Once Val had regained enough energy to stand up, she also found the energy to dart around with Foofy across the beach. Since she had been doing so much training for herself as of late, she had not been spending a fair amount of time with Foofy.

On her day off, at last, Val dedicated this time not only to Foofy, but also his training. While enticing him with the leftover scraps of fish, she tried to teach him new commands.

“Stay,” she said and walked away.

Apparently he had not known how to stay that time when she left him tied outside of a convenience store to buy some supplies for her journey. Foofy tried trotting after her, wanting the pieces of fish in her hand.

“No! Bad Foofy.” Stopping, she told Foofy to sit which was the one command that he did seem to reliably know. Her hand stuck out in front of his nose, fingers spread wide to help him get the idea. “Stay,” she said more sternly.

Val started walking away again, and once more, Foofy followed her.

“No. Bad Foofy!”

This pattern followed until eventually Foofy decided to lay down and wait for all of the scoldings to pass.

“Good Foofy!” she cheered.

Laying there, his ears pricked up, and he looked to her with renewed attention.

In a calm walk, Val approached him and flipped him the treat before praising him more thoroughly. “Good stay. Good Foofy. What a good boy!” She gave him some energetic pets too while he swallowed the bite of fish whole.

Again, she worked with him at this until he seemed to reliably understand what stay meant. After that, she worked on the come command.

“Foofy, come!”

He kept laying there, staying like a good boy, just like how he had obeyed the previous command.

“Come, Foofy,” she said in a higher-pitched, friendly voice. Crouching down to the sand, she opened her arms up to welcome him towards her. “Come.”

Foofy hauled himself up and walked over hesitantly. Upon the lack of scolding, his ears lifted higher and he came running with his tongue flopped outside of his mouth.

“Good come! What a good boy. Good job, Foofy.” These same lines of praise, she mixed up every time. Val always made sure that she told him what a good dog he was, repeated the command, and said his name every single time. Most importantly, her voice spoke with a tone of praise to communicate her pleasure with him.

Best of all, Foofy received a treat which he happily munched on.

The next command when she hollered, “Come!” Foofy came running as fast as he could. His paws pranced about in front of her in the receipt of praise, his nub of a tail wagging away.

It would do no good to overwhelm Foofy with too much material for one day, but Val wanted to teach him one more word, associated with something that would hopefully come naturally for him. First, she rutted around in the forest to find a satisfactory stick. With this in hand, she ran back along the beach. The Dobie jumped at her side with so much enthusiasm.

“Do you want the stick?” Val asked. His last stick, she had thrown away into the ocean inadvertently, back before she had known about his inhibitions around water.

This time, she knew to throw it on land, so she gave it her best throw along the beach. “Fetch!”

The stick sailed through the air and landed with a puff in the sand, far enough away that it was otherwise out of sight.

Foofy went bolting after it at top speed.

“Yes, good fetch! Good Foofy.” She continued to praise him as he ran back with the stick. Each time, she made sure to use the fetch command.

On an odd throw, she said, “Stay,” and threw the stick.

Foofy started to run, but when she yelled at him in correction, he slowed down and stood there, looking back to her.

“Good stay. Good Foofy.” Now, he got to have his praises once he had listened to her. Val made him hold for a few solid seconds before she said, “Okay! Fetch now.”

He took off once more and retrieved the stick. They played until Foofy lay down, all tuckered out. His paws crossed over the stick where he set to chewing it, becoming a doggy woodchipper.

Val sat beside him. One hand was set at his back so that she could absently stroke him.

With a turn of her head, she looked out to the ocean. The breeze ruffled through her short hair and blew it against the back of her neck. One hand lifted up to her head, touching the ends of her hair.

The spontaneous haircut still left a sour taste in her mouth, even a month after the fact. Not having long hair made her head feel lighter and freer, which she had to admit made her training and all of the physical activity of this last month more convenient. Still, Val missed her hair.

Tavras had gone too far in making her mad enough to use Divine Judgement, back then.

The consequences of his actions carried over even now, just as it would for many months into the future. It would take almost a year for her hair to grow back to its original length, she suspected.

The downtime of her day off allowed Val to mourn the loss of her hair more starkly, for better or for worse.

“Hey Val,” Tavras called from behind.

Her teeth gritted at his return, not in the best mood to see him right now. All in all, she liked him, so she did not want a momentary bad mood to spoil any sort of progression between them. Therefore, she put on a cheerful smile and said, “Welcome back, Tavras.”

“I saw you spending time with Foofy. How did the dog training go?”

“It went very good! He learns fast. I think that he may know some commands from his previous owners, so he has been easy to train.” Val talked about how she met Foofy at the animal shelter to fill the conversation between herself and Tavras.

The rest of her day off passed peacefully like this. She played with Tavras in the ocean some more, did another training session with Foofy and played with him too, of course. Finally, Tavras caught more fish for their dinner.

Her first day off had been amazing, all in all. The break left her feeling more refreshed to resume her full training schedule tomorrow.

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 Come command - can come like a good boy Fetch command - can fetch like a good boy Sit command - can sit like a good boy Stay command - can stay like a good boy