With a lazy yawn, Ma Fitz opened her eyes to the bright and enduring sun of the day. She blinked past some of the sleep still present and ruffled her feathers, losing a few in the process of shedding. After a light stretch, she flew from the branch which she had been sleeping on to a different branch, one better suited at watching those who passed and those who stopped.
Really, life as an owl was about as simple as she could ever want it to be. It meant waking up whenever she so pleased and flying off to do whatever she so wanted. A "life" that others might have found shallow or hollow, she took great delight in. Considering herself retired from the show business and the many, many cogs which moved that business meant that she could never be told that she had done nothing or was choosing to be lazy on purpose. Dogs in high and lowly places could never turn their noses up at her and the things she chose to do. Not when they could not even begin to compare to her or the things that she had done. The mark which she had left. Perhaps that too was why she was so obsessed with life, it was too short not to try and leave something behind.
"Well I'll be darned!"
In her own thoughts, she had become distracted enough not to see or hear the figure now below her. It was a dog, if the sound of a customarily wagging tail and soft panting was any indication, but more specifically, it was a dog likely seeking out her services, meaning that it was a customer. Ruffling her feathers one last time to look as presentable as possible, Ma Fitz cleared her throat and turned her gaze downward, starting with the line she always used.
"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it, the tree is the real- Peg?" she asked, mostly in disbelief. "Is that you?"
"What? D'you want me to start singing and dancing?" Peg laughed. "I was worried for a second there that you wouldn't recognize me."
Wasting no time, the owl flew down, landing with a gentle flutter just before the dog she had once guided to fame. There she wrapped Peg in a warm embrace within her wings, a gesture which she was happy to return.
"Geez Ma, it's been a while but I didn't realize you'd miss me that badly," Peg snarked, although there was no edge to her voice.
"Miss you? Honey I thought I'd never see you again. When we agreed to drop all contact I..." she shut her beak and shook her head. "I'm so glad that you're okay. Bull and Toughy, are they-"
"They're fine," Peg assured her. "A little older and a little less quarrelsome, but they're still themselves."
Ma Fitz took another deep sigh of relief, nodding her head with a pleased rhythm.
Peg took a moment to look the owl up and down, observing gray feathers, crooked talons and a cataract fogging up one eye, "You look... good."
If she took any offense to Peg's analysis, she did not show it, "No need to mince words honey, these past few years haven't been the easiest on me. Turns out that dying and then coming back to life doesn't do wonders for the way you look."
"Do I want to know?"
"In a moment, probably," Ma Fitz said with a shrug. "If you're already here, than I assume that you've already been over to see Dizzy."
"First thing I did when I got to town," Peg said, grinning. "Kid's gotten so big. I can hardly believe that she was small enough to fit under my tail once." She looked up dreamily, taking a moment to reminisce, before quickly remembering the purpose of her visit, "Thanks for keeping an eye on her all these years. I don't think I ever would have been able to leave if you weren't watching out."
"Don't mention it. She's strong, independent. I sent a friend or two her way but for all the things that she did on her own, she did them alright."
Peg smiled again, "I did get that impression. I uh," she cleared her throat, "I tried asking her what happened to Robert. Couldn't get a straight answer out of her. You wouldn't happen to know would you?"
"I happen to know most of what happened to everyone who was part of the crew," Ma Fitz said softly. "The real question is if you want to know."
With only some reluctance, evident in the stiff motion of her neck, Peg nodded.
"Robert," Ma Fitz began, "he was pretty upset the whole situation as you may remember. That didn't really change any time after you left. He seemed content to just take care of Dizzy for a while, but there was no life to his step, no real desire to live. One day, he found me, asked me to make sure Dizzy was gonna be fine and then begged me not to follow after him. He went north, anything else, I don't know about." She took a moment to see for any reaction from Peg, surprised to find her emotionless. "You're not mad that I just let him walk away like that are you?"
Peg looked to the ground for a long while and then only shook her head, "All that matters is that Dizzy was and is safe. What about Cliff and Rick?"
"Those two," Ma Fitz said, dread creeping up in her voice, "those two are the ones that I don't know about. They were supposed to meet me at the station the day after you left, but they never showed. I scouted around, asked where I could, but as far as I searched, they both seemed to have dropped off the face of this planet."
"You don't think that..." Peg trailed off, shuddering at a thought which crossed her mind.
"There's always the possibility, but this is Cliff and Rick we're talking about," Ma Fitz said in as assuring a tone as she could muster. "The two of them have hideouts where foxes have holes. They're probably alright, even if they plan on laying low until the end of time."
"And Randall?"
