As we tidy the Heat-suite for the next mate-bonded dogs, I revel in the last two days. They were spent eating and fucking. We managed to bond-come again, once. Again I  experienced her release while I licked and tugged her clit with my teeth. We experimented with the platform, for pleasure and conception. Obedient First Eyes thinks she has found a new conception-configuration. She carefully recorded it to share with Pack if it proves successful. Then, this Rise, as we felt the dose subside, we fucked one last time. It was glorious, close and comforting and consuming. I forgot the strange soil and lost myself in her. When we were finished, we lay together. We have finished the last Heat-provision, time to go.

We leave the Heat-suite and return to our own den. We do not have a den-pack yet, we are cross-Service and do not den with either of our Service-packs. I watch Obedient First Eyes ahead of me in the tunnel and I smell her own, unmitigated scent, no less intoxicating but less irresistibly arousing. When we enter our den, I remember where we are. This den is the same layout as our one on World, but it smells wrong. I pass the comfort-unit. Before, every den had one, to store pups’ first smells, so they can return to them in times of great need of comfort. In this new, strange world that stinks of otherness, every den has Soil in their comfort-unit. I won’t open it, not yet. I ache for World, but Soil-scent may only last 10 cycles. If we are careful, we might get 15. I won’t open it yet.

Obedient First Eyes settles down in the corner and I pace for a while. She seems thoughtful. I tuck my head underneath hers, resting on her paws. We lie like that, calm, sated, thoughtful until she says straight into my mind down the pack-bond,

( Have you met many Rises yet? ) I tuck in further so she knows I am listening,

( Not many. There are 2 Rises in the creche. )

( Do they make good Soil parents? )

( I don’t really know yet. But, yeah they seem pretty much the same as us. )

( Do they use modern methods? )

( Well, I was speaking to Soft Rise about the recent play studies by Valour Set. She seemed just as informed as I am, but she thought that some Rise (maybe, Lean Runt^ Rise) had done the research. )

( All our lives, we’ve been told that the Rises are backwards and hateful and ignorant. I am serving under 6-Notch Hardy First Eyes Rise, she seems to be the same as every other high-notch I have served under. How can I believe Pack who have always told me that we are different to Rises, when we aren’t? ) I have never heard the scent of my soul speaking like this. I have never heard any-dog speak like this. I have never thought about this. Soft Rise seems the same as every other Soil parent I have known. My nose is reeling from all the newness of this Sour-World. We are ‘unified’ and taken from World and Soil who care for us. Over time, it’ll be harder to smell who is Set and who is Rise. Sooner or later, we will smell the same. When we do, will we be different? She shakes. ( Never mind, my Soil and World. Come with me to the provisioning-spot, I bet you would like to have some real provision. )

My thoughts snap back to life. What life is now. We stroll up to the provisioning-spot. Those already feeding part to let Obedient First Eyes get a prime spot, without looking up. Even with this assault on the senses, she is a three-Notch and every-dog knows. I slide in beside her. She has the chest; I get the sinewy neck of this beast. It is not a World-wildebeest^, but some poor, scaled substitute from this world. It is surprisingly salty and rangy. This is not an animal perfected for consumption. I hope I can develop a taste for it. I will be regurgitating daily for the pups (when they are whelped) in creche with the other Soil parents.

The two lowest ranked individuals, a Set and a Rise, pushed off the feed by our arrival, are snapping at each other. I used to be one of them – low-ranked certainly, but not sure exactly where I stood, scrapping for good feeding opportunities. Then there was Obedient First Eyes. Why did she pick me? She always tells me she loves my scent. No other dog has liked it, but she is different. One of those fighting smells me, knows I am a low-ranked dog eating at a mid-rankers spot. He leaves his combatant to slink round, seemingly seeing if some-dog will take pity on him, and bites my leg. I yelp and turn. This Rise doesn’t know Obedient First Eyes, he smells her rank but does not know why I am at her side.

She turns, snarling. I see what her enemies face in battle and I am terrified. She leaps on him and grabs his mane. She shakes him in her jaws. He runs off, chattering. It is over in a few moments, but I am shaken and don’t return to the provision. I sit to one side and watch as this upstart Rise approaches the carcass at the furthest point to Obedient First Eyes, belly to the ground and waits for her acknowledgement before starting to chew on a shin bone sullenly. She feeds a few more cents^ before breaking away and leading me back to our den.