(Same prompt as the previous piece, featuring a special guest. If you've read my short piece Bloodlines, you've met her before.)

A is for Akk Dog

Nine takes the steps up to the house two at a time.

After three weeks away she's glad to be home. It's an odd feeling, still, calling it home: their little house on the hill on Odessen, finally somewhere that's only theirs, hers and Theron's, even if they can see the structures of the base across the valley. Three weeks seems an eternity now; it was long enough in the first years when they were insufferable, probably, not wanting to be away from each other for more than a day (except for those months they don't talk about any more- the longest months of her life, even more than the five years she spent in carbonite).

But Ysa's learned three new words, Theron says, since she's been gone, and he wouldn't tell her what they were. I think she wants to tell you herself, he'd said, when you come home. Her clever girl seems to get bigger every time she turns around.

Her rucksack, stuffed full of presents, bounces against her back as she reaches the last flight, and-

A trail of muddy footprints mar the steps, big as her head with splayed claws that left shallow scratches on the stone. Some animal, she supposes, though it's odd that it got through the perimeter defense, and she could have sworn he'd said it rained last night; she would have thought the rain would have washed the mud away.

When she gets to the landing, the footprints continue through the open front door into the courtyard. It's quiet.

Too quiet. There's not much in the way of dangerous wildlife on Odessen with Valkorion gone- she hasn't seen one of the shadow creatures in years- but if they were sleeping or caught off-guard, even a single animal could-

They're probably fine.

"Theron?" She calls out, voice raised. "Theron, I'm home."

He doesn't answer and she tries not to panic. Maybe they've just gone out for a walk? She reaches under the rucksack, readying her rifle, just in case, and crosses the threshold, following the trail of footprints.

There's an akk dog in the courtyard.

Theron's nowhere to be seen when she scans quickly across the yard, although the kitchen door's open and the smell of breakfast wafting on the air toward her (eggs, she thinks, and toasted bread). The dog, a juvenile to judge by size but large enough to be a problem nonetheless, doesn't seem to be paying attention to the food; pawing at the ground and whining, its tail wriggling from side to side, it's focused on something in front of it, which is good. Akk dogs have thick hides and sharp teeth, but if she can flank it before it catches her scent she might be able to catch it by surprise.

She unholsters her rifle, taking aim as she draws level with its side until she can finally see what it's looking at and-

Ysa!

Her daughter's sitting on a blanket barely a meter from the thing's snout, looking up at it wide-eyed and curious, holding out one chubby hand toward it with a happy smile.

Oh, stars, no. She'll never down the creature with a single shot, and the moment it's wounded it's bound to strike at whatever's closest. It'll- oh, its claws are practically as big as Ysa. She's got to-

She maps it out in her head as she sets the rifle down. If she darts in quickly, scoops her up and tosses her in toward the kitchen, it might still hurt her but she could get her out of range of the akk dog long enough for her to kill it and where the Void is Theron?

Twenty steps. Twenty steps away. She starts to run.

She's ten steps away when it closes the distance between itself and Ysa, opening its mouth; she stops breathing as its tongue extends.

It licks Ysa's face.

Her daughter giggles, clapping her hands gleefully as the akk dog sniffs her, licks her face again and then makes an odd little whuff noise, folding its limbs beneath itself to settle onto the ground. She's running toward them, crying out, and finally Ysa sees her and pushes herself to her feet, using the dog's head as leverage, one hand nearly on one of its eyes but it just whuffs placidly again.

"Mama!" Ysa says, unsteady on her little legs (she's only been walking two months, for stars' sake), reaching out toward her from between the akk dog's front paws. "Doggie!"

(They'd been reading a book of animals to her at bedtime- she loved the pictures, not quite realistic, all rendered in bright colors. She can picture the first page now, the letters in Basic and Aurebesh, the drawing in red and purple, its smile wide despite sharp teeth. A, it reads, is for akk dog.

That must be one of the new words.)

She hits her knees beside them, folding her into her arms. "Yes, darling. It's a very big doggie, isn't it? But we need to-"

When she tries to lift her Ysa fusses, squirming out of her grip and reaching down for the animal until she's no choice but to let her go.

"Doggie."

The akk dog blinks at her as Ysa drapes herself over its snout and, across the way, Theron steps out of the kitchen with a plate in one hand. Seeing them, he stops, almost dropping the plate, reaching reflexively for a pistol he isn't wearing.

"It's okay," she murmurs. "It seems calm for now. We'll just have to get it outside somehow."

"I was going to ask if you'd brought it with you."

"I was going to ask you the same thing. I was coming up the stairs and saw pawprints." She takes a deep breath as he sits down beside her, setting the plate- eggs and toast pieces, as she'd guessed- on the blanket. "Force, I thought it was going to eat her."

Theron sighs. "Five minutes. I sat her down and went in to make the food- we were going to eat outside and wait for you. Five minutes. I mean, she's been babbling about dogs all week, but I figured she just wanted to play." As they both watch it rolls onto one side; Ysa starts to climb onto its flank and it-

She'd swear it just lifted up one leg to give her a boost, and its tail thumps rhythmically against the damp grass.

"Theron," she says, picking up one of the toast pieces and handing it to Ysa, who takes a bite and then proceeds to feed it to the dog, "akk dogs are Force sensitive, aren't they?"

"Pretty sure they are, yeah. Do you think-"

(Oh, they are in so much trouble.)

"I think we've got a new pet."