Today, Vicious is reminding Pack how much of a contrary beast he can be. Contrary days are not predictable, they’re caused by nothing. There’s no avoiding it. We just have to wait for it to pass. Which it usually does within a day or so. Right now, I can take it. The weather has been progressively milder as we travel North^. Though there are periodic heavy showers, the sun between them dries the leaves and paths quickly. I feel jolly. We haven’t been making fast progress. Spotless is very slow and gets tired. Days are short (though that seems to be changing a little again). We need time to provide and make den each day. That doesn’t leave many degrees^ for substantial progress. We’ve travelled a maximum of two days^ in the last quarter-season^. Hardly impressive but I’m pleased with the progress. The further we travel from Pack, the safer I feel. Days can go by without an abandoned settlement (human or bee). It’s easy to feel like Soil made this world just for our strange pack.

We travel in silence (common when Vicious is in a fighty mood). We provisioned last Set. It wasn’t a huge hunt. Travelling in the dense old forests is difficult Service (keeping North-ish is hard when you can’t orient yourself). But that’s where provision is best. Ideally, we travel the day in sparser, younger forest but keep our noses out for denser patches for provisioning. It’s been a few days since we found a decent patch. We haven’t gone hungry, but we’re used to more. Travelling on black-paths is very exposed, best avoided. But there are other paths, without human-lava on them but definitely human-made. They don’t repel growth as much as lava, but growth is always less. They’re easy to travel without feeling too exposed to aerial attack. We followed them the two times we found them. They’re very straight and have definitely been helpful to making progress but we obviously don’t control them. Both of the northward paths eventually curved Rise or Set so we turned away from them. I’m not ready to stop travelling away from Pack yet.

We’ve passed multiple settlements. The larger the settlement, the more thoroughly picked clean the carcass is. Some smaller ones have empty shells but in many places there are only a few remaining portal covers with no portal or soil chunks that they fabricate from. In Two-paths-ment^ a twelfth ago, we crossed a much smaller river (still more than I had the taste for attempting to swim). Both high-paths were complete and much less huge than the first in Sweet-ment.

( It’s a real shame we left the human-path a few days ago. We might hit another river and have to spend days back-tracking to cross it. ) Vicious sneezed for staying on the path when it curved Rise but I took us off it to focus on progress North over all else. He’s trying to get me to nip but I’m not nipping. He is thwarted, silence returns. Not for long. ( We’ll need to stop early to have enough time to provision since there’s no dense forest to be sniffed. )

( I’m happy to stop whenever you need to Vicious. ) He wants to bite but he’s aware of how much power that would relinquish. ( If we can all manage another degree, I would like to. ) He sulks, unwilling to delay. I leave pack-communication open. I feel him angry with himself. He doesn’t want to be in an un-pack-minded mood. He just is.

( Well Vicious, I think you might get to experience a Pack-luxury I barely noticed I had until this was the extent of Pack. ) He is trying to feel more positive about the day, but he’s still snappy I was not more plainly spoken with him.

( What makes you think that? ) I let him be cross, it’s not really at me. But it should be. No more than I should be angry with him. Which might be a lot.

( I recognise this smell. They do too. )

( They’re always agitated for no reason. )

( Well, this time they have a reason to be. This is like Monkey-ment. I think it was inhabited by humans until the experiment started. These dwellings will have portal covers worth opening. ) The ever-pups are waiting for me to let them run. Bouncy is making a strange escalating yipping sound I’ve not heard her make before. I let them know they can go. The ever-pups put on speed to get over the ledge and into the “familiar” place. Maybe they’re hoping to smell humans, maybe they aren’t but their joy fills the air. Late First Eyes Runt^ runs with them, in First Eyes, making sure Spotless is not left behind.

( Even if humans were here relatively recently by comparison to the rest of this Damp-World, it’s been at least a cycle since they were. What makes you think there’ll be anything worth anything behind a portal cover here? )

( There was last time. )

( That means nothing. ) I feel an obstinate excitement at the potential cache of useful items we’re likely to find. I let myself feel the delight of the Pack and run to catch up with them, leaving Vicious to his sulk. That’s all I can do. I’m not gifted with words or feeling Pack on behalf of others. It always changes eventually, so I mostly let him soak in his grump until it dissipates.

