DISCLAIMER: I do not own any original BPRD characters. I just own the plot and the (many) OCs. I do not think I own Ruddy either, he has a kind of life on his own.

Thanks to Hodoo, MetalJasonMyers and Keajo for reviewing last chapter: your opinion mean very much to me.

No warnings for this chapter: there is just some more interaction between the team and Ruddy, so just some irony and black looks, and some claustrophoby at the end of the chapter.

Challenge's still up: who Ruddy really is?
The reward for anyone who guesses right is a OC specially written on demand. The answers are getting closer to the target...

Enjoy!


His captors were not so bad, after all.
They had not allowed him out of the transparent not-glass cage, but at least had given him some much needed water and information.
According to their words, they were some kind of state officials at the orders of a high-ranking governor, and their duty was to control the non-human creatures throughout the country's 50 Nomes, or States as they called them.
They had not exactly said it like that, but this was the general meaning.

Returning to the headquarters would take quite a long time, they had told him, almost a full day.
Ruddy quietly laughed at that.
"Nice headquarters you must have, in the middle of the desert. - he commented, still whispering – Not that I'd complain, I like the desert. But there is nothing else in some days worth of travel from here."
He paused briefly, musing.
"Unless one can fly." he continued with dry irony, inwardly smiling at the memory of soaring through the air with the storm.

"Yeah,- Hellboy replied – That's what we're gonna do."
He watched the expression on Ruddy's muzzle change from smug to astonished.
"What did you just say?" he said, ears pricking up.
The look on his face was priceless.
"I said that we are gonna fly home." Hellboy repeated slowly, smirking.
"How? That is not possible! - Ruddy raised his voice in disbelief, probably thinking they were mocking him – Humans do not fly. Tritons do not fly. I do not even think you can fly, demon."
"That's right. We cannot. - Abe admitted – But it not like we are going to fly on our own. We are going by plane."

"By what?"
Ruddy still could not understand.
He was starting to feel silly and he didn't like it at all.
The soldiers were talking about it as if it was completely commonplace.
"You do not know what a plane is, right?" the demon asked, mockery now clearly showing in his voice.
He felt outraged. "Do not dare to taunt me, demon..." he hissed, trying to look menacing, even if he had not power enough to do anything substantial.
"Please, calm down, Ruddy, do not be offended. – Daisy, the woman who knew Latin, interfered – And you Mr. Broom, try to tone down your irony. We do not need another fight right now." Her voice was quite commanding, maybe she was accustomed to keep people in line.
Ruddy figured she might be a scribe or a bureaucrat of some kind, maybe a teacher.
Hellboy gave her a sheepish look and shrugged, like he had always done when scolded by his terribly stern and boring tutor.
"Ok, ok." he acquiesced, hands raised in a submissive gesture.
"The two of you behave like children!" Daisy complained.
Yes, a teacher was the most probable option.

The compartment fell silent for a while.
His captors were tired, as he was, and they were not much inclined to converse.
It must be full night by now, he judged.
He wished he was still free, roaming at his will under the stars.
Silence filled the space, uneasily.
Ruddy mused about the "flying home" part for a while, trying to decipher its meaning.
Humans could fly now, by the means of a "plane", whatever that was.
It was a strange land indeed, where women wore breeches and humans could fly and wielded fantastic weapons like the "thunder staffs" and the flashing device Daisy used.
Where did his relatives drop him?
"What is this place?" he asked out, not actually loud, but enough to echo in the still air of the confined place.
"This is the USA, America, you know." the demon lazily answered.
Ruddy didn't remember any place bearing this name, but it sounded like Armorica, the north-western part of Gaul.
"Is it in Gaul or Germany?" he inquired, doubtfully.
Hellboy laughed in his face but he chose to ignore him, at least until he could seriously kick his ass.
The irritating spirit named Krauss replied in a pedant voice.
"No, it is not. " he explained with his thick German accent.
He had always thought Germanic people were barbarians with little culture but he had the impression that this spirit could bore even a Roman rhetor to death.
"In fact we are on the other side of the Ocean from there." he concluded.

