"Peg, am I being...fired?"

She sighed tiredly, but offered up a reassuring smile in any case, "No Randall, you're not being fired alright. I would never fire you."

He allowed himself to relax, "Okay then, still got my place. What did you want to talk about then?"

"I figured that now seemed to be the right time to have a discussion in regards to," she paused, searching for the right words, "your admiration for The Major. What precisely is it that you see in him that makes you so much of a fan?"

His tail swayed slowly across the ground as he thought, "Well it is true that I admire him."

"Uh huh."

"And I guess that you could just say that to me, he's everything that a true leader should be."

"Right."

"And really, I just want to do better for you and, don't tell them I told you this, but for Cliff and Rick too and even for your father. I- when I first took this job on I was pretty clueless about it all and really I was just going with the flow, seeing what felt right, what seemed right, but it never felt like I was doing enough. As a manager and as a friend, I just felt like I was letting ya'll down and it really hurt. Now that we're with with The Major, why we've got a shelter and plenty of food and really I just want to learn so that I can be better for you...for all of you."

Peg bit her lip. Before they had started talking, she had planned on calling him a filthy bootlicker that needed to get his head out of his behind, but seeing the look on her friend's face and considering the sincerity of his words, her own words were much more polite."

"Thank you Randall, I appreciate what you do for us."

He nodded his head gratefully and she felt even guiltier than before.

"We'll uh, we'll get back to practicing now."

"No."

"Peg, I-"

"No."

Randall groaned and pulled his head back, "Seriously? You won't even bother hearing me out?"

"If you got anything fresh hiding there in your mouth, up in the corners of your teeth then please, feel free to talk. Otherwise, all that's been said about The Major has already been said and my answer is still the same. I'm not taking him back."

Peg turned and started to walk off, "We'll go on and talk to Otto ourselves, try and reason with him. It should help that The Major isn't here to ruin things."

"The Major's great!" Randall reasoned with enthusiasm.

"Randall," Peg said, sighing through her nose. "The Major is the reason that we're in this mess in the first place. Please try and keep up here."

"He tried. If you just let him–"

"If I let him what Randall?" she snapped at last. "What magic trick was he going to pull out of his bag of lies to make all of this go away? Nothing, I tell you. The Major's a smart dog, maybe the smartest that you and me have ever met, but he's only a dog. Even he makes mistakes and can't be ahead of everyone. He went and did business with the devil without a backup plan and it's gotten us into a real conundrum."

Randall looked at her with stunned eyes and then resentment grew in them, "You're gonna ask him to come back right?"

Peg sighed again, "Randall–"

"Give him a second chance! He's gotten us out of bad situations before, he'll do it again!"

"I'm not gonna take him back! Not when–"

"Take him back," he repeated. "Take him back or... if you don't get The Major back... I resign as your manager."

She scoffed, a light laugh hidden beneath it, "Randall you don't mean that. You know you don't."

"I'm serious Peg," he reiterated, "I've been behind you all these years and I've vouched for you even when I shouldn't have but if you keep doing what you're doing now then I can't be your manager any more."

"We've known each other since we were pups Randall," Peg said, voice dripping with disbelief. "Are you really going to leave now, after all these years, the good times and the bad times. Are you really going to leave now because I won't hire the crooked old dog that thinks working me like a mule is appropriate?"

"That crooked old dog is the smartest dog we've ever met! You said so yourself!"

She opened her mouth to shout again, but realizing that such a thing would prove to be useless, opted for the less draining option, "What do you see in him huh? What is it about this one dog that might as well have stumbled into our lives that has you so wound up?"

"He's great," Randall said, voice lowering to meet her own. "The Major's great."

Before she could help it, her eyes turned to the ground, realization at what was happening hitting her all too hard, "This is it then?"

"This is it," he acknowledged her question with a nod.

"I hope you know that in a few years, whether I'm alive or dead, you're going to regret this."

"I hope one day you know the same."

Peg's lip curled ever so slightly. She had heard plenty of Mr. Otto and his various deeds and while she had no intention of ever crossing paths with him, just his name alone was enough to make her skin crawl. The young puppy she was staring at however, resembled nothing of the cold, deep depths most used to describe Mr. Otto. "Kids don't have to be their parents," she thought. "I'll bet that he's as innocent as I am."

"A pleasure to meet you Junior," Peg crouched down to meet his level, despite her already short stature.

He answered in a timid and soft voice, "You too ma'am."

She gave him a soft smile and he returned it hesitantly, a blush reaching his cheeks.

"Roman," Otto called out to his faithful guard in a lazy voice.

"Yes Boss?"

"I'm bored."

"Should I fetch one of the traitors?" he asked without missing a beat.

