Lido ran just behind Skil, not really worried about passing her, just happy to be with her. Behind her, he could take advantage of the headwind: watch the way it blew through her fur and breathe in her scent, which the wind wafted back to him in a pleasing way.
The vineyard’s three Rottweilers; Boss, Betsy, and their son Blackie; were at the front gate as usual to see Lido and Skil off for the day.
“Have a great day defending the mine!” Boss and Betsy called out together.
Lido and Skil smiled at them as they ran by.
As usual, Blackie scowled at Lido and smiled at Skil.
Also as usual, Skil didn’t smile back at Blackie.
Lido was glad the pack of working dogs was large enough that neither he nor Skil was ever alone with Blackie. Lido could take care of himself, but he wouldn’t want to risk making Boss mad at him. He imagined Boss would take his son Blackie’s side if he and Blackie ever really got into a fight.
He also didn’t trust Blackie alone with Skil. Especially now.
Lido gave Blackie his best tough guy look as he ran by, and then Lido tried to forget Blackie and go on about his business. He wished Blackie would mind his own business, too.
Oh yeah, he was trying to forget about Blackie.
Blackie was still scowling at him.
Very deliberately, Lido looked the other way.
He could see the pack’s three German Shepherds; Poht, Tog, and Gim; and the pack’s two Pitt Bulls, Rel and Kesh, out scaring crows away from the new grapes. They raised their noses to Lido when they saw him looking at them. It was their more casual way of saying “Have a good day defending the mine.”
Every day, Lido and Skil ran out of the vineyard, up the dirt road, down the grassy parking strip by a treed boulevard, and then along a hill by the freeway, which took them to their pack’s territory. They were very careful to look both ways before crossing the streets, of course. In all, they ran twenty-four miles from the vineyard to the edge of town, where their pack mined jex.
As Lido entered the pack’s territory, Skil was waiting for him by their first scent pole, a huge pine tree. She was calmly licking her paw and looking up at him with a twinkle in her eyes. Her tail wagged widely, giving away her intent to tease him about how long he took to get there and how much faster she was.
Lido didn’t care if she was faster than him. She was beautiful! Besides, she was a retriever. Retrievers are built for running. Each breed has its specialty, and there’s no sense resenting the abilities a specialty brings. He felt good about being able to protect his mate if anything dangerous caught up to her.
She play nipped his nose when he finally got there.
He mock growled and play bit her ear, and then they were off running again.
They both stopped at all the scent poles to smell the pack’s scent messages, which told them where to go find today’s pack mining operation. Same site as yesterday it was, and off running they went, off the very edge of the concrete and into the sagebrush, cactus, rocks, and reddish dirt of the Coachella Valley.
They could smell the pack when they got within a mile of the mine. They could smell the new recruits the pack had to train today.
Skil and Lido were both defenders now that they were grown-ups. They helped train new recruits. They were happy with their jobs, but knew they would soon stop coming to the mining site, once they had pups of their own. Soon.
Skil wasn’t showing yet, but soon all this running would be too hard on her unborn pups, and Boss had already assigned Lido to new duties back at the vineyard, effective soon.
As usual, the two of them were the last to arrive at the mining meeting, down inside the mining cave, but Heg permitted it because they also traveled the farthest.
Koog was addressing the 9 pack members and four new puppy recruits.
“…OK, they’re here! Great. Lido and Skil, Jal and Nygin will be running with you today. As you know, it’s their first day, so show them what to do.”
Jal and Nygin were Collie pups, and like all new recruits, they were young, just three months old. When he looked at them, Lido saw himself, Raffle, and Skil at that age, arriving at the mine together on their first day of Kaxian duty. He grinned at the fond memory.
Both of the new recruits’ tails were under their bellies, wagging quickly.
Lido stood up straight, raised up his tail, and went over to meet them, letting his tail wag ever so slowly.
Skil followed Lido, also letting her tail wag slowly.
Lido looked both puppies in the eyes, “Hello, I’m Lido, and this is my mate, Skil. Have a seat.”
