Chapter 2 - Leo
Bewilderment was stark on Destro's face as he pondered on just how great of a favour Jufer had granted him. The carcass of a dog this size could go for at least fifty bronze coins however a live dog could go for upward of five silver, which is five hundred bronze coins. The reason for the vast price difference was that a domesticated dog like this would definitely have Fiend blood somewhere in its lineage, meaning there was the potential for it to become a Fiend Beast similar to the BlackIron scorpions and RedDesert Mastiffs the Shakur clan had been proudly displaying earlier on.
Fiend Beasts were creatures only wealthy clans and families could posses and rear due to the exorbitant price for any Beast with the potential to become a Fiend Beast. If one wanted to buy a Fiend Beast directly they would be looking at prices upwards of five gold coins. A well off family in Shuda would earn around fifty silver annually. To spend one tenth of their annual savings on a dog that wasn't even guaranteed to become a Fiend Beast was folly hence there weren't many family's in Shuda whom had domesticated animals as pets. For Jufer to give him a living dog was the equivalent of giving him five silver coins and potentially even five gold coins.
Shock and gratitude were the two emotions most present on Destro's pale face. He fully understood the magnitude of Jufer's gift to him. The gratitude and shock soon faded from his face to be replaced with a slight frown. There was a problem. Instead of buying food he desperately needed he had just bought another mouth to feed. His eyes darted back down to the still mutt lying before him. There was more meat than he had expected on its body and there was obviously something wrong with it. Although the mutts ribs were visible it didn't seem as if it was starving so it was very likely that there was a deep rooted problem that couldn't be cured easily. Such thoughts stacked upon the hunger he knew would set in tomorrow nearly made Destro take the dog outside and get the job over and done with.
However a little voice told him that wasn't what he should do "It's easy for a Fiend Beast to catch desert foxes and burrowers, if I could save it and through some miracle it does become a Fiend Beast I'll be able to eat as much meat as I wanted to in the future." Optimism that an adult wouldn't have still existed within Destro's eight year old mind. The thought of having meat to eat whenever he wanted caused a sparkle to glimmer into life in his eyes and a slight smile to twist into existence. But his fantasy was dashed away as he came back to reality and the situation he was currently in. "Such a large dogs going to need a lot to keep it going, even more if its fighting an illness, as it is I'm all out of coins and food, how the hell am I gonna feed myself and the dog?"
Destro heavily sat down on his blankets with a sigh and watched the butterfly like motion of the mutt drawing in breath and fighting for its life. For several hours he sat and watched the dog waging an intense internal debate with himself upon the best course of action. Several times he got up and made to take the dog outside with knife in hand but each time he could only sigh and sit back down. Finally he got up and took action "Damnit even if I eat it now I'll still run out of food some time after" mumbling to himself he dashed outside.
Moonlight filtered down onto Destro's face as he came outside, it had turned dark long ago as he was debating what to do with his newly acquired purchase. Destro had familiarised himself with the local vegetation surrounding the rocky pool a while ago trying to see if any of the plant life was edible however he was put off eating plants after he spent three days vomiting whilst curled up in pain after consuming a fragrant purple flower.
He walked away from his hut heading back towards Shuda observing the sandy ground closely. He was only walking for a minute before he found what he was looking for, a single lone flower grew up through the sand. It was a small flower with three white petals that were slightly withered from the blistering heat of the daytime sun. Destro deftly took out his knife and started digging down around the flower. He dug for a small while before he eventually pulled out what appeared to be an oval shaped stone. The oval stone was a deep brown in colour and a bit smaller than Destro's head, the stone was connected to the flower through one thick root whilst about thirty smaller roots spread out from the stone.
Smiling slightly Destro took his knife out and started cutting the oval plant directly in half. After cutting for a while crystal clear water that rivalled the water found in the rockery pool for clearness started dribbling out of the plants centre. The plant was commonly referred to as the Aqua plant. It would fill its stone up with clear mineral rich water during the monsoon season and then use it to sustain itself during the dry season. Travellers often planned their journeys to incorporate stops around areas where the Aqua plant numbers where particularly high so they could refill their water sources. Caravans were often killed by using incorrect maps that showed an Aqua plant area only to find the map was wrong and the plants were in another area, resulting in a slow painful death for the caravan members. Not that Destro knew any of this.
Finishing sawing the plant into two bowl like halves he discarded one half before turning around and making his way back to the rockery pool. Filling the oval plant bowl with water he placed it down by the pool before he headed back inside the hut. Gently lifting the mutt he carried it outside. There was a clear contrast between the way he carried the dog now and the way he had carried when he was returning from Shuda. Gingerly placing the dog down he raised the plant bowl and opened the mutts jaws, he then proceeded to dribble small amounts of water directly into its mouth. At first the water only dribbled out of the sides of its jaws however obviously a partial amount trickled down its throat as the dog started coughing and spluttering weakly. Not deterred at all the boy continued trickling the water down the dogs throat.
