Fish and Bones
The salt spray licked his hide, sending ripples of cool along his arched back as he lunged for the bone that was just in front of his open maw. Straining forward he clamped down, his teeth gripping with satisfaction as they found purchase on the prize. Just as quickly as he had entered the sea he found himself pounding along the sand and then onto a deeply forested path. He slowed to shake himself, his pelt spraying salt-water like fine rain in a mist all around him. He turned then, trying to catch a familiar scent. There it was, bounding through the sand, a large blonde wolfhound, grinning with its mouth full of bone. The blue eyes seemed incongrous with the rest of the hound's presence. They were somehow too aware of their surroundings. Sean called out to his brother. A deep rumble of sound came from his throat, catching him unaware and stopping him cold. It was in that moment that it dawned on him that this really was not just a game. He and Ian really were changed. He watched his brother approach with a new eye. He looked like one of the wolfhounds from out of the book he had borrowed from Roary. Of course the book had no color, but he could imagine the rough pelt of those royal hounds in the same fine tans and blondes catching the light just like Ian's did.
Ian slowed long enough to shake the sea from his rough curly hide, then made his way over to Sean, dropping the bone he carried at his brother's paws. "I don't know where we are," he thought to him.
Sean's large grey head jerked in response. He had forgotten that this was how they would communicate. "Neither do I," he responded, still somewhat caught in his own reverie.
"I guess we should look around. Perhaps we can find something that is familiar," stated Ian. "We should stay close to each other though. Okay?"
"Sure," replied Sean tentatively. He was beginning to feel very uneasy about this change. The images in the book were cool, but he couldn't quite get comfortable with being one of them.
Ian retrieved his bone and the two hounds returned to the edge of the sea. They followed it as far as they could only to come upon a large towering cliff wall. They searched for a way around the obstruction. Disgruntled when they could not find any passage, they retraced their steps and followed the edge in the other direction for quite some distance. It seemed like this path would prove more promising, but they ran into a similar cliff about forty-five minutes later. They had been wandering for almost two hours and had learned only that the sea's edge took them exactly nowhere. Sitting on their haunches, the hounds gnawed on the bones they carried.
"I'm thirsty," thought Sean, "and hungry."
"Now is not the time to be worried about your stomach," said Ian. "We need to get back to the strand. Mom and Nana have to be completely flipped out by now. We should never have gone after these bones."
"True," replied Sean "but they are pretty tasty."
Ian swiped at his brother's massive head with a large paw. "Get over it already," he thought with a grin.
Sean replied by dropping his bone and barrelling into Ian. He locked his forelegs around Ian's neck and tumbled him to the side into the sand. The two hounds fell to wrestling. It was a magnificent sight. Sean's large grey body using gravity and sheer strength against the fine lithe lines of Ian. Ian moved with fluidity and used masterful tactics. Their combined styles and abilities left them in a dead heat for "top dog." Eventually, played out, the hounds fell, sides heaving, side by side to the sand. Panting they lay there in total companionship.
"Maybe this isn't as bad as I thought," considered Sean.
"I wouldn't go that far," replied Ian, "but the wrestling is definitely fun."
With the sun starting its movement toward sunset, the hounds returned to the path they had found when first exiting the sea. Carrying their bones and walking in lock-step, they looked like well-trained war-hounds. At the beginning of the forested part of the path they paused.
"I really am thirsty," complained Sean.
"I am too," replied Ian. "Hopefully this path leads to fresh water. There is nothing here for us, so we might as well start checking the forest out. Let's just stay together and keep a wary eye on what is going on around us. We don't even know for sure if we are in a real place or a faery place yet."
"Doesn't feel very 'faery'," replied Sean with a snippy attitude.
"How many times do you have to be told that sometimes things are not what they seem to be?" asked Ian. "After all, who would have thought that we would be mixed up in this bizarre modern-day faerytale?
"Got me there, Bro," said Sean.
They edged forward along the path, noting the patterns of the shadows cast by the profusion of greenery that formed the forest canopy above them. The scents and sounds were almost overwhelming. All of their senses seemed to be working overtime.
"I smell something this way," they said in unison.
Together they moved off the path, wandering through the thick growth. The ground underfoot was spongy with growth. They could hear animals moving out of their way, skittling through the undergrowth. The scents were deeper here, full of both decay and new growth, and the lighting a bit dimmer, both from the change in the time and the denser foliage overhead. The ground rose upward a bit and then leveled. They padded along for a while until the ground started to slope downward. They followed the scent down the slope. Before too long they found a wide stream and here they drank their fill. Padding down the stream's bank, Sean noticed a pool of large fish.
"I think those are salmon," he said.
"Dare you to catch one," smiled Ian.
Sean moved as quietly as he could to peer more directly over the fish. They were lovely. They were huge. They were dinner. He studied one particularly large fish, watching it swim, trying to gauge its rhythm and movement. He slipped a paw into the water, and then another, edging closer. The fish scattered momentarily, coming back to swarm in lazy circles again as he stood as motionless as possible. Finally, when he could stand the suspense no longer, he plunged his face into the water, mouth wide open and bit down. His teeth almost cracked as they collided into themselves and he came up, shaking his head, water spewing all around him. Ian rolled on his back at the edge of the water, his laughter clearly ringing in Sean's head. Sean took up his stance again. He was going to catch a fish; more importantly he was going to eat a fish.
This time he waited with one giant paw up in the air and, as his target swam by, he slammed it down into the water, slapping the fish on the tail and pushing it to the top of the water, where he almost caught it in his mouth. Ian stopped laughing. Sean almost had the last one. He was now suddenly not so sure that this was a stupid idea. It seemed just possible that this could actually turn into dinner instead of just a show. Actually he thought to himself, dinner and a show, that first try was pretty funny. He padded over and took a place facing opposite to Sean. They looked at each other, the grey hound with the chocolate eyes staring intently at the blonde hound with the blue eyes. Nodding briefly, Sean lifted his paw and selected a target while Ian moved his head to just above the water. Sean slammed his paw into the water, a salmon shot up to the surface, and Ian got just enough of a hold on it with his jaws to flip it onto the shore. Working together the two hounds quickly managed to catch several fish. On the last attempt, Ian moved his head into position, not even looking at Sean. Sean stared at the water, then at Ian, then at the shore, then at Ian and then he slammed his paw down on top of Ian's head, thrusting him deep into the water. Ian's surprise at being pushed under the water was only surpassed by the surprise of the salmon that lodged itself in his maw. He gripped it hard with his teeth and pulled himself up triumphantly. Shaking to put as much water on Sean as possible, Ian grinned around the fish. "Guess you can catch a fish this way!" He ran for the shore before Sean could tackle him and dropped the extra fish into their catch.
"I hope you like sushi," he laughed as Sean joined him. They ate and drank their fill by the stream. Eventually, they returned to where they had dropped their bones and picked them up again.
"I have no idea why we keep carrying these around," said Sean.
"I guess we will keep them until we find others. Maybe it is just the kind of thing a hound would do?" replied Ian.
"We should probably find some place to sleep. It is getting dark and we still don't have any idea where we are," noted Sean.
"Bet you just want to sleep 'cause your belly is full," teased Ian. "Let's see what we can find."
The two hounds set off together, side by side, carrying their bones as if that was the way it had always been, into the night.
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