"Is this furniture abandoned? Up for grabs?"
"Hello, Scott. I don't know that yet, but once I confirm it, you are more than welcome to take this stuff."
"What happened to him? Why did he leave so suddenly? I thought he liked it here."
"He called and insisted that I board up the doggie door, blaming it for all the holes his dog dug under the fence. I didn't take too well to the tone in his voice, let alone the fact Mister had dug under the fence. My patience was exceeded when he insisted I come right over and address the problem. He was far from reasonable, and in the end I asked him to leave."
"I gave him until the end of the month, but he hadn't paid his rent yet, and he still hasn't. I guess he figured it was cheaper to just leave right away. I am surprised that he left all this stuff behind. I don't have any forwarding address, so if the stuff is still here by the end of the month, you can take whatever you want."
To this day, my humans still have a dresser that smells like Mister. That is not the worst of it, by far. Let me tell you, I would have been better off never suggesting anything at all to Mister's human.
The older couple of humans who moved into Mister and Regs' house had TWO Nique dogs: a female Chihuahua named Cherry and a male miniature poodle named Fred. With no Regs to keep them in line, they were even more obnoxious to me than Mister had been. Oh, and they were friends with Snookems, Millie's obnoxious little Pomeranian. They gave me "greetings" from him every day. As if I needed that.
On the plus side, no one thought the three of us were friends, and they were bonded to their humans, so they didn't dig out to go help steal Kaxian jex.
On the minus side, their female human liked me, so she volunteered to watch me on the rare days when both my humans left the house. Nice going, Raffle. Before, you at least had some chance of making a promotion, some time. Now, you are watched 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year by humans who love you and who make sure you have all that you need and no excuse to go anywhere. Nice work.
Oh, and wait until you hear the new neighbor woman's nickname for me. It started out as 'Pumpkin', and that was bad enough. She shortened it, though. I was soon known to her as 'Punkie'. I guess that was better than 'Piggy', but not by much.
"Ooh! Hiya Punkie!"
This was how she greeted me whenever she saw me, no matter who could see or hear. Her voice went up about two octaves while she said it, so that by the time she got to the e sound at the end, she was shrieking. This didn't particularly hurt my ears, but it sure hurt my male pride. And then, she would pull at my cheeks the way old ladies pull at the cheeks of human babies!
The doggie door was still there and perfectly functional, too. Every time I went outside I heard it from TWO Niques then. Two Niques who were not only hateful, but jealous of the attention their human lavished on me.
"Ooh, the wittle momma's boy got let out!"
"Better hurry up!"
"Yeah, get it all out before your humans make you go back inside!"
You can bet I considered suggesting to the new humans that they seal the doggie door. I considered it every minute whenever I was outside. I wasn't going to be rash this time, though. I was going to learn a little more about the power of suggestion before I tried something new again.
I barked out a message to the Kaxian shut-in relay system:
"Raffle wants to speak with Heg."
And then, while I was curled up on my pink princess sleeping bag in my mistress's office, trying in vain to sleep, I got another bright idea. In order to implement it, I took stock of the possible targets of my new mental abilities.
On the "no way" side:
I couldn't get through to Puritan because she was a predator, always excited about the prospect of hunting. I wasn't going to mess with the minds of the Niques' humans until I got further guidance. Messing with them once had backfired, and as the saying goes, "Once bitten, twice shy." I couldn't get into the Niques' minds. Even when they were sleeping, somehow they were filled with contempt for me, so that I couldn't get through to them. I wondered how Heg managed, and thought maybe his pictures slipped in easier than my movies.
On the "working so far" side:
I easily got into the mind of my master in order to protect his safety, but otherwise the idea repelled me. I was reasonably sure the same would apply to my mistress. At non-emotional moments, it was also easy to get into other humans' minds. It was just as easy to get into fellow Kaxians' minds.
But wasn't there a third side?
