We make it to a dog camp, with many more amazing sights. There are dogs all over, and the next tough decision, is who to go up to and sniff first. Being told to stay with the group is no fun, but I follow the heroes. There are a bunch of tree posts in the ground, and it makes a wall around the camp's many small buildings. Asking how they are able to build it all is answered with a, “Silence pup.” I just keep quiet and follow them.
They take me to a building and tell me to go inside and talk to the dog there. Slowly walking into the building. At first I was hoping my eyes weren’t going strange on me again, seeing everything like I have here, especially after I get used to it, has been really neat.
Walking in with me, the nice female, forgot her name already, walks into the room and waits for a short time. There are a couple of dogs up front in a room. One is an older dog, it has gray hairs, and says some things in a strange and deep voice. The other is a younger dog, closer to my age, his hair is black and another new color, a sort of bright brown. The younger one is more energetic, barks and yips in a higher pitch, and is arguing with the other.
She walks to the other dogs there and gets their attention. I’m not sure what they are talking about, so I just look around. The room smells like old and dry wood, which is what the floor, walls, and roof are made of. The room is strange with things all over and I don’t know what most of it is supposed to do.
The female looks over at me, “Pup, what is your name again? No?”
Nodding again, she blurts out more things to the other dog, and is still talking before she looks back over at me where I can get what they are saying. “Oh my dog, a job. He must not have one yet. It has been so long since I didn’t have one. No, do you have a job yet?”
I quirk my head to the side, not knowing what she is saying.
“Look into this shiny thing, it is a way to help.” She gestures with her head to a shiny thing and I can see, what looks like me. A little dog, a lot like me, same size, and moves just like me. I lower my head and bark at it, and it is barking back. It almost gets me excited that a new friend will be introduced, but a paw pushes my back to the ground, and I lie down. Looking at the shiny thing, bunch of lines show above me in the strange thing that shows me what I look like. While all this is happening, the younger and older dogs are still yelling at each other, but the younger one ends the argument with growling and walks to the back of the room.
As he walks by me, he gives me the side eye, and growls at me. He says a bit of gibberish, and keeps walking.
Both of the others in the room look at the mirror, and it looks like they can see what I can see also, “Good, good. Now, think of being a brave warrior, like me and the others in the group. Big and strong heroes like Brock and me.”
Standing up just a little more straight on my four legs, I imagine myself in the metal pieces like the big and tall dogs still wear, stopping and biting the bugs to get some food. The lines change on the mirror.
I see lines, they show and I sort of understand, “Option one, warrior. Fight bravely on the front lines with your muscles and toughness. Option two, slinger. Fight as a ranged attacker, not as tough armor, but you will hurt things more. Option three.”
Before understanding what it says, the nice female looks at it, and says a few things to the other, and the other dog in the room eye’s bulge, just like the first froggy that I saw here, and looks at the mirror for the first time, since whoever this was let the female help with this.
Razi walks over close to my side, and tells me as plainly as she can. “No, you need to pick option three, trust me, you will make lots of friends.”
That was all I needed to hear. I don’t even look at what the third option is, and try to use my head to pick it. Squinting at it doesn’t work, walking up to the mirror and putting my nose up to it doesn’t work. Barking at the mirror seems to make option one glow, I bark again, and option two glows. You see where this is going, I bark one more time, and option three glows for a few seconds. In my mind I do my best to select that option, and I can’t see anything anymore.
Pain, like having an empty stomach for a long time pain, but all in my head. The feeling that I was bit by someone back home, and my stomach is churning, and my nose smashed into a fence back home. My head hurt so much, I was scared that one of the bugs, or worse yet, a squirrel got a hold of my face and was clawing me. I feel water coming out of my nose, and eyes, but it means nothing compared to this pain.
It doesn’t take very long though, thankfully my head starts getting less and less painful. Everything, all together, the pain gets more dull, and goes away all together.
“Welcome to Putopia, No.” The voice is different, but Razi has a bright smile, and walks to the back of the building and leaves. I follow her a few steps, and am stopped by the other dog up front with me.
“No, please, we have a lot to talk about.” The other dog’s voice is raspy, like an old person would talk, but I understand him. “You are in a new home, and we will take good care of you. My name is Max, and I am a teacher, and your Beta. Look over at the mirror again.”
I know what this male is talking about in general. I remember what has happened so far, not that I get everything, but my mind is putting things together. I look over at the mirror, and all of the strange lines I saw before form shapes, letters that I understand, not that I did before.
Name: No
Job: Mix Crylla
Level: B
Matar: 9
Polt: B
Tugmess: 2
Skawvy: H
Smrt: 7
Perkepion: 8
Hotch: 22 / 22
Stonima: 22 / 22
(PP) [Cowling pints] : 11 / 11
Items of note
None
Available points to spend: x
My head stops hurting and I look over at old Max. The strange smile on his face says a lot, but it also looks creepy . He is either about to run up and lick me, or like he is about to pounce on and eat me. “No is your name? That is a shame. That will be what we call you, since you finally can speak, we will be able to find out more about you.”Each time Max tells me to speak, I bark at him, as usual when someone asks me to, but he quirks his head to the side when he finishes talking. “You do know how to speak now, right? Leveling and gaining a job gives you the option to speak, and we need to speak.”
