Blanket Dog & The Two Loners

Chapter 1 - Outing Turned Cold Crimson

If these slowpokes ever want to catch up, they better hurry up! I'm excited, and if I'm excited, I’m hyped! I’ve been told by mom, when she’s talking about her past and the stories her parents used to tell her, first outings are the most important of them all. It’s when pups like me really get to know our world! Would be better if Mister Rude Bringer Of Death And Destruction wasn’t around… Mom and Dad won't tell me what his real name is… So I improvised!

“Wait up, you need to be more careful! You could hurt yourself, or attract unwanted attention!” My strict father barked at me, making me slow down a few paces. 

“Fine… Only because you said so…” I grumbled, my ears lowering slightly. Dad sighed, looking down at me as he put a paw on my shoulder. The look on his face said to stop complaining, so I did what any reasonable child would do… I pouted.

“You know it’s for your safety, Pup.” Mother interjected, causing Dad to sigh. He shook his head, his paw slowly dragging away from my shoulder as he walked ahead of me. My eyes glistened slightly and I looked down, walking slow to keep up with them this time. After all, I needed to know this stuff. What our territory was. Not a lot, after all, we’re just three dogs, we do what we can. Well, mom and dad do what they can. I’ve lived in the den all 9 years of my life! Which is stupid, I can’t belive I let it go on for that long, it was ridiculous! I have gone out before, a few times, but only for what mom and dad needed me for. A few chores here and there, but not very often. They always preach about it not being safe for me to set foot two feet outside the dark of our den, but I think that’s ridiculous.

Dad pauses at a rather large tree. It’s humongous! He seems to chuckle at my surprised look, staring straight up at the huge canopy at the very top of it. “This is the oldest tree around our territory. It marks the very middle of our territory, and you can see it from all the edges of it as well.” He pat the tree with his paw, before turning 180 and walking away once again. Waving to me and mother to hurry up, and stay close. I'm not sure what all these safety protocols are going to be used for. Nothing bad has ever happened to this family!

Dad next takes me along the small stream that is considered the left side of our territory, explaining that it acts as a physical line to let others know they’re treading on different ground when they cross it. Although ever since I was alive, nobody has ever crossed the stream line. He also mentions something about a cliff, but I wasn’t listening very good, as I forgot about it moments after. Following the stream takes us to a much larger river. He warns me that this leads to a waterfall, and how strong the current is. How it’s almost impossible to get out once it’s sucked you in. Sounds scary… 

“Now, if you’re curious about where to drink out here, the small stream is where we get most of our water. However, there are days where this changes. That depends on the situation outside, and you’ll understand what that means someday.” Dad pat my shoulder again, making Mom do the same to my other shoulder. What did that mean? Maybe he’s talking about winter. Or when it’s super hot. 

Mom sighed, before turning her head back in the direction of our den. “Derek, let’s head back now. I don’t like the color of the clouds.” I look up with confusion in my eyes. I didn’t even know that the clouds changed, let alone shown up. Now that it was pointed out, there was no more shining sun, and it was chilly. Wind blew, and the water raged not far from us. Something felt off about this, or maybe it’s the way it normally feels outside. I wouldn’t quite know myself, but the looks on mom and dad’s faces tell me something must be wrong.

“Julie, it’s fine, i'm sure it’s just the rain heading in quickly. But to be safe, let’s head back.” The clouds looked heavy, so dad might be right. It doesn’t rain too often, but when it does it can come down like a train. I don’t like the way these clouds look, though. They’re pretty dark, and cover the sky like a fire blanket. The wind was starting to accelerate, and fast. Now dad wanted us to hurry. 

“Okay, let’s get there soon. I’ve got a sinking feeling about tonight.” Dad muttered as we began to jog back to our den. Thunder rang out, and it did start to downpour. We hadn’t even gone 50 feet yet, and we’re already drenched in the ice cold rain. It was dark, and the wind was only making it colder. It felt like it was 3 degrees, it was freezing. We started to run, trying to outrun the rain.

