



A high pitched whiz that stabbed through his skull, a flash of light followed by a cacophony worse than a thunderstorm?
The big dog growled low in his throat, standing rigid as a board as he watched the sky. Another strange streak went up, the following burst only made worse as he barked at it, as loud as he could. He was well aware now, that it wouldn’t frighten the thing away, and that only fuelled the collie’s anxiety further- what in the world could he do?! He’d tried growling at it, tried snapping and leaping and biting, but that had done no good. All it did was upset some humans who had been gathered by the park he’d used to live in, which made them yell and rush at him. He could smell them (barely, under the stink of smoke and food and trash) still nearby, and he tried, truly, to stop- but every burst brought another shake, another snarl in the hopes he could frighten it away, another leap away from some shout-
“Geez, you’re a mess- hey! Anyone’s dog get loose?”
A human stood just out of the collie’s reach, turned back towards the crowd. Their posture was relaxed- ready to move, but not as tense and ready to fight as the other humans he’d encountered that night.
“That devil dog near bit my Callie, no respectable person’d bring something like that here!” someone shouted back.
“Good riddance if it is loose, get that thing caged up before anyone else gets hurt!” “We’ve been trying to chase it away all night,” voices upon voices; the collie whined and backed away, ready to run- but the closer human turned, dark eyes meeting his. He paused- was this some kind of challenge? But they didn’t step forward, only slowly holding out their hand. The collie stepped forward, flinching at another streak went up-
“I know. S’loud as hell, I don’t like the noise much either. You just come on here if you want, okay? I won’t try and chase you off or anything, we can get you on down somewhere and see if we can’t find out who lost ya. Or if you don’t have a home... well, we got kennels back at my place, I’m sure you’d be welcome, even if you are some kinda ‘devil dog’. Can’t be anything worse than what’s out in the forest there.” The human’s voice was low but slow and firm, a pleasant tone that dulled the thunderous sounds above. He crept forward, keeping focused on the human’s shape and voice until he was close enough to sniff at their hand. They smelled like- plant was all he could think, too many for his nose to process; plants and good smoke and meat, animals... all sorts of things that seemed to light up his mind, good things, things he wanted to be around. He wagged his tail, looking up at the human again to see they were smiling, holding their hand up just above his head. The collie whimpered, nudging his nose against their fingers, the fireworks becoming only a distant concern as the human pet him, keeping up their soothing talk until the show had ended and the crowd thinned, and he was more than eager to follow as they left the park. The collie didn’t quite understand what all the fuss had been about, the crowd and noise and light in the middle of a freezing night... but he felt he was heading towards something new, something good.































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