Have we been here already? There are prints in the Soil made by a small number of dogs scent masking. That could be us. Or is it some other pack who track us? Maybe she (Wilful, the only dog of whom we think) returned to Pack to steal buzzer-paste and recruit more to her deranged course? The land that smells of only new growth and looks like a fire has burned through is disorienting. I don’t think we have come this way before. If it was Wet, we would know the recency of these prints by their erasure but under the still heat of Dry, within a compound these prints could be from a degree^ ago or a season! I dismiss it. Swift notices them but does not show any concern or surprise, if anything a weird satisfaction. Maybe she knows we have been here before and she’s pleased for evidence that Silky forever taking point is not best for Pack. She is secretive and closed off but obviously wishes to be close to us. She wants to feel in-Pack but she can’t for some reason. If only she’d tell us. We would drag the burden with her. She has so much Pack if she chose to connect with it.
This journey has taken a physical toll on all of us. Though Silky is obviously more used to extended travelling without rest or pack-time, he too is gaunt and smells of cortisol^ more and more over the days. My limbs ache, my sinews show, holding my tail up feels like an effort. Poor Scrawny is barely able to get to the next provision. He certainly never trained for this. I keep myself searching by imagining the social private den-visit we’ll make to No Eyes First Eyes Runt^ when we are back with Pack. I am sure, if the previous notchings are anything to go by, we’ll all be notched anew. We will have achieved a rank most dogs never achieve and in barely 2 cycles. Maybe Silky will finally get his first notch. He has earned it and for All-Pack Guider^ directly. Spending time with our Service-Pack and catching up with their news is a rich scent coming in the wind. Then, with Soil’s grace we will have more buzzer paste and be able to serve Pack in a way that no other dogs can. Or we won’t, and maybe we can settle into re-fortification and consolidation of settlements. I imagine sharing provision and Heat with Swift (as she was, open and kind) and Fierce (as she always is) and even Scrawny (though he always disappears from my reverie when I start thinking about the good bits).
( Anyone else smelling wax? ) Scrawny hadn’t Pack-communicated yet today. It startles me from my thoughts of how our little pack is surviving.
( Yes, actually. Old and dry. ) Fierce seems more intrigued than I can feel. I am sure Swift has heard but she shows no sign of communicating.
By the time we found the second hive, none of us were surprised.
“I thought the whole compound was Cleansed and there was only one hive?” Scrawny can’t prevent himself from getting excited as questions emerge, demanding answers.
“That’s what we were told but obviously Pack did not need to tell us about this second hive. Silky doesn’t smell all that surprised to me.” Swift is already lying down smelling slightly smug and very exhausted.
“Didn’t you Cleanse the buzzer compound?” Fierce turns to Silky.
“Yes, I was part of that Pack. We swept through the whole compound and we Cleansed it. I passed through this hive but not the one we consider our research site. I don’t know why but we weren’t permitted to tell other dogs of the presence of the second hive. The notches said it would be alarming to Pack to know how many buzzers had been here, and since they were Cleansed, we only needed enough to research. But I don’t know if that is the whole matter.” I feel Swift clamp down even further onto herself. Scrawny is interested though,
“What could it be? This hive is no different to the other is it? I guess it would be easier to conceal. But most dogs wouldn’t actually be threatened by a presence that had gone. Hard to tell, but this hive seems not dissimilar in decomposition to our one so it has probably been empty for about the same amount of time.” He trails off as he enters the structure looking for the different types of degradation that apparently at some point he and Pompous developed a categorisation system for.
“Well, we are here for Wilful. We all know what to do. We will conduct a thorough search here before Set.” We divide off. When we have a location that needs a more thorough search than most of the terrain we pass, we split up into Rise, Set, North^ and South, normally leaving Scrawny to follow whisps as the most skilled nose. He’ll flit between us and confirm our findings. He will come when called but he might as well entertain himself a little longer. Maybe his curiosity being fed will keep his mind and nose prepared.
