Huntress: Chapter 4.1 - Litter

I soon fell into a steady routine. Wake up with the morning bell, make my way to the stables to care for my horse, eat breakfast, train, train, train, train, eat, train, train, train, train, eat, sleep. By the third day, that routine was regularly interrupted by punishments of some sort for getting into fights.

It wasn’t my fault Thana didn’t like me. I was perfectly civil to her. Mostly. At first. But she did start it.

From the first day we were a bit standoffish, but that didn’t actually pose a problem until the third day. I was innocently bringing my scarce food over to a table as I began wolfing it down when Thana usurped my seat.

Now, this wouldn’t be been a problem if one thinks of it as a place to sit. To me, though, it was a dominance issue- she was telling me where to go and doing as she liked, implying through action that she was the alpha, and I the subordinate. Being anything but shy or submissive, I shoved her to the side and sat down where I’d been planning.

Needless to say she didn’t take that well. Long story short, Ian and Scē ended up dragging us off each other.

As a result of our ‘reckless’ and ‘impulsive’ actions, we got the pleasure of cleaning up the mess hall after dinner that night. And the didn’t just mean picking things up, oh no. It meant picking things up, sweeping, and scrubbing the floors and tables.

Naturally, doing such grunt work wasn’t fitting for someone so superior as Thana. When she decided to try to pull rank on me again, we got in a second fight. As we were working our debt off for the first one.

This resulted in a chat with one of our superior officers which we both tuned out as well as even more detention. My day’s schedule quickly changed from eating dinner to sleeping to eating dinner and working until curfew due to my acute ability to get into trouble.

It didn’t stop there, either. At the end of the first week, I’d gotten into five fights: three with Thana and two with a trio of boys who I likened to hyenas for good reason. They simply picked on the small and those they considered weak. I was one of the latter until I broke their leader’s nose and several ribs on all members of the group. After that, they avoided me.

The first day of week two I was called in to Urag, the one who was generally in charge of all the disciplinary issues.

I saw him after training that day when I would normally be working off my punishment. He was sitting at his desk that I soon discovered was shared by all the fourth-ranks that actually needed one. Not many, as it turned out.

He peered down at me as I slipped in through the door. I’d been careful to avoid Thana and those jackals so that I wouldn’t show up all bloodied and beat. I had a feeling that that would have gotten me in even more trouble.

I stood at attention as was expected and saluted. He simply gestured for me to take a seat, which I did.

“So,” the giant of a man said. “You’ve managed to get into five fights in your first week. Congratulations. That’s a record-breaker.”

I shifted a bit sheepishly, unsure of how to answer.

“I must say, Tasha, I’ve never met someone so socially inept as yourself that they’ve managed to piss off four individuals enough to start breaking bones.”

No response.

“See, normally I would just kick you out, but considering your rather…unique situation, that’s not really an option. Detention obviously isn’t working. Honestly, I really don’t know what to do about this.”

Maybe he should figure it out. I wasn’t going to.

“You’ve got potential, Tasha, and I’d hate to see you waste it. But part of being a Hunter is teamwork, and you, my friend, are not proving that you can be cooperative. I will let you off with a warning. Once. Not again. I mean it.”

I didn’t doubt it. “Yes, sir,” I mumbled.

“Good. Dismissed.”

After that, I tried to avoid Thana and the trio, staying to myself as was pretty typical of me. I found time to go and train with Nightmare. It took a while to get through to her. However, she slowly but surely began to listen.

What I hadn’t realized was my affinity with the Hunters’ canines until I was called to help in the kennels for my punishment for getting into a fight. The building was filled with hounds and shepherds. The former ran down the wolves while the latter fought them and acted a guard dogs.

I was a bit overwhelmed at first by the cacophony that met my ears when I walked into the room. Howls and barks and growls echoed through the chambers with such tenacity and persistence it was deafening.

I padded over to Caleb, the man in charge of the yowling horde.

“Reporting in, sir,” I said, saluting.

“Tasha, right?” He was a short man, but stocky, with dark brown hair and tan skin as typical of the Plainsmen.

“Yes, sir.”

“Y’ worked with dogs before?”

I hesitated. I certainly knew wolves, but how close they were to dogs I didn’t know. Besides, I didn’t want to tell him I was a wolf-child. Even though Urag had taken it well I was still cautious. “No, sir.”

“Hm. Well, most aren’t too aggressive. Just check their water. Then check ‘em all over ’n make sure t’at they all seem in order- odd gait, behavior, noises, ‘r anythin’ else - tell me. If there’s a fight, break it up and bring whoever’s hurt back to me.” He returned to fixing a collar - the buckle and become detached due to loose stitching.

“Yes, sir.” I scurried to do as I was bidden.

The kennel consisted of one large building and a huge outdoor pen. The dogs weren’t separated from one another- the hounds and the shepherds ran together, with no fence nor barrier of any sort to keep them away from each other. Their coats varied greatly in color, but the shepherds all shared the long muzzle and wolf-like stance and the hounds all had the distinctive deep chest and long, stag-like legs. I walked through the mob of canines to go and check their water on the far side of the pen next to their food bowls.

