New Tricks

Even young dogs can learn them. Naiomi visits the Temple.

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This shining population center is considered the jewel of The Sylira Region. Home of the vast majority of Mizahar's population, Syliras is nestled in a quiet, sprawling valley on the shores of the Suvan Sea. [Lore]

New Tricks

Postby Naiomi on January 23rd, 2020, 6:10 am

“Sit.”

Naiomi didn’t understand people’s fascination with sitting or why she had to be the one to impress them with the simple feat, but she obliged anyhow. She swore she spent more time sitting than doing anything else.

“Good. Now down.”

It was another, overly simple task that they always seemed fond of having her prove she was capable of, but if they wanted it and if it made them happy, then she’d do it. Stretching her legs out in front of her, she walked her front paws out from her body until she was lying down, waiting and listening instantly for the next command.

“Good girl, Mutt.”

Those were words Naiomi lived for. If she never saw the underside of a table for the rest of her life, if another ball was never thrown, if she wasn’t allowed to run again, all of that would be worth it if she heard those words every day. Her big dog mouth broke open in a happy dog grin, revealing bright white teeth, and even her sad sagging eyes couldn’t mask her happiness.

Anita brought a new command that Naiomi wasn’t expecting. “Roll over.”

It wasn’t that Naiomi didn’t understand the instruction or was incapable of it. She knew exactly what Anita was asking her to do. More so, she knew exactly why the other young girl was asking it. Mertilde, another young girl a year older than Anita, had been showing off what her new dog, a Rivali lapdog, could do and what tricks he already knew. He was a yappy shithead. Even Master had said so. Only begrudgingly did Naiomi accept that it was the same species as her. It spent more time in pockets and arms than it did on its own four paws. Naiomi found the request insulting.

Anita tried again. “Come on, Mutt. Roll over.”

Still refusing, Naiomi drew her breath in deep, then drove it forward in a short, joyful bark. Though she wasn’t even two years old yet, she was full grown, and her bark was deep and powerful. And when she bayed, by all the Gods, when she bayed, the halls of Syliras reverberated with her cry.

Anita huffed a frustrated sigh. “I didn’t say speak.”

Speak. Naiomi knew that one and loved it more than any other command. With it, she was allowed to express whatever emotion she felt. She barked again, this time drawing on all the thunder of it and letting it echo off the stone.

Anita grabbed Naiomi’s head between her hands and looked her in the eyes. “No.”

There were very few things in this world Naiomi didn’t like, and even fewer that she hated. The word ‘no’ was one of those. Naiomi knew better than to bark in someone’s face. Master had told her so. We don’t yell or bark in another dog or person’s face. It’s rude. This is important. Instead, she hushed her voice, and it came out as a questioning grunt-bark, soft but still a bark.

Unable to handle much more of her friend’s antics, Anita shook her head. “I swear, Mutt. Sometimes, you are dumber than Timmy Brimble.”

Timmy Brimble had been a brash, brave boy, perhaps not so dumb, just willing to take dares others would not for the sake of impressing people, people being the fellow children of Syliras. Last season, Timmy had snuck up on to the ramparts with several other children and began showing off. Others tried too, but Timmy always one-upped them. Things had escalated until finally Timmy took a dare no one should have. He fell. All the children of Syliras attended his funeral, Naiomi included.

At the slip of mentioning Timmy’s name, tears tickled at the edges of Anita’s eyes, and Naiomi watched her friend’s face fall. A friend’s sadness was one of the few things Naiomi hated more than the word ‘no.’ Her long, slobber-covered tongue flashed out and lapped across Anita’s face.

Shoving Naiomi away and bursting into laughter, Anita tried in vain to rid her face of dog saliva. “And you’re grosser than him, too.”

Timmy had kissed Anita once, and she had left him with a punch in the bread basket. The truth, though, was Anita had fancied him. She had cried the hardest at his funeral and for the longest afterward. Naiomi had stayed by her side for a full week. Master was frustrated, but he understood, too, and let her be. Naiomi wasn’t sure why, but she always seemed to sense when people needed her presence.

“Roll over,” Anita tried again.

Before Naiomi could bark in response again, a calm voice lit with the several accents of the desert with the flair of Vani interrupted them. “I’m afraid you won’t get her to do that, Ani. It’s my fault. I told her only yappy shitheads do that.”

Anita pouted. “Then, what am I supposed to have her do to impress people?”

Master shrugged. “I don’t know. Play to her strengths, I suppose.”

Anita thought about it for a moment, and then an idea brightened her face. “I know just the thing.”

Master laughed, and the sound seemed to carry the cool comfort of dusk on the summer desert or the warmth of a fire after a long frigid day in Avanthal. Neither were things she had experienced, but they sounded like the nicest things the way Master described them, and Master’s laughter was the nicest thing Naiomi had ever known. “I’m afraid it’ll have to wait. Pup and I have to go to the Temple. We must pay our respects to the divines who guide and provide for us. This is important.”

That was something Master said when he wanted her to remember something, and it was something he said that ended any arguments from her. They were doing this.

“Oh. You sure she can’t come out and play. I wanted to spend the day with her.”

Master smiled and laughed again. “No. We need to go. But you’re welcome to join us.”

Anita suddenly remembered something she had to do. “Ma wanted me to help in the kitchen today. Maybe another time.”

“Definitely another time.”

Master said it was the way adults offered an invitation that was more of an expectation. Anita knew it was time to leave before that became an invitation for now.

“Bye, Mutt. Another day.”

“Sorry, Naiomi, but they don’t enjoy dogs in the Temple.”

In a quick flash of light, Naiomi sat in front of them, completely human. She jumped to her feet and hugged her friend. “Another day.”

Anita laughed and grabbed Naiomi’s shirt, shoving it into her friend’s hands. “And make sure you wear your shirt, too. Ma says most people don’t like seeing naked people, especially in a temple, and she said you gotta watch out for the ones who do.”

Naiomi already knew this. It was one of Master’s lessons. Little dogs are allowed to roam around naked, but not so for little boys and girls. This is important.

She put on her shirt, the one that draped down to her knees, and hugged her friend goodbye, then waited for Master to lead the way, her entire body- hips and shoulder and spine- shaking back and forth in a way reminiscent of the way a dog wags with its entire body.
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Naiomi
Dogged Friend
 
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Joined roleplay: July 10th, 2014, 2:50 am
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