Each time, obviously, I bark at him, it is strange he wants me to bark at him in this small room, but he walks closer, and looks me right in my face. “What is your name?”
I look at him strangely, I know what he’s asking me, I bark back. “I know your name is No, you need to tell…” He looks closer at me, then looks into the mirror that we haven’t moved away from yet. He says, “Smarts at one? Well, that explains it a little. You have gained a level, and are having a hard time trying to talk. You have points to put into your stats so that you can get big and strong. Spend one point into your Smarts section, you see that section, smarts? It will help you understand everything that we need to talk about.
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I look at all of the sections, and know what each means, sort of. Power, is to hurt things with your teeth or claws. Finesse is to be more flexible and better at hitting things, or throwing things, like balls. Toughness is to run longer and not be hurt when other things hurt me. Savvy is to be better at making friends. Smarts is to help me know and remember things. Perception is to help me see or smell things better.
Hurting things better? Obviously, then I can fight those big ants. I spend one of my mystery points into hurting things better with Power. I tell the system that it is what I want, and it locks it in, making my body quiver a bit. It feels a lot like when the cold water rushed over me in the alpha’s strange place, but after a couple of seconds, the feeling goes away. Spending the point makes me feel like I just finished running a bunch.
“No, no, you need smarts, s, m, a, r, t, s, without it, this will be very strange for you and you won’t understand things around our world.”
Friends, I do like to make friends, I put another point into Savvy, and tell the system that I want that for sure. I don’t feel really different from that one, no shivering.
Max brings a little stick over to me, obviously to give it to me so I can play with it. The savvy increase is helping already. When it quickly smacks my face with it, it certainly is a surprise. Barking back at him, he yells back at me too, “Yes, I know it was too fast and you couldn’t catch it, that wasn’t the point. Pay attention to me, I need you to put the last point you have as a first level puppy is SMARTS. Me trying to tell you about our town, will take so, so much longer. You won’t be able to go out and do anything more, and if I have to be here for a long time, I won’t let you take a nap.”
No nap he says? Smarts, got it.
A screech fills my ears, my head hurts more than ever, since other things have changed me in different ways, they didn’t hurt nearly as much as this, my body does a lot more than shiver. This is like someone was playing just way too hard and bites my ear. Ringing in one ear, thumping in another, my head waves back and forth like two mean people are throwing a ball that they won’t let me chew on. All of the strange things happening make my face hit the ground, and I close my eyes, wanting it all to finish.
The ground seems to help. Eventually I shake my head free of some of the pain.
“Now, pup, what is your name?”
My mouth has trouble trying to say it, but slowly, I can get out through my maw, “Nnnnno.” My tongue feels weird saying something new.
Next, he asks, “What is it you want to do now, No?”
Able to move my maw in a strange way to be able to speak with him, which again is much more strange than guessing, “I want to take a nap.” I almost bite my tongue as it flows around my maw
“Later, we have too much to talk about, and I have a lot more to do than you. Look back at the mirror.” Looking back, I am able to understand a bit more, and see it better.
Name: No
Job: Pet Caller
Level: 1
Power: 3
Finesse: 2
Toughness: 2
Savvy: 2
Smarts: 2
Perception: 3
Health: 22 / 22
Stamina: 22 / 22
(HP) [Howling points] : 12 / 12
Skills
Forest Survival: 1 Stealth: 1 Poison Resistance: 1 Pet Calling: 1
Pets: Rank 1
Items
None
Available points to spend: 0
Groggily, I ask, “What do you want, Max?”
Max answers, “No, I am your Beta, call me Beta Max. You have been given a great chance, you are able to call pets.”Shaking the last bits of pain out of my head, I ask, “Wait, you are my Beta? Wouldn’t you be my Alpha?”
The old dog says, “I’ll get to that later. Right now, you are able to just call a low powered, and low levelled pet. It won’t take long though for you to get to the point where you can call a human as your pet. With a human as your pet, there is so much more you can do for… yourself.”
Squinting my eyes, I ask, “What do you mean?”
Max answers, “There are many jobs that we get to choose from, the one that you picked by our suggestion, will let you call pets. You will be able to have a pet that can protect you, hurt other things with you, even heal your other friends and you. If you want, you can heal and hurt other things also. They can learn different things, do different jobs, have separated equipment, you can even have them do different things while you take a nap, as long as you have the howling to use them.”
Having humans do things for me while I’m taking a nap? Like, get me food? They usually do that anyway, I am not sure what he wants me to have them do. “What do you mean, howling, is that the other line in the mirror?”
