Caffeine stood frozen where he had landed after he reflexively bounced away from the loud noise and he saw Dearest Human get hit in the face by a terrifying yet perfectly silent Brightness.

He flinched back. His tail tucked down tight. A whimper escaped as Dearest Human made a pain sound and fell. “Attack?” he thought. “Attack!” He charged. Barking his meanest and fiercest threats at the Brightness. The Brightness did not flinch or back down so he gave up on the threats and ran to Dearest Human’s head.

His eyes were open but didn’t see Caffeine, only stared straight up. And his eyes were full of the Brightness. It danced and burned and shot little bits of brightness up into the sky. His best and saddest whine followed by a good but cautious face licking gave no results, except to make his tongue tingle and not in a good way. Dearest Human smelled wrong too. Smelled like pain, wounded, sadness. “Come!” he barked. “Go! Give! Stay! Sit! Cookie!!!”

The magic words didn’t work. He looked back to the Brightness. It was moving! The Brightness had already covered up one Belly Scratcher but now it was crawling up towards Dearest Human's head! Caffeine looked at the Brightness. It was coming from the hole. The bad, not interesting, scary hole. An idea came to him. Pull Dearest Human away from the bad scary Brightness hole!

Caffeine latched his best tugging grip onto Dearest Human’s jacket and pulled. There was a slight ripping sound and he whined but didn’t let go. Dearest Human would be upset at him for breaking his things but he would gladly have Dearest Human anger shout at him, that would be better than this pain quiet. He tugged harder. There was more ripping but Dearest Human moved! Just a little, but it would work! He would save the Dearest Human!

He started up his best tugging growl and went to work.

Tug! He always won when they played tugging.

Tug! Sometimes Dearest Human would pull the toy right out of his mouth.

Tug! But he always grabbed it again.

Tug! And always Dearest Human would make the happy sounds.

Tug! That means a win!

Tug! The Brightness was still spreading.

Tug! It was covering his chest.

Tug! It was going down his legs.

Tug! Over his face.

Tug! Getting closer to the shoulder he was tugging.

Tug! He could feel Dearest Human trembling as the Brightness covered more and more of him.

Tug! The Brightness was going to get him too!

Tug! I will win!

Tug! I always win!

Tug! The Brightness touched his nose.

Tug! Rip!

He stumbled back with a whimper. The pain! He looked at the hole. Dearest Human’s Cookie Giver was half out of the Brightness hole. He dropped the piece of coat that had ripped free and looked at Dearest Human. The Brightness had covered him completely and he was visibly trembling now. The snow was trembling. The ground was trembling. Everything seemed to be trembling and it was getting stronger. He dove back in summoning his newest even better tugging growl. He latched on and it Burned!

Tug! The pain will go away when I win!

Tug! It burned his nose.

Tug! It burned his eyes so he closed them.

Tug! It was spreading so fast!

Tug! Maybe there will be Chicken when he wins.

Tug! Or Pizza!

Tug! Dearest Human had left some in the cold box.

Tug! That would be so good!

Tug! They would have pizza.

Tug! Dearest Human would make the happy noises.

Tug! Then scratch his belly in just the right way while he napped.

Tug! He was so tired.

Tug! Usually he would win Tugging by now.

Tug! He felt Dearest Human inside looking at him and smiling! It felt like getting a belly rub in the sleep place and eating pizza at the same time!

Tug! He was so happy! He could feel his tail going wild and wanted to dance around in the happy dance but kept his feet planted and kept pulling.

Tug! Something was wrong!

Tug! Dearest Human was slipping away.

Tug! Like a piece of pizza going in the trash, but even worse!

Tug! He was losing!

Tug! Dearest Human is too big!

Tug! No… I am too small…

Tug! If only I could be bigger…

He let go of the jacket and looked at Dearest Human. The Brightness had covered him and seemed to be eating him since he was definitely getting smaller. He knew the brightness was all over him too but it didn’t matter. That was small pain but this… this… he didn’t know what this was but knew that he would trade all the pizza, all the chicken, even all the belly scratches just to hear one more happiness noise from Dearest Human.

He howled into the sky in a sad and desperate little howl.

Then the howl deepened, the tone dropping into a roaring base. An impossible sound for any dog to make. The snow danced in the sky. The towering pines shivered and started dropping the snow piled on their branches. He roared out the pain and fear and defiance.

“He is MINE!”

“MY Dearest Human!”

“YOU.. CAN… NOT… HAVE… HIM!”

The roar ended with a deafening boom. The world above his howl was obliterated. Snow, tree branches, even the tops of some trees. All shredded and blasted up and away. A cone of absolute destruction. A hole opened in the clouds revealing clear blue sky. Beneath him the snow blew away in a near perfect circle. The ground under his feet bucked upwards and then settled back with some rumbling.

Caffeine finally opened his eyes and looked at the hole where he could hear rocks clattering and banging. As he watched the Brightness thinned and split into smaller individual lances before with a last rumble from the hole the Brightness was gone.

Dearest Humans hand was free and the Brightness was fading from Dearest Human, sinking and going away.

I WIN!

Victory.

Caffeine felt his tail feebly trying to wave but he was so tired. The Brightness had faded from him. His feet hurt. His teeth hurt. His everything hurt. He could smell blood. He had tugged too hard. No. He had tugged the best! Now it was rest time. Or eating time and then rest time. Yes. Dearest Human would carry him to the warm rumbly place and they would eat pizza and Dearest Human would scratch his belly and make the happiness sounds while he napped.

He limped over to Dearest Human who was no longer trembling with the Brightness in his eyes. Now his eyes were closed and he seemed to be having a nap. Caffeine decided that was a good idea. A quick nap before the pizza. Would be sad to be too tired for pizza. He gave a gentle lick to Dearest Human just to reassure him that everything was ok now, then he curled up next to his head with only a little whimper, a sigh, and then he was out.