Levi awoke to a sudden jerk.
He gasped, sitting up.
Well, he tried to sit up. He made it about half way before a rush of soreness and tight aches blocked his attempt. He collapsed back, head hitting something soft.
He picked up a distinct smell of animal and looked up to see Dog, peering down at him with familiar ice blue eyes.
"Hey girl." He breathed, bringing a sore arm up over his face. They were outside, and he felt the rumbling of the road beneath them. A horse whinnied nearby. He must be in a wagon.
"Hey Levi!" A high feminine voice sounded from above. "About time you woke up!"
He groaned. Hanji's timing, as always, fit poorly with his headache schedule.
"Hanji. Do you remember what I said last time I woke up to your shitty face?" He deadpanned without moving his arm.
"Of course not!" She said back. "You forget, I have selective memory retention. I only keep the important things up here." He could almost see her tapping her head, as she surely would be doing.
Another sharp jostle had him cursing a string of expletives.
"What the fuck shitty hell-" He glared through pain squinted eyes at the wagon he rode in. A standard wooden Scouting Legion supply wagon. "Why am I in a supply wagon?" He demanded.
"Because," She responded in a sing-songy voice as she rode alongside the cart on her horse. "Someone went missing, and when we-or Dog I should say-found you, you were in such a sorry state no one wanted to carry you back." She looked him over with amused eyes. "Honestly, I'm surprised you let those thugs give you such a beating! You should have seen how dirty you were!"
Dog huffed next to him, as if agreeing with her sentiment.
He shot her a dirty look. Don't you side with her. He thought.
Dog huffed again.
"Hang on," He paused, mind moving through mush. "Dog...found me? How?"
Hanji shrugged. "We found her and your horse tied to a tree. She went berserk like that—" She snapped her finger "—as soon as we untied her. Started rushing off into the trees."
Levi listened, trying to sort through the facts, but the words blurred through his brain, like when he first learned how to read.
"We didn't know what she was doing or where she was going," Hanji continued. "But then we found blood." She frowned, looking down at the ground. "And...well, it wasn't so fun for a minute…but then we Dog led us right to you!"
"That's...good." He mumbled.
"Sure is! And she had taken care of the men that attacked you. It was pretty gruesome by the time we got there, but the two of you were just sitting there waiting for us like a couple of kids."
So, Dog had tracked him...followed him as he had been dragged—literally—through the forest. He winced as the wagon hit another bump.
Dog lowered her head to rest on him. She breathed out, the soft puff hitting his cheek.
"You did good, girl." He whispered, weakly petting her head. Pulling her head in close, they touched foreheads together, just a man and his dog.
Unbeknownst to him, Hanji smiled at the sight and nudged her horse onward.
Dog laid herself down in the wagon bed next to him, settling her weight against the rickety wood. He felt her push up against him, constant, alive. Safe.
They once again scraped through a sticky situation, but this time he literally had no one to thank but her. She somehow single handed—or single-pawedly?—saved him from a very unpleasant future.
With his line of work, life rarely held peace and quiet. But with Dog at his side, he had a feeling things would continue to work out just fine.
He ran a hand through her fur, breathing in her musky scent.
"Thank you." He whispered, the two words holding much more meaning than normal. "Thank you."