A flash of lightning whipped through the sky, blinding me for a split second at most. I could barely see 10 feet ahead of me, fog and thick rain made it too hard. My mom was terrified, her eyes wide and dark lines under them, stress at maximum. Dad started yelling her name, I think, but she disappeared in the rain and fog, and we couldn’t see her as we ran for her anymore. The rain was so loud, I couldn’t hear a thing. Thunder made it worse. I couldn’t even hear dad calling my name right next to me until he grabbed my arm. 

“I don’t like it! I don’t even know if we’re going the right way, anymore! We should have been to the den already, the scents are mixed and I can’t see anything! I don’t even know where your mother is-” Dad yelled, so panicked and in dismay. I was quick to jump into his arms, giving him the biggest hug this solid cold blanket would let me. I didn’t even feel it, because of the rain, but I was sulking. I only noticed myself when I took the shakiest breath of my life, gold tears merging with the rain dripping down my fur into a muffled color. Instantly after I made my action, my father’s arms wrapped around my tiny frame in response. 

“WE NEED TO FIND YOUR MOTHER!!” Dad suddenly shouted, standing back up sharply with his ears perked to the max. He grabbed my arm and pulled me along, hastily turning up the speed to a run, as we pushed through the solid drops of water falling from the sky. I swear I saw the straight fear in my father’s eyes when lightning struck once more, lighting up his whole face and reflecting from his chocolate brown eyes. 

Since the rain and the thick fog was slowing us down, it felt like we were taking forever to even go 10 steps, despite the fact we were running. Although it felt like time had stopped when we heard that blood curdling scream. The scream that sounded so familiar, it cut through the fog light a scythe the size of a mountain. It was close. It took me a few more seconds than it did dad to recognize the victim, as he gasped softly before letting go of my arm before bolting off to the left. 

“DADDY!” I screamed as I turned 90 degrees, and gave chase to find out where he was going. It only took me another second to realize who that scream belonged to. “MOMMY!?” What the hell was going on. Where was mom? Where was dad?? What’s going on??!

The faint growl of a beast made its way through the fog and the rain, making me alert of my surroundings. I was panicking, and bad. Now my fur is prickling. I understand what mom and dad were so shaken about. They knew something I didn’t, and possibly still don’t know. Something here… It isn’t natural, it’s evil, it’s a threat to us. I’m scared of it, I hate it, and I don’t even know what ‘it’ is. 

I bumped into something- into someone -and fell a few steps back. Shaking hard, my ears lowered as I looked slowly and not so steadily up, to have my eyes meet a pair of sharp, crimson eyes staring back at me. My shivering only intensified, if that was even possible. Whatever this… ‘Thing’ is, it isn’t friendly. The monster turned and started to walk towards me, until dad jumped in front of me. 

“LEAVE MY DAUGHTER AND WIFE ALONE, YOU BEAST OF THE DEVIL!” He pleaded, almost threatened. The sheer will to kill glistened in his eyes. He’d die for us, and he’d kill to keep us alive as well. No matter how strict he is, he still loves us. This wolf like monster hissed, barring it’s humongous teeth at me and dad. As brave as it was, dad’s actions only seemed to provoke the evil being. It got closer, and before I knew it, I was getting dragged back by my wrist. 

Sharply turning my head to the left to look behind me, taking a quick breath to see mother dragging me away from my father. She had bite marks all over her, and she was bleeding badly. 

“Momma-”

“Sweetie, you need to leave, now. (They found us, I can’t believe they found us)...” She dragged me behind a tree, patting me down. Lightning struck behind her, making her go dark for a second, before her extremely scared and worried face was lit up again from behind me, via another lightning strike. The rain on her fur dragged the blood down her body faster than it normally would be dripping. 

“Who found us, mommy? Mommy-?” I was panicking again, tears threatened to spill from my eyes once again, as mom hugged me tightly. The wind blew us over, and mom kneeled to keep hugging me, her fur soaked with tears, rain, and blood. 