Otto hummed in thought for a moment and then answered with a swift: "No. I don't think that I'm in the mood for that sort of entertainment tonight. If only there was a show scheduled within the hour, although I guess that I could technically just schedule one right n-"

A cacophony of barks cut him off and made him raise an eyebrow in intrigue. They started off softly, more akin to snarls and growls before growing into the obvious noise of a scrap taking place. Whether it was a friendly one or a hostile one had yet to be seen.

Roman in any case, was already standing in front of him protectively, watching the entrance with narrowed eyes, heckles rising when the noise came nearer and nearer.

"An attack?" Otto suggested with a careless shrug. "On our own territory? Someone must have had a death wish today."

Soon enough, the pile of dogs and their brawl reached Otto and Roman, but even from where they stood, it was painfully difficult to make out any details. It seemed not even possible to make out which dogs were his own and which of the dogs were potential aggressors. Still, Otto looked closely, almost giving up until a bright sliver of white caught his eye.

"Tell them to knock it off," he said, leaning over to command Roman.

All that it took was a single, sharp bark and every dog came to a standstill, backing up slowly before bowing their heads in respect and waiting on alert for any other commands. The only dog that remained was Peg, her fur dirty and torn and the occasional streak of blood cutting through her.

Otto stepped past Roman and approached her sympathetically. He leaned down to address her panting form, "Sorry about that. They got a little too excited it looks like." When he straightened out to speak to everyone else in the room, it was with a voice covered in icy fury, "I know that all of you are not the smartest in this business, hell, you're hardly apart of this business at all, but what part of 'we do not attack those who work for us or with us' unless the order comes from me do you all not understand?"

"She was trying to break in Boss, she was and we just thought-"

"I didn't say you could speak," Otto said, cutting him off. "You broke company rules and now you're going to have to pay company consequences." He held his breath steady, keeping the room in an exaggerated, tense atmosphere for several moments, "But I'll deal with you later, for now I must remedy this mess you've created. Leave."

In an instant, they all shuffled out, leaving him, Roman and Peg as the sole occupants of the room.

"Sorry about that," he repeated to Peg, who was at last beginning to regain her footing, albeit with a shakiness that made clear her fear. "Fixed or killed?"

"W-what?" she gasped in a hushed voice.

"They wronged you and now it is up to me to exact some sort of capital punishment on them," Otto explained, "but decisions have never been my strong point, so I leave the choice to you. Do you want them to be fixed or killed?"

Peg swallowed past a dry throat and tried diverting the topic, "That's not why I'm here."

"Oh?" Otto remarked, his eye once more raised in intrigue. "Why, I hope you didn't come all this way out here just for me."

"The contract," she went on,"the contract and all the shows and that deal that I'm supposed to be apart of, I want out of it. I don't want to be apart of it."

He tsked slowly, walking around her in circles, "That's not how deals in this business work. The Major signed you into a contract-"

"He doesn't work for me any more!" Peg protested.

"And that does not render you free from said contract," Otto said with a slow shrug. "A more thoughtful star would have told her advisor at the time not to sign a contract that has a strict clause on not breaking it even in spite of the management that signed that contract no longer being under the employment of the star due to external... blah, blah, blah..." He shook his head, "All that business my Father ever taught me was never fun, but it has definitely proven to be useful."

Peg looked between him and Roman uselessly, nothing of use coming to her. She had neither the brute strength of Cliff and Rick, nor the deceptive tongue of The Major, nor the cool calm of Ma Fitz. She swallowed again, "Please. I can't. Every day. Day after day, it's not what I was put on this Earth to do."

"That's funny," he said with another thoughtful hum, "because that's what I've always believed you were put on this Earth to day ever since I first saw you all that time ago. An Otto always gets what and Otto wants after all."

She started to cry then, hopeless wails and sobs filling the air and rendering her inconsolable. She cared not for the quality of her voice or for the state of her fur when the only thing between her and sanity was a cursed deal formed by two dried prints in a patch of dirt that was in all likelihood covered in grass.

"Why is she crying?"

A smaller, squeakier voice made Peg look up. She had to blink through her tears to see the small puppy standing by Otto.

He addressed her first, "Matters of business Sister. You'll understand when you're older." Then he turned to address Peg and with a large grin, gestured toward his sister, "She really love your shows."

"Major?"

Peg surprised him by being the first to break the silence.

"Yes?"

"Do you ever stop and just take a look at the stars?"

"Can't say I do," he said, while making a move to sit next to her, lightly rocking the docked boat in the process. "What's up there but a few bright lights?"

"Patterns," she responded simply and then shrugged. "I like looking at them."

"Ah."

Another beat of silence passed.

"My Mama never liked to look at stars, she preferred the clouds in the day."

"She liked to see for little frogs and angels up there?"

Peg chuckled, "Yup. Reindeer too."

"Have you ever wanted to touch a cloud?"

"I have."

"What if I promised you a cloud, one of any shape you wish? All you have to do is say yes."

He grew happy then, when he saw that same slow, considerate deliberation that occurred right before a decision was to be made. It wasn't his usual plan of attack and he wasn't sure it would even end up working, but merely by virtue of-

"Yes."

