-Velvet, southeast of lambkin village-
After a nice breakfast at the sunny village of Lambert, we headed southeast for a time.
“So, why are we doing this again?” We had entered a small valley like area between two large almost mountainous hills, I looked at the large white marble pillars covered in plant debris arching overhead. They were about ten feet thick in diameter each, which was quite artistically hard to pull off given the location they were planted. “Also did someone build a temple out here or something?”
Paprika was carrying the food meant for the bravest sheep of the village, the one who lived out here. Maybe that sheep was the one that built these large marble pillars that made such a sophisticated archway covered in plants.
Arizona stopped and she took one long look at our surroundings, she then gasped loudly and seemed to stare off into space.
“Is everything okay Arizona?” I must admit that spending most of this morning keeping Paprika in line cut into my combat exercise time with my favorite cow. This left me feeling something akin to a large itch to fight Arizona.
My mood towards Paprika was still quite sour and all she did was annoy me even more this morning.
“My mom actually managed to take on something of that size?” She was rather quiet, but we had both heard her.
Paprika was more curious than anything about what Arizona meant, even I had my attention squarely on her.
“What do you mean of that size? I don’t see anything too grand out here aside from the unique ancient archways made of marble.” Though setting up archways that big must have taken quite some effort.
“Those aren’t crafted archways Velvet.” Why did Arizona seem so sure of that? I looked up at the archways and how they came together in a unique fashion and hooked to the next archway by a large piece of… oh… oh my goodness. “They’re bones.”
“I knew that some big snake was involved in what your mother dealt with in the story… I just didn’t think it was ‘that’ big!” Said bones belonged to a dead snake that was positively humongous and we were just walking under a portion of them, I just looked at the skeletal structure arching overhead in awe. “I was actually thinking of something akin to a basilisk in size and danger, I mean a king of snakes or serpents would be quite hard to surpass.”
“If a basilisk is king, then this must have been a mortal god of snakes.” Arizona moved over to one of the bone pillars off the trail we were following into them. “Immortal in the sense of being ageless, but can still die in a particularly permanent fashion.”
The vertebrae I was walking under was more than three times my size alone. Why the snake must have been gigantic for us to be walking under its skeletal structure like we were! Arizona’s mother was said to have dealt with this thing?
How?! How does a cow, no matter how tough, survive or even deal with something this large!
Paprika didn’t seem scared or perturbed of the bones we were walking under, she just continued to hop along with us and be annoyingly perky. She eventually came to a stop and stared at something, I stopped too.
Paprika noticed something and I couldn’t dismiss the idea that someone was here. Arizona noticed too and we were both looking for what Paprika was staring at.
I could hear the sound of movement and we both went still, but Paprika continued to bouncily stand in place and stare at something, her rump started to wiggle and her tail started rapidly wagging until it turned into a blur.
Whatever was about to attack us was in for a huge surprise, knowing Paprika like I do.
Paprika definitely had a much faster reaction time than either Arizona or I. The only reason why Paprika hadn’t made a move yet, is because whatever she was looking at wasn’t close enough to hug violently.
The creature peeled away from the plants growing on the bone pillars and it was targeting me as it leapt, I didn’t react and just stood perfectly still with a flat lazy look on my face.
Arizona looked eager to smack this creature around and was ready for a fight, but I already knew the truth of the matter. It was already too late for the poor dumb creature.
In fact, I was more terrified for what was about to happen to it, as it almost didn’t deserve the incoming Paprika assault. It had a rather good taste in targets though, but I was quite prepared for it if Paprika had missed.
A foot away from reaching me with its claws, a blur of fluff passed me and slammed into it.
Once I could make out what Paprika was snuggling against after their violent tumble that entirely favored the fluffy alpaca, I was less than worried.
A single timber wolf? Oh please, we deal with those all the time up north. Less than a trifle really.
It didn’t seem to be an ever green timber wolf either, the sad creature was panicking and scrabbling to escape Paprika’s hooves as she nuzzled and cuddled it tightly. It would be quite understandable if the predator learned to avoid her after this.
“That was kind of anticlimactic.” Of course it was Arizona, what did you expect?
“I prevented Paprika from getting her affection out this morning, she must be quite pent up and needed to get all that love out of her system.” I knew Paprika better than Arizona did, the alpaca was a fighter that fought like a lover, with hugs and kisses.
Several softer growls were heard, several small black and white puppies came out from around the bone pillars and started barking at us.
There were four of them and they were all just plain adorable, I even patted one on the head and it stopped barking to nuzzle against me affectionately.
That’s when a large black and white dog leapt out and came towards us, she was as large as a bear and was growling at us fiercely.
There was also a dire wolf, an orthros, a Cerberus breathing flames out of its three heads, a coyote and there was even a bright white fox with two green tipped tails that seemed to be glowing.
They were all encircling us growling and looked ready to attack. We might actually have to prepare for a real fight, I don’t think I had the heart to harm the charming little puppies though.
They charged for us and I stood on my hind legs taking a dancing pose. I was preparing to launch various shards of ice at all the numerous aggressive creatures.
All of them were quite different and they all seemed to be working together which was rather… odd, now that I thought of it. This many diverging species working as one is not something you’d expect in nature really.
Arizona pulled out some rope and started to twirl it prepared to throw it, only for someone to voice their concern for how this situation was going.
“All of you stop that right now!” The various animals sat down and looked towards the one who shouted at them. Hearing the tingling of a bell, we turned to a gangly looking sheep that came running onto the scene. She looked at them and us timidly and then muttered. “Thank you for actually listening to me this time. I’m so sorry about all this, they are really quite protective of me. I sometimes wish they really weren’t, hello my name is Pom and I’m quite sorry about my aggressive friends.”
