Daisy walked into her home with Honey walking in behind her, Honey sat on their couch and groaned, she was still upset over the day she had at school. "Want to invite some friends over again Honey?" Daisy asked as she walked into the kitchen. Honey shook her head "I would but, they all want to be friends with Bluey" she put emphasis on Bluey's name, just the thought of everyone siding with her over her crying made Honey's blood boil. "Mum, aren't murderers bad people?" Daisy walked over to the couch and nodded "Very bad people" Honey raised her eyebrow "Then…why didn't Bluey go to jail after what she did to her sister?" Daisy had rolled her eyes ``Because some mums think that their kids shouldnt face consequences' ' she grabbed the remote and turned their television on, it was a program about a hunter who was about to kill a tasmanian devil. Honey was confused "Wait, isn't he breaking the law?" Daisy had smiled "Oh, no sweetie, he's allowed to because he has a special license to hunt them"
After about an hour or so Marcus had walked inside, set his bag on the floor, groaned, and pulled a flask out of his pocket. "That Heeler" Daisy turned her head and looked towards her husband "Long day?" she asked. He took a few sips from the flask and tucked it away into his pocket "The boss praised him just because he made a correction over a small mistake I made" He held up one finger as he spoke "Just One!" he gritted his teeth and muttered "And don't get me started on his horrible choice in coffee" Honey was confused by his comment "What's wrong with his coffee, dad?" Daisy chuckled at the random question. Marcus was a bit surprised, he was unaware they had heard that bit "Oh well he likes way too much cream and sugar in his, you think someone would get sick with that much!" he rolled his eyes "Just the thought of seeing someone drink that much makes me feel like I've gotten cavities" he rubbed his cheek at the thought. "Alright, enough about his coffee, why don't you come join us and watch this show?" Daisy patted the empty seat on the couch next to her. Honey continued to watch the hunter wth interest "Will he be able to catch that croc?" Honey pointed at the dog who was stalking a 9 foot alligator "Oh actually Honey, that's an alligator" her father pointed out "You see, they have different snouts, crocodiles look more pointy while alligators look more round"
The hunter was a brown dingo with a few yellow shops in his fur and some scars all over his arms, some scars were deeper and older than some of the others. "We have to make sure not to alert her, or she will attack" Honey was confused and faced her mother "How does the hunter know that it's a she?" Daisy pointed under the alligator "She's protecting her eggs, the dads don't usually do that" There was a loud slow crunch on the television, the hunter gasped as the alligator turned around and faced him and his cameraman "Now would be the best time to get away" The hunter and his crew were immediately attacked by the large reptile and began to sprint while she began to open her mouth and gallop towards them "Crikey! She's pissed!" He managed to get into his vehicle and pull the cameraman in. Tha agitated alligator tried to climb into the car with them to finish them off, however the cameraman would kick it away before the vehicle sped off. There was a voiceover in the show while the hunter had to make his way back to his camp "It isn't smart to go after any agitated animals, a lesson I should've realized when I was new at this thing" he pointed to his various old scars "Anyways, we'd have to try again tomorrow maybe" Marcus rolled his eyes "They never quit do they? You'd think after the first scars he would've found and actual job" Honey looked at her dad "Well, why does he keep doing it if he gets hurt?" Marcus shrugged while he thought about it "We enjoy the thrill even when we know we could lose our lives" his eyes widened and he quickly covered his mouth at the realization at what he said, but it was pointless.
