A Tale of a Terrier

Chapter three: Family Conflicts

Scamp and Angel were still talking with Devil watching them from the wall beside them as Scamp talked about how boring house pet life would be. "I'm telling ya Angel, the house pet life would be terrible. They'd shove rules in your face and never let you do anything you wanted to do. They'd actively TRY to make you bored."

Angel scoffed with a smirk on her face, feeling like Scamp was just exaggerating the whole thing. "Cmon dude. No family would want their kids to be bored." Scamp raised an eyebrow to Angel, who then sighed with discomfort and opened up to Scamp. "Believe it or not, in the short time I've been around, I had FIVE families." Scamp was surprised to hear that with Angel then ranting about all the times she left. "Every time I got kicked out they either had a baby or someone had an allergy or whatever. I lost my parents soon after my birth, so I couldn't turn to them."

Scamp felt bad for Angel as she continued to talk about what she went through. "Then I met Devil. He saw how down I felt and he offered to let me live with him and his junkyard dog friends. I've been living with them for at least a month, and I owe a lot to Devil for helping me when I needed it. The junkyard dogs aren't exactly my ideal family, but they can be cool. I like Mooch, and Ruby's kinda cool once you get past her weird puppy love thing."

Scamp was glad to hear that, knowing that Angel had to know a lot more about Ruby than he did. "Five families. And I thought ONE would be too much." Scamp then thought to himself about how he left his family. 'And to think I left my family by choice.' Scamp decided to keep the conversation going, knowing that Angel was getting bummed out by the lack of speaking. "So. Buster said you're his girl. (Angel flinches) I take it he's delusional."

"As much as they come. I'm not his girl, and I never will be." Angel stated, and then something came to her mind, causing her to jump in front of Scamp with concern. "Buster! You can't tell him. Devil may call the shots at the junkyard, but Buster would do whatever it took to kick me out if he knew I wanted to live with a real family."

"Even kill you?" Scamp asked, leaving Angel fearful as she nodded her head yes. This led to Scamp smiling to calm her down and speaking softly at the same time. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me. You can count on it." Angel was glad to hear Scamp say that as he then said two final words to cement it as fact. "I promise."

Devil smiled upon seeing the two getting along so well, only to then see a light for a train coming on the tracks. He immediately took action upon seeing this and called down to Scamp and Angel. "Hey you two!" Scamp and Angel looked up to see Devil on the fence, wondering what he was doing up there. "I hate to cut the conversation short, but I think a train's comin' to turn you into track-kill." Scamp and Angel looked back to find the train coming after them, running as fast as they could as soon as they saw it. Scamp looked back again and knew they wouldn't be able to outrun it.

Scamp looked down and saw a river that looked deep enough to jump into, grabbing onto Angel and diving in with her, much to her surprise. Devil jumped onto the train and looked down, diving down himself while cheering with excitement. Scamp and Angel rose up as soon as Devil landed in the river himself, allowing him to rise up and laugh as he commented on the situation. "You really are a quick thinker for a kid Scampy. You're like me without the accent."

Devil laughed a bit more with Scamp and Angel laughing as well, leading to all three of them laughing together as they went up to shore with Angel speaking up first. "Thanks for the save, but make sure to warn me next time you do something like that."

"So long as you LIKE running from trains." Scamp replied, making Angel see his point as Devil snickered a bit, catching Scamp and Angel's attention. "I'm guessing you heard what we were talking about. How does someone at Angel's age have five families in the span of a few months?"

Devil shrugged, not sure how to answer that as he then saw a firefly go by him and making him laugh a bit upon seeing it. "Now that's a pretty sight." Scamp and Angel saw more fireflies coming around all three of them, leaving them both amazed by the sight of it. Neither one of them had seen anything like this before, and it made them want to remember this night for as long as they possibly could. Devil could see how engaged they were, sitting next to Scamp and joining them as they watched the fireflies moving around and showing off their beauty.

