Line of Time

A Bad Mutt

Tino had walked a good distance from the house to bleed the hares so as not to attract animals to close to his master's dwelling. He hadn't thought about that it might attract the neighbor's hunting dogs that already didn't like him. He bent down and cut the hares one by one to let their blood spill away, getting some on his clothes by accident but this wasn't new, his clothes were old and dirty already. He let out a sigh as he saw this, Gunnar was good to him, he gave him food every night and a bed to sleep in but he didn't do anything else, except when he degraded Tino's worth a human being. It was to late when he was the neighbor's pack of dogs, they came running up and tried to take the hares but Tino picked them up and lifted them high but him being short for his age meant it wasn't that high. He stepped away trying to make it so they couldn't but he didn't know that he was teasing the dogs and they jumped at him, snapping their jaws. The dogs were almost as tall as him when they stood on their hind legs. Their claws scratched at him and their powerful jaws being so close frightened Tino.

"No, down. No you can't have them, their not yours. No." Tino said as he backed away and swatted at a few of the dogs with his free hand, trying to be brave. The dogs snarled at him and then tried to bite at him instead of the hares. Tino managed to avoid a few but then one bit his arm, he let out a scream as he tried to get the animal to let go. It did and he tried to swat them away. Tino yelled in pain as another dog jumped up onto his back and bite his shoulder while another bite his leg. Tino fell forward with the force and weight of the dog on his back and into the bloodied dirt. The dogs tried again to take the hares from him but Tino still wouldn't give them up. He knew that if he lost the meat that was to be share between his master and his friends, he would feel a lot more sore than what the dogs were doing. So he did the only thing he could do at this point, make as much noise as he could and hope that Gunnar would help him.

"Help, help me. Please help." Tino yelled as he used his body to hide the hares and then the dogs savagely bit him, drawing blood, ripping skin and digging deep, causing him to scream in pain even louder than before.

Gunnar soon after hearing Tino's yelling ran outside fallowed by Lukas, Mathias and Cristal, still in her brother's arms.

Gunnar tried to shoo the dogs away hoping they would listen to him, they didn't, he tried to pull the dogs off of Tino but they just went back to attacking him and him ripping the dogs away did more harm than good. The dogs didn't let up, thinking he was prey. The dogs howled as signal that they caught something. Gunnar knew that their owner would be here soon since he only lived a few yards away but by the time he would get here, Tino would be greatly injured or dead. Gunnar knew that Tino was already weak from the swim in frozen waters, He still shook there on the ground, he had almost lost Tino once today because he couldn't breathe right away, that alone made him worry. Now that mad dogs were attacking him, Gunnar knew that Tino wouldn't be able to take much more abuse. With that in mind Gunnar took out his blade and raised it, not caring if he would get hurt himself. Tino had looked up once he had noticed Gunnar's boots next to him and when he saw his sword raised, even more terror built inside him. He thought that his master was going to strike him down for being weak and pathetic, it would surely be easier than keeping him anymore. Tino looked away as he didn't want to see his end coming but was very much surprised when he heard a dog's terrible dying cries. He looked over to see the dying animal then Gunnar kick it away, the other dogs soon backed away from Tino as they feared being slain as well. Tino still in pain shrunk in his spot in the cold dirt, tears running down his cheeks but no sound escaped him, with the relief of being free, he fell limp, still hunched over the hares.  

The dogs' owner came running up and looked at his dog that lay dying.

"What the hell, why'd you attack my dog?!" The owner yelled at Gunnar. He was much smaller than Gunnar and older, but this didn't stop him from trying to intimated the much taller and younger giant.