Chapter 6: Canis Palaestra

"Wake up… up…" The black hound licked the boy's face in anticipation. Eventually, Ciel's consciousness returned when he felt hot saliva slapping on his face. The dog barked happily when the boy stirred and groaned. The dog became happier when the boy opened his blue eyes and noticed the animal immediately.

"Oh…" He gasped. "Th-thank you!"

The dog wagged its tail. Ciel slowly got up from bed and the dog continued to beam up at him. "I'm wondering…" The boy knelt down to the dog's eye level. "What's your name? Your eyes are familiar…"

And suddenly the dog jumped at him. Ciel yelped as he was knocked down to the floor. "Oof! Well really…!" The dog seemed to have playfully knocked him down. "Let me up, boy!"

The dog barked and got off. Ciel laughed as he stroked the dog's fur…

… And the incident in the dark butcher's shop came to the boy's mind. Before he escaped the place, an animal leaped on him…

"S-sebastien…" he whispered as he remembered the strange nameplate he had stepped on. The dog's ears immediately flipped up in the sound of its name.

"Sebastien." Ciel repeated the name, more clear and loud. The dog barked and bounded up to him. "So you're Sebastien!" he said and gave the dog an embrace. "Well, hi Sebastien!"

Sebastien barked happily. Ciel continued to laugh as he embraced the animal. At last, he didn't feel alone anymore.

"You must be hungry." The boy glanced around a bit and saw a plate of food placed on the bedside table. He looked at the food and guessed that it was meant for him. The dish consisted of steak with gravy, asparagus and potatoes. But he didn't feel hungry at the moment or the appetite to do so. He placed the plate in front of the dog and Sebastien started devouring the meal immediately. Ciel watched him eagerly chomp down the meal for a while and then, he put on his boots and practiced walking around.

In a matter of minutes, Sebastian had finished his meal. "Let's play fetch!" Ciel called out to him as he ran to the door leading to the grounds.

"Play fetch?! Seriously?! After getting beat-up by some mad person, you'll play fetch? Aren't you worried that he might come and hurt you again? Shouldn't you be running away instead?! Don't leave yourself defenseless just because I'm around!"

"Sebastien!" Ciel called again. Sebastien barked in response. "Fine, fine… Coming…"

Ciel is an animal-lover, especially dogs. That is probably the reason why he decided to bond with and treat Sebastien like a pet, immediately. Though Ciel noted that he could not figure out what the dog's breed is. He could be an Alaskan Klee Kai or a Shepherd Dog or maybe a mix of both. But Sebastien was not just any ordinary canine. He was a wolf; a black wolf to be exact. Unlike the common wolves which are grey, white or red in fur color, Sebastien had jet black fur and scientists have explained that the black fur color resulted from mutation of breeding a wolf-dog hybrid. But he wasn't a hybrid at all; he IS a pure wolf, and that fact had made Sebastien bear a great pride about himself.

"Fetch!"

Sebastien refused to fetch the bright yellow ball that the boy threw. He simply refused to play like silly like what domesticated dogs do.

"Come on, boy. Fetch!"

"No." The wolf was disappointed since his companion didn't view him as a wolf. The boy had thought that he was an ordinary stray dog of sorts.

Ciel sighed. He seemed to be the one playing fetch since every time he threw the ball, he would run and pick it up again because of Sebastien's refusal to cooperate. He fetched the ball and threw it again. "Sebastien, fetch!" The wolf just sat and yawned.

"Sebastien!" The boy put his hands on his hips and directed his eyes to the animal in a serious stare. "Fetch!"

Sebastien stared back.

"Fetch!" Ciel repeated in a commanding tone and pointed his hand to the ball's direction. But still, the wolf remained stubborn.

At this point, Ciel had already ran his patience thin of playing fetch by himself for almost an hour. This time, he approached the animal and repeated his command in a firm and cold voice. "Fetch."

Sebastien stared.

"Fetch!" He bellowed with a glare in his eyes. "THAT IS AN ORDER!"

This time, Sebastien stopped being stubborn and obeyed the command. He quickly darted towards the ball like a black arrow and returned to Ciel in the same speed. Seeing the hound's immediate progress, the boy picked up the ball and threw it again. Their game continued on; Ciel didn't have to say "Fetch" and Sebastien seemed to run to the direction the ball was heading to even if Ciel hadn't thrown it yet. When the boy was satisfied and his temper had calmed down, he patted the wolf's head and embraced him tightly. "Good boy!" The boy's eyes and mood instantly changed from a domineering dictator to a lighthearted and cheerful child.

"Such an interesting show of authority." Sebastien thought amidst the boy's affection. "Ciel has an interesting beauty when he displays his rage."

"You're quite a stubborn dog, aren't you?" Ciel tapped the dog's head playfully. "Don't make me do something that harsh again."

Sebastien snorted.

"Okay, Sebastien." Ciel bobbed cheerfully. "I'll teach you some tricks I know."

