There, lying across from me, next to the tree, was a creature with wolf-like characteristics, but the eyes seemed a bit more stretched and the snout a little longer than what a wolf would have. Its fur was completely black with white streaks running down its chest. It also had white around its eyes, paws, forearms, and tail. As it stood up, it looked too small to be an adult wolf.

It kept growling at me as it tried to move back behind the tree, but every time it tried to walk, its right front paw gave way under its weight, and it fell; it was hurt. Its eyes, which were two different colors, blue and golden, showed fear, anxiety, and helplessness. I began to feel sorry for the poor thing; it seemed it couldn’t care for itself out here.

“What happened to you boy?” I asked the creature, which I now mistook as some abandoned dog or canine breed since there were no other creatures like this one around here. I figured someone didn’t want to deal with it anymore and came out here to throw it away.

“Damm, people, so heartless; as soon as this poor animal became too much for them, they came out here to get rid of it,” I thought as I tried to walk closer to the animal.

“Don’t be afraid, boy; I won’t hurt you. I want to help you, boy,” I said in a childlike tone as if I were talking to a baby or a small toddler.

The dog-like creature looked at me, confused, as it didn’t know how to react to my behavior.

“Come here, boy, come here buddy, come on boy, shsss, shsss, shsss,” I kept calling on the animal, still talking in a babyish tone. The creature stopped and looked at me, and its face beamed bewildered. I could see that it didn’t know how to react to me.

As I got closer to it, I could see that it was, in fact, a dog species of sorts. Its beautiful eyes still locked on me, but they didn’t show the fear from before. Only helplessness and bewilderment were present.

“Boy, let me see what happened,” I said as I got close enough to pet him on the head. However, I still didn’t trust him 100%, so I remained cautious.

As I inspected his right foot, I could see blood stains up and down his forearm, all the way to the paw. I got closer, and I don’t know why, but I picked up his foot to inspect closer. I found the issue: this cute little pup had received several puncture wounds to his right front paw and forearm.

“Boy, it seems you have been fighting with something out here,” I said as I eyed the pup from my kneeling position. The stray dog conclusion made more sense now. It did seem like someone had dumped him out there; another animal attacked him, and then he ran down here to get away before collapsing.

“It seems you got lucky today since I found you. If not, this wound would have become infected, and you probably wouldn’t have made it more than a few days,” I spoke to the animal as I rummaged through my duffel bag to find a few things I knew I had.

“Ah, here they are,” I said as I pulled out a healing cream and some bandages I carried with me. I kept these items with me in case of an emergency, as the dump site was far from the town.

“Boy, I’m going to bandage you up now, so this might sting a bit, but I promise it's for your own good,” I said as I started working on the leg. I cleaned it first with water, and then I applied the cream. The canine flinched at the touch of the cream, but it didn’t react hostilely. It kept staring at me as if trying to figure out what I was up to.

After a few minutes, I was done. I applied the cream and bandaged the leg to prevent infection.

“Alright, boy. You are good, so can you walk?” I asked as if the dog would understand, but to my surprise, it did. He got up and tried to walk before falling, wincing in pain as he tried to put weight on the injured leg.

“Hmm, it seems that you cannot use your leg for now. How about I carry you home with me until you get better.”

The canine looked at me for a moment before he turned and limped away towards the back of the tree. Due to the size of this thing, I couldn’t get a good glimpse of where he was going, so I had no choice but to follow him.

“Hey, where the hell are you going? There is nothing back there, you ungrateful mutt,” I screamed at the mutt as he limped away.

Turning the corner, I spotted the mutt standing there, looking at something in the tree. I got closer and finally saw what he was looking at. Right there on the tree trunk was a massive opening about 5 feet high and 3 feet wide.

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“What the hell is this?” I told myself as I stared at this empty black hole in the trunk of the enormous tree.

“Boy, have you been living inside this tree?” I asked as I turned around to look at the pup sitting next to me. Of course, he couldn’t answer, but his eyes told me he had been living here, so it made sense that he did not want to leave. He felt secure here, in his little home.

Looking at him, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor thing. He must have felt extremely lonely out here by himself.

“Don’t worry; I won't take you away forever. Let's do this; I’ll take you home to treat your leg. Once you get better, you decide where you want to live. I can bring you back here if that is what you want,” I told the pup, hoping to ease his anxiety.

The pup looked at the hole in the trunk again before getting up and walking over to me.

“Good,” I said, picking him up and returning to the house.