The mutts eyes flickered gently before opening slightly. Destro didn't notice the opening of dogs eyes as he was intently concentrating on the task at hand, however if he had he would've seen something he could relate to, contained in the dogs black eyes was a ferociousness and deep distrust of the world. The mutts eyes flickered shut soon after opening, Destro never noticed their opening, the only thing he saw was the mutts throat start constricting and opening as it began drinking the water trickling into its mouth. Smiling jubilantly Destro increased the dribble to a small flow.
After making the dog drink a whole bowl Destro was satisfied. Looking at the coat of the dog another frown creased Destro's forehead. Taking the bowl he proceeded to wash the dogs matted coat. The dogs coat was relatively short however it was caked in sand and mud making it all matted and greasy. Washing the fur throughly he completely rinsed the dogs coat, the water running off the rocks into the sand was coloured brown and yellow a testament to how filthy the dog had really been. Hurriedly Destro fetched one of the blankets he slept in from his hut and dried the dog as quickly as he possibly could, worrying that if he let it stay wet and cold it's condition may worsen.
Delicately lifting the dog back up again he moved it inside of his hut before wrapping it up in dry blankets and laying it against the back rock wall before placing the plant bowl filled with water beside its head. Doing all of this Destro sat down heavily with his back to the pipe wall. During the day the rock absorbs the heat from the blistering sun so much so it take a while for all the heat collected to disperse, so for most of the cold desert night the rock wall gives out a comforting amount of heat. Normally Destro would curl up against the wall and fall asleep there however he decided the dog needed the heat more than he did.
Sitting motionlessly he stared at the dogs prone body and fluttering chest. Destro closely observed the hounds features pondering upon the different types of dogs he knew about in Shuda. There were the RedDesert Mastiffs that the Shakur clan reared, GreenJungle Dingos that the Shuda guard raised and the RedPlain Dobermans that the Shuda elite guard were gifted upon promotion to captain. Destro had seen all three types of Fiend Beast and yet this dog resembled neither one.
The most vivid memory he had was of a RedPlain Doberman that had been part of the raid team sent to capture his parents, it was the only time he had ever seen one but he could remember it as if it happened only minutes ago. He clearly remembered the foam frothing at the Fiend Beasts snarling mouth and the crazed rabid eyes that made him shudder involuntarily. Destro knew that the head of the dog before him was almost identical to the RedPlains Doberman he had seen four years ago the only deviation being a slightly shorter snout. However it had the thick neck and deep powerful chest of a RedDesert Mastiff as well as the thin wry waist and long slender legs of a nimble GreenJungle Dingo.
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After pondering for a moment on the species of the dog before him Destro gave up without much further thought on the subject guessing it was a crossbreed mutt. He knew that currently he didn't have time to be wasting pondering upon the species of the dog in front of him, he had to think about how to feed both it and himself.
The moon reached its zenith in the sky and yet Destro still sat still motionless in the exact same position, his mind was racing thinking of ways to acquire food. The two options he could come up with was to pickpocket a few nobles or to find and hunt wild animals. Pick pocketing was a serious offence however and he would have one of his hands chopped off if he was found guilty, something he'd seen happen to many times, it wasn't rare to see starving beggars of all ages who only have one hand or possibly even no hands. As for hunting, the wild animals in the desert were just to sparsely spread out, he'd have to spend a week looking before he found anything so that wasn't an option either. Frustration was written all over Destro's face.
Destro's concentration as well as the absolute silence of the night was broken by the sound of soft ripples as the rockery pools water was disturbed. Looking up and around Destro dismissed it as an nocturnal animal coming for a drink, at which point he realised how much of a fool was. He thought he would have to look for the animals if he were to hunt however he lived by an oasis in a desert, all manners of animals came here for something to drink especially this time of year, the dry season.
Quietly pushing aside the blanket that served as the huts door he looked outside. Across the moonlight lit pool sat a small desert fox. Brown in colour with exceptionally large ears the fox was cautiously lapping at the pools water. A grin was at Destro's lips as the eight year old half heartedly cursed himself for his own stupidity.
For the entire night he sat by the entrance to his hut watching the comings and goings of the nocturnal creatures. Throughout the night six foxes and nine burrowers came to drink from the pool. By sun rise a predatory sharks grin was plastered across Destro's face. Quickly rising he dashed across to the other side of the pool and looked at the vegetation at three points. In each of the places the vegetation was flattened. Apart from a single fox these three points were where every animal had come to drink. Throughout the night Destro had been thinking up ways of catching his prey and now he sprung into action quickly building the contraption that he had envisioned in the middle trail.
