Remnants of the Past

Rex was quickly becoming accommodated to having my voice in his mind, although I may have cheated

by taking a few liberties when establishing myself within his mind. Soon after his improvements stabilized, I had Rex leave the pit and began to make his way towards his camp. I had also reminded him repeatedly that he shouldn't speak out loud when conversing with me as insanity is not a trait that you can get away with in the current diamond dog society. Upon the way back Rex provided me with information as to the current state of diamond dog society, apparently it had gone downhill in the last millennium or two, degenerating into tribalism and losing much of their technology.

Thousands of years ago the diamond dogs were masters of gems, diamonds being their specialty of course. Once they had known how to form the hardest of gems into tools, weapons, and armour. Nowadays they had been forced into using stone tools, their hands, or the "advanced" ones that they pillaged off of the ponies when they took them as slaves. The knowledge that they were able to subdue ponies gave me a bit of amusement. Normally I'd be the first to attempt to free slaves but ponies, let them rot.

Soon we reached the camp that the dogs had set up, and I realized that calling it a camp is a little bit of an understatement. It was more of a small settlement with homes on the outside and a small market at the centre. At the very middle of the market was a large rock throne that appeared to have been hewn out of the rock of the cavern. Sitting upon the throne was a larger than usual dog. His coat was a dark brown with portions of it having been ripped off in what appeared to have been a fight or three. The scars were hard to see underneath the portions that had regrown but where he was still bald, well it wasn't the prettiest sight.

I directed my new employee to take a position where he could watch as I saw a dog watch up to the one upon the throne. The dog, who was now issuing a fight with the leader, was not much smaller than the average dog and had most definitely trained for the fight. His well-toned muscles were visible even through his thick coat and his teeth had been visibly sharpened. A crowd gathered around the fight as it begun and I directed Rex to join the circle of canines. I was now able to see, through Rex's eyes, into the eyes of the two fighters. The leader appeared to be bored, likely due to the large number of fights he had been through, while the runt had a predatory glean in his eyes accompanied by a spark of intelligence.

The smaller dog, Rex said he was named Sparky, attacked first, running at the dog whose name was apparently Fido, wonderful. Fido lazily sideswiped Sparky, missing as Sparky jumped an impressive distance in the air onto Fido. The alpha appeared to waken up as he noticed this and then adopted a look of pain and surprise as Sparky sunk his teeth into the dog's shoulder. Fido assumed an enraged expression on his face as he violently ripped Sparky away from his shoulder, a large chunk of skin following him. The alpha fell down to the ground in pain but had obviously won the fight as Sparky was not getting up after he hit his head upon the stove floor. Fido began to walk over to his downed opponent with a look of malice in his eyes.

'What is he doing?' I asked.

'Finishing the fight,' replied Rex, speaking with no hint of emotion in his voice, he merely listed it off as though he had repeated this dozens of times, 'it goes fight is to the death.'

'Stop him now, challenge him.'

'But master,' Rex protested, a hint of fear in your voice.

        'DO AS YOU ARE TOLD BOY!' I bellowed this within his mind, causing the dog to visibly wince. Rex complied with my order and walked out into the ring, much to the surprise of those surrounding him.

       "Stop!" my servant yelled halting Fido as he was bringing down his blade upon Sparky. "I challenge you!"

        "The mutt think he can fight me," the alpha spoke with a laugh, "go now and you live, stay and die."

       After the alpha called my current host a "mutt" I could feel the anger building within Rex. It would appear that the only portion of high society that the dogs had retained over the years was tribalism, I was starting to really hate this place. Using the anger as a doorway I was able to merge my mind with Rex's and therefore give him a better chance of succeeding in the upcoming fight.

Rex decided to attack first, much to the surprise of Fido, rolling under the Fido's rather predictable swing. Rex stood up with one leg on the ground and the other one rising to kick him in the groin. Fido curled over in a ball as Rex brought his fist to the alpha's face, a crunching noise accompanying the spray of blood from the larger dog's nose as it shattered under the force of the punch.

The rest of the fight went in practically the same way as Rex completely destroyed Fido leaving him a crying mess upon the stone floor. Rex finally stepped away from the alpha when he heard a crack from Fido's midsection.

"Never call me a mutt," Rex seethed between his teeth, his anger finally expended. I'd wager a bet to say mutt was a fairly large insult nowadays. For a moment after Rex had stopped beating the canine upon the floor, then, without warning, the market erupted in cheers.

"Hail Rex, boss under the mountain." The market turned into a giant festival, celebrating Rex's victory over Fido.

"Hey kid, you did great."