It is Set. The sun sinks slowly into this soil on Leaf-World, revealing the unsettling arch in the sky. The Leaf-stink shifts in tone where it catches your nose if you try to take a deep breath. The normally regimented changeover of day and night shifts has drifted. Broad, Bushy, Slender and I, with any other QDs^ or stealth ‘QDs’ who are coming on or off shift, tend to catch up, groom, tell scent-stories of World and renew bonds. Trustworthy sometimes comes over to catch up about provision supplies. It is a gentle, comforting time while we all feel a storm gathering above us.
Broad and I have a pack-bond, mostly through these sessions, seeing as, in the main, we alternate shifts and rarely get to den with each other. It is a warm, comfortable pack-bond. I have had quite a few pack-bonds in my life: my training pack (but we were apprenticed across all of Set), my first Q-pack (who I left for the DQPG opportunity with Sly), Sly’s Q-pack, with whom I served for a littersworth^ of cycles and, with Trustworthy. He and I could re-kindle the bond if we felt inclined, but we are both not like that. We (neither) are interested in a bond that requires effort. With Broad it is effortless and natural; I am enjoying the tingle in my belly.
Masculine Rise is telling a scent-story to her shift-mate Mellow Set who is smelling and listening raptly. He is only two cycles from training, he has no experience of even usual maintenance of stores on World, let alone the intricacies in which we are now embroiled. He is a good candidate for a QD: organised, methodical and he has a way of listening and smelling that makes a dog feel fully smelled. That is a true gift to Pack.
I smell two of my QDs for this shift – Furtive and Shaggy Rise. They are older than Mellow and more worldly. As they approach to start their shift, they stop to attend Masculine’s story. They are enjoying it, but they can tell where she is scenting less fear in the parts where she was terrified and a bit more hyena than her historical opponent had been. She is a good breather of tales; she has had us all wagging or yipping or sneezing many Sets. Broad approaches and we groom relaxedly. We attend the story, participating with scents when she gets to exciting parts.
Bushy joins the pack. I observe her, knowing that she is a stealth-warrior. She is amongst the others in scent and sound immediately. When Masculine finishes, Bushy launches into her own tale. She is far more sincere and believable in her scent-story. She feels very open and honest, I see how easily she would gain the trust of any-dog. She would make a good QD for that reason alone. She has been well-chosen for this mission; she is scarlessly integrated. I do not think any of the true QDs know she or Mane Runt^ or Slender are not DQPGs – one well-established on World, one competent, efficient and on the rise, and the other promoted too soon in these difficult times.
A thought suddenly strikes me; I know of three stealth-warriors in my pack and, I assumed, because I was a QPG, I would know if there were any others. But, why would I be told about all stealth-warriors if any of them are meant to be catching me off guard? I consider Bushy, confidently full of stories that could be any QD’s, fitting into this pack without a hair askew. For all I know, every-dog, including Broad, could be a stealth-warrior. I know Broad isn’t. There are some QDs, most of whom go on to be QPGs, who have an air of total calm, down many layers to their stomach. Even Bushy couldn’t convincingly pull that off.
Broad, Bushy and I break away from the next story from Shaggy, who is desperately trying to seem as impressive as Masculine was. We stroll to the little-wild behind the store ridge, it is too small to provision and it is convenient for us to catch up in. Broad and I only meet with one ‘DQPG’ at a time. They communicate amongst each other when we’re not about to observe. They maintain a professional distance at all times. Well, there must be some times when they don’t.
“Anything I should be aware of?” I start. These conversations are not coded, but most of the communication is masked in the appearance of a normal, professional relationship.
“As usual, we gave an 11/12 size portion to all dogs. No-dog has yet commented, though we have reason to believe some may have noticed. Out of the 400 littersworth of dogs provisioned in our provisioning-spots throughout the day, maybe 5 have started to investigate other, non-designated provisioning-spots.” Broad is very concise in these discussions. He seems more concerned about the stealth-warriors than I am.
