That next morning, Val awoke with a haze cast over her mind. She lay on her back, blinking up to the ceiling with nothing but the idle thoughts of dogs crossing her mind. Aside from taking the dogs for a walk at the animal shelter, she did not have the desire to do anything today. Not even practicing her abilities on them interested her. Val only wanted to see Foofy wiggle the nub of his tail in excitement and have that smiling appearance of his face as he panted on a walk.

Better than anything else, Foofy would be able to cheer her up today after what she had discovered yesterday. If only he were her very own dog, Val could call Foofy into her room right this second. He could bound on to her bed and lap at her face. She would laugh while receiving the big Dobie kisses. All cheered up, she would take her lovely Foofy for a morning walk and forget about everything that troubled her.

Instead, Val had to find her own source of energy from within to haul herself out of bed. After getting dressed, she stumbled into the kitchen and braced herself to face her mother like any other morning.

This morning, though, Val would not be able to say a whole-hearted ‘good morning’ like usual. With dread, she stepped into the kitchen.

A particularly good, hot breakfast was spread across the kitchen table. In front of Val’s usual spot, a hearty helping had already been piled onto a plate. Pancakes, fried eggs, and sausage all decorated her plate in a delectable array.

Alas, Val’s stomach did not have much of an appetite as she forced herself to sit at the table. “You do not need to go making a big breakfast in an attempt to apologize to me.” Val seated herself roughly in her spot, picked up her fork, and prodded at her food.

Her mother looked on at her from across the table. Her elbows rested on the tabletop while her fingers folded beneath her nose, obscuring the lower half of her face. As for the upper half of her face, her mother’s knitted brows beheld her worry obviously enough. “I really am sorry, Val. You seemed like you had felt really shocked last night. Now that you have slept on it, do you understand?”

Her head shook. “No. I don’t understand it, and I won’t understand it. I have zero desire to talk about this any further.” Val bit into her lip, then brought the cup of orange juice to her mouth. Since her mother had made her a nice breakfast, Val might as well eat it. If not for a display of goodwill, then she simply ate out of practicality to not let the food go to waste.

Her mother sat at the table across from her, sipping on a mug of coffee and nibbling on her own plate of food. That dish had not been fancied up to the same extreme as Val’s helping. Her mother cut into one of her two pancakes that made up her entire meal. “You know Val, if you do not want to feel like a puppet on a string, you could always reject everything to do with your divine blood entirely.”

The fork clattered against Val’s plate as she dropped it. Now, that suggestion had just been absurd. “Why would I do that?”

“Well your father wants you to rise up to your potential as a demigoddess. As a mortal woman, I am nothing but his pawn in the mortal realm, raising his immortal children. You could reject all of that and stay here with me, instead. You could lead a normal, mortal life.” The desperate pain in her mother’s voice made Val wince on her behalf.

“No, I’m still not going to do that. I’m sorry, Mom.”

“It’s okay,” her mother said with a sigh. “I was not expecting you to change your mind that easily.”

Val would not have expected her mother to give up that easily either, but a long pause settled over the table between them.

The remainder of their breakfast passed in stiff silence. Her mother must have decided not to bother Val anymore with the issue that hung over their heads. As for Val, she saw no reason to initiate polite conversation at the table. She ate quickly so that she could leave for school sooner. It was not that Val wanted to go to school early, she simply wanted to escape from this awkward atmosphere with her mother.

The scratch of forks on plates and the chewing of food filled the emptiness between them.

“I have finished. I’m going to head to school now.” Val stood up while the chair slid behind her with a skid. Once she pushed it back in place, she hurried her dishes over to the sink. From there, Val rushed to the door but stopped short in the doorway to turn back to her mother. “Thank you for breakfast. It was good.”

Her mother looked up to her with a tight smile. “You’re most welcome, Val. I hope that you have a good day at school.”

Val dashed off with her backpack slung over one shoulder. Some of the heaviest books made her bag slap against her back as she jogged down the steps to the apartment building. Her rush to get out of the house carried over into her walk to school.

At a brisk pace, Val set out towards school. The city blocks passed in the haze of familiar buildings in her neighborhood. At school, Val realized that she had a whole half an hour to kill before the first class would begin.

This spare time, Val used to strengthen her resolve. She would not let the things that her mother said about anything influence what she would do with her life. Val wanted to reach her potential with her divine blood and find a way to become one of the goddesses that mortals worshipped. Ross being sent ahead of her would do nothing to deter her from reaching the Summit of Ascension in her own good time. She would become a goddess.

Then, the school day began which forced Val to sit through all of the classes in her daily schedule once more. The redeeming factor of this humdrum day was the fact that today was Friday. As the seconds ticked on, they grew longer. So too, Val’s anticipation grew for that final school bell, ringing along to release her for the weekend.

For the last day of her school week, Val came into the animal shelter cheering, “Happy Friday!”

The shelter worker did not reply to her upbeat greeting. Instead, he only stared on at her with a glum look.

“Are Fridays not happy at the animal shelter?” Val asked. In retrospect, that had probably been a dumb thing to say.

Animals on death row were likely still scheduled to die regardless of the day of the week. On weekends though, she imagined that more of them had a chance to be adopted as people had more free time to look for a furry companion. Perhaps some people would seek to get rid of their pets too, though, and that thought saddened Val again.

“Well,” the shelter worker began, “I have some bad news about Foofy.”

“No,” Val breathed. She had to plant her feet to the cement floor to keep herself from running into the dog kennels to check for him at once.

Foofy had to be there still. As foolish as it had been for her to become attached to any of the shelter dogs, Val loved Foofy more than any other dog in the world. He could not have been put down like Gigi. If she would never get to see him again, then Foofy had better have been adopted like Polar. Val could not bear for Foofy to have anything other than a happy ending.

“Foofy has been at the shelter for six days now. Tomorrow will have to be his last day here, whether he will be adopted... or destroyed.” The shelter worker’s voice dropped over that last word, likely not wanting to even say it.

“What?” Val cried out. “No! Foofy is such a good dog. There is no reason to kill him.” Her heart pounded hard, but at least Foofy still had a chance—one day left.

The shelter worker could only look on at her with melancholy eyes. Of course, he would agree with her sentiment, but he could not do anything about the workings of the animal shelter. The death of innocent animals day-in and day-out probably made his job one of the most depressing occupations out there. Did he himself have to put the animals down?

Just as the shelter worker had explained to her once before, in order for new animals to come in, the old ones would have to leave one way or another. Foofy could not be one of those dogs, though. He simply could not be.

Val could feel how all of the blood had drained away from her face. Foofy could not die here, because she would not let him. If she could do anything as a demigoddess, she would save a dog.