Now You See Me

Chapter 1: Yellow Eyes

"I'll beat you right up! C'mon!" Fairy jumped up and down angrily. "C'mon! C'mon!" she battered the pup with her hind legs, beating him so ferociously the pup cried out in irritation.

"For the love of god, Fairy," the pup snapped. "Calm down, will you? I hate it when you get all crazy like this."

"C'mon!" Fairy kicked him in the mouth, resulting in the pup to shove her. Fairy fell to the ground with a thump, dust and dirt flying up in the air. The pup shoved his nose into her face. "Stop it," he growled. "Stop being a brat right now."

"Fuck you!" Fairy yelled, kicking up more dirt with her paws on purpose. "Fuck you! C'mon n' fight!"

"What's all this racket?" a voice sounded behind them.

"Fairy's getting all worked up because I stepped on her tail," the pup said after an exaggerated eye roll.

"It crunches my bones and he knows it!" Fairy howled, hopping up and down again. "He's too fat! He's too fat!"

"If he apologizes will you stop being silly?" the dog who just walked up suggested with thinly veiled impatience.

"No, he's gotta fight me!" Fairy started to head butt the pup. "C'mon you big fatty! Fight!"

The pup shoved Fairy off and placed a paw on her chest. Fairy squirmed and fought but the pup was much stronger.

"I won," the pup said. "So stop prancing around like an idiot."

"Big bully!" Fairy howled. "Big fat ugly bully!"

The pup sighed and let her free. Fairy cursed four different swear words before stalking away.

"Sorry you had to see that, Molly," the pup said to the dog. "She's been acting like that all day."

"No worries, Zach," Molly murmured, looking on with disbelief as Fairy charged a senior dog named Fern as he walked out of his shelter. Fairy bowled him over howling and screaming, bashing his ears in with her paws.

"It was a bad idea to raise her with us," Zach mumbled. "She's mad, Molly. Completely mad. I say you kick her out once and for all."

"I'm sure she'll get better," Molly said, looking on at Fairy, who was in the procedure ramming her head into Ferns side.

"I don't know why we make so many exceptions for her," Fern said angrily. "If me or one of the other pups acted like that we'd be cast out in a heartbeat. I mean look at her! She attacks every dog who comes into view."

"I know," Molly sighed. "But she never hurts anyone. She can't."

Zach looked at Fairy and knew in his heart Molly was right. Even though Fairy was beating up the old Fern with all her strength, Fern looked bored and unharmed. He sat still waiting for it to be over.

"It doesn't make it right," Zach said in annoyance. "She's still loud and obnoxious."

"She's just a pup," Molly soothed. "She'll grow out of it."

"No, I'm just a pup!" Zach cried. He pointed to Fairy. "That thing over there is a cat!"

"And she's probably acting out because she's confused," Molly explained. "She doesn't understand why she's so little compared to the rest of the pups. She probably doesn't understand why her tail hurts when you step on it, but it doesn't hurt when she steps on yours," Molly gave him a knowing eye. "She doesn't understand why she's so frail and delicate compared to the rest of you big brutes. And her voice," Molly paused to sigh. "Her voice is so strange."

"That's because all she ever does is scream and swear," Zach muttered. Molly glared at him.

"Sorry," Zach sighed. "I just wish she'd calm down."

"Give her time," Molly said. "She'll come around."

…

"Hey, save me some of that rat," Fairy called as she made her way over to where her friends were sitting. "Save me some of that fucking rat!"

"Fairy, one of these days I'm going to clean your mouth with water a piece of moss," a big male dog named Charlie said. "You have the filthiest mouth in the pack."

Fairy brightened at this. "Fucker," she said happily. Charlie lowered his head to hide his smile, long ears flopping in front of his eyes. Charlie was a wiener dog, with a long face and long ears. Fairy had great fun with him riding on his back.

"Here you go," Charlie shoved the rat over to her. "It's a big one so I don't expect you to eat it all."

"You wanna piece of me?" Fairy screamed, flopping down on her back and kicking the hound. "I'll eat the whole damn thing thank you very much."

Charlie looked down at the little cat, who was so little he had to bend his neck to look down to meet her eyes. Fairy snarled and hissed for no reason before tearing into the tough body of the rat. When Fairy's mouth was full, everyone gave a tiny sigh of relief. She won't talk when she's chewing, Charlie thought to himself. Silly thing.