Scamp, Angel, and Devil were all having a great time together with Devil scooting a bit closer to Scamp and Angel leaning her head on his shoulder. Scamp smiled upon both of these events happening and watched as the fireflies made a heart surrounding the three of them. They found this to be beautiful with Scamp wondering what it meant. Devil saw he was confused and nudged him a bit, leading to Scamp smiling and speaking up. "No reason the night should end now. Let's explore the town. All three of us."

Angel and Devil took a liking to that with Angel speaking up about it, knowing that hanging out with the two of them was some of the best time she could imagine. "Yeah. I'd like that. I've never seen much of the town at night, and why not check it out with my two best friends?" Scamp gave a smile that said 'my point exactly' with Devil smirking as he looked at the Terrier, much to his delight as he blushed softly. The three friends ran off into the night, ready to see what the town had in store for them when it was nighttime, and they would usually be sleeping.

Scamp, Angel, and Devil were all exploring the town with Scamp singing over the scene with intense passion in his voice as romantic music started playing. This was when he started the song, I didn't know that I could feel this way. "I've never had this feeling before. (Scamp starts to check Devil out, making him growl flirtatiously and having Scamp blush as he looks away) They give me shakes and shivers (Scamp and Angel look at each other and then blush when they look away) I can't ignore; (Scamp spots a trio of apples in a tree) and I see that, (Runs up to the tree) there's more now, (Tries to climb the tree to get the apples) then just, (Only gets one of the apples down) running free."

Angel started singing herself as Scamp rolled down the hill with the apple he got. "I've never felt my heart beat so fast. (Angel licks Scamp's face, making him smile) And thinking of him first and of myself last; (Devil cuts the apple into thirds with his claw, impressing Scamp and Angel) and how happy, I want him, to be."

Devil then started singing as they all enjoyed their thirds of the apple, looking at Scamp with intrigue in his eyes. "I've never felt like this until now. (Devil gives a genuine smile to Scamp, who smiles back as they all finish their apple thirds) I care for someone more than myself now; (Devil gives Scamp a daring look, making him run after the Blue Heeler as he dashes off, which led to Angel chasing after both of them) even if he, doesn't end up, with me."

"It's amazing," Scamp continued the song, going over the bridge with Angel as the two chased Devil down. "Someone in my life, (Goes through a bush) just might be loving me." Scamp's head popped out of the bush with Devil looking at him and snickering a bit, and Angel also laughed a bit when she came out. Scamp saw the flower on his head and shook it off with a laugh himself. "I didn't know that I could feel this way."

"It's so crazy," Angel continued as Scamp started catching the fireflies in his mouth. "something in my life, (Flies surround Scamp and make a collar) is better than, (Scamp smiles with the fireflies glowing in his mouth) a, dream. (Angel laughs at Scamp's humorous joke) I didn't know that I could feel this way."

Scamp spit the fireflies out with Devil continuing the song himself as a Blue Heeler's paw was shown giving Scamp a firefly flower. "Hard to believe, (Devil is shown giving Scamp a flirtatious smile) this dude in my life, (Scamp smiles and accepts the flower) awakened these feelings, in, me. (The fireflies flew off, making Scamp and Devil laugh as they looked at each other with the feelings rushing through their veins) I didn't know that I could feel this way."

Angel barked over to Scamp and Devil playfully to signal them to follow her, which they did, running past a heart with an arrow going through it that Lady and Tramp made so long ago. "They make me warm and happy inside."

Angel sang the next line as the trio came up to Tony's restaurant. "He smiles and I get dizzy and starry eyed."

Devil then sang the next line as Tony recognized the three dogs out by the door. "All these feelings, I have, have me asking, can this be love?"

Scamp sang the next line to showcase that he was the one who had feelings for Devil. "Can this be love?"

Angel sang the next line as a plate of spaghetti was shown on a table outside. "It's crazy."

Scamp, Angel, and Devil all started singing together for the next line in the song. "I can hardly speak, whenever (Scamp) they say, (Angel and Devil) he says, (All of them) hi."

Scamp was about to dig in to the meal as he then saw Angel and Devil giving him flirtatious looks as Angel sang. "I didn't know that I could feel."

