I have learnt so much in the last few days. I’ve learnt how to plan a stealth mission rather than just respond to a situation, I’ve learnt some terrain outside the compound, I’ve learnt that my quarter-pack are some of the best dogs ever whelped and I’ve learnt that my bond, Heat, Service, den, pack -mate is one of the most famous Set stealth dogs who has ever lived. When I went to him with my confusion, Slender was very eager to tell me about the exploits attributed to “Brazen Set” the most famous of which, was the ability to completely disappear into Rise-Pack. He is legendary given that he disappeared from both Packs nearly 6 cycles ago. Rise stealth dogs are warned about him in training in case he was in deep cover. I can only assume Set stealth dogs are warned about him as a reminder not to get too confident seeing as he was presumed Walked or killed.
Nothing has changed between me and Broad. Just this overwhelming knowledge. He behaves as he always has and when we discussed it, he simply told me he had been good at it but he had taken no pleasure in his Service. The more he met Rise dogs the more he realised they were the same as us and that the argument of pre-emption became less and less sufficient. He wanted to care for the Pack he had damaged and joined a small settlement on the Rise continent saying he had come from another equally small but considerably distant settlement and had been the only surviving member of a doomed Provision trip. He said he did not think he would be able to continue in Service as a provider but could be helpful to the QPG^. So he came by his new Service and when he excelled as a QD his QPG had suggested he become DQPG at a larger, settlement with a Service position available. He was a dog with skills but no pack-bonds so could be moved into positions that arose in settlements that were ravaged by his former Pack-mates.
I know several dogs integrated across-Pack, so changing Service is not as alien as it might be to many. But choosing a Service you would enjoy rather than what would be the best use of your skills to Pack still feels like a burr caught in my fur.
After so many endless days of struggling with a tiny group of trusted dogs to deal with providing, medicine and stealth, I feel oddly empty to not have to manage all of that. My head is ringing like after an intense Pack-howl. My quarter-pack (including the stealth dogs) are managing inside the compound. Broad and I are managing the provision-pack and liaising between the inside and the outside. We still do shifts within the compound so we’re still smelled about but we’re barely guiding the team. Mostly, we’re focused on stock-taking so we know what we need to ask the provision-pack to try to find. We each get occasional difficult medical cases, since we have the most experience. All the stealth is managed by Bushy and her pack.
Even the QPG coalition has relaxed a little. The security detail now take the load between settlements without a coalition member. If we want or need to communicate we can pass messages openly. We still use subtle cues that we’re an independent group but we’ve not met since Broad and I went and explained the plan the day after Bushy revealed Broad Rise to be Brazen Set. Rough First Eyes seemed particularly shocked by the revelation but, like me, she knew him well enough to find plenty of evidence to smell as soon as she knew the scent she was searching for.
The complex mass of roots that was my life less than an eighth-season^ ago, have been groomed straight, difficult stalks snapped or woven to accommodate as necessary. The QPG coalition is known to the stealth-pack and vice versa. We don’t know their true motives and they don’t know ours but we have all deemed each other enough for-Pack to trust, at least in the short term. The HollowLeafment^, DustyLeafment and EdgeLeafment packs think they’re being provisioned by a large provision-pack in a distant area of the compound. All QDs in the area know we’re actually being provisioned from outside the compound. Most of them think it’s Trustworthy’s original provision-pack doing their Service. The QPG coalition, Slender and Bushy know that it’s actually a pack of those viciously and unjustly de-notched and exiled by a Pack Guider^ unable to serve Pack. It is still a swirling confusion of thoughts and emotions but we now have a system. There are plenty to ensure the for-Pack lie that provision is coming from within is maintained. We can be focused on serving Pack.
The broken provision-pack needs meds. Broken by Pack. Broken by their Pack Guider. I have completed my now daily, stock-take. Meds more than anything are in short supply. At least that is a semi-normal QD problem. As well as sicknesses that come with being chronically underfed, the lack of viable replacements and raids on stores by confused dogs who smelled no difference between provision and clot-weed, have left us lower than we should be. Mellow and Masculine are prepping meds using the few near equivalent things we’ve found here, (the pain-predator bark^ is actually more effective we can make it go three times as far). They’re merrily bantering as dogs too tired to find their serious situation that serious any more. Some dogs are like that, they get so drained that there is nothing left but a core of twisted mirth. I gather a few meds that should go to those with open wounds over those inside blithely benefitting from those wounds.
