Blanket Dog & The Two Loners

Chapter 3 - A Lie Well Told Is The Truth

The blackness of my sleep faded into a white. I feel like I'm floating in this void, there is nothing surrounding me but white. It seems like there is no floor, no walls, it doesn't even feel like I'm in a room. It's all… Empty. Yet, it’s warm, like there is something calling out to me to come closer. The white gets brighter, making me shield my eyes with my paws from the sudden brightness. When it calms down, it feels like there is grass beneath my feet. Slowly taking my paws away from my eyes, I blink rapidly when I see a bright green field under a shining sun. It’s a large clearing in what looks to be a semi dense forest of medium sized trees, bright green leaves on the tops of them, soft brown trunks beneath the canopies of leaves. The grass was soft, and there were flowers scattered across the clearing. It’s beautiful, but, where am I? 

I sense the presence of two other people, so I bolt to turn around. I'm in the center of the clearing, and nobody appears to be around me. That's when I hear something sparkling, and look up to see two white figures falling from the sky. They’re gliding down towards me, both their paws extended to grab mine. I reach my paw out, but I don’t know why. They look familiar, but they don’t have a scent. When their paws touch mine, it glows like a star, but fades right after. The two land on the ground, and smile down at me. It looks pained, like something horrible happened right before they arrived in my dream. 

I study their ghost-like faces, analyzing each part of them. Every perfection and defect, I look them over. They’re see through, they look like angels. Slowly, I begin to realize who these people are. Golden tears instantly fall from my eyes, as if they’d been preparing for a moment like this ever since the storm on our territory.

“Momma… Papa… I’m so lonely…” I step up to them, putting my small arms around their tall figures. They seem to get it, and kneel down at the same time to put their own glass like arms around me. 

“You’re not alone, though. You have Dust, you have us.” They’ve been watching me, I presume. 

“I'm so sorry, Pup, I couldn’t keep my promise.” Mom sniffed, transparent tears falling from her solid white eyes. She shoved her head into my shoulder and neck as she cried. I understood why she couldn’t keep the promise she made to me by that tree. I was suspicious of it to begin with. 

“It’s okay, momma.” They slowly let go of me, and backed up a few steps before looking up to the sky. 

“We need to tell you something, Pup.” Dad started, taking a step closer to me with his paws held together. 

“Yet we can’t tell you outright. It’s a prophecy, actually.” Mother pointed out, taking her step forward and putting her paw on Dad’s shoulder. Then, together, they began to chant something.

“The world is on its deathbed. The one with the green magics, abilities no animal could dream of, and wings of non flight. Accompanied by two troubled souls, a flying Felius Catus and a Demon of Night, can stop the evil King and his army. To stop the dark, one must use the light to save the lost.” What does all of this mean? Who are these people? Why are they telling me this???

I don’t get an answer, because they lift their heads up into the sky, taking a deep breath as they move. Then, they released a mighty howl. It shook the whole fantasy ground, making me drop a little, in case I fell over. The world started to crumble around me, making me start to panic. I glanced up from the cracking ground to my parents, who were levitating away. 

“You’re waking up. Remember this, Pup, we’re still with you. Even in your darkest times…”

I opened my mouth to say something, but everything faded to black before I could muster any words.

Jolting awake, I pushed myself up instantly after my eyes shot open. Breathing heavily, my pupils slowly went back to normal size as I caught my breath. What the hell was that? What did they mean by prophecy? Who are the three to save us all? 

“Oi, ya look startled. Nightmare?” Dust was in the corner of what appeared to be a cozy den. Is this where he lived? It’s nice, it feels welcoming in here. All the comfy furniture looked cute, and it had a warm lighting to the room. He stood up and walked over to something built into the wall, and he grabbed something from a box.

“Ah- yeah, sure, you could call it that…” My voice sounded a bit dry. I don’t want to worry Dust about my parents or the prophecy. He’s already putting himself through so many hoops to keep me safe, I don’t need him doing anything else for me.

“A’ight, whatever ya say, Pup. ‘Ere, I got ya some water.” Dust put a bowl like thing in front of me, with water inside of it. I nodded up in appreciation, and without another word, leaned down and picked it up. Bringing it up to my dry mouth, I downed the water in big gulps. It was so cold, so good. I must have made a bit of a mess, because Dust was laughing. 

“Ah, you’re not bad, pup. Ya not bad…” He trails off, looking over to his table in the back of the den. “Oh, I just remembered, ya blanket was dirty, so I gave it a wash.” I perked my ears, looking down. I didn’t even know I wasn’t wearing it, I was too distracted with thinking.

