Disclaimer: Any Characters that are recognized (which are all of them) are not mine and belong to miss Tamora Pierce

This story is based off my own experience of the past few days (don't want to give anything away yet so explanation at the bottom)

The sun began to rise, shining beacons of light onto the New Hope eastern wooden wall. To the soldiers on watch the sun kissing their face was a welcoming sight, soon they would be relieved of their duties, allowing them to catch a few hours of sleep. The camp was quiet the occupants not yet ready to start the new day, sleeping in on the already scorching morning.

In headquarters the commander of the camp woke when the sun reached her eyes. Keladry, or current commander of the camp slowly sat up in her bed before swinging her legs around to the edge touching the wooden floor with her bare feet. With a yawn she stretched out her limbs before slowly climbing out of bed, careful not to crush the other occupants, her animal companions.

She went about her morning routine, glaive practice, bath, getting dressed. When she was finished she went to go down to breakfast, by the time she got down to the mess, her fellow knights were already down eating. Neal seemed half asleep, staring blankly into his bowl. Merric was eating his slowly staring off into space, thinking.

Kel grabbed her food and headed over to the table her two friends were sitting at, dropping her tray onto the table. It made a loud clanging noise which brought her friends out of their stupor with a jump. She laughed as they glared at her, before sitting down and digging into her own meal.

The rest of the day past by as uneventful as any day could be as the commander of the camp, though by the time she made it back to headquarters after dinner she must have been stopped at least 200 times that day, for complaints or concerns or just simple chat of the various occupants.

Kel walked to the door of her room, balancing the wrapped meat she grabbed from the cooks for Jump she pulled out her keys from her pocket and put it in the door knob turning it until in opened. Kel was walked in the door and said "Jump, come here boy, I have your dinner" she waited about 15 seconds but heard no click of his claws on the floor. "Jump?", she asked this time a little louder. Still no response, she walked quickly into the various rooms checking all of his favorite places.

He was not on the rug in her study, nor under her desk. He was not in the couch in her front room. He was not on his bed in her bedroom. Within minutes she had search her entire suite with no luck. She called his name again while standing in her bedroom. A lump of what she thought to be covers moved slightly.

Kel walked over to the large mound and pulled the blankets back only to see Jump curled up snoring lightly, she shook him gently, he opened his eyes sleepily and gave a huge yawn. She smiled "Jump it's time to wake up, I have dinner" She unwrapped and waved around the raw piece of meat and threw it on the floor. He looked at it before putting his head down on a rumple in the blankets.

"Jump?" Kel asked worriedly, he simply looked up at her , his head still resting on the bed. "Alright buddy, I'll pick you up." She reached over and grabbed him right behind his front legs. He weighed a ton. "My goodness, what have you been eating?"

She placed him carefully on the floor standing up, he wobbled and walked drunkenly towards the piece of meat before collapsing about a foot from it. Kel looked on with a sense of growing horror, he was very sick, sicker than he had ever been in his entire life. Within seconds of collapsing Jump started to vomit up bile, it came rushing up out of his mouth, seeking to be released.

She rushed to her privy and grabbed a towel, she placed it over the bile and wiped it up as best as possible, tossing the towel in to the basket of dirty clothes. Kel than grabbed her blanket off her bed and wrapped it around his body, attempting to make him comfortable. It seemed like movement triggered the vomit, so she wanted him to stay as still as possible. "All right buddy, I am going to see if Neal will contact Numair and see if Daine is available, you stay here, I'll be back as soon as I can"

Kel hurried down to the infirmary, hoping that Neal would be there. After what seemed like an eternity she finally arrived and burst in and asked loudly so that the whole building could hear her "Where is Neal", One of the refugees with healing magic said "He just left milady, said he needed to go get a book from his rooms".

"Thanks"

"No Problem milady"

Kel was in to much of a hurry to correct her. She ran back to headquarters slamming into a person on the ways. She growled both at her own stupidity for not watching and the person's own stupidity for not getting out of her way. She jumped up from the ground landing on her feet, muttering about stupid people who can't see that she is in a hurry.