I had failed to get into a predator's mind. However, I hadn't yet tried to play any mental movies for prey animals. Could I use prey animals to get the Niques to stop pestering me, or at least to get the Niques on the defensive for once? I realize now that getting even was childish, but the temptation just proved way too strong!
Did I mention that our cat was so old that ever since I moved in, I had been the one keeping the mice out of the house? Well, I could see now that I had been going about this all wrong. Imagine! I had been using the wolf part of me to keep the mice out, by sheer physical intimidation.
What if I played mental movies for the mice, instead? What should I have the mice do instead of coming into our house? And mice weren't the only prey animals at my disposal.
I could smell many other possible targets of my scheming. There were moles out in the yard, under the grass. There were large rats in the ivy on the hill that ran down to the highway at the end of our cul-de-sac, on the other side of a chain link fence and a hedge. There were snakes there, too.
Extending my hind leg up to scratch my ear, I ruminated on what sort of mental movie I might play for the mice, the moles, the rats, or the snakes in order to get them to help me seek my revenge on my pesky Nique neighbors.
Chapter 17: Heg
Right about then is when the first strange message came in from Heg. It came in a dream, but I knew it was from Heg. It showed him sending the pack members over to me one at a time, and then it showed me using my power of suggestion on them with message he was about to give me:
"Remember to pray to Kax."
How weird!
That was my reaction, but I was not able to respond to Heg. It was a dream. I was sleeping. When I woke up, he was long gone.
From my experience with suggestion, I figured while Heg was still there, he would only have caught my sleeping reactions in the form of the emotions which his suggestions triggered in me: pink excitement and purple confusion.
Heg's pictures didn't make any sense to me. Why couldn't Heg suggest to all the pack members himself? Why send them to me? Why only send one at a time, and not all at the same time?
I knew I would be able to suggest to the whole pack at once, with no need of this "one at a time" plan. I didn't want to be insubordinate to Heg, so I kept these questions to myself.
Besides, this was exciting! I had a special mission to accomplish. Maybe I was being groomed for a promotion, after all. My heart filled with hope.
I was working nights, so when I got up it was usually the time of day when most of the pack were going to sleep. I figured I would have to wait until I got home the next morning before I got my first assignment. I was wrong. He came almost as soon as I was awake, and it was Lido.
"Hi, uh, Raffle."
"Hey Lido! Glad to hear from you. How's Skil?"
"She's fine. Thanks for asking. Hey, Heg says you're lonely here for us, so we each have to come see you. Today is my day to come. I want you to know I'm sorry for running off last time without saying goodbye or anything. If Heg told you stuff and said not to tell me, then you have to do what he says. It was not fair for me to get mad at you. I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?"
"Aw, of course I forgive you, Lido! Now stop being so down in the dumps! How are you going to cheer me up if you sound like someone ate your last dog biscuit?"
His spirits were lifting. The moment between his sadness at feeling sorry and his happiness at being forgiven was my chance. I reached out
to Lido's mind and planted a little movie in his head, of him praying to Kax, per my assignment from Heg.
Lido paused for a long moment. His mind went from pale sad blue to purple confusion, instead of the pink happiness it had been headed toward.
"I just got the idea that I need to pray to Kax, uh, Raffle. You mind if I just go ahead and do that now?"
"Of course not. Go on."
"Kax! Please don't be angry with my parents. They taught me to pray to you. They did. I know I don't pray as much as I should. Please forgive me. Your friend, Lido."
The tone of Lido's voice changed when he was speaking to me again.
"Well, uh, Raffle, I hope I did cheer you up a little, by coming by."
"Yeah! Lido, it was great to see you. I'm glad you stopped by. Please say 'Hi' to Skil for me."
"I'm pretty sure you can say 'Hi' to her, yourself. Heg will be sending everyone by to see you, Raffle, so you shouldn't feel so lonely. I'm glad I got to come on the first day."
"Yeah, I'm glad, too. Take care of yourself and of Skil, and I guess I'll see you next time."
