A small 10 year old girl walked in the large field. Her eyes scanned the area and targeted on a single hunter who had a lot of game and had just caught a rabbit. Fortunately, the rabbit was still alive. Salene approached the adult hunter woman with tears in her eyes. 

"Please miss. Don't kill that rabbit!" She said sobbing, "It is just an innocent little creature." 

The woman paused and noticed the child in surprise. She then sighed. 

"It has an injured leg. If I let it go, it might die." The hunter lady responded. 

"I can heal it. I am temporarily staying in The City of Sviet. It can stay with me until it heals. It can be my pet!" Salene responded. 

"Fine. But you must promise to go straight home and take care of the rabbit well." The huntress said. 

"I promise that the rabbit shall not suffer." She said, "And that I will return to my home." 

Salene gave the huntress a strong hug, stealing the huntress' wallet while she was at it, and then let the woman go. The huntress nodded and gave Salene the fat injured rabbit. Salene took the rabbit and pretended to walk "home". After waiting for the huntress to leave, she headed over to her campsite. She stabbed the rabbit with a knife then worked on building up a fire to cook it. The area was cleared of grass or anything else that might cause spreading of a fire. Then she put some twigs and fire logs that she had stolen earlier into their correct placements. Then she used two rocks and banged them together until they caused a spark. It didn't work the first time but it did work the third time. Now she had a nice fire. She had a clean stick that she cleaned up at a river earlier then dried it out in the sun this morning. Salene used a sharp rock to skin the rabbit as best as she could, then shoved the stick down the rabbits throat.

Now it was a rabbit on the stick! Salene placed it near the fire for it to cook. It would take a little while for it to cook. Normally she would have dropped it in the fire if she was in a hurry. But for now, it was only noon. She wouldn't have to worry about monsters coming out at night until later. Salene would eventually get to the city but for now it was time to eat. Her mind wandered as she waited for the fat rabbit to cook. Of course, her mind wandered back to Tyr island. It had been three weeks since she had been there but it felt like only yesterday that she was hiding from monsters in a small boat on the ocean. Something that she was happy about now was the fact she didn't have to keep eating fish everyday. Oh, and the fact that she was able to buy a safish room to sleep at night without fear of being eaten and having her soul trapped on the island for all eternity. Salene really had to stop letting her mind wander. Mostly because the rabbit had caught a bit on fire. 

"Holy Shit! Motherfucking rabbit! Why the hell did you have to burn so fucking quickly?!" Salene cursed loudly as she waved the rabbit around to stop it from burning. 

Now she had a slightly burnt rabbit. Great. Just wonderful. The rabbit was done cooking at least. So she tore it off the stick and began ripping into it's flesh with her teeth. She was using her hands and didn't seem to mind if she made a mess on her clothes or on her face. She was hungry! Despite being so hungry, her eyes were alert for any sign of danger or strangers. If there was one thing she learned about entering these new places, was that people were not like the monsters that she faced back home. The monsters were more predictable. They weren't. Well most of them weren't. Some of them…. A few of them. If at any moment she needed to run, or fight, she would. Usually running would be the better option. Mostly because she wasn't that strong and her body was small. Her mind knew many fighting moves but unfortunately, they wouldn't work with a child's strength very well. 

Somewhere on the outskirts of town, there was a small figure being dragged like a kite by an oversized dog with stubby legs. "SIT! NO! BAD DOG! Uh uh uh–what else, what else?! RED LIGHT!!! STOP! STOOOOPPP!!!" Myouga's attempt at training her fiendish krampus corgi was a bust. No matter what she did from the books, Kuroguro wouldn't listen. She'd even borrowed all the animal training manuals the library had back at Iria and it still didn't work. The only thing the snaggle-toothed dog did on command was to chase after food when she threw it. Most of the time she had to keep him inside of her magical snowglobe so he wouldn't run amok. As cute and cuddly as he was in the eyes of his owner, his complete lack of discipline and obedience was becoming a problem. How was she going to convince anybody to be a house-sitter if she didn't know how to keep him in line? Her other pets could take care of themselves just fine, but Kuroguro's antics were enough to make the little arcanist's brow furrow.

