“Gotta. Get. Daddi. Back,” Maximus repeated for the umpteenth time.

Elf lady is nice, but real bad at speak dog… he thought.

“Got got backpack?” she said.

Maximus rolled onto his side and let out an exasperated sigh. He heard the familiar patter of claws on metal accompanied by fur boots approaching the room and his ears perked up. The door swing open and both Vasna and Embry strode into the room.

Embry had gotten bigger, he was about half the size of Maximus now and the tusks jutting out of his mandible seemed sharper than the last time Max had seen the Kraul cub. The two beasts scuffled playfully for a moment, getting a measure of each other’s strength again before they parted.

“Have you figured out what Max is trying to tell you yet?” Vasna asked.

“Not yet, I think I’m getting close though…” Esava answered.

“Not close ‘nuff!” Maximus barked.

“… or not…” Esava sighed.

“What?” Vasna asked.

“I don’t know what the other two barks meant, but that first one was ‘not.’ Still got a ways to go I guess.”

Maximus padded over to Esava, sat on his rump, and put one of his gargantuan paws on top of her head.

“Is okay, we keep trying. You geddit soon.”

“Thanks buddy…”

Maximus looked over at Vasna, he’d forgotten that she showed up in the excitement of seeing Embry again and in needing to correct Esava. His tail whipped around like a propeller, scattering the still fallen laundry and whipping the sheets off of the bed.

“Hi! Hello! Hi!” Maximus yipped as he circled the shaman. He knew that Tony really liked this lady, and he liked her too. She had pretty decent snacks whenever she was around and Embry was fun to play with… plus she didn’t think he was a snack… and that helped.

Vasna planted her hands on either side of Max’s head and ruffled the fur behind his ears before nuzzling her nose against his in greeting.

“We have to figure out where he went… have you talked to Auren?” Vasna asked.

Esava scuffed the sole of her boot against the metal flooring, “Not yet?”

”Did you check the ship logs for outgoing craft?”

Esava narrowed her eyes at the human woman, “Of course I did, what kind of bodyguard do you think I am?”

”The kind that lets their only charge slip off of the Ascendant Flagship without knowing where they went and that hasn’t left to retrieve them… that kind. Did I miss anything?” Vasna challenged as she took a step forward.

Esava met her advance, flicking one of the daggers out of her bracer, “And aren’t you supposed to be in his party? What kind of party member lets one of theirs, their tank, at that, out of their sight without a word? Huh?”

Maximus let out a low growl and activated his Intoned Call talent. It worked better when Tony was around, but the talent got his intentions across well enough as he stepped between the two women, his bulk forcing them apart.

Now was not the time for squabbling, now was the time for cooperation.

Both of the women took a deep breath and a step back from the dog. Once he was convinced they’d cooled off enough, he padded back a couple steps and sat.

“Maximus,” Vasna started, “can you show us where your Dad went before he left the ship?”

Esava shook her head, “I asked him that, he just took me to the hangar… he did linger at the warp pads for a second though…”

“The warp pads were how Tony got back and forth to Arach the second time he went, right? Why wouldn’t he just take those again?”

”Con-test!” Maximus barked.

Esava looked at him hard, “One more time?”

”Con-test!”

”Contested? Arach is contested!”

”Yis yis! Good job!” Max howled with excitement.

“Well, that explains some things…” Vasna muttered, “convincing Auren to deploy in Arach space is going to take a lot of convincing… though to get Tony back…”

Esava tapped away at the space in front of her, interacting with her menus that Vasna could not see.

Maximus looked over her shoulder at the nothing in front of her, “What doing?”

”Queueing up a ship request.”

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

”Why for?”

”So we can fly to Arach.”

”How come?”

”So we can get your Dad back.”

“Can you speak doggo now?”

”Seems like it.”

”I proud of you.”

Esava stopped tapping and froze, “What?”

”I… Maximus… proud of you for do a good job learn dog!” He explained.

Esava leaned sideways into the broad side of Max’s face and continued tapping away at her menus.

“Denied?” she shouted after a moment.

“Denied,” Auren said from the doorway, “I’m not giving you a ship when we’re deploying the fleet.”

“Deploying the fleet?” Vasna and Esava said in near unison.

“I got a notification that Tony has two stored level-ups that he’s not being permitted to apply. I thought he was just off on some sort of ‘off the rocks’ honeymoon-type thing, but it seems like that’s not the case. We’re going to go get him.”

“Gon go git Daddi?” Maximus barked.

“Yeah buddy, we’re gonna go get him,” Esava answered.

Maximus ran in a tight circle before stopping abruptly and staring at Esava, "No joking?"

"No joking," she reassured.

Maximus spun and stopped again, "Are serious?"

"Am serious."

Maximus tapped his mighty paws on the floor of the room in excitement chanting “Go get Daddi… Go get Daddi…” when he received a notification.

Quest Complete: Intro to Dog Instructor - Select a bonus reward!

Quest Complete: Rescue Operation - Part 1

You have Pending Level-ups! Rescue your Master to have them applied!

Maximus did have access to his own menus… to an extent. He couldn’t control his own level-ups, but Tony was really good about letting him pick what he wanted as he advanced. The hound sniffed at the “select a bonus reward” phrase and a sub menu popped up.

Select a bonus! (2)

Additional Traversal Type

Natural Armor Enhancement

Weapon Proficiency

Maxuimus pondered a moment before pressing his nose to the two options he decided on.