Irate, Peg had left the tent that Ma Fitz and the part of her cohort that chose to follow them were currently residing in. It was a small space and a dirty one too, but given that they had no where else to go, they opted not to take Otto's kindness for granted.

She heard Cliff and Rick behind her, felt their voices on her back, but she didn't stop. Better that she let the air feel her fury than her friends.

A burning. Hot fury.

It was difficult to place it's origin. So much had happened in such short time. Her happiness and joy had quickly depreciated into an endless muck of heartache and disappointment. Perhaps it was the lies told by The Major? Or maybe it was Robert's adultery? It didn't matter anyway. It never mattered. Her life was a circus to most and an advert to others.

Then she saw him and it was at last enough to push her fury over the edge.

"You fiend! You're an old, blood-sucking leach you know that?"

That look in his eyes was still there, just as it always was. The one that could make her do all. She was the puppet, he was the puppeteer. If he said it was time to hit the road, she would bid her farewells and hit the road. If he said it would be best to focus on the types of performances that wouldn't upset Mr. Otto, she would nod along eagerly and instead make a fool of herself on stage. That look was always there.

"I thought that you might be around these parts, it took only a little bit of asking around," The Major's calm was still there as well. "Why my girl, I'm not an uncaring dog."

"Don't you call me your girl. I ain't your girl you toad!" Peg spat her words in such a way that the air seemed to still around them. "You've milked me for every drop of sweat, every ounce of energy, every smear of blood, all of it! All of it and you still want more! You're nothing but a fraud. A con artist. I oughta' get someone to tear you to shreds."

She never had the time to think.

Not when there were horses to chase after and ask for friendship, not when she was absentmindedly tapping a foot to the sounds of Sebastian, the church, or her mother's soft lullabies as though a human were scratching her under the chin where she liked. She never had time to think when her father woke her up in the night and ushered her away as though their lives were in danger, nor when she was on stage, howling and singing and swaying and shaking as if the music were electrifying her.

There was no time to think when Robert put a paw over her own and promised that everything would be alright. Promised that their love was special, that he was her's and her's only.

Thoughts stopped when The Major cleared his throat and promised her that her future was bright and certain, she could hardly ever think when he praised her or told her off, it was like being in a trance.

"Who are you? Really...just who the hell are you?"

"I am you."

"Cut the horse dung!" she seethed. "Everything I've ever been told about you was false and every word that comes out of your mouth is more deceptive than the last!"

"Peg you good?"

She looked behind her to see Cliff and Rick a short distance away. The two clearly not having expected her to act rational in her state of anger.

"It's true y'know. My past is of no concern to you. It's the least of your concerns my girl. Not when I am you and you are your mother and we are a picture of interdependence," he walked forward to get closer to her, ignoring her cold, rumbling growl.

"Everyone that you know, everyone that you've ever associated with. All that they've ever done is live off of you. There is me and my Master of course, but we are by no means the first or the last you'll encounter. Your daddy for instance, yes even he, even he looked after himself before he looked after you. The difference between him and I is that just as I have lived off of you, so too have you lived off of me. We've supported each other all these years because of the glorious dream we share. Just as you are a puppy calling out for it's mother, so too am I the one to answer those calls. Your calls last an eternity, so too do my answers. I can't tell you what to do. Whether to leave or to stay, whether to accept or refuse. All I can say is that choice affects fate and fate brings about consequence. Just know that if you do ever leave, we would never go hungry, because none of us would be lonely, not when it's your daughter that's there to help carry the burden and then you would be lonely too."

He stepped back and she flinched, trying to blink past the tears in her eyes to face him clearly.

"That cloud that I once promised you, that one and all the others," he began to leave. "It's always just beyond our reach."

And then he was gone. Leaving Cliff and Rick in confused shock and Peg in a broken mess of tears.

She didn't know how long she cried, or how loudly she wailed, nor did she recall Cliff and Rick gently ushering her back into the tent where her tears may well have soaked the grass. She couldn't even remember when Randall had walked in or what his first words to her were.

Mostly she just remembered that she had no life of her own. She was the face of it all, the source of it all. Without her, no one would be well off and she wasn't sure if that thought merely discomforted her, or if it made her nauseous.

"Who are you," The Major was suddenly asking her.

It took all the courage she could muster up not to turn tail and run off right away, but she held steady only trembling slightly as she swallowed before answering, "We are the picture of interdependence, I am my mother and you are me."

"Good..."

"Peg...Peg?"

"Randall," she half-slurred from her spot on the floor. "You there?"

He cleared his throat, "I'm uh, I'm right here."

"Good...tell that gongoozler that I'm sorry and that he can have his job back."

She heard him take a few steps forward before faltering and coming to a complete halt. "You're sure?"

"Mhm...and Randall?"

"Yeah?"

"Tell Cliff and Rick to go get me some of that medication."