The new mound of fluff and I fell asleep on the grass by the Company Store.

The armor wasn't the best to sleep in, but it wasn't too bad.

I had the Probes bring us some breakfast. I had some bacon and eggs and the pupper got a side of beef.

He crunched the carcass down fast and then drank from the nearby stream. Typical puppy behavior.

I could tell the Mana density was actually benefitting him. The Store had been sparse in describing the abilities of Dancing Dogs, only that the World they came from had a Mana Density level of 5. Whatever that meant.

Sure I get that we are probably somewhere between level 1 and 2 here in the Valley, and just over level one in the town. However I had no idea what the ramification of these levels were. The BTC couldn't or wouldn't give me all the answers. Even Meadran, perhaps the most knowledgeable being available, could only explain so much.

The question remained, why was a lower density of mana helping him?

I could conceive of a few answers, but I didn't like the implications.

The puppy was chasing a wisp. A bouncing rollick.

'Play? Pretty light, play?'

The Silver wisp circled the pup several times before getting distracted by something else and floating away between the closely packed trees.

'Aw... '

"You're going to need a name."

'Oh! I know names, they are wind calls.' The puppy came bouncing over next to me again.

I laughed.

'I told I not need wind call, too small. The small brights took from mama. Gave to big brights. Then sleep, then here.'

That didn't sound good.

So far, my naming scheme for dogs had been to name them for some personality trait or quirk.

Babble? No definitely not. Bounce? Eh... no.

I could go with the classics and name him for a physical trait.

Silver? Maybe? Change. No. Shift. Nah. Whorl. Nope.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

Hmm.

Name him for what I hoped he would become?

Brave? Noble? What if he didn't want to be either?

Perhaps, I was making this harder than it had to be?

Silver was pretty good. Wait what was the name for silver in all the fantasy books. Miril... no Mithril. (An: Yes, yes, I know, I know. Ryan doesn't.)

Mithril. It had a nice ring to it. I could call him Mith for short.

"Do you like the name, Mithril?"

'Oooooo. What means?'

"Silver, I think, like your fur."

'Like, like. Yes. I Mithril!' The oversized puppy bounced with joy. 'We run, soon?'

"Sure, Mith, we can go running soon. We need to meet up with my friends. They are good people so don't be scared."

'Me good, not scared.' I gave him a good scratch behind his ear. Given his size, I barely had to gentle it up for him, even with the armor.

After playing with him for most of an afternoon, I had learned a few things about him. His bones and muscles were extremely dense, maybe on the same level as a wolverine. Despite this, he was also graceful, taking puppy awkwardness into account. He was obviously smart, but still easily distracted. He could channel nature mana, and once I showed him the pattern for Regrowth he could repeat it flawlessly.

All in all, an excellent companion and future friend.

"Lets go, Mith. You can meet the other people that live here."

Everyone trickled in to the Town Square over a hour or so. There was a buzz of excitement.

As should easily be predicted, Mithril was a hit.

The fact that he was the size of a Morgan horse, didn't put anyone off at all. He got all the attention a pupper could want.

John showed up and had a Mana Hound trailing him. There was also a Deep Stalker wrapped around his shoulders.

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah. I like animals." He said it flat, but I could see the nascent smirk.

I chuckled.

"I hope everyone had a good rest." I called out.

The Team and I, spent the next thirty minutes detailing the Mana Sink and the events therein.

"Wait. You went back in time?" Amanda blurted out. She had a stunned look on her face.

"While I don't think we should take anything for granted here, I don't think we literally went back in time. This seemed to be a snapshot of an alternate way the events of that night could have gone. I mean Silverhand was dead before it even started." I shook my head, "What worries me is that the system rated the deviance for the actual history. How does it know? If it knows that much, what else does it know? Everything?" I pointed out to the waste, "Does the Company know all of this? If so what is the point of me being here? Entertainment?"

"There is no way to know." John chimed in. Short and matter of fact.

"Right. Hoss, this is like dealing with far off governments, but worse. There is no telling what they are planning, no telling what they do or do not know. So we keep on doing the best we can. We help you and you do what you think is best. Worrying about the rest is a recipe for going batshit insane." Raynor had either gotten a new rifle or had his old one repaired.

'Too jumping mind sight.' Mith thought.

"One problem at a time." Amanda was staring into the distance.

There was quite a bit of debate about what everyone wanted to do. Help other people, fuck over other people. There was no consensus.

"Nah, we examine each group and decide whether or not to help on a case by case basis." I spoke up. "Some people suck, some are monsters, others are good folk in a bad place. Painting people with a broad brush rarely works out in the end. We might not end up helping any group and just make deals with certain individuals. But first we have to get to know them, it's hard to do that from out here." I said it, but I knew I did the painting myself sometimes.

"It will take time to figure all of this out. How about we switch to something more fun?" I shrugged.

It was time to open some loot.