Chapter Two: Can We Keep Him?
"AARGH! HELP ME!"
A scream of terror roused Terrafin from his sleep. He opened one eye, and happened to see a fire pup drag a bone warrior around the yard. This sight woke him fully, and Terrafin ran after the two. He stepped in the fire pup's path. The fire pup, unable to dig underneath the ground like Terrafin, stopped in his tracks.
"Hot Dog, drop him!" Terrafin demanded.
The fire pup, Hot Dog, spat the bone warrior, Chop Chop, out of his mouth. That didn't stop him from bounding around with energy.
"That was fun! Fun! Fun! Fun!" Hot Dog barked happily. "Let's play again!"
"No! Let's not play again!" Chop Chop yelled. "Why do you always do that?!"
"Because it's fun!"
Terrafin interjected and asked, "Did he ask you to play a game, Chop Chop?"
Chop Chop got off the ground, dusting himself off. "As a matter of fact, he did," Chop Chop replied. "He came up to me and asked if he could play with me. I was dumb enough to say yes."
"Maybe next time you should specify what kind of game you want to play."
"Next time I'll muzzle him! A loyal Skylander cannot hurt his allies like this!"
This comment hurt Hot Dog. He wasn't loyal? All he ever wanted to be was loyal! While Terrafin and Chop Chop argued, Hot Dog snuck away to hide in his special place. He didn't understand what he did wrong. He just wanted to play.
Hot Dog walked around the ridge of the Popcorn Volcano, using his nose to sniff around. There was too much sulfur and ash for him to find anything, and he constantly found himself sneezing. There was no way he could find what he was looking for. Perhaps he didn't have a good enough sniffer? That might be it, but Hot Dog still found himself despondent.
And what was Hot Dog looking for, you ask? He was looking for the thing that every dog yearns for- a family. Any family would do for him, even if they were mean. In a family, he wouldn't be alone. He hated being alone.
He heard a noise. Hot Dog was stuck in place, panicking on what to do next. Suddenly, the lava in the volcano rushed up underneath Hot Dog, and he was shot out of the volcano in a violent eruption. For a while, he soared through the air. For a...long while. Hot Dog shut his eyes in fear, unsure of what would happen next.
Then Hot Dog felt himself land on something...something rather soft, actually. He then tumbled to the ground in an awkward position. Still afraid to open his eyes, Hot Dog listened to someone shout, "AAH! A bear! A bear!" He listened to...several footsteps scrambling around. He heard the same someone shout, "My tent! It's burning to the ground!"
Hot Dog hesitantly opened his eyes, and saw three strangers running around. One of them was blue, and he shot some kind of wet stuff on the burning thing that must've been a tent. Another was green with pointy ears, trying to gather things that must've been supplies. The last creature was also green with pointy ears, but he had something over his eyes. He ran directly to the burning tent and helped the blue person put it out.
"Hang on, Gill Grunt, I see another flame out here," The other pointy-eared person explained.
"Another flame rests on my tent?" The blue creature, probably Gill Grunt, asked. "Wait, Flameslinger, I don't see anything!"
"My fire-sight is never wrong. There's another flame here."
"Where is it?"
The pointy-eared person, perhaps the "Flame Slinger", pointed in a random direction. Actually, it wasn't random- it was toward Hot Dog! Gill Grunt, Flameslinger and the first pointy-eared person looked at him. They looked at him with curiosity rather than anger, but Hot Dog was still scared. The Gill Grunt walked toward him, looking very stern.
"Did you burn my tent down?" he asked.
"I think so," Hot Dog muttered. "I'm sorry."
"Don't scare him, Gill Grunt," the first pointy-eared person yelled. She walked toward Hot Dog slowly, then knelt down to his level. She held out a hand toward him, and Hot Dog sniffed it. He smelled no anger on this person.
"We won't hurt you," she promised. "My name is Stealth Elf, and these are my friends Gill Grunt and Flameslinger. We're Skylanders, and we're currently on a mission. You must've stumbled upon our campsite."