One of those books said that corgis needed a lot of playtime outside, so Myouga thought it would be a nice idea to go for a walk. She strapped on her winged armor and wrangled up a leash, only for the krampus dog to bolt as soon as he was outside of his usual confinement. Unbeknownst to the small oni, krampus corgis were infamous for having an exceptional sense of smell. That was how the krampus found the naughty children they kidnapped no matter where they hid. And once Kuroguro was in the open, his wet nose caught wind of something delicious being roasted. The only things she could get him to eat had meat in them–pork buns, sausage, meatballs, ham, steak. Fortunately he hadn't acquired a taste for seafood or else the fishmongers would be done for. His favorite treat was jerky and the occasional ham bone. But like all things he ate, even bones would be devoured in minutes.

Screams and the baying of some ungodly hound were quickly approaching Salene's little hideout as Kuroguro followed his nose straight to that burnt rabbit she was holding. From a long ways off anyone could see a trail of thick billowing smoke steadily coming closer. From her perspective she would see an incredibly ugly dog running so fast that it was flying while what appeared to be a young girl in a white dress was being pulled along for the ride. Somewhere along the way Myouga's white hat had flown off and her short bobbed hair was now flying every which way. "HELP! HEEEELP!!! SOMEBODY STOP THIS THING!!!"

"HEEEELP!!! SOMEBODY STOP THIS THING!!!" echoed in the air as Grakana worked away on some fine leather, working it around a smooth stone to stretch it out and define its shape before adding in the decals. After all, it was not often Grakana got to work with leather and it let him do things no wood or stone can accomplish! He would have to make sure his decorated pieces were cut and shaped just right before dyes could be applied, but NOW WAS NOT THE TIME! A CRY FOR HELP WAS IN THE AIR (literally) SO GRAKANA RAN!

After making sure the mask was stowed away for no other hands to tamper with it, Grakana was quick to move with what little legs he had, eyeing the kite-lady along the way and what was dragging it: A mutt-mutt with meat in its mouth! It not even good meat! No… If Grakana was to help, he had to be better meat!


A large cloud of smoke was quick to envelop Grakana, surrounding his self until no other being on the outside could peer through so he could change his mask in public without breaking taboo. The smoke went as quick as it came, this time revealing him with a head that could only be described as a massive roast! "HEY MUTT-MUTT!" Grakana was quick to call out, "GRAKANA DELICIOUS AND MUTT-MUTT CAN'T HAVE GRAKANA!!!"

It did not take much to make the demonic corgi to agree, as the quick glance made it drop the real meat and salivate over the fake mask. After all, what was a slightly burnt rabbit compared to a juicy Grakana roast?! Great! Grakana had its attention…. Now what?

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" were his cries as now he was the one being chased by the krampus corgi, not having done actual much to help free the woman stuck in the sky.

Salene was halfway through her meal when she heard a sound. It sounded like screaming. She looked up in the sky and saw a krampus corgi. Salene stood up as memories of the evil krampus at Tyr Island flashed through her mind. Her eyes were fear with terror and her mouth was shut. She had dropped her rabbit. The krampus corgi would be able to steal it now without touching Salene. She quickly pushed those memories from her mind.

Salene was not on that island anymore. And now she didn't have to fear them. She could fight them. Especially since she was pissed off about losing a hard earned meal. That was hers! And this big creature was coming around thinking it could steal what belonged to her. If it wanted something to eat so bad then it could have gotten some food on it's own. Salene would not do this because she wanted to save the lady or stop the corgi. She was doing this because she was pissed off! Pure rage was in her eyes. 

But she couldn't just rush in without a plan. Her mind raced for ideas. Whatever she did, she would need magic. That much was clear. Salene did not have the strength to take on the corgi alone. So she cast Arcane Magic. It would increase her magical ability for a short time. An idea formed in her mind. But she would need to use something as bait.

