.Chapter six.
I've been working for the All-stars for two orbital-cycles now and I've gained the respect of the entire team; they'll actually acknowledge me when I walk into a room. I have a sneaking suspicion that Mixx has had a hand in getting the other All-stars to like me. My duties have now been extended; Monza thought that the manager of the team, whose name is apparently Burn, could benefit from my services as well. I now help with equipment management, keeping all of the paper work in order, and cooking for the team. Mixx was kind enough to teach me how to cook some typical Triceraton meals and he was also brave enough to actually try some of the 'Earth' dishes I made.
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It was well past the team's usual curfew, but they insisted on staying up. They had won their fiftieth match today as a team and so they wanted to spend a bit of time celebrating it. I wasn't as enthusiastic about fatigue as they were and so when my bedtime came I went to bed.
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I had only been asleep for about five hours when I heard what sounded like something snuffling in the training area. I knew that it couldn't be the All-stars; they would be put straight into hospital if they so much as looked ill. I got out of bed and went to see what was going on.
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I opened my door slowly; I could still hear the snuffling. My luck that the guys weren't there and so the training area was in complete darkness. I'm not entirely fond of the dark; anything could be lurking in it that could easily see me before I could see it. Also the light switch was on the other side of the training area by the main door, so I would have to venture across the training area to switch it on. I thought maybe if I sprinted across I could beat whatever it was to the light switch, but then I remembered the large amount of training equipment in between the light switch and me.
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Suddenly I heard the sound of cans being knocked over in the kitchen unit, which was just a few meters away from my room. I decided to just walk quickly from my room across to the light switch, but I wasn't going to face whatever it was unarmed. Monza had been teaching me how to use a fighting staff and had given me one of the team's old ones that was going to be thrown out to make room for the new set that the team had received. I grabbed my staff and then opened the door. I started to walk briskly out of my room with my staff in between me and whatever it was.
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Eventually I made it to the light switch and switched the lights on. Within a matter of seconds the training area was lit up. Then I noticed that the door had claw and teeth marks on it, I can't say that that encouraged me any. I started to walk towards the kitchen unit; it was in a little alcove on the same side of the training area as my room.
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When I got to the kitchen I switched on the light and readied my staff. I looked around, but couldn't see anything. Suddenly a sausage came rolling towards me and following it was what looked like a three-headed puppy. I remembered seeing something like him at the prison, just that one was bigger. Apparently Triceraton dogs have three heads instead of one. They kinda look like a cross between a rhino, a dinosaur, and a dog. The pup put his noses next to the sausage and pushed it; he was obviously enjoying pushing it around and then chasing after it. I just smiled at him.
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Eventually he grew tired of just pushing it around and started to eat it. I knew the guys were possibly going to have a fit the next day when they discovered that he had eaten it, but the pup looked like he wasn't more than skin and bone so I allowed him to eat it. It was kinda amusing to watch this little guy eat the sausage because it was about the same size as him.
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After he had finished eating he snuffled around to make sure that there weren't any crumbs left on the floor. When he was quite satisfied that he had eaten the whole thing and that no crumbs had snuck away from him when he wasn't looking, he noticed me. He looked at me and wagged his little tail; each head had a toothy grin on it, like that of our normal pet dogs at home. (I guess on the Triceraton home world our dogs would be considered abnormal.) He walked up to me and put his front paws onto my legs. I smiled at him and crouched down. I then held my hand out to him to smell; he sniffed my hand once and then licked it. I slowly put my hand behind the middle head's right ears and scratched him there. (Triceraton dogs have two ears on either side of their heads.) Suddenly he just collapsed and stretched his middle neck up towards me just like my dog used to do when I scratched her behind her ear. The other two heads had gone down to the ground; they also looked like they were experiencing the same feelings that the middle head was experiencing while I scratched him, but they just lay there on the floor looking a bit doped. I decided to see if I could pick him up; I put down my staff and picked him up gently. He didn't seem to mind it. I cradled him like I would an Earth puppy and I guess the combination of food and being scratched got to him because he went to sleep in my arms within a trigon.
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Now I was in a bit of a 'sticky wicket'; I couldn't just leave him to fend for himself and I wasn't sure how the guys would handle having a puppy in the training area. I wasn't sure if the guys even liked dogs, but I decided to risk it for the pup's sake. He needed a home and I had one to offer… sorta. I switched off the lights in the kitchen and in the training area and then went back to bed. I let the puppy sleep next to me because I didn't have a pillow to let him sleep on.
"I've actually got to give you a name; don't I now?" I asked the pup.