It was surprisingly clear, so I started back in.

A large mahogany shepherd slammed into me, nearly knocking me down. A second dog, this one a saddleback, leaped on top of her, snarling and snapping. I got back to my feet and without a second thought uttered a quiet growl as I yanked the latter off of the first dog. He turned on me, fixing his jaws about my arm.

Oddly enough, I hardly felt the pain. No fear, no shock, no nothing- I could see the blood dripping down my arm and knew that I should be yelling or crying or something and yet…it didn’t come. I gave the unruly canine a steady, icy glare and uttered a low snarl. The dog let me go and dropped back to all fours upon realizing that I was a force to be reckoned with. He could tell I didn’t have any intention of chasing him or retaliating, but he still left rather quickly. He didn’t seem injured, nor did his opponent. I gave both dogs a death glare and a warning growl before going back into the main building to find something to stop the blood.

When Caleb saw me staining my new uniform red, he muttered something about puppies and grabbed me some bandages, a rag, and a waterskin - apparently it happened often enough that he had them on hand.

“What happened?” he inquired as I pushed the rag against the bite.

“Some of t’em were fightin’ ‘n I dragged them off each other, sir,” I answered, wincing as I pushed too hard on the wound. Caleb handed me a tin with what smelled like rum in it.

“Lucky y’ didn’ get more t’an that. Which ones?”

I grimaced as I poured the alcohol over my arm. “Reddish shepherd ’n a saddleback.”

“So Tourmaline’s back at it ‘gain. Dammit.”

“Who?” The only Tourmaline I knew of was the Elder Dragon of Fire.

“The reddish ‘un. Named ‘er t’at ‘cause of ‘er ferocity. Was she t’e one t’at bit y’?”

“No, it was t’e other ‘un.” I wound the bandage about the injury.

“Well, go and grab some food for t’em ‘fter yer done there. Once yer over feedin’ ‘em, come t’ me.”

I nodded, tying off the bandage and replacing the waterskin where it belonged. Caleb directed me to two large buckets filled with various food scraps. I took them and waded through the sea of canines to the fence line where the big bowls for their food were. The dogs, upon realizing I had food, trotted after me in a huge crowd.

Standing over the food dish so they couldn’t start feeding before I was done dumping the food, I tipped the buckets and let the scraps fall to their bowls. The horde jumped on it the minute I’d moved out of their way and started devouring the nourishment. Without any dogs to wade through, now that they were feeding, I found my way back to Caleb.

I was to get Tourmaline after the beasts were done eating and bring her to one of the separate pens so she stopped getting into fights all the time.

I knew the creature was a handful, but I didn’t realize quite how much until I had found her. She was laying in a corner, observing me and the other canines with deep golden eyes. I’d had people tell me I had an intense gaze, but I hadn’t been on the receiving end of that until I met Tourmaline. Those eyes seemed to bore through me and read my very soul with an unreadable assessment, and perhaps judgement. I stared back with what I hoped was a piercing look — I was a bit unsure as to my success, however.

“What is it you want?” the shepherd demanded.

Startled, I didn’t answer. I remembered Evelyn’s dog making a comment, but I’d had to just dismiss it — dogs couldn’t talk, someone else must have said it. But this…this was definitely the animal talking.

“Cat got your tongue?”

“…did you just start talkin’?”

“For gods’ sakes, you can actually understand me. What a relief. Not really, it’s easier when I can just growl at people, but I suppose it could be worse.”

“…how…you…dogs don’t…but…” I stammered, shocked and disbelieving.

“Don’t ask me, you’re the one who understood me. What is it you want? I don’t have all day.”

Right. The dog didn’t have all day. “Um…I…Caleb…er…”

“Spit it out, puppy.”
“Uh…Caleb wanted me to, er, separate y’ so y’ didn’ keep gettin’ in fights ’n such.”

“And why is it you’re stuck taking care of the dogs?”

“What?”

“What did you do to get stuck here?”

“I got in a fight…or two…”

“Or several. See, I’m not the only one. Now shoo.”

Did she seriously just tell me to shoo? Shoo?

“Get. Scram. Move. Go away. Is it really that hard to understand?”

“No…but Caleb told me t’ move y’…”

“And I’m telling you don’t.”

“He’s higher rank t’an y’ are,” I pointed out. “‘sides, I ain’t disobeyin’ more orders, else I get more workin’ dumped on me after trainin’. Come on.”

She just looked at me. “Fine. I suppose I’m not going to talk you out of this, and if I don’t come and you can’t make me, you’ll just get Caleb.” With a sigh the guard dog got to her feet, and, looking rather resigned and pitiful she followed me to one of the small fenced yards where she was to be put.

When I returned to the kennel master he was pleasantly surprised that I hadn’t been bitten, tackled, or attacked in any way when I tried to get Tourmaline into what she referred to as ‘the prison’. He sent me off early, satisfied with my work. That allowed me to catch up on what little homework I had from wolf culture — with was easy, due to my upbringing as a wolf — and get to sleep early.