Another Unoriginal Oneshot Book

Dogmeat's Vacation

AN: This chapter is my first attempt at writing fanfiction, so it may not quite be on par with later chapters. Still had fun editing it to seem more like my writing.

Capital Wasteland, 2280.

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Considering that the top of his head didn't quite reach a human's waist, Dogmeat was a beast of remarkable tenacity. The fallout must have altered his ancestors' genetic code; he wasn't anything like the dogs Aniss had read about in Vault 101. He seemed to age slower (if he aged at all). At his angriest, he could take down men five times his size. He'd weathered bullets, grenades, stabs, stings, and everything in between. Inevitably, something had to take him down.

Star Paladin Cross hummed bleakly at his furry mass huddled on the slick dirt. "Faithful Dogmeat, what happened to you?"

"Come on, boy," Aniss crooned from where she kneeled at his side. "Let's go, buddy." She whistled for his attention but got no response. "I know it hurts, but I've got a stimpak and some yao guai that'll have you feeling right as rain."

Dogmeat placed his nose in her hand. He didn't seem particularly enticed by the hunk of meat cut from his attacker. It was a bit tough and rich for humans, but usually Dogmeat would eat it up. Aniss smiled grimly and rubbed his head.

"Sister, a stimpak will not heal your pet." Cross advised softly. "He has been gravely injured."

The flesh of the dog's side was torn worryingly deep by claws of the great black bear. Cross held pressure on the wound so Aniss could administer the medicine. Dogmeat lay peacefully on his side for the injection, though weak whimpering drew from his throat. One leg curled close to his body; it seemed broken.

"This may have been Dogmeat's final battle, Aniss," Cross returned to her point.

Aniss's features contorted briefly, as Cross had expected them to. A girl of 22, she had particularly nasty attachment issues that Cross found unbecoming of a Knight of Steel. The super mutant and the ghoul had eagerly and resignedly (in that order) accepted their fates as her best friends. She had lost James over two years ago, but she got an abundance of fatherly praise from the omnipresent voice on her radio. Cross suspected that she herself was filling in, at least partially, for Aniss's departed mother, though the young woman seemed to respect the paladin too much to voice these feelings.

And the little dog was practically the love of her life. Most wastelanders didn't form such attachments with animals outside of a shared survival instinct. The scarcity of food and the fragility of life saw to that. But Aniss wasn't your average wastelander, and now here she was, laying on her stomach to gaze into Dogmeat's mismatched eyes.

She stood, still speaking to the dog. "Well, the stimpak should stop the bleeding soon, so we'll try to move you then. That okay?" Steel, that was a lot of blood for such a little animal. "What's the closest settlement to here, Arefu? I could use some help with the stitching." Cross realized Aniss was now addressing her. "Unless we should try our luck at Paradise Falls? Sometimes you'll find squatters there, but a doctor would be a lot to ask for..."

"Aniss, your sweet boy has fought valiantly for years. Let him rest."

Aniss straightened with the force of a striking power fist. "You're absolutely right," she decided firmly. Cross raised her eyebrows, skeptical of the sudden show of pragmatism. "Dogmeat deserves a monster of a vacation."

Cross opened her mouth to clarify what she'd meant, but of course Aniss understood. She was counting on one of her lucky breaks to get them out of this, stubbornly ignoring the information she didn't want to hear. Maybe Cross really was becoming her mother; the two looked almost similar enough.