Howler's smoky brown eyes looked through the wooden slats to the slowly panting animal within. Their gazes rested upon each other, and the certainty that had long weighted the animal's bones stole coldly through the observer's heart.
"Please," the little girl repeated in a tiny, pitiable voice. "Can you please try?"
The dogmaster turned to her, fixed his gaze on her earnest coppery eyes, then released a slow sigh. Although he knew the only thing that could really be done for the old sire as he breathed his last weary gasps into the chill morning air would be to make him comfortable as he passed away, he decided against denying the young child her request again. He opened the crate and moved away from the girl, but didn't get all the way past her before she reached out a hopeful hand to him.
She knew nothing of the monster whose hand she wanted to hold, nothing of the creature that could savagely tear the flesh from her bones, nothing of the reason his natural birth name had been suddenly traded for a bitter moniker.
Howler heaved a deep, slow sigh, then made another decision- one at which the creature inside him, these days just barely under his rapidly-eroding control, snarled its discontent.
"Come," he breathed quietly, taking her flower petal soft hand in his own. "Let's see if the old sire can do something for his pup."
Although Howler himself had no apprentices, Kronmyr's trainees usually stepped in to help the man who single-handedly kept the Sunfire breeding business afloat. So as a spare short swordsman nudged his sparring partner into carrying the open crate into the Sunfire manse, they left in the yard behind them four young male dogs, a two year old bitch, and one three year old sire, all safely tied by their marked lead straps to various stakes around the sparring circle. Three of the young male dogs, all of mixed descent, bounced and played with each other aimlessly while their toffee brown, pure bred pointer sire sniffed at the completely disinterested cur bitch. The last young male dog, honey brown with dark ears and nose, simply laid down as he had when he was inside, looking as though he would soon fall asleep.
This was all well and good, until another one of Kronmyr's trainees brought a new dog into the yard. She was even smaller than the cur, and was white with brown blotches. The martial trainee, not knowing- or really caring, actually- what it meant when four of the five males became suddenly interested in sniffing the newcomer, simply tied the thing to the same stake as the disinterested male, who didn't move a muscle. When he saw that the female sniffed him very briefly, then laid peacefully on his side, he walked away satisfied that a rather off-putting job had been well-done.
As soon as the trainee had gone inside, the smaller dog found herself surrounded by three of the other young males, who all suddenly went the entire length of their straps to get near her. She flattened her ears against her head and snarled, giving a few of them some snaps, which only seemed to make them all the more eager to get at her. Only a few moments of this activity passed before the sire, who'd been slowly sniffing the air, rose and lifted a bark of his own. The three pups, all his, backed away from the smaller dog as the older, more experienced dog startled the white and brown dog into standing up and bouncing away from her previous position.
As soon as she left his side, the previously disinterested dog lifted his head sharply, fixing the sire with a glare that could be nothing other than a bare challenge of his dominance.
The small female dog emitted a nervous whine mere seconds before the sire expertly mounted her. He was too large for her to contest, and even though she twisted her body, nearly sitting all the way down in the attempt to get out from under him, he quite nearly managed to push himself all the way down to the knot.
The larger dog bounded up, ripping the stake that he had shared with the small female straight up out of the ground as though it had only been buried an inch deep. With a savage snarl, he lunged at the sire, slamming his chest straight into the side of his target and forcing him to the ground behind the smaller dog. That dog, for her part, began screaming sharp yelps of protest into the air as the three younger dogs strained at their stakes in the attempt to get at her. The stake slammed back down to the ground quite near to her backside, and absolutely terrified, she shrieked her way all the way around the Sunfire's courtyard, dragging it behind her.
The pointer, who was in the peak of his ability, still genuinely struggled to wrestle with the mixed breed pup that was bodily larger than he. Although the fight between the dogs lasted less than five minutes, they had both suffered slashes and bites before a red-faced, wiry young man tore into the yard.
"Ria, come over here!" he called instantly, trying to determine which way to run in order to physically catch her. "Niku? Niku, stop it! I said stop! Hey, help out here, some help!"
It took Howler some time, with the large, golden yellow dog cradled in his arms, to get outside to answer the calls. A tell-tale smell hit him as soon as he entered the yard, and it took everything in his power to properly direct his sharp rise in raging energy.
