Waggit's Tale by Peter Howe

Author:Peter Howe
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2008-09-19T04:00:00+00:00

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, much of it spent trying to get Alona to relax. Lowdown had accurately predicted the difficulty she would have doing this, and with the best will in the world, there was little the other dogs could do to help her fit in to their communal life. She had realized that for her own survival she needed the protection only a group could give her against the two great enemies—the Ruzelas and hunger. Being part of a team even helped combat the cold, something that was becoming a problem for her. But despite all these obvious advantages, she had spent most of her life by herself, depending on no other dog and trusting none either. This was something you couldn’t just put down like a stick you were carrying; it would take time for her to make a big adjustment.

Waggit felt sorry for her. He knew from his own experience how hard it was to commit to being part of the team. He tried to make conversation with her.

“I like your name,” he said.

There was no reply.

“They gave me a name too,” he continued. “I didn’t have one either when I came here. Mine’s Waggit.”

Still nothing.

“I wasn’t too sure of it at first.” He pressed on despite the one-sided nature of the conversation, “But now I like it. It’s sort of masculine. Yours is very feminine.”

Waggit had run out of topics, for his social skills were not great. So he just stood there, his tail wagging anxiously.

Suddenly Alona whispered, “Tazar don’t believe I saw what I saw.”

“You think?” said Waggit, completely taken aback.

“He don’t trust me,” she continued in a low voice, “and if he don’t trust me I can’t stay here; I can’t be a team member if I’m not trusted. It’s all about trust.”

Now it was Waggit’s turn to fall silent. He sat down and scratched his ear, which always seemed to help the thought process. After careful consideration of her statement he said, “I don’t think it’s that he doesn’t trust you. When it comes to security Tazar’s very careful. He’ll take risks, but he likes to have all the facts before he does.”

“Well, he’s going to have to trust me on this one. Nobody’s coming back from where those dogs went to tell him I was right.”

This ended the conversation, such as it was, and the two wandered apart.

The meal that night was sparse. The hunting party of Cal, Raz, and Magica had returned with an assortment of small animals, none of which provided much meat. Tazar, who had taken Lowdown’s advice and stayed around for most of the day, authorized the supplementation of the meager spread with food out of the store. When it was really cold the dogs kept any food left over from previous nights in a hole in the ground that they had dug and covered with branches. It was placed so that the sentry on duty could keep an eye on it, for although the branches would have fooled an Upright, any other dog would be able to smell it out easily.

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