As she started to walk away from the person, without even looking at him, she heard a "Kel?" In a very familiar voice. She had run into Neal.

See turned around and looked him in the eye, he seemed puzzled to her hurrying "Neal, I need your help, Jump is acting strange and sickly, I need you to contact Numair to see if Daine is available.

Neal gave her a weird look before responding "sure thing Kel, but relax it can't be that serious if he just started to act weird". But as he started the preparation for the speaking spell she thought back upon Jumps behavior the past few days. He hadn't eaten a full piece of meat in days, always leaving at least half left. He had been gaining weight. He also had an accident on the floor the other day, she thought at the time that it was because the door was closed to get out side, now Kel started to think otherwise.

Kel was broken out of her brooding by Neal giving her a response from Numair "Kel, he said, luckily, that she is at fort Steadfast right now and will be able to fly here within the next few hours. Besides Numair said that Daine wanted to check the bolt holes anyway."

Kel went back to her suite at headquarters in order to try to comfort Jump before Daine came. Hopefully that time would be soon, so that he could be healed and better in no time.

After about an hour a soldier on watch reported that Daine had arrived and was currently shape shifting back into a human.

Kel paced restlessly in her room waiting for the knock that would signal that Daine was ready to diagnose and treat Jump. After ten minutes of pacing the knock came and she ripped open the door startling the person who had knocked, it was Daine, Kel welcomed her inside "Daine, come on in, he right over here. He refused to get up this morning and after I picked him up he collapsed on the floor and refused to eat his food, a few seconds later he vomited up liquid"

Daine looked up at her after sitting on the floor with a unreadable expression on her face, then she turned and placed her hands gently onto Jumps back. She closed her eyes and started to meditate. While Daine was doing her search Kel fiddled restlessly with every object she put her hand on.

After what seemed like an hour, although it was only about half that, Daine opened her eyes and looked at Kel, her eyes sad. "Keladry, it doesn't look good, although I have to do a more extensive examination, there seems to be a large amount of fluid in his stomach. Right now I don't know why it's there or where it came from, that why I need to take him some where I can be left alone for about two hours. I will tell you what I find tomorrow ok. " She paused and looked up at the worried Lady Knight "Just try to get some sleep, I'll see you tomorrow."

It was about ten by the time Kel was finally ready for bed, she moved slowly and even when she finally crawled into bed she couldn't fall asleep everything going back to the fact that Jump was sick, maybe even sick enough to die. She could hardly even bear the thought, he was at least ten years old and they had been companions for nine of them. A single tear leaked out of her eye as her mind went in the past recalling memories of Jump. She wiped the tear away angrily, but even as sleep slowly took hold over her she wondered why Daine couldn't heal him immediately and brooded the seriousness of the situation. As her eyes closed she sent a prayer to all of the gods that she knew that Jump would be alright.

.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.

The next morning she hurried through her morning routine completely skipping her glaive practice in order to save time and to be able to get to breakfast earlier. She walked as fast as she could through headquarters but slowed down when she opened the door to go outside. It would not do for the refugees to see their normally composed commander sprinting to the mess hall like a maniac.

As she entered the mess hall she noticed that Daine was not yet there so she went back to headquarters where the mage was staying. When she got to the door she knocked lightly enough to call attention to herself if Daine was awake but not loud enough to wake her if she was still sleeping. A "Coming" came through the door and it was opened, a very sleepy looking Daine peaked out. She was dressed but had large circles under her eyes.

When Daine saw Kel she said "Come in, come in" and hustled her inside, her eyes grim. The first thing Kel saw when she walked into the guest bedroom was Jump curled up in a small ball near the fire place, she gave a small smile and headed towards him and sat next to him, slowly petting his ruff fur.

