Frostpony: Of Hounds & Horses

The scruffy sheepdog turned to her, lifting up some fur to better view her. “Sorry, this is off limits to workers.”

Rini smiled as the two met eyes, and she fell back on a confident tone as she unleashed her secret weapon.

“It’s alright, I’m an engineer, coming in to check on the heaters.”

“Errr I donno,” He whined, any intimidation factor drying up, as he turned towards the door. “Boss didn’t tell me you were coming.”

“Well duh, it’s just a maintenance check. If something’s wrong It’ll take like, ten minutes? Not even that.” The guard glanced between her and back again, still unsure. “Wanna be the one to explain why the heating suddenly stopped?”

The guard dog stared at her intently, narrowing his eyes as if to evaluate her claim. Seconds ticked by as Rini agonisingly waited for his response. “Is he…actually going to think about this? Oh crud.”

Rini’s bluff was suddenly put in question, and her mask of false confidence threatened to crack under such scrutiny. For a moment it seemed she’d need to prepare a retreat.

What were the odds she actually got stuck with one of the few actually competent guard dogs?

Suddenly, the guard relaxed and gave her a casual “nah.”

The guard dog stepped aside and pulled on the handle for her, forcing a smile as his fur once more obscured his vision.

“Gale you’re the best O&O gamemaster I’ve ever met. I can’t believe that actually worked.”

Once inside, Rini felt as though she’d walked into a public house as she was immediately hit by the foul stench of cigar smoke and alcohol.

Simply not breathing through her nose wasn’t an option either as she could taste the sensory assault just as well. So she bought her scarf up and used it to help filter out the scent before anything else. The burning smoke also forced her to dawn her goggles, which would’ve blinded her had the lights been off.

How any creature would work in these conditions she’d never understand.

All around her, soldiers of all breeds stood about having taken little to no notice of her, and in turn she did her best to avoid bumping into any. It wasn’t hard to find a heater she could pretend to work on and used the opportunity to look about.

Seeing everything through a pair of welding goggles did obscure some details, but it was better than the smoke.

She was inside the main room, but a few doors had little nails in signs displaying their intended uses. A break room, storage room, an officer’s quarters, armoury, just to name a few.

Mental notes of all were taken, but in the back of her mind she still wondered something.

“How the heck do they have this much booze on tap? Did they raid a distillery or something?”

Time and time again they each held cups and sometimes tankards in their grasps, taking swig after swig. Some even took pills with them which caught Rini’s eye.

“Okay, I’m no chemist, but I’m pretty sure it's recommended you don’t mix alcohol and drugs.”

That’s when it struck her, the shaking, the diluted eyes, the twitchy behaviour. Once she saw it she couldn’t unsee it. Everywhere she looked she found glimpses of the likewise act. Some exchanged pill bottles, taking theirs with water or whiskey, sometimes pawfulls of pills at a time. A few were even swallowing them like literal candy, it was a miracle they didn’t drop dead right then and there.

Out of nowhere, a familiar voice jumped out at her, one she’d hoped not to hear at a place like this.

“Oh! Fancy seeing you here young lady!”

Rini snapped around to face Caleb, his eyes were tiny pinpricks compared to when they’d last spoken and his body visibly twitched. Like some tensely bound arrangement of springs ready to explosively come apart. His fur too stood on end and his lip quivered.

The only indicator he was lucid to any degree was his welcoming tone, yet even that was suspect and she wondered how much he’d indulged in already.

“What brings you here?”

“Working,” she answered on instinct. “Just making sure your heater’s up to snuff, don’t want it suddenly breaking right?”

Rini’s voice cracked near the end there and she’d heard it, he heard it, they all heard it.

Her quite literal mask hid the nervous, scared face underneath. Now knee deep inside a den of liquored up and drugged up wolves, facing the manic grin of their alpha. The only defence being a thick wrap of cloth and a pair of welding goggles.

“Good one Rini, you’ve made a horrible mistake…”

Caleb slowly blinked and held his clenched paw against his chest as if attempting to crush a diamond. “You seem tense.” He said, not so much a reply as it was an injection. “A bottle o’ joy outta help!”

That paw suddenly thrust into his pocket, and pulled out a small metal tube with enough force he could’ve ripped a hole through his coat.

He presented it to her with his arm outstretched, a label with a smiling doctor giving a thumbs up proudly displaying, “Dr. Patch’s Wonder Drugs! For when you need a boost to your day! (Warning: Side effects may vary).”

Rini looked down at the tube and back up to the company captain, who’s teeth became visible from the corner of his mouth.

“Uh, come again?”

Just like a faucet turned on high, Caleb didn’t just speak his words, he hosed them. Speaking so fast his speech became an audible blur and it was a miracle he didn’t bite his tongue.

“Oh it’s this neat little thing we got prescribed to help us do our jobs better! It reduces hunger, fatigue, pain, the need to use the bathroom, andmakeseventhedullestdaybrightagain! You should try it!”

