Easily fitting my whole body in, and hungrily pulling away a piece, I roll it around on my sharp teeth with my tongue. My paw scrapes the inside of its fur, and it gets a small cut from the toughness of it. Not being sure if I like the idea of trying to hurt these things, I take a few chunks and don’t really fill my belly, but I feel much better.

  Ant juice all over me, I get out of the thing, and bravely hide under another bush, worried about the things coming again. Giving it a lot of time before trying to sneak in again, I take a few pieces sneaking in and out, eventually filling my belly. Some parts are not tasty at all, but I keep down most of what I eat.

  A bunch of noise coming from another area of the mound wakes me up after a nice nap after being full, drawing my attention over there. The ant is gone when I open my eyes, but the noise is close. Since I can’t eat any more of that bug, I have to find more food.

  Rushing over to the noise, I see an amazing sight. Other dogs, big and tough dogs fighting one of the long bugs.

  These bugs are a lot bigger than me, and I am big for my age, I’m almost two whole years old. The dogs ahead of the bugs are running at them, bashing them with strange metal things on their shoulders, and biting them, pulling parts away from them, some with their teeth, others with some sort of sharp stick?

  Another strange, really strange thing, two of them are standing, like on two feet. Like humans would stand, only with fur all over, and in some places, some metal shiny things covering body parts.

  The bugs are clicking and sounding furious, or they could be trying to play nice, I can’t tell. The dogs are holding their own though, a couple of them are big and holding a couple of bugs in front, while other dogs are… I can’t even tell what they are doing.

  A bark slips from my maw a few times, this strange scene is so different than anything I’ve seen. One of the big bugs spins around with its beady little eyes and runs after me. It is wiry and flexible, but fairly slow. I hunch down for a bit, and get my tail going, this was going to be fun. I hear someone yell a warning though, “RUN” in a bark….. sort of. It is so clear in my head what the dog was trying to shout, usually it is just a plain warning, or a want to play, or to be angry.

  Biting this thing seems like a good idea at first, imagining the taste, it must take like… well probably something gross, I don’t know. Taking the advice from the screamer though, I run.

  Like a sprinting demon I run way around to where the other dogs are, and see them, the bug hot on my tail. I weave between a couple of trees and run down and back up a ditch, but the thing is still chasing me. As I run closer to the other group of dogs that I want to say hi to, they have these amazing shoulder things that are making noises and shooting things at the big bugs. There are three, and they are the strangest looking other dogs I think I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen Lex when he had to get all of his hair shaved off and all he did was shiver for days.

  That was really funny for the rest of us. I make it around a few trees in a big circle, and get a better look at the other dogs.

  Two of them that turn look terrified that I am running up to them from the side, the strange bug thing following me. Not really sure why, they seem like they are very strong and can handle the bugs in front of them, but the one running after me is getting really close, I can hear all of the little feet lightly thudding from behind me.

  “This pup has one to the side, Brock, help us back here.” One of the other dogs up front rushes back and slams its shoulder into the bug coming too close trying to come after me. The one bug that it was keeping in front of the rest keeps after him, two bugs trying to hurt the one coming over to protect me, maybe his friends a little too.

  One big one, this Brock guy, gets bit a lot by the bug, but lots of other things happen. The painful looking bites on him get smaller and even disappear during the fight, another has a strange thing on his back that is launching these green balls at the bugs, which splash like water on its back. Another dog appears to the side and pounces on the bug, it has a lot of room to be pounced on. Its big claws dig in and its teeth chomp down, ripping more flesh from the creature. After another few seconds, one drops, and the other is attacked soon after, more biting and tearing legs off of its body.

  The dogs are shouting at each other, but not just barking, yelling at each other, but saying things that I could know what they mean. “Fight with me, hurry up and kill this one, need help, need to wait.” All of these strange things said that rattle around in my head, knowing what they say, instead of shouting because it is time to wake up, or go outside, or eat. Soon after, the other on Brock stops all of its moving, and they all target the last in a flurry of splashing gross smelling blood from the bugs all over the different heroes.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  When they are done, they all look over at me other than the main big one because that one is looking around more for enemies, maybe, or it just didn’t want to look over at me. The rest of them talk to me, and my head hurts, having no idea what the noises together mean. One asked me why I was there as a pup, one asked me my name, one asked what I was doing far from home. A whimper escaped my lips, and I lay down quietly on the ground, I didn’t know what to say or how to answer.

