'Think I'm beautiful?' Caesa asked, smugly. He straightened out, whipping his tail against the grass.
"Yeah, yeah..." Ridha said, sketching a few more lines onto his book.
Caesa growled it being a deep rumble in the back of his throat, 'What is that smell?' He sniffed the air slightly, stretching his, now massive, legs out.
"I can't smell anything." Ridha commented, before looking up at the dog, displeased, "Would you stay still? – You're honest to God, the WORST model ever." He shook his head, looking down at his work, finding something not right about the proportions.
Caesa growled, scratching his paws on the ground- creating huge dug-up marks in the grass, leaving only dirt. He rose up onto his hind legs, sniffing the air, intrigued by something. 'You seriously don't smell anything?' He slumped back down onto the ground, face against the grass.
"What kinda smell is it?" Ridha asked, reaching into his bag, before pulling out a semi-expensive pack of colouring pencils. "Good or bad?"
'I like it.' Caesa hummed happily, 'Smells really familiar.' He plodded over to Ridha, wrapping his large frame around the teen. 'Can we go find out what it is?' He asked, licking Ridha's hair enthusiastically.
Ridha sighed, pushing the dog away, "Disgusting dog..." He grumbled, before closing the pack of colouring pencils, "Sure." He said, putting the pencils back into his bag. He closed his neat, black sketch book, also pushing that into his bag. Ridha stood up, yawning and stumbling slightly having been sat down for so long. He bent down slightly and picked his bag up, zipping it up aswell. "C'mon then." He said, pulling the bag onto his shoulder.
Caesa stuck his tongue out, enthusiastically, 'This way.' He pointed with his nose towards some nearby trees. They ploidded along slowly, Caesa going deliberately slowly, so that Ridha could keep up with him. They walked through the trees quickly, The huge dog pushing the leaves apart.
Caesa snorted slightly, 'I know where we are.' He trotted forwards to poke his nose at a large pine tree in the clearing. 'Hmm.' He 'I smell family...'
"Family?" Ridha scoffed, "YOU have family?"
'Of course.' He licked his lips, before throwing his head back, howling loudly. The dog waited for a second, tapping his feet on the grass excitedly. A minute later, a distant howl was returned. Caesa huffed, 'I wonder if she'll come and play...'
"She?" Ridha jumped slightly, pulling the bag further over his shoulder.
'Mhm.' He yawned slightly, 'Or a very feminine sounding dude...'
The teen chucked, before realising something. "Didn't you say that your species tended to be, like... really vicious...?"
Caesa blew the dirt on the roots of the tree away. 'If she's in here... she must be nice.' He chewed on his front leg slightly. 'Oh look. She seemed friendly enough.' Caesa said, now looking at the distance.
Ridha looked up towards some slightly strange-looking buildings, where a large, black object was galloping towards them.
'HELLO?' A hapy female voice shouted. The black object, now recognisable as a huge black dog - or rather a hellhound - which was holding some kind of bronze-coloured sword in her mouth.
'Hey.' Caesa greeted, curling around her, sniffing her posterior slightly. 'How are you?'
The hellhound dropped the sword, before swiping Caesa with her front paw slightly, 'I'm good, and yourself?'
Caesa lightly dug his teeth into the female's fur. 'Good, good.' He paused. 'My name's Caesa.'
The female yawned slightly, 'People call me Mrs O'Leary.'
The male hellhound smiled in a weird dog-like way. 'Nice name.'
Mrs O'Leary snorted, looking down at Ridha. 'Who's your human?' She asked him.
Ridha opened his mouth, pausing slightly, unsure if he should answer, "My name's Ridha."
Her eyes widened, 'You can understand me?'
Ridha nodded. "And him." He nodded towards Caesa.
The female hellhound licked her lips, 'What do you know about demigods?'
Caesa growled at her, barking and swiping his paws at her back. 'He's too young. Don't. Bring. It up.'
Mrs O'Leary whined, not really knowing what she did wrong. 'How old are you, little one?'
Ridha coughed slightly, not really knowing what the two were talking about. "15"
The hellhound huffed. 'He's too old.' She bit Caesa's shoulder. 'You two should come to camp.'
Caesa snarled. 'No.'
The teen stood awkwardly, wanting to break up the fight, he spoke up. "Hey, you guys wanna play chase, or somefin'?"
Both their heads snapped to face him, 'Chase?' They asked excitedly in unison.
Ridha nodded. "I'll chase."
The two huge dogs jumped around, extremely happy at the prospect of games. 'Can you keep hold of my sword please?' Mrs O'Leary asked, pushing the bronze-coloured sword forward.
Ridha reached down, left arm extended, before picking up the sword by the blade, cursing as it sliced through his skin. "It's sharp?!"
Mrs O'Leary whined, 'I'm sorry, I didn't think you'd pick it up by the blade... I should've warned you.'
Ridha frowned, using his right hand to pick it up bu the hilt. "It's fine. I shouldn't have been so stupid." He rubbed his left hand on his jeans. worried about the gushing blood. He sighed, knowing it would be too expensive to get stitches in a hospital. "First one I catch is a kitty cat."
The hellhounds turned and ran quickly, running fast, but not too fast so that Ridha could not keep up. The teen bolted off after them, following closely behind Caesa, who was quickly advancing on Mrs O'Leary, due to his larger size.
What happened next was a blur. Ridha stumbled to the ground, feeling a sharp pain in his gut. "CAESA!" He shouted, something sharp entering his right arm, too. He saw Caesa jump over him, running off somewhere, snarling and barking.
'Ridha, can you hear me?' He heard Mrs O'Leary say softly.
He almost scream in pain, slightly paralyzed from the shock.
'No Ridha...' She licked his face, 'I-I'll go get some help..' She barked and howled, running off to somewhere she couldn't see.
"Caesa.." He groaned in pain, closing his eyes, calling out for his only friend. He felt the soft, fluffy fur of a dog rub against his skin.
'No Ridha...' Caesa said, whining.
Ridha coughed, blood coming out of his mouth. Everything went cold.
