Wild Dog City (Darkeye Volume 1) (19 page)

"We're lucky we don't live near the edge,"
she said. "I don't know what we would've done if the police had
evicted us."

"Let's not think about it," said Mhumhi,
going to stand beside her and rub his head against her back.
"Anyway, we could take them on together."

"Get off, Mhumhi," said Sacha, who was being
pushed off her feet again. "Like you could take anyone on! You big,
useless-"

"But I have you," whined Mhumhi, wagging his
tail. "You're always there to protect me, right, big sister?"

Sacha raised her lip at him. "I'll put some
holes in your big stupid ears if I hear another word, Mhumhi-"

"Sacha," said Kutta, coming up on the other
side. She put one of her forepaws over Sacha's back, smiling
slightly. "Don't pick on our little brother so much."

Sacha squirmed and hopped at her with a snap
of her jaws. Kutta fell into a play-bow, her black brush-tail
waving gleefully. Mhumhi jumped sideways and gave Sacha a playful
thump of his own so that she whirled around and snapped at him.

"You little brats," she growled. "I licked
your behinds when you were puppies and I can do it again."

Mhumhi's tail was wagging furiously, for this
was the playful side of Sacha- not more than a shade different from
her angry side, perhaps, but to be savored as a rare treat. Kutta
caught his eye, grinning, and he knelt down and bowled Sacha over
with his snout.

Kutta took off first, laughing, and he jumped
over his furiously squealing sister to follow her. Sacha twisted to
her feet and gave chase, as they dashed headlong through the crowd
of dogs and back across Wide Street.

They had not played with Sacha like this for
a long time, but Kutta and Mhumhi were well-familiar with the game-
they slowed down just enough to let Sacha's short legs catch them
up, then turned back and nipped at her with whistles and twitters
of glee. Sacha briefly became a furious little spitfire of yowling
and snapping, and Mhumhi let himself be knocked over so she could
hop on top of his side and tug on his ear. Kutta twisted and
bounced back into a bow beside them, tail whisking from side to
side.

They wrestled gently with her for a short
time, making slow progress through the streets but getting quite
out of breath. Sacha herself was panting the most, her bright
tongue hanging out far over her teeth, but her tail was up and
wagging.

"Alright!" she barked, flopping down on her
side. "Alright, alright, enough!"

Mhumhi bounced towards her but Kutta pushed
at him with her shoulder.

"Let her be," she said, and so Mhumhi flopped
over himself at her feet, poking at her chin with his paws, trying
to be a hulker.

"If we don't want the sun to go down before
we get there, we'd better go," said Sacha, though she showed no
sign of wanting to get up yet. "No more playing."

Mhumhi pushed at Kutta's chest while she
snapped at him, wagging his tail. "No one's playing. It's serious
practice-" He broke off with a yelp, as Kutta had given him a sharp
nip on the ankle.

"Come on, you two," said Sacha, and with a
grunt she pulled herself to her feet. "Let's meet these wonderful
little things. Save your energy for all the muck in the
sewers."

Sacha broke off tussling with Mhumhi to
cough, perhaps at the thought of it. "All right, she's right,
Mhumhi."

Mhumhi would've liked to point out that Kutta
was in no position to tell him to get less frisky, but he kept his
mouth shut and pushed himself back onto his feet. "It's this way,
Sacha," he said, wagging his tail, and pointed himself down an
alleyway.

Sacha ran up beside him with Kutta following
her close behind. She was sniffing the air.

"Do you smell that?"

"Smell what?" Mhumhi took a few quick whiffs.
"What, the urine? Smells a bit like that crab-eating fox-"

"No, not that," said Sacha, and she trotted a
little ways ahead of him. "Smells a bit like… hm. I don't quite
know how to describe it."

Kutta darted up to her other side and put her
nose to the ground as well, and for a moment the three of them
sniffed together.

"It smells like something big," said Sacha.
"Though…"

"I remember this!" exclaimed Mhumhi. "I
smelled it in the sewers once, Kutta, and I forgot to tell you- I
think it made a noise, too, whatever it was-"

"Oh, you smell strange things down there all
the time, Mhumhi, the muck will play tricks on your nose," said
Kutta, though she sounded a bit nervous. Sacha pricked up her ears
and rounded on her.

"You're not keeping secrets again, are
you?"