“T-thank you, Dust.” I ran a paw through my fur, before sitting up farther. I was on a bed, and it had leaves all over it. This must be his bed. I took another drink from the bowl of water, and watched as Dust walked over to the entrance of his den. Well… Now it’s our den. He really didn’t have to do this, but I guess kind animals do exist. You just need to be lucky.

I lower the clay bowl from my mouth, allowing myself to take a nice deep breath of the air inside the den. It smells like spices, and warm heat, I can also get whiffs of berries here and there. It’s really nice to just take in all the soft scents, they’re all so comforting. The room doesn't really smell like my old home, that smelled more of meat than anything. Yet it's still nice to smell it. Pretty soon I'll be used to it. Waking up to smell it every morning. 

Dust must have moved, because my ears perked and I glanced over to see him standing near the den entrance. He was looking out of the den, watching outside diligently. The rays of sunshine fell slightly into the den, covering Dust in a blanket of sunlight and warmth. He looked so regal, like a king with a purpose. He’s got a certain aura to him, like he’s a sturdy tree, something that can’t be cut down. A real hero. Maybe he’s the one the prophecy was talking about..? No, the main hero of that prophecy is a dog… Besides, it looks like he can fly with those wings. He just looks like a superhero. All that pride, all that strength, put to good use for the greater good. 

I think I was staring, because I heard someone clearing their throat, making me flinch and look straight ahead, at Dust who was staring at me with a smirk. I curled my tail and swallowed some spit, averting my gaze in awkwardness.

“Ya seem uneasy... What really happened in that dream of yours?” Dust tilted his head while turning to walk over to me. In a desperate attempt to avoid this conversation, I looked down to the ground before jumping off the bed and running past him in a hurry. 

“Hey, what’s around here? I should learn about the surroundings if I'm going to live here with you!” While I did have a legitimate point, I was just really desperate to not talk about this ‘dream’ I had. Seeing mom and dad was enough, but now I have this prophecy I know about to worry about. He shouldn’t have to worry about this horrific prophecy either, even If I don’t want to deal with it alone, or at all. Now I was in the sun, peeking out of the den slightly. I had a smile on, even if it wasn’t the most truthful one. I was still happy in a way, for Dust being so kind to take me in under his wing, literally. I heard Dust sigh, and steps leading up to me. He didn’t attempt to argue, which made me silently sigh in relief.

“I suppose you do have a point. Come on, I’ll show you around. There isn’t much to see, it’s really just a grassland with the occasional lake or pond.” He put one of his wings around my shoulders, and we walked outside. Instantly being hit with the sun’s brightness, I smile wider as I look around.

Fresh, bright green grass, flowers galore, no more dense forests and dark grass. There were some clouds in the sky, but even then the clouds were soft and not too big. Sure, Dust was right when he said there wasn’t MUCH to see, but it’s still gorgeous, and should be recognized for being so! My eyes glistened as I turned from the beautiful sight to Dust’s face. My excitement drops when I see his expression.

Dust’s looking down at the ground again, with this distant look on his face. He’s in his mind, and something is making him upset. It’s really not my place to ask, seeing as I denied telling him about my dream, but I'm worried about him. Even if we met only recently, he’s shown me so much kindness and generosity, that I just feel obligated to be worried about him. He didn’t have this dark tone to him when we met, and certainly not this morning. It’s as if something suddenly was thrust upon him, or he remembered something that really screwed him up. Is this what I did?

“Stop staring at me.” I yip and turn away, my ears pricking with anticipation. After a few seconds of standing super straight and averting my eyes, slowly they find themselves looking back over to Dust.

“Hey… Are you… Okay..?” Deciding to fully devote to this, I turn my whole body to him. Reaching up and putting a paw on his shoulder, I lower my ears while raising my gaze to see his face easier. I had the softest expression I could muster on my face. “You look… Sad… Distant… Is it something… I did..?” I must have snapped something inside of him, because he began to tremble.

Dust shook his head no, “No, no it’s not your fault. You did nothing to make me upset in this way. I try to keep my problems secrets, to keep this pride and strength view of myself up. You don’t need to know what’s going on in my personal life, trust me kid. Trust me…”

I glance down to his paw on the ground. His claws are flexed out, and he’s been digging at the ground for a solid minute now. He is very clearly not okay, something is on his tail. Either he’s telling a lie, or this is some odd natural behavior for him. I wouldn’t be a clear judge on that, seeing as I’ve barely known him for a day. As much as I don’t trust it, I'm going to say it’s natural. After all, he seems troubled naturally. There’s always been something clouding his eyes, other than his partial blindness of course. It’s as if he has a lack of a stable personality. Deciding to drop it for now seemed to be the right choice, as when I looked away from him, I swore I heard him sigh in relief.