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These are all unfinished still, but I have decided to post them as serials while I'm working on them, so that I can use feedback as motivation. They're also being cross-posted to Wattpad and Royal Road. Thank you for reading! ❤️
It was a Sunday, and Kara had planned on spending the entire day out in the countryside with her dog, Moxie, before she had to go back to school tomorrow. She'd packed up a backpack full of food and drink, some doggy treats, a jacket, a bowl, a book, and a drawing pad and some pencils; leaving her homework at home where it should be.
Moxie packed her tennis ball.
Kara left the house without telling her parents where she was going. It wasn't like they would have really cared either way, and she might just have gotten into trouble for interrupting them. She might get into trouble later for not telling them anyway, but that was a Later Her problem.
Moxie left the house without really noticing a difference, tennis ball held proudly aloft.
It was a sunny September day and although there were some clouds in the sky it really wasn't very many and Kara thought that it would probably stay nice all day long. She did live in England though, which is why she'd brought her jacket. The weather was never a sure thing here. She called Moxie to heel, took the path that went left out of her house, and kept going until she reached the big park at the end of the street, Moxie following obediently.
As soon as she got to the park Moxie sat down on her haunches with her tail wagging madly, wriggling impatiently but trying to stay as still as possible so Kara could unclip the leash. As soon as Kara did so, Moxie ran off like a shot! Not even bothering to drop the tennis ball first for her to throw.
Laughing, Kara sauntered after her, taking her time. She wasn't worried about Moxie going too far; she knew not to go out of sight. And it was such a calm and pleasant day. It was nice to take a leisurely stroll and just let Moxie get on with her own business for now.
Moxie, in fact, did her business right in the middle of the path in front of her, but Kara had come prepared with bags for that as well. She sorted it out, headed to the doggy litter bin, then followed Moxie all the way through the park to the other side, where the fields and countryside began. With Moxie stopping and looking back every ten paces or so, just to make sure her human was following her.
They carried on like this for some time, the dog always leading, although they both knew where they were going. It was their favourite spot for hanging out during the day, when Kara didn't have to be at school. About as far away from the house as she could possibly get, and not within earshot of anyone as far as she knew, she'd found a perfect little place on the river. Right on the edge of the fields where the forest began, there was a little sort of beach at the riverside. It was perfect there. Plenty of room for Moxie to run and play, water for her to drink from, and a nice comfortable bug-free spot on the silt where Kara could sit with her back propped against a tree in order to read or draw.
When they finally got there Kara flopped against the tree in exhaustion and Moxie, seeing this, decided that now was of course the perfect time to start playing fetch and dropped her by now very slimy tennis ball right in Kara's lap. Kara made a noise halfway between a groan and a laugh and got down to the repetitive business of throwing and slowly being covered in more and more slime.
Eventually Moxie got tired of this game and collapsed panting at Kara's feet, but not before Kara's arm had gone almost dead from the repeated strain of throwing the slimy ball. She was very glad of the rest and lay back against the tree herself, also panting. She closed her eyes and relaxed and soon found herself being licked awake by Moxie.
"I'm awake, I'm awake!" she giggled, pushing the dog off of her and taking in her surroundings. She wasn't sure exactly what the time was, but she'd clearly been napping for a while because the weather had changed drastically while she'd been out of it. Dark storm-clouds filled the sky now, and more seemed to be rolling in while she watched.
Moxie whined up at her, tail wagging appeasingly like she was asking to go home, and a drop of rain chose that very moment to land itself squarely on Kara's nose. She sighed.
"Not yet, Moxie, please," Kara begged her, looking imploringly into the dog's eyes even though she knew she didn't understand a word she was saying. "There's too much of the day left, still. I can't spend it back there, with them. Not tonight."
The rain started coming down in more frequent splashes and Moxie whined again, stamping a paw to underline her point.
Kara thought hard about it, considering the proposition in earnest because she couldn't bear to say no to her only real friend and companion, but every time she imagined going back early she saw what would happen. There wasn't a scenario where that ended well for either of them, and as Moxie didn't quite understand that, it was up to her to make the best decision for the both of them.
Moxie whined again and put her muddy paw on Kara's knee—a gesture that wasn't as bad as it sounds since her trousers were already completely filthy by that point—and looked up at her human with those big beseeching brown eyes.
Kara sighed and scratched Moxie behind the ears. "Okay, I know you hate the rain, but I'm not going back home until it starts getting dark and I can go straight to bed when I get there. So how about we try and find a nice dry place in the forest, eh?"
Kara got up and started heading in that direction. Moxie whined, barked, then picked up her soggy ball and followed her muddy human.
It was less wet in the forest, but only slightly. The rain pattered down through the leaves and onto Kara's head and soon she started shivering and got out her jacket. It was waterproof and should keep the top half of her nice and warm and dry at least. Moxie barked in indignation that she didn't get anything to cover her, dropping her ball in the process.
