Frostpony: Of Hounds & Horses

For years Rini took pride in her ability to arrive at work on time.

Today however, she was forced to break that streak.

“No way they’re still expecting me at this point,” She thought, “Why does mom have so many oil lanterns at her shop? I mean seriously?! Was she expecting the sun to burn out?”

Rini mushed on all fours down the street, plumes of steam huffing from her open mouth like some kind of engine. Her lungs the bellows, her heart the pump and the walkway her rails. A train running down a track.

But like any train, she wasn’t so good at changing directions.

When a mutt pulling a large cart appeared from an alleyway, she was moving far too quickly to skirt around or stop. Instead, instinct turned to action and she threw herself forward to slide under. Her slim frame narrowly avoided the weighted wheels.

Rini didn’t bother looking over her shoulder at the confused mutt. She had to get to the Scrapyard, before they did something stupid like close the gates again.

It wasn’t the idea they’d reject her efforts and send her home for being late, she knew they wouldn’t do that. It was the fact of all days to be late, it just had to be today. Over two hours too late.

Soon her athletic prowess brought her to the front gates of the Scrapyard, which thankfully remained open. As she slowed down the exhaustive effects took their toll on her body and she stopped. Fit to collapse and wheeze like an accordion.

“Third time’s the charm, right?” She thought to herself, her heartbeat banging in her ears like drums. “Milkbones and Mastiffs, I hate running like that.”

Ironic given all the heavy lifting she did as a scrapper. Sadly sprinting was never her forte.

Rini rested for a minute or two until she’d finally caught her breath. Arms and legs now aching from such an exercise. On the bright side she was at least used to it by now, and pushed through the pain towards the gate.

It took…maybe less than thirty seconds for her name to get called?

This time however it wasn’t Snapjaw, it was a high pitched voice she didn’t recognise.

A uniformed, red face chihuahua emerged bearing his teeth, no taller than her elbow but angry enough to boil an egg with his presence alone.

“Rini Burrows! Where have you been?!”

“I-I had a family emergency, there was-”

“I don’t fucking care! For the rest of your shift today and tomorrow, you will report to my office every hour, on the hour! Do you understand bitch?!”

“Alright listen here you lil-” Rini stopped herself before the words came out. Her tail wagged with agitation and she took a deep breath to calm her nerves. With a punishment like that tonight's plan was as good as shot, that wouldn’t fly. She had to be smart if she were to survive.

Thankfully, this wasn’t the first time she’d been in hot water.

“Time for a new plan of attack.”

Rini looked down at the angry little dog and spoke slowly. Every word delivered with confidence without sounding too condemning.

“Okay, where’s Snapjaw? I’m not a member of the military so you can’t just punish me like that.”

“Oh? The old foredog? The one that got that Terrier crushed? He doesn’t work here anymore, he’s gone.” He stared back at her. Where Rini’s voice was stone strong, his was laced with poison and years worth of scorn.

That revelation however made her eyes widen, and her ears stand on end. “Didn’t get the memo?” He sneered, “I’m in charge now, Staff Sergeant Percy. You would’ve known that if you were here this morning!”

A shot of panic ran up Rini’s back, threatening to break her expression and signal her moment of weakness. Percy had seen her reaction and played it off once already, but she remained calm and kept a straight face.

She wasn’t going to give him any more ground. “No way Snap would’ve left on his own terms. He’s too stubborn for that.” Thought Rini, her brain working overtime. “He doesn’t have power over me yet though.”

“A military mutt? In a civilian job? That…doesn’t sound legal.” Rini found herself tiptoing with her word choice.

“Uh, it is actually, and if you don’t shut up already I’ll have the commanding officer bark at ya!” Percy dismissively waved a paw and turned around, prepared to leave.

“Do it then!” She retorted.

The sergeant froze and slowly turned around, casting her a cold glare. Rini didn’t even need to hear him say it to know what he was thinking. “How dare you.”

“What?” He said quietly.

“Go ahead, bring him here. Have him fill me in.”

The chihuahua’s eye twitched, a low growl resonating from his throat and his fangs on full display. “You take one step and your cleaning the fucking toliets.” He pointed at her.

Rini simply nodded and remained still, watching him stomp away.

The whole ordeal felt less like she was being punished by a superior, and more like a big kid couldn’t get his way and had to call their parents. “I don’t think he’s on the wonder drug, he’s too active for that. Or maybe he is and it’s making him more aggressive?”

He was a chihuahua after all, they weren’t exactly known for their patience or decorum.

“How did he even become a sergeant in the first place? He’s got the kind of mouth not even a mother would kiss.”

She sighed and panned her gaze around. Soldiers were practically everywhere by now, every corner, junkpile and half dismantled wreck. The Scrapyard had towers and a line of barbed wire spooling atop its fences, home repaired transport trucks and ice-ridden armoured auto-wagons with gun turrets. Not to mention the tents!