Scamp then sang next as he moved a meatball over to them with a smile. "I never dreamed that I could feel."

Devil gave a hungry looking smile as he looked at the food that Scamp touched. "I never felt that I could feel."

Scamp, Angel, and Devil all started digging in as they all finished the song. "I didn't know that I could feel thiiiiis..." Scamp saw some food on Angel and Devil's faces, licking it and smiling as the three of them sat together and looked at each other with smiles of amazement. "waaay." Scamp, Angel, and Devil were all shown to be wagging their tails with amazement as Scamp started to feel more comfortable with these feelings that he was originally confused about.

Jim Dear put up a poster that had a picture of Scamp on it with Lady talking to Jock and Trusty about the luck they had with finding him. "It's alright, should will have time to find him tomorrow. Thanks again for helping us."

"Of course." Jock replied, knowing that Scamp wouldn't be his safest out there by himself. "I hope the little scamp is okay, no pun intended."

Lady smiled with gratitude towards Jock and Trusty as she walked off, showing concern as she walked up to Scamp. "I just don't know what to do Tramp. I never thought it'd get this far."

"Yeah, because chaining him to a doghouse wasn't going to be his breaking point." Annette chimed in with sarcasm, leading to an eyebrow raise with Lady with Annette finishing her statement. "I'm just saying, no dog should be chained up, or sent to obedience school. Thank goodness Jim Dear said no to the second one."

Collette was cleaning some mud off of Danielle, annoyed by what her method of looking for Scamp was. "I can assure you Danielle, Scamp wouldn't be able to get underground unless someone put him down there. He's not a gopher."

"Funny. I seem to remember Danielle burrying a bone in the same spot she was digging." Tramp stated with a sly grin.

Collette gave a blunt look to Danielle, making her chuckle nervously as she spoke up. "I got sidetracked."

Scamp, Angel, and Devil were walking around town with all three of them having had an amazing time together. Scamp especially had a great time, and was staring to get why he felt the way he did with both Angel and Devil. "Tonight was probably the best night I've ever had in my life. I've never seen the town like this before. So much life. So much to do and to see."

"That's the world for ya." Angel admitted, having seen a bit of it herself in her travels. "In between my family moves, I've seen quite a bit of what the world had to offer. Protest groups, video game conventions, I even saw an orphanage once. (Smiles) I made this little girl smile when I wagged my tail upon seeing her. A part of me wishes we were still together."

Scamp started to feel regret about something with Devil taking notice, leaving Scamp to speak up as he walked off. "I'll catch up with you guys. I gotta do something." Scamp ran off and left Angel and Devil looking concerned for him as he did. Scamp's family was shown walking down the sidewalk as they stopped outside of someone's house to hang more posters, only for Scamp to lure Annette over to him with a rock. She walked over to him, and Scamp failed to notice Angel and Devil watching him from afar. "Annette, I know what you're thinking, just let me explain."

Annette kept her voice down as to not alert her family too soon, feeling that Scamp wouldn't have run away without a good reason. "Explain what, that you bailed on us so you could live your precious wild dog life? Look Scamp, I know you were mad at dad, but you didn't have to bail on us."

"You don't get it Annette." Scamp insisted, not wanting to cause his sister to hate him. "I just can't live in a family (Angel is shown with a look of shock at Scamp's lie) that doesn't let me live life and experience it. (Devil shows a look of intrigue) I love you guys, but I think I work best out here."

"I figured you'd think that. Especially since you said, (Mocks Scamp) Dad, sometimes I wish you would just disappear so then I could just do whatever I wanted!" Scamp covered Annette's mouth with the Terrier being relieved that he wasn't discovered by anyone else. He looked at Annette with compassion, leaving her to speak up about what's been going on. "The family's doing fine, but we've been worried sick about you. I won't force you to come home, but I at least want you to reconsider this. We're your family Scamp. We only want what's best for you."

Angel was shown to be furious at Scamp lying to her, leaving Devil to back up into a bush to allow them to speak alone when Scamp was done. "I don't want you out of my life Annette. I just need more life to live."