"I'm sorry, Moxie. I didn't bring a jacket for you; you don't have one!" Kara told her apologetically.
Moxie tilted her head up at her, not understanding what she was saying.
"It's okay, Mox. We'll just keep walking through the forest for a while. There might be a better place for shelter somewhere. I think I remember a biiiiig tree that would do nicely. Come on, I think it's this way."
Kara strode off confidently deeper into the forest. Moxie barked a challenge, then picked up her ball again and ran to join her side when it was clear that that wasn't changing anything. Kara reached out a hand to stroke the top of Moxie's head and found it coated in rain and wet dog smell.
"Eurgh," she exclaimed. Moxie looked up at her indignantly. "Not you, just the rain," she quickly explained.
Moxie wagged her tail in response.
"I know, I know. It's my fault you're out in the rain getting wet. I'm sorry, Mox. I just can't go back there yet. You know what it's like. I'm surprised you wanna go back there, honestly."
Moxie carried on wagging her tail and looking up at her, hanging on every word even though she didn't understand a single one of them. That was one of Kara's favourite things about her canine companion. She could say things to her she couldn't say to anyone else, talk matter-of-factly about the world, and expect no judgement in return. Only silent rapt attention.
"I'd stay here all the time if I could. I'd just need somewhere sheltered I could sleep, and somewhere to get food. That's probably going to be the main problem. Food. I could learn to gather and fish, maybe. I don't know about hunting, I'm not sure I could do that. I could like, start a garden and grow some vegetables or something though. Fruit. Yeah. I could start a garden and grow some fruit. Screw vegetables." Kara nodded to herself.
Moxie wagged her tail and continued trotting at her heel.
"Alright maybe some vegetables for you. I know you like crunching on cucumbers and they're not too bad, so maybe some of those. I will eat all the fruit for myself if you don't like it."
Moxie wagged her tail.
Kara looked down at her fondly. "You're such a good girl. I'm sorry again about the rain. I’ll get you some treats out of the bag once we've got to the tree and settled down."
Moxie bounced a bit at the mention of treats and at being called a good girl—some of her favourite words and also pretty much the only ones being said that she actually recognised—and didn't stop wagging her tail.
"We'll have to find you a decent supply of dog food as well I guess. Maybe I'll have to sneak into town for that. But then I'd need money. Or I could steal it. But I'm not sure I'd be very good at that. And besides dog food is kind of bulky and not very stealable. You can't slip the cans up your sleeves like you can candy bars. I could steal you some treats maybe."
She kept up a steady chatter in this manner right up until she reached the big oak tree she was looking for, making more and more elaborate plans for how she was going to live in the forest away from all the evil people of the world. Moxie continued hanging on her every word despite not understanding it, just enjoying the experience of her human talking to her.
When they got to the place they were going to they found the area surrounding the tree quite dry, its massive branches and heavy foliage having kept the rain from coming down. Sheets of dripping rain marked a circle all around it where its leaves stopped and the other trees started.
"Here we go," said Kara, "I told you it would be dry here!" She ducked under the tree's waterlogged branches and Moxie ran through the drips after her, promptly shaking herself once she was in the dry and causing the whole place to suddenly be a lot more damp.
Kara threw her arms over her face to protect herself from getting sprayed by the wet dog but it didn't work as well as hoped. She laughed and turned her back instead, then took her backpack off and dug out the dog treats.
That got Moxie's attention. She immediately stopped shaking herself and came and sat attentively in front of Kara, looking up at her pleadingly and almost wagging her tail off in her eagerness to please.
Moxie was a strange mongrel of a dog; part border collie, part german shepherd, and part something that must have been smaller than either of the two. She had beautiful german shepherd markings though, and a short but soft coat. But what was most striking about her was the tan eyebrow markings she had, that made her always look sad no matter what her expression, and upped the effectiveness of her pleading puppydog eyes by about tenfold. She seemed to know this and took full advantage of the effect.
"Oh go on, then. This one is cause I made you stay out in the rain and come all the way here when I knew you wanted to go home." Kara tossed a treat at her without making her work for it anymore than she already had done.
Moxie snatched the treat out of the air and promptly made it disappear. Then looked beseechingly up at Kara again.
"Nope, you're going to have to work for them now," she said, pulling another one out of the bag. "Moxie," she said to get her attention and let her know that she wanted something from her, then held her hand out palm-down over Moxie's head and said, "Up!"
Moxie jumped up and touched Kara's hand with her nose, then landed and barked happily, wagging her tail and evidently very proud of herself.
"Good girl!" Kara exclaimed in an overly-happy voice to get the point across better, then threw her the treat.