“Well, we knew that would come.” Broad and I hold each other softly in our pack-bond “I am impressed that it is only becoming apparent to a small proportion of dogs. Anything in common about them? Anything we can keep our noses heightened to?”
“Two swelling, one recently having ended whelp-feed, two diggers.” Broad communicates the lack of surprise that those who crave more energy are the first to notice the loss.
“Hopefully the reduction in provision can be removed soon. Pack Guider^ has sent out a few small packs to help with provision. I know there are not many suitable provision-animals on Leaf-World but with more technology, some of the arboreal-prey might be caught.” Bushy sounds so earnest, I find it unnerving.
“Yes, I very much hope so. I will ask Trustworthy about what developments they have had.” She seems pleased. I wonder what she reports back from these meetings to Mane Runt and Slender or even to her Stealth-Pack Guider.
It is now almost fully dark. Another night under strange skies, in strange smells. Under one (tonight) shining night-sun. Bushy and Broad will need to rush to get the last provision of the Set. Broad sends me a brief pack-image of today’s cache. We have started taking smaller portions of provision for ourselves and caching a small amount against the expected night-visitors. QPs always have an emergency-cache shared by QPGs. Broad and I have a scattering of them across the little-wild and deep-stores spurred off the main stores. We have shared the deep-stores with the Q-pack but the network of small caches we have kept to ourselves. Bushy may still know.
A settlement cannot eat as one – from Rise to Set, there is a rolling procession of Service or den-packs to provisioning-spots, each with an allocated degree^. Day-duty involves replenishing the provisioning-spots, loading rollers to take provision to training and the smaller camps that are provisioned from here and prepping the Set provision from the Rise hunt. Of course, both day and night there is dispensing of medication and Heat-doses. Nights are for prepping, guarding and stock-counting. Whenever QDs get a chance, they have fabrication tasks and research. I have always enjoyed the night shift. It is when I get to do, what I consider to be, the real Service of a QD. At night is when desperate dogs in need of help, seek out a QD. It was hardly common on World, but the first few nights, when dogs who were once another Pack want to know life might be tolerable again someday, that’s where I serve best. When they will tell their scent-stories to any-dog patient enough to attend, is when I feel of most use to Pack. It is a privilege to do such earthy^ Service.
Trustworthy has eaten and is heading to den. He has stopped by to tell me how much provision he thinks will be brought over this Set for tomorrow’s Rise provision. The night-shift organises the following day’s provision overnight for the day-shift to send out. Tonight’s Service is dictated by what Trustworthy can bring in this Set.
He looks pleased. There is a collection of huge, maybe rodents (?) bigger than a dog. A fat dog. They have thick, bristly coats so it is hard to tell how well muscled they are, but it is the best provision we have had for nearly a third-season^. I anticipate it being hard to prepare these animals but there is potentially a lot of useful elements to these carcasses.
“Well done.” He flashes his round eyes at me and wags his pleasure. He is tired but his eyes are alive, as they have not been since arriving here.
“We found these in a burrow. They are savage. Bristles has earned her first few scars! This is in addition to the usual collection of the small rodents and a fish. We saw another pack of the strange tree-prey again. The trees here are so straight! How can any-dog climb them?”
“I hear you have been sent some warriors to help with their slings. Any luck?”
“Yes, I have some barely open-eyed pups, rushed out of training and into attack-packs and, now, shunted onto me. They might have slings, but they have not perfected the art of using them yet. I am not sure if any of the ammunition we use will actually make any difference to the tree-prey. But I am happy for the help. They were very useful in subduing these beasts. I will get some of the pack smelling for more dens tomorrow.”
“Then I better find out how to make the most of these for Pack.” He has lost a little condition. He is ensuring that his pack is fed for the price of a growling stomach and a little less energy. He is a dog I admire. He has such care for all of Pack. He is also one of the most ingenious providers I have ever met. It was his ability to bring in such varied provision on World that led me and him going out hunting together for fun and denning under the sky. Those were glorious times; we provided for ourselves and played bite-fight and ran together after animals scenting fear. The first time I took the Heat-dose with him, we went to the upper Set coast of the Great Tails and we fucked and hunted and rolled in Soil.
