'W-where am I?' A single thought resounded through the black emptiness as the owner of it attempted to grasp hold of his current... existence 'It's dark... Am I falling? There's no wind though...'

The being questioned its circumstances as it tried to feel around through the darkness 'Is this the afterlife? What am I supposed to do? Just float in this darkness?' it questioned before becoming silent after realizing it did not have any senses, no sight, no hearing, no smell, no feeling, nothing.

Just a feeling of being slightly weighed down, the existence stayed silent for a bit thinking silently to itself. 'What am I... No, who am I?' it asked a question before once more becoming silent for a moment.

'That's right my name was Adam! ...' Memories of its previous life seeped into its... mind? 'No... I am still Adam!' the existence tried to scream out, but none heard it as it once more went silent recollecting all of its memories. 'Hunter...'

A single name flashed through its mind, the thought lingered as emotions streamed through the existence, becoming stronger and stronger with every passing moment! Sorrow, regret, love, hatred... longing, each dug deep inside him as if he lost a sibling not a pet.

The emotions surged before a small golden flash overtook the darkness, surprised Adam thought 'What was that?' he questioned before he stopped as something else took his attention.

He could see, a small slightly glowing silver line connected to him and on the other side a silver-blue orb connected to the end of the line, but this only stayed for a moment as the golden light flashed once more and both Adam and the silver orb disappeared from the ethereal darkness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the memories of the last few moments of his life stopped the fascination left Adam's eyes, sadness quickly took over and his face crumpled up in a miserable display destroying the previous image of wonder as his eyes became red with anger, tears couldn't help but stream down his face.

His gritted teeth barely holding back the scream that threatened to break loose from the depths of his soul, as a guttural voice no longer soft on the ears left his mouth "Hunter... Why... Why am I alive!? Where are you!"

Tears rolled down Adam's cheeks as he tried his best to calm down, taking a deep breath after lightly hitting the back of his head on the dirt his expression now would have been seen as stoic were it not for the still flowing tears, not only that but for a long time he pulled and ripped on the bushes and foliage near him while laying there not paying attention to anything else, mourning his friend as he did his best to stop the tears.

For Adam, Hunter, that simple animal was something much more than just a pet, he was one of the few things he cared for, he was very much one of those people that loved their pets a bit too much.

Adam had made quite a few mistakes in his life after which he ended up falling unknowingly into depression which ended up in him making even more mistakes that pushed away his family and the few friends he had while killing off his social skills.

Of course his family still cared for him but Adam was in the metaphorical sense quite blind to those around himself, and sadly things happened people age and degrade especially those with health issues and those who do not take care of themselves, and this degradation took the lives of his parents.

Though he still had a brother they weren't on good terms even before his parents passed away due to their many disagreements and fights, a relationship that definitely became worse when he didn't make it to their funeral, back then he was outside the country… working if you could call it that, it was more traveling the world and making money on the way while enjoying his life.

He had gone back once he was finished, but his brother had waited to confront him and that did not turn out well, he regretted that day the most throughout his whole life since that was the day his work was officially put above family, and it was too late to go back.

As for the few friends he had? Well, they either detested him for his “success” in life or tried to take advantage, however in reality Adam grew trust issues and began distancing from them by himself.

All this had caused him to distance himself even more cooping himself in his home working on a different job or jobs that he could do from home and busying himself with many hobbies, researching whatever interested him or lazing around and he would have probably continued just like that if he had not found that little puppy, at least until he got bored and punched in his own ticket to the afterlife.

He remembered it was the day his plane had landed back in Vancouver after his trip back home to visit his parents grave, a couple of years after his fight with his brother, that day was rather cold after the snowfall, he went out to find a place to eat while waiting for his ride.

But on the way, while stuck in a depressive train of thought about his past interactions, he saw a small box in an alley under the roof of an apartment building, and in the box, there was a small white and grayish ball of fluff shivering in the cold, when he squatted down and took a better look at it.

Seeing the shivering puppy Adam felt rather sad, but he did not think about adopting some puppy he saw in an alley, however, a warm feeling in the back of his chest rose up as he took out the hand in his pocket and extended his hand and patted the small puppy as it rose its head and looked at him cautiously with its amber and icy blue heterochromic eyes but accepting his warm hand.

Adam couldn't help but smile seeing the cute puppy with light gray fur resembling a smoke filled sky, as their eyes met he muttered out "Huh, I guess I do care for others? Or do I just sympathize with someone like me? He-he-he, bud I guess we are both without a home aren't we?" After he subconsciously said this Adam's hand slowed down.

His smile quivered for a moment unknown whether it was from the cold or something else, the puppy stood up and enjoyed the warm pats before it noticed they slowed down, it looked at Adam and tilted its head in confusion, noticing his sad expression.

Suddenly it started licking Adam's palm, whether it was asking for him to continue or trying to comfort him was unknown, but Adam had already decided, he wanted some positive change... picking up the small thing in his hand he walked away and bought some food from a bakery.