The ever-pups break the tree line. A high-pitched barking begins. But it isn’t any of the ever-pups or Late First Eyes Runt. It must be another abandoned ever-pup. Well, I’ll find out if they’ll travel with us or leave them here. They have survived a cycle without humans, maybe they’re not as puppish as I thought. I leave the trees only a cent^ after the ever-pups. They’re arrayed in an arc and are staring in bemusement at this tiny, shouty dog. It’s certainly an ever-pup. Around the size of Spotless and the shape of Pointy but closer to Bouncy in fur-tone. She screams at us all. The ever-pups show their lack of returned aggression sitting or lying, not making eye-contact. Her distress is swelling. Maybe I should try to help her. Because your presumed responsibility for others has only resulted in excellent things for those involved. Before I can intervene, Late First Eyes Runt walks over to her confidently and pins her. Gently. She lets herself be pinned. Sudden stillness falls. As soon as she relaxes, Late First Eyes Runt starts to groom her. She seems to welcome it. Spotless comes towards them Shouty growls. He ignores her and joins Late First Eyes Runt. She stops growling. Bouncy and Pointy approach at once and I worry I’ll need to chit them. But she’s now in pack-bliss. All-Spot isn’t joining but he is observing. She trots to him and sniffs him. He lets her. She goes between the pack, jumping against Pointy to sniff her properly. Vicious slinks over.

( What fresh dung is this? )

( She’s another ever-pup, abandoned by the humans who made her runt. She’s not particularly skinny though so she is obviously independent and able to hunt. Or possibly, has access to some caches that might be useful to us. )

( Tell me you are not planning on her coming with us? )

( Shouty? Possibly, a dog may go where they choose, even an ever-pup. )

( Do we want a dog capable of that level of noise with us? )

( It might come in useful. )

( Or it might get us caught by floaters. Just a thought. ) I know adding another dependent creature to this Pack is adding another risk, but I feel Pack for the ever-pups. I don’t think I could still be a Soil-dog, even a de-notched, runt-making, not-for-Pack like me if I ignored her. I walk a few paces towards the ever-pups and wait for them to bring me into their Pack-moment. Shouty sniffs me as much as she can with her short posture, putting her paws on my shoulders to try to smell my ear-nubs and face. I chit. The ever-pups and Late First Eyes Runt go into an alert position where they are. Shouty is only a heartbeat behind them. So, she’s smart and prepared to learn. Yes, I think another ever-pup would be fine. It’s not like she’ll be slower than Spotless. Her ears, so like Pointy’s (almost like mine once were) twitch, she is waiting for the next command. I ki and the Pack comes alive, Shouty with them. I suggest a direction and we approach the nearest planted-den. Vicious elects to travel in a separate direction rather than give me First Eyes. I leave him to it. There’s the smell of something long-dead, being reclaimed by Damp-soil (as Soil reclaims all dogs on World). It’s mixed with the smell of some ungulate^ and broken plants. I still catch human-made scents, but they’re faded.

There’s a human-structure like the first I denned in. It’s some kind of cache or was before a cycle of animals ate what they found. It has been all kinds of native animals. I can smell patches of fear where Shouty and, possibly another individual preyed on those coming to eat. The other three structures all have closed portal-covers. Their insides are likely well-protected against reclaiming wildlife. I try the first one. It opens readily, if creakily. There’s a dry waft carrying a myriad of human smells. They’re fading but they’ve been preserved in the relatively airless, sealed structure. I hear Vicious going into another structure as though he’s an independent dog making an independent discovery I didn’t help him reach.

The ever-pups go to run ahead. Shouty gets ahead of us and yells at us all. Late First Eyes Runt strides confidently past her and starts to sniff. She focuses on Late First Eyes Runt and barks directly at her. Late First Eyes Runt stops and pins Shouty again. This seems to be sufficient, Shouty allows us free within the structure. The ever-pups begin a thorough sniff of the whole structure. I know what I am hunting. The hardest, smooth ground in the chamber by the little-wild. There it is! Softly humming. I’m not sure if Vicious can feel from here but I send him a pack-message,

( You hungry? You wanna smell this. ) I feel no response. I open the Wilderness-cache. It is stuffed with all sorts of frozen provision. Far more than most Wilderness-caches. I pull a selection of things I can smell enough to identify out to get soft. Shouty comes in and tries to get at the provision. I whip it from the ground and put it on a raised platform she could never scale. She shouts again. I stand firm. She loses interest when she realises I won’t return it to her.

