I have always been for-Pack. Pack has always been for me, after all I am a Runt^. Like all Runts, I know what Pack does for those who need extra help. I have always made sure I am a model dog. I want to ensure every-dog sees how well our system functions. I am going to ensure that Pack is reunited on World, with Soil. This world smells sickly sweet with pollen. It still confounds my senses, after a sixteenth-season. Generous (my sparkling scent), as a scent- scientist has already found several new, potentially helpful, materials on her preliminary expeditions.
I think about the edict to swell. We never have. Of course, we could either arrange to be covered by any-dog available if we wanted to swell, but we are both serving Pack in other ways. We are admired on World by many dogs and pups for the Service we have done in our respective fields. She far more than me, if only because what I do is not widely known. During the first sixteenth-season^ we were here, both of us served tirelessly to help set up Sweetment^. I led my pack in helping diggers and providers as necessary. I am strong and resilient and not accustomed to taking breaks. My pack were all chosen for their resourcefulness and stamina so we were substantial help in those first days. Today we began preparing for whatever is to come.
Communication will open in a cycle. We must be prepared to follow commands from World and to give useful information to them. Hopefully, World will be free of Their parasites when all Pack can communicate. That is what Generous is investigating: what resources are there, on this world, that might improve our chances in the battles to come. She is a genius and a dog who shares my level of devotion to Pack.
We are in our den, after feeding on this world’s meat. All the prey animals here eat flowers and fruit; folivores just don’t seem to have survived. Their meat is strangely sweet. I found it sickly at first, but I find it acceptable now. I would love to have a proper cultivated provision but that is going to be a while in the making. When we can return, I will return to World guiding Pack. As high-ranked individuals, we would be anyway, but I hope, by then, we will have both made further significant contributions to Pack. My belly is full, and I feel content. As content as I can on the Sweet-World.
Generous and I lie against each other, as we have done so many nights on World and discussed our days. Dogs back home joked that decisions were made in our den that impacted all of Pack. I wonder what our den-pack and Service-packs are doing scattered throughout the sky in strange soils and under strange skies. Generous’s voice appears in my mind through the pack-bond,
( What are you thinking about my Soil and World? )
( Now I can actually think about it properly, I realise I am not sure what to do with the new trainees. I know other notches have swarms of new, un-notched, un-prepared trainees in their packs, and I only have 6, but it is the first time I have been given, rather than selected, the trainees. All of them (including the two Rises) seem like they have potential but, every other dog I have ever trained, I have observed since they left creche (some from their first days in creche). I don’t know how to begin with these strangers. How can I be sure of them? )
( I know, my spots, I have managed to keep some of my pack but all those I knew well and have served with for cycles, have been given their own scent-packs on other strange worlds. I know I would have been under old Inquisitive for another few cycles on World and I have been ready for the Scent- Pack Guider^ role for cycles, but I thought that I would be doing it with Helpful and Mischief at my side. The technologies we developed together in our research suite would become the standard for scent-science. And we would be the centre of scent-science for all of Set. Tiny Rise and his scent-pack could only send their emissaries with offerings of research sites and resources for a sniff at our research. )
( Who have you got? )
( I have Playful Set, who I think you have met on a visit to the research suite. Then there is Busy Runt Set, he is going to be a great scent-scientist in his day, but he is only a cycle out of training. Otherwise I have 4 new trainees, 2 of each, Beauty Rise and Slender First Eyes Rise, who I can only hope Tiny Runt Rise educated in the basics since I don’t dare hope for anything like competent from his students. Ponder Set and Determined Set both show an interest in the Service but Determined Set has is still in the seclusion chamber because of the overwhelming cloying sweetness of this place. )
( I know, it’s been a sixteenth-season and I have only just been able to differentiate Set from Rise. I definitely can’t smell anything well enough to study it! )
( Scent-packs seem to have been particularly impacted by it. In the first days, it was mostly civilians but as time goes on, scent-scientists all over the Sweet-World are falling prey to it. We seem to need longer in seclusion too. I think Determined Set is the last of my pack that will succumb to it so hopefully we will be able to focus on these plants and what they might be able to help us achieve. )
( It seems unlikely for any more dogs to need seclusion from now. Every dog’s scent-palate will have adjusted. I think I will have to devise an exercise to test their latent skills. I need to know if they are loyal to Pack, if they have the skills in stealth, resilience, intelligence, obedience, confidence, pack-work, resourcefulness… ) The list starts to expand out of my mind. I understand that every-dog must change for the betterment of Pack, but this is a large task for any-dog. I am prepared to do what I must, I will figure out what needs to happen to make this serve. Generous rubs my face with her muzzle.