They try to not notice me taking a reasonable chunk of the supplies for all EdgeLeafment for a visit to a small Service-pack. Broad and I are going to visit Trustworthy and Gentle after their Set hunt. Slender will join us and get provision straight back to the QPs waiting to prep it all. Maybe now we have other dogs working on provision, Broad and I could do an exploration Outside to find a decent replacement for, at least, clot-weed. The leaves from the pungent trees do seem to promote healing better than grass but they’re not absorbent and don’t stay in place.
“No Mellow, obviously you are just not as wise as Pack-Guider. He understands that you can rely on a tiny provision-pack to feed three settlements indefinitely. I don’t know why you are worrying, we are clearly fine. As safe as pups in Soil.”
“Oh yeah. I forgot we have such a sensible Pack Guider who is serving Pack as best he can and that means turning Pack on itself and then when we were close to destroying each other that was the time to reveal his store, just to make sure we were really hungry.” These two have become very close, I think drawn together by their bleak humour.
They chuck wryly and go down to get more raw materials to work into balls while this lot dry. I need to have a chat with them about what Pack is saying. I can’t be amongst them as much as I would like and I am worried that more than one or two dogs are saying similar. Shaggy told me he had to swipe at dogs sniffing round the loading point and rubbing in the dirt last night. The Portal has been set up as far as possible from all settlements to prevent a speck of Soil calling to desperate dogs so far from World.
I shrug my heavy cache pouch onto my neck,
“I’ll be back later on. Hopefully we can replenish the pain-predator stock when I am back.” I trot to the surface. The hunting-degree^ has begun. We should get moving to be there when the Set provision-pack get back to their den. Where’s Slender? Where is Broad?
I am still overawed. After a cycle of being contained, one’s scent horizons change in a way you do not notice. Being out in truly fresh air again is as exhilarating as it is overwhelming. We are half way to the provision-den. We’re trotting along, each with a substantial cache-pouch. We are only communicating occasionally, noting scents that could be useful medicinal plants. I’m letting my mind drift open, pretending I can smell Soil and we are on World as we should be. I smell a dog I don’t recognise and stop. Broad and Slender do too and we face the unknown, ears forward, tails straight out showing our readiness to protect what we have.
“Sorry, Brave Set, Broad Rise, Slender Rise,” splutters a young-ish dog tumbling into full view, his ear is torn and flapping but not infected or angry. “I heard you were coming to collect provision direct from us rather than a cache-point tonight. You’re coming to smell us. It is a most precious time. I came to meet ye and offer to lighten ye-r burdens.” I don’t recognise him but he is obviously one of the peremptorily exiled who have joined the provision-pack.
“What’s your name?” I ask as the other two relax and shift their cache-pouches.
“Brazen Set,” says the near-pup looking expectantly at Broad, who shows no recognition of the name under which he is famous. “Well actually Brazen Leaf, but my whelpers were Sets and my whelp-mates and I were conceived on World… in Set.”
( The attachment to something he has never experienced! Commitment to an idea. That doesn’t even matter this far from World. ) Broad mutters in my mind. Slender chucks but sort of conceals it. The pup isn’t sure what has happened but wants to be included. He approaches asking to carry a cache-pouch.
“Thank you, but at this point it would take more effort to unsling them, re-sling, then walk 6 pack-lengths to our destination.” Broad speaks gently but not indulgently as he continues walking. The younger dog falls in with pack.
“Brazen Leaf, could you please just trot to Rise here and have a sniff for the astringent smelling plant? I think it will be a fern-like growth.” He merrily enters the undergrowth and rustles about. We don’t break stride. He surfaces with a pale feathery clump of delicate fern and scampers to catch up with pack. He stuffs it into Slender’s cache-pouch since it has the most room. “Thank you so much, now can you smell a kind of crackly^, nutty, damp, mould?” he makes a scent-story while he sniffs but he obviously does capture the combination that is given out by the anti-infection fungus on World that I can catch. He is gone again.