We groom briefly, I send him Pack down the flickering pack-bond and he relaxes into my body. He hauls himself up, nuzzles me and drags himself off to den with his pack. The bond fades as soon as he walks away.
Once he is gone, I tell Slender to take a few QDs to sort and separate the smaller provision into portions, which will then be supplemented by a portion of these beasts per pack. Even with all these beasts, we will still need to supplement from the cached stores even to reach 11/12. Soon we will have to stop supplementing all dogs to be able to have stored feed for those who need extra. I take the smallest of the carcasses to see how I can break it up and if I can remove the skin and fat together to give to the hide-workers. These thick bristles will have their uses and fat can be split between medicinal, military and provision.
It is very hard work, but Mane Runt and I eventually manage to separate the hide and fat from the densely muscled giant rodent. We separate the limbs and organs to each of the pack-portions. We stretch the muscle; it is so dense and can be considered worth more. Mane Runt takes one portion of the fat, wrapped in hide, in a cache-pouch to deliver to HQ. The remaining two will be processed for provision and medicinal uses here. I carry them down and give them to Furtive. She is thrilled by the haul. She starts to separate it off and add it to various leaves and shape it into fat tablets, which are mixed with bone-meal and other edible scraps to make a small, dense, mobile provision for travelling packs, uncertain of being able to provide.
I check in on the Runt-stores. Masculine and Mellow have been busy. Before my hormonal-insight subsided, I realised that the number of small branches that the straight trees here drop were the answer to solving the issue of so many Runts who cannot run. On World we have run-rigs. We only brought 12 with us across as many settlements and most of them were larger, thinking of injured adults rather than whelped Runts - anticipating conflict with others rather than the impact Leaf-World seems to have on dog reproduction. Each settlement was quickly depleted with possibly hundreds of Runts born with damaged or missing legs in each. The incredibly round branches have made good rollers, but since we are limited by the length of available branches, we had not found many in the correct size to replicate the existing run-rigs. I realised that these shorter chunks could, with modified run-rig design, allow us to fabricate many run-rigs in far fewer degrees. The variety of sizes of branches, with the new design, also means that we have run-rigs for Runts before their ears unfurl. We have tested them in our creche and sent some to Rough First Eyes, Direct and Even for their creches. QPGs all over Leaf-World are trying these run-rigs and collecting short branches to make their own. It seems, if nothing else, to give fabricators and QDs something to do rather than think of their empty stomachs. I served Pack well with my heightened creativity.
It is well into the night when I hear Slender, interrupted in the allocation of provision. He sends a puff of surprise into the air, something in the tone tells me to head up to the allocation-chamber. He is flustered, there is a heavily swelling dog there, she is restless and very tired (as you get in the last few days).
“I am sorry, this is provision for the Rise, we do not have spare for you.”
“Is there not anything for a swelling dog? This is my first swelling and my pack-mate Sheen says that she got more than this when she swelled on World.” I interrupt before Slender can begin to reply,
“Your pack-mate Sheen is right, there was more available swelling-feed on World. We had access to the finest facilities and, as you can see, we are serving with the bare minimum here.” I indicate the meagre allocation-chamber with minimal shores and not enough nooks to prepare a whole day of provision in one go (not that we ever have enough provision to need it!). She looks round. She is not familiar with the structure of stores, but she can see we are serving in basic surroundings.
“Is there nothing I can do?” she has an edge of desperation. She aches and gurgles and is longing for the whelping to be over. She is the kind of dog that Broad and I have left secret-caches for.
“Slender, can you please keep your nose on what is happening here?”
“Where are you going?”
“Deputy, I am going to serve Pack. You are going to serve Pack this way and when I return, I will explain to you some of the nuances of being a DQPG.”
