The summer sun shone brightly on Smiling Valley. DogDay loved days like these. It was always a pleasure when the breeze was gentle and warm against your body.
It's the type of weather where you could have a serene picnic on the hill, the one with the big tree on top, like him and his pals!
His friends were already there he bet, setting up the blanket and food.
Picky always prepared so much for them to eat, and almost always ate most of it anyway. Kickin and Hoppy were probably roughhousing with each other over their soccer ball. Bobby and Crafty loved making flower crowns out of the plants that grew at the top of the hill, giggling and smiling the whole time. He never could tell what Bubba was up to, always in his world of curiosity and intelligence.
The pup was never too much of a smart cookie himself, not unintelligent, just... not whip-smart like Bubba was.
He didn't mind. Besides, he loved having such a quick-witted friend.
DogDay loved all his friends, and he loved seeing them happy, pushing them to be their very best every day and smile while doing it! They were called the Smiling Critters for a reason, after all.
They had a reputation to keep up!
DogDay giggled as he ran uphill, little blue ball in hand. Maybe he could convince one of them to play fetch with him!
One of six was good odds, right?
...
DogDay woke up slowly and groggily as beams of sunlight hit his eyes. A natural alarm clock, if ever one there was.
When his eyes opened, he stared at the ceiling, tracing the lines in the wood grain, struggling to will his body into moving. He knew he had to get up, but that didn't mean he wanted to. His lids began to fall once more, turning over so the sunbeams weren't in his face anymore.
A few more... minutes... won't... hur-
A loud thud against his window makes him bolt up, breathing heavily. He hears Hoppy gasp outside.
"Kickin'! You kicked that right into Dogday's window, you dumbass! You know how hard it is to get him to sleep!"
He huffs and lies back down.
"Hey, it's not my fault! You're standing right next to his house! What am I s'posed to do, kick the ball the other way?"
DogDay's brow furrows as his eyes flick open again, listening to the two argue.
Hoppy groans in aggravation. Loudly. Right outside his window.
"UGH! Let's just go before we wake him up any more than YOU already have." He hears the satisfying crunch of leaves fade as they walk away.
'Too late for that.' He thought in annoyance.
The dog groaned and stretched, hearing his joints crackle and pop in different places.
DogDay scowled. He felt like he was a bit young for that. He was only 23, yet he felt like he had already reached 70 sometimes. He was sure that couldn't be good.
"I should really join Hoppy for some stretches later..." He muttered.
DogDay was fit, very fit due to how much there was to do physically for the team, but he can't remember the last time he was active for the sake of fitness rather than taking care of issues around the valley.
Or, alternatively, running from said issues.
He threw his legs off to the side of his bed, yawning and rubbing his eyes. He looked back down to his bed in longing.
Not the softest thing in the world, but it got the job done. When he got a chance to lay in it, at least.
He stood guard most of the night, watching for threats and making sure the defenses were still up to snuff until Bubba or Kickin felt well-rested enough to take the reins.
Last night, he was out there until 5:30 in the morning and was willing to stay out for an even more lengthy period until he passed out standing up.
Or until they came and told him to go to bed and that he needed to rest, which is what happened.
When DogDay got off his feet and lay in bed, he couldn't keep his eyes open for another minute, and he slept like a rock without a single dream to remember.
DogDay looked at the clock on his wall, reading 8:13.
Not for very long, apparently.
Turns out he had gotten little more than 3 hours of sleep secured before the sun's rude awakening. And now he was here, staring at a dark spot on his wall, trying to mentally prepare himself for yet another day. He couldn't get lazy with those... things out there, after all. The Comets.
They were waiting for the critters to become complacent in their belief. So they could devour them.
He shuddered.
The last thing he and the others needed was a false sense of security.
He remembers when he had no issue with leaving his door unlocked. There was never a need for it. He felt safe. All the Critters did at once.
That's what made them such easy targets the first time, he supposed.
...
They were just teens when a fire was set right next to Kickin's home and burned his house to the ground.
The others had left their homes when they heard him screaming for help in the dead of night. Thankfully he was already outside, but his house was already ablaze and, quite frankly, out of their control.
"W-what's going on Kickin'?! Are you ok?!" Bobby said as she began checking him for burns.
DogDay watched with wide eyes as the blaze grew, shielding his eyes from the heat. CatNap ran up close behind and grabbed his other paw.
"I-I'm okay, but... S-something started a fire next to my house! I tried to save what I could but... it spread so fast... aw man..." He held his arm with a feathered hand as they watched the blaze. Eventually, licks of embers began to pop onto the dry leaves and grass on the ground. They stood around the home, trying to stomp out any potential wildfires. It got to the point where there were too many flames popping up at once to deal with. They needed to corral the flame.
DogDay ordered everyone to get as much water as they could hold and use their hoses to stop it from spreading. CatNap followed close behind him with a bucket as they ran to a nearby pond to collect water. When they returned, a second fire had started near Bubba's home.