"You mean, you used to be a hunter?" Honey asked him. Daisy smirked and rolled her eyes "Well, we both were" Honey was surprised upon hearing this "It only makes sense Honey, Beagles like us are natural born hunters" Marcus told her "And I met your mum on a hunt one day" He smiled at her "It was about 10 years ago all the way in Victoria" Daisy pulled out an old photo of her and some other dogs with her "One of our friends on the job didn't make it, an emu got him" Honey gasped "But, he didn't get some scars like the guy on the telly?" Daisy shook his head "The guy on tv only has those scars because he got lucky" The two of them had decided to tell Honey the circumstances of that day "We met because of him, his name was James. We had met only a week prior while James had discovered a group of adult emus. We were brought there with James to hunt the emus for their meat and we were pretty successful so far, however two emus managed to break away while we had broken the necks of the others. James then decided to chase after it while the two of us gathered the dead birds together. Eventually James had managed to kill one last emu before the final one became aggressive and turned and faced him, the emu sprinted full speed towards him and he couldn't have been prepared for it in time." Daisy finished speaking, the details had made her depressed and she wiped her eye. Marcus placed his hand over hers "I'll tell the rest. He reached for something, anything, so he could stop the large bird but before he knew it, the emu's claws were…in his stomach." Honey's eyes widened upon hearing this, she couldn't imagine the pain he was in. "He reached for his knife while the bird stood over him so he could kill the bird, unfortunately the emu would quickly pull it's leg and sprint away. It all happened within a second and now the dog laid on his back, unable to move, and he was completely disemboweled. Mum ran over and-" he gagged at the thought, "Tried to keep his organs inside, while I contacted emergency services. The paramedics would never arrive in time as James died in only a matter of minutes, after that we would swear off of hunting for good and we pursued other careers, ones that wouldn't put us in danger. Then later, we had fallen in love with each other"
All of this was a huge shock to the young Beagle, she learned of her parents' jobs before they became less….interesting. "Do you think I could be a hunter like you and mum?" She asked them with an interested,and determined look in her eye. Daisy and Marcus however gave each other worried looks "W-well you know Honey, if that's really what you want then we won't discourage you, but that's a very dangerous job, especially if your prey can hurt you" Marcus told her. They went back to looking at the television, the same hunter was now approaching a different alligator from behind. As the large reptile slept, the hunter then lunged onto it and drew his blade. The alligator was startled and tried throwing him off, it was nearly successful in its attempts, another voiceover was heard while the struggle was shown "This is a very dangerous part of the job, not only was I wrestling with the gator, I was wrestling for my life. If I was thrown off, the large fella would make a meal out of me." Honey gasped, showing concern for the hunter, he managed to get the alligator to roll onto it's back and he maneuvered his body so while the alligator was on it's back, he was on it's stomach. "-If it made a meal outta me, then there wouldn't be a show now would it?" the alligator was tired and it did it's best to get the hunter off, however the hunter managed to pull a blade with a serrated backside out of a sheath, he leaned forward and kissed the alligator on its bottom jaw. "That's…gross and weird" Daisy commented "Why would he do that?" The hunter continued his voice over, and spoke as if he heard Daisy's question "Now if you've never seen my show before and wondered why i did that it's simple, I enjoy a good taste before the kill" The hunter then plunged his blade deep nto the alligator's neck. The alligator let out a loud hiss as it struggled to get him off however he slashed the alligator's throat, silencing it. After he pulled the blade out he raised it over his head and thrust it into the alligator again, this time slicing from it's throat all the way down to it's stomach. The alligator stopped moving completely and it's body shot out some blood like a geyser, completely drenching the hunter. "That's always the best part to me, getting covered in it's blood lets me know my job is done" Marcus cringed at seeing the blood and watching the alligator carcass get dragged on a truck, if he hadn't understood the thrill of a hunt then he would almost feel bad for the poor reptile, it was just minding it's own business.
After the hunter talked on the show some more the credits rolled, Marcus and Daisy had both yawned "Ready for a dinner, then a bath Honey?" Daisy asked. Honey nodded "Oh sure mum" Honey had a huge smile on her face, the show really seemed to entertain her. The three then walked to the kitchen where they had spaghetti waiting. While her parents were eating Honey grabbed her fork and imagined that she was a hunter, the spaghetti was snakes and the meatballs were pigs. She imagined that they were fighting with each other and that she had them all in a trap, she gleefully stabbed the pigs and made the snakes swirl around her fork before bringing them all to her mouth and chewing them to bits. She laughed as she was imagining the pain they would've felt. Marcus raised an eyebrow then took a sip of water and swallowed "What's so funny?" Honey was surprised by the sudden question "Oh uh it's nothing dad" she gave him an innocent smile and quickly finished her meal.