"Sit!" he hollered. So forceful was he that out of the corner of his eye, he watched the little girl, who'd run out of the building after him, wither at his tone. It was less effective, however, on the dog that he still called Hammer, who still towered and bristled, even when the sire broke away from the fight to obey the command. The smaller white and brown dog, for her part, darted between the sire and Hammer, and ran in two very tight circles next to him before he simply reached a heavy paw out and snatched her to himself. He made no move to mount, but stood over her while breathing out a low, intense growl.
"Valeria, you come here, now," the young man commanded in a more even tone. The small dog dashed out from between her protector's legs to sit at her master's, and Hammer immediately laid right down as though the fight had never happened.
"That's yours?" Howler managed through a tight jaw and clenched teeth.
"Yes," the young man replied, not tearing his eyes away from the tears in Hammer's tawny coat.
"She start putting out yellow stains in the bed, huh?"
The man turned to him with a confused look. "Last week, yes," he replied quietly.
The ignorance of the Human male cried out to Howler at once. Within him, the creature bayed for punishment, and for a moment, the dogmaster really wanted to dole it out in full measure.
But the dying dog in his arms began sniffing the air himself, his trained nose having caught a familiar scent.
"He's moving!" the little girl cried at once. It was impossible to tell whether the trembling in her voice was excitement or the knowledge that this sign of life was merely a spark in a rapidly cooling hearth.
"Hammer, come," Howler said quietly, sitting down and resting the weighty old dog in his lap as best he could.
"Is that his name?" the young Human male finally asked, looking back at the commander's intended target. "Silveredge- Rasha to you, apparently- she always called him 'Niku.' "
The little girl, still some distance behind, one-upped both males without hesitation. "Niku, will you please come over here like Ser Howler asked you to, please?"
The young dog offered a whine that started high and dropped to a lower pitch, but obediently got up and padded over toward the girl. His progress was interrupted by the dying dog, however, who attempted to get up and block his forward progress. Seemingly just as aware of his eminent demise as everyone else, Niku turned and promptly butted his head against the head of the other dog.
When he backed up again, the two dogs looked at each other. Although the standing dog was taller and leaner than his elder, the coloring left no question about their relationship to each other. The two dark brown muzzles suddenly moved toward each other again as though there were magnets in the noses.
"By Lathander," the young Human breathed, "They're from the same cloth cut."
After a few more seconds of exploration, Niku got as close to the ground as he could, crawling forward so that he could get underneath the large, deep brown paw of the dying dog. That dog, for his part, shifted in Howler's lap to position himself as close to the approaching puppy as he could.
"Is Krumiri Niku's daddy?" the little girl asked timidly.
"Must be," the young Human supplied instantly.
"His sire," Howler corrected, the irritation that the creature within him knew should have come along with the note somehow absent. "Thu- um- Krumiri is... Niku's... sire. He was the smallest in his litter. I lost the bitch to get him. Dunno who it hurt more, me or... Krumiri."
"About how old is Niku, then?" the young Human asked, coming close to Howler and the dogs. His own dog, curious, followed at his heels.
"He's getting on a year," the dogmaster sighed. "You'd think he was older, to look at his size. This guy, he's thirteen now, but he was the only male of his kind that I had left nearby, so I bred him one last time."
"Why would you bread him?" the little girl piped up. "You wouldn't eat him, would you?"
"No," Howler replied, surprised at the question. "I mean I let him-"
"No, no, don't explain that to a girl of her age," the young male hurriedly interjected. "Her parents must do such things, not you or I."
"Well, obviously your parents need to explain it to you, too, since your bit- your girl dog, then- is in heat," Howler finally managed, awkwardly aware of how inconsiderate he'd just been. "Whole mess out here could've been avoided, you know, if you'd just penned her up 'til she were past it."
And the male just looked at the dogmaster, speechless.
"What?" came the gruff question at once, "You didn't think she was already past it, did you?"
"It...uh...is the first time it's ever happened to her, since I've had her, so..."
The way he trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck and pulling his mouth up into a guilty-looking frown, was telling. Howler desperately wanted to put his face in his hands, but didn't want to disturb the dog lying in his arms in order to do so.
"Okay, your dog's about as old as this pup," he finally conceded. "No wonder she's so skittish about the mount. You, uh...you want to get her in a crate. She'll remember this, you know. If you want puppies... she's gonna have problems. Unless you really take care with her from here on out."
"What about Niku?" asked the little girl insistently. "Is he going to remember this, too?"
"Every moment of it," Howler replied. "Although how he will remember it- I'm not sure. He, uh...he isn't fond of hanging around girls- how's that, boy?"