"Charlie, we're gonna have to take the pups out after dinner," a female dog named Misty said, taking advantage of the silence. "They ate their dinner a little while ago and have been restless ever since."

"Can I come too?" Fairy asked, voice garbled with her mouth full of food.

"Only if you promise to behave," the last dog in the group, an old mutt named Spots, growled.

"I promise," Fairy said in a practiced calm voice. Charlie knew she would normally yell and swear, but that would mean she wouldn't get to go on the walk. And Fairy never passed up a chance to go on walks.

"You have to promise not to swear and be loud," Misty said hesitantly. Fairy had to think about it for a minute. "Fine," she said at last. "I'll be good."

Charlie looked at his little friend, her ears flattened to her soft head and eyes narrowed. Charlie liked it when she promised to behave, that was the only time when she'd talk normally without and edge or yell. Fairy's voice normally was quiet, and high pitched.

It didn't suit her whatsoever.

Charlie noticed she was picking at her rat, obviously getting full. She didn't say anything due to her outburst earlier of wanting to eat the whole thing, so she looked around nonchalantly as she took tiny little bites. She rolled around the tiny piece in her mouth for far too long before forcing herself to swallow. Charlie knew he couldn't tell her she didn't have to eat anymore. She would react badly even though she didn't want it. There's only one way to handle this, Charlie thought. He grabbed the rest of the rat from her, and wolfed it.

"Sorry, I was hungry," Charlie said with his mouth full.

"Dummy," Fairy said. But her usual spiteful edge was not there, and Charlie knew she was grateful for the save.

"I'm gonna go tell the other pups we're going on a walk," Spots said, standing up and shaking his fur. Dirt and leaves sprayed off of him. Fairy got the biggest face full of dust, and she opened her mouth to yell. But she didn't and Charlie noticed she had gotten dirt in her eye. She turned away from the others and scrubbed her eye with her paw.

"Hey, c'mon!" Charlie used Fairy's favorite expression as he effortlessly lifted her by her scruff with his claws. "We're going for a ride!" Charlie heaved her onto his back, and waited until he could feel Fairy's claws dig into his back for safety and ran away, doing exaggerated leaps for Fairy's entertainment. He charged until he was out of sight by the others, and when he was sure no one could see them he stopped and shook his back until Fairy fell off. He turned to her sitting on the ground, eyes squeezed shut.

"Let me see," Charlie said softly, touching her soft face. "Open up your eyes."

"I can't, they hurt," Fairy whispered, not even bothering to be unnecessarily rude. Charlie gently moved his paw towards her face, wondering how he was going to pry her tiny eye open with his huge clumsy paw. He ended up poking her eye with his claw, and Fairy howled.

"Stupid idiot!" she screamed. "That hurts, ya know!"

"I'm sorry, but we need to get the dirt out," Charlie cried. "Now you can either open it up yourself or I'll have to do it for you!"

Fairy sighed and cursed under her breath, but she blinked open her eyes after a few seconds. Her yellow cat eyes were bloodshot, and dirt rimmed the underline of her eye.

"Idiot Spots didn't need to shake dirt everywhere," Charlie mumbled as he dabbed Fairy's eye with a damp leaf he picked up off the ground.

"Yeah," Fairy whispered softly. "Idiot."

"There you go," Charlie said after he got out most of the dirt. "Blink a few times."

Fairy blinked and blinked, and an uncharacteristic smile stretched across her face. "Thank you," she said.

"No problem," Charlie nuzzled the light gray cat with his head. She toppled over onto her back from the force.

"Sorry," Charlie said.

"Let me ride on your back some more," Fairy said suddenly, not caring that she just got pushed over. Charlie's heart lifted and he grabbed the cat and threw her on his back. Her claws dug in and as always, Charlie had to force himself not to wince. Cat claws are so sharp.

"Go, you big mongrel," Fairy urged.

"Hold on!" Charlie told her, and then barreled back into the clearing where the other dogs were. The pups clustered together, waiting for him to bring Fairy over for the walk. For Fairy's enjoyment, Charlie leaped around the clearing a few more times, howling along with her. He was having so much fun, he didn't even care who was watching. Fairy shrieked with laughter as Charlie barreled head first into a puddle, soaking them.

The rest of the dogs looked on as if they had gone completely mad.