Scrawny Rise trots behind the rest of us. He has been with us for a quarter-season^ or so now and, although he dens with us and serves with us each day, he is not part of our pack-bond. After a few days with us, he stopped trying to groom us unless asked. He is a reasonable dog. He is den-pack. We all feel some responsibility to him, but he is not part of us enough to give him the intimacy of pack-bonding. We are close though, as the only four dogs still researching in the buzzer-compound. After the incident with Wilful, the high-notches became cautious about others being exposed to buzzer-paste. Over the following sixteenth, our wider pack was removed and temporarily re-assigned to Curly Rise, in the previously human compound. The four of us left all know how buzzer-paste smells and can avoid it. Scrawny is not as disciplined as we, or he’d be a warrior too, but he will be guided by us. It is obviously much bigger Service with only 4 to do the Service of several littersworth^, but we have been trusted by All-Pack Guider^ No-Eyes First Eyes Runt^ Rise to be her noses and ears on the ground. Scrawny Rise was almost blown over by the honour. The three of us negotiated it with a bit more restraint.

We barely smell other dogs at the moment. All-Pack Guider No-Eyes First Eyes Runt Rise thought it best for us to be dug a custom den in the compound-tunnel outside the buzzer-compound. Quarter-dogs^ still provision us at a small provisioning-spot that caters for ours and a half-littersworth of other small research dens. Throughout the tunnel, there are small den-complexes for species researchers. None of the other research-packs are as exclusive as ours. I know All-Pack Guider No-Eyes First Eyes Runt Rise is most interested in buzzers. They have been identified as the strongest potential threat to Pack since they fly, have a sense of Pack-unity so will fight as one and have the most advanced technology. They also brought the most items for conquering World – seeds and tools and placing their dens so fast. All-Pack Guider No-Eyes First Eyes Runt Rise smells something in us giving us this Service.

Our fur is matted with wax by Set each day. Fierce and Swift and I (occasionally Scrawny Rise too) groom and groom each other for far longer than we are used to, trying to get wax from our fur and around our claws. We have become accustomed to being generally sticky.

I feel like I understand buzzers better and better. Some of our earlier finds make more sense, now we are familiar with more buzzer-artefacts. I am no scientist but, with such a reduced Service-pack, we have all had to serve Pack in ways we haven’t before. Swift is particularly good at interpreting finds. She can really imagine how buzzers manipulate their world with too many legs.

We have found devices we think they used to provision their Pack Guider. She seems to have mostly stayed in a central chamber (not far from where we found the buzzer-paste) and not travelled much. Her chamber has a similar scent to the paste. There were also fresh empty containers (like the one we found the buzzer-paste in). Maybe the Pack Guider was responsible for buzzer-paste. Maybe it is for her consumption. All provision on World is for all Pack, but from what we have learned of buzzers, their Pack Guider has an extremely different Service, morphology and life to other buzzers. Scrawny Rise claims to have had vivid night-walks the two nights after he ate it, similar to those described by male dogs taking a Heat-dose. Maybe the paste is some kind of provision for their Pack Guider to enhance her ability to spawn. We have also found stores of seeds and nuts. Every time I think of the crawling, flapping things planning to impregnate Soil with them to grow their not-of-World plants here, I feel hundreds of little feet crawling through my fur and I have to shake and scratch until I am free of them.

We are now used to serving independently. There is so much to cover and so few of us trusted enough to be here. I choose the next place to dig through a wax-wall from this chamber and try to not imagine buzzers crawling over the ceiling. It is impressive to see how the structure stays, with so many wax-walls lost or damaged within.

( I have found another container of buzzer-paste. ) Swift feels calm and still in a very deliberate way. Fierce and I move towards her, trying not to alert Scrawny Rise. He will leave it alone when told, but it is easier to not have to test his obedience when we don’t know what ongoing impact it is having on him.

When we find Swift, she has checked the container is sealed and is gingerly holding in her mouth. I sling my cache-pouch round and she carefully puts the buzzer-paste inside, like a Runt who needs extra care. I nuzzle them both briefly, sharing our anxiousness and hint of pride that All-Pack Guider No-Eyes First Eyes Runt Rise will be pleased she picked us for this job, before bolting for the exit.

Swift could have been quicker. She could get there in less than two degrees^ at full strength. But a wound from The Cleansing is still not healing quite as it should and she sometimes becomes tired after a long run now. Fierce’s wound, though far more substantial at the time, has healed without issue. I could trot, deliver the sealed container and be back before provision but I want to get back quickly. This is my first pack-bond and I think I may have over committed as I know many young warriors do. Under normal circumstances, there would be no reason for us to separate for more than a degree as pack-bonded warriors. But these are not normal circumstances.

I run at a decent pace. One I can maintain for the degrees it will take to get back to Compound-tunnel HQ. I let my legs do the thinking. I think about buzzers and their plans for World. Were they going to insert alien trees and plants in Soil to feed their enormous flying pack even if it smothered World’s plants? They made such an organised and large base so rapidly. How soon would there have been hundreds of those, all over World? Tick bites on Their skin.

