Chapter 60
Sixty
Ayla
I t took a bit for Rymar to get us a gun. When he did, I had to spend hours more waiting for Kanik to get home from school. I was pretty sure my excitement over finally trying out the idea had made Zasen frustrated, because he'd retreated outside. To work on more war arrows, he said.
That was why he was out there when we were finally able to try our idea for the first time. I'd done my best to explain it to the guys over dinner, but Zasen didn't think it would work. He also hadn't seen Holly knock Kanik down.
But the trick would be teaching her a new command. Lansin had told me it was possible, but I had no clue how to train a dog! I did, however, know how I'd learned things, and praise had helped the most. So, I had a collection of dried meat in a pouch to reward her, and the toy Tamin had given her for her breaks.
"Okay," Kanik said as he looked over the gun. "And you're sure this thing is safe, Ayla?"
I nodded. "You can make sure it's empty by checking the chamber," I explained. "Since there's no magazine in it, there's no bullet to shoot, so it can't hurt you. I've already checked it three times, and the safety is on."
He nodded. "Okay. It's just..." He chuckled. "I'm not used to holding these things. Hauling, sure, but guns are typically used against us."
"Just hold it across your chest like this," I said, demonstrating how the hunters tended to carry them.
Kanik moved to an open space, checked the area around him, and nodded to show he was ready. I made Holly heel, then we crossed the yard. Her eyes were on the toy I was holding, and my dog was completely focused, ready for any command I could give.
"Holly, get the gun!" I said, pointing at Kanik .
She looked where I pointed, then back. After a pause that was much too long, she wagged her tail once.
"Gun!" I said, pointing again.
"She doesn't know what that means," Kanik told me.
So I nodded. "Fetch the gun!"
Immediately, my dog tensed, looking where I pointed as if ready to obey. Kanik lifted the weapon, holding it out like he would with a stick, and she was off! Her brindle color became a brown blur as she raced towards him, leaping at the last second to catch the gun in her mouth, wrenching it out of his hands so she could bring it back to me.
"Good girl!" I praised, trading the gun for a piece of meat. "This is a gun, Holly." I tapped the thing. "Gun."
She nosed it.
"Good girl!" I said again, offering her another treat. "Gun?"
Again she nosed it, which made me put the weapon down so I could hug and praise her. While I did that, Kanik came over, picked up the weapon, and returned to where he'd been standing. When he was ready, he nodded.
Without standing, I ordered, "Holly, fetch the gun!" This time I didn't point.
She turned, looked for a moment, then took off. This time, Kanik was holding it the way the hunters did, so she jumped up, grabbing the weapon and bouncing off his chest just like she had with the stick that day.
A grunt flew from Kanik's mouth. He and the dog fell in different directions, but Holly was halfway back to me by the time Kanik's rump landed on the grass. I immediately started cheering my dog on. And when she dropped the gun before me, I hurried to give her the toy.
"That's my girl!" I beamed. "Oh, you're such a good dog!"
Which was when Zasen snagged the weapon, proving he'd been watching us. "She's just fetching," he said. "She can't tell the difference between this and a stick."
"So you hold it," Kanik dared him. "Go ahead, Zasen. Act like you're a hunter."
So Zasen lifted the weapon. He wasn't holding it right, since the end was under his arm instead of tucked against his shoulder, but that didn't matter. I had faith in my dog.
"Gun!" I yelled. "Holly, gun! Fetch gun!"
She dropped her toy and rushed him. I saw as Zasen's eyes went wide, and the man backed up a step before she launched herself into his chest, twisting her body even as she stole the rifle from him and brought it back.
Zasen hadn't fallen on his rump, but she had knocked him down to a knee, and I wanted to gloat about it. "So, if you were a Mole, how would you kill me now?" I asked, hurrying to pet and feed my dog as her reward.
"Okay, she's terrifying like that," he conceded. "But there's one problem I see."
"What?" I asked.
"She came at me straight on. That makes it easy to see her coming and shoot at her. "
"Shit, that's a good point," Kanik said.
I passed Holly her toy and thought about it. When we went hunting, we rarely came at anything from the front. Some things would run if spotted. Others would attack. When fighting the Moles, it was basically the same. Dragons used their coloration to their advantage, but Lansin's list of commands for the dogs was mostly used for hunting. Wait.
"Can we do it again?" I asked.
So Kanik came over to get the gun again. I got up and moved to the back of the yard, over by the cliff, but Zasen had a better idea.
"Kanik, come at me," he suggested. "Let's see if Holly can do this when it's not about Ayla."
"Nice," Kanik said, pretending to hold the weapon like a hunter and creeping across the yard the way they did when hunting.
"Holly," I whispered, not wanting to be too loud. "See it." Her attention snapped to where I was pointing and her body went tense. "Come by," I ordered.
She immediately headed left, keeping herself low to the ground. Zasen was now taunting Kanik, moving sideways as if he was trying to sneak into the house. Holly was moving in the opposite direction.
"Push!" I ordered, struggling not to yell. Her hearing was good so I didn't need to.
She immediately began moving behind him, encouraging him to keep going the same way he was. Slowly, stealthily, she was gaining on him. When she was five paces away, I finally gave the command.
"Holly, gun!"
From her crouched little movements, the dog exploded into a full run and leaped at him from both behind and beside him, coming in at a diagonal. Kanik barely had time to flinch before she'd wrenched the gun from his hands.
"Good girl!" I squealed, shaking her toy as she hurried back. "Oh, you're such a good dog, aren't you?"
"We need a better command," Zasen said as he and Kanik made their way over. "Saying gun is - "
We both laughed as my dog looked up excitedly, then dropped her nose down to the gun still laying on the ground.
"And that proves the point," Kanik agreed. "What else can we use, though? Fetch isn't quite right."