It now resembled a base more so than a simple auto-body graveyard.

“Poor Snap, sure we didn’t get along but at least we saw eye to eye at times.” She huffed and turned towards the garage, specifically the corner of it that was his office. “What did they do to him? Giving out the rabies treatment doesn’t sound like them, would’ve heard it for a mile.”

Her mind quickly became awash with all kinds of scenarios, some more grim than others.

“Best case scenario he’s just unemployed. Maybe he’ll get the yard back after we leave? Or become a repairmutt somewhere else? Plenty of leaky sinks in Cherrywood.”

Rini stood alone, lost with her thoughts as the denizens of the Scrapyard went about. She could see some inspecting and working on the various vehicles she’d tinkered with not long ago. For a moment the worry they’d found her additions crossed her mind, but those still held her mark of completion and hadn’t been moved an inch.

Besides, it was likely too late for them to correct the crossed wires now.

Soon enough the sar-”No way he’s getting that much respect,” -Percy came back with Caleb right behind him. The captain was his usual mellow self. Complete with a smile and semi-dilated eyes.

“Yup, he’s still on the pills. Great.”

Rini fixed her posture and forced a smile of her own, her argument prepared.

In fact, now that she looked at them side by side, neither seemed all that much older then the other. If anything they were probably only a couple years ahead of her. Which, much like her first time meeting Caleb, struck her as strange.

“How can a staff sergeant and a captain be the same age? Would’ve thought Caleb needed more wrinkles first.”

“That’s her sir,” Percy began, “The bitch that failed to show up this morning. Thanks to her poor Cole had to pull double duty.”

“Is that so?” He turned to her, not nearly as aggressively. “Rini was it?” She nodded, “Mind telling us why?”

“I had a family emergency captain, involving my mother.”

“Was there anydog else who could’ve taken care of it?” He spoke rather calmly, despite the visible twitches on his face.

“No sir, my father passed away a decade ago and my brother lives elsewhere.”

Caleb turned to look down upon Percy. The smaller mutt panning between the both of them with a look of realisation. “Now sergeant, I know you’re eager to do your new job and do it well, but you need to understand your dealing with a completely different crowd here.” He calmly explained.

“But she was late, and not just late. Over two hours late! And she talked back to a superior!”

“Well, if you were to check my attendance records, you’ll find I’m usually very good at coming in on time.” Rini added, holding back a gleeful grin.

Her interruption only served to make Percy even angrier, yet barking out loud in front of his commanding officer wouldn’t help. Not in the slightest.

“Right, I think that going forward, Rini should not be subject to whatever punishment you had prepared for her sergeant.” Said Caleb. Percy looked up at him wide eyed, but before Rini could celebrate the captain turned to her. “However, I believe it only fair that Miss Rini makes up for her lost time, will that be a problem?”

“No sir, in fact, I already had my own way of apologising prepared.”

Both mutts’ attention were now firmly planted upon her as she dug around her coat pockets, which thankfully, were quite large. A bag of ground coffee emerged and Rini held it with a paw, their eyes fixed upon it as it swayed back and forth.

“I wanted to share this, as a token of appreciation. I’ll even brew the first batch!”

“Brilliant!” Caleb cried, “There should be a kettle and coffee pitcher at the main building, go nuts!”

Percy’s jaw dropped at that, with Caleb turning around and walking away without a second thought. Rini simply stood and waited for his response. “And don’t forget to pay for parking!” The captain added as he strolled off.

The seargent’s facial features twitched and a low growl rose from within him. It took nearly every once of Rini’s willpower to maintain the subtle smirk upon her form. An act only made more difficult by Percy’s rising rage.

“And that everycreature, is the face of somedog put in their place.”

If only she were allowed anything more than a tiny smile.

“You win this round bitch, but I’m keeping a close eye on you.”

“Mhm.”

Percy got right into Rini’s face, anger and suspicion visible on every brow. “Step out of line again, and no force of nature will protect you from the wrath of a hardened drill sergeant!”

“Yep.”

“Now get back to work!”

Rini gave a small nod and turned around, set towards the modular building the captain pointed out. She breathed a sigh of relief having dodged that bullet but the threat remained real. Of all the dogs to catch onto her, Percy had suddenly become the most likely.

“Of all the mutts that could’ve replaced Snap, why’d it have to be this little rocky biter? Caleb’s a creep but at least he’s not a dick about it.”

She looked over her shoulder and found the mutt staring at her in scorn. His eyes squinted as if trying to catch her in the act before it’d begun. “Yeah, no way he’s not becoming a problem.”

Rini shrugged and continued on, now allowed to smile as wide as she wanted with her face out of his view.

With a deep breath she readied herself as she approached the modular building. Already she could smell the dense haze of smoke and odour and preemptively drew her scarf up.

“Here we go again.”