"No, no! I'm really not!" yelped Kutta,
half-laughing. "I really don't know what it could be! Mother just
said that to me about the sewers, that's all."

"Hm," said Sacha, making Mhumhi think that
the mention of their mother was ill-timed. "Well, we can't stop and
investigate it now. Let's get going and get this over with,
please."

"Right," said Mhumhi, bouncing a bit in spite
of himself. "Then it's this way, this way-"

He sprinted up ahead, rounding the corner out
onto the sidewalk.

"Mhumhi, wait!" called Kutta, chasing after
him. "Wait for Sacha-"

Mhumhi turned around mid-stride, hopping
sideways with impatience. The street was very open here, and
deserted and dusty. There was a lone streetlamp with a bank of
solar panels on top sticking up a few feet ahead of him.

Kutta whistled behind him, catching up, and
he turned to dash towards the streetlamp and then he was jerked to
the ground by one of his back legs.

He got up at once with a whine, leaping away
and then was twisted back over. Something sharp was tight around
his left hind leg, digging in painfully.

Kutta ran over to him.

"What's the matter, did you trip?" she asked,
tongue still hanging out. "I told you not to go so fast-" She
jumped when Mhumhi twisted and squealed.

"It hurts, Kutta, it hurts- get it off!"

Kutta put her ears back and whined, looking
down across Mhumhi's back leg, which was sticking out at an
unnatural angle where he was lying on the sidewalk.

"There's a- there's a wire or something
you've got stuck on, Mhumhi," she said, sniffing at it. "It's
attached to this pole. Let me see if I can bite through it-"

"Hurry, hurry," gasped Mhumhi, twisting
again. "Hurry, Kutta, it hurts-" He thought he might go mad with
the pain, it was so sharp, and his leg felt stretched and
twisted-

Sacha came running up. "Mhumhi, quit moving!
You're making it worse. Kutta, move away!"

Kutta did so, tucking her tail, and Sacha
sniffed around Mhumhi while he quivered and tried to stay
still.

"Mhumhi, you've got to come closer to the
pole," she said. "If you can move a bit backwards, that should
relieve some of the tension."

Mhumhi tried to do what she had said, though
his leg hurt terribly when he tried to roll over. Kutta gave an
anxious whine, dancing on the sidelines.

"It hurts too much," Mhumhi whined, falling
back on his side. "I can't-"

Sacha growled and bit the wire- Mhumhi
flinched, feeling the sudden movement go through his leg.

"I don't think it can be bitten through,"
said Sacha. "Kutta, see if you can work it off his leg with your
tongue-"

Kutta came over and licked at the area where
the wire had caught, making Mhumhi flinch and scrape his claws on
the concrete. Sacha went around to the other side of the pole, her
lip raised.

"I don't like this," she said. "It's got a
funny- it's all got a funny scent-"

"Are you getting it, Kutta?" Mhumhi asked,
raising his head to try and look. His sister gave him a worried
glance and did not respond, just kept licking. Sacha came back
around the pole.

"It's wrapped around here," she said. "We
might have a better chance at it if we can find the end of it- come
with me, Kutta, let's look."

"Wait," whined Mhumhi, raising his head again
as Kutta backed away from his leg. "Wait, where are you going?"

"We're right here, Mhumhi," Kutta said, tone
soothing. Mhumhi saw her rear up and bite at something high up on
the pole.

"No, don't bite it,
pull
it," Sacha
growled. Kutta tugged, and Mhumhi saw a bit of the wire coming
forward in her mouth.

"It's wrapped," said Sacha, pacing and
directing from the ground. "Come around again from this side- pull
it here."

Kutta came back down on all fours for a
moment, panting. "Oh, Sacha, I smell it too-"

"Shut up," said Sacha. "Come around- focus on
your brother-"

Kutta reared up again to tug at the wire.
Mhumhi had to put his head back down again to rest his neck then.
He shut his eyes and panted, tongue lolling against the hot
concrete. His every instinct was jangling at him to struggle and
fight it, to twist away from the thing that had his foot gripped so
tightly-

"Don't move," said Sacha's voice near his
head, almost as if she'd heard his thoughts. "You'll break your
leg. Don't think of panicking, Mhumhi."

Mhumhi opened his eyes and looked up at her.
Her small eyes, buried as they were in her bear's face, were hard
and expressionless. Mhumhi still found it comforting.

