A Human Among Dalmatians: By LukasLazzyy

Chapter 3: First Encounters

Startled by the sudden voice, I turned around to the source to see, just a few feet away from me, were two Dalmatians starring at me with puzzled expressions. One of the dalmatians had the usual white fur with black spots, one of its ears was black with white spots. This dalmatian also wore a purple and green collar with a rectangular shape attached to it. I also noticed that this dalmatian appeared to have eyelashes, so I assumed it was a female.

The other dalmatian had a much more chubbier body structure and like the dalmatian that accompanied it, this dalmatian also had the usual white fur with black spots, but the difference with this one is that most of the rear half of its body was black and it wore a dark blue and yellow collar.

As I continued to look around, wondering where the voice had came from, something unexpected happened...

"I'm not sure, Delilah. But whatever it's doing, I doubt it's anything good, you know how humans can be sometimes."

No, surely that didn't happen, surely one of the dalmatians didn't just speak fluent English, I must be hearing things.

"Well, this one looks friendly." The female dalmatian, who I assumed was called Delilah, replied.

What the hell was going on? How were these dogs able to talk? As they continued talking amongst themselves, I was just left speechless as I tried my best to come up with a reasonable explanation as to how these dalmatians had the ability to speak with human voices. My stunned expression must've been noticeable as Delilah pointed it out to the other unnamed dalmatian.

"Uh, why is it looking at us like that?" She asked.

Finally finding my voice, I spoke out. "You... you can talk?"

The two dalmatians fell silent when I said that, as if they were unable to believe what had just happened. "Wait, you can understand us?" The male dalmatian said confused.

"Doug, this is amazing. We've never met a human who can understand us." Delilah said happily, putting a paw around the male dalmatian, who I now knew was called Doug.

"How is this possible?" Doug asked.

"I could ask you the same thing." I suddenly blurted out.

"Okay, okay." Delilah said while putting her paws out as if she was trying to defuse the current situation. "Let's all just calm down." She then turned towards me. "So human, what are you doing here?"

"Well, I got invited to come here by someone named Dodie Smith." I explained, calming down a little as I approached the dalmatians. "Do you happen to know who she is?"

Delilah's face lit up as she explained. "Oh she's an eccentric billionaire and she left us her house to go live on some private island, without us." She mumbled that last part.

"Well welcome to Camden, Human." Doug said formally. "My name is Doug Dalmatian and this is my lovely wife Delilah." He then gestured to Delilah, who was blushing from his compliment.

"What's your name?" Delilah asked.

"My name is Lukas." I replied with a smile. "It's nice to meet you Doug and Delilah, I guess."

"Nice to meet you too, Lukas." Doug said, before an idea seemed to come to him. "Say, would you like to come inside and meet our family? They're a rather rowdy bunch."

"Sure." I replied as I pointed at the house in front of us. "Is this your house?"

"Yep, come inside." Doug said happily as the three of us made our way back up the stairs at in front of the front door, but before Doug opened it, he turned to me. "You might want to take cover."

"Why?" I asked.

I was soon about to have that question answered, as soon as Doug opened the door and called out. "We're home!" He was literally dog-piled by at least a hundred small dalmatian pups as they all hugged him as Delilah laughed quietly to herself. Judging by how calm the two were being, I assumed that this happened often.

"Whoa guys, make room for our guest." Doug called out, referring to me.

The moment he said that, all the dalmatian pups turned to face me with looks of confusion as they all stopped hugging Doug and soon began surrounding me.

"Uh, who's the human?" One of the dalmatians asked.

"Guys, we'd like you to meet Lukas." Delilah announced as if she was announcing a new Iphone. "He's visiting Camden."

"Hi." I said nervously, giving everyone a shy wave.

Soon, the dalmatians began bombarding me with greetings, welcoming me to their neighborhood as they told me all their names. I would love to tell you them all, but there was just so many dalmatians talking at the exact same time, it was near impossible to get a name out of the amount of voices speaking at once.

"Told you they were a rowdy bunch." Doug whispered to me.

"And that's not all." Delilah added. "Lukas here is actually able to understand us."

All the dalmatians let out a surprised gasp. "Really?" Asked one of the dalmatians.

"That's right." I replied, shocking them all.

Then, one of the dalmatians stepped up. This dalmatian had white fur and tiny black spots, the spots around his cheek resembling freckles. Unlike most of the other dalmatians, his tail was completely black. He wore a blue collar with orange spots, it reminded me of a type of molecule.

