Chapter 2
Once school was out Satoshi headed home, taking a short cut through an alley he could hear the heart wrenching sounds of street dogs fighting. Satoshi came upon three dogs, two large males and a smaller female that was no bigger than a pup. They were having a deadly face-off that would lead to a fight to the death that could end any of them. Suddenly the males leapt for the female and knocked her over, lunging for her throat. Satoshi was ready to intervene but the white female was on her feet again, she brought her sharp claws across the larger of the males muzzle and closed her jaws around one of his ears and ripped. It came off in her mouth, she snarled for good measure as the remaining dogs stared at her and they ran in the opposite direction, tails between their legs. She trotted over to Satoshi bleeding from a dozen wounds and grinned cockily as only a fighting dog could wagging her tail. Satoshi studied her; the fur was pure white, thick, and wavy. She was rather small in stature but could perhaps grow some more, and what sold Satoshi was the fact her eyes were a deep crimson.
Satoshi chuckled, "Let's get you cleaned up" he said scooping up the puppy and began to walk down the street. "I can see you have no place to stay, Sereva so you're coming with me" Sereva licked Satoshi's cheek and curled up in his arms. Satoshi petted her head, climbed the stairs to his apartment complex, and let himself in. Immediately Satoshi began to bandage Sereva, he selected rolls of gauze and antibiotic spray.
Sereva sat still and let Satoshi clean and dress the wounds even though it was obviously painful, then Satoshi led the way into the kitchen to get some food for them. Sereva limped after him wagging her bandaged tail hopefully with a pitiful look in the eye not covered by a gauze patch. Satoshi smiled and pulled some left over noodles out of the fridge and put them in the microwave for them to heat up. Sereva nuzzled Satoshi's ankle and flopped down onto his foot. When the food was finished, Satoshi divided it, with a little more for Sereva and set both portions on the table. Sereva jumped into a chair and returned to her human form.
Once again, Sereva's blinding white curls greeted Satoshi, as well as the bandages that stretched covering her human features. "Thank you Satoshi", Sereva whispered with her head lowered, "You know you don't have to do this, it's not a problem for me to live alone" Satoshi shook his head, "And leave you on the street? No, I can not do that, I don't like living alone, you wouldn't either besides we can help each other out" he said with a grin. Sereva grinned back, "I'll stay, if I can cook, clean, keep my job, and help you with anything beyond that" Satoshi nodded and picked up his chopsticks, Sereva mimicked him and nibbled her noodles until they were gone.
Once Sereva cleaned the kitchen she inquired about taking a shower, Satoshi showed her the bathroom and returned to the living room to do some more research. About 30 min. later Sereva reappeared in the living room wrapped in a fluffy white towel, no bandages, bleeding anew, and Satoshi's wide toothed comb in her hand, hair dripping onto the towel, "Can I use this?" she asked holding up the comb.