  A female, now that I could see different things, brown and longer hair all over her body, she walks between them and me, and seems to get it. “Hey all, leave him alone, he’s scared.” The rest of them stop their questions, and she walks up calmly. The others walk over to the bugs and take a few bites, swallowing the chunks of bug like it is a tasty treat.

  “Hello little one, I’m Razi and I want to help. What is your name?”

  Being super brave, I know it is just fine that I let another whimper escape my maw. I want to answer, but have no clue how. “It is ok, I think I understand, just stay calm and wait, I will help.” The female moves her body like trees might move their branches, swaying with the wind, and yips a few times. She asks me again, “Ok little one, what is your name?”

  Coughing out my answer, she says, “What do you mean, no? You don’t know your name, what do your mommy and daddy call you?”

  A couple of gestures and a blink come from me, and she replies, “Oh, sorry, your name is No? That is so mean, why? You don’t know, you didn’t pick it? Don’t worry, we’ll take you home with us and you can tell many more people what happened. We need to be out here for food though. Are you hungry? Want some meat to eat?”

  A few chunks of meat are put in front of me by this nice female, and I sniff it. It is still dripping of inside juices, I don’t usually eat meat that is still this strange color, and wet. Taking a tentative bite of a few chunks, it tastes very strange, but it isn’t gross. After a few chunks fill my stomach, I eat the small pile in front of me.

  “Just stay back little one, we have to get more food to help the camp survive.”

  Lying down on the ground, staying out of the way, I see the group at work. They make lots of noises near me, but it feels nice and safe between them. Without being able to tell what is going on, it just seems like some bugs want to fight. Sometimes the big dogs up front get bit from the big bugs, but they eventually get better. The group gets a lot of bug pieces. One of them moves a cart around to the area where all of the big bugs are, and they load up what the cart can carry.

  While the group fights these different long bugs, after a little bit of time, who knows how long, I get bored, so I look around. First, the two hero dogs are still on two feet, big muscles picking up bug parts and putting them on carts, the other dogs are picking up pieces also, and putting them on it.

  Walking up to the two who are standing and asking them how, does no good, they push me away as they bring bug parts to carts and look for more.

  The trees are so big, so many colors on them, and the dogs in the fighting group, their fur has some inside juices for some of them, but most of it is different colors also, brown, well there aren’t many colors other than brown and patches of other colors, other than the metal parts of their skin, or the harder skin on them. Looking all over though, my mind wonders, and I see something watching. Something that shouldn’t be paying too much attention, but it is. The most devious, dangerous, cunning, and terrible creature to ever live.

  Its tiny claws keep it hooked onto a trunk not far away, its fluffy tail swishes back and forth along the trunk, but a close by squirrel, spying on the dog group that is getting food and protecting me, stays way out of reach and silently mocks us.

  Well, them. Unless it is watching me?

  This time, I growl at that squirrel and rush to the tree where it is hiding, well it isn’t hiding as much as staying still. Well, not as much staying still, as climbing slowly around most of the tree, and it mocks me with just its head sticking out, spying on the heroes who are fighting the bugs. Barking a few times just so that it knows who is boss around this forest, I circle the tree shouting at it so that it can’t get down, obviously intimidated by my awesomeness.

  The hero dogs rush over to me, obviously to congratulate me for a job well done in scaring away the spy. I barely have time to hear them come up, when I get knocked over by one of the big ones, the spikes on its shoulders get really close to hurting a lot. Hitting the ground wondering why, one tells me, “Quiet pup, there are stronger monsters around.”

  I get a lot of side eye from the different heroes.

  Eventually the hero crew gets the cart of food moving away to another location. I didn’t see it happen, but the two who were standing tall like a human might, are now smaller and walk on all four feet. It is the most curious thing that could ever happen. I bounce up to them and ask them how they are small and close to the ground again, and they ignore me.

  Plain rude.

  For a bit longer than a nap, we walk and they tell me to stay quiet. There was so much to bark at though, it was really hard to keep my maw shut. I see two squirrels following us, obviously scared of the might in the group.

  Razi tells me, “Little one, you must stay quiet, the squirrels follow everyone, and there is little we can do.”

  Hairs stand on the back of my neck, knowing that I am being watched by their little beady eyes.