SWORD OF DARKNESS-TRUE OWNER FOUND?
(1254 HRS/OUTSIDE MR. PORTERS CAFE)
Claw-now without his armor-sits outside Mr. Porters cafe with a purple sack in his mouth as he waits for his burger and Sparks T-Bone steak. Mr. Porter steps out with two boxes in a bag and a cup of tea in the other and says "Okay, that will be $22.75 for the T-Bone steak, $4.73 for the burger, $1.92 for the large cup of tea, totaling $29.70" Claws eyes grow wide as he sits his change purse down, causing a purple cloth sack to land on the concrete with a 'thud'. Claw sighs as does the math, converting the United States value to British value ($1 United States dollar to $0.85 British pound, yes I did the research) "That's $25.22 for the order, and $4.78 tip in US money, lets see, in British money that's $21.42 for the order, and I will give you $4.06 for the tip, totaling $25.48, that's $35 even in US money. This may be in British pounds, but I don't short change anyone." Then he digs around for his payment and hands it off. "It's all there I promise you, Mr. Porter." Claw takes the bags in his mouth and runs off in a sprint. As he finally arrives back at the lookout and drops the bags on the ground in front of Sparks and a moment later says "Here's lunch boy!", Sparks, who is very hungry, picks up the whole thing, tosses it up then fire roasts it in mid air then eats the whole order before Claw can barely say anything! "You blasted lizard-" (food gone) "-that was for both of us!." Claw sighs in defeat as he walks up to the lookout and asks Ryder, who is playing on his pup pad "Do you have any food to spare? Sparks just ate my whole order for both of us, and I have very little money left." Ryder stands up from his bean bag chair and walks over to the pup food dispenser and takes two plain steel colored bowls and pulls out a handle, giving a small amount of puppy food and fills the other with water. Claw looks at the 'food' in dismay and picks up a piece with a questioning tooth and pops it into his mouth, Claw finds the taste revolting as he eats it with disgust in his heart. Claw wolf down the food like a bad tasting medicine that one just cant wait to get the last drop down their throat so it will be over and chases it down with the whole bowl of water. He hears an all to familiar voice behind him "How was your first bowl of puke?" Claw looks over his shoulder, still breathing heavily as he finds the snow white royal pup Sweetie smirking at him. Claw thinks to himself 'If I never eat another piece of this junk I will die happy.' but he will never show her just how much he hate it. "I may not like it, but I will eat it just the same." Claw turns and walks out for the little town and he roams around when he sees a park with a track, wanting to get some exercise in, he decides to runs a few laps when he meets a young man stretching at the start of the running track. Claw chooses to talk with the person before him "Hello sir, how are you today?" The person turns and looks down at the pup and replies "I am well-are you alright? You look sick pup." "I'm alright, just having never been made to eat puppy food before, and it makes me feel sick." "That so called 'food' is not fit for any beast (short chuckle)." Claw cant help but blush as he comes up with something to take his mind off the fact he was just embarrassed "How about a long walk endurance trial? Most laps with out stopping at a minimum of 4 miles per hour, by the way, whats your name, sir?" The young man laughed as he says "My name is Jack Mackenzie, so what are we waiting for? I want to try your so called long walk."
(TIME SKIP 1HR35MIN LATER/1458HRS)
Both sit on the bleachers panting and sweating from the exercise, not surprisingly Claw won, and took a victory lap before joining Jack on the bleachers. And as Claw walked up after his victory lap and looked at Jack for a moment then joins him saying "Not bad for a beginning long walker, you managed 6 miles at 4, but I managed 9 miles at 6." Claw watches Jack remove a bottle of water bottle from his pack and squirt some in his mouth from 3 inches away. Claw smiles and accepts some with an open mouth when he tilts the bottle toward his muzzle. Claw watches the young man with interest when Jack suddenly looks at Claw and asks "How about some supper on me, no cost." Claw smirks and accepts the offer. The pair walk to Mr. Porters Cafe as Claw feels a strange feeling of affection (NOT GAY!) welling up in him. Claw buries it just as quick as it appears knowing that his calling is the knighthood, protecting the royalty, and now overthrowing the Duke William of Flapping-ton, Claw did not need any distractions like THIS when he returned to overthrow the Duke and reclaim his knighthood for good! The knight walked up to the restaurant door and went inside with Jack and ordered a double cheese burger and tea as Jack ordered a porterhouse steak and cola. Claw smiles as he said his thanks and heard Jacks reply "Your welcome, but maybe I can offer you a kind gentle life Claw, since you have a collar with no owners tag." Claw thinks to himself 'Very observant sir, give you credit for that.' Claw decides to give an explanation "Well sir, I used to be owned by a princess, I am a fallen knight now, I lost my knighthood last year." Jack bust out laughing at this "You honestly expect me to believe that a dog can be a knight from the times of yore!" Claw snarls and shouts at his laugh and words "The knighthood is not dead yet, sir. Wait here, give me 5 minutes I will show you!"
