FSE

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Hrodi got some cardboard and carefully built a box to fit over his forehead and cover his temples. He painted it gray and added some circles in different colors like the real ones he had seen on worker drones. He didn't get all the details right, having never been quite close enough to get all of them, but the effect worked. In a closet of old things he found some gray overalls and put them on. He looked at himself in a mirror ... and looked just like a drone. Perfect. Just then the dinner bell summoned the pack members. Hrodi left the workshop and headed for the main room where everyone was assembling.

"Oh? Who's that?" asked his mother Emma as she placed food trays out on the buffet.

"I. Am. Your. New. Servant. Drone," Hrodi said.

A look of surprise came over her face, but she composed herself.

"Oh, good. I'm glad you're here, Drone. Stand here and help people with their food."

"Yes. Ma'am."

Emma smiled to herself at the imagination and cleverness of her son. She winked at the alpha mother and father, who winked back in approval. It would be a good lesson for all their children.

"Dinner is ready. And we have a new drone to serve it to you. Line up here!"

Hrodi had to stand there and face every one of this pack as he doled out food to them. The alphas his mother and father were first. They held out plates to him. He smiled at them, but they just stared. He pretended to be a drone and put food on their plates. One by one all his family filed by, and he fed them. His stomach started to growl and he realized he was hungry too and had not eaten. His littermates filed by. Some of them giggled as he served them. Now he felt it was his turn.

"May. This. Drone. Eat?" he asked.

Emma said, "No, you may not. You're a drone. You are here to serve us. You will eat when everyone else has had seconds."

"Oh, but I'm hungry!"

"Don't make me get out my remote control," she said sternly.

Hrodi looked at her with wide eyes, but kept true to his charade.

"Yes. Ma'am."

"Good drone. I'll set a dish aside for you."

Emma took her prerogative and cut in line in front of younger siblings. She held out two plates. "One of these is yours, Drone. Fill them fairly."

"Yes. Ma'am," he said, and tried not to react when the siblings giggled. He doled out good and fair portions onto both pates.

The youngest sibling who could carry her own plate came by, followed by some adults who wanted seconds.

"Such a dutiful drone we have for the celebration, Emma," said his father Holger. "Were did you find him?"

"I picked him up at the market. I got him for cheap. He seems young and still in need of some training. It's too bad Hrodi isn't here to see him; he might learn something."

Hrodi flinched but bit his lip. If he didn't play the part, surely Emma would scold him.

"Well," said the father. "He seems like a good drone. I hope he works out for us."

"Thank. You. Sir. This. Drone. Hopes. So. Too."

Holger winked at Hrodi.

Finally everyone had their fill.

"Drone, you may eat your supper now," said his mother Emma. "Then you will serve dessert."

"Yes. Ma'am. Thank. You. Ma'am."

Hrodi was getting tired of the charade, but because of his mother Emma's encouragement, he kept it up. He picked up the plate she had set aside for him and took his seat at the table.

"Where do you think you're sitting?" asked his mother Rawufa. "You're a drone. You get the servants' table in the kitchen."

Hrodi sighed and had had enough. "I'm not a drone! I'm Hrodi!"

"What's that on your head, then?"

He removed the cardboard drone-implant from his head and said, "It's just cardboard. Okay?" He looked like he was ready to cry.

"Oh! It looked real enough to me!"

Hrodwulf the pack father stood up from the head table.

"What's all this fuss now?"

He picked up his glass and held it in the young woof's direction.

"Hrodi, my son."

Hrodi stood, eyes wide. "Yes, father?"

"That was very well done. Until just now you had us all fooled. We all thought you were a drone. Some of us were wondering which family's miscreant had come to work for us."

Hrodi stood there, hot sure what to say. He knew everyone was looking at him.

Hrodwulf lifted his glass high and smiled. He looked at his son Hrodi and nodded.

"Well done, my son. Well done. Never forget the life of a drone."

He looked at his bothers and sisters and all their children.

"All of you, see how well Hrodi acted his part. That was excellent theater. A festival costume well-made and well-presented. You make me proud with your imagination and craftsmanship.

"Never forget the life of a drone: service to others first, service to self last. But a drone is still a woof, a real person with feelings he can't express. This pack will never abuse its drones. Eat your supper now, Drone."

Hrodi smiled and put his cardboard obedience implant back on his head. He made is expression blank and said, "Yes. Sir." He began to eat.

"Hear, hear. Well done!" said his fathers and mothers. Some applauded. His siblings felt ashamed for giggling; they smiled and patted him on the pack.

One of his elder siblings got up from the table and turned to head back to the buffet.

"Where are you going?" asked Hrodwulf.

"I'm getting dessert."

"Not before me, you're not," he said.

"Sorry, Sir," he said and sat back down.

Hrodwulf turned to his wife Glimmer. "Such a lovely family. Creative and smart and well-behaved."

"All thanks to you, my darling woof."

"Thanks to you!"

He held up his glass to her, and she held up hers. The touched glasses so they made a ringing sound. He poked and stabbed at his pate of food, carefully teasing out the last bits of meat as Hrodi ate.

Hrodi was hungry, so he didn't speak much as he ate, and he knew everyone was waiting for him. Soon soon finished his meal ... perhaps a bit sooner than he ordinarily would have. He paced his fork and knife together, pushed his plate away, and said, "Ahhh."

"I think it's time for dessert," said the alpha with a hint of mischief on his voice.

"Drone, come with me," he said, and walked to the buffet where dessert waited. His wife followed him, a sly grin on her face. She knew that her husband was up to something.

Hrodi said, "Yes. Sir," and joined his father at the head of the dessert line.

"Drone, stand at attention."

Hrodi's eyes went wide, but he stood as ordered.

The alpha handed him a pate and said, "Serve me up some dessert on this plate."

"Yes. Sir."

Hrodi took the plate and turned to the dessert. He carefully loaded a slice of pumpkin pie on it, and scooped some whipped cream on top. He spied a pot of cinnamon powder, so he took a small spoon and tapped some of it out onto the whipped cream. Then he turned to his father and said, "Here. You. Go. Sir."

"That looks very nice. Make two more just like it."

Hrodwulf turned and handed the first dessert plate to his mother.

"My dear darling wife. This is for you."

"Mmmm," Glimmer said. "This is lovely! Emma, that's such a good drone you bought."

Hrodi came back with two more dessert plates, equally carefully prepared.

His father said, "Drone, continue standing at attention. Family, this drone has served us well. I think he has paid off his debt to society and to this pack. How do you feel?"

Some said, "Free him!"

Others playfully said, "More work for the drone!"

The alpha considered the advice.

"What do you think?" he asked his wife.

"He's played his part very well this evening," she said, smiling at her son, who smiled back.

"My dear wife thinks we should keep him as a drone."

Hrodi's eyes went wide. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but closed it again and awaited the decision.

She poked her husband with her elbow. "I did not! I said he did very well."

"Well, then. I have heard your voices and I make my decision. Thus I declare him a free woof."

He pretended to find the Off button on the obedience implant and pressed it. He removed the cardboard obedience implant from his son's head and took one of the dessert plates Hrodi was holding.

"Let's go have dessert."