THE YARD

Chapter 10

"Tan Dog!"

Roused, Flare groggily stretched out her legs. One touched something firm, and she opened her eyes.

She had accidentally touched Shadow, because he'd been sleeping so close. They had dozed off from the slanted afternoon sunlight.

"S'what?" Shadow slurred while half asleep. Flare searched for the source of the call, stepping farther away from the brown dog who was struggling to wake up.

"Tan Dog! Come over here," said Jax. The female dog's legs loosened up as she walked towards the dog houses. She wondered what Jax could want so late at night.

His eyes flashed as she approached. He wasn't in a dog house; just next to one. Jax let his tongue loll out as he started digging at a shallow-dug hole. Muscles working, he made gasping breaths as he struggled to breathe through his vigorous digging. Then, the black-and-white dog pulled a dirty, round chunk of bone from the ground.

Even through the caked-on dirt, Flare could smell it. Her stomach cramped at the scent.

"How'd you get that?" She demanded, immediately annoyed that Jax was showing off something that she hadn't had in a long number of days.

"Just saved it. I ate some myself, of course, but it's from before Brown Dog got here. The last time we got scraps." He licked his chops and strafed towards the bone.

"I'm giving it to you," he said confidently. Flare eyed him uncertainly as he came out of the shadow of the dog house with the bone gripped in his jaw.

His posture seems un-threatening.

She decided to take it. Her tail wagged involuntarily as she received it from Jax. Falling on the bone so quickly, Flare didn't notice White Dog rise from a corner of The Yard and head towards them.

Her jaws salivated so much that spittle leaked onto the bone and her paws, but the tan dog didn't care; her stomach roared for more and more, easing only as she finished. Flare licked her whiskers clean, content.

"Tan Dog," White Dog said with an assertive certainty. She flipped herself around fearfully, more taken aback than anything. What do they want now?

"We can smell you nearing the end of your heat. What with the fight last night, and Brown Dog's arrival shortly before that, every dog has been distracted."

Flare shrunk towards the ground. Neck-fur fluffed up, she felt a defensive wave of annoyance sweep over her. Not again!

"But I've smelled her the entire time," Jax put in. Flare felt herself flush with embarrassment, resenting the smell that pooled from her rear-end like it was a recurring rash.

And what're more, she naturally assumed that they must had planned this together. Jax only gave me the bone to give himself a one-up over me. And White Dog probably told him to.

"Shut up, Jax. So have I. Even Shadow, who doesn't react to pheromones, has."

"What's pheromones?"

"I said shut your trap," White Dog said threateningly. Even without moving to attack Jax, his huge floppy jowels and shredded ears looked formidable.

"Tan Dog, it's time to breed. You'll soon be out of season and-"

"Excuse me?" Shadow cut in. Flare wildly darted her gaze this way and that until she found him approaching with a low posture from an odd direction- so he'd been eavesdropping on them.

"And Flare, is it your wish to breed with these dogs?" Shadow put in. He searched her gaze from his position. The brown dog looked nervous of the potential answer.