"I guess so! Bye for now!"
"Bye for now, Lido."
We both were talking with smiles on our faces. Lido ran away this time with a much lighter step, even though he was as heavy as ever.
Skil did come by, the next evening.
"Hi, eh, Raffle!"
"Hi Skil! It's great to see you!"
I was looking at her through the window.
"How's everything? Are you and Lido getting along now that you both have the same humans?"
Skil swung her head toward the ground for a moment, and then peeked up at me, just with her eyes. The tip of her tail was wagging slightly.
"Yes, we have agreed to be a mated pair, once we're old enough."
"Oh, that's great, Skil! I am very happy for you. I wish you all the best."
I found my chance to give Skil the suggestion to pray to Kax in between her shyness and her elation at my congratulations.
Her prayer was sweet.
"Kax! Give us healthy pups!"
I went to work with my master each night, and then each morning or evening a different pack member would come by to see me. We would make small talk, and I would manipulate the conversation so that they would have a moment of neutral emotions, which gave me the chance to insert the assigned suggestion that they pray to Kax. Some of them prayed out loud, as Lido and Skil had done. Most of them just got quiet for a few seconds, and prayed silently, inside their heads. They all took my suggestion and acted on it, though. I felt good about that, successful.
I understood that Heg had told the pack members I was lonely as an excuse to send them to me, but now I realized it was true. I was lonely for the pack, and I was glad to hear each member's voice.
Heg returned the day after the last pack member had come to visit me. My master was sleeping. My mistress was in her office, talking on the phone and typing on her laptop computer. Puritan was in the huge bathroom, where she always was nowadays. I went to talk to Heg at the sliding glass door in the living room. He jumped over the low stone wall around the patio and met me on the other side of the glass, wagging his tail.
"You did well, Raffle! Your power of suggestion is strong, and you are progressing well with your training."
This made me feel all puffed up, like my body was now bigger than it had been before he spoke. I was impatient.
"What exactly am I training to be, Heg?"
His tail stopped wagging. He paced back and forth a few times, looking at the floor. Finally, he sighed.
"That is something you need to ask Kax."
"Kax never answers me. How will I know what the answer is, if I just ask Kax?"
"When the answer comes, you will know."
We both sat quietly while I thought about that for a while. Now that I had asked my most secret and urgent question, I became brave and figured I might as well ask all the other questions that had been pestering me lately.
"Heg?"
"Yeah?"
"My parents never left the yard with me to mine jex. Not once. I didn't hear them relaying any messages for the pack, either. What Kaxian duty do my parents do?"
Heg sat down and looked at me sideways, with his ears tipped down.
"Did they teach you to pray to Kax?"
"Yeah, but..."
"Do you?"
"Yeah, I do, but..."
"Then your parents are doing their duty, which is to make sure all their pups know this place is not our home, that they are Kaxians and not dogs born of Earth."
"It seems like we could mine and guard much more jex, though, if all the adult Kaxians mined or guarded, too. Isn't mining jex the reason we are here on Earth?"
"It is. But what would the humans think, if every dog on Earth were mining jex every day?"
"I get it. If every Kaxian (and every Nique, too, but who cares about them?) were mining all the time, then the humans would wonder why. They would investigate. They might realize that we are space aliens, and not dogs born of Earth."
"Yep."
"But Heg, this life, my body has been altered. The pound did that. I won't be able to have pups to raise up to know they are Kaxians."
"You are helping me raise the pack's pups, Raffle. Your power of suggestion is strong, and it is helping them remember their duty is first to Kax, unless and until they bond with humans."
"That's another question I have, Heg. Why do we Kaxians allow the dog bond?"
"Do you dislike the dog bond?"
"No! The dog bond is wonderful. I am so happy with my master and mistress, but it severely limits the Kaxian duty I can do."
"Oh, you're wrong, there. You bonded extremely young, Raffle. That means your power of suggestion is strong."
