Jelly, Bravest of Dogs

Jelly, Bravest of Dogs

Jelly, an Australian cattledog mutt, roamed the streets of the city of Amaline, looking for a pack and a place to call home. His paws were freezing as he went, leaving behind prints in the snow. He sniffed the air and smelled food. He traced the scent to a back alley, where a few creatures wearing masks were eating over a firepit. Jelly instinctively barked at the masked creatures, hackles up.

One wearing a blue mask lowered it, and Jelly saw he was human underneath. He stopped barking, reassessing the situation. The masked humans tossed him some scraps of chicken, and he ate up gratefully. The blue-mask motioned Jelly over with a finger, and he padded over to the blue-mask. The masked humans chatted amongst themselves for a time, and the sound of their voices put the dog to sleep.

Jelly woke up, excited to see where his new pack might be going next, but they had all gone away without him. He whimpered, hanging his head. He tried to track them for a time, with no luck.

Jelly begged for food, but the masked creatures were suddenly becoming increasingly hostile, kicking and yelling at him when he did. Within a few weeks, his tummy ached and he was dizzy from lack of food and water.

He caught a whiff of a familiar smell.

His eyes lit up. He barked cheerfully, his mighty heart overjoyed, his dizziness forgotten. He pursued the scent at a breakneck pace.

The hollering of nearby humans entered his half-mast ears. He turned around and saw masked creatures chasing him with pitchforks and other weapons. He sped up his pace. Ahead, he saw a man wearing an orange mask, square at the sides, and coming to a fine, triangular point at the top and bottom; white teeth were painted on it as were yellow eyes.

The man unholstered a gun and shot the people chasing Jelly with pinpoint, lightning quick accuracy. Jelly barked excitedly as the man knelt and embraced him. He lowered his mask, eyes glassy, a smile on his face. He lifted Jelly into his arms and ran.

He took Jelly out of town, into the snowy wastelands, until he found a cave, where they took refuge. Jelly panted ecstatically, he had waited so very long, and his original owner had finally reappeared. His simple dog heart no longer ached.His muscles, once wound up tight, now unknotted. When Bair, his owner disappeared one day, he was devastated. The dog lay down on the sidewalk for three days, completely listless, not moving a muscle. He stayed in front of their abandoned house, hoping Bair would come back, and was immobilized with grief when he didn’t.

Bair sat down, grabbing a few pictures sitting on the natural ledges jutting out from the cave. Jelly climbed into his lap, and Bair began showing him pictures of himself when he was younger with Jelly in tow. Bair’s own owners–the people taller than him who had helped him pick Jelly out–were in one of the pictures, and Bair looked at them with longing eyes. Bair went on babbling, showing Jelly a picture of the dog with a red ribbon around his neck, indicating it was the day Jelly was adopted. His fur was red, just as it was now, his eyes beady and bug-eyed, and his long tail a bit crooked. Jelly started to get sleepy during the onslaught of photos. His eyes opened and closed as he saw pictures of Bair and his owners in a new place with no snow. Bair’s voice was shaky, sad. Jelly whistled with compassion.

For the last picture, Bair’s voice changed to a low growl, as if he were a rabid dog. The picture was of Bair’s owners, but it was only their bloodied heads on pikes.

Bair’s hands shook violently, tears pouring all over the picture. The human pressed his head against it, kissed it, and then put it aside. He kept talking for a time, and then he curled around Jelly, and they both fell asleep in front of a warm firepit.

***

Jelly awoke before Bair did, his nose and ears alerting him to other humans approaching. He growled, baring his teeth. Bair roused, grabbing his gun. He whistled softly for Jelly to come to his side, and he did so.

They waited, their muscles tense.

Masked humans appeared at the mouth of the cave. They were all wearing the same masks: Yellow faces with horns and red eyes painted on. Jelly snarled, sensing malice in their hearts. Bair wasted no time in shooting one of them, and the yellow-face crumpled to the ground. Bair rolled and dodged one of the shots from their attackers, but a shot from the third one hit his mask, breaking a piece off it. Bair began gasping for breath.

Jelly bared his teeth and charged the final attacker, ducking and weaving between bullets. He leapt and bit at the attacker’s throat, drawing blood. The man shrieked in response, trying to aim the gun at the dog, but one more shot from Bair put the man down for good. Jelly turned back to his owner, who was writhing on the floor with the mask cracked, he was making horrible wheezing sounds and Jelly barked repeatedly in alarm.

Bair pointed to the mask of their attacker. Jelly wiggled and pulled fiercely at the mask until he managed to get it off. He dragged it to Bair, who took off his own mask, revealing stark red hair and a scar running down the left side of his face to the bottom right side of his chin. Bair put the mask on, spluttering a few more times, then catching his breath. Jelly sat next to him, waiting anxiously for him to stop making those disturbing noises. When he did, he pulled Jelly close with a light tone of voice, babbling lovingly. Jelly heard him say the familiar words, “Good boy.” Jelly licked his face in return.

