Whenever it came to less monstrous beings, creatures without claws and tails, arriving at Savepoint, Akah was normally the person to go and greet them, because he was considered the least scary member of the Thantir to more ‘thropic’ beings. Today’s visitor though was completely Thropic. A human with an incredibly large, fluffy, orange companion. Not wanting to dillydally, Akah made his way over, but he did glance at the guard towers where Elksia, Eksi and Thassalin were working and keeping an eye on things, just in case. But Elksia hadn’t moved and Eksi hadn’t said anything, so he assumed the coast is clear.
“Hello, welcome to Savepoint, are you well?”
The human seemed to smile weakly and held out their arm, but their companion, the massive, furry dog creature, barked incredibly loudly and excitedly. The human was fine, but Akah didn’t like dogs. For a large number of reasons.
“Oh, I’m dandy! And clearly Woofley likes you a lot! But something attacked me and bit me and I think it’s that black nasty stuff?”
“Oh dear. We will help you out. What is your name?”
“Tim!”
“And is the… dog infected?”
“No, just me.”
Akah was glad his mask mostly hid his frown. “Alright, come with me. But we will have to have your dog wait elsewhere while we check you over. Some procedures may be required and we… uh… need to keep the place clean and sanitized.”
“No problem! Can you look after Woofley while I do the scary medical stuff?”
“… Sure…”
Akah frowned some more, then led the human to the nearest medical room. Already present were Pah, Leh and Kayel, who was learning how to do basic Corruption removal. Woofley, the dog, barked non-stop as Akah hinted that Tim go inside. He quickly closed the door so the dog couldn’t follow, then raced over to the waiting area, Woofley still barking.
“Nyssi, Tanos, can I ask a massive favour of you?” Akah immediately asked as Woofley barked even more and tried to climb up Akah.
“You want us to look after the giant dog?” Nyssi asked back.
“Yes please. I’m not scared of much, but I am scared of dogs.”
“How comes?”
“I don’t remember many of my deaths but I DO remember the one where a pack of wolves was set on me as I tried to free some slaves and they tore me to shreds…”
Nyssi and Tanos both blinked, and Nyssi immediately rushed off, grabbed some meat and lured Woofley away from Akah. Akah bowed in thanks, then backed off himself, to the more private areas so he could calm himself down.
“Darn, he REALLY doesn’t like dogs…” Tanos muttered as Nyssi fed some slices of cooked chicken to the dog. Woofley jumped up at Nyssi, and she didn’t like that, so she pushed him back down.
“Yeah… But from the memory I accidentally caught? I don’t fucking blame him. He remained insanely calm dealing with this… orange wolf…”
“He’s not scared of me though, and I’m dog-like.”
Nyssi snorted. “Why would Akah be scared of you? You’re a cute little fluffy fox guy. And you’re also sentient. And not like the Kronospast species that kept Akah as a slave. But also, Akah’s just a really good guy who doesn’t really know how to be selfish so he sucks up his fear and angst for the betterment of oth- HEY! Bad dog, sit down!”
Woofley had jumped up at Nyssi again, but her stern words did cause him to pause briefly. He stared at Nyssi, then bounced up and down, span around a few times chasing his tail, then barked some more.
“I really don’t like this dog…” Tanos tutted. “He’s badly behaved.”
“Maybe you should pet it?” Nyssi suggested. “Since you’re also a canine-like being, it might calm him down?”
“Or he’ll get territorial…” Tanos disagreed, not at all confident with Nyssi’s suggestion. Mostly because Woofley was massive, taller than Tanos was. “Plus, sure, I’m canine-like but, really, I’m closer to a bee than a fox. I have an internal skeleton and lungs and all that, but my digestive system is completely different.”
“Not that different.”
“Different enough… Still, I can try, I guess?”
Tanos took a deep breath to steady himself, then slowly approached Woofley, from the front, so Woofley could see him. Woofley immediately wagged his tail, howled then leaped at Tanos, knocking him to the ground and licking him. This scared Tanos greatly, and he shrank himself down and hid under a nearby chair. Woofley chased after him, ignoring Nyss’s shouts for him to stop.
All of a sudden though, Woofley tried to run but found himself not going anywhere, experiencing the weight of 0G. Realizing that something weird was happening, Woofley barked loudly and aggressively, only for something massive to bark back at him.
“NO!” Ret roared as he used his gravity powers to drag Woofley outside, into a more open area. “BAD.”
Woofley barked again, but Ret roared even louder, causing Woofley to fall silent.
The commotion drew some attention. The door to the medical room opened up, revealing Tim in a slightly burnt shirt, plus Kayel. Tah had also teleported out to see what was going on.
Woofley started whining, feeling weird about floating in mid-air and unable to move properly. He tried running and wagging his tail and wriggling and all sorts, but he remained in place.
“Alright, Ret, what happened?” Tah asked as both he and Tim approached.
“This animal needs to learn better manners, it attacked Tanos!” Ret snarled, then turned and pointed a finger at Tim. Everyone else around was close to Tim’s height, but Ret in comparison was huge and genuinely terrifying. “And YOU need to learn how to better control your animal companion! It should be on a leash if it cannot handle being around other beings without jumping at them!”
“He’s just being friendly!” Tim tried to argue back.
“I do not care if your dog THINKS it is being friendly, it jumped at and knocked over my best friend and SCARED him! Your dog could have hurt my best friends, had I not intervened!” Ret took a deep breath, then turned to Tah. “I apologize, I did not know how to stop the dog without shouting at it.”
Tah clicked angrily. “No, no, Retvik, you’re perfectly fine. Leh, Kayel, is this guy clear of Corruption?”
“Yep.”
“Alright. Tim, please take your dog and leave.”
“What about payment?”
“We don’t want payment, we want you to teach your dog manners and we want you to leave.”
Tim sighed. Woofley whimpered.
“I’m sorry.”
Ret crossed his arms, then made a clicking noise with his tongue, freeing Woofley from the zero gravity field. “Your apology will only be truly accepted once you have properly trained your dog.”
“I’ll… work on that… Come on now, Woofley. Let’s go home.”
Tim walked back to his ship, and Woofley followed, his tail between his legs. Once the ship had left, Nyssi wandered over, holding a still tiny Tanos in her hand. She passed Tanos over to Ret, who held him tightly.
“Are you alright, Tenuk?” Ret asked.
“Yeah… just a bit shaken…” Tanos stuttered, shaking somewhat.
“It is alright, I will protect you! I always will, I promised.”
“Uh, quick questions!” Kayel suddenly interrupted. “Why didn’t you go all Defensive-Stance-y when Tenuk got scared, and why did you call that thing a dog and not a fluffy puppy?”
Ret went back to tutting. “That stupid thing was far, far too big to be a fluffy puppy! But… Hm… I do think I need to go and sit down and calm down though. I definitely have some half-stance bubbles right now…”
“We’ll go get some ice cream then!” Nyssi smiled. “That always helps.”
Tanos returned to his normal size, then hugged Ret as tightly as he could. “You want ice cream, best friend?”
“Yes, please.”
Nyssi led Tanos and Ret away. Kayel quickly glanced at Leh and Tah, silently asking if he could go with, then decided to chase after them anyway.
“You know what?” Leh eventually muttered.
“What?”
“They’re nearly as close-knit as we are…”
Tah clicked in amusement. “Yeah. They’re going to be a scary team of Decay Lords one day.”