Annette could empathize with Scamp in that regard, knowing how often he got bored with the lack of activities around this place. "I won't tell them I saw you. I just hope you come home to us again."

Scamp and Angel embraced one another with Scamp going back into the bush and leaving Annette to go back to the others. "Wow. Annette's never been sympathetic to my constant boredom before. She must've known I wanted her and the others to be safe. If only she knew what would happen if Buster found out Tramp was our father." Scamp looked at his family again, not wanting them to get hurt. "Would going home be enough to prevent them being hurt?"

Scamp walked out of the bush and was about to go back to Angel and Devil, only to notice the former in front of him, giving him a look of anger with the feeling of betrayal. "Well now. I stand up for you when Buster gets in your face, and you lie to me. (Walks up to Scamp) Why did you keep this from me?"

Scamp felt immense remorse for lying to Angel, having wished he was in a position where he could've told her the truth. He showed this guilt clearly as he began speaking. "Angel. I'm sorry." Angel was surprised to see Scamp start off with the apology, and then he went into the reason as to why he lied. "I wanted to tell you, I just got scared when I thought about Buster snapping that twig in front of me. I felt that if we ended up talking about it with him spying on us, the worst would've went down, and we might've not been able to see each other again."

Angel saw Scamp's point, knowing how violent Buster could be, and even admitting it to Scamp. "Yeah, you're not the first one he managed to bring fear too."

"And it's not just for me, but for you too." Scamp revealed, giving Angel even more of a surprise as he went into detail. "I know Buster's delusional and thinks you're his girlfriend or something, and if he found out about you keeping my secret from him after finding it out, he wouldn't have let you off easy. He practically threatened to kill me if I was Tramp's son; I couldn't even bare to think what he'd do to you." Angel started to show empathy for Scamp, realizing what he was trying to do. "Devil can defend himself against Buster. We can't. I'm sorry Angel."

Angel walked up to Scamp and licked his cheek, surprising him as she showed him compassion. "I don't approve of being lied to, but I can tell what you said was genuine. And you can count on me to keep your secret as well."

Scamp smiled upon hearing that, walking across the street with it then revealed that Devil was watching them the whole time. Devil was more than happy to see that Scamp and Angel were still on good terms while still seeing a chance for fun. "And yes Angel. I knew the entire time."

"You mean that Scamp used to live with Tramp himself?" Angel asked, leaving Devil to nod his head yes with a devilish grin on his face. "Then why didn't you say anything?"

"There was no satisfying rewrite that DIDN'T lead to you discovering the truth." Devil revealed, breaking the fourth wall as the trio decided to just continue looking around the town for a bit. "Anyway, I believe there's still a landmark or two we haven't seen yet." Buster's shadow was shown spying on the trio and showing a furious look. "Let's find them before we miss our sleep schedule."

Scamp was sitting on the edge of a bridge as he looked into the pond, showing all of the confusion he's been feeling lately with his expression. As he continued to ponder, he heard Devil's voice from down below. "Still figuring it out?" Scamp looked to find Devil jumping up to the bridge ledge and sitting next to him. "I had trouble with that too when I first started thinking about it."

Scamp was a bit confused about what Devil meant, and then noticed that Angel wasn't there with him. "Where's Angel?" Devil pointed to Angel with his thumb, and she was currently using the bathroom on a tree. "Oh, okay." Scamp then went back to what Devil commented on. "What do you mean 'still figuring it out'?"

"Your alignment in the genders you prefer romance wise." Devil stated, making Scamp flinch as Devil then assured him that it was alright. "It's perfectly normal dude. No one knows their orientation as soon as they're born. (Puts paw on Scamp's shoulder) Plus finding people into the same gender as them is a pretty common thing nowadays, so you won't be looked down upon for having a crush on me."

Scamp flinched upon hearing that as he then cleared up the rest of his current feelings. "That's the problem though. If I KNEW I was into boys only then I wouldn't have any problem with it. But I also feel like I'm into girls, and I don't know which one I'm more interested in. It's almost as if my heart wants to scream in my ear that I have to get it together and figure it out!"