"According to my calculations, the chances of a human able to understand us is roughly 000000.21%" He explained, making me assume he was some type of science nerd.

"Wait, what's that in his ear?" One of the dalmatians called out, pointing towards my ear.

I was confused at first, but then I immediately knew what that dalmatian was talking about. I put a hand to my left ear as I felt the earpiece, this must've been what had giving me the ability to understand them.

"Oh, this is an earpiece device." I explained. "I think it causes me to understand you."

"Wow, that's incredible!" The nerd dalmatian exclaimed.

"Dolly, how many times do I have to tell you to stop skateboarding in the house?!" A male voice groaned in frustration, it seemed to be coming from upstairs.

"Do you want the long answer or the short answer?" A female, raspy voice replied.

"Dolly, Dylan!" Doug called out. "Come and say hi to our guest."

After a moment, two more dalmatians showed up on top of the stairs. One of them, who looked to be a girl, had long, floppy ears and the parts above her paws were black, resembling socks. This dalmatian also wore three collars around her neck, one blue, one orange, and one light blue.

The other dalmatian was the same height as the girl dalmatian. One of his ears was black with white spots which I thought gave him a cool look. He also wore a red collar with a star hanging on it.

As soon as the two dalmatians laid eyes on me, their faces instantly went into looks of confusion.

"Uh, who let the human in?" The dalmatian, who I assumed was called Dolly, asked as both her and the other dalmatian, who I assumed was called Dylan, walked down the stairs, joining the group,

"Dolly, Dylan, say hi to Lukas." Doug announced the same way Delilah did.

"What's the point?" Dolly asked disappointingly. "You know humans can't understand us."

"Well this one can." I replied, leaving both Dolly and Dylan shocked.

"Wait, you can actually understand us?" She said in disbelief.

"But the chances of humans understanding us is like, 000000.21%" Dylan said.

"That's what I said." The nerd dalmatian added in.

"I know this is a lot to take in, everyone." Delilah began, and she wasn't wrong with that statement. "But let's all try to make Lukas feel welcome."

All of the dalmatians cheered as they all promised to do just that, but as they were all cheering for me, I took a small glace at Dolly, who was sitting nearby with her front paws crossed, looking at me suspiciously, almost like she didn't trust me. Guess I'll have to talk to her later.

Either way, I can tell this was going to take a while to get used to...

I was shocked when I found out that these dalmatians didn't have any human supervision and were living by themselves. Delilah did explain earlier that Dodie Smith left them her house to go live on an island, so was she their original owner? Why did she decide to leave them and have no one to look after them? Did she think they were capable of being by themselves? I would have to ask them about that later, for now, I decided to get to know the dalmatians better. One of the dalmatians, who was named Da Vinci, showed me her countless paintings and expressed her love for art, which made sense considering that she shared the name of a famous Renaissance artist. Another dalmatian, who was named Diesel, told me about how much he loved to dig, and seeing that he had dirt on him, he didn't even have to show me to prove his point.

As I spent more time with the dalmatians, I was still unable to fully comprehend the fact that I now have the ability to understand dogs, but then again, I guess it's a good thing that I can understand them, otherwise this visit wouldn't be as exciting if there was no one else around to talk to besides dogs who would only bark. Suddenly, my stomach began growling, I realized I hadn't really eaten anything all day and my stomach was begging to be fed, but before I could find the kitchen, I felt something tapping on my leg. I looked down to see Dolly starring up at me with that same distrustful glare she had earlier.

"Oh hey Dolly." I said warmly. "I've been meaning to talk to you."

"About what?" Dolly asked skeptically.

"Well." I began, kneeling down to her. "I can't help but feel like you don't trust me, is that correct?" Dolly nodded as I continued. "Well, I just want to let you know that I come in peace, I'm not going to capture any of you or something, I just want to explore around this place."

Dolly's distrustful expression soon changed as she let my words sink in. "Alright Lukas." Dolly eventually said. "I'll trust you for now."

"Thanks Dolly." I replied, standing up as Dolly walked away.

Dylan, who seemed to overhear the conversation, approached me with a knowing smile. "Don't mind her, Lukas. Dolly can sometimes be like that."

'It's okay Dylan, it's not her fault." I responded, before my stomach growled again, reminding me of what I was originally going to do before my conversation with Dolly.

To Be Continued...