She looked up at Daine who looked very grim. "Kel I have examined him thoroughly and the liquid that is in his belly is being caused by a cancerous tumor in his stomach. If I cut the tumor out all of the liquid will leak into his body killing him within minutes" She swallowed "If I try to take the liquid out all of the digestive acids that are in his stomach will come out as well, then he won't be able to digest any food for about two weeks. In other words . . he would starve." She paused and looked at Kel whose eyes were filling up with tears

"Right now his condition is getting worse, if nothing is done soon his stomach will rupture from all of the liquid and will result in a very painful death. Right now the only real option would be for me to inject him with a liquid that would painlessly stop his heart"

Kel looked down at Jumps brown eyes and felt her eyes begin to prickle and before long tears were slowly leaking out of her eyes. She hugged Jump who gave her a big sloppy kiss on the chin. Kel couldn't even begin to imagine a life without Jump, he was her companion who had been there since her page years. They had gone through everything together, from her adventures as a squire to her battle with Blayce. At the thought of her loosing him her tears came faster making the entire room blurry.

Daine looked at Kel, her eyes full of sympathy "I can give the injection while your holding him, so that his last memory is of you. Though you have to make the decision if you want to do it, and when because every day the liquid is going to build filling up his stomach not allowing any food to pass. At the most I say he has three pain filled days ahead of him"

Kel continued to cry silently into Jumps fur, how could she not have taken notice of the tremendous weight gain, or the abnormal behavior. "Kel", said Daine "it is a completely natural cause, there would have been nothing that I could have done even if you had caught it earlier." It was almost as if Daine knew what she was thinking.

Kel slowly sat up but refused to let go of Jumps fur "I'll do it, the injection I mean, but can you. . " her tears poured out even more rapidly, she took a few deep breaths to try to slow them "Give me some time to say goodbye" she finished.

"Of course I will go out and get the stuff ready, there's no hurry so just tell me when you are as ready as you can be" she turned and headed to the door before turning around "Kel, I truly am sorry that this had to happen, especially so suddenly" She turned the door knob and slowly walked out.

Kel slowly stroked Jump, talking to him, reminding him of some of the times they had spent together. "I still remember when I first met you. Remember, you had just stolen those sausages from the cook, he seemed just about ready to kill ya." Jump looked up at her with his intelligent eyes his tail wagging from all of the attention.

Her memories continued for the entire half an hour she spent with him, her tears slowly fell the while time. A knock sounded on the door and a voice called through "Kel, are you ready or do you need more time?"

Kel took a shuddering breath and called out, "I'm as ready as I can be" Daine opened the door, and behind her came Neal . "I thought you could use some company, though Merric's on Patrol." Neal came and sat on the other side of Jump. Kel cried even harder when Daine pulled a needle out of her bag, it was truly time to say goodbye. The whole scenario seemed so surreal, just yesterday at this time she had been helping refugees without much care in the world, now a day later she was saying the final goodbye to her loving and caring dog, who had been slowly dying for weeks without her notice.

Neal draped a friendly arm around her shoulder Jump in between them and hugged her close. She silently cried into his shoulder all the while petting Jump's fur. As Daine approached she leaned over and kissed Jumps head he in turn gave her a big kiss on the face.

As Daine slowly injected the liquid into him she scratched him behind the ears, his favorite spot. And as his eyes started to close for the final time Kel whispered "Goodbye Jump", when his head laid down on the ground Kel lost it and broke out in to tears that just poured out of her eyes. Neal sat next to her his own eyes wet and hugged her. She cried into his shirt for an entire hour before the tears were only evident by her red eyes. She looked at Jump's body before heading standing up, saying "thank you" to both the people in the room and walking out to go grieve alone in her own room.

.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.

She did not attend either lunch nor dinner that day, and spent the entire time thinking about Jump and all the things that he had done for her, all of his habits and activities he loved to do. That night she cried her self to sleep, wondering how things could have so quickly gone from perfect to horrible, all the while the end of her bed remained cold and empty. A reminder of what she had lost that day.

The next day she woke up, praying that everything that had happened was a dream but as she looked down the bed at the empty spot, she knew that it was reality at one of it's worst. As she walked into the privy she realized that she looked an absolute mess, her eyes were red and puffy and her hair and clothes disheveled. She slowly changed into her clothes trying all the while not to cry, as she back from her study to check on how many papers she had yet to complete she caught sight of Jump's bed.

She burst into tears, her knees hitting the ground with a large thump, she crawled over the bed. She saw all the loose hairs in it, she noticed that the bed smelled like Jump and she cried all the harder missing her dog more then she knew anything could be missed.