She began tying two long coils of rope together in a strong knot. One that not even the worst of gravity could break. She did tug at it with all her strength to be safe. It would hold up for now. Hopefully. Then she made a large loop about the size of the creature's head. It took up a lot of rope yet there was plenty for Salene to hold onto. It was very long rope. Now what to do about that bait… All of the sudden, her answer appeared in the form of this strange meat masked creature. It was taunting the creature and trying to be more appealing. The corgi dropped her meat.

But it may as well kept it. She couldn't eat it now since it had corgi saliva all over it. Salene cast Greater Agility on herself it increase her speed and agility. Then she raced over to where Grakana was running. She got ahead a bit of the direction that they were running then leapt into the air. Her jump was much higher due to the spell. Then she attempted to throw the loop of the rope around the corgi's head. It would be loose enough for the corgi to breath and to get it around it's head to it's neck but tight enough to stay on. Salene was holding onto the other end of the rope. 

If this worked then she would probably be pulled into the air. However, she would use all her strength to use the rope to climb up to the corgi's neck. If she was able to make it that far then she would attempt to cling onto it's fur and make her way to the head of the corgi. Her plan was not to hurt the creature but to stop it from flying around so much. Salene pushed the thoughts of how dangerous this was out of her mind. If she failed then she would die. So what else was new? Everything in life tried to kill her. Might as well accept it and do the best one could anyway. 

Besides, what better revenge than to put a stop to the corgi's attempts at a next meal. Oh, and also save the girl being dragged by the corgi and the masked thing that was being chased. Saving them was…important too. 

Myouga was yanked around until her corgi came to a screeching halt–emphasis on actual screeching–as he had found the source of the delicious smell. Cackling like a hyena, Kuroguro snatched up a large partially eaten roasted piece of game on a stick. He was greedily chomping away when a stronger, much more delicious scent pulled his attention away. Snuffling with nose in the air, the hideous dog dropped his current snack and drooled when he saw a prime cut of a perfectly juicy roast. The fact said roast had a face, arms, and legs was completely overlooked as there was only one thing on the krampus corgi's mind… Hysterical baying started as the fiendish pooch was now making a beeline for the little imp with meat on its head! Grakana's solution managed to solve one problem–by replacing it with another! The little arcanist hardly had time to retrieve her snow globe when she was jerked along once again, this time with more force! "GYAAAHHHHH!!!" Myouga cried, desperately trying to hold on for dear life.

Something whizzed by her field of vision, but she didn't have time to see as Kuroguro's relentless chasing whipped her back and forth. The corgi had gotten so excited that he was now flying instead of just running, and that meant he wasn't slowing down. "KUROGURO STOP! MEAT DOESN'T HAVE LEGS!!" Again, the dog wasn't listening as the snack was far more interesting. What should she do now? Sticking one hand into her bag she was pulling out objects and stuffing them back in. "No. Nope. Nada. I don't think this will work." Her hand pulled out a strange horn shaped like a cornucopia. "…Nuh-uh." As distracting giant turkeys were, that probably wasn't going to help. Racking her brain as she was being dragged through the sky, she was running low on options that didn't involve explosions. Myouga was unaware of the other girl now adding herself to the arcanist's current predicament when she decided enough was enough.

Puffing up her face and balling her fists, she took a deep breath before yelling exceptionally loud: "KUROGURO, SIT!!!" Her voice boomed, hitting the corgi in a shock wave. The sudden loud noise disoriented the dog, causing them all to plummet downward. Fortunately Kuroguro managed to lower himself to a few feet from the ground before they made impact. That burst of sound shook up Myouga's magical armor with wings, so she had to stop her fall with a quick use of levitation. Grakana was now free–for the time being! The oversized corgi was lying on its side still dizzy. Pounding her chest with a fist, Myouga coughed as she searched for the time-out snow globe. She didn't like raising her voice, since that meant her throat would be sore the rest of the day. Guzzling some potions, she cleared her throat to check if it was feeling better. She would have to work quickly, before Kuroguro got over his vertigo and started running again.

