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Tenth Month, eighth day, year two forty seven,
Many things can be called strays here, from dogs to even people. This place with its cracked and barely paved streets is the home for them all. A city is a city they say, but one that gains a reputation for strays seems to turn people away. But for some reason they keep coming. Dark alleyways and tall run down apartment buildings crowd this city. The only open places are in the markets and the little bits of paradise that are far too few and lost within this city. The only hope is to get out, but no one gets out of the city. It’s got a hold of people here. Once a stray, always a stray at heart they say. I’m out to prove them all wrong. No not me, us. A dog with eyes so pure should never be locked away. We will make it.
~Kay
I am not a stray; I am not a mongrel starving on the street. Whoever you think you are with your high society ways can kiss my cropped tail. I didn’t have a name until she gave it to me, I didn’t have a voice until she blessed me with it. I am a good dog, and that she tells me everyday, not you. We support each other like family, both of us pulling our weight to accomplish the impossible here. Survival in the biggest oxymoron of a city there ever was, La Ciudad Magnífica. She told me it means The Grand City. As though once upon a time this place was rich. Nobles would ride the streets on those long legged horses with their tack embroidered in woven gold. I am not as stupid as they all think; I may quirk my head to the side to listen intently. My ears may be long and comical looking, but I am not stupid. YOU are the stupid ones to think that I am not listening; my big ears have to be good for something. She knows I’m not stupid, she scratches me behind my ears when I’m down and always has a treat for me even when coin is low.
She tells me stories; she says I’m so pretty with my blue eyes and sleek silver coat. She brought me back to life when I was a puppy. Abandoned on the street by a noble mans son. She spent what little coin she had on rich camel milk when the traders passed through. I’m repaying her back, but she just tells me I’m family. It feels good, to know I’m loved by her, not you.
Introductions seem to be in order, my name, is Hitomi. Kay says that it means blue eyes and that a trader told her that on the very first day she went to buy milk for me. I am 41 kilos and stand with my head at Kay’s waist; she is a tall mot so I guess I’m tall too. Or at least she calls me leggy, maybe it’s because when I stand on my hind legs I can put my front paws on her shoulders and we can stare eye to eye. I mean who really knows. Oh, yes sorry I strayed off there for a moment. I am what is known as a chaser or a watcher or maybe you could call me an investigator! Just like in all of the stories Kay reads. Never mind that, I have a job but I can’t tell you what it is unless Kay says I can. I’ll just ask her, were partners her and me so we decide on things together.
Well I mean I guess she doesn’t mind too much, Kay said it was ok but not to give too many details. You wouldn’t try and steal from us would you? I mean even if you tried you wouldn’t get past my teeth. Kay says I have the strongest bite next to one of the palace guard dogs up in the Pretty Bone District. Here in La Ciudad Magnífica we rule the streets or the shadowed ones anyway. Kay is a rusher. It means she’s always tangling with the police here. It’s dangerous work. She carries 2 swords made of metal that is lighter and stronger than steel, one on each hip. I’m the watcher; I come running as fast as my legs can carry me to warn her before the police get to the scene. We work for no one but ourselves and Kay says when we get enough money we are moving out of the city. She says we’re going to get a house in the country with a lake so I can swim and forests everywhere so I can run and chase rabbits, whatever those are.
I find her sometimes lying on the rooftops of the condemned buildings in the slum part of town. Though the entire place is slums some parts are worse than others. No one bothers her there about jobs or money. She can just lay there and look up at the stars. She lost the ability to sleep long ago but she won’t tell me why. Though I ask all she says is that sometimes you see something so scary… that it stays with you for the rest of your life. And that every time you close your eyes you see it happening again as if stuck on repeat. I watch the stars with her until sleep takes me. I like to rest my head on her stomach just to hear her breath, to hear her heart beat. Just to know she is still there.
You see we need each other, not in the way of birds and fish, and not in the way of man and woman. But in this way of equality, we need to feel that someone has our backs. No matter what the cost, we need to feel like we have someone to live another day for. This place doesn’t offer too many.
I was, abandoned because I grew too fast that my bones were in great pain. I don’t remember much, but I remember a wooden crate and then a painful thud. I don’t know how long I cried in that prison, but the top of the crate was being torn away. The wood was splintering and I could see blood running down the sides of the box from whoever’s hand tugged at the top. It was night time, but I could still see the face that peered into the box. The grin that seemed to spread ear to ear on this girl and those eyes that shone like the sky in a mid winter storm.
I AM a good dog and that I know well, I work hard for my meals and to be able to walk my streets with Kay. What ever past I have Kay always tells me it doesn’t matter, because I have to look to the future. She never says anything about herself, one day she said she will tell me. One day is a long time off for her.
Kay’s calling can you hear that whistle?! I have to go, maybe it’s another job. Oh I hope its dinner instead. Visit us again. We might not be here when you get back, but you have to at least come. If you don’t, your mind might forget the stench of this place on a hot summer day. We can’t have that now can we?
Dreams Kay says are only dreams until you take action. We’ve decided we have nothing to lose. What about you?
~All right this was originally a one shot told in the perspective of my dog Ghost. BUT I got an insane amount of requests to make a sequel or make it into a novel. So I am working on a sequel to this as we speak. I am thinking about calling it Terribly Astray
or something along those lines. Hints are wanted.~
 Desert--Mirage · Fri Apr 20, 2007 @ 06:13am · 2 Comments |
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