The soft crack of her knuckles sounded to Val’s own ears. Her teeth leveled together by her gritted jaw.

Before, Foofy had automatically assumed the imposing stance of a guard dog on alert. Again, as if sensing the tension in the air, Foofy let out a low rumble of a growl.

“Hush,” Val whispered down to him.

No need to give Gina something to complain about. One or two big woofs, and she might just call foul. Something about a threat via a vicious Doberman, she would cry to either the school administration or the authorities. Given her habitual truancy, Val found herself on the bad side of both.

Their eyes locked onto each other from across the street, Val and Gina. The sight of the other young woman from school had broken the easy yet continuous concentration required of her to maintain Keep the Peace over Foofy. Thanks to his little growl, he had alerted her of this slip up.

Val focused on sending out another wave of calm from herself. More attuned with the effects of her ability now, she could feel the relaxation wash over him.

His ears rotated to the side, no longer turned forward in alert at Gina. Foofy loosened his stance as well. The leash regained some slack.

“Let’s get going,” Val urged him. Tugging at him to turn around, this time, he obeyed her. With her back turned to Gina, Val took her first step away.

The weight of an invisible boulder smacked against her toe. Her foot snapped out from beneath herself, causing her to fall toward the ground.

Time almost seemed to slow around herself like it did in her visions, as Val could not believe what had happened. Her hair flew out from her face while she stuck out her hands to catch herself. Did she really just trip?

More mystifying was the reason behind her random trip and fall. Her enhanced body made her particularly graceful under normal circumstances. Nevertheless, she found herself crashing to the pavement. Of all people, Gina just had to witness her trip over her own feet from across the street.

Her hands hit the sidewalk first, followed by her knees. A stinging pain most notably ran across her palms. Val silently prayed, please, let there be no golden blood. She sat back onto her heels to examine the damage.

Some blood crept past the broken skin onto the thick of one palm. Rather than red, her blood flowed forth in honey gold. Within the fluid texture of her blood, a glimmering, metallic sheen bounced about from the sunlight.

Most alarmingly, there was no leash in her hands. As a consequence of her fall, her concentration had been broken more severely than the simple shock of seeing Gina outside of school.

A moment of panic seized her, because Foofy no longer stood at her side.

A savage growl sounded underneath the deep woofs. Dog nails clacked over the pavement while Foofy dashed away.

“Foofy, no!” Val cried out as she wrenched her body around. Her bloodied hand folded into a fist, clenching nothing but empty air and golden blood where the handle of his leash should have been.

Not only had she been so clumsy as to trip, but Val had also let go of Foofy’s leash. Val despised herself for her ineptitude.

That poor Dobie already found himself on his last legs in the animal shelter. The last thing that he needed was a bad bite on his record. Worst of all, Val would be the one responsible for any troubles that he incurred, having been the one to take him on this walk.

Apparently, the shelter worker’s suspicions had been right. Val could not handle Foofy.

Her fingers tightened into her palms, squeezing more of her golden blood forth from the scrape. Drops of her blood beaded beneath her nails.

If Foofy would charge Gina, who in their right mind would worry about her? Val certainly did not. Gina just about deserved a good dog bite for all she cared. Val would not allow any harm to come to sweet Foofy in the aftermath, though.

From her furious determination, an undirected pulse expanded from her all at once. With all of that serene energy backed by raw emotion, Val tried to reharness her command over Foofy. The energy felt as though it blasted out from beneath her ribs, hard enough to knock the wind out of her. Val gasped to regain her breath while she listened to what came next.

The high-pitched shriek of a young woman sounded from across the street.

Bark after bark sounded while Val’s wall of energy traveled. After a few seconds, the calming force of Keep the Peace must have crashed over Foofy in a wave. The barking died down, leaving nothing but low growls to be heard.

Val caught her breath, heavy from the exertion of her power that was still so new to her.

Right now, Foofy needed her.

Val flung herself up at once. While on the run, she withdrew her bleeding hand into the long sleeve of her shirt. No one should learn that she had divine blood just yet, not while she was still so weak. Hopefully that would be hidden enough, as Val sprinted across the street to get to Foofy and Gina.

The make-up caked face of Gina contorted in a grimace. She had reeled back while also tossing her hands up in the air in some dramatic display of fright.

Foofy crouched low as he woofed at Gina. His barks rang out again and again, as if he needed to do so continuously to keep her at bay. His large incisors flashed with every bark. The raw appearance of big dog charging toward her must have scared the daylights out of Gina, never mind the intimidation factor of his fine, Doberman bloodline.

“By Suvier, I am so sorry!” Val called. When she arrived at Foofy’s side, she grabbed at his collar and tried giving him commands. Of course, she had no idea if he had been trained to do any of them. “Stop. Quiet. No!”

Ultimately, Foofy ceased barking with some last, discontent woofs. Whether he had stopped on his own volition or through Val’s continual efforts to calm him through Keep the Peace, she could not tell.

In one regard, she preferred to think Foofy an obedient-enough dog to listen to her. In another, Val hoped for her ability to be the direct cause of his obedience for her own pride. The effect of Keep the Peace must have grown stronger as she came within proximity of her target.

“I would say keep that mutt on a leash, but clearly that doesn’t work for you,” Gina snapped.

At her side, Melaney snickered as though that insult had actually been funny.

In response, Val only raised an eyebrow. Given the way that Foofy had charged at Gina to bark, he made for an excellent judge of character, a good reader of Val’s emotional state, or both.

“A vicious dog like that belongs in the pound. Oh, but that is where you got it from, didn’t you?”

Val gritted her teeth together. Could Gina stop with the insults directed at Foofy? “This dog isn’t vicious. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.” After a pause, Val added, “And in this case, you’re the fly.”

Gina narrowed her deep, green eyes. Her side-swept bangs gave her face a shadowed appearance, all scrunched up in ridicule. Her mouth opened up, about to say something.

Val turned around and walked with Foofy the other way.

“Hey! I wasn’t done with you yet,” Gina whined.

Out in the world, Val had no reason to put up with Gina’s antics as she had to in school. She kept going and did not look back to humor the other girl.

“That’s right!” the obnoxious voice of Melaney called after her. “You better run away with that mutt of yours.”

Quieter, Gina could be heard reprimanding her friend, likely for sounding like a fool. Unbeknownst to her, they both sounded like fools to Val’s ears.

Gina’s voice grew farther away as Val and Foofy crossed the street and carried on down the sidewalk. Looking down to him, she whispered, “You are not a mutt. From the looks of you, Foofy, you are clearly a purebred Doberman. They are just jealous that they can’t be as beautiful as you.”

Foofy looked up to her, meeting her eyes with a happy dog smile as though he agreed with her assessment. While he probably did not understand a single word, he approved of the attention that she gave him, at the very least.

After all of that unnecessary excitement, Val and Foofy headed back toward the animal shelter to conclude their walk.

Character Update:

* New information is marked in cyan.

* All entries are based on what Val knows.

Foofy Title: Good Boy Rank: Dog Attributes: None Abilities Name Class Description

None

n/a

- dogs do not have abilities

- or do they?