In the shadows of a dim alleyway in Gotham City, a stray dog lay on the concrete ground, watching people at the entrance alley come and go with a pair of intelligent and vibrant eyes - not quite human, but certainly more lively than one would expect from a mere stray.

The stray had always been a scrappy and resourceful animal, able to survive on the streets of this dark and dangerous city through wits and instincts alone. But two days ago, something strange happened to him. He couldn't quite put his paw on it, but he felt different.

Flashback:

As he roamed the alleys in search of food, he all of a sudden found himself thinking more clearly and intelligently. He could comprehend complex concepts and solve problems that had previously been beyond him. He felt as though he had become a different animal - one that was smarter and more aware of himself than he ever had before.

He tried to brush off the change and focus on finding scraps to fill his stomach, but he couldn't ignore it for long. Useless questions kept popping into his head, ones that upon answering, proved to be incredibly useful. They helped him understand humans and the world around him better.

For instance, he learned what a drunkard was, even though he had already learned the hard way that it was best to avoid them, now he fully understands why.

Despite his confusion about where this new knowledge was coming from, the simpler part of him didn’t care for an answer as long as he kept gaining useful knowledge.

That’s when the part of him that posed and answered questions led him to a restaurant. He had learned what a restaurant was and now targeted the dumpster behind the building.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Flashback ends.

As the stray dog sat there, he couldn't help but contemplate his strange situation. He knows that it was unnatural for a dog to be thinking the way he was currently thinking, but he didn't know how he knew that. It was just one of those things that he suddenly found himself knowing, things called common knowledge about how things should be and how the world worked.

He feels like he has always known this stuff, but he had simply forgotten them until they were needed.

But as he ruminated on all of this, the stray dog didn't realize that he was actually thinking in words, human words.

As the sun began to set on the City, the stray dog stood up on all fours and yelped in pain. He looked at his left hind leg and remembered the fight he had gotten into with another stray, a stronger and more aggressive one.

It had happened because he trusted his new intelligence and ignored what his nose and instincts were telling him. Although the changes came with advantages he learned to be careful of relying on them too much.

Looking around, he knows that he needs to get to a safe place to rest for the night, and remembering a park he had stumbled upon the previous day.

He set off towards it, as cars sped past him he weaved his way through people rushing from to who knew where. He saw homeless beggars huddled on the sidewalks under street lamps, trying to escape the cold and the darkness, he couldn't help but feel curious, but he couldn't dwell on it for long. He had to focus on finding the park before it got completely dark.

As he drew closer to his destination, the stray dog couldn't help but feel a sense of unease. The park was just as strange and overgrown as he remembered, with grass and vines creeping up the walls and covering everything in sight. The twisted trees at the edge seemed to be reaching out towards him, their branches twisted and gnarled as if they were made specifically to intimidate and scare.

The swings and slides were rusted and broken, and the whole place had a feeling of abandonment and decay.

But the stray dog knew that this was the perfect place for him. All the adult humans avoided it, and he had seen some of the little ones, probably strays like him, using the park as a shelter. He made his way to a fallen wall and curled up under it, hoping that

he would be safe and warm for the night.