Cutting my Losses //.Mal

[Noodle!]

"...I Shall Return to Lea Halalela."

<sub>Morning crept across the yard quietly and slowly like a thief. Golden rays made their way around the fountain and random children’s toys in the yard, and up the steps before spilling on the nose of the large dog who slept there. Shadows made themselves prominent on the dew-kissed blades of grass as bugs crawled underneath the canopies and began their busy lives. Ants marched in perfect lines behind one another, following a trail that was sure to lead to food. They were work obediantly for their queen, and carry back every bit of the even the heaviest supplies. Ah, the perfect little society. A breeze blew the baseball card that was attached to an overturned bicycle, making a flapping noise that caused the dog on the porch’s ear to twitch. The random array of things that littered the yard gave it a surreal feeling, and almost made it look as if it were ripped from the pages of some twisted horror novel. The cheap, paperback kind that sits on the shelves of used bookstores, and no one reads because of its disinteresting name such as “What Jill and Johnny Saw”.

The fluttering of the card in the gale, and the sunlight striking his close lids combined to cause a turning in the gears that ran the animal’s mind. Slowly, he came to awareness. Lifting his massive head, he surveyed the yard. It was dawn, and the family’s sedan was still parked beside the sidewalk, unmoved. Mbala found this an oddity, for the man of the house worked on the farm in the mornings, and was always up bright and early. Sprinklers kicked on, drenching the rusting chain of the bicycle and causing the little army of ants to become distraught with the flood that was devastating their dynasty. God save the Queen. The latch on the gate was closed, and the family children were not playing hopscotch or riding with their friends.

All so strange.

Mbala’s maw dripped with saliva as he turned his head to the side, ears pricked. He listened for movement inside the house, and began to strain as he tried to pick up on the slightest noise. The box that held another world inside it was silenced, the goofy looking creatures did not do stupid things or hurt themselves. The lady of the house was not talking to her sister across the waters on their human device... The children did not complain about being cooped up. And the man could not be heard turning the pages of his paper.

A whimper escaped his throat as he stood, the sound of his paws seeming to echo in the silence. He turned to the door, barking loudly once. He had been taught that this was a sound only to be used in the most urgent of cases... But now, no one came running to see what he had discovered. His outside dish was not filled with water or chicken; his rawhide had not been replaced by the young boy. Whimpering again, he dashed to the side of the house, and bolted through the doggy door. Out of paranoia, he grabbed the latch in his mouth, moving down into a locked position. After several times, he finally accomplished this trick that the young mistress had taught him. He saw his inside dishes were also emtpy, but the scoop was still in the back of “Large Breed Dog Chow”.

Galloping up the stairs like some bucking horse, he nudged the doors of each bedroom open with his nose. And time after time, found them to all be empty. Beds were turned messy, as if they’d awaken and forgot to fix them. Perhaps a family emergency? Had they abandoned him? He shook such negative thoughts from his head. They needed him. He was a valuable asset to the family, he’d saved their lives on more than one occasion. Checking the bathrooms as well, just to be sure, he headed back downstairs. He knocked the bag of food over, eating his fill, and made his way back outside. The sunlight burned his amber eyes as he whimpered and barked to the dog next door.

No response from there either, the massive dog paced around to the front of the house. Staring into the empty street, he pictured a sort of doggy-twilight-zone... Where humans had disappeared entirely. Abandoned all of their pets to be picked off by strays, or to starve. Where were they going to get food if the masters did not bring it to them.

Getting dizzy from his mind’s inquisition, he sat down on the grass just as the sprinklers kicked off. He whimpered again, looking desperately for some sign of life. He pulled himself into a confident stance as he realized the level he’d dropped to. This was not the nature of the boerboel, they were built to be independent and strong. He slowly let that horrendous image of an evil dimension melt into one of his far away home of South Africa. And he was happy.</sub>

[Malfunction]

In another house, just next door to that massive boerboel, Chimera was running just about the same race against reality. She was sliding through the house, jumping on things, tearing apart the house looking for her humans. Genuine fear was written all over her face, not the usual emotionless mask that everyone was used to seeing. What was weirder then just the humans leaving, her brethren were gone as well. Her mother, her father, her two siblings. "No, no, no, NO! They can't do this, they wouldn't do this. I saved the children's lives! I kept the mean men away! I kept the things in the house safe! I saved all their lives more than once! They wouldn't do this! Did they leave cause I was bad? I won't be bad, someone tell them I won't be bad anymore!" She howled, collapsing in the living room.