What about the pock-marked devices we have found? The divots may aid grip for spindly legs. That item like a soft cache-pouch strapped to a comfort-unit – what’s it for? The straps are not hide. I can’t think how a dog could carry it, let alone a buzzer. The comfort-unit bit has many divots. Whatever it does, it needs to be gripped firmly. The cache-pouch bit is soft and crumpled like fallen leaves. It feels like it should move but it is resistant to manipulation.

Then the thing like a small Soil-Sentinel^ with an even greater number of tiny dents in it, like looking closely at some-dog’s nose. It is not as heavy as a Soil-Sentinel but seems as passive as one.

Or like buzzer-scent-marking stems? They are not the discrete scent-markers to label a cache. More like boundary-trees where, in the times before Rise and Set, territory boundaries were screamed for all to smell. That was before we smelled the value in larger packs and scent maps and Pack-sharing. Before we developed ways to cultivate pack-bonds and became as organised and Pack-minded as we are now.

We don’t know how they actually scent-mark, but there are scent-stems all around their den-complex. I think I am beginning to be able to interpret them. Once I could smell past the sweetness, I learnt scents for caches of seeds, Pack Guider and buzzer-paste, buzzers sleeping dens and caches of what we think must be weapons. I will mention to All-Pack Guider No-Eyes First Eyes Runt Rise that we are beginning to decode their recordings. That might be useful to Pack in the future.

My mind ran as long as my legs did. I reviewed our buzzer knowledge to report back well (if early) and wondered what my bond-mates are doing in the compound. We are too removed to get clear messages down the pack-bond, but I sent them comfort. There was a small echo of something back, or did I imagine the chili-tingle in my stomach? I will be on my way den (when did that temporary, tiny hole in Soil become den?), as soon as possible.

Before I even reach the main complex, an unknown 3-notched dog approaches,

“Why are you here, two-notch Strong First Eyes Rise?” I realise I must smell and look alarming, with my waxy fur, caked in Soil and dust from the run, sides heaving, adrenaline^ pumping. Plus, most dogs here know of our mission. My presence here alone is setting manes on end.

“We found more buzzer-paste, Notch.” He backs up but his nose is twitching. Those who have not smelled it are curious; what could be so alluring that no-dog may smell it? “It is sealed and ready to deep-store.” I am speaking quietly but he bundles me towards 4-Notch Mighty Rise’s chamber hurriedly, sniffing around.

The hunting degree has begun. Sun was only a degree above the horizon when I set off back to den. Us bond-mates are the only dogs (excluding Scrawny under observation) trusted by All-Pack Guider No Eyes First Eyes Runt Rise, to interact with buzzer-paste so I had to dig a deep-store under the close sniff^ of some old, unnotched warrior. I am always happy to serve Pack but I am not a trained digger. I am also (what feels) permanently covered in wax. It was hard digging firm, sturdy, reliable Soil rather than the pliable wax I’ve scraped into for a sixteenth-season now. Then I spoke to All-Pack Guider No-Eyes First Eyes Runt Rise. I didn’t even expect her to be at Compound-tunnel HQ. She wanted to check in with our wellbeing, hear how the research is going, what we have found and how Scrawny is behaving. She is an excellent Pack Guider. I knew this before unification, but as I get to know her I smell she is compassionate and caring (as a First Eyes should be) for all those in her Pack (even those stranded on not-World in not-Soil). When she eventually sent me on my way, I realised how late it was.

I am running faster than I should if I want to make it without breaks, but the deep ache through my torso for my bond-mates is becoming unbearable. I am not running thoughts on this journey. Just weariness and a desire for provision and den and the feeling of Fierce and Swift against me. I am still about a degree away.

Sun is sinking into the Big-saltwater somewhere so They can renew. I am running Set-ward and the landscape and scentscape are stunning. I am filled with excitement and satisfaction. Wait. These feelings are not coming from me. It is flowing down the pack-bond directly to my stomach. What have they found? I can maintain this pace for another degree if I have to. My stomach is communicating with my legs and wants them to run faster.

I am suddenly running so fast I can barely pant. Every pace more excitement and triumph flows into me. They are running too. We are running towards each other without thinking, finding each other via pack-bond. I begin to smell them. Swift is closer, but there is a tang of fresh blood (her wound must have been pulled open again). Fierce has smelled me and she takes on a burst of speed. They race over a ridge ahead of me and, like pups, race each other and tumble down to me.

( We were worried about there possibly being more containers and Scrawny being able to snuffle them out like a hog- ) Swift doesn’t scent-mask in time to hide her pity for Scrawny at Fierce’s harsh description. She takes over from Fierce in a more measured tone,

( So, we dragged artefacts outside to investigate them away from temptation until you got back. ) Fierce’s excitement regains control and she continues, infecting us both with her pride and delight,

( The weird mini-Sentinel! We were trying to turn it. Used the grip marks to make it do something. It made the slightest buzz! )

( So, we poked it in the grips more. It did some weird stuff: emitted scents, sounds and light from a tiny blue sun inside it. Like a huge, unnatural firefly. )

( Yeah, because the weird cache-pouch-strapped-onto-a-comfort-unit…)

They are both too excited to communicate clearly. I get my first ever shared pack-bond image – the familiar buzzer-contraption, only the cache-pouch has unfurled and looks like wings. They both wag as my mouth widens. We run back as a pack, leaping over each other like we are in creche. Just wait until we tell All-Pack Guider No-Eyes First Eyes Runt Rise.