The rest of the walk back home was less than entertaining. With this pup now in my hands, I was getting a good cardio workout as although he looked small, he seemed to weigh more than an adult dog.

“Boy, you seem to have some heavy bone structure,” I told him as we returned home.

It took just under three hours to get back home. As soon as I walked to the porch, I put the pup down. “Feew boy, you are one heavy pup; I wonder what breed of dog you are to be so heavy as a pup,” I said as I opened the door to get inside the house. “Come on, boy, let's go.”

I walked inside the house, but the pup stayed at the door. He looked inside and glanced outside, seemingly trying to decide whether to go in.

“There is nothing to be afraid of. I said it before: I’m not going to hurt you; if I wanted that, I would have done it out where I found you,” I said as I gestured for it to get inside.

It seemed to realize what I said and quickly came inside. He looked around for a moment, trying to figure out the house's layout. He walked around the different rooms: the kitchen, living room, dining room, and bathroom. After walking around the rooms, he seemed to settle down and returned to the living room, where I sat on the couch. He looked at me before jumping up onto the couch.

“Hey, no dogs on the couch,” I said as I saw him jump on the couch and quickly settle into it like he had been doing it forever.

I tried to get him down, but he wouldn’t budge. He looked at me with the most disinterested eyes as he crossed his good paw over and settled his head on top of it before falling asleep.

“I’ll be dammed; he just ignored me completely,” I told myself as I looked at the pup fast asleep on the couch.

It was already late in the afternoon, almost at night, so I decided to prepare something easy and quick so as not to waste too much time before bed, as tomorrow was Saturday, the big fight day.

I walked to the kitchen to prepare the meal without realizing what was happening in the living room. The pup started to shake on the couch while wincing as if it was in some pain. The white streaks he had on his chest started turning golden in color and glowing as well. As this happened, the puncture marks on his forearm and paw started healing. This continued for quite a few minutes before the pup returned to normal.

While this happened, I cooked a small dinner of meat and potatoes and finished it up before cleaning up and going upstairs to my room.

The following day, I got up to the sounds of things being knocked over downstairs.

“Damm, could someone have broken in?” I said as I picked up a steel pipe, which I kept next to my bed for protection.

“I’ve never used this before, but there is always a first. That asshole that is messing up my house downstairs is going to be it,” I told myself, trying to pump me up.

Walking down the stairs, I heard the noise getting louder. I continued to walk stair by stair, paying attention to see if I could see anything, but I couldn’t. Suddenly, a big crashing sound came from the kitchen.

Boom!

“What the hell, is this guy trying to cook breakfast or what?” I asked myself as I walked to the bottom of the stairs.

I walked quietly towards the kitchen, looking anxiously, trying to spot the perpetrator before he spotted me. As I turned the corner into the kitchen, I saw him.

“What the hell are you doing, you crazy dog?” I screamed as I saw the pup rummaging through the pantry, knocking down shelf after shelf, trying to get to the food on each one.

The worst part is that it didn’t even jump back, scared or anything after hearing me scream at it. He just looked at me for a second and then continued to knock down my pantry shelves.

“Fuck! You crazy mutt, come here,” I said, now a little angry as seeing how it had just ignored me. But suddenly, the weirdest thing happened. As I was getting ready to grab it and throw it outside, the pup casually walked over to the kitchen table and jumped on the seat. It put its head down on the kitchen table and stared at me and then at the empty plate in front of it. It kept glancing from the plate to me and then back to the plate.

This happened briefly before I snapped out of my daze from seeing this.

“What are you trying to tell me? You're hungry,” I said to the pup curiously. It picked up its head, and I could swear that I saw him nod yes.

I blinked a few times before walking into the kitchen to ensure I wasn’t seeing wrong. I had just realized that it had knocked down my pantry shelves and jumped on the chair using both front paws.

“Hey, wasn’t your front paw hurt?” I said, surprised, watching the pup sitting at the table. I walked over and picked up his paw to check it and was shocked to see that all the puncture wounds had disappeared. It seemed like he had never gotten injured in the first place, “What the hell.”

Something was wrong with this, but I didn’t have time to investigate. It was getting to be later in the morning, and at noon, I had to meet Claire at Mr. Rozzali’s place.

“Boy, me and you are going to have a very long conversation later today after I come back from the fight,” I said in a serious tone. The pup stared at me, but I could feel this weird sensation coming from him. It was like he was telling me, OK.

“For now, let's enjoy some Bacon and Eggs,” I said as I started cooking. The pup just stared at me before a flash of happiness appeared in his eyes.