Chapter 6: Cousin Commotion


"Nathaaaaan! Come on, son! Time to get up!"

I blinked awake as I heard the voice of my dad call from downstairs, stirring me from my sleep. I fluttered my eyelids to rid of the sleep dust before pushing myself out of bed. Normally, I would just try to ignore dad's call so I could get a few more minutes of beauty sleep but today was different.

Today was the day we were going on vacation. When my mom and dad announced that we were going on vacation a few weeks ago, they never specified where we were actually going, only telling me that it was a surprise. Maybe we were going to Japan. Always wanted to go there since I was a bit of a fan of Dragon Ball Z, which was rather evident since my bedroom had a few posters of the main character Goku in many different poses, not to mention having the box set of seasons one to nine.

Getting dressed and having my teeth brushed, I made my way downstairs with my suitcase that I had already packed the other night to find my parents already standing by the door with suitcases of their own, smiling as they saw me reach them.

"Just in time, Nathan! The cab came just as soon as we saw you!" Mom laughed as the three of us all walked out the door. I was an only child in the household, no brothers or sisters, so it would just be me, my mom and dad on vacation to wherever we were going.

It was maybe less than half an hour later when we arrived at the airport. As we went into the airstrip, I took one last look at my home town of Denver, Colorado almost as if saying "Goodbye" to the place before we all approached a jet plane. Unlike the many other stationary aircrafts however, this one was a lot smaller, looking like it could only carry maybe four to eight people. Wherever we were going must've been a place not many people would go to. Perhaps an island only my parents knew of?

Shrugging, I followed my parents into the small jet but as I was about to step in through the passenger door…

Everything around me went black.


I immediately blinked awake and shook my head a little to find myself back in Bluey and Bingo's room with me in my sleeping bag and the morning sun already risen. As I recognised my current surroundings, I thought back to what I had just experienced. It was there and then I finally remembered how I had come to this place that Bluey called home. What I had experienced wasn't just a dream. It was a memory flashback. The nightmare I had back in the Heeler's car was what had happened some time after leaving Denver on that plane. The cloudy figures on that flashback were no doubt my parents.

That was the only way this made sense. Me and my parents had gone somewhere on vacation and during the flight, something had happened to the plane to cause it to crash right into wherever this place was. Putting those two memories together told me two things, my name really was Nathan and I had come from Denver. There was still the lingering problem I had that filled me with worry.

Where were my parents?

As I was about to get up, my hand brushed against something as I looked down to my left to see a bowl of cereal with a spoon inside. Next to it was a slip of paper with some crude writing on it, luckily it was still readable as I looked closely at it and managed to make out what it was saying.

'Didn't want to wake you, so made you some cereal with Bingo. -Bluey'

Huh. That was quite nice of them to make me breakfast. I smiled a little at this before proceeding to eat my served breakfast. As soon as the bowl was empty, I sat up and got out of my sleeping bag, having decided to sleep with just my shirt off from now on, since I had noticed that practically none of Bluey's family nor any of the dogs I'd seen ever wore any bodily clothing so I decided to keep my pants on to avoid raising any awkward questions from Bluey or Bingo should they ever see me in my underwear.

I put my shirt back on before rolling up the sleeping bag and taking the empty bowl into the kitchen and proceeding to wash it of any excess milk and cereal fragments.

"Nathan? Can I talk to you for a bit?" Chilli asked as she approached me. "Oh sure, Chilli, what is it?" I replied as I left the washed bowl and spoon on the drying rack before turning to her.

"So yesterday, Bluey mentioned that Chloe knows what a human is… Be honest with me, when you and Chloe first met, what did she say?"

I recalled to when Bluey had snuck me to her school and had me meet her friends, one of them being a Dalmatian called Chloe. I told Chilli that Chloe was ecstatic upon seeing me and when Bluey asked her how she knew what a human was, Chloe explained that her dad owns a few books regarding humans along with the supposed fact that humans once used to co-exist in this world alongside the two legged dogs, yet somehow, they all one day just vanished without any reason possibly many years ago long before Bandit or any of the current adult dogs here were born.

After I told Chilli all this, she looked out the window in thought, probably having the same questions as I was. Like what really happened to the humans? Both our trains of thought were cut short when we both heard the doorbell rang.

"Hooray, Muffin's here!" Bluey raced to the door as did Bingo whilst Chilli tensed up with worry. "Uh oh! Quick Nathan, hide!" My eyes widened as Chilli urged me, knowing about the incident yesterday as I nodded and ran out of the kitchen and ending up in the Heeler's back garden. Suddenly, I got an idea as I looked at the tree in the garden and climbed onto it, high enough so that I'd be well hidden within the leaves.