It’s strangely quiet. I panic about being blasé with human things. I turn to check. I spot the shadow of something by the solid-air. He’s scent-masked. He heard me. ( Vicious I need you to help me. ) He gives it half a cent then appears, so I don’t know he was a tailslength away pretending he never heard me. We go together to the platforms to the canopy-dens. Vicious’s not comfortable with them but doesn’t want to show how much less he knows human structures. We reach the top. I smell all the pups in one place. I enter the chamber. They’re arrayed on a soft-platform. They’re snuffling and nudging each other and the soft hides to find a comfortable position. We might as well sleep until the provision’s soft. I jump up and find a spot to settle. Shouty joins. Vicious, I can tell wants to go under as I did in Monkey-ment. He tries to find somewhere to fit. I feel overwhelming pity for him not finding a place in Pack. I extricate myself and shuffle into the cosy gap beneath the platform. He joins me. He doesn’t acknowledge it or groom me. I listen to the delighted ever-pups and Late First Eyes Runt shift on the squashy platform.

I don’t mind the slightly stale taste of the Wilderness-provision. Though prey is becoming more apparent, protein-rich provision without expending any energy, is a treat I didn’t think I would get to experience again. My belly is pleasantly full. We’ve all eaten. I gave those that understand instructions to find water containers and open Wilderness-caches. I’m now in another cache of some kind. It smells dusty and of nothing particularly edible. I pull some things down from the nearest store to investigate. There’s something that smells a bit like clot-weed if it was dried for a whole Dry. I put my front paws on a lower platform to reach where the smell’s coming from. The platforms roll towards me. These platforms are some kind of roller-cache. Oh, sometimes I would groom a human. This is one of the most valuable human artefacts! It’s large enough for us to carry multiple days of provision. We could carry any larger items we needed. And there are two stores – we could even carry Spotless when he gets tired.

( What do you think you’ve found that’s so exciting? I can’t think past it, so I came to smell it myself. )

( It’s a roller-cache made in the sturdy human style. Check out how easily it moves! It’s big enough to carry far more with us and even Spotless when he gets tired. ) I negotiate the roller-cache out of the store and push it on the hard, flat ground of the chamber. It careens into the Wilderness-cache and bounces off, gliding.

( The ground’s hardly like that outside is it? )

( But the black-paths are. The big ones are too exposed, but smaller ones, many are completely within the trees. )

( Do you really want to limit our travel that much? )

( Do you really want to leave such a potentially useful thing behind for the sake of being in a bad mood when we found it? ) He goes. He is closed. I don’t know what’s going on. We’ll den here for at least a few days, so I have time to find a way to hitch our useful roller-cache to a dog. That’s something humans didn’t think of – how would a dog move this about?

I go into the little-wild between the structures to find materials. I catch the very beginning of a conflict. Vicious has found a large ungulate, probably the one I smelled earlier. It’s quite scrawny but huge. Vicious has brought down a deer not much shorter on his own. He isn’t asking for help. Let him take the risk rather than wait a few cents for Pack. Shouty’s furious. She runs out barking at Vicious with no fear. He brushes her out of the way. She is back up snarling, trying to grab any part of him she can shake. He’s ready to tear the throat out of this huge animal. Shouty and Late First Eyes Runt both jump between him and her. That’s enough for most of Pack. They get in between him and his would-be prey.

( This is the kind of thing that happens with ever-pups, they get in the way of good provision. )

( Quick, help. Pack. )

( I don’t know why, but Shouty is Pack with this creature, now Shouty is Pack with Late First Eyes Runt so we are Pack with that thing. ) I surprise myself with how quickly that came. And I knew it was true. I never thought I would be Pack with my own made-runts and human made-runts so why not a provision creature?

( You cannot be fucking^ serious? This is provision waiting to be made. )

( It seems Pack is prepared to fight you to decide that. Right now, what does it mean if we have another member to deal with. She will clearly feed herself and every human-made thing has proved useful eventually. )

( She’s just prey. )

( I think she’s human-made. Like the ever-pups. ) Humans make runts wherever they go. Meddlers. This ungulate has survived no herd (except Shouty). If she filled her skin, she’d be huge and densely muscled as few wild ungulates are.

Vicious makes his lunge for her.

Late First Eyes Runt was being more attentive than I was to his warning signs. She bodily intercepts him, grabs his mane and shakes him. She’s almost the same size as him. The ever-pups fall to it so I chit them back. Shouty doesn’t stop. She tries to find a way in. She is thrown clear of their tussle. Both these dogs can be unpredictable. A First Eyes has responsibility towards their Pack. I try to intervene. Vicious goes slack, flips over and stalks away. I let him go.