Caffeine stood frozen where he landed after reflexively preparing to attack, while also bouncing away from the loud noise. Then he saw Dearest Human get hit in the face by a terrifying, yet perfectly silent Brightness.

Caffeine flinched back, his tail tucked down tight. A whimper escaped as Dearest Human made a pain sound and fell.

“Attack?” he thought. “Attack!” Caffeine charged, barking his meanest and fiercest threats at the Brightness. The Brightness did not flinch or back down, so he gave up on the threats and circled around to Dearest Human’s head.

His eyes were open but didn’t see Caffeine, only stared straight up. And his eyes were full of the Brightness. It danced and burned and shot little bits of brightness up into the sky.

Caffeine's best and saddest whine, followed by a good but cautious face licking gave no results, except to make his tongue tingle and not in a good way. Dearest Human smelled wrong too. Smelled like pain, wounded, sadness. “Come!” he barked. “Go! Give! Stay! Sit! Cookie!!!”

The magic words didn’t work! Caffeine looked back to the Brightness. It was moving! The Brightness had already covered up one Belly Scratcher but now it was crawling up towards Dearest Human's head! Caffeine looked at the source of the Brightness. It was coming from the hole. The bad, not interesting, scary hole. An idea came to him. Pull Dearest Human away from the bad, scary, Brightness hole!

Caffeine latched his best tugging grip onto Dearest Human’s jacket and pulled. There was a slight ripping sound and he whined but didn’t let go. Dearest Human would be upset at him for breaking his things but Caffeine would gladly have Dearest Human anger shout at him. That would be better than this pain quiet. He tugged harder. There was more ripping but Dearest Human moved! Just a little, but it would work! He would save Dearest Human!

Caffeine worked up his best tugging growl and started pulling.

Tug! He always won when they played tugging.

Tug! Sometimes Dearest Human would pull the toy right out of his mouth.

Tug! But he always grabbed it again.

Tug! And always Dearest Human would make the happy sounds.

Tug! "That means a win!"

Tug! The Brightness was still spreading.

Tug! It was covering his chest.

Tug! It was going down his legs.

Tug! Over his face.

Tug! Getting closer to the shoulder he was tugging.

Tug! Caffeine could feel Dearest Human trembling as the Brightness covered more and more of him.

Tug! The Brightness was going to get him too!

Tug! "I will win!"

Tug! "I always win!"

Tug! The Brightness touched his nose.

Tug! There was a loud Rip!

Caffeine stumbled back with a whimper. "Ouch!" Dearest Human’s Cookie Giver was halfway out of the Brightness hole. Caffeine dropped the piece of coat that had ripped off and looked at Dearest Human. The Brightness had covered him completely and he was visibly trembling now. The snow was trembling. The ground was trembling. Everything seemed to be trembling and it was getting stronger.

Caffeine dove back in, summoning his newest, even better tugging growl. He latched on and it Burned!

Tug! "The pain will go away when I win!"

Tug! It burned his nose.

Tug! It burned his eyes so he closed them.

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Tug! It was spreading so fast!

Tug! Maybe there will be Chicken when he wins.

Tug! Or Pizza!

Tug! Dearest Human had left some in the cold box.

Tug! That would be so good!

Tug! They would have pizza.

Tug! Dearest Human would make the happy noises.

Tug! Then scratch his belly in just the right way while he napped.

Tug! He was so tired.

Tug! Usually he would win Tugging by now.

Tug! He felt both Dearest Humans looking at him, even with his eyes closed, and smiling! He didn't even know that other Dearest Human was here! It felt like getting two belly rubs at the same time, and in the sleep place, and eating pizza at the same time!

Tug! He was so happy! He could feel his tail going wild and wanted to dance around in the happy dance, but Caffeine kept his feet planted and kept pulling. They would play after!

Tug! Something was wrong!

Tug! Both of his Dearest Humans were slipping away.

Tug! Like a piece of pizza going in the trash, but even worse!

Tug! He was losing!

Tug! "Dearest Human is too big!"