Finally noticing the other girl, she looked surprised for a moment before grinning from ear to ear. She waved at Salene with gusto, not giving her usual self-introduction as to give the healing potion more time to do its work. Somehow she felt as if something was missing, and felt the top of her head. Her hat! With a snap of her fingers, a white puff-shaped hat appeared in her hand and she put it on. 

With such a loud, booming voice, the corgi was down and the chase was finished! SUCCESS! VICTORY FOR GRAKANA! Still, mutt-mutt was still quite dazed and could recover any moment. In a small puff of smoke, Grakana summoned forth his vial-shaped masked, a few mushrooms and herbs, and a mixing bowl. "Now then, Grakana must act fast, else seasonings be off, and Grakana must taste perfect!" Chucking the items into the mixing bowl, Grakana was quick to start mashing away, muttering to himself about "how great Grakana tastes" and being able to provide "the perfect cocktail to go alongside," until his collection of items looked like a sloppy mush.

Still, time was of the essence, thus the goblin scraped the mixture into the vial before a large cloud of smoke enveloped him once more, the mixing glass and the meat having now swapped places. Soon, Grakana began to chant, stepping side to side while spinning his head, entranced into a strange ritual with steam coming from the top for a moment. Once he stopped, he hurried over to the fallen side of the corgi.

"Drink, and all will be well," Grakana stated as he used his hands to hold the jaw open, tilting his head down to let the finished and cooked concoction to flow into its mouth, essentially forcing it to drink a tranquilizer. "With that, Mutt-Mutt should be easy to handle," Grakana chuckled, wiping off whatever bits remained dripping from the jaws of the mask.

Salene missed in her attempt to loop the rope around the neck of the large dog. However, she moved out of the way before the dog fell to the ground. It took only a few moments for Salene to realize what had happened. Grakana was doing some strange stuff but eventually gave the corgi monster something to drink. Her attentions were turned to Myouga. Salene’s eyes were filled with rage and her fist was clenched tightly.

“That’s all it took?! You could have just shouted sit the whole time and you never fucking thought to do that until now?!” Salene shouted.

It was difficult for her to be intimidating since she was a ten year old and wasn’t very tall. But the point wasn’t to be intimidating. It was more to let off some steam.

“That dog stole my food, destroyed my campsite with all this running around, almost killed this poor guy!” Salene shouted at Myouga and pointed at Grakana, “And on top of all that, it has attracted some orcs. And yet the entire time you didn’t think, hey maybe I should stop this thing! Or maybe I should tell it to sit?! Really?! Fucking hell, now I’m going to have to find some other fucking place to stay because you were too stupid to realize that you should stop your rampaging mutt! Damn it!”

Salene was not kidding about the orcs. In the far distant there were some orc like creatures who were slowly walking over to them. There were about four of them and they were armed, although it would be difficult to see that from where they were at.

“Also if you have a pet then shouldn’t you make sure you are capable of controlling them? One day your dog will meet a stronger creature and annoy that creature. Then your dog will be dead because you were too irresponsible to make sure you got a pet you could actually take care of!”

That last part was more of an angry warning than anything. Salene stomped on the ground, like a child would do, then stomped over to her campsite. There she took out her backpack and started to pack up what was left. The fire was out and the wood was scattered across the ground. All thanks to that dog who was allowed to run around wherever it pleased. Salene picked up her rope and untied it. The untying of the rope took a little bit since Salene made it so tight. After a few moments, she got the knot loose and was able to wrap up the rope again. There was a piece of paper on the ground that had been stomped on. She picked it up and investigated it.