This pom had white fur with a tinge of pink to it, her skin underneath her wool was a dark lavender color. She was wearing a purple choker with a bell attached to it.
She looked rather upset with the recent situation, though I’m quite sure we could have handled it without her assistance.
“Excuse me for asking this, but why did the… one, two… why did the three of you come here? There’s nothing out here for anyone… aside from me and my general lot in life.” The timid sheep muttered sadly, this was the brave sheep that Puff mentioned? She didn’t look it, but she had stopped these… I just noticed that all of them were canines. She was kind of surrounded by beings that would rip her to shreds if they got hungry enough. “Unless you wanted to look at the bones. Well you’ve seen them, they are right there, so you can go now… please?”
“How rude.” I stated clearly, turning my nose up at her. This sheep obviously must be quite lonely for intelligent companionship given all the company she currently kept.
Maybe she had a good reason for being this rude, but I wasn’t inclined to care with the way she was acting.
“No, I actually wanted to know more about what happened here.” Arizona was motioning to the area around us with a hoof, before motioning to the canines surrounding us and moving into more relaxed lazy positions. “I also want to know what all… this… is about.”
“Of course you do, these guys… are a very long story.” The sheep sighed out loud and flopped to the ground looking tired as she scrubbed her forehead with her hooves. “I have a strong bond with every single one of them. Also could you tell your friend to stop cuddling Mr. Birch? I would say he’s dangerous, but he’s currently more scared of your friend than she is of him. To think he’s one of the bravest ones out of my lot.”
“Paprika I know you like the living wooden wolf, but please control yourself and stop snuggling him.” After I watched Paprika reluctantly release the poor cowering animal that scrabbled to get away from her, I turned to the sheep. “Excuse me, Ms. Pom was it? We’re here to deliver some food on the behalf of a Ram named Puff and I’m sorry if we are trespassing into your territory.”
“Well at least some sheep still care about me out here, might as well be my grandpa. Even named one of the pups after him.” This Pom groaned out as she stood up and turned around. “Right, come on then, follow me. My homes not too far away from here, might as well tell you about myself while I’m at it.”
The sheep turned and started to walk, all the canines got up and started to follow her. She seemed kind of depressed despite looking like she was the absolute leader of their pack, this made me wonder what was wrong with Pom.
We followed along behind her and Paprika kept playfully trying to hug the strange fox as we walked.
“It all started quite benign, befriended a predator that should have ripped me up to eat me. That would be Big Mama the Canis Major. Showed up in my life with her four Canis Minor pups Woof, Ruff, Tuft and the one named after my grandpa Puff.” Pom pointed out the large bear sized black and white dog in the pack following her, then to each of the little yapping puppies that playfully ran around with one another. “The protective dogs weren’t so bad and in general things were okay up to a point, but then the dire wolf showed up and things kind of snowballed badly for me from there. I’ve been a bit unlucky in getting them all to leave me alone. I thought Grimm had left for good, but he eventually came back. Don’t honestly know why he ran off in the first place, but he came back smelling vaguely of cat.”
The solid black dog lifted his head as we approached a cave with camping supplies, he grunted and then laid his head down.
“Whatever the sheep told you in the village, it’s all a huge farce. I know exactly why I’m out here all alone, I’m a magnet for dangerous canines.” She turned and held up a hoof, then pointed it at the dark green furred dog the size of a large bull that I had previously that to be a large mass of moss on the walls of the cave. “Please mind Soul Ripper’s braided tail, Cu Sith aren’t exactly known for having jolly personalities despite being green. Otherwise he’s a quiet one and if you don’t bother him he might even help carry your soul to the afterlife when you die. I’m horrified at the idea, but I believe that he might be waiting on mine. If he starts barking, you should find shelter quickly or else something bad will happen. Aside from that warning… welcome to Little Canine Valley, this is home for me and my many companions. Now, where are the supplies that grandpa sent my way?”
“Paprika, be a dear and stop hugging that poor coyote and give this sheep the food that we came here to deliver.” The coyote whined pitiably in Paprika’s hooves and was quite happy to be let go. Paprika pulled out the supplies and started to unload them for Pom.
“Thank you kindly for taking the time to come out here to deliver this stuff to me, haven’t really been surviving too well out here.” This Pom looked quite frail and yet all these canines would actively protect her from anything? That was a little weird. “Never have to worry about predators though, since I’m generally constantly surrounded by them for whatever reason they want to be around me... I feel cursed sometimes.”
“How strong a bond would you say you have with them all?” As Arizona asked this, Paprika started to run around playing with the puppies while Big Mama watched on with her eyes narrowed on the alpaca.
“Ridiculously strong, it’s very absurd what I’m going through really.” Pom looked at the ground sadly and one of the pups ran up to her to start whining, she gently ran a hoof over his head. “I feel a strong connection to all of these canines, despite that I’m always afraid they’d turn on me one of these days.”
“I remember Jade’s lectures about familiars, but this kind of takes several cakes on just the number of them attached to her alone.” Blinking at Arizona’s words, I looked at all the surrounded canines and then nodded.
Yeah, this was pretty ridiculous if all of them were familiars, shouldn’t she have just one and not more than ten like this?
This kind of reminded me that I never got my familiar.
Most reindeer tended to get a very unique familiar called an ice elf or sprite. I never received one personally or at least one never approached me to form a bond, maybe it was because I was a bit too high maintenance?
-Little Canine Valley, Pom-
So many strangers today. I was a sheep with one too many problems, they called me brave back in the village.
Bravery had nothing to do with me having a lot of animal friends with really sharp teeth and being forcibly set up out here where no sheep could be bothered to visit, because they were too scared of and for me.
I was timid and found it a bit hard to speak up, but I really needed someone to talk to.
Maybe I could finally air out my grievances?