Blanket Dog & The Two Loners

Chapter 2 - Purrsuasion

I don’t think I’ll ever forget the screams, the horror in their eyes. Mom, dad, i'm so sorry… I fell off the cliff… Will you still be with me? I couldn’t get away from them, that beast… They gave chase and wouldn’t stop… Why did they do that? What did they want from us? Who were they? So many questions that just can’t be answered. 

Wait… Where am I…? All I see is black, darkness surrounding me… What is this place..? It’s cold, I'm cold. Wait, it’s getting warmer… And lighter, what's going on? Something is grabbing my neck, who’s there? I feel… Wet… What happened after I fell off the cliff?

I'm asleep… But I'm conscious? This makes no sense…

I cough, water coming out of my mouth. I cough, and I cough, sitting up sharply. What happened? I slowly glance around to look at my surroundings. The sun is shining, no more rain clouds. The monster is gone, and I appear to be on the edge of a lake. A lake… Water coming from my mouth… Darkness… Did I fall into the-

“Finally! Oi, you coulda died there, mate. What were ya thinkin’?” What-

I shake my head, turning to the sound of this voice, to my surprise, there is a white and pale blue cat sitting in front of me. It looks like a sleek cat, maybe a mutated King Cheetah? 

“W-who are you..?” I ask while trying to regain steady breathing. This question makes the cat clear his throat. 

“You can call me Dust, mate! What about ya? What’s ya name?” He puffs out his chest, closing his eyes in a proud sitting stance, tail curling a little up at his introduction. ‘Dust’ seems to have an accent of some kind. I'm sure I’ll learn later, he just sounds kind of funny. 

“Ahh… Y-you can call me…”

“Blanket Dog.”

“What?” Did he just call me…

“You’ve got a blanket with ya. First time I ever seen somethin’ like that. Pretty interesting, I’ll give ya that.” Blanket Dog it is. Dust stands up and lowers his tail. 

“Now, BD, come on.” He turns around, back facing me. For some reason, I didn’t see this before, but Dust has some wings on his back. I should have noticed, seeing as he walks on all fours, meaning the wings should have been easy to see, but I think I was still waking up from near drowning. 

“Uh… Why..?” I don’t really trust this guy, not yet. I just met him, I didn’t even know anybody besides mom and- mom and dad…

I shake my head as Dust speaks again, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Now, you look like a pup, so i'm gonna go with ya don’t have any parents. Meaning me, a perfectly functional adult, should make sure ya don’t go jumpin’ off any more cliffs.” I shake my head again, my nose crunched up in salty anger. It makes him purr, as he turns around once again.

“Now, who said I willingly jumped off?? And shut up, I can take care of myself.” I grumbled back, but of course he saw through what I said and made another attempt to make me follow him. 

“Can you, though? What are you… 7? I doubt you even know how to hunt for yourself.” 

“I do.” I don’t.

A sly smirk was on Dust’s face. He probably knew he’d win this argument, it looks like he’s had quite a few arguments himself. Many scars are littered all over his body. In fact, it looks like he’s blind in one eye because of it. Now he has a pale left white eye and a black colored right one.

I don’t even know why he wants me to come with him, maybe he’s just lonely. 

Or maybe, he really does want to help..? Maybe I shouldn’t be so easy to judge.

“Oi, looks like I’ve won. Come on, pup. Ya want a dry place to stay, right? ‘Sides, you look hungry, and I have food and can make fire. Face it, you’re better off with me.” He had a point. Shelter, food, water hopefully? All things dad had said I’d need to live. 

Grumbling, I mutter, “fine… But I want my own bed.” Clearly Dust found that funny, because I hear him snort before snickering to himself as he turns around again. 

“Come on, then, pup. Got a while to go, yah?” He waves his tail a few times, walking into the dense forest. I didn’t even know any of this was down here. I didn’t even know this cliff was here. It’s oddly pretty, I guess I could get used to it.

I ran off after Dust, wringing my blanket out from all the water that was being held in it. “Blegh,” I mutter, sticking my tongue out as the water just drips from the blanket. Only making Dust snicker more, I kept wringing my special blanket out. It’s all I have left of them, other than memories. I need to keep it as close to me as I can possibly manage. Even if it’s wearing it constantly.

Now that there isn’t anything chasing me, I can take a second to just breath. Look around, what do I see? Well, there are lots of trees… This looks like a rainforest, or so I think. It’s what mom used to say was one. It looks damp everywhere, but that might just be from the horrid thunderstorm. There aren’t many other animals around, a few birds and that's all I see and hear. The ground is nice and lush, and you occasionally see a flower or a few, maybe even a patch. Does Dust live down here, or is this just a way he walks every day to get his groceries? How did he find me and why was he over here? Whatever the answer was, he seemed to know what he was doing.

“I was down here because this is the safest route to my den. I was never a part of those fancy neighborhoods, or cities, mainly because it was hard to get a job as a four legged animal around there. Hard to believe, yah?” Dust just started to talk. I guess that answers that question…

“Are you alone?” I tilted my head slightly, letting my ear droop down from the gravity. He softly chuckled, before taking a deep breath.

“Yah, I uh, have been alone for a while now. The Devil’s Son killed what family I had, so I'm alone now.” Who? Is that the guy who hurt my family too? 

“But either way, I learned to live alone. It was tough, which is why I want to make sure you don’t go through what I had to in order to survive out here, Pup.” That’s what my parents called me. Dust curled his tail and opened his mouth, lifting his head up to take a whiff of the air. Make sure we are going the right way. Thankfully, we are. I halted quickly, almost bumping into his behind when he stopped suddenly.

