The Harmony of the Spheres

Arc 2:2

Nearly a decade after his arrival into this world, Nicholas found himself back at the beginning for the nth time. Each transmigration hurt more than the last and he was starting to wonder exactlty how many chances he got at each world? Was there a set limit to the number of times he could die? Or would he be forced to relive the world until he finally managed to complete his task?

His first attempt, he didn't even last as long as the original Rex. Transmigrating to the moment before Robert took him to the vet to be neutered, Nicholas heard the conversation and went ballistic.

Give him the snip? No way! Bad enough he was a dog but they weren't going to make a eunuch of him too.

In his frenzy, he attacked the vet approaching him with a needle and had even turned on Robert when the original's owner tried to get closer to calm him down. With none of the original's loyalty to his human owner, Nicholas saw Robert as no different to a stranger and wasn't slow to bare his teeth whenever the man reached out to him. He never saw the veterinary assistant approach him from behind until he'd been tackled to the ground by the teenager.

With the murmur of 'mistemper', 'menace' and 'better safe than sorry', a needle to the paw brought the darkness sweeping over Nicholas' eyes. 

The second time around, Nicholas did his best to shut off his awareness of the procedure. It's not like he was in any position to use the balls the vet had so readily disposed of; his body may be canine but the soul was still human and the idea of getting it on with another dog made him feel worse than the idea of neutering.

An unexpected benefit of the procedure was the grogginess left behind by the anaesthesia.

It was only expected for there to be some clumsiness as the drugs wore off, and Nicholas used this time to find his feet.

All four of them.

Unfortunately, he forgot about the rest of his senses and it took several repeats to eventually distinguish between smells and sounds that were near or far. Repeats involving the discovering of a steel trap that took his leg and was so rusty he discovered that tetnus is a real concern.

On his seventh attempt at the world, Nicholas realised that the longest he had survived was a whole week after he and Robert were deployed.

This time, in an attempt to prevent their posting, Nicholas drew out his recovery by feigning a reaction to the anaesthesia. While it didn't stop them from being sent to war, it did change their timeline and he hoped that maybe that would be enough to change the male lead's fate.

Upon their arrival in Vietnam, Robert and Rex were assigned to a squadron who had recently lost their dog and handler pairing. These men had been in the country since the beginning, and were lean with hardened faces but armed with an indefatigable humour.

The first question they all asked Robert, was if he had brought extra flea collars for Rex.

They weren't kidding either.

It was hard to see through the mud and grime coating them, but each and every one were covered in tiny red dots and the occasional festering sore; the result of scratching an itch in a swampy jungle. Overwhelmed by the smell of unwashed, muddy men, and starting to scratch in sympathy with their itches, Robert soon found himself conned out of the few spare flea collars packed for Rex.

When the soldiers lucky enough to attain a collar put them on, the bright red plastic made them look like they were casually walking around with their throats slit. It was an incongruous sight and by the end of the day the men had started referring to their squadron as 'The Cutthroats'.