( We can figure out something. You normally run exercises anyway for new recruits, so we just need to expand on that. What do you normally screen for? Loyalty, intelligence, resilience, obedience. Maybe you need to offer the Rises a chance to betray the Sets and vice versa. That will tell you quickly who to trust. Set up normal exercises and try to get them to split Pack and, if you can’t, you know they will follow you as they should. )
( You are a genius. I always think we could do with you in-pack. Of course, you are best placed as you are. ) We lapse into silence. I am pondering the way to split my trainees’ pack and set them against each other. Generous is probably contemplating experiments. We are both getting ready to sleep. She licks my notch-scars, one-by-one, as she does every night before we sleep. When she gets to my new notch-scar, I feel the familiar sting and heat and rush of oneness with Pack.
( I forgot, how was the scarring? I was sorry to have missed it. )
( It was not exactly a real scarring. I don’t know this Pack Guider, he’s a Rise. It didn’t feel like it should. Not least, because there were three others. He did not recite the reasons. We said our oaths together. These scars are not for achievements but for circumstance. The same is true for notchings, many young dogs are having their first notches licked by den-mates. That said, a lot of excited First Notches out there (across the sky now) desperate to prove they deserve their notches, can only be good for Pack. )
( Many more and you’ll be Pack Guider! )
( No-dog has ever become Pack Guider from our pack. We have scars instead of notches for a reason. All I will get is further higher ranked than my pack. )
( Pack recognises your achievements even if they do not all know what they are. I do and I recognise them all. )
I lick her face. She is falling asleep but would keep sharing all night if I don’t stop first. In this Pack of two, I will do what is best and allow us both to sleep. She closes her eyes and settles further into the floor of the den. She is deep-sleeping in moments. I am not awake much longer.
A smell seeps into my night-walks. It is a Rise. I am awake and on my feet. I can hear a dog rushing through the tunnels, heading this way. I stretch a little and prepare for the entrance of the stranger. This dog can smell where he is going and in a rush. It is Resilient Rise, one of my new trainees. I yawn and give myself a cursory clean now I know it is not a threat. At least, I hope. I am half-tense when he appears in the den. I observe his demeanour – he is here to fetch me and has been told to do it well. He is frightened but proud and he still doesn’t know how I feel about him. I leave deep paw prints imbued with urgency where I had been sleeping, so Generous knows I have been called away. I am not comfortable leaving her, no-dog should deep-sleep alone. I smell my second-in-command, Honest approaching. His paws are travelling at a more comfortable pace and he is exuding confidence and safety. He has been denning with the new recruits. The other third that remains of our den-pack, will sleep with my bond-mate until I am back.
Before he is in our den, I am running ahead of Resilient Rise down the tunnel to the surface. The sweetness of the air increases as we run. We burst into the cold, sweet air one pace apart and I follow him as he leads towards our headquarters. We are there in a littersworth^ of cents^. He sits and I trot straight in. Sweet-Pack Guider Sleek Runt Rise is there. He is excited and hopeful.
“Cunning Runt Set, I think I have a way you can help Pack.”
“Anything, Pack Guider.”
“Resilient Rise out there, observed some dogs behaving strangely this Set. He followed and saw them leave the complex and go into the woods. He followed scent-masked. He observed some behaviours, that shall I say, you would not display if you were acting for-Pack. He was heading back to wake you, when I met him and asked what was happening. He was honest and, for-Pack; he told me what he had seen. I told him that he was right to fetch you and we could discuss.”
“Do you think these dogs might be not-for-Pack? Do you know what they might be doing?”
“It might be nothing, an over-excited dog, barely out of training, seeing things that are suspicious, particularly from your pack. But it might be something, All-Pack Guider No-Eyes First Eyes Runt Rise, warned us that we should expect to have to deal with behaviours that are not-for-Pack.”
“Then, I shall investigate. I will report back what I can” I leave, look at Resilient with a steady gaze. Either he is a gifted member of my pack or he is not-for-Pack and I will need to find out which. “You can go back to your den. I have heard what I need to, and I will want to hear details from you in the Rise. There is nothing that can be done now. Well done.”
I am back beside Generous, in the warm patch left by Honest when I relieved him. My mind is swirling with the possibilities of this development. It seems Service will begin in earnest tomorrow. I am not as still as I should be, Generous licks her mouth in her sleep. I lick her face until she and I are back to sleep.