and he was clearly much more used to all this than Flare was.
"They usually heal injured or sick dogs." That was all the information he gave, which caused Flare's unease to heighten.
How? In what way? And how long does it take? Does it happen here, or somewhere else?
She wondered all of these questions as a receptionist raised her head and began speaking with the woman who held Flare's leash. The tan dog fidgeted uncomfortably for a long while, but eventually copied the poised and calm pose of Shadow.
A door swang open from behind the desk, and Flare startled. Her leash jerked her back into place and she was forced to watch as another leashed dog was led around the half-wall.
It was a tiny, puffy little thing. It had berry-bright eyes and a swinging pouf of a tail. Flare's eyes fixed upon it as it trotted through the lobby, past the seating area, and up to the exit door.
The human who held the pouf-dog's leash opened the entrance for it, and they both walked through to the foggy sky outside.
"I've never seen a dog so small," Flare observed, feeling more calm now that she had seen another dog in here at such ease.
Shadow flicked his ears, his three good legs tensed as if he had switched his feelings with Flare's previous ones.
He didn't answer. He stared up at the human. The brown dog seemed to notice some sort of change in her.
Flare pricked her ears and heard tiny sniffling noises, but noticed nothing else peculiar. The woman had her long brown hand raised to her face, wiping something away from it.
She turned her head, about to ask Shadow a question. It would've been What's going on? If she'd had a chance to get the words out.
Instead, she was interupputed by the woman turning suddenly. She stooped down and stroked Flare's neck gently, then scratched the taller Shadow underneath the chin twice.
She looked at them. The eyes were strange, having more white in them than usual dog eyes, but Flare thought she saw pity in them.
She knows what's happened to us. I think...?
Flare wasn't certain. But, the human did have eyes, and even she could see Shadow's ripped-open leg wound. She was going to get them help.
But then, what am I doing here?
The sound of footsteps on the hollow linoleum floors caused Flare to twist an ear. This time, it was a man who came around the corner, and he held no leash or dog.
The Man had short hair and was wrinkled around the eyes, in a sort of tired-looking way that reminded Flare of White Dog. Still, she took two steps back. Her fur was on end as The Man took her leash from the woman, then Shadow's.
He smiled kindly at the woman, even touching her shoulder for a whisp of a second, then nodding and moving his mouth in their human language.
Flare only paid attention because it was a Man. She feared this one nearly as much, because he was tall and thin like her previous Man. Even if there was several differences, Flare knew of man's control.
"It's okay, Flare. We have to go with this Man. We have no choice."
Flare didn't like it one bit. Her instincts told her to turn and bolt, but the leash was so taut that she couldn't move a hairslength.
The Man touched Shadow on the head with his palm, offering a reassuring pet. Flare looked towards the door for one desperate second, her heart pounding because she knew the leash prevented escape.
Flare swallowed her fears as Shadow turned and followed the receding man. Their footsteps were taking them towards the back door raher than the exit. The one place I didn't want to go! Flare thought, shattering all of her control again.
The man's footsteps were light as the woman's had been, and he looked back at Flare with another wrinkled smile. This gave her one tiny sign of hope that hardly made any sense. Then, she understood it.
Our Man never smiled at us like that.
"I'll try. I'll try to trust him," she choked out in a thick voice full of emotion.
Flare stood up. She turned, and bounded after Shadow.