Bair removed another mask from another one of the deceased men who had entered the cave. He grabbed spray paint he kept in a box at the corner of his cave, and began spraying the yellow mask in different colors. The strong smell being expelled from the bottles made Jelly back away. He guarded the mouth of the cave, lying on his belly and watching for anything out of the norm while Bair worked. His master didn’t say a word, so absorbed in his work was he. Eventually, he heard a whistle from his owner, indicating he was done. Jelly trotted over and looked at the mask, wagging his tail eagerly. The mask was painted a bright, golden yellow. Wings were painted on the sides, and dozens of eyes were painted on the front. A few color splotches were thrown in, but with an intentional eye, not haphazardly. Jelly barked in agreement that the piece of art was not only acceptable, but quite good. But then, being a dog, he couldn’t see all of the colors very well.

The pair relaxed for a time in front of the fire, eating and drinking water heartily. Bair stood up, grabbed a plain, blue collar and strapped it around Jelly’s neck, embracing him with a sob. He grabbed a very distinct looking, teardrop shaped pendant and attached it to the collar. He knelt, scratching the pup’s neck with a voice Bair used when giving him a command, but this command was much more complex, and Jelly didn’t quite understand it. He heard the word ‘go’ but didn’t understand the other word. Then, after Bair was done with that command, he gave him a simpler command, ‘stay’.

The pair sat there for a time. Bair had gone quiet, but Jelly could sense a quiet tension in him. He couldn’t see his face through the mask, but he was convinced his owner was thinking of food, since that was the only time Jelly looked so thoughtful.

Eventually, he gently pushed Jelly off his lap and stood up. He looked up, clasped his hands together and fell to his knees. He remained there for a time, unmoving, murmuring quietly.

Jelly cocked his head to the side, feeling the energy of the moment. He felt different inwardly, completely calmed, and closed his eyes. Bair curled up next to him for a time, until the dog fell asleep again.

***

When Jelly woke up, he saw no sign of Bair. He was surrounded by food and water which would last him a long, long, time, but ignored it. Frantically, he searched the cave for his owner, but could find no sign of him. He remembered he was commanded to ‘stay’, but… Jelly whimpered, then followed Bair’s scent outside of the cave and ran toward the city at full tilt, panting hectically. He pushed himself harder and harder, sensing his master was in trouble.

In the city, dozens of humans charged him with nets, others with guns. It seemed as if the mighty hand of God guided the dog forward, bullets missed him by a hair as did the nets. The loyal dog was determined, his fierce heart infused with great courage. From the corners of his eyes, he saw some deceased dogs on spits being eaten by humans who were once their best friends. He saw others kidnapping the dogs and taking them away. Jelly recognized some of the dogs as ones he once roamed the street with, and whined sadly, but pushed on. He felt unstoppable, his energy limitless; he would not be separated from Bair again. He traced the scent to a huge building in the distance, one Jelly never got close to, as he smelled maliciousness seeping out of it. He heard a cacophony of bullets firing inside the building, hurting his sensitive ears. The front door was open, and Jelly ploughed ahead.

He ran past a group of people, all wearing matching blue masks, and another group wearing all yellow masks, they ignored him, focusing on returning fire with each other. He zipped past the fray, chasing the scent up many sets of stairs until he arrived at the top floor. There, he recognized Bair’s voice through an open door, and peeked around the corner.

He saw that Bair had a man at gunpoint, and the man had him at gunpoint. The man Bair had his gun pointed at was tall–perhaps the tallest human Jelly had ever seen–he was wearing a full set of blue armor to match his blue mask. The mask had horns, yellow eyes, and scales painted on it.

Bair was saying something to the man, barking at him, and he pulled out the picture of his owners–their heads on pikes. He threw the picture with his left hand at the man, and fired multiple times at him.

The scale-mask moved quickly once Bair started firing. He got hit twice, blowing him back a little, making him lose his balance. The scale-mask returned fire twice–one of the bullets hitting Bair in his own, orange chest armor–the piece being blown off. Bair was undeterred, moving quickly and spraying his enemy with bullets.

Jelly stayed out of the fray, looking for an opportunity to attack, as neither had noticed him yet. The action between the two was so fast it would have become too hard to follow, if it weren’t for the dog’s keen sense of smell keeping track of everything. The two enemies danced around the room, dodging, shooting, and ducking in the cramped space. Furniture was knocked over, cups shattered on the ground, and papers fluttered to the floor until finally, Bair hit the blue-mask right where he had managed to crack the armor with an earlier bullet. Blood spurted from the wound, and the man fell backwards, dropping his gun to the floor. He attempted to crawl over to his gun, but Bair sped over to him, stomping on his arm. He pointed his gun at the scale-mask’s face.

