Tabula Rasa

By UltimatePalmTree

Chapter Three

Get the Stick

"See the stick?"

Roa cocked an eyebrow at Dorchette's new attempt to train Rasa. It didn't seem to be working, to put it nicely. In fact, it was failing in every way. Dorchette was waving a small twig at Rasa, of which the puppy seemed not to care too much about. "See the stick, Rasa? See that stick? C'mon, you know you want it! So go and fetch!" Dorchette threw the twig as far as he could possibly get it to go, which wasn't too far considering how light the stick was.

Either way, the black dog didn't seem to care too much about the stick. It sat there in front of Dorchette, poofy tail wagging in happiness to be in front of his master and best friend. If Roa didn't know better, Rasa looked kind of like he was smiling. Then again, when did a dog not look like it was smiling at the thing in front of it?

Dorchette and Rasa paused for a second, staring at each other. "I give up," Dorchette threw his hands in the air and turned away from Rasa, starting over towards where Greed was lying in the shade of a tree. They had decided to take a day off from their usual lives, closing the Devil's Nest for a day and going out to the meadow in which they had tried to drop Rasa off. "I seriously give up,"

Greed lowered his shades to look at his friend and said, "Havin' fun with training him?"

Dorchette sighed and dropped down to his knees in front of his master. "It's like bashing my head against a wall until I get a nosebleed," he said. "No matter how hard I try to train him, he just won't listen to me!" Rasa figured out that Dorchette had moved away from him and immediately bounded up to him, sat down next to him and rested his head in Dorchette's lap. The dog chimera placed a hand on Rasa's head and scratched behind his ears while Rasa licked his hand happily.

"Have you tried bribing him and praying he'll listen to you?" Greed asked. "I heard that's how you tame a wolf,"

"That's not the same as a simple dog," Dorchette said.

"If he's disobeying you, then he must be one smart puppy," Martel said from her perch in the tree. She still was reading that book of her's, but the corners seemed to be slightly more crinkled than before, maybe because of curious puppy teeth.

"If he was a smart dog, he'd listen to me!" Dorchette said. Roa looked at Rasa, who looked back at him. Dorchette had stopped petting him and the dog was looking at him with liquid brown eyes. There was a moment while Roa and Rasa stared back at each other before the dog left Dorchette, who was arguing with Martel and Greed about how to train a dog. Rasa waddled over to him, blue-black tongue lolling from his mouth, and sat down next to him, obviously waiting for Roa to do something.

He tried ignoring the dog. It was Dorchette's, not his. When he found out it was so hard to ignore Rasa, he looked at him finally. "Go away," he ordered, waving the dog away with his left hand. "Shoo,"

The dog wouldn't obey. He guessed that Dorchette was right about Rasa's willingness to obey anyone. "Go to Dorchette," he said, pushing Rasa in that general direction. "Go. He's your master, after all," Rasa still wouldn't listen.

Roa sighed and said, "Listen, pup. I'm not your master, he is. Get that into your head,"

Rasa cocked his head at him in a way that clearly said, 'you're nuts'.

"I mean it. Go," Roa said. He stood up and looked down at the dog. "If you don't, I'll be forced to do it myself. Remember when I found you in my room?"

Rasa stood up and seemed to understand what Roa was saying. Finally. But instead of trotting back to Dorchette, he trotted to someplace behind Roa. The bull chimera, thoroughly confused, turned around to watch him pick up a long, thick stick that had been lying close to a nearby tree. He took the stick back to Roa and dropped it at his feet, nudging it with his nose. Oh, that's what he wanted. Roa sighed and said, "If you'll go back to Dorchette, I'll do it,"

He picked up the stick and walked into the sunlight, smacking the stick against the palm of his left hand as he did. "Alright. One time. You hear me, pup? One time," Rasa didn't seem to care; he just wanted Roa to throw the stick. For once, he looked eager to play fetch. And Roa complied.

"Get the stick!" he yelled and flung the stick as hard as he possibly could across the meadow. Rasa tore after the stick, barking all the while.

"Fetch the stick! Fetch the stick! Fetch the stick!" As soon as the stick landed, Dorchette tore past Roa at top speed, tongue lolling out and eyes wide in happiness. Both dog and master ran across the meadow, sending clots of dirt flying up in their wake. In an instant, Greed and Martel were standing next to Roa, watching as Rasa and Dorchette tripped over themselves to turn themselves around. They had severely missed the stick by about six feet.

"How the heck did you do that?" Greed asked as Dorchette trotted back, holding the stick in his mouth with Rasa dangling from it, growling ferociously at the stick.

"Got the stick!" Dorchette said happily, albeit a little muffled because of said object in his mouth. He spat it out onto his hand and let Rasa drop off once he lowered it to the ground before dropping it in front of Rasa. "How'd you manage to get him to play with you?"

"I don't know," Roa said, picking up the stick Rasa had nudged towards his boots. "He just walked over to me and wanted to play,"

"He wanted to play with you?" Dorchette asked in disbelief. "Actually wanted to play with you? I've been trying to play fetch with him since we got here, and he hasn't done it. And yet, you try it and he all of a sudden is your best friend,"

"Here," Roa offered the stick to him, of which the dog chimera took and flung across the meadow. The dog refused to chase it. Greed suppressed a few sniggers while Dorchette marched over to the stick, showed it plainly to the dog, and threw it again. Still, the dog didn't run. Greed began laughing loudly. Dorchette growled at him slightly before going to the stick once more and throwing it again. Rasa remained in front of Roa, watching Dorchette in a way that said 'what are you, nuts?' Greed began laughing hysterically at this.

"Stupid dog!" Dorchette yelled. "How the heck did you get him to play with you?"

Roa shrugged. "I told you I don't know," He walked over to the stick, Greed still laughing hysterically, and took the stick in his hand once more. "That was one time," Roa said. "Watch. He won't go now,"

One final throw.

"FETCH THE STICK!" Dorchette yelled, tearing once again after the stick and Rasa.

Disclaimer

I don't own Roa, Dorchette, Martel, Greed, Kimblee or anyone else from FMA. I do own Rasa and other possible OCs that may appear in other chapters. May is the operative word there.

Author's Notes

Woohoo! Third chapter! If you notice, these chapters are getting kind of more and more disjointed from another. I guess this could be called a series of short stories rather than actual chapters like in Tamers.

It seems like Roa's becoming Rasa's friend, doesn't it? Heehee… only time will tell.

Two more reviews for Rasa! Thanks so much!

Domenic: Yup! Greed finally says 'yes' to Rasa and Dorchette's all happy now. You're absolutely right; Greed is a softie for his chimeras. Well, with someone as irresistible as Dorchette, who wouldn't be a softie for his chimeras? I think I saw the DeviantArt fan club and remembered the drabble title, so I did make some sort of connection.

Senda san: No, actually, I never saw that doujinshi. I'd like to, if possible, because it sounds cool. Does it have a link or something where I can view it? I just got this idea from waking up one morning and saying, "Dorchette with a puppy… How cute!" Yeah, I have some weird dreams…

Well, that was chapter three! I hope you like it; I had fun writing it. I find whenever I have fun, the story turns out better. I'm going to use the cat idea, definitely. It seems like a lot of fun. So, keep sendin' ideas, and I will definitely credit you in the chapter! Have a good day, wherever you are!