"Probably came from the eruption of the volcano a few hundred miles from here," Flameslinger suggested. "It was probably too far away for you normals to hear or feel, but I could see it in my dream. Ka-Pow!"
Hot Dog was confused. He'd spent his life in a volcano- and volcanoes generally don't have the 24-hour news cycle. He wasn't sure what the Skylanders were. He wasn't sure what these strangers were doing here. All he was really certain of was what certain things were scary and not scary. So far, all of this was too new and too strange for him.
"You must be terrified," Stealth Elf insisted. "I know what that's like. I remember being in an unfamiliar place with no idea what to do. You can trust us."
Flameslinger and Gill Grunt knelt down toward Hot Dog as well. "He's a fire dog," Flameslinger explained. "Young for his kind. I think he's too young to be out on his own yet. What happened to your parents?"
Hot dog was surprised by his question, but he still answered, "I don't know. I see them one day, and next day they're gone."
"So you've been on your own for a while?"
Hot Dog nodded.
"We can't simply leave him here," Gill Grunt sighed. "Even if he burned down my tent. Stealth Elf, can we take him along?"
"I'm not about to leave him behind, either," Stealth Elf confirmed. "You two can sleep in my tent tonight. We have to head out on our mission in the morning."
Hot Dog had been scared then. It was the Skylanders that offered him the family he'd been searching for. All he'd wanted was to be loyal to his friends. He wanted to repay them for their kindness. He was probably more of a nuisance than anything else.
Hot Dog found his special place, which was a deep hole in the ground, and hid for a while. He thought about the mistake he'd made. Hot Dog wasn't sure why he couldn't hide his animal side when he was around Chop Chop. He was a dog! Dogs loved bones! They also loved to play. He figured that playing and the love of bones was a bad combination. It made people angry, and anger frightened him.
Hot Dog lost track of time. He suddenly looked up to see Terrafin looking in on him.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
Hot Dog didn't feel like replying. He had been a bad dog. He figured that everyone would be mad at him for a long time. This could be evident in the lava monster known as Eruptor, who could be mad about something for weeks on end. Mad people were never nice.
"Chop Chop didn't mean what he said," Terrafin insisted. "He's been a Skylander longer than I've been alive. The years have made him stern."
No comment.
"His views on what Skylanders should be also changes season after season. It could be 'brave' one day, then 'loyal' the next. It always changes."
No comment.
"...It also looks like it's going to rain soon. We should get inside."
No comment.
"What are you getting mad at me for?!"
Hot Dog was mad? He was never mad. Mad people weren't nice, and Hot Dog always tried to be nice. Anger could quickly turn a nice person into a mean person, after all. Did he appear mad to Terrafin?
"I'm not mad," Hot Dog replied finally. "I'm just upset."
"The word 'upset' can mean a lot of things," Terrafin insisted. "I take it that you're mad."
"I'm not mad," Hot Dog repeated. "Mad is bad."
"Nice rhyme. But you are mad. At the very least, you're mad at Chop Chop. He completely insulted you. You have to be angry about that."
"Not mad. Not angry. Just want to be alone for a while."
"It's not a bad thing to be angry every once in a while."
Yes it was! Angry people weren't nice! Hot Dog wanted to be nice. In order to be nice, he couldn't be angry! He was aware that many people didn't want to be around an angry person. If Hot Dog were angry, nobody would want to be around him- and he would be alone again.
True to Terrafin's word, it did start raining. The rain fell down hard, several droplets evaporating on Hot Dog's body. He ignored the rain. It was a mere nuisance. In a few minutes, Hot Dog started to notice that the rainwater was collecting on the ground around his paws. Terrafin seemed to notice this as well, since he quickly dove in after Hot Dog. Grabbing him by the collar that he now wore, Terrafin dragged Hot Dog out of the hole, burrowing through the ground until reaching the top of the land. Hot Dog wrenched himself away from Terrafin, accidentally burning his hand in the process.
"Ow ow ow!" Terrafin gasped. "You can definitely leave a mark, little doggie!"
"Don't touch me!" Hot Dog yelled.