I faintly heard the front door open, followed by one or two voices I had not heard before. Looking around my current hiding spot, I saw several other houses in the neighbourhood before I looked over the end of the back garden to see one particular household. Outside said household, an adult dog whom I could only guess was a Labrador retriever with yellow fur and a lighter shade of yellow around the muzzle was talking to a smaller retriever who's body was coloured in full yellow, possibly their offspring. The adult was holding what looked like an American football as they held it outwards before dropping it and swinging a leg upwards, kicking it as the ball flew over the smaller retriever whom raced after it and just managed to catch it in their arms. The adult jogged over and praised the smaller dog, patting his head. My grip on the tree's branches tightened as watching the moment between the parent dog and their child made a memory of my dad teaching me to play baseball come to me as I felt a pang of sadness inside me upon recalling that memory as a question floated around in my mind.

...Would I really ever see my parents again?


Third Person POV

"...So then I told Bluey and Bingo to hurry up packing on the last day and Bluey said 'I only just started!'" Bandit recalled the last day of his vacation with his family to Lake Eacham to his brother, Stripe and sister-in law, Trixie who both shared a laugh.

Bluey, Bingo, Muffin and Socks meanwhile were in the playroom, currently stumped on what to play. If Nathan was with them, then he could likely come up with a good idea for a game. But of course, since Stripe's family would probably freak out on seeing a human, he would have to keep out of sight until they were gone and both Bluey and Bingo knew that especially after yesterday.

"Uuugh, I am SO bored!" Muffin complained loudly before Bluey lit up.

"I know! Let's play Human Tree!"

"Bluey!" Bingo quickly hissed at Bluey in panic as she suggested this as the latter quickly realised what she just said.

"What's Human Tree?" Muffin asked as Bluey's eyes darted around in growing panic, trying to come up with a way to change the subject. Luckily, Bingo dug through one of the toy buckets and pulled out a xylophone, the keys coloured in the formation of a rainbow. "Hey, look what I found!" Bingo called out, grabbing the attention of the other two heeler girls as Bluey gasped excitedly.

"Magic Xylophone!"

Chilli was in the kitchen conversing with Trixie whilst Bandit was doing the same with Stripe when Bluey, Bingo and Muffin approached Bandit with the xylophone in hand.

"Oh daaaaaaad!" Bluey called out playfully as Bandit turned and his eyes widened upon seeing what Bluey was holding. "Ohhh no! Anything but that!" Bandit pleaded before trying to run away.

"NOOOOO-!"

"Freeze!" Bluey exclaimed before hitting one of the xylophone's keys with a stick as Bandit was frozen in place, making her, Bingo and Muffin laugh as they shared as playfully devious look with what they had planned for the frozen Bandit.

Meanwhile, Socks had wandered off from the group of girls and had found herself in Bluey and Bingo's room. The four legged puppy looked around whilst pacing in the bedroom until her eyes fell upon the rolled up sleeping bag by Bluey's bed followed by what appeared to be a folded up shirt next to it. With curiosity getting the better of her, Socks padded over to the shirt and sniffed it, slowly picking up a scent she was unfamiliar with. As she kept sniffing, the scent soon lead her outside until she was standing on the balcony, the scent directing her to the tree as she stared intensely at it… and started to bark.


Nathan's POV

I heard barking. Actual barking as if it was coming from a puppy. I peeked through the leaves of my current hiding spot to look at where I assumed the noise was coming from, seeing the balcony that came from Bluey and Bingo's bedroom, yet I couldn't see where the barking was coming from. A minute or so later, I did however see two adult dogs rush onto the same balcony. One of which was blue but not the same kind of blue that Bandit was, a horizontal stripe of lighter blue could be seen across their torso with their hands and paws being the same light blue which was also on the muzzle which just like Bandit had some stubble around the mouth area, which is what told me that the dog was male. One side of his head had a spot of navy blue that was outlined with brown whilst his ears, one of his had a bend at the tip and the end of his tail were also navy blue.

The other dog was mainly light grey with a head and face pattern similar to Chilli's with the spots on both side of the head instead being a darker grey and the muzzle being white. One of her ears matched the dark grey while the other was of the same light grey on her body. At the front of her body were two white spots and one dark grey. Her hands and paws also being white and lastly, her tail was light grey with the tip donning the darker grey.

"Socks, what is it?" The female dog picked up the still barking puppy as they were joined by Bandit and Chilli, having no doubt heard the ruckus as well. Fearing the worst, I slowly shuffled backwards so they'd have a lesser chance of spotting me. This proved to be a huge mistake however as the branch under me was too weak to support my weight and snapped. Frantically, I grabbed onto the nearest branch to prevent my fall as I was now hanging from the tree, out of the leaves and now in plain view of anyone. I looked up at the balcony to find the two new dogs now looking at me stunned as Chilli and Bandit shared a concerned glance at each other.

