[The alarm went off, it was 6 AM. Jason was ready to get to work around the farm. He had 39 starting actions]

[Tess’s Almanac: 6th day of Winter! 85 days until the Winter Festival. Looks like the snow is still coming down today, folks! No blizzard, though, so you should still be clear to travel!]

Jason awoke to a soft whimpering rolling through the house. It took him a moment to figure out what it was, and when the realization hit him, a smile flickered across his face. He rose quickly from his bed, dressed with only a cursory glance out the window (yep, it was still snowing), and ran down the stairs as fast as he could.

Chance stood in the kitchen, inside the small bed of blankets that Jason had made for him. He was still shivering and looked more than a little worse for wear, but all told, was still alive. Jason smiled, then ran to the front door and opened it up. Chance bolted out onto the front porch, shivered as he saw the snow still coming down, but apparently couldn’t wait any longer and did his business right on the wooden boards of the porch. Jason sighed a bit at the mess, but as Chance turned and made his way back into the house, Jason supposed that it would be worth it in the end. He took the dog back to the kitchen, where he set about preparing a breakfast for both himself and the small dog. Eggs sufficed for both, and they soon set about eating.

As he munched on the light meal, Jason gazed down at the small animal. It was a hound, that much was for certain, with a brownish-red coat that was quite short. Open sores stood out upon the coat, largely on its back and feet, though Jason didn’t quite know what might have caused them. Still, though, in many ways it looked healthy. The teeth were all gleaming white and didn’t seem to be missing, which was always a good sign from what little Jason knew about dogs.

The moment that Chance finished eating, he curled up on the small bed and closed his eyes. Jason couldn’t really blame him. Wherever the pup had come from, it had certainly been a long walk, and he would undoubtably spend a good deal of time resting and recovering until he was back to health. Jason looked down at the creature for awhile, then shrugged and rose. He had little else to do that day, and knew someone who knew a great deal more about animals than himself.

It didn’t take long for him to make his way outside and feed Lady, though slogging through the slush and snow was growing more and more difficult. By now, the snow was piled up to a height of between two and three feet, and didn’t show any signs of stopping. The lower layer was still the slush that had fallen the day before, except for the fact that it had since begun to freeze, creating a layer of soft-packed ice just below the snow. If Jason stepped on it wrong, it would cling to his boots as he tried to pick his feet back up. He scowled, but forced himself onward.

When Lady was fed and ready to go, he slogged back to his house and made sure all the doors were locked, then mounted up and rode off for Jeremiah’s place. She was able to handle the snow much easier than himself, and he soon found himself approaching the entrance of the Lazy-H. A few farmhands bustled about, out amidst the pens, but it looked to Jason as if they were mostly just feeding the animals instead of really working with them at all. One of them caught sight of Jason as he rode up, and came jogging through the thick snow to take hold of Lady’s reigns.

“Much obliged.” Jason swung down out of the saddle and flashed a small smile. “Is Jeremiah around?”

“He’s up in the house.” The hired man shrugged. “Doing paperwork or something. The rancher’s guild is getting on him about something or another. You’d have to ask him, though. I just take care of the animals, paperwork is a step above me!”

He chuckled as he led off Lady, and Jason turned and crunched through the snow to the house. He knocked on the door, and a moment later, Delilah swung it open.

“Jason! Why, you look colder than a popsicle. Come on inside, and I’ll get you some hot chocolate.”

“Thank you.” Jason inclined his head as he stepped onto the welcome mat, and Delilah closed the door behind him.

“I assume you’re here to see Jeremiah?”

“If he’s around and available.”

“He’s in his study. Jeremiah! Company!”

“Patience!” Jeremiah called back. “I’ve got ears, I can hear.”

Delilah rolled her eyes and lowered her voice. “You sure wouldn’t know it when I ask him to help with the chores. That dog-like hearing of his is quite selective, mind you.”

She bustled off toward the kitchen, and Jeremiah emerged from his office with a grin on his face.

“It’s called focusing.” He called after Delilah. “You get in the zone, and I don’t hear a thing, whether it’s you or a cannon.”

“Trust me, if a cannon went off right next to the house, you’d be running out to help them shoot whatever it is they’re shooting at.”

Jeremiah chuckled and shrugged. “Yeah, probably.” He sighed and turned to Jason. “What can I help you with today? I’m afraid I don’t have a ton of time to talk. Livestock guild and all that.”

Jason grimaced in sympathy. “Anything I can help with?”

“Not unless you know a better way to treat wyrms than the stuff I’ve been using.” Jeremiah scowled. “They’re nasty little fire-breathing parasites, they can eat up a full-grown bull in an hour if you let ‘em unchecked. Anyway, there’s this handy little medicine that’ll kill them as soon as they take a bite out of a treated animal - Well, as you probably guessed, it’s made by the same company that produced that handy monstertrap spray!”

“Which means it’s now been made illegal.” Jason nodded in understanding.