"Does meat taste delicious to us because we are dogs?" Honey inquired her parents. Marcus nodded "It's one of the reasons why some of us are hunters, but some of us have changed so that we enjoy more things that aren't just meat, and how some dogs choose to be vegetarian or vegan." Daisy responded then she rolled her eyes "Wolves though-" her face showed a sign of disgust at the mention of wolves "Those primitive barbarians love meat like it's the only thing that brings them joy" Honey was a bit confused "Are…wolves really that bad?" Marcus nodded "Oh yes, unlike us who descend from wolves and have become dogs, they decided to stay as savages." He began to ramble as if he had a deep hatred for them "Almost like they were too lazy to improve what they are. Not only that, they act like they're better than dogs only because they're larger and stronger than us" Daisy raised her head from her plate "I saw one of them in town the other day, said he was on holiday and that he and his family are from the states" Marcus rolled his eyes "Should've had holiday there instead of here" Daisy nodded in agreement "And it only gets worse when someone asked about his abomination of a child and the child's mother, he showed a picture and can you believe it, he was married to a dalmatian!" Marcus nearly choked on his food upon hearing that "OUTRAGEOUS!" Honey had flinched at her father's change in attitude, Marcus quickly noticed he frightened her and calmed down "Sorry about that Honey, it's just the thought of that makes me very upset" Honey tilted her head "Why?" Marcus continued "Not only are they too lazy to do much for themselves, they're also too lazy to stay with their own unsophisticated, violent, kind. If this keeps up there may not be any pure blood dogs left one day" Daisy scoffed at the idea "Too bad we can't hunt them to extinction" Honey thought about the idea and asked her "But they aren't like the animals you hunt, they think like us, wouldn't they fight back? Dad even said that they are stronger" Marcus patted her head "They may be stronger but not even they can survive a well placed knife" Both of the adult Beagles had finished their meals.
Honey was thinking about wolves and what her parents had to say about them, from what the two of them said, wolves sounded like a dangerous and annoying bunch. Honey took her parents plates over to the sink and placed them inside. Her mind wandered on the thoughts of the hunter on tv that she was watching earlier, his life seemed dangerous yet exciting at the same time. He even seemed to enjoy being covered in blood while other dogs would have vomited or even fainted at the thought. Honey envisioned herself hunting one of the world's many dangerous animals and successfully killing it. She envisioned her hand covered in blood after she had managed to take the large animal down, however something didn't seem right. The blood on her hand wasn't just in her imagination, the blood was real "Huh?" She snapped out of her daydream and stared at her hand, she looked into the sink and noticed that she had managed to slice her hand on a knife that had been placed in there before. She didn't seem bothered by it, she didn't even feel much pain, she just seemed mesmerized by the sight of it. As the blood spread from her palm to the back of her hand, she moved her head closer, it had an intriguing smell. Soon she licked the blood and found that she enjoyed the taste, it tasted even better than the spaghetti she just finished eating. She licked it a few more times, savoring the taste of the red liquid before she heard a worried voice coming from behind her "Honey! What happened?!" Honey was startled to hear her mother's voice, she turned to show Daisy the cut she had got from the knife "I wasn't paying attention and there was a knife in the sink, I'm sorry mum" Daisy picked Honey up and washed her hand in the sink, though she had said nothing she was a bit upset that she wasn't able to enjoy her newfound interest. "You need a bath, then I'll put a bandage on it" Honey nodded "Alright mum" Daisy looked at Marcus and pointed at Honey's blood that had dripped on the floor "Marcus, can you clean that up while I get Honey in the tub?" Marcus gave his wife a thumbs up "Sure thing" He stood up and walked over to the two to grab some paper towels "Gotta be more careful kiddo" He gave Honey a playful poke on her nose. Honey giggled as her tail wagged "Will do!"
Honey and her mother had walked over to the tub and Daisy turned on the tap "Always check to see what's inside the sink before you place things in there" Honey looked at her hand, then at Daisy "Is it normal for it to not hurt?" Daisy looked at Honey's hand where the cut was made and was a little surprised "Well, I guess but…it really doesn't hurt?" Honey shook her head "Actually, it only itches a little" she answered as Daisy turned off the tap then picked up Honey and set her in the tub. Daisy then placed some soap onto Honey's cut causing Honey to whine and pull her hand away "Mum, that hurts more than the knife!" Daisy tried to not laugh at her daughter's reaction "It's to help you dear, it kills any bacteria that can make the cut worse" Honey grunted in slight annoyance then had an idea "Oh, can I have the bath toys?" Daisy nodded "Sure thing" Daisy pulled a bag from under the sink that contained rubber animals, she opened the bag and placed the toys around Honey. "I'll be back in a few minutes, call me if you need anything" Daisy walked out and left Honey alone with the small animals.
After waiting for a minute or two Honey giggled mischievously and grinned at the rubber animals ``Welcome back to my show, today folks we will be hunting a bunch of animals, first let's start with something harmless like...this!" She grabbed the rubber duck and licked it "I like to get a taste of my prey before the kill" she sat it back into the water and watched it get carried away from her by the water, after a few seconds she would move herself closer to it, she imagined the duck was scared and trying to get away, but she was approaching it faster than it could move, soon enough she caught up to the duck and began to squeeze it tightly. She was then imagining the duck was flailing and trying to get away from her hands ``It's a rowdy one but!" She then pretended to snap it's neck in her hands and soon the duck went limp. She found delight in her prey having been killed "Now I need to move onto the rest of them" she looked over at a killer whale toy "Ah yes, we need the fat and skin from this one, the companies will pay a lot for this" she looked around for another killer whale toy "Looks like there's no whale calf nearby, shame"blue whale toy floated closer to the killer whale and Honey narrated the events "While I was going for my kill a blue whale came to try and ruin everything, I couldn't let the blue one take away what was mine!"