"What is THAT?!" I quickly heard a young female voice cry out in shock as I ahead of me to see a small two legged dog that looked incredibly similar to the adult female dog, the major differences being that both ears were dark grey and the spots were in a different pattern. The small dog in question was looking at me with her mouth open in shock as she was holding a xylophone in hand.

"H-Hi." I said sheepishly as seconds later, the xylophone fell out of the dog's hands and landed on the ground as I heard Bandit exclaim in defeat.

"Ohhh… Biscuits!"


"Okay, so let me get this straight. That thing is a 'human'?" The adult male dog with the bent ear said to Bandit, whom I had learned from him that his name was Stripe, the female next to him was Trixie and their kids, the small dog and the four legged puppy were Muffin and Socks respectively.

When I first saw Socks, it nearly took all my willpower to prevent me from freaking out. Unlike every other single dog I had seen in this area, Socks was walking on four legs like an actual dog, not only that but she yipped and barked just like one too. Her fur colour almost matched Stripe's, only the single navy blue spot was on the other side of her head and the only brown was on the base of her tail with a lighter shade of brown and lastly a lighter blue on the tip.

We were all sat in the living room with me and the Heeler family sat on one couch and Stripe's family on the one opposite of us. Trixie and Stripe were giving me uncertain looks as you'd expect whilst Muffin was watching me intensely. Socks on the other hand only stared at me with deep curiosity, one of her eyebrows raised.

"...Yes. We found him on the last day of our trip to Lake Eacham." Chilli explained with a hint of shame in her voice. "The reason we didn't tell you was because we didn't want you to freak out since… well..." Bandit tried to explain as he anxiously glanced at me as if he was worried that whatever he said next might offend me, but I knew what he was trying to say. I know very well that I'm still alien to Bluey's world.

"And he's been staying with you for a few days since then?" Trixie asked as the two adults nodded. "We're just letting him stay here until we can find his parents." Chilli replied. That was when Socks hopped off the couch she was on and padded over to the one we were situated on. She hopped up onto it and was now sitting next to me before leaning her face down and sniffing my hand. Very slowly, I raised my hand up and reached over to her and gently ran my fingers through the fur on her head, Her body gestures indicated slightly panic, but she quickly relaxed as I continued to pet her, letting a smile form onto her muzzle.

"Well… If he's good friends with your kids… Then I guess there's nothing to worry about!" Stripe said to Chilli and Bandit, now having a smile of his own as Muffin hopped off the couch and walked up to me, her intense stare replaced with curiosity of her own, before she asked me a question.

"Do coconuts have water in them where you're from?"


After managing to get acquainted with Trixie and Stripe and their kids, whom all promised not to tell anyone of my existence, I was now in the back garden with the four young dogs, playing Blind Man's Buff. The aim of the game was similar to Tag, but the person who is it is blindfolded and must pace around the area and reach out to catch the other players. We all agreed that I was the first to be it as Muffin would often playfully taunt me on how I'd never catch her, where I learned that unlike the others, Muffin quite liked to yell as loud as possible, which only made me think whether or not her energy rivalled Bluey's.

After a few rounds, I noticed a used tennis ball near the garden shed and picked it up as I looked down at Socks whom looked up at me curiously. I smirked before tossing the ball a good distance far from me as I exclaimed "Fetch!", holding back a laugh as Socks quickly sped off after the ball and grabbed it with her mouth before rushing back to me, panting before dropping the ball down which made me smile because of how she acted just like a real dog. An idea came to mind as I rolled Socks over so that she was laying on her back before I ran my fingers along her stomach rapidly as she let out a mix of yips and giggles from the tummy tickles I gave her, her tail wagging non stop.

Eventually, it came around to the time where Stripe and his family now had to go home. We stood at the doorway as Trixie and Stripe exchanged farewells with Bandit, Chilli and their two girls before Stripe looked over to me.

"A human among us. I could definitely get used to this." He said to me with a friendly smirk which I couldn't help but return with one of my own before I knelt down to Muffin and Socks.

"So I'll see you two later then!" I said to the two as Muffin nodded. "Next time we come over, let's play Human Tree!" Muffin suggested to which I responded with a nod as the two turned to leave with their mom and dad.

...But not before Socks got a little closer to me and stood up on her hind legs, wrapping her front paws around my neck in a hug before uttering out three words that touched my heart.

"Wuv you, Nathan."

The very gesture itself was enough to earn a "Awwww!" from Chilli and Trixie as I returned the embrace by gently patting Sock's back before we both let go. I stood back up and waved to Stripe and his family as they got into their car and soon enough they were gone.