Jelly watched, his hackles up, growling, ready to pounce if need be. Bair lifted the man up by his collar, lowering his mask for a moment to reveal bared teeth and his scarred face. The man’s eyes went wide as Bair pressed the gun into his forehead, and fired. Bair let the man crumple to the ground, and then sat down, sighing and staring at the ceiling.

It looked like Bair had chosen this to be their new home, as he wasn’t moving, so Jelly barked excitedly, gallumphing up to him. Bair’s eyes went wide. He shook his head in dismay, holding the dog close. He petted him with gloved hands, frantically babbling. He pressed his face into the dog's fur, his voice laden with sadness, shaking his head. Jelly wondered why he was sad.

Bair seemed immovable. He had fallen to his knees, hands clasped, looking upward as if he were begging for food from an unseen master. Bair motioned Jelly to come closer, and he held the dog tightly. He was determined to stay in this dangerous room. Jelly had seen this odd behavior before in humans. They would not fight to the death to survive as a cornered dog would. Sometimes, they would lie down and die.

Jelly’s pure heart, knowing the intrinsic worth of every human, blazed with anger at seeing Bair lie down and down. He growled and barked at his master, trying to get him to get up. He gnawed at his boots, bit at his gloves, but still Bair could not be moved. Bair held the dog’s face in his hands, gutturally weeping, pointing toward the cave they had come from. He recognized a command, “Stay! Go stay!”

Jelly realized his despair was over the fact that he had disobeyed. He rubbed his head against Bair’s gloved hand, barking encouragingly. Bair’s hand shook violently as he moved the gloved hand across Jelly’s fur. Slowly, painfully, Bair rose to his feet. As if he were a dog on its last leg, he lost his balance, and Jelly supported him by letting him drape his arm around him before he fell to the ground. He had no visible wounds. Jelly couldn’t comprehend why he was falling.

But Jelly kept barking encouragingly. Bair eventually forced himself to his feet through much effort. He looked at Jelly with admiration. Together, the pair thundered down a staircase. They heard the din of gunfire a floor below. Jelly listened carefully, and barked, indicating Bair should follow him. His master did so. Jelly paused at the bottom of the stairs, and led Bair to the left down the hall. Then, hearing more fighting at the fork in the hall to the right, he turned left. Here, there was another staircase. They went down and Jelly stopped dead in his tracks. He heard footsteps to his left and motioned that way, indicating Bair should be wary.

Bair poked around the corner and shot the man on sight. Jelly led them further in that direction until they arrived at a door that led to the backside of the building. Bair opened the door and stepped outside.

Jelly’s nostrils flared.

There was another enemy to their right who had Bair at gunpoint. Bair turned to face the man, but even he was too slow. The man fired, the bullet crackled through the air, flying with pinpoint accuracy to exposed skin on Bair’s chest.

Jelly’s valorous spirit flared. He leapt in the way of the bullet. He heard a guttural scream erupting from Bair’s throat, followed by Bair returning fire and brutally plugging his enemy with ten bullets, until he had run out of ammo.

He knelt by Jelly in the snow. He wept hideously, nestling his cheek against the dog’s chest. As if something had broken the language barrier between them, Jelly recognized Bair was repeating over and over again. “I love you. I love you. You’re the only one left. Don’t die on me.”

Determinedly, he scooped the dog up in his arms, leaving a trail of blood behind. Jelly was whistling softly from pain, but felt completely safe with his owner. His eyes opened and closed, and both his vision and hearing became fuzzy, but the feeling of comfort didn’t leave him. Bair talked softly to the dog as he walked him through a line of trees and out into the wilderness, until he found a cave for them to rest in. Jelly stayed awake most of that time, but as he sat with Bair in front of a fire, he found himself more at peace than he had felt his entire life, and drifting off. Bair held him close, rocking him back and forth lovingly and weeping softly. Finally, Jelly, the bravest of dogs, slipped out of consciousness, saw a glorious light, and was gone.

***

What Jelly didn’t know was that he had waited nine years and two months to find a consistent home, food source, and Bair again. So much time, for a few moments of peace. Strong arms swept him up, and he found a perfect home up above that he never would have found on earth. His wounds were healed, and he was given a perfect body because of his devotion and loyalty.

***

Bair had the pendant and collar he had given his dog, and was taking it to a faraway land. He was constantly attacked on the way there, nearly dying hundreds of times. But somehow, a bullet that should have hit him seemed to be stopped in its tracks, or he would be pushed to the ground by an invisible force right, causing a bullet to fly overhead. He would look at the sky, and thank the being he was begging for scraps earlier.

What he didn’t see was the winged dog with a halo protecting him every step of the way, who had given Bair the heart and iron determination to live.