After an hours work he admired the contraption he'd crafted, as he did a smug look crept onto his face, satisfied he turned and strolled back to the hut. Sitting down and placing the dogs head in his lap Destro began dribbling water into the weak mutts mouth again. The response was pleasantly surprising for Destro. The dog started vigorously swallowing down all the water he tipped into its mouth, on top of that it appeared that the dogs chest fell and rose a lot more steadily than it did the day before. The positive results put him in an even better mood.
Nuzzling down into a pile of blankets Destro contently fell asleep.
Awaking to the sound of his stomach growling ferociously Destro sighed discontentedly. Hastily he took a quick peep outside. Seeing the moon just beginning to rise a flicker of anticipation emerged in his eyes. Once again he gave the dog some water and once again it appeared to drink it a lot easier than it had previously. The dogs breathing was a lot more pronounced and visible as well, appearing to be a lot less laboured than before. Destro's mood would've been grand seeing this however his stomach was letting him know that he hadn't eaten in forty eight hours.
Sitting down just inside his hut he looked out across the pool. His mornings labour still sat there and upon seeing it Destro couldn't help but chuckle at his own ingenuity. Two large rocks sat either side of the trail to the pools side. Directly above these rocks was a metre long bit of crescent shaped piping, suspended by a rusty iron pole placed in the centre of the piping. Both of the pipings ends were balanced precariously on the individual rocks, the only real support was the pole in the middle, without the pole the piping would fall to the floor instantly. If they followed the trail to go to the pool to drink both burrowers and foxes would have to knock against the pole to get past causing the piping to come down, at that moment both ends of the piping would be blocked by the two large rocks trapping the animal within.
Sitting expectantly in the doorway of his hut he watched the trap like a hawk. After some time a desert fox trotted over. Destro's entire body tensed, he was silently praying for succes. Sniffing dubiously in the direction of the trap the fox chose the trail to the pool on Destro's left. Two more foxes came over and each one displayed some form of interest in the crudely crafted trap before going down another trail to drink from the pool. More time passed and Destro started lulling off into a slumber despite himself.
A piercing squeal startled him awake. Snapping his head round to look across the pool he found the piping had come down and something was currently squealing inside of it. Rushing over Destro pounced on the piping before whatever was inside could try to get out. Excitement was evident on his face as he pulled the rock from one end of the piping out. Before whatever was inside could react he stuck his hand on and grabbed ahold of something furry. A sharp pain came from his hand as he felt a pair of keen incisors bite down upon the back of his hand "Fuck!" Pulling his catch from the piping he found a large burrower gnawing furiously on the back of his hand. Burrowers were about half a metre long with stubby back legs and giant front legs, they had small beady eyes and tiny ears.They were covered in thick soft brown fur while the only teeth in their small mouths were two pairs of small canines on either side of their mouths. Tears were bought to Destro's eyes as the burrower loosened his jaws a small bit before bitting down again harder. However his hunger wouldn't permit him to let go of his catch. Pulling his knife out of his pants pockets he quickly stabbed the burrower through the eye before it chewed a hole in his hand.
Destro dropped it and kicked the corpse away while tentatively holding his bleeding hand "Little Fucker" Mumbling to himself he reset the trap and headed back to the hut with his contraptions first kill. Sitting just outside of the doorway he skinned and gutted the burrower as fast as he could with the dull knife he had, preparing an animal for consumption was one of the only things his father had taught him. Squatting on the floor Destro looked at the heart and liver of the burrower he had in his hand. Ideally he'd be able to make a fire and cook the meat but it didn't bother him that he couldn't, having eaten meat raw before as well as being as hungry as he currently was, the fact it was raw wasn't to disconcerting. He eat the heart first, consuming it as fast as he could to appease his stomach before he slowly ate the liver savouring its taste slightly more. Feeling satisfied after eating the heart and liver he took the corpse inside to the dog. Cutting a leg off and setting it aside for himself for the morning he proceeded to cut the rest of the burrower up into tiny slivers of meat. Sitting down he then placed the dogs head on his lap before taking the small pieces of meat and forcing them down the dogs throat. As the first piece of meat entered the dogs mouth it fully opened its eyes for the first time.
The dogs eyes met with Destro's and he instantly felt a sense of comradeship with this canine. He could sense the dogs ferociousness and unrelenting will to live, it was a will that sparked a fire inside of him. Only two days ago he had been resigned to the fact he'd probably starve, his desire for life gone, however seeing the raging fire in the mutts eyes sparked a will to live in him that he'd only felt once before. He'd felt it once before when he was shown his younger brother by his parents. A protective instinct was awakened along with the desire for life when he laid eyes on the tender babe his parents held. But by some cruel twist of fate the child was born two weeks before his parents were seized by the Shakur clan. His younger brother was taken with his parents and just as his brother and parents were taken his desire for life was taken as well. Feeling the dogs unrelenting will he immediately associated it with his younger brother and breathed out in surprise "Leo"