I raised one eyebrow.
Heg laughed and rolled over to use the stones of the patio to scratch his back. When he was done, he shook his fur, and then once again sat down and looked at me sideways.
"Good job using Koog's eyebrow, Kid!"
"Thanks."
"Raffle, I know your birthday is coming up soon, and you are anxious to be promoted then."
"Does it show?"
Heg laughed.
"That bad, huh?"
"It's not bad to want to take on more responsibility in serving Kax. Just remember that is what we are doing: Kax's will."
"But, how do we know what Kax's will is?"
"By praying to Kax. That is how to know Kax's will so we can serve Kax, and not ourselves."
"But Kax never answers me at all."
"You're wrong there. Kax always answers prayer, but often we don't get the answer that we want or expect."
"I never get any answer at all!"
Heg raised one eyebrow.
"I don't!"
"Think back on all your conversations with Kax, and remember what has happened afterward. I am certain you will find that all your prayers have been answered in one of three ways:
One: Yes! Here is my help.
Two: The time for this has not yet come.
Three: I have something better in mind."
Chapter 18: Luring
Luring prey animals proved to be immensely fun! It was a good thing I practiced someplace away from home, though. What's that you say? What could go wrong, leading a bunch of harmless prey animals? Have you heard of the Pied Piper of Hamelin? Well, no, that's a bad example. Let's just say if you lead, make sure you know where you're going!
My mistress' mother keeps horses, and one day we all went to visit the stables. This was west a bit, near the wealthy desert oasis community of Palm Springs. The stable owners have twenty acres there with a large barn, patio clubhouse, riding trails, and a show arena. They rent out barn stalls, and this is where my mistress' mother boards her horses. All the boarders visit their horses on the weekends, and there is a party atmosphere. Everyone greeted us when we arrived.
"Hello!"
"Great to see you!"
&nbs
p; "Glad you could come!"
"It's barbeque lunch today!"
It wasn't your typical barbeque, though. This is Southern California. People dress to impress at all times here. These people were dressed up in "English riding clothes" that smelled new and that must have been expensive, given how they admired each other's garments.
"Ooh! Are those this season's Ariats?"
"Ah! Love your new Arista riding vest!"
"Oh! Cavallos come in caffe color!"
Wonder of wonders, I was the only "dog" there that day. I got petted, commented on, and pampered until my head swelled too big for my body. I was also sneakingly given so many table scraps I walked around with a bloated stomach and had to puke twice. Don't worry. I do have manners. I puked in the bushes when no one was looking, far away from the patio clubhouse.
The stable did have a few cats. They were smart enough to notice that all the humans loved me, so they left me alone. It was a bit disconcerting to hear them hissing at me from under cars all day, but nothing I wasn't used to from the early days at my new den, before Puritan got herself locked up in the bathroom. As with her, sure enough, their minds were all purple with thoughts of the hunt, and impenetrable to me because of these thoughts.
The best thing about the stables was all the chickens. Yes, I said chickens! They were pet chickens, just there for atmosphere, I guess. They ate the stray seeds from the straw that lined all the horse stalls. Chickens came up to greet each new car that arrived. They stood still to be petted by the humans! They made the funniest squawking noises whenever I lunged at them. I suppose the cats knew better than to mess with the chickens and anger the humans who fed the cats. There were dozens of chickens and a few roosters. They were spread out all over the place, but mostly near the barn and the clubhouse patio, where people who were eating outside often tossed them strips of hamburger bun. Every time a human turned around, he about tripped over a chicken.
I found a great opportunity to test my skill at playing mental movies in the minds of prey animals, to see if I could lure them to do my bidding. It might have gone better if I hadn't been on a leash, obligated to go wherever my master went.
There was this plate of food that one of the humans had abandoned, on an outside table. I smelled the barbequed hamburger and potato salad on that plate, and I wanted it, even though my stomach was about full enough to burst. Here was the perfect task for my little chicken army!