Both puppies dutifully sat as they said together, “Hello, Lido. Hello, Skil.”
The puppies had sat on their tails, which kept wagging furiously in front of their bellies.
Lido smiled at them a little, to show that he was friendly, but not too much, or they’d think he was soft. He said, “I know that yesterday at Kaxian Headquarters, Heg explained scouting duty to you.”
Both puppies said, “Yes, Lido!”
“Good, I see he explained how you are to address me. He must have also explained how important it is that you obey my every command, immediately.”
Jal and Nygin both rolled over and exposed their bellies to Lido, to show him they knew he was boss.
“Very good. Let’s see how you do. Scouts, stand up!”
Both puppies jumped up, only wobbling a little.
“Scouts, run up to the mine entrance!”
They all 4 ran up there and stood looking out at the open desert. It stretched on for a few miles and then ended in rocky brown hills. Lido made sure his scouts knew how to tell him where they had spotted a Nique.
That was the point of their scouting duty, after all: to guard the mine from Niques. They didn’t want the Niques to steal any of the jex the rest of the pack were mining.
“Scouts, how would you tell me if there were a Nique by that boulder?”
“Nique, 4 o’clock,” both puppies said.
“Good, and on that little hill?”
“Nique, 11 o’clock.”
Lido looked them both in the eyes again and said, “Scouts, what do you never do?”
“Never chase Niques!” both puppies said together.
Jal rolled his eyes when he said it, but it was the right answer, so Lido figured he had that part of the drill covered.
Lido said, “Good, scouts. Let’s go on patrol!”
With that, they all took off at a slow run. Skil started to take her usual place in front, defending the leader.
Lido said, “Skil, run behind me.”
She looked at him sideways with her eyebrows perched.
Lido said, “I need to defend us now.” He didn’t want to mention their unborn pups out loud, but she seemed to catch on.
She wagged her tail and got behind him, followed by Nygin, then Jal. Lido was glad they were behind her, even if they didn’t realize they were guarding his mate’s back.
The open desert stretched out from 8 o’clock to 4 o’clock, with the human civilization sprawling behind them.
Lido worried less about seeing Niques in the open desert. It was dry, and there were rattlesnakes. Niques were too spoiled to wander out there. That was a good reason to patrol it anyway, though. Niques were also clever and scheming.
Still, from experience, Lido knew that his scouting party was most likely to spot loose Niques inside the human civilization. And that’s just where the party did spot loose Niques.
“Niques, 12 o’clock!” everyone said at once.
A few blocks down the street, an older human was sitting on a low wall, playing with her cell phone. In front of her on the watered grass, seven unleashed Niques jumped around, playing some stupid Nique game. They were of a few different Nique breeds: 4 Yorkshire Terriers, 2 Papillons, and 1 Chihuahua. (In Southern California, there’s always a Chihuahua.)
Lido barked out a relay message in Kanx, the secret code language of the Kaxians.
“Seven loose Niques, 5 o’clock, perimeter B.”
The Niques were at 5 o’clock to the mine, even though they were at noon to the scouting patrol. Perimeter B told the pack how far away the Niques were from the mine.
The other scouting party answered.
“5 o’clock B, aye.”
All set to continue their run so that the Niques wouldn’t suspect the nearby mining activity, Lido skidded to a stop when Nygin yipped.
“Niques approaching!”
Skil took over relaying messages to the rest of the pack in Kanx so that Lido was free to take charge of their encounter with the Niques.
“Niques approaching, 5 o’clock B!”
Half of the loose Niques, 3 Yorkshire Terriers and the Chihuahua, ran toward Lido’s scouting party, tails up and wagging quickly, ears up. They were taunting the new recruits. First the Chihuahua would say something mean, and then the 3 Yorkshire Terriers would copy him and be mean, too.
“Aw! Isn’t that sweet?”
“Look, the little puppies are out with their babysitters!”
“Stay close to the grown-ups, pups.”
“Yeah, we wouldn’t want you to get lost!”