“I'm gonna miss you, Love…” Mom whimpered, sniffling as she licked my cheek. What does she mean? We’re going to be together forever, I don’t understand… 

“Mommy, what do you mean-”

“You need to go, now.” I couldn’t get a word in. 

“I’ll… We’ll find you, I promise… Just find a cave, or someplace, to hide for a day or two… I promise, I promise, me and your father will be here for you…” She’s crying now, I can feel her body shake a bit more than she’s already shivering occasionally. She’s sniffling and breathing rough. She said something else, but the thunder made it impossible to hear what she said.

Shooting my head behind us as mom let go in a panic, I see dad get thrown to the ground and covered by a thick black and purple blob of fur. 

“DADDY-”

“Love, go, NOW!” Mother pushed me behind her, and a few feet away before turning on her paw. 

She booked it over to dad, and jumped up with her claws unsheathed and flexed, jaw open wide and teeth visible. Whatever the monster was, she landed on the back of it and bit at what looked to be it’s neck. It was clever, however dad was beneath it, so when it reared up it’s claws scraped the side of his neck and head. Dad cried out in pain, and for once in my life, I swear I could see doubt in his eyes. He was doubting he could get up again. Why should he worry? He’s the strongest dad ever! He can take down any-

I gasp and drop to my knees. The monster’s huge paw, the size of me, slammed down right on my father’s torso. It crushed him, paper thin, and he threw something up out of his mouth that looked like thick pink spaghetti. Mother cried out, in a whim, and her grip loosened way too much. She was thrown from the monster’s back as it jumped up, and squished dad’s head to a pulp in the process. 

“DEREK, NO- PLEASE-” Mom hit the ground, and the beast ran over and clamped it’s jaws around her torso, lifting her up and waving her about like she was a toy. She screamed… And the beast ripped her in three, blood splattered all over it’s dark and evil face. 

In absolute horror, I shakily stood up and backed away from the murder scene a few feet. That must have made too much noise, as the monster turned to me. Bloodlust in it’s horrific eyes. This might be the end for me… No, no no no, I need to escape… I need to obey momma and papa, even if mom might not be able to keep her promise, I should keep mine. And I promise to stay living.

Turning tail and booking it away, the rain beat against my body as I tried to get as far away from the murderer as I could. It’s crimson eyes burned into my brain, I can’t close my small eyes without seeing It’s big ones. I don’t know which direction I'm going, where I'm heading, I don’t have a clue. All I know is I have a promise to keep, and a monster that’s chasing me. I run for a solid 2 minutes before I stop short of something. It looks like the ground ends, but where did it go? I creep up to the edge, my ears flattening completely against my head as I look down into the abyss. It’s black down there, the fog and darkness make it impossible to see farther than a few feet over what looks to be like a cliff. Is this what dad meant? Dad… A loud snarl made me snap out of my thoughts, and I shot around in a 180 degree turn. The monster was creeping up on me, blood and rain dripping from it’s scary muzzle. It’s sharp, sharp teeth barred at me. I impulsively took a step back, but yipped when it slipped a little, making a few rocks fall off the cliff. Looking over my shoulder, I swallowed a small ball of spit before turning back to the demon creeping up towards me. I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t even make a noise while staring at it’s sharp eyes. Tears poured from my eyes as it jumped forward, pushing me and itself off the cliff. It’s claw cut my ear, and one of my exposed legs, but it didn’t grab me. Screaming as loud as I could, I hugged my blanket. I was falling with the rain, the cold, cold rain. Staring straight up at the clouds, they were getting farther and farther away from me. The monster was falling a while away from me now, but I forgot about it pretty quickly. My mind was empty as we fell for a good minute or so, I'm not keeping track of time as I approach ground. There’s got to be ground, I'm going to hit something soon, right? Golden tears fall off my face, flying above me in the sky, getting lost in the sea of rain drops.

In a split second, something smacks my back and I feel heavy. I sink, somehow, my eyes are closed and I can’t see what’s going on… I just know it’s getting darker… And darker… And darker… And Even darker……