Tug! "No… I am too small…"

Tug! "If only I could be bigger…"

Caffeine let go of the jacket and looked at Dearest Human. The Brightness had covered him and seemed to be eating him since he was definitely getting smaller. He knew the Brightness was all over him too, but it didn’t matter. That was small pain, but this… this… he didn’t know what this was but knew that he would trade all the pizza, all the chicken, even all the belly scratches just to hear one more happiness noise from Dearest Human...

Caffeine decided that he would have to eat the Brightness before it could eat Dearest Human. He licked and then chomped at the bad Brightness. It didn't taste good, like too hot, and the more he ate the more appeared! Caffeine did his best eating tactics that he used when Dearest Human had a snack but when Caffeine needed to finish his own bowl first before he could sit next to Dearest Human and watch for any stray pieces of meat that sometimes jumped from the table! He ate faster!

The Brightness didn't taste like anything, but it was making him full... and filling his mind with strange thoughts and ideas. He could see so much as he devoured the Brightness as fast as possible. Could see the whole world, all the food in the world, all the pets, all of everything! It was a lot! Caffeine could see how to have all of it if he wanted to. But how could he enjoy any of that if Dearest Human wasn't there with him? None of that mattered. All that mattered now was saving Dearest Human from the Brightness.

He ate and ate, and ate some more. But the Brightness was too big... and Caffeine was too full. It felt like he would pop... and Caffeine knew that he would if he kept eating the Brightness. But Dearest Human was getting better! Only a little bit, but it was better! Caffeine just had to eat it all! And he would!

But then he was too full, so much too full! This was worse than when he got the chicken bones from the forbidden snack bucket. They had jumped out of Caffeine's belly and made a mess on the floor. Dearest Human had been very upset... Now the Brightness wanted to escape as well, it wanted to go eat Dearest Human! "I Can run away!"

Caffeine knew what to do. He had to eat all of the Brightness that he could, and then run away before it jumped out of his stomach and made a mess. This would be a very big mess... It would hurt Dearest Human if it escaped next to him. He took a few more of his best and biggest bites... "Goodbye, Dearest Human. I don't want to run away... But I have to go now."

He ran!

And Dearest Human stopped him! Both Dearest Humans! "No! I need to run!" But Dearest Humans wouldn't let him go, they did something to the Brightness... They fought with the Brightness! Tugging, chewing, and struggling to make it stop eating them! But it wasn't enough...

Caffeine howled into the sky in a desperate howl.

Then the howl deepened, the tone dropping into a roaring base. An impossible sound for any dog to make. The snow danced in the sky. The towering pines shivered and started dropping the snow piled on their branches. He roared out the pain, fear and defiance.

“They are MINE!”

“MY Dearest Humans!”

“YOU.. CAN… NOT… HAVE… THEM!”

The roar ended with a deafening boom. The world above his howl was obliterated. Snow, tree branches, even the tops of some trees. All shredded and blasted up and away. A cone of absolute destruction. A hole opened in the clouds revealing clear blue sky. Beneath him the snow blew away in a near perfect circle. The ground under his feet bucked upwards, and then settled back with some rumbling.

Caffeine finally opened his eyes and looked at the hole, where he could hear rocks clattering and banging. As he watched, the Brightness thinned and faded into smaller pieces, and with a last rumble from the hole the Brightness was gone.

Dearest Humans hand was free! The Brightness was fading from Dearest Human and going away!

"I WIN!"

Caffeine felt his tail feebly trying to wag, but he was so tired. The Brightness had faded from him too, and now his feet hurt. His teeth hurt. His everything hurt. He could smell blood. He had tugged too hard... No. He had tugged the best! Now it was rest time. Or eating time and then rest time. Yes. Dearest Human would carry him to the warm rumbly place and they would eat pizza and Dearest Human would scratch his belly and make the happiness sounds while he napped.

Caffeine limped over to Dearest Human, who was no longer trembling with the Brightness in his eyes. Now his eyes were closed and he seemed to be having a nap. Caffeine decided that was a good idea. A quick nap before the pizza. Would be sad to be too tired for pizza. He gave a gentle lick to Dearest Human just to reassure him that everything was ok now, then he curled up next to his head with only a little whimper, a sigh, and then he was out.