The Puppy

Chapter Four

A/N: A new chapter…finally. Sorry it's taken me so long, I've been quite busy lately. Anyway, enough of my rambling…I hope you all enjoy this chapter (I tried to make it longer…)!

The past few days had been very long, just as Renning had predicted. They seemed to drag on and on. Renny got into lots of trouble during this time. His new favorite activities seemed to be digging holes in the duke's gardens, waking Renning up at all hours of the night, growling at the servants, and his favorite, barking.

But these were pretty normal activities for a dog his age, so Renning thought nothing of it.

Today, Renning had a little break from caring for Renny. At least for a few hours he would. Amanda had dropped Lucia, Elincia, and Geoffrey off to play with him for a while. Of course, this was supervised…by Count Bastian…if you can consider that supervision at all--but at least Renning was getting to rest.

Renning decided to spend this time taking a nap. He laid sprawled out on the couch with his eyes closed, dreaming. That is, until he heard the most awful sound… Renny was howling louder than ever…Renning thought his eardrums would bust in an instant.

So he covered his ears and walked into the room where the puppy was. The sight he saw would have been utterly hilarious, if it hadn't been for that horrible noise.

Renny was wearing a coral dress and Luciaand Elincia were trying to tie matching bows in his hair. He was howling all the while. Renning wondered how the girls could take the noise.

"Umm…girls…"

"Oh, hi, Uncle Renning!"

"What are you doing to Renny?"

"We're playing dress up!"

"With Renny?"

"Yeah!"

"Where are Bastian and Geoffrey?"

"We tied Geoffrey up in the closet and locked Bastian outside."

Amazing that four and five year olds would even think of that, the duke thought to himself.

"Maybe we should go get them now."

"No!"

"Umm…"

"They're sooo boring!"

"I know, but…"

"Ahh, fear not little ones! I have returned!"

"No, not Bastian…he's worse than Geoffrey!"

"Girls!"

"Sorry, Uncle Renning…"

"Anyway, Bastian…how did you manage to get in?"

"I shall enlighten you, my lord… While I was wandering outside in my plight to acquire entrance to the castle, I happened upon one of your dutiful servants, who quite oddly had key to your palace!"

"Umm…okay…whatever you say."

"Well, my time here is up, so I shall now take my leave of you, and your darlings nieces."

"Okay…nice seeing you again, Bastian…"

"Ahh, the pleasure is all mine. We shall meet again, I am sure… Elincia…Lucia…"

And so it was that Bastian took his leave of them, leaving them all quite confused.

"Uncle…did you understand a single word out of his mouth?"

"No, I'm afraid not."

"Hehe. He is such an odd man."

"Well, I will see you two later…"

"Okay, Uncle Renning."

"Don't get into too much trouble."

"We won't!"

"Yeah! You treat us like we're little kids!"

"…You are…"

"But I'm a princess!"

"And I'm her dutiful assistant!"

"Dutiful…heh…didn't Bastian say that, my dear?"

"Oh no! I don't want to sound like Bastian! I don't want to, I don't want to!"

"Hehe, Lucia calm down. You can be so childish sometimes!"

"Elincia, I don't care if you are a princess, you will not talk to me like that!"

"I can talk to you however I want to!"

"No you can't!"

"Yes I can!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"Cannot!"

"Can too!"

"GIRLS!!"

"Yes, Uncle Renning?"

"Will you PLEASE quit arguing?!"

"Fine…"

"Now, girls, I am going to finish my nap, and I don't want you two to disturb me!"

"Yes, Uncle Renning."

"Good. Now I'll see you two later."

So Renning left the two girls with their puppy.

"Hehe, he forgot about Geoffrey!"

"Now he'll have to spend his whole life locked in the closet!"

A/N: I just realized that in this story I've been portraying Renning (and now Bastian) as the age they were in RD, but Lucia, Elincia, and Geoffrey are younger. Oh well, I guess…

Also, I have no idea where I'm even going with this fic, so it may take me awhile to update, since I'll have to think of some ideas.