Thirty minutes later, when all of our tempers had suitably subsided, we all sat together around my table in the back. As soon as I saw Jean Prouvaire's formidable pile of books and papers, my thoughts returned to Marius and his dog.

"Courfeyrac," I said. "Earlier Jehan was relating to me the story of Marius' dog, and he left off at the point where Marius was being dragged out of Corinthe by the creature. He said you might know what happened next."

"Oh, yes," said Courfeyrac, chuckling and sipping his wine. "I certainly do."

Jean Prouvaire let out a cry of exultation, and, after rifling about his papers, pulled out a blank sheet and a pencil.

"Alright, Courfeyrac," he said, with his pencil poised. "You can begin now."

Courfeyrac laughed again. "Oh, can I? Well, since you asked so nicely. So Marius ran out of the place, and I didn't see him for the rest of the day. That night when I went home, the door was already unlocked. I assumed Marius was there, so I just barged in. Tache greeted me with a long howl. He's got a set of lungs, that one. Anyhow, I heard Marius calling me from our bedroom, rather pitifully really, you know how he is, and I went to see him. Can you believe I found him cowering on top of the wardrobe? I exclaimed, 'Marius! What is going on?' And Marius stuttered something out, but I can't understand a word of what he says when he gets like that.

'Marius,' I said, rather sternly. Sometimes you have to be firm with him, or else he'll be sitting there stammering to himself all day long. 'Why are you sitting on top of the wardrobe?'

'It's that dog!' Marius cried. 'Look!' And the boy thrust his arm down for me to look at. It wasn't a pretty sight, let me say. He was covered in bloody teeth marks and purple bruises.

'Tache did that?' I asked him.

Marius nodded. This frustrated me quite a bit. You'd think that a full grown man would be more than a match for a puppy, but, then again, this is Marius we're talking about here."

Grantaire snorted. "It's a bit more than a puppy, I'd say."

"Silence," I said to him absently. I still was in no mood to hear out anything that miscreant had to say.

"Are you two quite finished?" Jean Prouvaire asked, uncharacteristically irritable. "I'd like to hear what happened next."

Courfeyrac took our silence as an indication that it was time to resume his tale. "I sighed, and helped Marius off of the wardrobe. Tache barked at Marius a few times, but that was it. Marius, however, was constantly wincing, as if he expected Tache to do anything to him while I was there. I washed all the blood of his arms, and then delicately suggested that it may be time for us to retire. Marius went along with it, and the two of us were asleep as soon as our heads hit our pillows. Then, suddenly, I was awoken in the middle of the night by a loud bang, and then by a howl. I sat upright in bed, and instinctively turned to Marius. But Marius wasn't there. Tache lay sprawled out in my friend's usual sleeping space. I scowled. I wasn't too happy about getting woken up in the middle of the night by a dog. I rose.

'Marius!' I called, walking around to the other side of the. I heard a groan, and presently saw Marius crumpled up on the floor. Cradling his head, he looked at me with a pained expression on his fair face. I rushed to Marius' side, and helped him up. As soon as Tache saw Marius rising up from the ground, he started to bark. And snarl. And howl. And make pretty much any other nasty noise you can think of."

"Goodness," Jehan murmured.

"Well, I led Marius away from the bed and the dog," Courfeyrac continued. "And then I asked him what happened."

'Tache must have wanted to sleep in the bed…' said Marius thoughtfully. Poor boy was starting to develop a lovely bump on the back of his head. 'I don't think he's very fond of me.'

I agreed with that.

'Well, you'll just have to sleep on the table tonight,' I suggested to him. 'Unless you want to sleep on my side of the bed with the dog.'

Marius violently shook his head. 'It's quite alright, really!"

So Marius slept at the table and I slept next to Tache.

This morning, I awoke to the sound of Tache's claws scrapping against the door. I hurried into the kitchen to see what was going on. Marius was still huddled up on the table. If he had gotten an hour of sleep that night, he could have fooled me.

'Courfey…' Marius slurred drowsily. 'Dog wants to walk.'

'He's your dog,' I replied without thinking.

'I CAN'T TAKE HIM OUT ALONE!'

I groaned. I had to attend to some business early on, so I wasn't free to mind Marius and the dog. Finally, I came to the conclusion that I could just leave them both with Combeferre. So Marius and I got dressed, and I took him and Tache over to see our friend. And I haven't seen either of them all day." Courfeyrac shrugged in conclusion.