I got good reviews for the first one and I just couldn't leave this idea alone. Obsessive? Me? Completely and utterly. I hope you like this one. It's about two weeks after United We Stand Marching Alone.

More battles, more blood, more death, more punishment for me. I have not killed a single dog since Hiroki, and for that I now have body duty. I am the one who goes onto the battlefield after a battle and picks up the Xanine bodies. Great huh? I don't get to go into battle, not until my time is served. Every time I watch my friends march off to battle I hope that I will not be picking up their remains on the battlefield.

There's the fallback command, my cue to go to work. I smile in relief, Aelita, at least, is safe. I pad down into the valley, watching the Jerem buzzard walking into the battlefield. Buzzard is our term for a dog on body duty.

I draw my lips in a snarl of disgust as the scent of blood washes over me. I spot at least one Xanine body, but I cannot identify who it is just yet. There are different symbols on our harnesses to identify which army we belong to. I hear the Jerem buzzard gasp.

"What is it Taelia?" I asked her, Aelita's look alike is the Jerem buzzard, a light colored husky, the only difference physically between Taelia and Aelita is Taelia's one blue eye.

"Naomi," She whispered sadly, "Why you?" She hoisted the Doberman's body over her shoulder, her dark pink harness getting stained in his blood.

"Who have we here?" I whisper to the body, turning the dog over. A gaping hole where the dog's jaw should have been makes me shudder as I identify the Irish Setter as Suzanne.

"Darn, she was a good fighter." I muttered as I slung her over my back, my lips drawing back in disgust as her blood seeped into my fur and stained my harness. I padded back to the base, Suzanne, or rather, Number 0025, slung over my back; I set her down where I had been told, just outside a building that always reeked of blood and death.

I heard a whip lash through the air and winced, turning around to see XANA standing behind me.

"Good work Number 2651, your time is almost up on body duty, come with me." Said XANA, his voice sickly sweet and oozing like honey.

I followed him to a place I didn't remember being there before. It was the place where new recruits were divided, but there was a new structure, wooden reinforced with a shiny metal (1). It was wide enough for the widest of dogs, but it looked adjustable, with thick leather straps at either end. Nearby was a concrete oven-like structure that smelled like fire, and burning metal.(2) A metal prong stuck out of an opening in the oven-like structure. There were other dogs around, I spotted Yumi, Ulrich, and Aelita, as well as some dogs, obviously new recruits, getting their harnesses fitted, they all looked confused and somewhat scared.

"What's going on?" I asked, padding over to my friends.

"I don't know," Ulrich replied, "But we'll find out soon enough."

One of the new recruits, a red Akita, was whimpering as she turned to her friend, a Dalmatian. The Akita was Xanine, her pinkish-purple harness made that clear, but the Dalmatian was a Jerem, again, made clear by the light green harness.

"Number 4173, come here." XANA ordered the Akita. She stepped towards XANA and the ominous looking structure timidly, looking back at her Dalmatian friend one last time before she was taken away, off to Jerem base camp.

The Akita, Number 4173, was lead into the wooden structure. The wooden posts were adjusted to hold her snugly so that she couldn't move anywhere but forwards and backwards. The leather straps were locked into place, leaving her trapped with no way out.

XANA went over to the oven-like structure and gripped the end of the metal stick, or what I thought was a stick. He pulled it out of the fire and I saw what it really was, a hot iron tool, used for branding. He pressed the metal into Number 4173's shoulder. She screamed in pain as the smell of burning fur and flesh filled the air. XANA repeated the process on her other shoulder until there was a mark on either side of her. The Xanine mark, the bulls-eye with four prongs sticking off of it, one on top, three below.

XANA let the leather straps go slack and moved the wooden posts so that the Akita was free to go.

"Number 2651, come here." XANA coaxed, his voice sickly sweet. I knew I was about to be branded, and it was going to be painful, but I really had little choice in the matter, so I stepped forward and stood on the concrete ground while XANA closed the posts around me. I'll admit, it did make me anxious to be so closed in, claustrophobic I think is what one could call me, a little anyway, not normally a big problem.

I heard the hot iron sizzling in the air as it neared my vulnerable shoulder. I flinched involuntarily, squeezing my eyes closed just before the searing hot iron touched my skin. I bit back a howl of pain but couldn't help the painful whine that escaped my throat. I could smell my burning skin and fur, it made my stomach churn. The iron fell away, but that was little relief to the pain that I felt, though the pain was soon doubled as the iron was pressed onto my other shoulder. This time I couldn't help but howl, though I tried hard to keep it inside. I opened my eyes as the posts fell away from my sides. Aelita looked scared, and I knew that she would be branded also, all the Xanines were to be branded. A horrible thing to do really, my shoulders burned, the cool air did little to soothe them.

Ulrich was then called forward; he went fairly calmly, but hesitantly. He kept fairly quiet, though a low whine of pain. He stepped towards us, his head held high in pride though he stumbled a little. I lay on the ground, I felt weak and dizzy with pain.

Aelita was called next, she moved slowly and hesitantly, causing the ever impatient XANA to lash her with his whip until, bleeding from her forelegs where he had whipped, she stood trapped by wooden posts. The hot metal came in contact with her flesh and she let out a yowl of pain and flinched away slightly. I saw her body slacken as the pain overloaded her senses. She yowled again in pain, but it was quieter than the last one. The posts were moved away and Aelita dropped until she almost touched the ground before she found her footing and stumbled over to where I lay on the ground.

Yumi was last; she thrashed against the wooden poles, making it difficult to place them. She growled in anguish as the scorching iron was pressed against her flesh. Aelita and I lay, Aelita looked confused and weak, I felt weak and dizzy. We saw the Akita lying nearby.

"Hey!" I called quietly.

The Akita looked up, she looked sad and hurt.

"What's your name?" I asked, "I'd rather not know you solely as Number 4173."

"My name is Milly." She said, "And you are?"

"I'm Odd," I said, "This is Aelita." I added, waving my tail towards my pretty husky friend.

"I'm Ulrich and that's Yumi." Ulrich added, a slight quiver in his voice.

Aelita made a small noise of discomfort and laid her ears flat against her head.

"Welcome Milly." Yumi said, staggering over to us, "Welcome to war."

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1 – In the movie Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron there is a scene when he is being branded, his mane trimmed, stuff like that… the wooden structure that he was placed in to hold him still, that's what the structure sort of looks like. If you don't know what I'm talking the scene is here: (it starts at like 3:20)

2 – It's a metal welding fire pit. Odd just doesn't know what to call it.

I really hope you like this one There will be at least one more in this mini-series.