"Take me home?" he said, trying to draw his
dry tongue back into his mouth. "Lick it better for me?"

"Once we get you out," said Sacha, and she
leaned close and gave him a swift lick on the forehead. "Though
it's nice having you down at my level, little brother."

Mhumhi gave a strained little laugh. Behind
him, Kutta said, "I think I've got it, Sacha!"

Sacha went around and grabbed the end of the
wire, which Kutta had managed to partially unravel. Together,
tugging it in a circle, his sisters unwound the last bit of it, and
suddenly all the tension on Mhumhi's leg eased off.

"Oh!" he said, rolling over, but when he got
up he was jerked back again, his back leg sticking out
straight.

"Wait, it's caught on something," said Sacha,
rearing up to sniff. "I think it's just one last bit."

"Someone's coming," said Kutta.

Mhumhi looked up, and Sacha fell back on all
fours. There was indeed a figure approaching them from far down the
broad street. It was obscured a little by the shimmering heat
rising from the asphalt.

"It's a dog, isn't it?" said Sacha. "Maybe he
can help."

The figure kept moving towards them. Mhumhi
thought it looked like it was limping.

"Maybe he's been caught in a wire too," he
said, wagging his tail at his own attempt at a joke. Kutta gave him
a concerned look.

"Just a moment, Mhumhi, we'll get you off of
this," she said, biting and tugging at the wire. Sacha walked
around her to trot towards the figure.

"Help us!" she called. "We could use…"

She trailed off. The figure limped
closer.

It was huge. Mhumhi put his ears back. It was
bigger than the biggest gray wolf he'd seem. It was not like any
dog he'd ever seen before, in fact. It was a mass of dirty gray
spotted fur, humped shoulders, a wide mouth, a face-

"It's got a face a little like yours,
Mhumhi," Kutta observed, and Mhumhi had to agree, reluctantly, that
it did share characteristics with a painted dog; the darkened
muzzle and eye area, the rounded ears. It had a short tail, which
it curled upwards over its heavy hindquarters.

"Hello!" barked Sacha. "What sort of dog are
you? Will you say something?"

The dog opened its mouth and gave a strange
kind of chattering noise. Mhumhi felt a strange chill, because it
sounded rather like- He glanced at Kutta, and saw the startled look
on her face, and knew she heard it too. Rather like hulker
laughter.

Sacha, of course, picked nothing up of it,
and trotted the rest of the way to the strange dog and gave an
authoritative squeal. "Why don't you say something?"

The strange hulking thing seemed to cringe
away from her, which Mhumhi found rather amusing- she was a
fraction of its size.

"Oh!" said Sacha, a rare exclamation of
surprise, and jumped back. Mhumhi hopped forward a little, tugging
on the wire, trying to see what had startled her.

Now that it was closer, they saw why the dog
had been limping. There was something wrong with one of its front
paws- no, it would have been better to say that the wrong thing
was
its front paw. Instead of a blunt dog paw it had a dark,
perfectly formed hulker hand.

Mhumhi had to blink hard to believe what he
was seeing. Yes- it was certainly a hulker hand- the dog held its
leg up and crooked so as not to step on it, and Mhumhi could see
the individual fingers twitching as the hand dangled downwards.

"What's the matter with you!" Sacha shouted,
angry in her confusion, and stepped back a little. The strange dog
lowered its head and made a strange noise, a long moan, going
higher like a question: a calling noise. Mhumhi recognized it; he'd
heard it in the sewers.

"Stop that!" barked Sacha, moving to snap at
the stranger, and he cringed away again, and then he snapped back.
His jaws caught her around her small head, and he lifted her off
the ground.

Mhumhi stared a the image a moment, not
comprehending- Sacha's body dangling like that in his teeth, by the
head- he could see her short legs kicking and whirling.

Kutta gave a scream and dashed over, baring
her teeth; the stranger dropped Sacha on the ground and ran away a
few limping steps, squatting low and cringing. Sacha did not move
on the ground. Mhumhi's heart was hammering. He could smell her
blood.

With a furious twist he jerked free of the
pole, the wire finally dragging loose behind him, and ran limping
towards Kutta. She was snarling and biting at the flanks of the
stranger, which was having a hard time getting away with its one
malformed paw; it squatted and cringed again, snapping at her, its
heavy jaws just missing her head. It gave that awful chattering
laugh again.