I wake up, what just happened? That wasn’t a nap, owie my back!

Where is the den? All I see is sky and a bunch of stuff all around me, everything smells like the fires, so many scents, i don’t understand.

Where’s Mom and Dad? I smell them, let’s see, oh No, Oh Dog No!

I lick and lick but they don’t wake up! What do I do, as I howl at the top of my lungs.

Then I heard her, my buddy Gerty? I could smell her but could not see her, so I dug and dug and then there she was, she had owies, and we cleaned each other.

 

 It was nearing daylight when she asked me what happened, I cocked my head, and she understood, we were both lost. Gerty wasn’t just a friend and huntress, she knew that from now on we were the Alphas, even though we were only two, so I decided we stay put for now.

 

We awoke to the smell of fire, but not Mom fire, this smelled like bad bacon, so we went potty and took off towards the sun, I had nowhere to run so I just ran until I saw some trees that weren’t all black,( how did that happen?) so we took a rest and a smell. Gerty smelled clear air to the west, but I noticed something different, where were all the humans? We had run for a few hours and seen no one, where did they all go?

 

 After some scrounging in the big giant food den, we headed west, side by side instead of single file, we met a few loose feral packs but our skills made them think twice and we moved on without incident, into the big tree place. We stuck close to the road, we heard what was deep in the trees, and weren’t in shape to fight whatever that was. We came to a human place that was normal, but again, no humans. There was no blackness on the trees or the dens, the chickens ran around, and the few cats just screeched to the wind, we were used to that from the before time. Gerty found us a local food den and we got some slightly smelly venison from the cold thing, and feasted in peace for the night. Tomorrow would be cold, but we had each other, headed west.

 

I remember in the before time Mom and Dad would take us this way to the warmlands, we would play with our humans in the water, so much fun! and so we traveled south, and towards the good air Gerty pointed us to. The days went on, scrounging was easy, but I knew it would run out, I needed a place for us to den for the cold time, it was coming, you could feel it, that’s when Gerty told me.” Otis, I have a litter, I need a den,” 

Cold as ice I felt, as we moved south toward Holland and I managed to find a cleared out cold box. I noticed it keeps you warm now, I don’t know why. Gerty and I gathered a bunch of human warm things and made a fine nest for us and our new pups, then we hunted the small things that you can eat later. We settled in for a long cold time, and pups on the way, we will make it to the warm times again.

 

Early spring,

“Otis, we can’t stay here any longer, tres is getting fat and rufus wants us to work, where do we go?”

Holland, did you see the signs? “When I was a pup Dad pointed to the signs, and I never forgot, we go that way,” as my nose pointed south. I remembered a human this way that Dad took me to see, he was a good human, so we go see him. By the time we leave the pups can fight, but we avoid the main roads anyway, uncontrollable little shits.

 We were a days walk from safety when it happened, not feral dogs or cats, but feral humans, trying to eat us alive! They managed to get two of my pups, then the other five made quick work of one of them and they ran off. We moved on, Gerty was tired but a stoic beast, I love her.

Then came what I hoped for, the place I remembered as a pup, I called the pups and we ran to the gate, tails wagging, ready to be safe, the guards were not impressed, then came the Man! He was older now, but I knew him from the other time and he led us all to our new home, we found our place, safe and with good jobs.

And that is why, 20 years later, We are the Palace Guard of King Gunslinger the Firstest