"Iordyn," the young male supplied, not in the least offended. "Iordyn Raibeart of Marsember."
"I'm Amadelle- maybe if you played with them more?" the little girl suggested, finally stepping forward to sit between both dogs. Both responded to her presence- Niku shifted so that his sire's paw rested upon the little girl's leg instead of the back of his neck, and the sire made the slightest move of his head. "You have to be nice to everybody, Niku, like your daddy."
And at that moment, Iordyn noticed that something in Howler's eyes changed.
"So Krumiri- he came from this place, ser?" the young male asked. "I ask in the name of the Crown- I'm made a deputy by the Purple Dragons here, by carriage of penance."
"Howler," the dogmaster sighed wearily. "And yes, he was my fighter, once. Called Thunder, for the power of his bark. Was loyal to a fault. Never left my side- until he got too weak in the jaws to latch on to what he wanted to bring down."
"And then he came to live with my mommy and daddy, and Mommy called him Krumiri, because he is just the color of her favorite-favorite biscuits in the whole world ever, and then I got born after, and he likes me a lot, and he always follows me everywhere I go to keep me safe!" the little girl explained happily, as though she were telling the end of a fairy story. Her exuberance, as though it had been a force of nature, pierced through the animal that Howler was to the Human that he had once been.
"Krumiri, huh? Mommy must be from somewhere else," Iordyn smirked quietly to Howler. "He was loyal, you said- obedient, too?"
Howler nodded, feeling the dog's breathing grow even more shallow.
"Were there any non-verbal commands?"
And the dogmaster nodded again, although it was a smaller movement than before. Iordyn knelt down and worked his hand under the girl's free hand, and the child held his tightly without any kind of question.
"We're going to have to say goodbye to Krumiri soon, little buttercup," the young man said in a tone so low and warming that Howler was instantly grateful for it. "How soon, Ser. Howler?"
"Any minute," Howler murmured. watching Niku turn slightly so the he could nudge and lick his sire's paws.
Amadelle put both arms around Krumiri's neck, and at first, Niku simply moved over to accommodate. About thirty seconds later, however, he lifted Krumiri's paw and carefully, with his nose, moved it so that it rested on her shoulder.
"I love you forever and ever and ever," the girl said, so buried in the toffee colored neck of the passing dog that both men had to strain to hear her. Niku shifted uncomfortably, and Iordyn ventured to rub his hand down the large puppy's back.
"She'll be okay, big guy," he soothed. "She's just sad now, alright? Huh, boy? You remember Silveredge being really sad sometime?"
Valeria, still left behind where Iordyn was, offered a single, thin whine of sympathy, if at nothing else than Iordyn's own perceived distress.
"That's it," Howler whispered after a few moments. "Gone."
Predictably, the little girl shuddered for a few seconds, then outright sobbed. Although she was well-fleshed, it still seemed that such emotion should crack her frame straight down the spine.
Howler closed his eyes completely, as if doing so would make everything go away.
"It's hard to say goodbye," Iordyn began, scooting close enough to hug Amadelle himself. "But Krumiri wouldn't want you to be so sad, would he? You miss him, of course, but wouldn't he want you to be happy that he gets to rest now? He has worked for so long, for- how many years, Ser Howler?"
The dogmaster blinked for a few seconds before answering, as though a bright light had suddenly been pointed at his eyes. "Eh...thirteen or fourteen. Getting on fourteen years. Close to."
Niku laid all the way down for a few moments, and Valeria hopped to her feet, dancing a bit from side to side. Howler, out of the corner of his eye, noted how nervous she seemed, and wondered if she were always that high strung. Just as he was deciding to shift so that the girl would let the dog's neck go, Niku got up, turned slightly, and scooted toward her while still lying on his belly. Once within reach of her, he began poking his nose into her thigh, hip, and ribs.
"Huh?" the girl said, looking down. Waist-length brown ringlets tumbled down around her, making a thick curtain that neither man's eyes could pierce.
Niku, noticing that he had Amadelle's attention, began pawing at her knees.
Howler was just about to tell the puppy to leave the child alone, until she turned around and sat on her behind. Niku inched forward on his belly, continuing to paw at her feet, until he was within easier reach of her. When he was, he simply sat up and put a paw onto the girl's shoulder.
The girl and Howler both continued to look at Niku, but Iordyn looked at Howler.
