Free the End

30 [A Balanced Diet]

TW // brief mention of blood

Bad pet his dogs halfheartedly as they jumped around his waist.

"Ok, ok. Sit." They immediately calmed and sat panting with their tongues lolling out and tails wagging.
They looked a lot like huskies, which made sense given the whole dog-wolf thing, but the pure doggie mannerisms made Bad's heart ache a little thinking of Rat.

"Hey Skeppy?" Bad called. Skeppy was helping a6d with his new armor and fresh iron tools.
"When the dog's tails are low, that means they need food right?"
One of the dog's tails was swishing on the floor and the other was halfway raised.

"Um yeah," Skeppy confirmed.

Bad knew they would eat rotten flesh the same as anything else.
He gave a few handfuls to each of them, then more to the more hurt one, accidentally going too far. Love hearts popped into existence above it as the dog started yipping and whining, wagging its tail harder.

"Oops," Bad muttered. He went ahead and fed one more to the other dog and let them both stand.
They immediately did the horny thing, doggie style.

Both Skeppy and a6d stopped what they were doing, partially out of disgust, as Bad stood in embarrassment and tried not to watch.

"Wow," a6d said interestedly in his dry humor sort of way. "If you feed them that to do that I wonder what good meat does."

Skeppy guffawed at that which quickly turned into ewwww-ing. "We don't have to see like a birth or something, right- Bad why did you do this in the house?"

"I didn't on purpose OKAY?!"
The dogs barked and a puppy popped into existence, luckily without any gross... things. Besides the extreme nuzzling of the parent dogs anyways.

"Okay, I think you have everything." Skeppy stood back to admire a6d, who looked down at himself in all his new armor.

A6d held his sword for a second and then sheathed it to hold his crossbow.

"You can attach some things to your waist," Skeppy reminded him. "There's a little bag for blocks and stuff and the tools and weapons fit in little loops when you need them, but there won't be space for any more than ten.
It's daytime, so I don't think we'll see monsters, but keep your shield on your left arm like this, just in case. Bad and I will protect you. You can ask if anything's confusing."

A6d fastened the shield straps. "No I think I got it, where are we going? Are we going to the dragon?"

Skeppy gave a short laugh. "Ha, no. We don't even know where to find it yet. We have a couple other steps to do first."
He raised his voice. "Bad- did you make a new shield? We can't have another one break."

Oh muffins. Bad looked at his. "Uh, no. I forgot..."
He put the blue dye from lapis on the puppy's collar so he'd be able to tell the difference later when it grew up.
"How do I tell the durability?"

"Look at it and see if it's breaking," Skeppy advised. "I replaced mine anyway because we have so much iron. You had that spider fall on you, too."

Bad's shield was very dented and sparsely cracked, and there were two noticeable holes where the spider tried to bite through it, plus it was burnt and smeared from creeper explosions.
"Yeah, I should probably make another one."
Bad did so.
"Do you think I should leave the old one in a chest?"

Skeppy was admiring his own armor in the reflection of his shiny sword.
"Nah, no one's going to use it again."

Bad heard the click and twang of a6d's crossbow and jumped, on guard for an enemy.
There was none, just a6d looking guilty. "Sorry," he quickly apologized. He had shot at the old button across the room.