Stolen novel; please report.

From that day on Adam raised Hunter and they very rarely separated, Adam never treated Hunter like a pet or a dog as he always did things together, when he read he would read out loud so Hunter who was laying nearby could listen to the story too, after all he wanted to share his happiness.

They would eat, drink, and sleep together, at one point they even trained together, Hunter quickly became Adam's most trustworthy friend, however Adam had his problems that he oh so wished to fix but never truly put in the effort, soon the feeling of doubt rose in him, he began to lose trust in Hunter, which to be honest was stupid beyond belief, but that distrust was not meant to last as not a week after such thoughts appeared in his mind someone had decided to try and rob him on the street with a knife.

And just like the previous situation Hunter rushed to help him risking himself at the same time, an expected reaction from the animal known as man's best friend but still Adam getting help was a very rare occasion, he was a man that hated asking for help.

Once he remembered his past with Hunter a smile crept upon his face and the tears slowly stopped while the fog in his mind cleared out and a sad smile plastered on his face, his gritted teeth showed before he let out a guttural scream, soon a calm returned to his visage, his face quickly relaxed as he decided to keep moving forward instead of breaking down, deciding to send away his best friend with a smile on his face, as he recalled more of the warm memories.

Only now after over 10 minutes did he start paying attention to his surroundings, he looked around in a renewed amazement as he slowly got out of the bush though still in a sitting position as he looked at the now much smaller dancing golden energy that had surrounded him.

His whole body was wrapped in that energy, though it slightly resembled flames it did not cause any pain to him, after actually paying attention to it, he noticed that his body seemed to be absorbing it causing him to feel rather warm and energized.

He moved a bit more to get into a sitting position before he touched something with his left leg before it fell over, surprised he looked over only to see a very large egg next to his leg that also seemed to be absorbing the golden flames.

He slowly moved and sat in a lotus position letting the flames do their thing as he picked up the egg and put it on his legs, for whatever reason he felt some sort of familiarity or connection towards the egg, it was about the size of his head may be slightly bigger.

Actually now that he looked at himself he noticed that he didn't exactly 'feel' the same as before, not only that but... the clothes he wore were still there, but they weren't damaged nor was he hurt, also he wasn't as thin as he was before he 'died' though it wasn't anything much it was still better than how he was before.

His hair was also short no longer shoulder-length and his beard was gone, clean-shaven way better than he ever had done it "Is it because of these golden flames? How do I still have the same clothes, and they aren't damaged?"

He couldn't help but stare at the flames that surrounded him and the egg as time passed he noticed that they were indeed getting smaller as time went on instead of spreading, meaning the guess he had in the back of his mind was probably correct, they were being absorbed... maybe?

Adam smiled to himself as he simply waited for another 10-15 minutes until slowly the last flickers of the flames disappeared, he started to wonder where he was exactly, well that was easy to tell, "In the middle of fuc..."

But before his words could end he heard a crack, he looked back down at the egg noticing that it was wiggling around cracking little by little, "Is it hatching!? Already??" He couldn't help but squeal out as he panicked a little before he picked it up and brought it closer to his face, curious to see what was hatching from the egg.

Suddenly it stopped moving as complete silence took over, it took two seconds before Adam started panicking "Ahh! Is it drowning?? It couldn't break free!?" he quickly lifted his arm to try and break away the shell, but before he could a tiny paw burst through the egg stunning Adam.

Before he could even react another paw broke through showing the beautiful soft white fur with some light blue mixed in then the hind legs of the soft little thing broke through as it rolled onto Adam's hand as he slightly panicked worried that it doesn't fall off.

However, the cute fluffy legs were able to stand up even though they were slightly shaky, the egg once more started to wiggle as he used both of his hands to make a platform, the back legs stepped on his palms while the front settled on his wrists.

And the cute creature once more surprised Adam as its small snout broke through the shell, it took only a moment for the creature to let out its tongue, Adam couldn't help but give a relaxed smile due to the silly creature.

Though he stopped as the realization came to him, "Isn't this a puppy? Out of an egg? And there is no yolk?" he looked at the egg with legs and a snout for a moment realizing that it wasn't trying to get out of the egg anymore and just stood still.

"You lazy bum..." Adam muttered as he lowered the puppy onto his legs before cracking the shell and removing it, before he noticed the fact that the puppy in front of him looked quite a bit like Hunter did when he found him, except the smoky gray color that was nowhere to be seen.

He could not help but just stare at the puppy that calmly looked at him seemingly happy, a few tears once more appeared at the edges of Adam's eyes, the puppy tilted its head and looked at Adam with a confused face reminding Adam even more of Hunter.

The puppy reacted exactly the same as Hunter had before, and just like Hunter had always done when Adam was feeling down the puppy stood up and started licking his palm, Adam bit his lip as he brought the puppy closer to him, his tears completely disappeared as he muttered "Welcome back Hunter..."