(TIME SKIP 5 MIN LATER/1503HRS)
Claw returns with his armor on and riding Sparks the dragon, landing him in the road near the café. Jack was agape in awe as he replies to the dragon and Claw in full armor "Well I am wrong, I admit it." Claw grins and uses his pincers to lift Jack to the saddle and says "Hold on, sir, Sparks FLY!" Sparks takes off with a mighty swing of his wings, Claw smiles and asks "How do you like it Jack?" Claw smiles as he looks at Jack as he gazes on the skies with awe, after a few minutes of flying Jack asks Claw "Why did you lose your knighthood." Claw tears up and a sensation of anguish pulls at his heart. Claw lands Sparks in a meadow and jumps off crying. Jack jumps off and asks "What's wrong? I didn't mean to upset you." Claw looks back at Jack and says "It has nothing to do with you, it is what happened to the town after I tried to ride the dragon behind. It was not the attempt to ride him one time, but many on the same dragon. I ride Sparks now because I know how to manage him with food and other methods, I knew nothing of this at the time I am about to tell you, I just tried to jump on and ride, I was not prepared for what would happen if truly I made a dragon mad. What I am about to tell you must remain between us, it has been a horrid memory of mine for the last year. The part I am about to tell you I have told no one, not even the Paw Patrol, only the citizens of Barking-burg, Earl Richard and Princess Catherine and myself know."
(FLASHBACK/1 YEARS AGO)
Claw sneaks up on Sparks the dragon from the rock ledge just above his cave. Sparks is eating a deer he had freshly caught and was pulling off a leg from the still live deer when Claw jumps on and clamps on to one of the spikes on his back and this causes the dragon to drop the now maimed deer and take off for the skies. Claw knows from previous tries that the dragon will fly in a roller coaster style straight line at first, at least for a little while. The dragon now flying over the land throws Claw from his back, Claw luckily lands in the castle moat which broke his fall. Claw pulls himself out and looks on in fear as Sparks roars in anger as he circles back and glares at Claw from the sky and blasts a fireball at him, causing Claw to dodge it. All the commotion causes the royal princess and earl to come bounding out to see a fireball torch a town house and a burning citizen burst out and fall dead from the fire engulfing him. And again the dragon torches another building causing more deaths and another and another, before long burned dead bodies litter the streets and many buildings burn from the dragons fire as it turned to the dragon highlands. The princess and looked at Claw with a rage they had never known before!
(TIME SKIP 1 HOUR LATER)
Claw had roamed the streets in dismay, not for loosing his knighthood, but for the lives he had made to end before their time as he gazed at the torched bodies, some still smoking. Not realizing it he had wondered into the dragon highlands still in such deep thought that he never saw Sparks until he was nose to nose with the sleeping dragon that now lay outside his cave. Sparks wakes up and looks at the now fallen knight and growls at him. Claw looks upon the snarling beast then in an act of total surrender, he hangs his head then lays down before the dragon and says "If you want to kill me, just get it over with." When the dragon just huffed and turned to enter his cave, to which Claw was surprised. Upon witnessing this, Claw decided to turn and leave. Claws suspicions were confirmed that they were not violent without provocation, he vowed to make the point known to the royalty at any cost.
(END FLASHBACK)
Claw sits there with his nose pointed toward the ground and tears run down his face as he finishes the story, upon completion, he returns his attention to Jack then says "I have told you a part of the story that I have told no one who does not know, I trust you will keep it to your self." Jack was slack jawed for a moment but then replied "Yes I will, Claw." Claw looks him over as he nods while deciding something for himself as he asks "Were you in the military, sir?" Jack just looks at Claw then says "Yes I was Claw, served in Afghanistan from 2017 to 2020, until an ambush took the lives of my squad mates, and I got filled my body with so much metal that they never found it all. I can't go through an airport metal detector without setting it off." Claw looks at Jack and says "It looks like we both have something in common, we both served our cause and failed to protect those we hold dear." Claw smiles and says "If you give me directions to your house I can take you home." "That would be nice, I need my pain meds, the metal in my leg is starting to burn like live coals."
(PLACE CHANGE/1600HRS)
Claw was surprised to see Jack lived in a moderate log cabin on the back side of a resort mountain known as Jake's mountain. "Wow." Claw says in modest amazement as he walks inside the cabin that had 1 bedroom with a dresser and hanging rack over it, a gun rack holding a rifle, shotgun, and 45 pistol. 1 full bath, 1 full kitchen, a laundry nook, a long 5 level bookshelf, small flat screen TV complete with cable TV service, game system, and DVD player on a purpose made table with storage for the DVDs. Claw was taking it all in when he heard "I carved my life out here over the last 2 years." Claw smiles and says "Its quiet nice, but I must be leaving for the lookout." As Claw turns he hears Jack say "If you ever want to settle down, you will ALWAYS have a place here." Jacks words echoed in Claws head all the way back to the lookout.
(END SWORD OF DARKNESS-TRUE OWNER FOUND?)