Of course he didn't reply; he just snuggled closer to me. He had brown fur and yellow markings on him so I decided to choose a name that fitted his colour. Bruno means brown so I decided to call him that. Just then it occurred to me that he might actually have a home already. I decided to try to find the owner first before calling him by the name I had chosen for him because it would just confuse the poor little thing. I resolved to just calling him 'Pup' until I was certain that he didn't belong to anyone. It was getting close to morning and I had to be well rested to be able to function properly so I put my head down and tried to get some more sleep before my alarm went off. As I started to drift off, Pup put his three heads under my chin and squirmed to get a bit closer to me. I pulled the blankets closer to him and he settled down. I smiled at him sleepily and then went to sleep myself.
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The next morning, I was half-asleep while I made the All-stars their breakfast. I had left Pup in my room with the door closed to prevent him from escaping; I had also removed my fighting staff to prevent him from chewing it.
"Here you go guys. Your usual," I said, as I put their food down in front of them. I tried to stifle a yawn as I stepped back from the makeshift table that the guys had rigged up.
"You okay?" asked Mixx.
"Yeah, just a bit tired," I replied.
"Why are you tired? You went to bed before us?" asked Xiote.
"Yes, didn't you sleep well?" asked Daz.
"You could say that, Daz," I said, as I started to walk back towards the kitchen unit.
"Cal, if there's something wrong, please tell us," said Monza.
"Nothing's wrong guys, really," I replied, as I turned to look at them.
They all gave me a probing look.
"Really," I said trying to reassure them.
I could see that they didn't believe me as they went about eating their breakfast. I was waiting until after they had eaten to tell them about Pup, they were normally in a better mood then, but Pup had ideas of his own. He was a very clever puppy and was capable of opening doors, as I had found out yesterday when I found the claw and teeth marks on the main door. He had just opened the door to my room and was about to come out to see who was new here, but I saw him before he could make a run for Monza and the All-stars and pushed him back into my room with my foot. I decided to lock my door to prevent him from coming out before the guys had finished their breakfast. He wasn't happy about that and started to bang his body against the door to try to open it. I was hoping that the guys wouldn't notice, but they did.
"What's that noise?" asked Mixx, as he walked up to me with the breakfast dishes in his hands.
"What noise?" I asked innocently.
"It's coming from your room," said Daz, as he walked towards my room.
"Have you been hiding something from us?" asked Monza.
"Like what?" I asked.
"I don't know; someone perhaps." The All-stars gave me that annoying teasing look.
I returned their look with a 'don't start with me' look.
"Let's find out; shall we?" asked Xiote, as he slowly reached to open the door. They all had their eyes on me to see if I would freak out or not. I remained as cool as a cucumber; I wanted them to find out about Pup so it wasn't any major catastrophe if they did open the door.
"Aren't you going to do something?" asked Mixx.
"No," I replied, as I went into the kitchen to stack the dishes.
"Oh, come on! It's no fun when you don't react," moaned Xiote, as he brought his hand away from the lock.
"Well, open the door anyway and find out what's making that ruckus," I said, as I came back into the training area.
The guys just looked at me.
Obviously they weren't going to be opening the door unless I was going to react adversely to it so I opened the door. Suddenly Pup shot out and fell onto his side; he possibly was about to ram the door really hard when I opened it. The guys just stared at the little bundle of brown and yellow fluff on the floor. Pup got up, shook himself, sat down, and then looked up at everyone who was looking down at him. Each of his heads looked at a different All-star. The All-stars were speechless.
"He came in here last night," I said.
"How did he get in? We closed the door when we left," said Monza.
"He knows how to open doors."
Monza looked at me.
"If you don't believe me, go look at the bottom corner of the main door," I said, as Pup walked up to me. I crouched down and picked him up. Mixx walked over to me and patted Pup on his heads.
"What's his name?" he asked.
"Don't know; I was going to try to find his owner before I named him anything," I replied.
"He doesn't have a collar on," commented Daz.
"That doesn't mean that he doesn't belong to anyone," I stated.
"It does, actually," said Monza.
"Oh, how?" I asked.
"When a dog is given to a new home it receives a collar for each neck; it's against the law for a dog not to have a collar on it. Possibly this little guy is a stray."
"I would prefer to see if anyone claims him before I make any other decisions about his future, Monza."
"Fine; I'll alert some of the soldiers. They're bigger gossips than most of the females here on the home world." With that Monza started to walk towards the main exit.
"Thanks Monza; I owe you one."
"You can repay me by helping me at the weights bench in a few minutes."