“What’s he doing?” Vasna asked.

“He’s in his menus,” Auren said matter-of-factly.

“He has menus?” Vasna said, the shock evident in her tone.

“Embry will someday too,” Auren commented.

Additional Traversal Type: Burrowing has been selected!

Weapon Proficiency: Clubs [One and Two-Handed] has been selected!

Maximus chuffed and his menus closed. He’d long-since outgrown the padded armor he’d received both in size and usefuleness, his natural armor had proven sufficient so far; adding some options to get from place to place and for his offense just made since to the war-dog.

He wagged his tail, excited and eager to share the news of his burrowing and ability to hit things with sticks with Tony, but swiftly remembered that Tony wasn’t there.

“Heck…” Maximus grumbled as he laid down on the floor.

Esava flopped onto the side of his neck and scratched behind his ear, “What’s wrong buddy?”

“Nuffin…” Max lied.

“Miss you Daddy?” She asked.

“Yeah…” Max sighed.

“It’s okay, we miss him too. We’re going to go get him as soon as Auren deploys the fleet, okay?”

”Okay…” he replied.

----------------------------------------

- One Week Later -

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Maximus was getting antsy.

The big ship had been going a lot faster than normal for a long time, and the other ships that the hound had never been on were flying really close to the big ship. Max could feel the connection between him and Tony growing stronger day after day, they were getting closer and closer, but that only served to add to the dog’s anxiety. There was something wrong, he could tell that his master, his best friend, was hurting, scared, and sad. It was his job as Tony’s dog to make those feelings go away, to be a beacon of reassurance… of hope…

Without warning, the ship decelerated and shook with rapid impacts. Judging by the reactions of those around him, they were in space combat. Maximus turned to look at Vasna, Esava, and Embry and barked.

“Big ships in fight, small ship sneaky like?”

Esava met the dog’s gaze and grinned, “My talents can extend to vehicles… Let’s do this…”

“I don’t think Auren -“ Vasna started

”Auren didn’t want to warp to this system so we wouldn’t come under fire as soon as we got here and it happened like that anyway. I’m not doing things his way right now,” Esava snapped, “You’re either in, right now, or you’re not. Max and I are taking off in five either way, so decide… Let’s go boy, find us an empty ship.”

Maximus obeyed the order, despite its origin, it facilitated a faster reunion with Tony. He took off for the hangar and sniffed from ship to ship until he found one that was unoccupied and barked, activating his Intoned Call talent again to convey urgency.

Esava, Vasna, and Embry sprinted around the corner of another ship and up the plank of the boxy transport that Maximus had picked out.

”So we’re really doing this?” Vasna asked.

“Doing what?” Esava said flatly.

“Stealing a ship to go get Tony when we don’t know where he is?”

Esava simply pointed at Maximus, “He knows, don’t you boy?”

Maximus wagged his tail and barked an affirmative.

“Besides, we’ll be mostly invisible. What could -“

The dog rushed up to Esava and put his nose against hers.

“Do not say the words after those…” He let out in a low growl.

”Okay… okay…” Esava backed away slow, then moved over to the controls. The ship shuddered to life and Esava punched in the launch key, freeing it from the hangar and ejecting the vessel out into space. Maximus clamped his maw down on one of the elongated benches in the hold, unable to fasten himself into a safety harness.

The ship lurched side to side as Esava piloted it through the Padinus blockade… it was an eerie sight to behold as Esava’s Expanded Stealth talent shrouded the ship from detection. Gigantic Scorpions floated in space, pincers and tail stings swept forward and trained on the Ascendant fleet, spewing caustic barbs and globs of biomass projectiles at the approaching fleet.

Auren’s Battle Aura blazed to life, shrouding the front line of the fleet and scorched the projectiles until they were ashes.

Maximus whined. He realized that Tony had come here with Jorogu, he’d had to fight his way through the same blockade that the Ascendant Fleet was struggling to punch through, empowered as it was. Their singular transport ship slipped into the atmosphere of Arach, still unseen, and moved silently toward one of the spires protruding from the planet.

----------------------------------------

Some time Later

----------------------------------------

It felt like days had passed to Maximus since they had landed. He was sniffing and sniffing, but Tony’s scent was hard to follow. All of the sand that had been introduced to the normally plush grasslands made it difficult to hold.

”This is heckin’ dumb…” Maximus growled as he knocked a rock around with his paw.

Embry batted the rock back toward Maximus.

“I know… stinky sand make tracking hard… s’not s’posed to even be here…” the dog grumbled.

Embry pawed at the sand, then padded over to the base of one of the spires and pawed at the point where the spire and the ground intersected.

Maximus’s tail whirled as he got into a low and excited stance.

“Whatcha doing boy?” Esava asked.

“I’mma dig!” Maximus barked.

“Dig?”

”Yah, I fink Daddi is in this place, I’mma dig go get him.”

Before Esava or Vasna could interject, Maximus swept large patches of sand and soil aside with his large paws, leaped into the air and twisted his way ten feet into the dirt like a fuzzy drill strapped to a rocket.

“Oh… dig…” Esava said, “that’s totally how I thought that was going to go…”

As Maximus burrowed and clawed through the Padinus mound, Tony’s scent became more and more clear. He was getting closer, but there were others near Tony, and the smell of blood.

Tony’s blood.

His Master’s blood.

“Someone gonna get heckin’ bited.” Maximus growled.