Moxie gobbled it up and immediately sat attentatively at Kara's feet, tail still wagging like mad and tongue lolling, hoping for more. She was trying so hard to contain her excitement at the treats and the training to stop herself from ruining it but she accidentally let a little whine escape as she looked up at her human this time.
"Moxie, lie down," Kara said, holding her hand palm-down and flat again and making a downward motion with it. She'd taught Moxie hand signals to go along with every voice command she'd taught her, knowing that dogs read a lot more into body language than they did sounds and that it was far easier for them to pick things up this way.
Moxie lay down on her stomach and looked up eagerly for her treat, but unfortunately none were forthcoming; this trick was a two-parter.
"Moxie, crawl," said Kara, wiggling her fingers and moving her hand slowly back towards herself.
Moxie crawled forwards on her stomach a few paces then stopped and barked, panting happily.
"Good girl!" Kara threw her another treat and she promptly caught it and snapped it up.
They carried on like this for a good ten minutes while the rain pattered down outside, running through every trick in Moxie's repertoire and then some, before Kara finally said, "Alright that's enough, we're done for now, Mox."
She went and sat down to prove her point, leaning her back against the tree and letting out a long relieved sigh.
Moxie stayed where she was for a few moments longer, hoping that the training session would continue in a minute despite knowing full well what the words 'enough' and 'done' meant, before going and curling up on Kara's feet. Almost immediately she seemed to fall asleep, tired out after all the walking and running and walking and training they'd done.
Kara shifted her feet a bit so that they didn't have the full weight of a dog on them and wouldn't go dead within the next minute, then scratched Moxie behind the ears, enjoying the peaceful and calm dog while she could before she ruined it by getting the picnic out.
It was nice and peaceful there, nice and dry under the big oak tree with the rain still falling outside, and Kara thought that she'd made a good choice in coming there. She could and would happily stay there for the rest of the day, no matter how bad the weather got.
Almost as if the weather could hear her thoughts, there was a low rumble of thunder in the distance. She hadn't seen any lightning, but she wasn't sure if that was just because she hadn't been paying attention or not. Moxie's ear twitched at the noise, but she seemed otherwise undisturbed by it, which was strange for her and thunder.
Kara waited, listening and watching this time. Less than a minute later she saw a lightning flash, and started counting the seconds in her mind til the thunder came, wanting to work out roughly how many miles away it was. She'd been taught the trick by an uncle a little while ago and hadn't had a chance to test it out yet.
She counted all the way to thirty-one before she heard the thunder. That must mean it was six miles away, if she'd remembered the numbers right. It was louder this time, closer already, and it woke Moxie up properly this time. She lifted her head and looked around, giving a little whine as she did so.
"It's alright, Mox, it's just a bit of a thunderstorm. We'll be fine here. Nice and dry under our nice sheltering tree, you'll see."
Moxie whined again and crawled into her lap looking for comfort. She'd never liked storms even when she was at home in the actual warm and dry. She was a bit too big to be a lapdog as well—she'd gotten away with it when she was younger—but it was hard to say no to a scared dog so Kara let her stay there and wrapped her arms protectively around her.
"Shhhhh, we'll be fine. Everything will be fine," Kara repeated in a soothing tone of voice, stroking Moxie as she did so.
There was another lightning flash, and Kara counted the seconds. The thunder rumbled and Moxie growled back at it. Twenty-nine seconds this time. It was definitely getting closer. Kara briefly considered taking Moxie home since she was obviously so scared but then she thought about her parents again and realised that she was even more scared of them than Moxie was of the storm. She hugged her dog tight and apologised to her again, feeling guilty and worried.
Each time the thunder growled Moxie growled back at it, quickly progressing into barking as well, and then into not stopping when the thunder did. Kara gave up counting the seconds by the time that happened, with the storm about a mile away and still moving closer.
Frantic now, Moxie started wriggling in Kara's arms , still barking her head off. Kara didn't want to hold her there if she didn't want to be there, and also didn't want to accidentally get hurt by those flailing claws, so she let go.
Moxie went racing off out from under the tree and out into the wetter part of the forest, despite hating the rain, all her hackles raised so it seemed that her fur was all standing up on end.
"Moxie!" Kara shouted, extremely worried and still feeling guilty for keeping her out here, then ran after her into the storm, following the sound of barks, thunder rumbling overhead once more.
She hadn't gone very far at all when there was a ginormous CRACK sound behind her. The world flashed a brilliant blinding white and, terrified, she turned to see the giant oak tree she'd been sheltering under lighting up. A giant line had appeared down its centre and the entire north side of it—the side that was fortunately furthest from her—was starting to topple.
As Kara watched in amazement half of that giant oak came crashing down into the forest canopy, knocking other smaller trees down with it. Kara forgot about chasing Moxie as she stood there, open-mouthed, unable to stop herself from imagining what would have happened to her if Moxie hadn't gone running off at just the moment that she did.
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