I am astounded that Swift has led this chase for so long. She smelled fresh Wilful and we have run scent-masked for over a degree^. She asked Silky to flank her. He went to the North^. We ran straight through a tunnel out of the flapper-compound. She must have smelled it somehow. It was so perfectly positioned. Makes sense that Wilful would have used it. We pelted down the overwhelming growth in the compound-tunnel and through a similarly convenient tunnel into the next compound (must be squelchers). Here the growth is only damaged near the rivers. But there are more rivers than I can comprehend. We leap over stream after gully after trickle after torrent. She guides with such confidence. It is heartening to remember she is still part of Pack and still willing to serve. I have lost track of where Silky is. He’ll be shadowing our path as much as possible so he must surely return to us soon.

We are deep into the squelcher-compound, after what must be nearly 4 degrees of running. There’s no sign of Silky rejoining us. I am considering asking Swift if we should stop. If the initial scent was as fresh as she thought, we should all have caught scent of something by now even in this state. But this greenery has not been stirred by anything in days if not seasons. I don’t want to discourage her, not while she is showing her first pack-enthusiasm since we left Pack proper. She stops dead and turns to the three of us, sides heaving, panting heavily. We all scent curiosity, obviously I am not the only dog happy to smell her serving so seriously.

“He won’t find us here.” I take a breath to pack-howl for Silky. She knocks me over and pins me. “Do not call him.” She whispers into my face. “He must not find us.” The horror of what she is saying hits me like her knocking me over.

“But he can hardly be safe on his own.”

“I don’t care, besides he can cope fine on his own – he’s a stealth dog!” What?! Why would there be a Stealth-dog in-Pack? What have we got for any-dog to use deception to get? How could a Stealth-dog get past No Eyes First Eyes Runt^? I don’t know where to begin.

“That actually explains a lot of things.” Scrawny has his thoughtful voice on. “He has never been notched but he’s very scarred, he is trusted by All-Pack Guider^ even though he has no notches.” What?! How could he be a stealth-dog FOR No Eyes First Eyes Runt?! Why would she ever want to observe us covertly when we would tell her anything she wanted to know, for the good of Pack or otherwise.

“Why would All-Pack Guider be trying to observe us surreptitiously?” Exactly Fierce! She says what I cannot yet form into bond or spoken words yet.

“If ye would just settle down, I’ll tell ye.” Swift sounds like she is talking to newly whelped pups who haven’t even been to creche yet. “I’m sorry. I’ve been planning this for a season and this isn’t how I wanted it to go.” She shakes herself all over, I feel queasy at how her skin slips over her muscles and flaps back and forth. “Give me three days to tell ye what I think is happening. Then, if none of ye agree, we can return to Pack and I will never mention it again. But if I persuade any of ye, I will leave Pack with whoever I persuade.” This drops like a stone into a ravine. We can feel it bumping off each of us as outcroppings, causing irreparable damage as it goes. She thinks something so bad she is prepared to leave Pack? That she is prepared to abandon a dog we have denned with (however much they have not always agreed) to be alone, for three days. “I know there are places where our scents would not travel far, I think we should go there before I tell ye anything else. There is enough scent leaking out here.” And she turns as though she hasn’t only just gathered her breath and bolts onwards.

My hopes that Silky would find us anyway and tell us all why he is scarred but not notched are diminished as Sun retreats into Big Salt-water’s embrace. We heard a howl a few degrees ago. It sounded panicked but Swift snarled at my wanting to just tell him Pack was not gone. This may all be a figment of not enough provision and whatever alien poison seeped into her at The Cleansing. Dogs have been known to become delusional and paranoid when they suffer Pack-removal. As the most effortlessly social of our pack, maybe she has been too long limited to too little Pack. Thoughts have been rattling round in my stomach. Small stones and grit released by Swift’s original stone have been falling and causing further damages to stones further down. If All-Pack Guider was notching us and yet filling our ranks with stealth-dogs, what was her intention? Are we dangerous to Pack? Have we been chosen for a stealth mission? Why weren’t we told?

We have crossed so many waterways that I could not tell where we came from. Swift warned against touching or drinking the water. The bizarre islands of growth are set back from each waterway and provide additional challenge for trying to negotiate the now sinister-seeming streams. The air smells of rotten fish more and more as we get further into this place destroyed by swimming instead of flying monsters. The stench becomes so strong that we can’t catch a scent of Soil and I have to pace myself to stop from gagging. That’s when she takes us to an area that was flooded trees but is now flooded trunks. It is eerie, the trees look and feel spongy as we skip along the routes following a path Swift seems to have utmost confidence in until we reach an area where the Walked trees have large flat ledges that dogs can easily sit on. She stops and throws herself down onto a large ledge and lies gasping and panting.

