Arf Woof

[A story set in the mortal realm of Dongzhou, from the Four Continents: A Chronicle of Past and Present Customs]

[Short version: Yes, I raised a dog.]

·

A wolf disguised as a dog stood atop a mountain beneath the moon, lifting its head to answer the call of its pack: “Awooooo!”

Its owner's gaze drifted over, and the wolfdog shrank its neck. The howl in its throat was forcibly turned into an ingratiating whine: “Whine... woof?”

.

A so-called vicious dog is ambition wrapped in a docile coat, a traitor resting on your lap while still sharpening its fangs.

When Tolewude was a boy, the vicious dog he had raised bit through his neck. His dog ran away, guilty, while the gushing blood choked off the whistle he used to call his beloved pet back.

.

Hehe once raced with a wolf pack across the Dongjie wasteland, until a young wolf barbarian slaughtered the pack and shoved him into a human dog pen.

He waited for the boy to let his guard down, then bit him nearly to death and slipped away under cover of darkness from the place where he had been kept.

A wolf separated from its pack struggles to survive on the grasslands. So does a dog. Years passed, and when he was near death, a man who seemed like a wolf took him in.

The man wore the pelt of a steppe wolf. A fearsome old scar marked his throat, and his voice was low and hoarse. Yet the dog whistle he blew was high and clear.

No matter how dark the night grew, whenever that high, clear recall whistle sounded, he could always follow it back to the man's side.

·

CP: The dependable, fatherly wolf-barbarian noble Tolewude, who “finds a touch of obsessive madness in a stable temperament” × the innocent, cruel, nasty, mad Dongjie vicious dog Hehe, who “finds a touch of humanity amid a great deal of animal nature”

[Also known as “How Dare You Bite Me? Even My Father Never Bit Me,” “Who's More Stubborn?” and “I Raised a Dog.” “But... isn't that a person?”]

Theme: Dog training is risky, so raise dogs with caution.