Luckily, the map was only torn on the edges but the rest of it was still usable. She kept the map out but packed everything else that she needed except for her knife. Salene never really felt safe without a weapon. The knife would stay where she could access it for now. She placed the knife in it’s sheath on her belt then put on her backpack. Salene knew she needed to get out of there before the orcs came. Her thoughts went momentarily back to Myouga. Perhaps she’d been to harsh. That thought only lasted for less than a second before Salene became angry again. No she had not been too harsh! People should never add a family member to their family unless they were fully prepared. That applied to pets as well. 

That potion sure hit the spot, her throat was already feeling less raw. The meat-headed gremlin then transformed into a glass-bottle headed gremlin, did some grinding, and fed a mixture to the gaping mouth of the dizzy corgi. Kuroguro made a gurgling noise but most of it went down. His legs twitched before he settled into a nice nap. Without a moment to lose, Myouga took out the snow globe and threw a well-aimed pitch. With a flash of light, the corgi was sucked in and a tiny dog-shaped object was sitting inside its glass. Wiping her brow in relief, she picked up the time-out snow globe and stuffed it back into her things. Normally people would be worried if some strange imp fed their pet some sort of tranquilizer, but Kuroguro was made of stern stuff dagnabbit. He could eat a whole rack of shoes and still be ready for dinner. Before the little arcanist was able to satisfy her budding curiosity about the mask-gremlin, the other girl who probably owned the now slobbered rabbit started shouting.

She was mad–real mad. The girl wasn't taller than her, but she was red as a tomato. Myouga sheepishly fiddled with the tassel on her cloak as the girl gave a harsh reprimand. "Well I mean I wanted to try something else, but the turkeys would probably just trample over everything. I was kinda hoping I wouldn't have to do that; it makes my throat hurt." The girl continued still very much upset. Upset over her stolen and ruined food, the campsite mess, the fact Kuroguro might've made Mr. Mask-Gremlin a chew toy… Well the last one wasn't too terrible to fix, a piece of jerky would make the krampus corgi forget about everything. The arcanist let out a sigh, slumping over a little before standing upright again. "Aww….I'm sorry. But Kuroguro doesn't really listen to me! I've tried my darndest but it's pretty tough when all he thinks about is food. Normally when I tell him to sit he runs off after a squirrel or one of my other pets. Oh um, and plus I'm technically not his original owner if you wanna be specific." Looking off to the side she mumbled, "I kinda just took him with me after that 'incident' last Glaciem."

Yep. That one time she got utterly plastered at the party up in Zet'ski where she was downing all the alcoholic drinks she could fit in her body. Somewhere after the thirtieth cup she blacked out and the next thing she knew, she was waking up in a bag full of coal. The krampus mistook her for a naughty child, but only got one half of that right. It must've been pretty awkward for the krampus when they found out they'd made a mistake–which led to the mass destruction of their tunnels and an uprising of angry abducted children. That was one way to spend the weekend. She had no idea how exactly the krampus trained their corgis, but it made retraining him a whole lot harder.

Feeling guilty over Kuroguro being a bad doggy, that feeling was interrupted by a new train of thought. When Salene talked about the possibility of the fiendish dog getting hurt, Myouga looked honestly surprised. "Huh? I never thought of that. Besides, most things tend to run away from Kuroguro when he runs after them. It's like they're scared of him or something! Sure he's a krampus corgi, but why would they wanna run from a cute face like that?" With his mouth full of teeth, ugly mug, and hyena-like cackle–Kuroguro made the ugliest of mutts look photogenic. But to Myouga–and only her–he was the cutest thing in the world. Which was why the thought that her disobedient canine was offensive never crossed her mind. Myouga was not one to dwell on unpleasant things for long, as she noticed some people coming from a distance. Squinting her eyes, she shaded them with her hand. "Oh hey! Those people are riding giant wolves!" They were actually wargs, but they were all dogs in her book.