Terrafin simply stared at him, and Hot Dog realized why. He had yelled at him. Angry people yelled. Hot Dog was angry. If he were angry, then he wasn't nice. Hot Dog wasn't nice! Realizing this error, Hot Dog ran away from Terrafin as fast as he could, guilt burning at his heart.
For the past few days, nobody had seen any signs of Hot Dog. Remnants of that night still lingered. Terrafin's hand was still bandaged from the burn Hot Dog had given him, and Hot Dog's once-lovely hole had turned into a pool of sorts. If Hot Dog were around, he'd see why Terrafin had pulled him out. If the water got too high, Hot Dog wouldn't be able to evaporate all of it. His eternal flame would be put out by the water, and he would've drowned.
But Hot Dog wasn't there. He was hiding in a deep thicket in the woods, hiding his grief. So far nobody had found him. He could only assume that people didn't care for him anymore. They'd heard of what he'd done to Terrafin out of anger. They wouldn't want to be around him anyway, because he was an angry person.
Here was Hot Dog. Alone.
He cried for several minutes. He never wanted to be alone. But he was alone. He never wanted to be angry. But he was angry. All he wanted was family. But his family had quickly turned away from him. Those were the last things that he wanted- and he had them anyway.
Hot Dog heard the rustling of leaves ahead of him. Something was coming toward him, and Hot Dog was afraid once again. The thicket in front of him was moved away, and the something that he'd feared turned out to be Chop Chop. Hot Dog tried to hide once again. Despite himself being an angry person, Hot Dog was still wary around Chop Chop.
"Terrafin! I found him!" Chop Chop called. "He's over here!"
Terrafin was here? But why? Why was Terrafin risking himself by looking for an angry person? Hot Dog could only watch as Terrafin came into view. The dirt shark's eyes looked at him with great shock.
"How long have you been here?" Terrafin asked.
Hot Dog noticed Terrafin's bandaged hand. He looked away with grief.
"I think he still feels guilty about what he did to you." Chop Chop suggested. "He's also angry, but he's only angry at himself."
Terrafin and Chop Chop knelt down toward him. "Everyone has been searching for you for days!" Terrafin explained. "We're all worried sick!"
"Why?" Hot Dog whimpered.
"Why? You really need to ask that?" Hot Dog, we all care about you so much. Why wouldn't we search for you?"
"Chop Chop said it himself. I'm mad. Nobody likes being around an angry person."
"Is that what this is about?" Chop Chop asked. "People don't stay around someone who's angry so they can give him some space. They give him a chance to cool down. It's not worth causing your friends such grief because of some silly misconception."
"Hot Dog, I think I remember being in your position," Terrafin continued. "One time when I was still a new recruit to the Skylanders, Dino-Rang had agreed to spar with me. That probably hadn't been a good idea on his part- he'd been searching for something the entire night before and hadn't gotten any rest. During one part of the sparring session, he dozed off- and I delivered a knuckle sandwich square on his nose. Dino-Rang practically screamed at me after that- I'd never seen him like that before. The initial shock frightened me enough, and I did exactly what you did- I ran off, and hid somewhere for a while."
"When did you come out?" Hot Dog asked.
"I forget, but I remember that Dino-Rang found me and apologized to me- which is something I have to do for you. Look, I'm sorry if I made you mad and scared you. That was not something I ever meant to do."
"But mad is-"
"I know, it's bad. But being angry is part of a family. We get mad, we scream at each other a little, then we apologize and move on. It's how we learn from each other."
"Funny way you people learn from each other," Chop Chop mused. "In any case, Hot Dog, I'm sorry for what I said about you. Certainly a Skylander who would be so worried about not upsetting his friends must be loyal. And...would you like to play?"
"Would I!" Hot Dog cheered. He grabbed Chop Chop's leg and carried him off. Terrafin chased after them, shouting, "I found him!"
Hot Dog was no longer mad or guilty. He was relieved that he wasn't alone. Yes, he would've been happy with any family, but he was glad to have found the Skylanders family. Hot Dog had found a family so compassionate and so understanding, willing to see anyone as they are. He wouldn't want it any other way.
