The warehouse was relatively small, but that might've just been the crates upon crates stacked in every free space. Small yips, groans, and caws echoed from the creatures incarcerated in their various boxes. Whirligigs, Vanessa had said. Subhuman intelligence, but they should still be treated well. The terrible heat and small confines proved that standard had not been achieved. Kendra tried to ignore the stench of urine and damp fur, but it was overbearing, making her gag. She was tempted to run back outside where Trask, Seth, and a few other knights were rounding up the smugglers, but her feet wouldn't move.
"Good god," muttered Warren. They had all known that this group was smuggling many, many creatures, but none of them had expected it to this level. Kendra's cousin looked ready to cry. Tanu was next to him, not even bothering to hide the tears welling up in his eyes. A few other knights were there, all new faces to Kendra, all looking sick.
There was another moment of silence before Vanessa said, "Let's just catalog these guys and get it over with," and the spell of silence was broken. The narcoblix started barking orders to the other knights, instructing teams to take different parts of the warehouse and begin writing down which creatures they saw, how many, if they needed immediate medical treatment, etc. More teams would show up later to move them out and properly patch them up.
Kendra walked like she was in a daze. Several birds clawed at their cage as she moved by, bright plumage shedding from their bodies. Her foot clanged against metal and she jumped, but it was nothing more than a few panicking drumants skittering around their box. Water dripped from the ceiling, collecting in puddles at Kendra's feet and occasionally falling on her clothes.
Three knights ran past her. They were all older, all strong types that had survived through the Society and the Sphinx's betrayal. In their arms was a young chimera. The creature's lion body hung limp, and the goat head on its back only gave a few bleats. One knight was crying.
Kendra backed up against the wall and wiped at her cheeks. She had seen a lot, but nothing so... piercing. Nothing so blatantly horrific.
She had to do something.
She couldn't bring anything immediately to mind. She and Seth had been assigned to help bring down the smugglers and calm any panicked creatures, but all the creatures here were so beaten down that they didn't need any calming, and the smugglers were taken care of. Vanessa hadn't placed her in a team. Her healing magic worked primarily on people, and not as well on animals. Maybe there would be something here that she could help?
"Hey, are you okay?"
Kendra looked up. Warren had split away from his team and leaned against the wall next to her. She must've been really lost in thought to not notice, usually she would've seen him a mile away.
"I... I don't know," she admitted. Her voice was hoarse. "Is there anything I can do?"
"I think everyone's got this covered." He rubbed her shoulder. "Maybe you should head outside. Grab some fresh air. If you're really feeling the need to help, I could bounce off Vanessa and see what she says."
Kendra nodded. "That sounds good, if you could do that. I... I'll be right back." She staggered down the aisles. Maybe she did need a moment out of here.
The door wasn't to far off, but now certain paths were blocked by emergency vet teams or knights trying to write down all the creatures they saw. Kendra weaved through the aisles, hit two dead ends, and stopped in front of a dog.
Yikes. She took a step back. It must've been some sort of guard dog that the smugglers didn't have the chance to release. The thing was bigger than any dog Kendra had ever seen, practically the size of a horse, with matted black and brown fur and a nose too big for his already massive face. A chain connected his collar to a stake in the ground. The dog's side rose and fell shakily as he slept, but once he woke up, he might cause a problem.
"Guys, I found something," Kendra called. The dog didn't stir, so now she raised her voice a bit. "Guys!"
The dog bolted to his feet and tried to bark, but all that came out was a weak yelp. Kendra jumped back, and the dog jumped too.
"Sit!" Kendra squeaked, practically on instinct. The dog whimpered, made as though to sit, and then tried to run, but the chain yanked him back before he got very far.
"What's going on?" Vanessa scampered around the corner. Her clothes were soaked through with something nasty-smelling, but she seemed far more focused than Kendra had ever seen her. "Are you alright?"
"I'm okay!" Kendra backpedaled, but the dog clearly wasn't going to come after her. He was trying to hide under a table with his tail between his legs. Now that she wasn't panicking, she saw that the dog was missing part of his tail, and one ear was badly ripped. He smelled awful too.
Vanessa put an arm out in front of Kendra. Kendra went to protest, but then she realized Vanessa hadn't even noticed what she was doing—the gesture was purely protective instinct. "Geez. Hang back until Tanu gets here with a tranquilizer, I don't want you getting hurt." She raised her voice. "Tanu! I need a team here, stat! We've got a potentially dangerous creature!"
"Is that another creature they were smuggling? Or is it a guard dog?" Kendra asked. "And dogs definitely aren't supposed to be that big, what happened to it?"
Vanessa frowned. "Not sure. Could be either. And it's probably been experimented on, to be that big... injection of Australian Upton genes, maybe."
"Injected—?" Kendra went to question her, but then her question was lost in the chaos of the approaching team that just about swept her off her feet. Vanessa nodded to her, like I'll explain more later, but Kendra didn't feel satisfied.
Whatever. She still needed fresh air. The stench of waste and pain was starting to make her cry.
—
Two months later, Kendra was crashed out on the porch at Fablehaven, twirling a pencil and studying for math. Grandma was the one homeschooling Kendra and her brother in that subject, but the tests were always killer. The scent of Grandma's meatloaf dinner cooling on the kitchen counter drifted out the window, and the wind chimes hanging around the porch sang melodious harmonies when the fairies reached out to them. This had always been Kendra's favorite place to study.