Jal lunged out at the Niques, growling and whining in the little puppy voice most Kaxians only use to make humans do what they want.
Jal said, “Lido! Did you hear that? Let’s get them!”
“Jal, stand down. They’re trying to get you riled up. Don’t let them. You’re bigger than that.”
The Niques crossed the street, probably to go around Lido’s party and look for the mine. As Niques are prone to do, they kept on sassing the bigger Kaxians, taking care to focus on the smallest.
“What’s the matter, little puppy?”
“Do you miss your mommy?”
“Are you scared to be alone?”
Lido looked over at Skil. She smiled at him and rolled her eyes, showing him she thought the Niques were being stupid, too.
Growling, Jal took off running after the Niques.
Lido felt bad for making fun of the situation just then. He was often on the case of other scout trainers for not realizing the younger Kaxians didn’t have enough experience with the Niques’ bullying behavior to see how ridiculous they were, picking on dogs three times their size.
Lido put command in his voice.
“Jal, don’t chase!”
The Collie pup didn’t even turn his head to look at Lido. He kept right on running after the Niques, telling them what for.
“Shut up, you little toy dogs! I’m bigger than you, and when I catch you, you’ll wish you had kept your mouths shut!”
Aside from getting angry at Jal now for ignoring and disobeying him, Lido had two problems with Jal chasing the four Niques:
One: that little Chihuahua was running extra fast! Even at three months old, Jal was much bigger and should have caught it already. Something odd was up with the Nique’s speed.
Two: no one could be sure where the Niques would run to. Yes, they were probably looking for the Kaxians’ mine. But there was a chance they would lead Jal into a trap. For this reason, the Kaxians’ rule for new scouts was “Don’t chase.”
However, it’s easy to tell a pup not to chase; it’s difficult for a pup to actually not chase.
Lido tried one last time to command Jal to quit chasing.
“Jal! Come back here now!”
It was a lost cause. Jal appeared so intent on catching his prey that he was oblivious to Lido’s voice.
Jal and the super-fast Nique were several blocks down the street now. They might turn at any moment and be more difficult to follow.
It hurt Lido’s pride to admit to himself that he’d lost control of the situation, but it would hurt things a whole lot worse if anything happened to Jal.
“Scouts! After Jal!”
Lido and Nygin took off after Jal right away.
“Jal’s chasing and we’re in pursuit,” Lido heard Skil tell the pack in Kanx, and then he was relieved to hear her running behind him. He slowed just a bit, to let his mate catch up.
He heard the Niques barking in a language he didn’t understand, and he heard responses coming back in that same language. That couldn’t be good.
Dog Aliens 2 - Chapter 3: Baj
Baj the Chihuahua puppy ran into the orange kitchen, turned around, and ran full speed on the flat brown carpet toward the high yellow wrap-around couch, where all the humans sat with yummy food smells—chicken enchiladas!
He raced past Mom, Dad, two high-top sneakers that were taller than him, his four brothers, and his three sisters. He bounded half-way up the front of the couch and scrambled his paws, trying to stay up there where the food was. He smelled it and could almost taste it. His mouth watered.
And, he fell down on his butt.
Bonk!
His sisters; Pim, Cor, and Sah; all laughed at Baj, wagging their tails and jumping around, they enjoyed his failure so much.
Pim said, “Ha ha! You fell!” She stuck her tongue out at Baj.
Cor and Sah joined in, sticking their tongues out, too, copycats that they were. “Ha ha!”
Gat rolled his eyes at Baj from his position under the coffee table. Baj didn’t understand Gat. He never wanted to play. He was always studying the humans’ gadgets. Right now, he was watching the humans’ hands as they controlled their joysticks, and then turning around to see what was happening on the TV. How boring!
Before Baj could get up, Mof’s foot hit the top of his head. His one bigger brother had run up and used him for a stepping stone to the couch.
Baj laughed when Mof still didn’t make it up to the food, even though Mof fell on top of him.
“Oof!” Baj said.
