PA 3.5: End of a Tail

Chapter XV Part V

"P-Purrfect!"

It had only taken a few minutes for Olive to get bored of staring at the pictures adorning the wall. They felt their body's heat battling against the poorly insulated house, forcing them to focus on something more substantial. They had immediately thought of lighting the fireplace, but they quickly dismissed the idea upon recalling just how dangerous and scary matches were. Besides that, the room was vacant of both logs and any kind of firestarter. Under the assumption that Coco just lit her fires with magic, the pup instead piled up all the cushions in the room, forming a large pile to lie down on atop the carpeting. They had quickly scoured their messy blue and yellow backpack for construction paper and coloured markers before putting the bag back up against the wall near the front door.

Olive was lying face down on their pile of cushions, letting their legs jut up into the air and kicking them back and forth. They were holding their head up with their left arm as they scribbled with their right.

They appraised their drawing of Sparky for a moment. It was far from the best doodle on earth, but the pup was proud of it for reasons they couldn't put their paw on. In permanent marker, a particularly two-dimensional representation of the husky was smiling. He was standing before a shakily drawn goal post, fully decked out in every bit of goalie's armour the mutt could remember, along with a thickly headed hockey stick in his paws.

They intended to give it to the dog in question but paused, remembering Rover's sombre state. Olive wondered if it might be better if the terrier received the drawing.

"W-Well... Rover really seems to like Sparky. I bet he'd like getting a drawing of his b-best furiend," Olive paused, overthinking the ramifications of something like that. Their voice dampened, "or maybe I should keep it; h-he might think I'm telling him to be more like Sparky..." The dog carefully considered their options, their new perspective clashing with their latent optimism.

"Hey! Mitt?!" Coco yelled from her room.

Olive smiled, nervously snapping out of their deliberation. "M-Mitt left a little while ago," Olive's eyes sparkled, "d-do you need m-me to get them?"

There was a pause from Coco. "Nah, but if you see them, tell them we need more blankets from their place, or something!"

"I could get some from my p-place!" Olive excitedly shouted. "I have l-lots, and they're so soft and comfy." They let loose a sound halfway between a mew and a nostalgic sigh, shutting their eyes and remembering just how soft their collection of wool blankets was.

"... Maybe later." There was a worrisome, suggestive tone to Coco's voice. "You should stay put for now. Okay, Olive?"

"O-Oh... Right," they said, remembering the nature of the sleepover and the danger they put themselves in by being away from Coco or Mitt.

The dog looked down at their drawing; suddenly, every imperfection sprang out at them, assaulting their senses as if the collection of lines and circles was just that, rather than a complete piece.

"Maybe some snacks will help me feel better," they said to themselves, remembering how it was already just past noon and how very empty their stomach suddenly felt.

Quickly reaching over for their backpack, they grabbed the 'Hello Puppy!' branded lunch box within and popped the metal container's clasps without a second thought. Without paying attention to the mess they were making, the dog chewed up a half-dozen vaguely bacon-flavoured dog treats.

Once those were through, they randomly pulled out the next thing their paw fumbled past; a clear container with an aluminum-sealed top, filled with three ounces of a particular frozen treat.

"D-DIPPIN DOGS?!" they loudly exclaimed, eyes going as wide as they ever had in jubilation. After muttering a small prayer of thanks to their parents for packing such a rare delicacy, they peeled off the aluminum. They started licking up the contents of the plastic container with reckless abandon, only stopping to pick up and eat the occasional dog-shaped bead that would fall onto their lap, a cushion, or onto the carpet.

Once there was none of the flash-frozen treat left to gobble, the dog licked what little of the peanut butter & cream flavoured mess they could scavenge off of their jowls. "I thought they stopped making these! Its b-been so long..."

Behind them, on the table where it had been left, the black plastic phone started to ring in its receiver.

Olive sprang up into a kneeling position at the sudden sound, their floppy ears perking as much as the heavy things could. The phone paused, then rang again.

"I-I should probably just let them leave a message," they muttered to themselves, silently holding themselves back from answering the thing. "But, maybe it's someone who needs help?" They thought, giving themselves the motivation to bounce up onto their feet and skip over to the phone, picking it up with both paws as they answered.

"H-Hullo?" they said into the phone.

"..."

"Hewwo? Mom, is that you?" they asked, feeling a little unsettled at the silence. "I think you muted it a-again, I can't heaw- I mean, hear you."

"..."

Olive stumbled around, forcing a laugh to break the tension. "Oh! Haha, I'm such a d-dummy; my mom doesn't have Coco's number. Is this somepuppy from her sc-school?"

"..."

"Don't worry, I'm Coco's furiend! I can take a message for them if you w-want?"

"..."

"... Hello?"

Still, there was no response.

As Olive put their ear closer to the phone, they could swear there was the raspy sound of wind- or air brushing up against the other phone's mic, as if it had been left off its hook. The sounds were uneven and came in intervals of every three seconds or so.

It almost reminded them of someone breathing.

Olive pursed their lips and confusedly hung up the phone. They felt uncomfortable, though thankfully, their lackadaisical mind swung from the call as soon as it had ended.

"That was weird..." they muttered.

--- Author's Note:

I love this part, its one of my favorite parts. That is all.