Her breath came in short little gasps, but the sad thing was, she really did think that they did this to her. She could even believe it. She was a mean, bad dog. She didn't trust any of the humans, she had almost attacked the human's friends more than once. She never had learned to discern the difference between the friends and the enemies. She attacked dogs without thinking, she attacked anything that moved and hadn't been OK'd.

Chimera swallowed and stood up, shaking off her worries. The Shiloh Shepherd wasn't going to sit around and mope. Everyone had abandoned her. She had given them all the years of her life, saving theirs for two years. And what had they done for her? They had left her, clearly not caring if she lived or died. They had taken her family, too. But she didn't care. Right? She was cold, she had no emotions except for anger. She was cold. She cared for nothing and no one. So why had she shown fear when she thought she'd been abandoned. Simple. She had nothing left in the world. Everything had been taken from her at once and she had nothing left. No one cared for her now. No one would feed her. No one would tell her right from wrong. No one would tell her when she'd gone too far.

She moved outside, hearing the boerboel next door. Had his gone too? Maybe they'd gone together. Maybe they were on a vacation, and a dog sitter would be coming to watch her. Hope flared inside her. Maybe she hadn't been left after all. Chimera mentally kicked herself, here she was caring again. She did not care, she did not feel. She was cold, she had to remember that. She walked off her property and onto her neighbors, careful not to go too far. "Are yours gone too?" She asked carefully, watching to see if the male would come out after all.

[Noodle!]

<sub>Mbala had scarcely revisited his home land, that holy land so far away, when a voice broke through his daydream. His eyes opened slowly, patiently, looking over the dog that had approached the fence. His eyes slowly adjusted to being opened, and he realized she was in his yard, but not as far in as to be impolite. He smiled weakly, a gesture of goodwill as he stood and made his way over to the slightly smaller dog. She had a slightly unemotional way about her, but he could sense some kind of inner turmoil.

His heart jumped at her question, and his tail wagged once in a glimmer of hope, Yes, suster. I have searched high and low but no found them. He worked his words together as carefully as possible, using as little Zulu and Afrikaan that he could.

The terminologies came out well, and he was sure she’d understood his statement easily. He looked around the neighborhood, hearing some dogs crying inside their homes... Probably too small to get the food themselves, and trapped inside homes where they would die of starvation or thirst eventually. His heart sank. He had to help them somehow. Shaking away such noble thoughts, he looked back down at the female. He approached her further now, sitting only a few feet away, and began to pant. It wasn’t hot, but the stress was overheating him. Any other time, he would have given anything to be able to care for himself like he had before he was shipped here. But now... The lion-hunting and fending for himself was looking dull compared to prepared kibble and warm beds.

((ooc: its SHORT, but hey! =] muse is returning slowly!))</sub>

[Malfunction]

She watched as the other dog seemed to come back to earth. Had he been daydreaming? Damn it, had she intruded on something, why couldn't she behave normally? Would another, regular, emotion feeling dog have known that he was in a mode that clearly shouldn't have been broken? Was she really just that unattached from the world? Her heart sank, as she deemed herself completely different. Chimera had never understood her own way of life, and she didn't expect anyone else to. She sometimes wished she'd been born like her brethren, feeling. She trembled slightly as the larger dog approached her, forgetting her previous strength. She didn't leave her house, her yard, ever. She hadn't socialized with any other canines outside of her family. Wasn't it odd, that this Shiloh shepherd had lived next door to this large dog for most of her life, and had never so much as exchanged pleasantries with him? Then again, she figured he was a guard dog as well, albeit more frightening then her. Chimera could be frightening when she wanted to, and a lot of the time she wanted to. She was just a different kind of scary than this large male, and it wasn't her fault. She was a smaller, more compact, female, always going to be smaller than the males of the large breeds. No matter what, any male that was in a breed equal to or larger than her own, she would pretty much always come out smaller.