They doused it before it could destroy his house like poor Kickin's already was.
Luckily, their actions kept the flames from spreading at all, but the air was so hazy and difficult to breathe as Kickin's coop blazed and smoked. DogDay coughed, yelling for everyone to regroup at his house.
They did. Most of them did.
When things had calmed down a bit, as much as they could when mysterious fires sprang up from nothing but cool night air, DogDay did a headcount.
He counted 7 critters, including himself.
That's strange.
Everyone was talking over each other, about where Kickin' was going to stay now. Bobby happily offered her own how as a place to stay.
Maybe all the talking messed up his counting.
He counted again. Hoppy, Bubba, Crafty, Bobby, Kickin, Picky, DogDay.
7, including him.
Only 7.
...
His heart sank.
Where was CatNap?
Everyone was still talking over each other, the room only becoming silenced when DogDay sprinted outside and called out for the feline. He couldn't hear anything but his own heartbeat. He screamed the cat's name out into the valley with not a single response back.
After a few hours of extensive searching, unease had fully set into his soul.
The next day, he searched further out into the valley, yelling for him as loud as he could.
He checked his favorite tree.
He loved napping in that tree. He felt sick to see the brown branches free of that lustrous violet fur.
He searched around by that strange bench he and CatNap found once while on a pleasant stroll through the woods.
Such a nice place to sit and relax. The felid loved hanging out there.
The bench was uncomfortably cold without him now.
He searched the cat's home.
They cuddled a lot in here. It helped DogDay get some rest after a long day.
Their scents were blended together into a lovely aroma, but the smell no longer brought reassurance. Only yearning.
One by one, his friends lost hope. They stopped searching alongside him. The last one to stop searching with him was Bobby. He could tell she wanted to continue as much as he did, but the bear had explained that this was becoming fruitless and that maybe he'd "show up one day."
Eventually, those creatures began appearing around Smiling Valley in higher numbers. Comets, Bubba nicknamed them later. Quick, small, and dangerous. They were popping up across every inch of the valley, traveling in packs.
Their bodies were like someone had taken cutouts of the night sky itself, white stars shining and twinkling on a pitch-black body. Bubba said something about crystals capturing loose photons throughout the day and holding them hostage as a form of energy, giving the illusion of sparkling celestial bodies. They moved so strangely like their limbs were fighting back against their own will. Constantly shaking and stumbling around the way they did. Always... looking for something.
Hoppy said they were like zombies with working brains, looking for someone to lead them to world domination.
Bobby said they were monsters from beyond the valley who caught a whiff of fresh blood, now hungry for more.
Kickin said they were space aliens, coming to take over our minds and bodies and soon the whole world.
DogDay didn't say anything.
He hardly listened after the other critters voted to prohibit future nighttime excursions after Crafty was attacked by a comet.
Luckily, Hoppy had been there with her, bat in hand. Who knows what would have happened had she been alone. Hoppy was scratched up a bit, a few scrapes and a nick or two but was fine otherwise. Crafty was luckily unharmed, other than being scared. Hoppy described the creature, its innate agility, its savage pursuit of them as they ran away, and the large white spot on its head that worked as an eye as it stared unblinkingly at them.
As it stared at its prey.
Hoppy bashed the thing's brains in, the stars twinkling along its corpse fading entirely. Then they ran back home as fast as possible, bursting into Bobby's home to show her Hoppy's cuts and bruises.
Crafty vouched for it all, agreeing and giving her own testimony as well.
The critters put it to a vote, and it was effortlessly a resounding yes. Any further explorations were not to be conducted at night.
'It's too dangerous' they said. He agreed.
Even still, DogDay didn't vote. He left Bobby's house without a word while all the other critters stared at him like he was insane. No more night exploration meant almost 12 hours removed from the day.
That meant less time to search for CatNap. Now there were these comet things out there too and the cat was probably all alone and...
And...
DogDay just felt so useless.
So powerless, ever since his kitty disappeared.
When Hoppy took them to see the body up close, it was gone. Not a footstep to be found. Not even blood. Then Kickin' began talking about this unnatural chill he was getting. They all felt it.
It was like they were being watched. DogDay could swear the sun was dipping a lot faster than usual.
The gaze felt increasingly piercing the deeper they got, and it followed them until they finally left the forest.
No one slept easy that night.
Time began to stretch on. Days became weeks, months, 5 years, and counting of not a single sign of him. Concerns about supplies and safety soon turned to issues, and DogDay was forced to devote most, if not all, of his time to helping protect the others on expeditions or even simply doing them himself.
CatNap was just... gone.
Without a trace.
His best friend was gone, and the Smiling Critters were down a member. No corpse was found. No culprit was discovered or even suspected in a possible abduction.
The others held a sort of funeral service at some point, but DogDay didn't attend it.