Now her tail was wagging hopefully.
"Disarm," I decided. "Holly, disarm the gun." I tapped it. She pressed her nose to the weapon, then looked up. "Good girl!" I said, giving her a treat. "Disarm!"
We did that a few times, then I had Kanik hold the weapon before him, and I showed her again. When she finally took the gun from his loose hands, I praised her even more, offering her toy so she could run around shaking it.
"Okay, let me have that," Zasen said, taking the rifle. "Kanik's been walloped by that dog more than me. I also want to try something," he said .
"Okay?" I nodded in agreement, but he simply walked away.
"What's he doing?" Kanik asked.
I could only shrug. "Is he trying to prove she can't do this?"
"No, I think he's trying to find the problems with it," he assured me. "So we can fix them, I mean."
I nodded, aware Zasen had headed around the front of the house, then over towards the empty space beside our house. Figuring he would tell me when he was ready, I reached over to pet my dog some more, making sure all of this was fun for her. Lansin said that made teaching them new things easier for the animals.
Then I heard Zasen say in English, "Two targets ahead. Flank right!"
"Holly, disarm!" I yelled.
"Disarm!" Kanik told her at the same time.
Her toy was immediately forgotten, and she took off like a streak. "Away by!" I yelled, realizing she was making a straight line to him.
Immediately, she arced to the right, obeying the command, but her nose told me exactly where Zasen was, even if I couldn't see him in the trees and bushes. She also didn't slow down. Making a quick spiral around Zasen's hiding spot, the dog raced in from behind him - then vanished into the trees.
I heard Zasen grunt, then a deep but playful growl sounded. A moment later, Holly emerged from the bushes tail first, dragging Zasen by the rifle because of the strap he'd wrapped around his body the way Moles always did.
Holly shook, thrashing at the weapon, and kept dragging. Within three steps, she'd not only knocked him off his feet, and pulled him out of hiding, but also yanked the gun away from him by pulling the strap over his head and arm. Then she spun and ran back with it as fast as she could.
"Oh, that's a good girl!" I told her. "Yes, you are! Oh, Holly's a good doggie!"
Zasen groaned from where he was lying on the ground. "Remind me to never fight a dog," he said before rolling over and pushing himself up. "Damn, I was ready for her and still couldn't hold on to the thing."
"That's about a hundred and fifty pounds of pure predator," Kanik pointed out. "Kinda like getting tackled by a coyote."
"But much prettier," I cooed to my dog. "Yes, you're the bestest dog ever, aren't you? Oh, you're so smart, Holly. Here. Toy."
She took the stuffed thing Tamin had given her and raced around for a victory lap. Beside me, Kanik crossed his arms, waiting until Zasen walked all the way back to us.
"So?" Kanik asked.
Zasen bent over, flicking his bright blue tail behind him. "I could've stung her, but there's no way I could've shot her. I couldn't even get the end pointed at her in time."
"So it might work?" I asked.
He nodded. "Yeah, I think that might work very well. But what will they do after she steals the gun, Ayla?"
I shrugged. "Panic? Run around trying to find one on the ground?"
"Pull a knife?" Kanik suggested.
"Maybe, but aren't your tails longer than most men's arms?" I asked.
"She has a point," Zasen said. "Right about now, I only have one real problem with this."
My heart hung, sure he was going to say I shouldn't keep training Holly to disarm people. "What's that?"
"We don't have more dogs," he said before grinning at me. "Ayla, this was brilliant, and exactly why you needed a dog. And you trained her so fast!"
"Because Lansin made her a good dog," I mumbled, feeling my face getting warmer from the praise.
"But you taught her 'gun' and 'disarm,' just like that." He snapped his fingers.
"She just has to hear the sound, be shown the meaning, and then praised for trying," I explained. "I mean, she touched it first, then picked it up, and - "
Zasen caught my chin, lifting my face so I had to look at him. "And you're good with dogs," he said. "Ayla, that is my opinion, and it's not your job to change it. You simply say thank you and enjoy the feeling of success."
"Yeah?" I asked.
He nodded. "You're very good at this."
"Thank you," I mumbled.
Which made Kanik reach over and rub my shoulder. "And you're only blushing a little, but that's okay because it's cute."
I sputtered, looking between them. "Do I say thank you for that too?"
"Yep," Zasen said smugly. "Then you find a way to turn it back on him."
"Like how Kanik's really brave to offer to let my dog knock him down?" I asked.
Zasen shifted his jaw and tensed the corners of his mouth as he looked over at Kanik. "Yeah, that works."
"No, I..." And Kanik groaned. "Thank you, Ayla."
"And my job here is done," Zasen said. "Holly, come!" He walked a few steps away, crouching down when she reached him. "Yeah, you are a good girl. Oh, that's my sweet baby." He laughed when she pushed in to lick his neck. "Now go see your person, girl. I have arrows to make."
But Kanik shifted closer, bumping his shoulder against mine. "He likes your dog too."
"So do I," I admitted. "She's the best thing I've ever had in my life."
"Yeah," he agreed. "And you really are good with her, so let's do that again, and see if we can teach her the disarm command means coming at them from the side or behind, never the front?"
I nodded. "That's going to be harder, but okay."
"Just means I get to play with your dog," he said. "And no offense, I'm going to use a stick. Hurts less when she pulls it from my hands."
I sucked in a breath. "Oh! Then we can show her that fetch means she has to wait for someone to let go! "
"Yes!" he agreed. "Disarming is taking, and fetching is chasing after it. I like that." And he hurried over to find a big enough stick to serve as the gun.
I just knelt and petted my dog a little more. "Just don't ever get hurt, okay?" I said softly. "I know you're a weapon, but I love you, Holly. I don't ever want you to get hurt because of me."
Her response was simply to lick my hands excitedly.