She paused for a second once she had finished her sentence and it replayed over and over in her head "I couldn't let the blue one take away what was mine!" suddenly Honey's mind stopped thinking about the blue whale, and more about a certain little blue heeler. "Yes, the blue one always ruins everything" The energy in her voice had slowly became more aggressive "Trying to take everything away" she raised her fist above her head "Killing then getting away with murder!" She brought her fist down onto the whale, causing it to sink then resurface back to the top of the water "IT WONT STAY AWAY" She hit the whale toy again causing the same sinking and rising action. She had growled very loudly "I WANT YOU TO GO AWAY" She would repeatedly strike the whale, each strike caused some of the water to be splashed out the toy "COCO SHOULD BE MY FRIEND!" she grabbed the whale and started to squeeze it, even tighter than when she was squeezing the duck "INDY SHOULD BE MY FRIEND!" she tried to pull the whale apart but it was to slippery and tough causing Honey to become more frustrated "THINGS WOULD BE BETTER, IF YOU WENT AWAY AND NEVER CAME BACK!" In her fit of rage she would throw the whale toy out the tub, causing it to slide away from the tub. She jumped out the tub to get the whale toy, however the floor was still wet from her rage-induced splashing and she would slip onto the floor with quite a bit of force. Honey felt stinging coming from her mouth, and when she opened her eyes she saw blood on the floor and a tooth out of her mouth. Unlike the knife incident from earlier, this was quite painful "all you've been doing is cause me pain" she sobbed quietly. After the pain dulled a bit she grabbed the whale toy and looked at it "and I hate you for it" the blood from her mouth dripped onto the whale toy slowly. Honey stared at the blood covered toy for a few seconds before she bit into it, the taste of her blood mixed with the weird taste of the toy would normally bother anyone. However, the thought of seeing an animal covered in blood, and her standing above it's corpse had excited her. She bit harder onto the toy, more pain had formed in her mouth but her imagination was allowing her to ignore it for now. Soon enough, her bottom jaw had connected with the top and she tugged on the whale, causing it to rip slowly. Marcus quickly ran into the bathroom having heard Honey yelling at the toy "Honey, are you-"he was shocked at the sight of the blood on the floor. Honey had taken the toy out her mouth and tossed it aside, she ran to her father and sobbed "I slipped and my face hit the ground, then my tooth came out" She showed him her tooth and his gasped. "Well, I think that's enough bath time, Honey" he grabbed a towel and picked her up.
"Dad?" She asked him as she looked at him. "Yes?" he responded with a smile "Did any of the animals almost kill you when you were a hunter?" He had thought about it while he set her down to dry her off "Yes, it was right after James died, on the same day to be exact." Her eyes filled with interest as he wiped the blood from around her mouth "Really? What happened?" He did his best to remember the details "Well some hungry wedge tailed eagles became a problem, they wanted our stock then when we got rid of them we had run into some inland taipans" Honey gasped as her father was drying her off "Well, how did you escape?" Marcus chuckled "I had to grab my blade, they were going for your mum and I couldn't let such a beautiful beagle die like that, so when they went to bite, that's when I decided to strike" he mimicked the movements of him slicing at the snakes. "I cut the head off one and the second almost got me. Then your mum grabbed my blade out of my hand and pierced it through the brain, killed it instantly" Honey seemed amazed "Did you get covered in blood?" Marcus shook his head "Eww…no" Honey groaned in disappointment "But that's when I decided to ask her to marry me and she said-" "Yes?" asked Honey. Marcus laughed "She said no actually" This surprised Honey, the thought of her mother saying no surprised her 'What?!" Daisy walked in, clearly amused by the conversation "We just got attacked by snakes and the first thing he does is ask me to marry him? Plus we hadn't been dating very long? Of course I wasn't going to say yes" Honey raised her eyebrow "So when did you say yes?" she moved her tongue in the space where her tooth used to be. "Well, about a year after we had both quit hunting I was going to go overseas for holiday" She motioned to him "He was worried I would like being in England again and forget about him here in Australia, that's when he begged me to stay and when I told him I was just going to visit some relatives then come back when holiday was over. Then before I left for the airport he was begging me with tears in his eyes to come back and marry him so i finally said yes" Marcus was embarrassed with what she revealed "I…I didn't have tears in my eyes" a small blush formed on his face. Daisy continued to tease him "Then what was it…sweat?" Marcus rubbed the back of his head trying to think of an excuse "...Exactly" Daisy laughed and rolled her eyes "If you say so dear" Daisy would walk out the room while Marcus would set Honey in her bed, Honey placed her tooth under her pillow "Will it grow back?" She asked him as she rubbed her lip. Marcus nodded "It should, just be careful next time, I'd hate for you to get hurt again" He kissed her head and tucked her into bed "Night Honey" he smiled and walked out of her room."Night dad" Marcus turned the light in her room off and left her alone with her own thoughts.