While she gains herself, I take in our surroundings. There is a large tree with a hollow which would have been a snug, warm den before the trees were ruined by off-World parasites. It is surprisingly comfortable to settle on the spongy wood but it does not feel stable. My forelegs, that have just been focused on running for nearly a day, tell me they’re itchy with a force that surprises me.

“I am pretty sure we can speak freely here.” Swift eventually gasps out. She is still not ready to speak. If she is having delusions I want her to feel safe and in-Pack so I try to approach her gently,

“I am glad you feel safe to communicate here, I am sure Silky will be fine if he is a stealth dog. Would you be able to explain what led you to that conclusion?” It sounds awkward and patronising as it comes out of my mouth, I remind myself that a good Pack-guider is prepared to have all conversations with their Pack and resolve to have a better response for whatever random co-incidences she offers me.

“Well, as Scrawny says, he is scarred but not notched. He has skills that only Stealth-dogs are trained in–”

“How much do you know about Stealth-training?” I didn’t mean to interrupt or sound so incredulous. I don’t like smelling myself fail. With Swift.

“He can swim, not just play and paddle. He can last for days without deep-sleep. He is the only dog amongst us still able to keep going without the comforts of Pack. There are others that I am hoping my impromptu training can keep me ahead of. I am mostly relying on him knowing why I have done this and knowing better than to follow. He’s probably returning to All-Pack Guider” she says it with such vehemence that I am shaken, “to tell her that one of us knows.”

“Knows what? You have brought us to the most disgusting place on World and you are yet to tell us why!” Fierce seems like she is equally upset at her own words.

“So, you know The Cleansing? When dogs ran united to remove the threat of other species with tooth and claw?”

“Of course we do. We ran by your side.” I hope she knew how to get here not just ran at random until she found somewhere. She doesn’t seem to be rational.

“What if I told you that most of The Cleansing was done by a littersworth^ of dogs using Wilderness Gas?” It is so ridiculous, I chuck.

“So these dogs went back generations to collect Wilderness Gas and brought it to help all of Pack?” But as I say it I flick back through days and days covered in dead plants. Scrawny confirms the thought bubbling up in my mind,

“So that is why there is nothing living in the compounds. And why it is only bad near waterways in here. It’s why none of the compounds smell like the ape-compound.”

“Yes. And dogs never got rid of Wilderness Gas. Each Pack kept a deep store against the time when the other Pack would inevitably revert to their sneaky, savage ways and use it. When the experiment was announced we think they dug caches all over The Spit and triggered whichever they were able to.”

“Well, fine they achieved The Cleansing with some help from Wilderness Gas. It did what it needed to. It protected Pack from the off-worlders. With less loss of Pack than fighting each species would have caused” Well done, Fierce, I need some dog talking sense right now.

“But the method caused substantial loss of Pack. Why did you think Wisdom First Eyes Walked? Why did you have to let that dog Walk on the Night of The Cleansing without a blemish on her coat? Why am I going to Walk before Wet arrives.” This time it is a boulder so large as to flatten the whole ravine.

At least now we are in a comfortable warm, less fetid den. Scrawny insisted we move for Swift’s comfort almost immediately after she shattered us all with the nonsense of her Walking soon. We dug up some untainted Soil to get out of the squelcher-compound, but not into a compound-tunnel. We’re by big-saltwater. The startling smells of World as usual baffle my senses and send trickles of belief through my coat so I feel them prickling my skin. We are amongst gnarly roots with comfortable nooks away from the wind.

“So Pack used Wilderness gas against the other species, it made some dogs sick?”

“It killed a lot of dogs. It’s why all this land has no growth. Wilderness gas stripped it all. It killed prey and predator species in all the compounds. You may have noticed back-filled holes in the compound-tunnels, always surrounded by blank patches.”

“Yes, I had noticed. I had assumed it was related to the other species’ toxins.” Scrawny shocks me with his response.

“It’s how Pack attempted to vent the compounds they can’t drop the barriers of.”

“Why isn’t it toxins of the other species?!” I feel like I should be approaching this differently but I am so confused that it burns away everything but anger. “What suggests that it is Wilderness gas? Afterall, it has a distinctive smell which we would have smelled if it really was present.”

“That is a combination of the venting and the damage that being exposed to Wilderness gas causes. You probably couldn’t smell it any more if it was in front of you effervescing.” Scrawny is speaking but what he is thinking is much bigger, he smells and sounds absent.

“Exactly, Wilderness gas damages your ability to smell anything in large doses. I can’t smell any of ye.” claws into my belly “but the first thing you lose is the ability to smell Wilderness gas.” I’m shuffling closer to her. She has been so removed maybe she just hasn’t been close enough to Pack. My thoughts rattle around, turning into swirling masses of storm clouds each overtaking the previous. Swift has noticed me getting closer and she puts a foot against me. I feel how hot she is. Then smell how unhealthy she is. Then I hear her words again and I know they are true.