FSE

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A week after I'd first started hanging around Lopside, I finally felt like we'd started making progress. He now understood that when I was making noises at him, I was trying to communicate and he was picking up some nouns, like "food" and "water." But verbs and the rest of the parts of speech still escaped him. I'd only managed this much with a combination of kibble, persistence and my own willingness to participate in his drawings.

Food would only hold his attention for so long as I learned, but when I sat with him and we both drew in the damp ground together, he seemed much more open to me. I learned more shapes besides "human," "dog," and the shape of the yard. I learned symbols that apparently represented some of the different toys we had in the yard. Due to the bluntness of his claws, Lopside stylized some of these; for instance a rope toy became a wavy line with two prongs at either end. He also drew things from odd perspectives, like looking directly down, so that the canopy, which to me was mostly its four legs and striped ceiling, became a square. The house was often a filled in solid rectangle, indicating the door. And still there was so much that I didn't understand. Sure, I was getting now that when two figures were close to each other, they were interacting, or Lopside was trying to depict an earlier scene, but what about when he smudged one of them? And how he still drew some figures on top of others like he did when I first tried drawing a picture for him. I had no guess as to the meaning of that.

We were by the gate as usual in the morning when the lab techs came to feed us. Lopside looked up from his current work which included a long legged figure he used to represent myself. He looked at the gate as the humans fiddled with the mechanism that kept it locked. I was looking too, but only because I was famished and could hardly wait to stuff my belly full with some heaping mounds of savory kibble.

I noticed, however that Lopside's glance lingered at the gate rather than the humans. I couldn't fathom the reason and honestly, I didn't care. I dogged the heels of the woman carrying the bowls and she reached down to give me a few strokes on the head. She didn't have to reach down very far. In fact, my head was nearly at the height of her elbow and it was quite possible that I weighed more than her, despite her vastly superior height. She took pity on me and started filling my big bowl first. I sat down and tucked in and the world was nicely obliterated for a time as I gave into my Hunger.

I napped afterwards with Fat Gut and Slim in the shelter of the dog house. It was nice in a primal way to have their soft bodies on either side of my own soft form with distended belly. Before I fell asleep, Fat Gut remarked sleepily, "I wish I could eat as much as you..."

In truth, I was nearly back to what I was eating when I'd been training to fight the Alpha. But now I was eating those four and a half big bowls more easily. I felt stuffed rather than sick to my stomach. My still puppyish features allowed my stomach to show its expansion more than Fat Gut's fully developed paunch as well. Still, this was a compliment from Fat Gut and I didn't take it lightly, "Thanks." I said and then nudged him with the back of a paw. "You're eating more too and you've gained back the weight you lost."

In truth, he was just eating as much as he had been before the fight, but that was a vast improvement over where he had been... if only his feet would heal now... Fat Gut ran a paw over the vast swell of tummy under it where he laid on his side. He belched tightly and licked his chops. "I am... I guess." He said, closing his eyes. "But I still feel like half my old self..."

I'd been dying for a good opening to ask about the missing three weeks of his life and how he'd degenerated in that time, but Fat Gut was already breathing heavily. I could feel his flank expanding against my own. I lowered my head back and twisted my head around to sleep on my back. I wouldn't disturb him. I was sure I could get the story out of him some other time.

I let my painfully full belly chew on what I'd dumped into it for a few hours before I stirred at the call of nature. That was usually my wake up call and invariably, I got up before the more turgid Fat Gut. Slim was awake, I saw as I moved past them, but he just stared at me placidly and then turned to look at Fat Gut still napping. He began to slowly lick the round surface of the larger dog's paunch before I exited the small room.

It wasn't raining and in fact there was some sun peeking out from between the clouds. I hoped that this was a sign that the weather was changing for the better. After finishing with my business, I went to attend Lopside, now armed with some kibbles that I held on my tongue as well as a fresh store of patience.

"Food?" he asked when he saw me and I spat out the kibbles at my paws.

"Food for talk." I said and nosed a few pieces towards him.

Lopside rolled his eyes at me and went back to his drawing. This was a typical response. I sighed and scooped up the kibble lest another dog dive in and take it. I set it down again and began to comment on the things he was working on.

"Three dogs..." I said for Lopside's benefit, "One of them's a young puppy." One of the figures was smaller than the others. Lopside just looked at me. Reaching out close to where he was working, I scratched my claw against the ground. I began to draw a new dog. Lopside looked at my figure for a few moments, then reached over, past my paw and smoothed it out, giving me a short growl. "No." Was what he meant. I blew air out my nose. Of course, I didn't know what he trying to create.

I tried drawing a human stick figure. Same response. Now a squirrel. When he smoothed it out this time, he pressed hard into the ground, deforming the smooth surface in a way I know he didn't like. I slumped in defeat.

After a little while, I tried with the kibble again. "Food?" I offered. His one ear perked upright.

He turned to look at me. Good start. I gestured to all the pictures on the ground. "Drawings." I said, hoping he'd repeat me.

He stayed silent.

I looked down, eyes slanted. My patience was starting to wear thin already. Then I looked a little more closely. "Dog." I said, nosing him a piece.

Lopside cocked his head a little, then finally, "Dog." He decided and took two pieces of kibble, chewing on them carefully. By his response, I knew. "Drawings" wasn't the right word. He wanted me to actually look at the content of the pictures, not the pictures themselves as objects.

After that, I decided to let him expand his work some more. He added a straight line with zigzagging bits that I knew was the chain link fence. Then he added a more detailed part that I could only imagine was the gate; it was easy because we were once again not more than a couple body lengths away from it. After that, a couple of humans on the other side of the gate from the dogs he'd drawn.

Hopeful, I pointed to the fence he'd drawn, "Fence" I said.

"Fence..." Lopside muttered and I felt a small victory. Then Lopside did something I didn't expect. He put his paw over the gate part of the fence, then he looked up at me expectantly. I had to look into his eyes to understand that he was actually asking me for a word.

I was so taken aback, I almost didn't respond. "Gate." I choked out.

"Gate..." said Lopside thoughtfully, tasting the word. And then he made some very curious figures next to the gate. They were no shapes that I recognized. More lines and curves than more complex diagrams in my opinion. He made the shapes one next to the other and stared at them for a while. "Gate..." he muttered again.

I put a paw on his back and rubbed up and down gently. "Yes, gate." I encouraged and then I pointed towards the actual gate not far away.

Lopside got this funny grin on his face. "Gate." He said once more firmly, looking at the actual artifact.

I felt great, like this was a major breakthrough in educating Lopside. Of course, later I couldn't help feeling that what was to come was entirely my fault.