“Nowadays, animals can’t be trusted. I don’t trust anybody who’s bigger than me, it would be too easy for them to try and sabotage anything I do.” Dust is stuck on this ranting look, he sounds like he’s angry about something. “The bigger, the more dangerous. Never forget that.” Tossing me some words of wisdom, I see. He’s got a point, that makes sense, the bigger somebody is the easier it would be to… Squish you.

“I see… Well, I’m sure we shouldn’t encounter somebody that big! Besides, you’re pretty big!” I try to look on the bright side, be optimistic. I’ve always done that. It’s way easier to cheer someone up by being optimistic and friendly, than to be a pessimist and not provide any care whatsoever.

Dust liked my enthusiasm, but I could see doubt in his eyes. “Kid, you ain’t got a clue what’s out here, don’t you?” It was a rhetorical question, clearly, because after the words left his mouth, he kept on walking. Something I must have done made him upset, maybe I should keep my mouth shut for now. 

We walked for a while, a few hours at least. I’m unsure, I lost track of time an hour after we left the lake under the cliff. It’s been painfully quiet, I decided to not speak for a while, after I saw the distant pain in Dust’s eyes after that conversation. It must have been a touchy subject, and that was my fault for bringing it up so casually like that. Maybe I should apologize, or try and bring the spirits up with some lighthearted talk, jokes perhaps. It just feels so tense around him, as if he’s going through some internal conflict as we’re walking the jungle floor. Turns out this jungle was a lot bigger than I thought. Makes me surprised how we never noticed it before.

Dust’s stance is kind of concerning. He’s walking with his head low, back straight, wings are slightly droopy, it was kind of menacing. I could have sworn I felt a dark aura radiating from him. He must have felt my eyes on him, because he cleared his throat and lifted his head, making me perk my ears in surprise and glance away. To act as if I wasn’t staring at his back while he walked.

“Well, BD, we’ve reached a crossroad.” What does that mean? Dust must have sensed my confused face, because he wasn’t even looking at me when he started explaining what he meant.

“I’ve decided to test your survival skills. I do a lot of risky things, if you couldn’t tell. Ya got to survive on your own for an hour, tops. If I see somethin’ I don’t like, I’ll interject.” Okay..?

“Um… Alright…” I had my arms hidden by the blanket. My eyes averted from his darkening gaze, and suddenly the dirt became super interesting. 

“Good luck, BD.” Dust turned on his tail, and sprinted off into a few bushes. Instantly, it became silent again. No birds chirping, no water rushing, not even any wind blowing. It was dead silent. If I knew any better, I’d say it was too quiet.

Slowly lifting my head up, I took a second to gaze at the quiet surroundings. Trees, trees, bush, trees. Almost nothing but trees and bushes around here. This should be easy, but why all of a sudden? Why now? Is he having second thoughts about me? Is it because of what I did a few hours ago? I really hope not, I guess I should have apologized sooner. But how is my survival skills related to my social ones? Gah, I’ve got too many questions for myself.

I walk over to one of the large trees and face my back to it. Hitting the tree with my back and sliding down it, I sat down and curled my tail under the blanket. It wasn’t cold, it wasn’t warm, it was mild. In the middle of the temperatures. I think that’s called comfortable, but I’m not too comfortable right now.

My mouth opens wide as I take a large yawn, shivering because of it. My eyes blink closed, and I lean against the tree for support, as I tempt to drift into a nice slumber. Before I could do so, though, something falls out of the tree above me and smacks me on the head.

“Ow- what the?” Looking down at the ground, it appears to be an acorn. 

Oh. I look back up, but yip when I see eyes staring back at me. They don’t look familiar, so I jump up and run a few feet ahead, before turning sharply around again to see whatever it is crawling down the tree while staring straight at me. It looks big, super big. Bigger than Dust big. Makes me really wish he was here, because he is so much bigger than me. The red eyes get higher up, and suddenly whatever was in the tree is now on the ground on its hind legs. Since it was near nighttime, it was super dark to begin with. But whatever this is has black fur, because it’s so hard to see it. The only two things I could see in this horrible light were piercing crimson eyes and red-orange-yellow curved horns. It’s eyes glance up, blinking and seeming to widen a little bit.

Without saying a word, it growls, lowering its gaze back to me before it turns to the right, jumping forward and onto its hind legs while running off, toward where me and Dust just came from. It just… Ran off..? I wonder why it didn’t attack me. Either way, I'm glad it didn’t, I have no idea how to defend myself. I miss Dust, I wish he’d just come back. 

Speaking of the devil, a familiar white and blue cat drops from the tree behind me. I smile wide and jump over to hug him, although I can only manage to hug his lower chest. He looks pissed though, but I’ve already made my move.

“Are you okay? I shouldn’t have left you alone, that was my fault.” I was fine, I'm just really tired.

“Dust, it’s okay, I'm fine. Just tired, that’s all.” I yawned once again, on cue to prove my point. I heard Dust sigh before something grabbed my neck tuft. It made me bring my legs closer to me as I was lifted off the ground. 

“Wh-”

“You said you were tired, yah?”

“Yes..?”

“You can sleep on my back while I walk.”

Dust craned his neck around to his back, and he placed me in front of his wings and near the back of his neck. I leaned up against his neck with my arms draped down his front legs, comfortably. Yawning for the third time within 10 minutes, I closed my eyes to get some much needed rest. I had a feeling he’d be walking for a while, after all, he said we were pretty far away hours ago. He also said it takes him around half a day to get from his den to here by walking normally. His fur was soft and warm, and with my blanket, I should be able to get some rest.

I could have sworn I saw him smile to himself as he continued walking. I didn’t get anything else after, because I drifted into darkness once again. Instead of cold and wet, it’s nice and warm and dry. An almost comforting darkness took me over, as I drifted into sleep.