A Dog's Legs (EAW)

When I woke back up I heard more sounds coming from outside the tent, the sounds of orders being given, men doing target practice, and fortifications being built. The small camp is slowly being fortified and is turning into a base. I wanted to get right out of the bed and get a job to help, but then I remembered that I was pretty much useless to them in my condition. I looked over at the other wounded soldiers, some had more bandages on them, some were gone, and a few even dead. It became clear to me just how bad the first few waves of men had it, it was almost as if we were sent in like lambs to the slaughter. As I thought of all the lives lost Dirk came in with a few other medics, he was Wheeling in a wheelchair for me while the other medics carried out the dead.

“Well, look who's out of Dreamland.” Dirk said smiling, he had an almost fake smile on him, as if he was trying to hide his emotions.

“Good morning Dirk, how long have I been out?” I said back. I knew it couldn't have been long, but I just wanted to be sure.

“You were out for most of the morning, it's around nine thirty or ten now.” He put the wheelchair next to my bed. “Alright then, I'm gonna need your help with this. Just be careful, or you're gonna have a hard fall.”

He grabbed me by the lower arms as I pushed myself up on the bed, he pulled me back and sat me down on the chair. While I got myself into a comfortable position Dirk was putting my legs and feet in front of the wheelchair. As he looked at me his smile faded, but he shook his head and started pushing me out of the tent.

The light hurt my eyes for a few seconds, but as my eyes adjusted I saw that we were on a hill that overlooked the base, I saw the soldiers at the firing range, getting orders, but I also saw the graveyard. It was at what I assumed was a graveyard the native griffons used judging by the stone crosses, for our troops we had white wooden crosses, though they had parts on them I couldn't see.

“So I was able to find where they buried Zeus and Boss, but before we go there we're gonna get Jasper. He's been testing out radios in the command post.” Dirk said with a melancholy tone in his voice.

“That's fine, we should be together when we say goodbye to them, it's only right.” I said back, I still couldn't believe they were dead, they were almost brothers to me. I looked down as I once again thought of the times we had though this time I was able to keep myself from crying.

“Yeah, Jasper didn't take it that well, I was with him for three hours as he cried in my shoulder, you know what he thinks of us.”

“Yeah I do, especially after all that he's been through, we were pretty much his family and now all he'll have here is you. I only hope you can keep him from doing anything drastic while I'm gone.”

“Don't worry I'll take care of him, if anything him helping around the base has helped him talk to others now.” Dirk sounded genuinely happy as he said that, knowing that Jasper was doing good would help him through the grief.

Soon we reached the command post and it was mostly empty, but there was a wall packed with radio equipment, in the center with all the backpack radios was Jasper. He was slowly screwing open a radio to see what was wrong with it. As me and Dirk got closer Jasper raised his ears and look at us, a smile quickly appeared on his face as he got up and ran to us.

“Guys, it's so nice to see you again, especially you jack! I'm sorry for what happened though, but I'm just glad you're alive.” Jasper said, his tail wagged behind him as hugged me and Dirk.

“It’s nice to see you too Jasper, how have you been doing?” I asked back, Jasper turned away and looked at the radio he was checking on.

“Oh you know, just making sure the Radios small parts were in properly, you never know when they'll break nowadays.”

“I see, have the other soldiers treated you well?” I asked him, I was expecting either neutral or bad response, but he only seemed to get happier.

“They've been great, they're all so supportive of me after…. After…” Jasper suddenly stopped wagging his tail and looked down. “After what happened during the landing, I think some of them pity more than like me though.”

“Don’t worry, all the soldiers here will help you, we're all brothers here.” Dirk said, he looked around the tent. “Say, where's the gener-”

“Private Blunt, why aren't you doing your job!?” The booming voice of the general come from behind us, when we turned around I almost immediately knew who it was, it was Biter one of Rover's old generals, he was even will wearing parts of his old plate armor, but he had the meanest scowl I've seen in my life.

“S-Sorry sir.” Jasper said whining “I was just excited to see Jack alive.”

Biter looked at me, he examined my body and his scowl disappeared.

“So these are your friends Private Jack Stonewall and Corporal Dirk Azure, I've heard you two and Jasper lost two of your friends, they were Boss Andrak and Zeus Ordell correct?” Biter asked me and Dirk.

“Yes sir they were.” I said to him, I was somewhat scared, I'm not sure how a veteran, especially one that was close to Rover, would react to someone who got injured without even fighting.

“I see, well, you all have my condolences, Jasper you can take the rest of the morning off, but you better be back after lunch, got it?” Biter said, this shocked all of us as we heard stories of Biter whipping men so much they nearly died of blood loss for smaller grievances.