This revelation rendered him speechless for a moment, mind blank in horror.
The other side of the Ocean...
He quickly regained both sensibility and speech, though, and promptly used them to bellow a long string of elaborate curses in his mother-tongue, startling everyone else in the compartment.
"What is up?" Liz the pyro said, worried.
"Here is the other side of the world! The other damned side of the damned world!" Ruddy cried out, desperate.
How would he get back when his exile ended?
How?
"The other side of the world from what?" Daisy asked.
"From home, dammit! From home." he sighed, ears drooping, slumping to the floor of his cage.
Dogs could not cry and he was really grateful that his animal form was dog enough to be subject to such a restriction or he would have done it, covering himself in shame.
He was no novice in exile but he had never been sent so far away from his relatives, from his place.
He felt rejected.

Abe was feeling quite sorry for the strange creature.
Ruddy looked so miserable now, that it was surprising he didn't cry outright. "Pray, do not let you down, Ruddy. - Abe tried to console him – Europe is not that far away. There are many ships to Germany and France and planes too."
Ruddy pricked up his ears again, attentive and interested. "Are there? And I can embark too?"
Abe did not know what to respond.
The personnel of any airways company would have a fit of hysteria if a talking dog tried to embark one of their planes.
"Absolutely..." started to reply professor Krauss, quite amused.
"...Yes, of course. - Daisy completed the sentence, quelling the Professor's protests with a commanding gesture. - But you must not harm or scare anybody on the way and you cannot travel on your own. People are not used to magical creatures anymore, so you have to act like a normal dog. Do you understand me?"

"Loud and clear, Margarita. I have to be accompanied by a human." Ruddy said. Finding a human to travel with him could prove difficult, but he had to give it a try.
"Well, the problem is solved. - he declared cheerfully, gently wagging his scorched tail - You get me on one of these planes with some human and drop me in Europe, so your American people will get no further harm from me. Easy, isn't it?"
"Well, not that easy." the demon replied.
Ruddy sighed, he knew they would not let him go just like that.
"What is the problem, then?" he asked, trying to maintain his voice calm and low.
"I'll tell ya what the problem is, doggy. – the demon explained – We could get you on a plane and get rid of you for good, but we have to get the boss' permission first."
"I see. - Ruddy pondered – But you could ask him, couldn't you?"
"Yeah, we will, when we get back to the headquarters, but I doubt he would give his consent." the demon concluded.
"Why?" Ruddy protested.
"You are dangerous and violent." the spirit cut short.
"Only when provoked" he retorted.
Krauss snorted. "But you are too easily provoked."
Oh, well... The German had hit the mark.

"And there is another problem, - Hellboy added – You wounded one of our agents."
"But it was self-defence!" Ruddy protested.
Did these Americans expect him to surrender without a fight?
"Yeah, yeah, I know, but it wouldn't make a good impression anyway. - the demon explained – And Scottie is not going to be able to use his arm for at least a month." he lamented.
Ruddy remained silent for some long moments, reformulating his strategy.
The language used by his captors had a clear German origin, maybe they had some customs in common with Germans too.
"I see. I guess I have to make good for the damage I have caused, then. - he commented – Let's make a deal: I'll offer myself as a slave to your army and I'll work for you until I have paid my debt. Is this acceptable? I have no other means of paying the wergeld for your companion." he proposed, swallowing his pride, almost choking on it.
His captors gave him wide eyes.

"Wergeld?!" Hellboy and Liz muttered, uncomprehending.
"He is offering to pay the price for Scottie's wound. It is an ancient Germanic law, dating back to pre-Roman times." professor Krauss explained, magnifying the team's astonishment.
"It will not do, Ruddy. We do not have any slaves. Slavery was abolished a long time ago in this country." Abe objected, quite unsettled.
How in hell was a dog-like creature supposed to know about wergeld?

This was Ruddy's turn to give them wide eyes, wondering how did they get anything accomplished without slaves.
Maybe they just called them with a different name.
"Slave, servant, worker, it is all and the same for me. - he replied with a not-so-subtle hint of arrogance – I'll make amends and repay my debt, I give you my word of honour."

There was another of those moments of awkward silence.
Ruddy behaved disturbingly like a very proud and conceited human.
"Thanks for the offer, doggy, but we cannot accept." Hellboy said.
"Why not?" Ruddy asked, indignantly.
"The decisional power is not completely ours, ya know. The boss always has the final word." he explained.

