It’s been a long night. Slender and Masculine and Big Paws First Eyes have prepped the Rise provision for delivery. Feeding spots aren’t even used anymore. Provision is delivered by warriors. I wish we had been allowed to use the roller-pack to distribute; they might have got some Pack-chats going. We might know what’s actually happening for these dens. But 4-notch Scruffy Rise insisted this is best for-Pack. To terrify dogs in their dens with warriors who used to be Pack but now smell to them like Rise to Set. Bushy says it’s so Scruffy Rise can monitor which dens have Soil remaining. Bushy’s suspicious of the loss of contact from Leaf-Pack Guider^ Large First Eyes Rise. He used to ask her to visit multiple times a day, then Scruffy Rise was always there, and then visits became less frequent, then Scruffy Rise was acting as a go-between. Then Bushy felt she wasn’t hearing accurately what Leaf-Pack Guider wanted, however un-natural the things he wanted are. I don’t understand why Scruffy Rise would not request a re-shuffle of Pack; she’s one of the few dogs who could safely. She would likely win any contests that developed. Whatever is in her mind is probably as scrambled as Large First Eyes Rise’s.

Littersworth^ on littersworth of cache pouches are ready for warrior-delivery, each den getting the amount of provision that each pack needs and not a scrap more. We keep back any excess provision for a few days to plug emerging gaps. If we have it still when it smells about to turn, Broad runs it discretely out to The Wall and drops it. We have no idea who or what is eating it, but we could not discard provision when there are dogs…doing that to dogs. Dogs have been instructed not to waste energy leaving their dens while there's provision rationing. There are packs in dens imagining what they’re not allowed to smell, and no doubt both imagining worse and a lot better than the truth. I’ve not sniffed a non quarter^ or warrior dog Inside in long enough to feel like maybe they don’t exist anymore. Maybe the chompers got them. I never used to be superstitious but as I find out the truth, I realise that superstitions and tales reeking of fear keep dogs safe. I smell something. Something very wrong. But when did I last smell something right?

It’s still there. It is real. I click to Slender, Masculine and Big Paws First Eyes to guard the cache-pouches as I leave to investigate. Slender tilts his question,

( Something smells off. Maybe it's the marauder who steals provision from next to our noses. If a chomper gets me, I’ll howl. ) Even though we both know I’m joking, our chucks in the Pack-bond are nervous. I exit the stores.

I can’t smell whatever it was. I loop round to walk the perimeter of the store. I try to scent that I'm unafraid. If there is something sneaking about, there is no point trying to hide from it. It’s probably already avoiding me. In the low tree-mist I smell something deeply wrong over the tang of Leaves. It stumbles into view and I smell every feeling this creature ever had. What do you know, a chomper escaped. I feel strangely calm that what I just was frightened to joke about is actually happening. It can barely move itself. It is missing fur. It reeks of infection and hunger. There is a trail of encrusted shit on the back of their legs. Their body is scarred enough to be the highest rank of stealth-dog. I get close to her. I smell the infection coming from her eye that is swollen completely shut and oozing. This dog needs to be brought into Pack. I pack-yell to Slender.

( It is a chomper. I am fine. She is not. Ask Masculine for a spare piece of provision (the most iron-rich she can find), the largest run-rig available and the entire store of still-herb? )

( What?! I’ll come help you. ) His panic touches me but this is QD work.

( No! Please do not. I think I know what to do. )

( What is still-herb? ) Now? Really?

( A restricted herb that QDs know when to use. )

( But one that stealth-QDs cannot know about? )

( The stealth means you won’t be told everything. I’m sure there are non-QDs dogs who know about still-herb but I will not be the outpack who shares that information outside the QP. )

He is disgruntled but he says that Masculine has gone to fetch the items. There is only one place where a dog could actually be brought into Pack as she needs. But she will not make that journey easily even if it was willingly or with understanding. I try to approach her closer and she growls savagely. I sit, rolling would tell her I am truly not a threat, but I am not sure that she is enough of a not-threat to risk that. She is furious and continues to growl for a cent^ but her energy to maintain it gives out.

( Provision and mysterious herb in position. Mellow's on the way with the run-rig. )

( Thank you. I'll take the first bits. No rush on the run-rig. ) I keep my head and belly down. I do not turn away from the husk of a dog as I go to the entrance. I do what I must, piercing holes as deep as I can in the liver (well done, Masculine), taking a normal adult dose (don't want her Walking or to waste it) into the punctures. It dissolves as it touches the wet inner flesh. She tracks me intently but does not follow. I take the liver up to the guard ridge and flop it down near her. She jumps up and snarls at it. I thought it would calm her. She attacks it like it chose to land next to her and tears it apart growling as she eats. She loses her footing, she’s so starved. In a healthy dog it could be up to a degree^ before still-herb begins to have any effect. She hasn’t even finished her liver.