A sudden outburst of barking definitely was distracting, though. She glared at Dale's pickup, which had just pulled up. Maybe he could see her through the windshield and make whatever he had in there shut up.
The groundskeeper staggered out of the truck a moment later, his plaid shirt soaked through with sweat. Several paw-shaped bruises were forming on his face and shoulders. He met Kendra's eyes, made a finger gun, and pretended to shoot himself in the head.
All of a sudden the barking started up again, the back door burst open, and a dog somersaulted out of the backseat and landed on the dirt driveway. With one last ecstatic woof, he streaked across the yard, chasing fairies and letting his leash drag behind him.
"Um." Kendra set her book on her lap. Wasn't that the dog from the warehouse?
"No! No no no no no! Bad dog!" Vanessa jumped out of the backseat and made chase. "Get back here, you dumb mutt!"
"What's going on?" Kendra shouted. Dale didn't answer, and just sagged against the hood of his truck like a empty sack, mumbled something, and ran after Vanessa.
Kendra jumped to her feet. The fairies were starting to panic, and she couldn't blame them, they had faced things much smaller than this dog and still had trouble. Several had taken cover under the porch or among the wind chimes. Vanessa was fast, but this dog had huge legs and seemed to think they were playing—every time the blix got close, the dog would pause, wag his tail, and sprint away. Dale was trying to help, but he wasn't as fast and could barely keep up with Vanessa, much less the dog.
Gotta help, Kendra thought. I have to think of something.
She dashed into the house and broke a piece of Grandma's meatloaf. The smell was weaker than it had been just out of the oven, but hopefully this dog still had his sense of smell.
She ran back out onto the grass and waved her hand to catch the dog's attention. "Hey! Food! Come get it!"
Food must've been the magic word. The dog didn't even bother to look at her before bolting in her direction.
Kendra had planned to tempt the dog back into the truck, but that wasn't happening. A pair of massive paws landed on her chest and shoved her into the dirt. She gasped, but the weight on her chest was strong and she couldn't breathe.
"Off. Off!" she wheezed.
There was a pause and a curious boof, and then Kendra could inhale again. She sat up and rubbed her chest. Her shirt was spattered with mud and paw prints. The meatloaf was still in her hands, slobbered on and gross but still whole.
She glared at the dog, but all she got in return was a confused head tilt and a pant. "Sit," she snapped. The dog sat.
Vanessa stopped next to Kendra, trying to regulate her breathing, and Dale stumbled up behind her. "What happened to that dog not being trained?" Dale wheezed.
"He's not." Vanessa grabbed the dog's leash, gasping for breath. "He's still wild. He usually wouldn't answer to orders."
"He listened to me." With Dale's help, Kendra got to her feet, struggling to regain oxygen after having it all forced out. "He sat when I told him to."
The dog wagged his tail and barked. Kendra tossed him a piece of meatloaf, and he snapped it out of the air.
"He listens to you?" Vanessa tilted her head, eyes bright. "Mind trying another command?"
Kendra nodded, and managed to finally steady her breath. "Okay, I guess... lay down."
The dog flopped onto the grass and stuck his paws up. His tongue lolled out.
Vanessa pressed a finger to her lips. "Hold up a second. Hold this." She shoved the leash into Dale's hands and jogged back to the car.
"Oh god," muttered Dale. "Kendra, I will never forgive him if you tell him to run."
Kendra giggled. "I won't. You're lucky Seth isn't in my place, though."
Dale ground his teeth into an awkward smile. "Yikes."
Vanessa came back flipping through a manila folder. "Right. So the results said this guy probably has dire bear genes in him, and some polar centaur... here." Vanessa flipped a paper over and pointed to it with a confident nod. "He's part fairy corgi."
"What?"
"Fairy corgis," Vanessa explained, "are these really adorable dogs that some fairies imbued with magic to make them faster, and then used them as steeds. This guy has fairy magic in him, that's why he listens to you."
Kendra looked at the dog, who was chewing on a leaf. "Cool." She couldn't imagine this thing being part corgi, but she could definitely see part "dire bear" or whatever.
"Does that change anything?" Dale tried to subtly hand the leash off to Vanessa as he talked, but she didn't take it. "I mean... are we still going to release him?"
"Release him?" Kendra frowned. "Into the preserve? Isn't that dangerous for him?"
"We thought he was untamable, due to the constant abuse in his puppyhood, but..." Vanessa shoved the file into Dale's hands. "He has a chance. I'll talk with Stan, see what he says."
"I'm not a shelf."
"Shush, Dale. Kendra, you might have a new pet on your hands."
—
"Good god." Warren stopped at the door to the attic. "You... have an interesting throw rug."
Kendra looked up from where she was reclining on Bear's back. "Haha. Yeah. He's actually pretty comfortable, once you get over the fur. And the smell." She reached over her shoulder and scratched her dog's back. "Honestly, he's harder to get in the tub than Seth."
"I heard that," grumbled Seth's voice from under his covers. Kendra ignored him.
"At least he's pretty easy to train. Doesn't talk back. Doesn't pull the blankets onto his side... when he managed to fit." She took a sip of her coffee and smiled. "But hey, he's pretty great. He's a good boy."