"Right." I put Pup back on the floor and he barked playfully at each of the remaining All-stars while he ran around in a circle. Daz and Xiote just smiled at him, while Mixx got down onto his knees and played a bit of gentle rough and tumble with him. I decided that he was in good hands and walked off to the kitchen to do the dishes.
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Later that evening, Monza went out to check with some of the soldiers that were stationed nearby the arena if there was any word about Pup, while Daz, Xiote, and Mixx stayed with me and Pup in the training area. Mixx had found an old relay baton and was using it as a stick to play fetch with Pup.
"I hope he doesn't belong to anyone," said Mixx, as he threw the baton for Pup again.
"Why do you say that, Mixx?" I asked.
"I kinda like the little guy." Mixx picked up Pup, who had returned to him.
"We would have to ask Burn if Cal could keep him," said Daz.
Xiote and I nodded in agreement.
"Maybe we could get him to agree by saying that Pup could be our mascot," suggested Mixx.
"A cute little puppy wuppy as the mascot for the fierce Triceraton All-stars?" I asked, as I gave him a weird look.
"Well, maybe a mascot in training then; when he's older we could use him as a mascot." Mixx held Pup up as he looked at him. Daz, Xiote, and I just smiled at Mixx and Pup.
"You're hooked on that dog; ain't yah, Mixx?" asked Xiote.
"Yup," replied Mixx, happily. He cradled Pup in his arms. I think Pup was a bit tired after playing fetch for about a helate because he yawned and went to sleep in Mixx's arms.
"Aww," said the whole team and me.
"Four part 'aww'; must have been cute," said Monza, as he walked up to the group.
"Hi Monza. So what's the four one one on Pup?" I asked, as I got up and looked at him.
"He doesn't belong to anyone. There's a soldier in each family and none of them have lost a dog. So if you want him all you have to do is convince Burn."
"Right." Getting Burn to agree to anything he hadn't thought of was almost impossible.
"Don't worry about him," said Mixx.
"Why do you say that, Mixx?" I asked, as I turned to look at him.
"When he sees this little guy his heart will melt and he'll agree."
"Hopeful, ain't yah?"
"Hey, weren't you going to think of a name once you knew he wasn't owned by anyone else?" asked Daz.
"Yeah, why?" I asked.
"He's not owned by anyone so you can name him now."
"I suppose so."
"Did you have a name in mind?" asked Xiote.
"Yeah," I replied with a smile.
"What is it?"
"It's Bruno."
"Bruno," mused Mixx, "Yeah, it'll work."
Mixx was really falling in love with Bruno; it was nice to see the softer side of the All-stars every now and then.
"So when do we spring the dog on Burn?" asked Xiote.
"How about now?" asked a voice from behind us. We all turned around to see who had addressed us. It was Burn.
"Well, where did he come from?" he asked, tapping his foot.
"He snuck in here last night," explained Mixx. Burn just eyed him suspiciously.
"It's the truth, Burn," said Daz.
"You boys aren't known for lying so I'm going to believe you for now," said Burn.
"Thanks Burn," smiled Monza.
"Now, what's his name?"
"Bruno," chorused the All-stars and me.
"Bruno, nice; it sounds tough," smiled Burn.
"Does this mean you'll let Cal keep him?" asked Mixx.
"Yeah, we need a mascot. Did you know that the Yznical team is using an Yznical cat as their new mascot?"
The guys and I shook our heads.
"I was going to buy a dog to be our mascot, but it seems like this little guy has just saved us a few blecks," said Burn, as he walked up to Mixx and stroked Bruno's heads gently. Bruno didn't even wake up he was so tired.
"Monza, come with me through to the market, we need to pick up a few things," said Burn, as he started to walk away.
"Coming Burn. I'll see you guys later," said Monza, as he started to follow Burn out of the training area.
"Looks like we've got a new team mate," Mixx grinned.
"Yeah, it seems like it," smiled Xiote, as he ruffled the fur on Bruno's heads.
"At least he's got a home now," I smiled.
"I guess so. You are prepared to take care of him; aren't you?" asked Mixx, as he looked at me.
"Of course, unless you want to take care of him," I replied.
"No, I'm happy to just be his playmate."
"Right."
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When Burn and Monza came back from the market we discovered that they had gone shopping for a few things for Bruno. Being with the All-stars is possibly one of the best things that could have happened to that dog. He was given a playpen in one corner of the training area, each of the All-stars spent a good helate or so with him each day, even Burn spent a good while playing with him and training him. I was the one who had to feed, water, clean up after, and exercise him, but I didn't mind; he was a sweet puppy who learnt everything he was being taught quickly. Unfortunately my working hours were getting longer, but that's what happens when more responsibilities are given to you.