I wake when Swift stirs. I breathe in deep as she stands and goes to groom. I push my nose to Soil and inhale deeply, thinking of all the dogs and pups out there on strange worlds who cannot smell Soil when they want to. I roll, stretch and sit to groom. I notice that Fierce Set is focused on something. She is staring fixedly; I can’t see what has her attention. She feels my attention and says while not taking her eyes off the ground,

“I think I know how we can get through.” I am instantly upright and rigid.

“What?!” Both Fierce and I are at her side in heartbeats. She is watching a line of ants travelling back and forth, as ants do. They are carrying their provision to their dens. My eyes follow the line of ants into the distance. Beyond the barrier! There they are, marching back and forth as though there is no barrier at all.

“But how do they get through?” Swift follows the line to the barrier and, again, is rebuffed by it. Fierce Set starts to sniff the ants. As she does, she inhales one just into her nose and snorts it out. The ant stands and re-joins her column. Fierce Set follows her nose down the line of ants, away from the barrier. Swift yips from behind.

“The wet one! It can’t go through. The one you snorted, it is stuck on this side of the barrier, like us.” We are beginning to get a whisp of becoming Pack; we all surge as one animal to watch this bewildered ant, unable to fulfil her desire to serve her swarm.

“What did it smell of?” I ask Fierce Set.

“Ant, Soil, swarm” I bound back to the sleeping spot where I buried my nose in Soil. I rub my nose in it until it is completely covered. I approach the barrier and stick my nose out. The end of my nose travels until my snout will not pass. Swift puts her paws on the barrier next to my snout. My nose is beyond them!

We have actually done it! Day 3 of my first mission and we have fulfilled the greatest desire of Pack. We are all elated. We jump, roll and play bite-fight. I dig through the grass to expose Soil. We roll joyously in it and then, carefully, still not quite believing our own senses, we step through the barrier, just as though it wasn’t there. I feel the urge to go and lay waste to whatever I can find, rise in me. There are millions of individuals in here. I am breathing air that some monkey may also be breathing, or some reptile. I feel sick. I must get back. Pack must know of this. I will return to sink my teeth into this blight on the World, but I will with all of Pack at my back.