Cornered

Chapter 1

I dozed into a fitful sleep and dreamed about The Shadow.  I finally woke early in the morning by the sunlight peaking over the lip of my cardboard box.  I stretched and sat on my haunches. I considered going and begging for food since the garbage truck had come the night before.  Then I thought of the times I had tried that.  Too many ended in the pound or at a human home, both places I didn't want to be.  I somehow always got out.  I would always find a door cracked open when I woke up or some other commotion allowed me to slip away from the humans.  

I pushed my thoughts aside and considered what to do for breakfast.  I must have thought for a long time because when I finally looked up, a piece of cold sausage was before me.  I remembered this delicacy from when I lived with humans.  It was a divine treat I did not get very often.  Before snatching it in my jaws, I looked around, making sure that is wasn't a trap.  Bigger dogs and even humans have tried this on me. Just because I'm small doesn't mean that I'm gullible. Once I was sure there was no one trying to lure me out, I snatched the sausage and enjoyed the savory treat.

Then I saw it.  A flick of movement out of the corner of my eye. I had learned from previous experiences that a little dog growling was never taken seriously. So I went into stealth mode.  I made myself even smaller than I was and crept up on the little....whatever it was.  Halfway there I decided the thing I had seen was a mouse.  As I slowly crept closer, I considered if I wanted to scare it or catch it.  Maybe being bullied affected my decision. As I started to pounce, the mouse saw me, and ran, and I got kinda annoyed. Until I saw that it was using a strategy that I had often used.  This would be easy.  

I was gaining on the mouse when it suddenly started to grow.  It became larger and larger until it was a cat.  Befuddled by this shift, I lost the advantage of speed.  The cat/mouse? started climbing a nearby fence.  I grabbed it's tail and yanked it down.  I then used it's tail to flip it onto it's backside and put my paw on it's chest. "What are you?" I demanded.  It gave me a look that I couldn't place, then a strange smile. I yelped and jumped back as it changed into a coyote.  I thought that he was going to turn and pounce on me, and I let my little dog instincts take over.  I cowered and covered my eyes.  I looked up expecting to see a coyote staring at me, instead I saw it trotting away his shadow loyally following it.  Then it hit me.  The shadow was the one that I had seen the other day, that shadow was the one I had seen before, what did it mean?

I didn't move. I couldn't move.  I was lost.  This shape-shifter had been in my presence multiple times, but why? What was it doing?  Why hadn't I seen it before?  I thought, until I came up with an only slightly logical answer, it was protecting me.  I had seen the shadow when the Bullies were about to beat me up. I had seen it just now when I didn't know what I was going to eat. There was only one way to find out if this was true.  I had to find the Bullies.