“And nothing else I can buy works half as well.” Jeremiah scowled. “You get docked pay if they find out you’re treating with the stuff, but the payment they take away is less than the money I loose when my cattle are getting eaten. The guild hasn’t particularly jived with that logic, though, so we’ve been working on alternate solutions.”

“What’s the best one you’ve come up with?”

Jeremiah glanced sideways at Delilah as she came walking back into the main room with a steaming mug of milk-brown liquid. “I personally have been advocating for leading a rebellion against Illumitir and declaring Summer Shandy its own province, which would let us make our own laws, but someone told me that if I value anything about our relationship, I’d give the idea up.”

“You sound like you’re still considering it.” Delilah raised an eyebrow.

“‘Cause I suspect you’d change your tune if you were a queen.” Jeremiah crossed his arms, then glanced back at Jason. “Now, what can I do for you?”

Jason flashed a small smile, then explained about the dog. When he finished, a grin stretched across Jeremiah’s face from ear to ear.

“Ah, now that sounds like a fun way to spend your winter!”

“He’s adorable, that’s for sure.” Jason chuckled, then shrugged. “Anyway, I was just coming to you to check on… Oh, I don’t know. What to do for a dog? There was a stray cat around our house up in Illumitir, but as you’ll likely remember from a couple years ago, I’m not exactly an animal person.”

“You can say that again.” Jeremiah laughed. He stroked his chin for a few moments, then shrugged. “Well, the first thing to do, and probably the thing you least want to do, is to make sure that you look around for the hound’s old owners. Most likely you won’t find them, and the description you gave doesn’t sound like any of the farm dogs I know from the farms in this area, but it would sure be better to put up a few fliers than to get accused of stealing a dog a few months down the line.”

Jason’s heart sank slightly, but he nodded. “Just put up some posters in Summer Shandy?”

“Yeah, I reckon.” Jeremiah nodded. “Check with Constable Hank. He’s got connections with the constables in the other neighboring cities. He might be able to send word out to them, just in case someone from another area lost their dog. Like I said, I doubt you find anything, it sounds like he’s been walking for quite some distance, but you never know.”

Jason nodded slowly. “What do you think I should do to take care of it until then?”

“You’ll want to get it checked out, of course.” Jeremiah stroked his chin for a moment. “We don’t really have a veterinarian in Summer Shandy, of course. I hire the vet to come out from Deepforge every now and again when I feel the need, but for emergencies I honestly just grab Theresa half the time. I’m sure she’d love the chance, she’s fond of cute little animals like that. I’m sure she could give you a balm or something for the wounds.”

“I’ll do that.” Jason flashed a smile. “Thanks.”

“Oh, and don’t give it too much human food.” Jeremiah called out as Jason started to turn to leave. “You can do a little every now and again, but a lot of human food is pretty deadly for dogs. Stick to the store-bought dog food, or train it to hunt monsters. I’ve heard of some good hounds that can kill twice their weight in monsters every day, though you have to teach them which ones they can eat, and which ones will eat them. I’ve seen a few dogs that tangled with razorgrasses, and it wasn’t a pretty sight.”

Jason shuddered, but nodded. “I’ll do that. Thanks.”

“Oh! One more thing.” Jeremiah called out again as Jason once more turned to leave. “Make sure not to keep it inside too much. If you’re wanting a good farm helper, it’s going to need to be out with you working. Obviously, you’re not working too much over the winter, but you know what I mean. Don’t be afraid to take it out with you. If it loves you, even if it might momentarily dart off into the grass, it’ll come back.”

“You sure have a lot of these last-minute tips.” Jason remarked as he paused near the door, sipping on the hot chocolate. “You sure you’re not wanting this dog?”

At that, Jeremiah chuckled. “I do miss having a dog around the farm. We used to have a whole pack of them to chase off monsters, actually. That was a time.” He sighed deeply in remembrance. “‘Course, they all got eaten when we got enough of them to hit a summons condition for a pack of direwolves, and Delilah hasn’t let me get any more of them since then because she doesn’t want me getting ‘attached’ to them anymore or something.”

“You bawled for a week after they all got eaten!” Delilah called from the other room. “I am not dealing with that again, and I don’t want you going through it either.”

“That’s fair.” Jeremiah sighed, then winked at Jason. “Still, I don’t suppose you’d mind a visit every now and again?”

“Have at it!” Jason laughed, then turned toward the door, placing the hot chocolate on a small table nearby. “Well, that’s what I needed to know. I’ll see you around, Jeremiah.”

Jeremiah bade him farewell, then went stomping back to his office muttering about regulations and government overreach. Jason just laughed, then made his way out into the cold. He stomped through the snow over to the stable, where he chatted with some of the farm hands for a few minutes before mounting Lady and riding back toward home.

It hadn’t been a lot, but it had been what he needed. He would head into town the following day, post the notifications about the missing dog… And then hope and pray that no one came forward to claim the small beast.