Tef the copycat brother ran, climbed up both Baj and Mof, and made it up onto the couch! One of the humans picked Tef up and was petting him. He tried to explain to the humans they were supposed to give him food.
“I made it up here! Give me some of those enchiladas! Hey! Be fair!”
But the humans couldn’t understand what Tef was saying, of course.
Baj figured maybe if he hurried and got up there while the human was still petting Tef, then Baj would get some of the food. But he wasn’t the only puppy thinking that way.
Baj saw Elp come running. Before another foot hit his head, Baj got right back up, ran into the kitchen again, and stopped. His ears went back, and he slammed his front paws down on the orange linoleum floor.
“Move, Sah!”
“I am moving,” Sah said, wriggling around like she was having trouble getting up.
“Move faster, or I’ll run you over!”
Sah took a deep breath, raised her head up, and at the top of her voice yelled out, “Mom! Baj is bossing me around again!”
That’s when the biggest human almost tripped over Sah on his way back to the couch from the refrigerator with his bottle of soda.
Sah was OK.
But the fun was over for now.
The big human told one of the little humans to put Baj and his family outside.
The little human was nice about it, but he did insist that everyone go out.
The sun was setting over the wooden fence that surrounded their sparsely grassed and mostly dry world. The fence shadows looked extra dark beside the sandy desert soil that reflected the sunlight with glints of copper and zinc.
Even though the houses were far apart with big yards in between, the scents of all the neighbors cooking dinner reached Baj’s nose from up to a mile away. Yum! His stomach growled, but he knew he’d be fed soon, so he didn’t worry about it, not too much.
Once they were all outside, Baj’s parents went to yell at the big cream-colored Kaxian mom in the yard northwest of them, across the dirt alley in back of their humans’ den.
Her humans called her Buttons, and she was always out there, tied to the back fence, surrounded by her four puppies. They weren’t tied up.
Mom started. “But
tons, are you nursing those puppies enough?”
Dad joined in. “They look really skinny to me.”
“They aren’t warm enough,” Mom said.
“Maybe you should eat more so you can keep them warmer,” Dad said.
“Oh yeah, your humans don’t feed you enough,” Mom said.
This was normal. It went on every day, especially when Buttons’s humans were outside with her. Buttons growled at Mom and Dad, but they were talking through two fences and a dirt alley, so she couldn’t do anything to them. Soon, Buttons’s humans started yelling, too. These humans spoke English, while Baj’s parents’ humans spoke Spanish, but Baj and his family understood them all.
“Buttons, quit bothering those dogs next door!”
“Shut your trap!”
“They’ll shut up if you shut up!”
“They’re itty bitty little things.”
“Leave them alone!”
Buttons whimpered at that, and rolled over onto her back to expose her belly and tell her humans she knew they were boss.
Baj figured Buttons must be a really bad mom, because Mom and Dad were constantly having to tell her how she should be doing things.
The weirdest thing was, Mom and Dad never talked with Buttons about how it was the Kaxians against the Niques. Buttons was a Kaxian, and Baj and his family were Niques, so really, Baj wondered why his parents tried so hard to help her. Why did they care so much?
What’s more, Mom and Dad had told Baj and his brothers and sisters not to bring up the struggle between Kaxians and Niques, either. They were never to call Buttons a Kaxian or even mention Kaxians or Niques around her. And she never called them Niques. They were forbidden to talk to her or any of the other Kaxians around them about it at all.
It was all very confusing.
Oh well.
Every kid knows that grown-ups give you weird orders that they won’t explain.
“Don’t mention Niques or Kaxians to the Kaxians next door” was just something Baj’s parents always said. It sounded no weirder to him than “Don’t talk with your mouth full,” so the Nique puppies didn’t think anything of it.
They just obeyed it.
Glad that a dirt alley ran between the yards and prevented the Kaxian pups from digging their way to them, the Nique pups reported in to their senior Nique for duty. To the humans inside the house, it just sounded like the puppies were barking for no reason.