A roller-cache would have been better. But I couldn’t have taken one solo without being noticed. She’s draped over my back, thanks to Masculine’s strong shoulder, attached with a cache-pouch strap. I keep stumbling with the roller and her weight on me. It’s the Rise hunting degree. Thankfully no-dog hunts Inside. Warriors will be collecting provision cache-pouches now. I would normally attempt to conceal my journey to Outside, but I just have to keep going. There is more still-herb but it becomes risky to administer too much. I’m far enough from EdgeLeafment^. I must be in the clear. A small creak. A creak that's not how these trees sound. That creak is made by some-dog being stealthier than I am.

I smell around in a panic.

“It’s OK, it’s me.” Jaunty Runt^ trundles from between the trees, joined by Two Legs Runt and Spikey Runt.

“Ye are better than stealth-dogs at silent running.”

“Yes, we are.” Spikey Runt sounds neither proud nor indignant, just stating an observation. Without communicating to me, they slip the Soil-dog-cum-chomper from my back and Jaunty arranges her so she is being taken by all three of their rollers and her own. They set off.

“That’s not the way to the Portal to Outside.”

“For her, it is.”

I’m following the roll-pack in a daze. Not in First Eyes, left behind. I should be guiding them. We are far from the Portal. We are heading towards a relatively dense area of the smelliest Leaved trees. We’re closer to Outside itself but further from being able to reach it. We enter the trees. They have obviously been communicating in their pack-bond. I have learnt to distinguish the very slight hum one can catch of some-dog else’s conversation. We get to a clump of bushes. Pack stops. Two Legs Runt expertly swings the broken sleeping body to the ground generating a range of disturbing cracks and clunks from within. Jaunty Runt and Spikey Runt push into the bushes and reveal a run-rig wide tunnel.

“We have a second portal. We don’t trust Pack to control the only Portal.” Jaunty Rise is matter-of-fact.

“How long have ye had this?!”

“Since before the Portal was completed.” Spikey Runt sounds very slightly boastful.

“How often do ye use it?”

“Only once before now, and that was last Set.” Jaunty Runt’s tone is slightly challenging, daring me to be what she expects of those from World. My options of stealthily approaching Gentle are limited. If I rush then I might be able to get in before the Rise hunt is back and before the Set hunt has all woken. All the questions I currently have are not pressing.

“I will want to ask ye more questions about this later,”

“Feel free to, this needs to happen first.” I seem to have passed for Jaunty Runt for now.

“What do ye think I was doing?”

“You’re taking her to be brought into Pack. You could not do that Inside.” They are so neutral about things I can barely accept as true.

We begin to haul the unconscious but no longer deep-sleeping body through. It is difficult. Her skin slips over her bones and rumples but is so thin, any pressure on it busts it open. She smells awful. The half-season^ of built-up shit makes us all gag. We get her through and the roll-pack guide me to an area of similarly dense foliage on this side of the barrier.

“We’ll stay with her while you contact who you need to.”

“She is getting close to waking. She has been very damaged and doesn’t remember Pack. She will try to attack ye if she thinks ye are a threat.”

“If she does, we will stop her. She is not the first ‘chomper’ we have met, we have systems.” What?! How do these pups have experience of chompers? I start to trot. Maybe they aren’t pups anymore, but they wouldn’t be out of creche on World. What have I not been paying attention to? I have been in frequent contact with the rest of the QPG coalition (particularly since warriors started getting involved with quarter-Service); no-dog mentioned dealing with chompers or even that the Roll-pack were up to anything. Another litter of questions for when I have figured out what I am currently doing.

I hear pups at play, learning the skills they need to be Pack. Maybe bringing a chomper here was not such a good idea. The play sounds significantly more rambunctious than last I was here. I’ll know round this mound and have clear observation of the socialisation area. That’s a much bigger game of bite-fight! It’s getting out of control. A pup I don’t recognise bites Brazen's torn ear, he scents sincere hurt. Not only was that harder than he's used to but he trusted this pup to not bite him there. The small pup backs it up with aggression. I catch scent of him. He’s the pup so good at scent-stories, who first told me about chompers. How on World is that pup here? I observe all the pups charging about, and recognise a few more. Somehow this pack of pups has escaped the chompers by coming here. A voice comes from behind me,

“Well, what did you expect? You said they should be out here. You can’t let a pup like Brazen hear that!” Trustworthy sounds tired but amused.

“It was just a throwaway comment.”