Remembering she wanted to talk to the mysterious masked imp, she went up to him with a big smile. "Hiya Mr. Mask-man, I'm Myouga! Thanks for the potion–I swear Kuroguro could've woken up any minute!" She held out her hand hoping for a handshake with the gremlin, already having a list of questions prepared once introductions were out of the way.

"Ah, is no problem," Grakana stated, scratching the back of his mask with a head tilt as if to emphasize embarrassment for the compliment. "Was a simple formula for Grakana to cook up. Now, if the Mutt-Mutt started to fight me, then things would probably not be so happy for the Mutt-Mutt because of Grakana power. Luckily, he was good and submitted to the potion. By way, good throw!" The last statement was stapled with a quick thumbs up with his free hand as his mallet rested in his other hand, leaned upon his shoulder.

A loud grunt enveloped the air as the tramples of wargs came closer. The size and muscle that the orcs were showing off were nothing to scoff at, each one brandishing a fierce weapon on their belts, with the lead one wearing a fancy cap, as if dictating which one was the lead of the team, if him barking orders at the others in orcish tongue wasn't obvious enough. It was not until he looked down at the three "kids" til he dismounted and headed on over.

"Hey there, lads," he said, trying his best to force a smile through the large tusks and under-bite. At the very least, he knelt down to be at their eye level. "You kids haven't happen to see any kind of hellhounds, right? One running around waving a white kite in the air?"

"Nope," Grakana stated bluntly before pointing towards Myouga, "Just her Mutt-Mutt."

"Ah, I see. We got reports of such sightings in this area and we thought the tunnel imps were at it again. They have been stealing our animals every now and then, so we were worried this may have been a declaration of war from them. Well, if you kids see anything more, be sure to let us know, alright?"

(REVISION)

Salene listened to what Myouga had to say. Some of what she said made sense and Salene was relieved to hear that Myouga wasn’t the original owner. Or at the very least she didn’t select an animal to keep that she was unable to take care of. Salene’s anger died down to a safer level. Myouga then mentioned how she was confused why any creature would want to hurt something as….cute….as her pet. Salene wouldn’t exactly describe the creature as cute but the animal was adorable to Myouga. So it really didn’t matter what Salene thought. But there was an issue with Myouga’s thinking.
“You do realize that dragons won’t give a fuck about how cute your dog is, right?” She asked.

Salene went back to finishing packing up her stuff. She didn’t like that there were people coming near her campsite. Especially since they were riding Wargs. Wargs were worse than horses since they had teeth. It was like the people who rode wolves or lions. Not that she had met any yet, but she didn’t want to end up being killed by them. Not to mention the newcomers were armed. She never trusted armed people. In fact Salene probably would not have stayed around to meet Grakana or Myouga if they hadn’t come up to her in such a surprising way. Unfortunately she didn’t have time to run away or avoid confrontation.
The orcs were already here. Salene was tense as their leader hopped of off his Warg and walked over to them. However when he started talking and talked in such a casual way, Salene relaxed a little. She still didn’t trust strangers but these guys seemed fine. They asked about the dog then left after hearing that they hadn’t really seen anything. When they left, Salene let herself fully relax. She then looked to Grakana and Myouga. Both of them handled the runaway dog relatively well despite not really having a plan. She turned to Myouga and gently patted her on the head as though she was a child. Then she turned to Grakana and did the same thing. 

“The both of you did fine.” Salene said. She looked to Grakana. “I was impressed by the mask thing you did.” She said simply. 

Then she looked to Salene. “I wished you did it sooner, but the voice thing was good.” 

That was probably the largest complement either of them would ever receive from her. Salene decided it would be best to make sure that Myouga and Grakana got home without issue. It wasn't because she cared about them or anything! Maybe. 

"We'll we'd better make sure you don't cause any more messes on your way back home." Salene said to Myouga, "Grakana, lets help her get back home."

She then began to walk then stopped when she realized that she didn't know where she was going. 

"Myouga you lead." She said, "And we might as well get to know each other. My name is Salene. I am from Tyr Island. What are your names and where the fuck did you come from?”