Without another word, the girl surged forward and hugged Niku. The large puppy absorbed the impact of having her rush into his chest like that, then comfortingly laid his head on her shoulder.
"You didn't teach him to do that," Iordyn said to Howler quietly.
Howler shook his head. "I doubt his last owner would have, either. Not the one we sold him to, anyway. That woman- Silveredge, you called her. Maybe she did this. She's a witch, but- but maybe not all bad."
"How do you know she's a witch?" Iordyn probed, trying to make sure that his tone was still respectful of the sorrowing child.
"Hammer never cried," Howler replied, turning his full attention to the young man. "He bayed at the moon, sent up barks when playing or trying to learn to hunt, but he never, never cried. Not like he did in this yard when they took that woman away. He drew her blood like he'd gone mad, but then cried like he hated to hurt her. Now he sits in his crate- won't eat, barely laps at his water. It's madness- I've handled dogs for years, and never seen anything like it."
"So then this is a lot of response you're seeing out of him," Iordyn reasoned, almost as much to himself as to the intended hearer. Niku had sat back and begun rubbing his head against the child, licking her freckled face once in a while. When he discovered that there was a spot near her throat that made her giggle, he made sure to focus on it.
"I'd say he's not a fighter anymore, except he just proved that wrong," Howler offered. "I've half a mind to let the child have him, but that he's too young and strong to be wasted that way."
"Do you think he's wasted- or, rather, that he might have been wasted- with Silveredge?"
"No, I- I guess I don't," the dogmaster puzzled. "Myr said the woman turned him around so that he had to fight like he was down in his home to train her at all, so- she's a fighting witch. I guess that's what he's on to, now, looking for another witch woman to protect."
"So a familiar, then," Iordyn nodded, patting Niku solidly before rising. "Niku's become a familiar for a fighting witch."
"She done something wrong?"
"Not her, no," Iordyn counseled, hearing a strange strain of concern that didn't seem to fit in the dogmaster's throat. "She's managed to be the only person who might know where... where my accomplice is."
Howler frowned for a few moments.
"You mean that Tiefling she came here for, when she came at first. You'd let her go, if you found the Tiefling, right?"
"Immediately," Iordyn said, patting his legs. Valeria bounded over to him without hesitation. "Silveredge's only fault is that she is knowingly or unknowingly aiding and abetting a suspected slave trader."
Howler frowned again, and Iordyn finally realized that the scowl was indicative of thought, not displeasure. Meanwhile, Amadelle and Niku had come to true playing terms. She'd sat up on her knees to pat and hug him, but since she wasn't strong enough to keep the dog from toppling her over, she soon fell backward against Iordyn, who immediately squatted to keep her from hitting the ground.
"Say, you're a big guy," he reminded Niku gently. "She's much smaller, hmm?"
And as though he'd been yelled at, the puppy laid down and put his head on his paws, his stump of a tail held still behind him. Amadelle, who also thought she was in trouble, sat back on her behind, crossed her legs, and folded her hands in her lap.
"Slave trader, huh?" the dogmaster asked gravely.
"That's right," Iordyn nodded.
"She tracks, doesn't she?"
"Valeria? Oh, very well, yes."
Howler looked down at Amadelle, who had reached out and begun patting the deceased dog as though he would feel it.
"Who did you come with, your mother or your father?" Iordyn asked, peeking around Amadelle's other shoulder.
"Nobody came with me but the servants, and they were all told to just sit at the door," Amadelle replied frankly. "Daddy said that Krumiri was going to die, and that I should let him, but then he told the servants to take him to Ser Howler, because I cried and cried."
Iordyn sat straight up again, surprised.
"Leave him with me," Howler said quietly. "I'll take care of him. Then Niku and I are going to find the reason why the fighter witch is penned up. When we come back, you can come visit him."
Both Niku and Iordyn looked at Howler as though he'd lost his mind.
"You heard me, Niku," the dogmaster said, with more strength in his voice. "Do you want your woman freed or not?"
Niku rubbed his nose on his forelegs for a few seconds, then stood up.
Iordyn turned his head with a slight, appreciative nod. "Looks like a 'yes' to me, Ser Howler."
"I'll visit all the-all the time, to keep you company," Amadelle promised Niku in all seriousness. "I'd be very sad, if my daddy died."
Howler got up, and Amadelle immediately got to her own feet. Unsurprisingly, Niku moved to put himself between Howler and the little girl.
Because you know, Howler thought, frowning down at the dog. Soon, you'll see for yourself.
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