“Neither you nor Broad has the luxury of a casual comment in Outside.” So, he noticed we are being treated like pack-guiders, “Ye are not pack-guiders to these dogs, to some you are Soil and World.”

“How do we stop that?”

“You can’t now. But you can be careful with what ye say and continue to demonstrate what a dog should be.” Of course, I’ll add that to the list of things I spend my time worrying about. Oh yeah. I brought a chomper here, that’s still the top of the list.

“So, in that regard, I found a loose dog, the kind that play-hard pup named ‘chompers’. She is with the roll-pack in the dense copse to South. She is very damaged and will not be easy or safe to bring into Pack but that is the only way she will ever be able to be a dog again.”

“So, bring us to her. I’ll call Gentle and we’ll smell her so we know what we're dealing with. I’m sure another Soil Parent can explain play to these pups.” Gentle is trying to maintain Brazen’s pride and explain to the storyteller why isn’t best practice to bite your peers so hard, you come away with blood in your mouth. She glances up at the bond-communication from Trustworthy, turns to her service-mate, then approaches. Brazen smells me and bolts away from the creche/academy-pack to overtake Gentle on her way to us.

“Brave! Do you see what we managed to do?! These pups are here and not trapped Inside! Now our pack can catch the tortoise leaving lumps.” I think carefully as I speak,

“Yes, well done Brazen… that was a very impressive mission… but it might be a good idea to… clarify my intention when I mention things before leaping into the Big-saltwater without checking for sentinels^.” He earnestly looks at me, “I'm glad they've been able to come into Pack. It seems they are already benefitting from creche-discipline. I would like very much to talk to you about it” I notice him take a breath, “later. I’m in the middle of another mission and you have an education to acquire.”

“Yes, I do. I will never be much Service if I slack off.” He dashes back to the creche/academy-pack, twice the size it was. It was made up of a mixture of Outside-whelped pups and pups who came with adult denotched dogs, and now supplemented with creche-less, adult-less, wild pups. Gentle smells determined. She and Trustworthy chit their readiness.

We run in silence. We're getting close to the copse. I hear growling and some frightened yips. I surge forward. I can smell the reek of the chomper-dog. Two Legs Runt and Spikey Runt are pinning down the dog, and she is sleepily trying to escape them, yipping as she wriggles. She's not fully awake. She will be a lot worse when she is. Gentle approaches her calmly and non-threateningly,

“I am not sure if you can understand me. You are safe now. No-dog will try to make you prey, even if you try to make them prey. But you will be stopped. There is plenty of provision and good Service to be had here. We want to bring you into Pack and we will, but a dog may go where they choose so if I ask the Pack to release you and you leave, we will not pursue you.” She says every word softly like the Soil Parent she is. The dog is coming round, and she brings her head up, eyes wild and showing white. “She will leave us. She is of course welcome to return.” The roll-pack release her, and she growls at us all and slinks away into the sparser trees to South. She is stumbling the still-herb from her body. We hear and smell her long after she is close enough to catch. “I think she might come back.” Gentle is thoughtful. “Well, thanks to you three we have a full creche now so I will get back to it.”

Broad is on the plain between the stores and the Portal, waiting, calmly but expectantly.

( I knew when no-dog noticed you through the portal that you would be crossing the plain again before zenith. )

( You’re not surprised there’s another portal? )

( I am sure Bushy knows of at least one more. But it wasn’t until lying here that I realised it must be the roll-pack who were stealing from stores. They have the ability to collect tiny fragments of Soil that other dogs could not manipulate, do not feel loyalty to wider Pack and more than a casual amount of stealth training. And most importantly, they smelled and heard something that no-dog should ever smell and certainly not one creche-age. So, they made their own portal? )

( Yes. They made it before The Portal was completed. They hadn’t used it, but they knew they might need to. )

( Sneaky little pups. )

( Pups who have learnt the importance of independently controlling where they can go. )

( That too. )

( So, they already have those pups from the settlement that I made the mistake of lamenting about not getting to be pups. That was last Set apparently. They seem to be settling well. I am pretty sure they will be able to come into Pack. Then I brought that Wall-broken dog, I am sure Slender filled you in. She is now just roaming alone beyond Outside. Gentle thinks she might come back but I cannot feel comfortable with a dog that broken being alone. )

( When did you lose your confidence in Pack? You have always been trusting of every-dog to do their Service and Gentle is doing hers. )

( I don’t know really. Maybe when I met that dog. It is different smelling it right in front of you, an individual, powered by fear and rage. I hate Leaf-Pack Guider and every one of his high-notches who have let this situation get out of control. ) I find myself checking around that no Outsider is listening (in our pack-bond?!) and planning to make them runt. Though I don’t think I would be all that sad about it.