She looked at him, the stare of a joyful mad dog that dared her to say no. Fear had her in a tight grip and she found herself rubbing her thumb from a need to fidget. Her world narrowed in on that crazed face and thousand yard stare.

The captain seemed loopy, quick to agitate but so far hadn’t indicated any recollection of her. “He’s gotta talk to a hundred dogs a day, can’t remember everydog can he?”

If she took her mask off there was no doubt he’d recognise her, but if she didn’t comply he might get upset. Faced with a double edged sword she found the prospect tempting.

“I mean, it’s temporary right? It’ll wear off.”

Rini looked around at the other dogs in the room, now seeing many of them in states of questionable lucidity. For all she knew the moment she swallowed she could wake up just about anywhere.

“Inside a room filled with half drunken dogs?...”

A quick mental image shut that thought down.

“Oh no, definitely not.”

That thought was the leverage she needed to fend off her temptation, and her gut came to guide her.

“Change the subject.”

Only a few seconds had passed in real time, but to Rini, it may as well have been an eternity.

“Hey so what kind of drinks do you have here? Just booze or?...”

“Oh!” Caleb recoiled almost excessively, and glanced at the break room before turning back to her, seemingly forgetting about the pills. “Yeah, I think so. Not a drinker?”

Rini slowly shook her head.

“I can talk to my requisitions officer if you’re looking for something specific, anything you want!” He smiled, even as his mouth and eyes continued to twitch.

“Look I just came in here to check on your heater and now that I’m done uh…I think I’ll be going!”

With a slight spring to her step Rini hastily made way for the door, Caleb waving with the drug tube held high. “Don’t forget to pay your parking ticket!”

“I-I don’t own a car!”

“You will soon!”

Without a chance to utter another word, Rini slammed the door behind her and ripped off her scarf and goggles, nearly collapsing right then and there with her mouth wide open. Her heart raced and her lungs burned, tail bouncing from stress.

“I shouldn’t have gotten away with that, I shouldn’t have gotten away with that, by the sky I shouldn’t have gotten away with that.”

The mental images that plagued her mind showed all manner of horrible, elicit things that could’ve happened to her had she succumbed to the pressure. Her in a back alley or basement somewhere with her mother frantically searching for her or worse.

Why exactly did she want to go in there again? Information? Curiosity? Both? Idiocy seemed more appropriate now.

“Are you…okay?” Slowly spoke a voice-

Rini almost jumped in shock, having forgotten about the doormutt in the heat of the moment. She caught herself from falling over and met the guard’s gaze.

The sheepdog had the fur over his face lifted, revealing his concern for the similarly aged Greyhound.

His eyes weren’t diluted, his tone wasn’t off, nor did any part of him twitch or shudder at any time. After the experience Rini had gone though the thought of a Diamidian in uniform with a clean blood system seemed…off to her. It really shouldn’t have yet here it was, perhaps it was just adrenaline still playing its part?

“Did the others give you trouble?” He added, noting her hesitation.

Rini took a deep breath and exiled slowly, her voice trembled as she did so. “N-No, but your boss did.”

The guard’s eyes widened with horror, doubly so for her next statement.

“He tried to put me on pills, promised me anything if I did.” Rini spoke, while mentally wondering why she was saying these things.

“He’s…not meant to do that.” He began, letting his hair down a moment to pull out his own, very much unopened bottle. “He might be the company captain but those pills are strictly for military use, we’d run out too quickly otherwise.”

Rini turned to look over the camp and its many tents, all surrounding that makeshift Steamhub. There had to be…twenty? Forty? Alot of soldiers. Were all of them on those pills?

“How do the pipes not have bite marks yet?”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that, name’s Alpine.” He smiled, extending a paw.

Forcing a smile of her own, she shook her paw unsteadily. “R-Rini, are they…usually like that?”

“They weren’t, not until they gave us those meds. Suddenly it's the super new way we’d be fighting our wars! Only nodog is questioning how we’re gonna get more and forgetting just how rural we are.”

“Heh, is that why you’re not on them?” Rini felt her heart rate start to return to normal, again grateful for finding a dog not off his rocker.

“Nah, didn’t start for different reasons. I think I’m the only dog that can still string three numbers together.” Alpine huffed, his frustration clear from the need to vent to a stranger.

That momentary weakness however showed some disturbing implications. If they were already this fixated on the pills, with no promise of resupply, then it was only a matter of time until they ran out.

“Especially if they get stuck here…”

As her mind had that thought, a new, far darker one entered her mind that left her cold.

“Oh…oh they’d tear this town apart…”

“Rini was it?” Alpine asked, receiving a short nod from her. “If you need anything, say somedog tries to screw with you, let me know alright?”

She didn’t reply, instead staring at him with her traumatic frown.

“We’re here to help you, or at least I am. I…I’m not so sure about them anymore.”

“Yeah…yeah…” She nodded, trying to balance an invisible weight on her shoulders. “I…need to go, sit down for a while.”