As I do every time, I head North and begin a systematic search of the area in precise transects, fanning from the point we began. I hear the others beginning their own transects and settle into the boring and highly pressured task of trying to smell Wilful.
North is boring. I exited the buzzer-complex within cents^ and am negotiating dense flowering vines. Well, I know they are flowering vines. There are no flowers to my nose or eyes. Amongst the rotting leaves the ground is squishy and releases strange scents that seem not of-World but vaguely familiar.
My paws start to itch. We’ve been at it for maybe 40 cents. There’s clearly nothing useful to be found this way but I need to complete my search. Unless we find any really useful, sturdy evidence elsewhere.
As if Soil was listening Fierce sends up a call for us all to come together. I turn and eagerly leave the sticky ooze that’s making my legs and feet itchy.
I am the last to join pack. The scent of Wilful, and that is definitely what it is, becomes more pronounced as I approach. She was in more distress than I have ever felt, though for what reason is not clear. Her scent is loud in this empty environment. I wonder at not being able to smell this all day! There are scuffs in the Soil and clumps of Wilful’s fur drifting about. The dog who left these did not care about who might follow her. It is not recent. The emotions have decayed. These do not even represent the level of anger, fear, horror and loss she experienced here so unguardedly. Not what Pack would expect of a dog who successfully managed to steal from the most secure store on World under All-Pack Guider’s nose.
“Ah! This feels very wrong.” Says Scrawny shaking himself, sending a tuft of drifting hair flipping into the air. “What happened to her here?”
“Maybe she regrets what she did to Pack and felt the loss of Pack in a time of distress.” Swift talks methodically but I see her nose twitching at every scrap of scent in the air.
“Maybe she is trying to trick us.” Silky seems the most unnerved by the remnants of Wilful’s horror.
“Whatever her motivation she scent-masked when she left this place. So she is not completely without strategy and skills.” Fierce, who has been in this spot longest is investigating little features that I cannot yet distinguish.
“So do we finish our search or do we try to track her from here?” Even as I suggest it as an option my skin on my feet tingles and my hair stands on end.
“I’ve found another Buzzer-Sentinel. I think it is worth, while we’re all here, trying to get any information from it.” Silky is jumpy and stressed.
“That seems worth a few cents delay, we are hardly biting at her heels.”
This buzzer-complex has fewer entries than the buzzer-Sentinel back with Pack but it shows much the same thing. The construction of a Pack-guider chamber and then a buzzer-cache but it seems it was never filled.
“It seems she might not have taken the disappointment of not being able to get more buzzer-paste to feed her reliance very well.” Silky had been lying very still and seeming to deep-sleep but I suspect did not so much as sleep. He seems more confident as we tell him there was no further buzz-paste cache here for her to raid.
“I’m not sure it is a reliance. I had far less of course but I’ve felt no ache or desire. It was more just a wave of Pack for a moment.”
“Wouldn’t you want a wave of Pack if you had lost Pack?” Swift is determined. I truly wish she would tell me what about. We could approach it as a Pack.
“Exactly Swift!” Silky is returning to his usual demeanour. “She hasn’t dug here, so maybe she can interpret the buzzer-Sentinel too and she abandoned this place. I think it’s worth us heading further into the compounds. Crows were next to South-Rise so that should be next.”
Swift doesn’t wait for any sneezes and strides out South-Rise, away from this buzzer-place where a Soil-dog felt so alone she pulled out her fur because she couldn’t get a taste of another world. Every time I think I understand the true scope of this “experiment” we have been forced in to, I realise that I don’t understand it at all. Soil should have prevented “The Overseers” from being able to steal Soil-dogs from World. Are the Overseers more powerful than Soil? No, because Soil defeats their technology. Soil is helping dogs walk away from the fight with jaws bloody and the other species bloody piles of revolting unnatural offal. Thank Soil for making All-Pack Guider No-Eyes First Eyes Runt Rise the dog to guide Pack through this. Soil will bring every dog back to World and every-dog will rejoice. We are helping Them do Their work.
Not just Soil-dogs but Soil’s Pack.