Honey didnt know how to feel, then she grabbed her tooth from under her pillow and licked on the root where some blood had remained. She enjoyed the sweet taste of her own blood way more than she thought she would, was this her hunting instincts working their way in her mind? She wished she could tell her parents, but she was worried that they would treat her differently or even fear her new habit. After licking on the tooth some more she tucked it back under her pillow, one thought constantly replayed in her mind, the hunter being covered in the blood of the alligator, how he looked like he enjoyed every second of the life-or-death situations he had faced. She wondered how different her life would be had her parents not given up the hunting lifestyle. She also wondered about the wolves her parents seemed to be against so much, what exactly made them so different from the dogs she saw everyday? She then thought about what had happened in the bath not too long ago, she felt a slight thrill of being able to rip something apart, living or not, in her imagination she had made it have an agonizing and slow death. What even she was unaware of at the time was that she felt like it was a good way to vent her frustration, to bring pain to others. She laid in her bed and tossed and turned thinking about everything, on one hand hunters got paid quite a bit of money for their jobs, on the other their prey would have a much easier time killing the hunters, than the hunters did trying to kill them. It was terrifying and exciting at the same time. However Honey was only 7 and there was no way anyone would let a pup her age do anything that dangerous, she'd have to wait a long time before she could even approach any of the various dangerous wildlife that she was excited about killing.
Honey sighed "Why is this happening to me?" she asked in the silence of her room. She looked around at her toys and grabbed one that looked like a zebra. She remembered how she had pretended to be a lion when she was playing circus with the others "Us dogs do have claws" she muttered and set the zebra on the floor in front of her bed. She laid in front of it and got on all fours, she imitated a lion's growling and focused on the zebra. She had imagined it was trying to drink some water and she was sneaking up on it. Soon she pounced onto it and bit into it's neck, she was imagining the zebra was crying out in pain and trying it's best to get away, however she managed to flip it over and set her weight on it, making it impossible for it to get away. Finally she had snapped it's neck with her imaginary fangs and watched as it twitched and struggled to breathe. She felt joy in watching it die before she would drag its carcass away to feed her imaginary lion babies that were waiting for her. Once she had approached the lion cubs she discovered that they were being targeted by hunters. She did her best to avoid their line of sight and hid amongst the grass that had surrounded them, she quietly walked towards one. In reality she had placed two saint bernard plushies in front of two smaller lion cub plushies to make it seem more real. She then jumped on one and imagined it screaming and begging for her to let it live, she dragged it into the grass - which would be under her bed, she then proceeded to maul the hunter to death, leaving the other one scared, but ready to kill lioness Honey. Once she emerged from the grass the other hunter pointed his gun at the mother lion and fired, he missed any vital points but managed to wound her leg resulting in her becoming agitated. She had remembered the hunter on tv saying how it would be foolish to try attacking an aggravated animal. The other hunter would take a few more shots to defend himself, each would miss. Finally, she came face to face with the hunter and pinned him to the ground, the hunter would fire a few bullets into the lioness's stomach and she would bury her fangs into his ribcage and quickly kill him. The hunter took a few deep breaths but would succumb to his wounds, the mother would watch as her children ate but like the hunter, she too would succumb to her own wounds, making the cubs into orphans.
Daisy had walked into Honey's room to check on her, she saw Honey had fallen asleep with two lion toys sitting behind her, two saint bernard toys laying in positions similar to Honey, and a zebra toy beneath the two lions. "How cute" she would pick up Honey and tuck her back into her bed, then she would take Honey's tooth from under her pillow and replace the tooth with 5 bucks. "Sweet dreams" she said as she placed the toys into Honey's toy chest, then left to get back into her own bed.
A.N: Don't watch Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, it's not very good for a horror movie, if you do watch it, use one of those movie pirating websites!