She realized that there would be no more waking up to his furry body on her feet every morning, no more scratching him behind his ears nor on his favorite spot on his belly. No more kisses or company when she was depressed about something. He would not be there to greet her every time she walked in the door. She would no longer need to get a raw piece of meet for him twice a day. She would never have to refill his water bowl or clean his ears. She began to cry harder, her door burst open and she heard foot steps come in. "Kel?" her voice seemed unable to work she heard the foot steps approach her "Oh Kel" arms wrapped around her attempting to comfort her in her grieving state. She still sat by the bed allowing the smell of her dog wash over her while her friend let her cry into his shirt (again) and rub a soothing hand across her back.

It took her a little less time to calm down, and after about a half an hour the tears had stopped. And she looked into Neal's sorrowful face, "I brought you something to eat, you didn't eat anything yesterday."

"Neal"

"Yes?"

"Thanks for being there for me" . . . she sniffled "I'm sorry I just can't help it"

"Kel, you just lost your dog, you expect me to think that you should just get over it?"

Her chin started to wobble again, but she fought off the urge to cry . "Kel, I know that this is most definitely not the best time to bring this up but the refugees want to know where you want to burry him, some of them volunteered to dig the hole. The carpenters volunteered to make the coffin to hold his body"

At the word coffin tears started to slowly fall again. "Can we burry him next to the giant oak outside, he always loved to take naps under it's branches"

"of course we can, I'll go tell them right now."

Kel swallowed loudly in attempt to get the tears that plagued her to leave.

.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.

At about three Kel left for the funeral, she gave up on trying not to let tears fall. As she approached the tree that she had asked she saw a large hole in exactly the spot she was imagining he would like. She smiled grimly, the refugees knew her well.

Another thing that she discovered was everyone was lined up approaching a wooden box, it seemed that everyone agreed that Jump deserved a funeral worthy of a human. The box had its top off allowing every one to day their final goodbyes. She got in the end of the line, wanting to be the last one to say her final farewell.

As she slowly approached the box the pressure on her heart grew and grew until she just wanted to scream with anguish. This worse then any type of hole in her heart, it was a pressure that grew and the only thing that seemed would get rid of it would be to hug Jump again. When it was finally her time to say goodbye, she approached the box and saw that he was is a sleeping position. Yet when she reached her hand out all she felt was a cold body, not the Jump she loved.

As she finished petting him for the final time the carpenter step forward and put the lid on top of his coffin. His hammer hit the nails and the sound that reverberated sounded like bells of death. With each bang she flinched and was weeping openly by the time the final nail was in place. The carpenter then gestured and Neal Merric and one of the other soldiers stepped forward. All four of them took a side and walked towards the hole seven feet away.

The coffin was dropped in and fell down about three feet before it hit the bottom. The coffin fit snuggly inside the hole. Neal then handed her a flower that he had in his pocket. Kel threw it on the coffin and then grabbed a shovel and dumped a pile of dirt on top of the flower and what remained of Jump.

Other people that were involved in Jump's life stepped forward and did the same thing, Neal, Merric, The soldiers that accompanied her to defeat Blayce, then the refugees. After all the dirt was piled back on top of his grave the people still came by throwing flowers on his grave.

At the very end came a man who, in the life before the war, was a stone mason. He came forward and placed a stone up right on the pile of flowers it said

Jump

A loving dog and companion

We will always love and remember you

For now you are a part of everyone

Farwell Buddy

As soon as she saw that sign she cried again, allowing her anguish to be slowly released in the form of tears

.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.:':.

She cried several times over the next few days and each day the pressure over her heart slowly faded. It would always be there as of what she lost but with the passing of time it would become a bearable. But she never did forget the dog that had changed her life forever, Jump.

My own experience is dos not seem as dramatic as this but i lost one of my best companions three days ago through basically the same way. i won't go exactly in to what happened but if some one really wants to know they can contact me through my e-mail adress

This was dedicated to Nathan - February 2000 - April 11th 2007

The sweestest cat I have ever known, I miss you buddy