He couldn't bring himself to look at the picture they placed of the cat around a collection of lavender flowers they had picked in remembrance of him. His smile was radiant the day that picture was taken. But still had that endearing shyness to it.
His smile always made DogDay so happy...
The dog didn't leave his house much that day.
Not when Picky begged him to come have a meal with the others. Some of CatNap's favorite foods.
Not when Bobby offered to sit with him to help him feel better, maybe watch some of the cat's favorite movies.
Not when Crafty asked him if he wanted to help with the mural she was painting for CatNap on her home.
Not even when Bubba asked if he wanted to say goodbye before they moved the picture and some of CatNap's favorite items to his napping tree up the hill.
That night changed him in a way he had never experienced before.
...
Now, DogDay only got a wink of sleep at night, but he was indifferent to it at this point. He just needed his friends' happiness and, more importantly, their safety.
That's all that mattered. One funeral was enough.
He stood up, stretching again before collecting himself.
He looked at the clock on his wall. It was already almost 8:30 AM. Had he really sat there for almost 20 minutes reminiscing?
He was wasting so much daylight.
He moved his tongue around his mouth, smacking his lips at how dry it felt.
Tea.
He needed tea.
He slips on a fresh pair of clothes and his pendant.
...
He walked to the kitchen, took a kettle from one of the cupboards, filled it with water, and placed it on the stove, turning the heat on. He rubbed his eyes, blindly grabbing some tea bags out of a nearby box, standing by as he waited for the water to reach a boil.
The dog sighed, closing his eyes and tilting his head down. He needs to talk to Crafty after this, he figured. Supplies were getting scarce in the valley, and walking out to a town or city wasn't just a quick stroll. That's at least two, maybe three days' worth of travel time without a vehicle.
They'd get overwhelmed and picked off by comets before they stepped a few feet from home.
They needed to do some in-depth scavenging to meet food requirements, maybe even pick up what little fruit they could in the forest. Meds were low, too, and they needed to get creative with any medicinal herbs they could find out there, something Bobby could handle, he was sure.
He sighed once more. That was just the essentials, not even counting anything else the critters would want or desire.
DogDay didn't mind going out into the forest and gathering supplies. He just despised the consequences that could come from said action.
If he left alone, he risked getting ambushed and gutted by a comet, never to be found or heard from by his team again. They'd be leaderless and inevitably tear each other apart one by one. If he brought them with him, he risked losing one of them, if not all of them with his luck, and the canine couldn't see that as a win, no matter the possible rewards.
He opened his eyes when the kettle started screaming.
Pouring the water into a mug, he dipped the tea bags into the scalding liquid.
When he was younger, he'd get just a tablespoon of honey, no matter what flavor of tea he had, and mix it in. He loved his tea with honey when he was younger.
Nowadays, honey is an amenity that Dogday doesn't have easy access to anymore.
After letting it sit for a bit, he picks up the mug, and only now does he really get a whiff of it. A grimace spreads across his face as he realizes what it is.
Lavender.
It was tender, calming, and wonderful.
Lulling him back to sleep. Just like the flower. Just like...
...
He swallows thickly, trying to push the thought down to the pit of his stomach as fast as possible. The poor dog's paws shook as he set the mug down, rubbing his face.
He didn't swallow fast enough.
Thoughts of the cat began to overtake his mind. Memories of soft, purple fur, a shy but endearing smile, and softspoken words graced upon his ears alone overtook him. All qualities of only one critter he knew. A critter he couldn't protect. A critter he failed.
He scratched an itch in the back of his head, sighing.
No.
DogDay shook his head. He wasn't going to let his memories of the feline sour. Not until he knew he needed to mourn. Not until he knew the cat was really gone because, truth be told, DogDay knew he wasn't. He didn't know how or why; he couldn't explain his beliefs.
The canine just... knew.
And that's all the faith he needed.
He doesn't realize he's staring into his mug until a knock on his front door shakes him from his thoughts. Gentle and slightly hesitant, those knocks were definitely Crafty's. He slipped on his orange hoodie and opened the door, putting on the best smile he could muster on such short notice. The girl smiled back sweetly, a small notepad in her hands.
"DogDay! I hope I didn't wake you. I just wanted to say that I got the list you wanted if you wanted to go over it quickly with the others?"
Crafty pointed to the notepad. DogDay could already see some of it and was thankful that it didn't look as brimming as he thought it would be.
"Yeah, let's walk and talk. Need to start getting ready to head out anyway. And don't worry about it Crafty, you didn't wake me up." He smiled softly, widening his eyes to look less tired.
The bags and dark rings around his eyes helped little with that, though.
Sleep was important, sure, but he had things to do. And a band of critters to keep happy, lest they lose their minds.
...Well, any more than they already have.
At least Crafty looked well-rested, if not worried for her leader.
He closed the door behind him as he exited, exhaling his woes. He forgets entirely about the hot mug on his counter.
And so it sits alone, quickly growing cold outside his grasp.