"Randall went and, well you know how Randall was," she coughed lightly and took a moment to swipe at her feathers with her beak. "He uhm, he could never get over your former advisor. After you left, the old dog settled down with his master and Randall stuck around, taking orders whenever he felt like handing them out. I think he caught the flu one winter and passed, but it was quick, didn't last long."
"Huh," Peg huffed softly to herself.
"For what it's worth, he did mention once that if he ever got the chance to see you again, he would apologize and I get the feeling that the old dog would've done the same."
She snorted, easily dismissive of the idea, "He would never. According to him, he was never in the wrong. I was just too young to tell that he had a way about him. He spread all those rumors about me and Robert for more publicity with the dogs in town. He even made a big deal about Dizzy being the only one of that litter to make it past a day. I'm glad he never got into her ear." She shook her head annoyingly and then focused on Ma Fitz herself, "What about you? You definitely look the part of someone who's changed professions."
"Oh you don't have to worry about silly, old me. I probably did get blacklisted from the business because everyone knew Otto had it out for us, but I retired voluntarily and honestly, I've never been happier. Death will do that to you."
Peg gave her another forlorn look, one which caused the owl to quickly reiterate.
"It was sudden. Too sudden for me to even remember if it hurt. Long story short, I did a little bit of tinkering around with the dark arts before getting shot by a hunter and that gave me the means to bring myself back."
"Dark arts?" Peg asked, her face screwed up in confusion.
"Voodoo, magic, whatever you want to call it," Ma Fitz said with a shrug. "All that matters is that nowadays I can toy around with life and death and predict the future while the future predicts me."
"...which is why you hang around on branches repeating the ramblings of someone who doesn't know what to do, where to go or when to go to it."
She shrugged again, a grin growing on her beak, "The shadow is what you think of it, the tree is the real thing."
"Well here we are."
"And where exactly is here Apollo?"
"You could always open your eyes and find out."
Celeste took his advice, opening her eyes to gaze out at a long stretch of dark which seemed to go on for as far as any dog's eyes could see. She looked for Apollo in the dark, almost missing him as result of his black fur.
"I don't know where exactly you come from," she said and then paused, taking a moment to gather any scent that felt familiar, "but where I come from, boys don't usually drag me out in the middle of nowhere to try and make an impression."
"Don't worry, I know exactly where we are," Apollo said reassuringly.
"Yes. I do too. We're in the middle of nowhere."
"C'mon," he said, "won't you just trust me for a little while. I already promised to have you back before midnight and by now you know that I don't break my promises."
"Not that I would care if you did," Celeste mumbled, but ultimately supposed that she could play along. "Alright fine. Lead the way."
With a sort of glee that made her roll her eyes, Apollo led her through twisty paths which seemed to narrow and widen at regular intervals. More than once, they hit a few low hanging bushes on their trek. Only when twigs and thorns began to attach themselves to her fur did she start to grow annoyed.
"Apollo..."
"Here we are!" he said before she could voice her complaints.
Celeste looked around, the fact that they were in a much brighter area suddenly becoming apparent to her. Dim as the light was, she still had to blink her eyes to compensate for her lack of nocturnal ability, but at the very least, she was able to mostly make out the shape of her companion.
"What is this place?"
"Just somewhere I come to think every now and again," Apollo said in a low voice. "Speaking of thinking..."
"Is something wrong?" she asked when he turned away from her with a mumble.
"I was thinking that you know, seeing as how you and I have been seeing each other for a while and we like each other on occasion and all that. I was thinking that maybe we could be, uh you know, boyfriend and girlfriend."
All at once her expression changed, morphing from frustrated confusion into a genuinely happy display of love as she lunged forward to catch the other dog with a warm nuzzle.
"Oh Apollo..."
"Heh, yeah, sorry if this was all a little cheesy," he said in a shaky voice. "I wasn't sure how else to ask."
"It's perfect," Celeste said as she pulled back. "All of this, you and me, it's perfect. I'm so sorry that I was whining all the way out here."
"Celeste..." Apollo mumbled, tremble still in his voice.
"Yes my beloved?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"Anything."
"Would you accept me for whoever I am?" he asked, tongue lolling from his mouth as he started to pant. "Love me no matter what I am?"
"Well of course I would," she said confidently. "You're not like all the other dogs, that's why I love you."
"But I'm different," he said, agitation becoming more and more evident.
"What are you..."
Celeste trailed off, realizing that more of the moonlight had found it's way past the thick clouds in the sky, beaming down on him enough to reveal his heaving body. She finished in a soft voice.
"...talking about."