Devil started laughing at how seriously Scamp was taking the scenario, leaving Scamp dumbfounded as Devil gave him a sly grin. "There are a few ways you can figure it out for yourself. For example. (Looks at Scamp) I dare you to kiss me."

Scamp was surprised by this dare, not sure if he should go through with it, or back out while he had the chance. "Say wha?"

"You heard me Scampy. Kiss me." Scamp saw that Devil was serious and kissed him without hesitation when walking closer to him. The kiss lasted for about three seconds and Scamp felt amazing when it happened, backing up a bit with Devil smiling with proudness. "Dang! You're hardcore Scamp! Now we can go find Angel and tell her she doesn't stand a chance."

Scamp saw Angel walking over to the two of them with a smile, but Scamp could tell she was thinking about something. They jumped down with Devil pumping his fist before joining the two of them as Scamp made a joke to lighten up Angel's mood. "That was a pretty long pee. You sure it wasn't blood?"

"Shut up dude!" Angel said while laughing and playfully shoving Scamp, leaving Devil to snicker a bit due to Scamp saying that without a care in the world.

Angel was hanging out in her den with Scamp walking over to it and seeing her playing with a tennis ball. When she noticed Scamp, she set the tennis ball down with Scamp starting the conversation. "I guess you saw me kiss Devil."

Angel blushed a bit, not wanting to be too obvious about the situation, but she also didn't wanna tell an obvious lie. "Yeah, I did."

Angel allowed Scamp to join him as the two of them looked at the stars above, finding them to be beautiful with Angel bringing up what Scamp felt there. "I noticed you jumped right in there. I guess you really wanted to do it."

"Yeah, but that was just Devil being Devil, at least from what I know from the past two days; it didn't mean anything." Scamp assured Angel, feeling that it was just a dare kiss. "He dared me to do it, and I'm a daredevil, no pun intended, so I did it."

Angel had a question in mind for Scamp, hoping she wouldn't come across as rude for asking it. "It's fine if you are Scamp, but...are you gay?"

Scamp was surprised by this and instantly rejected the idea. "No I'm not gay! But, I don't think I'm straight either."

Angel saw an opportunity and took it, walking up to Scamp and putting her paw under his chin. She then brought him in for a three second kiss, leading to Scamp feeling the same emotions he did when he kissed Devil. When Angel saw this, she smiled and commented on what she thought the case was. "Maybe you're both."

Scamp thought for a moment and figured that was it, but also knew that he needed a proper thing to call it if it. "Yeah. That sounds about right." Scamp looked up at the stars, not sure if he would find out what being both gay and straight meant. "I wish I knew what to call it. If I'm lucky my family won't mind explaining it to me."

Angel looked up at the stars with Scamp as she spoke up about what she thought in regards to the situation. "If you want my opinion, after seeing the talk you had with your sister, I think your family would support you." Scamp smiled upon hearing that with him and Angel having a quiet moment as they looked up at the stars. They didn't know what to expect from tomorrow, but whatever test came up, Scamp would be ready for it, and Angel would be ready to help him through it.

Scamp and Angel were lying down with Angel's butt in front of Scamp's face, which Devil caught sight of upon arriving at Angel's den. Angel suddenly cut a five second fart and blasted Scamp with a yellow cloud (phhhhhhhhhht), making him smile as he got hit with the scent of rotten eggs from her rear end. Devil gave a sly grin and grabbed Scamp's butt after checking it out, waking him up as Devil gave him a playful taunt. "You have your saucy fun tonight Scamp?"

Scamp tried to come up with an excuse as Angel woke up, not really having the best one in mind. Actually, his excuse barely had anything to do with what Scamp and Angel did last night. "Angel wanted to fart on me while we were sleeping?"

Angel snickered a bit with Devil shrugging and leaving the den as he looked back at Scamp and Angel. "Cmon dude. Your next test is today." Scamp and Angel looked at each other and laughed a bit before Angel got a whiff of her fart, being quite proud of it as she and Scamp walked off to see what Scamp's test was.