Tino was exhausted, shivering and scared as he sat in the corner of the lean to and curled up into the tightest ball that he possibly could. It was about six hours after the Berwaldo oxenstiernas "sneaky snuggle attack" and his nose had finally stopped bleeding about 20 minutes ago. He didn't think it was likely that the shelter would last through this thunderstorm, or that he himself would last much longer at any rate.
Maybe I should've just let him suck my brains out. As least then I would've died warm...
He closed his eyes and wrapped the rain-soaked quilt around himself tighter, with the thought in his mind to give the grim reaper a "thank you" hug whenever he came.
A tiny bark pierced the rushing sound of heavy rain. Tino's head shot up. "Puppy?"
"Arf!"
Tino gasped "What is a puppy doing out in weather like this? Puppy! Where are ya little creature?" Tino stood up on shaky legs and stumbled outside as he tried spot the dog through the barrage of speeding raindrops.
A white, fluffy form rushed to his feet, put her front paws on the top of his shoes and looked up at him with large, shiny, pitiful eyes. Tino smiled and lifted her into his arms before staggering over to a relatively dry spot under a large bushy tree.
"There, we're a little drier under here," Tino sighed and slumped against the side of the tree. The small dog in his arms curled her paws under her body and rested her fuzzy head against his shoulder. Tino beamed as he started scratching her gently behind the ears. "Finally I get to see some wonderful wildlife on this episode. But I don't think you're very wild, are ya? I'm willing to bet ya probably belong to someone."
He reached down and felt for a collar around the dog's neck "Ah, yep. Ya do have a collar. A nice one too." He blinked the rainwater out of his eyes as he leaned in to get a closer look at it. It was made of high quality leather and had an intricate snowflake and heart pattern carefully etched onto it.
"Wow, somebody loves ya," Tino commented as he noticed that she smelled like lavender shampoo from a recent dog bath and that her fur, though wet, was silky soft from frequent brushing. "Yah, ya have a good master don't ya? Let's check the tag and see who it is so that we can get ya back to a nice warm place where ya can get taken care of-"
Tino located the small heart-shaped charm on the front of her collar and read the inscription. His eyes bulged out of their sockets and nearly exploded.
-If found, please return to Berwald Oxenstierna-
Berwald sent mud and leaves flying into the air as he frantically tore through the shrubbery around his house in search of Snowball. His pet dog was scared witless of thunderstorms. If she was home alone during a storm then she would break out of the house and come running to find Berwald. Usually Berwald would come home if he saw that a storm was about to start, but this afternoon, thanks to the hugging shenanigans with Tino, he'd woken up in a muddy puddle on the forest floor with walls of rain already crashing to the earth.
MustfindSnowballMustfindSnowballMustfindSnowballMu stfindSnowballMustfindSnowballMustfindSnowballMust findSnowballMustfindSnowballMustfindSnowballMustfi ndSnowballMustfindSnowball the single objective repeated through Berwald's mind as he became more panicked and started uprooting shrubberies and small trees from the earth. He felt like a failure. Berwald had sworn to protect that innocent creature. Her mother and siblings he'd tried and failed to save, he owed it to them to protect their daughter and sister.
"T-there there Puppy. See, there's your m-master… L-looks like he's searching for ya…"
Berwald nearly jumped at the sound of Tino's voice. He turned around to find the odd little man walking towards his cabin, tenderly holding Snowball in his arms.
"Ah…I t-think he sees us. There, now ya can be safe with him. He must not be too fearsome to have a cute, fluffy pet dog…though he's probably still going to eat my brains, because I'm not really cute or fluffy, but that's not important! The important thing is getting ya home, isn't that right girl?"
"Arf!"
Meanwhile, Berwald stood perfectly still as his brain ran another character analysis on Tino Väinämöinen.
Tino ≠ fluffy
BUT
Tino = cute
Tino ≠ sane
BUT
Tino = nice to Snowball
Tino's brain = scrambled pancakes
BUT
Tino's heart = gentle, sweet and selfless
Therefore
Tino = love = snuggle = put in Berwald's cabin = yes.
Yah, that's about right. Berwald decided as he walked over, scooped them both up into his arms and carried an excited and happy Snowball and a scared and screaming Tino through the cabin's front door.