"Enough with this childishness, please…" Sebastien thought dryly. But sad to say… or, howl about it in his case, his companion WAS a child.

"Sebastien, play dead!"

Fortunately, Sebastien knew the trick already. He lied down on his side and did not move or twitch; not even display any signs of his breathing. Ciel was impressed and told him to stop.

"Ok… so how about… Roll over...!"

Sebastien rolled on the ground.

"Shake?" Ciel extended his palm to him. Sebastien put his front paw accordingly.

"Eh…Sing…?" Ciel grinned mischievously. "I'm sure you can't do…"

Then Sebastien howled in various tones; he sang "London Bridge is Falling Down". The boy's grin faded and stared at the wolf in amazement. "I… I was just kidding, Sebastien. B-but… that's nice really."

Sebastien barked. "Did you really think that I can't sing?" He thought smugly.

The boy thought for a moment. If Sebastien already knew most of the tricks people teach to pets, probably somebody owned Sebastien already. But who is or was the owner of this dog?

His thoughts were interrupted when the dog nudged his nose at his arm. "Okay, enough playing." Ciel said. "Let's go for a walk."

Ciel decided to explore the castle more. Even if Ash's revelation to him that the whole castle was his, the message had a hard time to sink in to the boy's mind. He couldn't keep his overflowing curiosity go unanswered. Now that he had company, his exploration would surely be a thrilling one. "Sebastien, let's go!"

He went to the area after the first flight of stairs that led to the porch. This was the area that he had noticed when he was still wearing the silk sheet. Now that he was fully clothed and unoccupied of schedule, he ventured the area. He was about to consider the area as a plain extension when he heard the creaking sound of a swinging metal gate. He wheeled around to the direction of the sound; the metal gate was at the furthest corner of the area and, seeing that the gate led to another place, he entered through it.

The next place didn't have anything interesting to see, except for the high, looming stone walls of the castle being pronounced; and the huge pile of crumbled rocks and rubble in the place. Ciel continued on the path, but he was startled by Sebastien's sudden barking. "What is it, boy?"

Sebastien barked at the rubble; apparently, he seemed to be barking at something placed at the very top of the pile of rubble. Ciel looked up at the rubble, but he just couldn't see what was there to be aware of. "Might as well check…" He flexed his arms and legs before he started scaling the pile of rubble. As he progressed on, he managed to see the thing on the peak; it was a marionette of sorts. But he was just halfway through when he failed to grasp firmly on a narrow handhold; as a result, he roughly slid down the pile and landed ungraciously on the ground. "Shoot! And I'm already halfway…!"

Why was there a marionette on top of the rubble? Anyways, he had to get that thing no matter what so that he could think of an answer.

And then an idea popped into his head. "Sebastien." He pointed to the peak of the rubble. "Fetch!"

Sebastien ignored the command and decided to lie on the ground like a sphinx. "What use is there to get that thing anyway?"

"Come on, Sebastien." Ciel pleaded. "Fetch!" But the animal remained unresponsive.

"Sebastien!" The boy scolded with hands on his hips. "I said, fetch!"

The wolf continued to ignore him. Not because he didn't want to be ordered around like a trained dog; he was interested to see the boy's enraged face once again. Sebastien had a slightly sadistic streak in him that he liked to see humans angry and enraged. Probably the reason was, he didn't have anything to fear about or view something of great importance or give a reason why he should. Things just come and go and if he held on to something, he would just lose it in the end.

"Fetch!" Ciel repeated. But the wolf continued to ignore him. "If he obeyed my command because I was 'like that', then…"

"SEBASTIEN!" He shouted and glared at the wolf. Sebastien slightly rose up from his position and amusingly looked at the boy's angry face. "DIDN'T I SAY, FETCH?!!" Ciel sharply pointed at the top of the rubble. Sebastien barked in response. The wolf leaped on the pile and scaled it with gracious ease. When he reached the peak, he grabbed the item with his teeth and returned to the boy with a single jump from the top. He deposited the item at Ciel's feet and wagged his tail.

"Good boy." The boy calmed and rewarded the dog with another stroke by the head. "But is that how you really want to treated?"

Sebastien's tail stopped wagging. Probably the question rang inside his mind again and again…

Ciel examined the marionette closely but he realized that it didn't have anything special to do with anything. "Come on, let's go." He said to Sebastien as he went his way back to his room.

A/n: Huge flood in my country. The power and phone lines went out for a day in my place, so there's a slight delay in posting. Sebastian playing fetch. Now that's fun!

Replies:

Yana5 – Yup, it's Ash. Have a tart! (:D)

chu chu banato – Haunting Ground is a survival horror game for PS2, made by Capcom. If you want to know more about it, search it in Wikipedia or you can watch the game's playthroughs in Youtube (watch them from louischou and katrinonus). I can't type out the game's plot here to avoid spoilers. Thanks for reading!

Thank you for Sabbe-chan, xXxEisblumexXx, Heart of a Crescent, and chaos-winged-valkyrie for alerting! Many thanks!