This one was written by my friend. There was a substantial time shift between this and the previous one, I'm not sure what or if anything was planned for the intervening time either. Still, I suspect he had a lot of fun doing this, and it was pretty entertaining for me to edit.
"Hey! Marine! Just where the hell do you think you're going?!" Ira demanded.
Stock had heard a sound that simply didn't fit with the sounds he'd come to expect on this planet and he was standing at the edge of their camp trying to figure out what that small noise could possibly be. That didn't mean he intended to leave the tenno hanging, but Ira was a testy sort of person, and he seemed to take great offense to anything Stock did without consulting one of the tenno first. Anya had once jokingly accused the man of having been an executioner in a previous life. Although now as Stock took out his night vision goggles and scanned the undergrowth he couldn't quite convince himself that it was only a joke.
"I thought I heard something," he informed Ira and Boreas, not moving except to continue studying the environment.
"Grineer," Ira huffed dismissively, "What are you afraid of anyway, marine? We're the scariest things on this planet right now."
"No, not grineer," Stock said, "Sounded more like an animal. I'm going to go check it out."
He didn't give Ira a chance to protest, he just vaulted the massive tree root blocking his path and took off with no weapon but his sidearm. That was stupid, he thought, Oh well, too late now. He was not going back for his rifle now, that would just give Ira one more thing to screw with him over, as if the surly tenno needed any more ammunition. Stock shook the thought away and continued following the sound.
The closer he got to it, the more certain he was that it was an animal, and from the tone of the last thin wail it sounded as if it were in pain. When he got to the clearing the sound was apparently coming from it took him a few minutes to figure out what he was looking at, but when he did he stopped dead in his tracks. Kubrow dens. A pack of wild kubrows could devour a man in a matter of minutes, and even an unwary tenno could be horribly mauled by them.
He stood there for several minutes studying the situation and wondering if he should swallow his pride and get Boreas involved, but after a good five minutes of seeing no movement he became curious. Where were the kubrows? Normally they would have been all over him by now, they were notoriously protective of their dens.
Finally he had enough waiting and cautiously worked his way over to the nearest den and inspected it. It was completely collapsed, and on closer inspection he realized it had been hit with some kind of explosives. That explained the absence of any kubrows in the area. Alright, but if the dogs were all dead, then what was he hearing? He stood completely still for about thirty seconds, then determined that the sound was coming from the farthest den. He worked his way over to it and quickly found what was left of the entrance, the mangled body of a rather large kubrow crushed half inside and half outside.
The animal had apparently died a very painful death, there was a pool of congealed blood under its nose and there were claw marks in the dirt where it had tried to drag itself free. The pitiful wail sounded again and he jumped, half expecting the one he was looking at to move, but it didn't. The sound was coming from inside the den. He began carefully dismantling the structure, taking care not to put too much strain on any one part of it, then when he had a good sized hole in the top he took his flashlight off his belt and shined it into the mound.
There sat a tiny pup, barely out of its egg, staring up at him with the saddest eyes he had ever seen. He reached for it, then jerked his hand back as it snapped at him. It let out a tiny, high-pitched growl and Stock almost laughed. "So, you think you're a tough guy, do you?" he said to the pup, "Alright, small fry, it's time to come out of there."
"No wonder you sounded like you were hurt, I bet you're starving. Can't possibly get anything out of mum now, not with her squished like that," he told the pup as he took off his flak jacket, "Alright, let's see if we can get you out of there without you biting me."
He picked his flashlight back up and held it in his teeth as he lowered the jacket into the den. The pup immediately grabbed one of the sleeves and started to tug, and Stock dropped it over the pup's head. The little kubrow let out a startled yelp and tried to escape, but there was nowhere for it to go and it only succeeded in becoming more hopelessly trapped. Stock then carefully reached into the den and grabbed the squirming bundle around the middle with both hands and lifted it out.
He decided not to let its head free right away because it was still growling and snapping, clearly not pleased about being rolled up in Stock's jacket and removed from its house, despite the fact that said house was mostly flat and half full of dead mother kubrow. He turned his light off again, not wanting to draw any more attention to himself than he likely already had, and used his goggles to find his way back to camp.
"There you are, we were wondering if we were going to have to come bail you out of whatever mess you got yourself into," Ira sniped the minute Stock got back.
"Enough, Ira," Boreas said calmly, then he pointed to the squirming bundle Stock held securely under his arm and asked, "What is that?"
"Kubrow. Whole pack was destroyed except for this one," Stock replied, going and rummaging through his pack.
"What are you going to do with it?" Boreas sounded interested.
"Well, I rescued it, so I might as well try to raise it," Stock said, finally pulling out a slice of jerky.
"Are you sure it wouldn't rather eat your fingers?" Ira asked.
"It might, but I need my fingers," Stock said dismissively.
He carefully unwrapped the pup's head and the amusing growling sound it had been making the entire time suddenly stopped as the ears came up and it looked around the camp with great interest. Stock let its front legs free, then held the jerky close to its nose. The ears pricked forward and it sniffed the jerky, then it reached for it with its paws, holding the slice between them as it started to chew. Stock continued feeding it until he was nearly out of jerky, but by that point the pup seemed to be far more interested in grabbing at Stock's fingers and clothes.
"Doesn't look like he's hungry anymore," Boreas commented, then he suggested, "Put him down, let's see what he does."
Stock unwrapped the rest of the pup, then set it gently on the ground. It flopped over on its side at first, then rolled over and struggled to its feet and began inspecting Stock's belongings. It dug into his pack, scattered his spare clothes all over before settling on a sock, then crawled into his bedroll and curled up, the sock tucked away into the middle of the muffin it had become.
"I think you've lost your bed," Boreas chuckled, "Unless you're ok with sharing. Possibly for the rest of her life."
"I'm sure there are worse things to share my bed with," Stock laughed, "I'm not so keen on this scattering and stealing clothes thing though."
"She'll learn, it just might take her a little time," Boreas said, "Get some sleep, kid. Morning is going to come early."
With that Boreas stood and moved to the edge of their camp where Stock knew the tenno would stay for the rest of the night like a statue. He kicked off his boots before gently picking up the pup and setting her on his bag, then settled into the bedroll himself. That lasted for all of about thirty seconds, until the kubrow noticed that she'd been moved, then she got up and crawled inside the bedroll and snuggled up against Stock's body before dropping off to sleep, followed a few minutes later by Stock himself.