It was all so eerie, the way that he twisted and contorted in an apparent attempt to escape whatever pain was causing him burden. His fur bristled and his eyes took on an otherworldly, wild glint. His limbs stretched as if elongating. The soft, golden coat that she had grown so used to falling into turned pale and shaggy. Sharp claws erupted from his paws and primal hunger overcame his entire presence.
Celeste let loose the silent scream that had been building inside of her and then with a gasp to regain her breath, she took off in the opposite direction running through the same twisty, wide and narrow paths, face first through the low hanging bushes and past the twigs and thorns which vigorously latched onto her as though desperate to escape from the beast of the woods themselves.
For a time and in the silence, she thought that she must be safe. There was little in the way of noise and even less in what she could see of him. Her heart was still thumping, but that did not matter. All that mattered was that-"
Rrrrraaarrr!
She was knocked off her paws and as much as she tried to move, grasping and reaching for all corners of the ground, nothing seemed to help with the beast on top of her. It leaned down over her, opening a wide and hungry jaw!"
"Carl!"
Madeline winced into her mate's side, attempting to block out the goriest parts of the story being told.
Her outburst hardly bothered anyone else gathered around. The Border Collie in the center of the gathering the least bit bothered as he continued to recount the tale in agonizing detail.
"C'mon Madeline," Carl whispered to avoid causing a disturbance. "I already told you that this is all just for fun. None of this crap actually happened, it's just a story."
"That doesn't make it any less scary," she said in protest.
"Look," he said in as soft as a tone as he could muster, "we'll just stick around for a little while longer to make sure we get our bone's worth and then-"
"Her tendrils dribbled from her side as she screamed! Slowly choking on her own blood!"
"Or we could leave now."
Madeline whimpered, still stuck to his side.
"All right fellas," Carl announced to several of the dogs there. "Me and the misses are heading back to the old bridge in town to get a little shut eye."
"See ya Carl."
"Bye Carl."
"Don't let the bed bugs bite."
He took her on the path home through a street that was fairly bustling, especially when taking the late hour into account. Above them, tall building dwarfed them in their shadows, the canyons of freshly built brick and stone making it difficult to smell much of anything else. The evening air was cool, blowing gently against them both but providing little resistance, opting instead to blend into the hum of ambient sounds marking the setting of the sun.
They walked beneath the glow of electric lights, their silhouettes cast against the sidewalk. It was all as relaxing as relaxing could be and Carl did his best to embrace it, but could not out of guilt. Not when his mate was still whimpering beside him.
"It really was just a story Madeline," he said, again trying to reassure her.
"That's easy for you to say!" she said in a voice loud enough to warrant the outburst as an accusation. "I don't know how you can digest these horrid, foul stories!"
"You're the one who wanted to come with even though I-" Carl started to say but paused when something behind her caught his attention. "Hey! Check it out!"
She looked over her shoulder to find the graveyard which he was staring at.
"Carl... hey! Where are you going!"
"Look," he said, striding confidently through a gap in the gate, "I'll show you that this supernatural stuff isn't real."
Afraid as she was, Madeline was also afraid of being left in the dark and so she chose to follow after Carl.
"This is a bad idea," she scolded as soon as she caught up with him. "We shouldn't be frolicking around graves, let alone graves that are right below the house of the Lord." With only a glance brief, she spared the church behind them some attention.
Carl was too busy going through the names of the dead to pay her much concern, "Montgomery, Horace, Ambrosius," he relayed as though he could actually read, chuckling at each name. "If I got caught with a name like one of these, I'd be more than happy to lay down and die."
"Carl..."
He ignored her, taking in a deep whiff of the air and then sniffing at it madly, "Do you smell that? It's so fresh, so unnatural."
"Carl," she whined when he took off again but followed nevertheless. "Can we go now?"
"In a moment dear, I just need to figure out wherever that smell is coming from and then... bingo!" he stopped to stoop low, following the rest of the trail into the church's crawl space. In it's small, claustrophobic trenches, he found the patch of dirt which seemed to be it's source, Madeline gazing curiously over his shoulder. "Well I don't know what's written here in this dirt but it looks like something scratched the ground just he-"
Aaaaaah!
She screamed when a decidedly dirty lump burst from the ground, loose pebbles and patches of grass exploding upwards in tandem.
"Jesus! Lord!" Carl expressed to himself twice. "That's our sign to go!"
They ran away quickly, at a pace faster than either of them could keep up with. It was all unnecessary in the end however, as the source of their terror was barely able to move, shifting and shuffling in his best attempt to mimic a walk.
"Ward," he reminded himself in a daze and through lips which had been shut for months. "I-I'm Ward. Where's Dizzy?"