He keeps going with so much, I get a headache from it all. “Yes, when your pets do things, they learn it, and you get better from them doing things. We need humans around here if possible, and if you get humans to do things around here for us, and with us, you will make lots of friends around the fort. Other dogs will like you and make you tougher, last longer, you’ll get great food, everything will be so much fun for you. Come, let me show you what I mean.”
I didn’t really get it, the hero fighter guy can stand like humans, there must be more, so this is all strange. “Can’t some of the heroes move on two feet? Stand like humans?”
My Beta, Max, moves his head in the gesture to have him follow, and I figure I might as well.
When we get outside, we walk through the complex and Max continues, “Some of our crew that can do certain jobs, there are different shifts that can be done. No, we are in a camp here, same as probably where you came from too. Just like where you came from, we have had to struggle with keeping things working. The only time we can keep some of the things active like the defenses and forge, preparing the food so that it doesn’t make us sick, repair the weapons and armor that need it, a lot of important things, is for warriors to go into fight mode, and that only lasts a few minutes.”
Gasping, I ask, “Oh my dog, is that when some of the heroes I walked in with were standing like a human?”
Max answers, “Well, yes, the most powerful of our warriors can concentrate and stay in such a form for only minutes at a time. They aren’t able to do much in such a short time that is needed around the fort. A pet caller though, when they are strong enough, can be a huge benefit to a fort. Where did you live?”
Answering shyly, “Oh, I live with the alpha. I hope he doesn’t get mad that I’m here.”
Max stops, and looks at me instead of walking while he has done for a while, “Wait, you live with the alpha? Like, the alpha?”
This time, answering wondering why, “Yes, why?”
Max comes closer to me, and asks slowly. “No, pup, there is the alpha, and there are betas, most of the guards, captains, they are all betas. The alpha is a huge male, and if you are supposed to be living with him, we’ll have to get word to him.”
Nodding enthusiastically, “Oh, my alpha is huge, his home is also very big, I can’t run around it alone yet, but hopefully eventually I can.”
Max gets the attention of a little running pup almost my size, and tells him to get the comms expert. Asking who he is talking about, he says not to worry about it. He walks me around the fort checking on what was happening. There are different shops with food, general things to use, meat and other food that is hung up to dry, a leather person that handles that sort of stuff. Max shows me a blacksmith area, I’m not sure what all of the stuff is or does, but it is what Max calls it. He says that no one is working on it right now. The two tough heroes are there, waiting for some reason.
Whispering to Max, I ask, “Those two heroes, don’t remember their names, can’t they be on two feet for a while?”
He answers, “They can only be in warrior form for a short time, and they are not able to use that ability the rest of the day. In that form they can make armor for us, tall or short. Their armor even changes shape with them, which is a neat thing. As a Pet caller though, you will be able to bring some humans out to help. If they help us make things, repair things, or even learn things that we need, they change, and you change. If you get big and strong, a tough one can protect you, a healer can help you if hurt, blaster can hurt things with you, and even another to be smith and other general pet around here. I will help you in any way we can and you can get stronger and help us. Anything you need.
“You’ll need to train on how to do things, fight this swarm of bugs, and learn new things about what you can do as a caller. The Alpha will want to talk to you also, I’m sure, if you really need to live with him. We are able to talk over long distances, and we will see if the alpha’s friends know you. Also, how to use different weapons, if you want to use ranged things or your teeth and claws.”
With a quick question in mind, I go for it, “What do you mean, this swarm of bugs?”
Max gets long winded, “There are swarms of bugs everywhere. They can keep on going, and we’ve been trying to get rid of them for a while. They are good for food and we can get stronger by beating them. The alpha always wants us to get stronger so that we can win the big fights. Many times a year there are big fights when the bugs leave their big hill areas in force to try to hurt us. We won’t let them win though, and we keep killing them and stopping them, but they keep coming after us.
“When our strong heroes make it inside the hills, there are usually many strong enemies inside, along with mini-bosses, and a big boss. We usually get really good food and things to use from them, it is just how things work. We can also usually eat the meat from the big bosses for many days if it isn’t poisoned. Parts of those bosses also can become amazing weapons and armor. Their claws, hide, other parts, when you can get in on the big fights, you get bigger and stronger, and are able to prepare for the tougher fights.”
With a slight addition, he keeps going, almost drawing my attention to the nearest squirrel, “It isn’t just bugs that we kill and eat though, there are other beasts around, and territories of humans that we need to be very careful when going by them. Bugs are just easier prey because they stay in an area and there are many of them.”
We eventually make it back to the place where Max stays, the mats on the ground made of furs seem inviting, so we both sit down. Max keeps going, “You need to train, and you need a pack. There are not many young pups in the area that have recently leveled, and many have packs already. When going through your learning and training, we’ll need to get you with others that will keep you safe, and so that you can get big and strong. You need other dogs you can trust, and I’m sure we can find you some friends.”