( Good idea, one dog with two Services. )
( Exactly, he needed to serve and we wanted to get some samples. )
Brazen Leaf trots ahead of us as we reach the den-complex proper. He’s smelling proud and is obviously hoping to catch a whiff of envy from any other dog. I do not smell any who let any slip but I’m sure it’s the product of good scent-masks rather than a lack of envy. We are uncomfortably high-ranked in this pack, even though it has only just existed as a pack for a sixteenth-season. The Rise provision-pack is waiting for the Set provision-pack’s return to load up the waiting roller caches which Slender will take (with a few from the Rise pack) to The Portal where stealth dogs will arrange its Soil-cleansing and distribution according to the plan approved by the QPG coalition. I am intrigued by how many known Sets there are in the Rise provision-pack. They split into two packs to provide at least twice a day as per the new arrangement. I had assumed most dogs originally from Rise would want to hunt in the Rise and ditto Set but it seems that if you push them hard enough, even things as fundamental as Pack-time become meaningless to dogs.
Sturdy Rise is waiting for us at the load-up point, he tips his nose up at us confirming Trustworthy and Gentle are not yet back but they should be here soon since it is nearly full dark. We approach, play bow, roll and groom.
“I am so impressed by what ye have done in such a short period of time, Sturdy. Ye are truly serving both Leaf-Packs. How is Long Stride recovering? Her ear was quite infected when I smelled her last. I’ve brought some pain-predators for Spindly Runt^’s ankle as he is trying to get up on it again.” Sturdy guides me towards the den-ridge to check over Spindly Runt and I hear both Broad and Slender asking after other individuals of the familiar dogs they smell.
Slender should have transferred the provision by now. He said he would take the samples Brazen collected for us back to Furtive on the night-shift to investigate if there’s anything resembling clot-weed amongst them. The number of dogs still being found bleeding days after they were de-notched means the Outside provision-pack need a stock of clot-weed. Even if I brought the rest of what we have, it would not last them long.
We have been checking in with Trustworthy and Gentle. They’ve told us about the littersworth^ of dogs who turned up in the last twentieth. They haven’t got to Brazen Leaf yet. What did he do, so young, to end up with a botched de-notching? Each provision-pack has one designated retriever who will peel off if an exile is smelled. On the plus side, more dogs to provide but they are also worried about the number that need medical attention.
“And, this Set I found…something.” Whispered Gentle
“What kind of something?” Broad asks immediately.
“Something that... did not smell of anything. But it could move. We were in the middle of running down one of those ungulates and I didn’t get a chance to smell it closer. And I felt a strong feeling in my stomach... I should not approach it. It was huge though, like a huge stone with a stalk that moved.”
“Well, that is either a rock and tree or weren’t there tortoises in this experiment? Could it be one of those?” Trustworthy sounds worried.
“In which case we should possibly relocate and avoid this area.” Broad sounds like the warrior he is. Was.
“Now’s not the time to be timid. This is by far the best location for The Portal. Let’s find out if we encounter the thing again before we scatter. It is a lot of dogs to move again so soon after being rejected by their packs and forced to live out-Pack.” I hope I am not being reckless.
“Yes, you are probably right. Right now, feeding Pack is top priority. We will send out a few dogs to locate it and see how easy it is to take down.” Trustworthy speaking like a provider!
“Why doesn’t Gentle take Brazen to where she found it? If it was a threat it probably would have already gone for ye all earlier. If it is a small, non-threatening pack then maybe it will leave ye alone.”
“Yes, I would be happy to do that.” The eagerness in Gentle’s voice suggests she was as uncomfortable as I was at the thought of just making another sentient animal, prey. Maybe because of her crimes.
“It’ll all be in the approach– ”
( Get back to The Portal! Bring Trustworthy! ) Slender crashes into our pack-bond. We jump up,
( Not sure why, but you need to come with us through The Portal right now. ) We all begin to run
“Gentle, Sturdy, ye are in First-Eyes until I am back!” As we run I have time to ask,
( What’s happening? ) We pelt through smelly trees, leaping over roots and avoiding low hanging branches.
( Trustworthy’s provision-pack just came back. They are being welcomed back as heroes when they know they are not-for-Pack scum and the sooner we can get Trustworthy amongst them, the sooner we can conceal what’s going on. Bushy’s keeping them separate from Pack while she can. )
( Well, fuck^. ) thinks Trustworthy.