I Among Dogs

Chapter 18: Not So Different

"And then what?! And then what?!" One of the three Terriers exclaimed impatiently and excitedly, his focus completely drawn into the story.

After I had been taken back to the Heeler's home with the help of Andrew, to say that Bandit and Chilli were shocked upon seeing my state was an understatement. Whilst Bandit was more or less stumped with how I got into such a scrape, Chilli was leaning more into mild fury. Not at me mind you, but whoever was responsible for my impossible to overlook injuries. Thankfully, Andrew explained the whole situation involving Hailey and Daniel but I made sure not to forget the detail about Harley and her dad who had patched me up and the little Akita having trained me a bit in martial arts should I ever end up locked in a fight again.

My worries went away as Bandit and Chilli reassured me that I wasn't in trouble since I was only defending myself with the latter telling me that I had done the right thing in walking away when Daniel was down, but from now on until things calmed down, they were going to take some precautions.

For one, I wouldn't be allowed to do any more errands outside by myself, especially near night-time and would have to have one of the Heelers keep an eye on me or at least have me in places with enough public eyes in case if anything went wrong which, to be honest, I could live with. I just hope that me having a Heeler bodyguard wouldn't be a permanent thing.

All of that happened two days ago and on the morning of today, my bandaged up wounds were already showing slow but great signs of healing. The bad news however was that it was a work day for both Bandit and Chilli and Bluey and Bingo had to go to their respective schools. Of course, I had learned during then that Bandit was an archaeologist whilst Chilli worked in Airport security. Kind of funny that a dog's occupation would involve digging up bones.

Wendy would be busy for the whole day and so were Muffin and Sock's family so those two options were out of the question. And then, with a bit of a reluctant sigh, Chilli decided that the best option would be for me to accompany Bluey at school even after the incident last time. But she did make sure however that Bluey would hand a written note to her teacher, an Australian shepherd called "Calypso" which would explain why I'd be with Bluey for the day.

Of course, when we got there, the peace only lasted a second when I was welcomed in the open arms of Bluey's friends, especially Mackenzie. Bluey gave Calypso the note and given that she had saw the news about me having become an accepted citizen of Canistralia, saw no issues in this and even gave me a friendly greeting as well.

The next thing I know, I was approached by three of Bluey's other friends, the Terriers; Triplets whom were all boys with folded ears and thick fur around their muzzles, the only way to tell them apart was their main fur colour which were different shades of grey. Whilst everyone at Bluey's school referred to either one of them as "Terrier", they were nice enough to tell me their first names to avoid confusion; Joe, Dan and Adam.

Apparently, word had gotten out about my battle with Daniel and the Terriers, with their games often involving battles were the most eager to know how it went down.

So here I was now, recalling the whole clash that had happened days ago to the triplets, making sure however to leave out any violent details.

"So with Daniel standing on one leg, I swept my leg across it and made him topple and he was about to fall onto me! And then without a second thought, I shot a fist out towards him and BAM! I ended up getting him on the nose!"

I concluded, slowing my words and adding suspense to make the story sound more incredible to the Terriers and I could tell it was working as they were now staring at me with nothing but awe in their eyes.

"That..."

"Is so..."

"COOL!" The Terriers exclaimed which each one saying a fraction of the sentence before they all sprang up to their hind paws and hugged my sides.