“Yes, Quarter Pack Guider.” he looks so forlorn, he just wants to serve Pack, he’s not been a dog long enough to be used to being an adult, let alone a stealth-warrior, let alone a fake QD. I send him a waft of comfort via our pack-bond. Our pack-bond is soft and full of admiration on his side. Where my connection with Broad is slipping into deep-sleep in safety, Slender feels like falling to sleep when there is something important and exciting in the Rise.
I lead the swelling dog to the ridge atop the den-complex. I park her there, like a blind pup, and go to the oldest of our caches and unearth the provision Broad and I left there. It is shrivelled and chewy, but it will be delicious to one with such hunger. I fill a cache-pouch and bring it to her. I give it to this hungry dog. She scents all the gratitude of First Eyes being returned Runt. She slings it round her neck and trots away across the ridge, down to her entrance, into the complex, to den and Sheen and her pack. The longer we can let dogs believe that those who need it, will be given the provision they need, the longer we can control the situation.
I return to the stores. All the provision has been divvied up for the Rise and even a few afterzenith portions are ready for distribution into nooks, once they are emptied in the Rise. Furtive, now with Big Paws First Eyes’s assistance, is still working on the fat and checking medical supplies. Shaggy and Mane Runt are counting stock of main stores. Slender is on sniff^ at the entrance. It is a convenient time to talk to him.
“So Slender, you are not trained as a QD. But if you were, at some point some QD would have taken you aside and had this conversation with you. Every QD here has had this conversation but, if you are not one then, you would not know.” He sits and cocks his head to show his interest. “Much of a QD’s job is what you have done so far, preparing provision and medication. Managing stores and tracking stock of all kinds. You must also know, since you are a stealth-dog serving in a quarter-pack, that QDs have to be prepared to deal with desperate dogs. Dogs who need provision or medication or want access to a weapon. On World, much of that involved dogs who were exiled. Many Rises, like yourself, who were rejected by Rise were taken in by Set QDs, like me, throughout Set and vice versa in Rise. Dogs are never truly exiled; they transition and join the other Pack.” I can see him trying to comprehend this. Many dogs don’t dare imagine how awful being exiled is; it is an excellent deterrent. They are too fearful to realise that it is not as permanent as it seems from without. “QDs have always accepted and assimilated those who are rejected by the other Pack. Broad and I are from different old-Packs, but we are neither surprised nor bothered to be serving with an ‘opposite’. QD’s responsibility to Pack has always included all dogs not just Set and Rise.”
I let him comprehend this for a moment. Every other time I have had this conversation though, I have had to somehow explain that QDs don’t believe in one of the fundamentals (that dogs come in two kinds). Now, Unified Pack, even if we are not fully adjusted, means he can understand straight away. “There are dogs that are not-for-Pack, for many reasons. It is a QD’s responsibility to Pack Guider to ensure that they are kept out-Pack. It is a QP’s responsibility to Pack, World and Soil that every dog is provisioned when they need it. When a dog comes to us in need, QDs find a way to feed them. That is our mission, and if a Pack Guider is to leave us to our mission, they must not know that they do not have as much power as they thought, they must believe QDs obey and that dogs are not provisioned.”
He sits for a while. I know he is an obedient dog and has probably not considered that any-dog would lie to their Service-pack, to even their role-mates let alone to their Guider. This is a widespread, accepted secret that many dogs, everywhere know, but it is not discussed openly at any point. I assume Pack Guiders know that a Set not-for-Pack is a Rise Pack. They could not acknowledge it though. Eventually, Slender looks at me.
“So, dogs are always provisioned? By some QD somewhere?”
“Yes, QDs often help them get their scent right and find them areas to integrate where no-dog is going to press them into revealing their past if they do not want it.”
“So, if a creche-mate of mine was exiled while we were in training, he probably hasn’t Walked?”
“No, he’ll have become a Set, he’ll be somewhere out in the sky serving as a Set” The relief swirls the air around him as he unconsciously wags.
“Well, that’s good to know.”