Chimera tilted her head to the side a bit when he came forward even more and spoke again. She looked at the ground, not at him. She didn't know what to decide. If his weren't here, they couldn't help her find her own humans. But if his weren't here, perhaps they had gone off together. Hadn't their humans talked to each other now and again? Perhaps, she hadn't ever paid attention. "Oh. Then…Perhaps they went somewhere together?" She was practically begging for him to affirm her beliefs. They couldn't have left her. They wouldn't think of doing such a thing. They were always kind to her, no matter how embarrassing and horrid she was to others. She had…tolerated them before, at least that was how it looked like on the outside. Pride had been the only emotion she'd ever known beside anger, and her humans had brought it out in her. Pride in having the family's lives and things entrusted to her. She had guarded them with her own life. And then they had left her? No, she had been wrong. They wouldn't leave her, not without saying good bye at least. And they wouldn't leave her alone, to die. True, Chimera knew how to take care of herself, but she didn't want to. She was a house pet, even if she was a slightly rougher one then others.

She sighed, looking back at the large boerboel. Was it possible that their owners had gone off together to do something, and would be back in a matter of days at the most? Yes, that was the best way to think. She just had to stay positive. If she got negative, things would go wrong. Didn't that always happen to everyone? When they got negative, everything went down the tube. She wouldn't be negative, if it killed her she wouldn't be negative.

[/size]

[Noodle!]

<sub>It was extremely obvious that the emotionless female was fighting distress. This cold exterior was only a façade, a mask of sorts; while underneath she was authentically worried about her owners’ disappearances. Mbala was himself, as his owners were all he really had left in this world. He was a purebred boerboel, therefore his mother and father mattered only on paper and he’d seen neither since he was weaned. His father was a stud with hundreds of pups, and therefore Mbala was nothing special to be acknowledged. His previous owners, Zulu farmers and hunters living in South Africa, used him only for protection and as a tool to take down powerful animals such as lions. What was the thrill in allowing a dog to kill what you hunt? Mbala didn’t know the answer to that for sure, but the excitement in a lion-hunt was always worth it. After being shipped to the Americas, he was delivered directly to the family that had ordered him here… And now they were gone.

After all they’d been through together they’d left him. Where they had went, he had no idea, but he was sure their disappearance along with the neighbors was not a coincidence. The odds were very slim that it was just by chance that they went missing. Amber eyes glancing around the street, he wondered if there were any more people who were missing at the moment. He growled lightly in his throat, dismissing the thought and redirecting his attention to the female. I am sorry, suster. He apologized for his zoning out before smiling at her, I am sure they are together somewhere, it is not likely they both disappear to different place. Still not getting the hang of English yet, Mbala’s speech was slightly choppy and thickly accented. He knew enough to make sentences, but sometimes his conjugating of verbs was not hardly correct. Slowly maturing into his new home, he would soon be fluent in the language and sadly forget most Zulu and Afrikaan. His native tongue would become foreign if he was not careful… And he would never forgive himself for that loss of heritage.

This matter of humans was of importance right now, however, and Mbala brought himself back to the situation. Imagining a worse case scenario: he reminded himself that he would have enough food for some time and perhaps to feed this female if she needed such assistance. He knew how to lock his doggy door, something he never thought would come in truly handy until now, to keep out strays and unwanted visitors. After his supply of dogfood ran out, he was sure he could find a way to open that ice land in that box. There was always meat inside, and if he could figure it out he would be set for another good week. Afterwards, he cringed at the thought, he would have to resort to scavenging. Perhaps hunting. He personally preferred the latter. As eating garbage was beneath him, that was for the homeless, strays, the underprivileged.

Should someone warn the other house pets? He sighed, there was too much going on at once, and he took a deep breath to sort out his thoughts as the female replied.</sub>