Ruddy sighed, discouraged.
He had really hoped to clear his position before reaching the headquarters.
"I guess I have to wait until we can contact him, then." he complained.
"It is not gonna be a long wait. - Hellboy said trying to cheer him up – We'll be home by tomorrow night."
"That's pretty fast." the creature commented, with an hint of admiration.

"You seem so eager to get back to whatever place you call home, creature. How did you get here in first place?" professor Krauss asked, suspiciously.
Ruddy outwardly froze, but his mind was racing, trying to find a suitable explanation for his presence in their faraway country.
He came out with many, one lamer than the other.
"I- I do not remember. I j-just awoke here." he stuttered, hoping really hard that lies did not show that much on his canine features.
Krauss snorted, clearly not believing him. "I think you are not telling us the whole truth."
"Leave him be, Professor. - Daisy Marsh interrupted him – I think he was illegally brought here by some wildlife trafficants."

Ruddy followed the cue, readily inventing a pitiful kidnapping story.
"Do you think I'd willingly leave my country? - he protested – I remember being home, then all went black and when I awoke I was trapped in a fence. I managed to escape to the desert and that's all." he lamented.
From the look on their faces they seemed to believe him, apart from the spirit, whose face was unreadable and whose opinion was settled.
"I just want to return home." he continued, trying his best to appear innocent and harmless.

"Hey, doggy, stop giving us puppy eyes. - Hellboy said with a laugh – You're not good at it at all."
Ruddy gave him a black look and stopped promptly, quite embarrassed.
"Let's say we believe you. - Hellboy continued with a remaining hint of laughter, eliciting a grin from Ruddy – You have to convince our boss now."
"No problem." Ruddy said, as the repetitive sound and vibrations of their vehicle gradually stopped.
"Everybody out, boys and girls! - exclaimed the jolly youth named Ash – Final stop!"
The metallic doors of the compartment opened, letting the cool air of the night in.
He breathed it deeply and inched closer to the wall of the cage, managing to look up at the night sky, clear and full of stars.
It reminded him of his scornful and stern mother, so distant and so uncaring.
He realized he missed even her.

As he was lost in meditation looking at the starry night, the team had vacated the compartment completely.
The still-unconscious Scottie had already been carried out by two strangers, probably comrades of his.
He was alone in the compartment now, locked in the cage.
They were going to get him out also, he thought.

"Good night, Ruddy." Daisy said, waving a hand in salute and walking away.
He answered with the same words and wagged his tail.
The triton waved also and followed her out of the field of his vision.
"'Night, doggy." Hellboy said, chewing his cigar and closing the doors.

Ruddy jumped to his feet, oblivious of the pain, in a fit of anxiety.
"What are you doing? Do not lock me here!" he protested, his voice bearing a hysterical undercurrent.
"I'm going to sleep, tomorrow's going to be a hard day. - the demon explained, exhalating a cloud of stinking smoke – And as for the doors, worry not, there is a hole down there for the air to get in." he pointed out.
The doors closed heavily before Ruddy could protest further, leaving him in complete darkness.

Ruddy liked darkness, but he liked the open and vast darkness of the night, not the cramped and closed little darkness of confined spaces.
He felt the walls of the compartment closing in on him, smothering him, not allowing him to breathe properly.
Panick creeped in, battling with pride as he struggled not to scream for help.

Ruddy had grown claustrophobic after his brother's tragic and gory end.
His sister thought it was his strange way of showing remorse.
He had been oblivious of this phobia for ages: he lived outdoors most of the time, in the desert, and his house didn't even have glass panes at the windows.
It was discovered a long time later, when he was locked in a sarcophagus for punishment.
Forced to immobility, he resisted for some minutes, before screaming himself hoarse, calling for help.
He behaved like an angel for a long time afterwards.

Ruddy felt dizzy and nauseous from hyperventilating.
He tried to calm himself, breathing deep and evenly, and talking himself out of his phobia.
Nothing bad was going to happen.
It was not as bad as last time: he had room to move and turn and fresh air to breathe.
He was not locked in a wooden box, nailed closed and sealed with lead.
The murky water of the river was not slowly but steadily seeping between the wooden planks...
He shook his head, trying to get rid of those morbid thoughts.
It was going to be a damned long night.


Any guess, my dear readers ? I have given you many hints in this chapter...
Any comment or suggestion?
Please review, it means very much to me.