“T-Thank you sir!” Jasper said, his tail started to wag again.

Biter walked by us and into the command tent.

“By the gods I thought he was gonna have us court marshalled.” Dirk said he seemed to be the most surprised out of us all.

“Yeah, but I think he's changed a lot since the slave rebellion, most likely after the trial.”

“We were all changed by that, well, we didn't know much about the world anyway, so we were easy to persuade.” I said, I had recovered from the shock and was happy Jasper would be given more time to be with us.

“Yeah, but a long time general, and one of Rovers friends at that. It must of really made him think.” Dirk said, he shook his head and turned me and him towards the graveyard. “Let's just go visit Boss and Zeus.”

As he said that the mood dropped like a rock, Jasper looked down again and stopped wagging his tail, I slumped down a bit, and Dirk sighed.

“I'm sorry for ruining the mood.” He said sadly.

“It's okay, we just have to get this over with.” I said to him

“Yeah….” Was all Jasper said.

As we walked down to the graveyard we saw not only the bodies of the soldiers we fought with, but of the enemies, they were side by side, waiting to be buried. Soldiers in the Graves Registration Companies, the one job no one wanted, were digging graves for all the dead, they were accompanied by chaplains of the different races faiths who were to do commits before the bodies were buried. As we got closer the crosses became clearer to me, they had different symbols on them for each race, a farm for an Earth Pony, a cloud for a Pegasus, a unicorn horn for a Unicorn, A paw print for us Diamond Dogs, a changeling horn for the changelings, and a talon for the Griffons. We had to pass by the bodies before we got to our location, I saw maimed, burned, and destroyed bodies just like in the hospital, but some of the faces I will never forget. There were those that had their eyes wide open in shock, their mouths in the middle of a scream, and some had no face at all.

Soon we passed the bodies and were able to get to the graves of Boss and Zeus, they were close by each other, when we got in from of them I could hear Jasper about to cry, I just wanted to hug him and tell him everything is gonna be fine, but I couldn't, not after this.

Soon enough one of us decided to break our silence, Dirk cough and breathed in shakily.

“H-hey guys, sorry we couldn't come earlier, Jack was injured badly and needed to be fixed up, but we're here now and we'd like to say goodbye.” Dirk said as tears welled up in his eyes. “I'll go first, Boss, you were the strongest, dog I know, you kept us from splitting apart and lead up to become brothers. Zeus, you kept us out of trouble, not only with the school staff, but with the law, you kept us from being common criminals, but our time is up, and we must say goodbye.” As soon as he said goodbye he broke down in tears, I hugged him tightly for a minute, but before I started talking, I was surprised Jasper talked before I did.

“Boss, you helped me get through so much hardship, without you I wouldn't be here today, I would've taken my own life, thank you Boss, I will miss you. Zeus, you taught me everything I know, even after the teachers said I was unteachable, I wouldn't even be here with Dirk and Jack if it wasn't for you, thank you Zeus, I'll miss you too, and for until I join you two, this is goodbye.” Jasper said, after this Dirk went over and hugged Jasper as tightly as he could.

“Boss, you were an amazing leader, you helped us through everything, any physical activity, any challenges, and especially fights, you were the tight bond that held us all together, and you didn't let your emotions guide you. Zeus, you were a smart dog, maybe even smarter than even you yourself knew, but you were always loyal and kept the law away from us. It is with a heavy heart I must say goodbye.” I said as I I put a hand over my eyes as I wiped away tears that we're welling up in them, I was able to stop myself from breaking down.

After what seemed like an eternity we left the graveyard and went back to camp. Despite how much crying there was, we all felt happy that we were able to say goodbye to our friends before we go our separate ways. It would've been a few hours until the boat would come to pick me up, so we decided to just play cards in the mess hall until lunch. It was nice to have a relatively normal conversation with Jasper and Dirk until lunch came around. While we were lined up to get lunch the sounds of air horns alerted us that more boats were arriving, the boat that I was gonna leave on was here. Dirk, Jasper, and I got out of line and left the mess hall.

“Well, I guess this is it for now Jack.” Dirk said sadly. “We'll be sure to find you when the war is over.”

“I hope so, but until then just send me plenty of letters, I don't want you two to forget about me.” I said back to him.

“We won't, you don't have to worry about that one bit.” Jasper said to me. “You mean too much to us.”

“Thanks…. Well, goodbye I guess.” I said sadly. I put my hands on the wheels of my wheelchair and pushed myself forward to the boat that'd take me home, then to a friendly, but still very foreign country.