Lamia's Pet

Welcoming Party

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Peter spoke as he strode into the kitchen, where Virgil was the only one present, chopping up potatoes into uneven cubes.

"Mum just went off to get the big pot. You could probably go grab some water from out back." Virgil spoke, pausing when he had to chop a potato and cursing under his breath at having made another imperfect cut.

Hiding his smile at his brother's frustration, Peter stepped outside through the backdoor in the kitchen.

They had a well a short walk from the house that they used. It was a bit expensive to have put in at the time, but it beat having to walk into town and back lugging heavy buckets of water from the town well. They'd certainly gotten their money's worth when it came to walking distance, to be sure.

Walking along the well trodden dirt path, Peter breathed in the fresh air deeply. The heat of the afternoon sun bringing out the smell of pine needles and sunlight and made it perfect strolling weather. If Peter had the time he would have taken a long walk, but the water had to be delivered. In fact, he should probably pick up the pace. The stew took time to cook, and the sooner he got the water back the sooner they could eat.

With that in mind, Peter took to a trot and was soon at the well in no time. The well was very quaint, cobblestone made up the rounded sides of it and a little wooden roof covered it and hung a pulley system that one used to raise the water out with a bucket. It was well maintained, though a bit of moss had began to grow on the cobbles that made it look a bit more mysterious.

Leaning over the side, Peter peered down into the darkness of the well. There were wood planks across the hole so that the space was too small to fall into, but even so, it made Peter nervous to look down into it. Whistling into the hole, Peter listened to his echo as it carried down into the depths and eventually disappeared. It made Peter shiver to think about how deep the well was. But he was wasting time, it was time to get the water. The rope already lead down into the well, meaning a bucket was already on the hook, so he could begin pulling it up.

Grasping the rope firmly, Peter gave it a tug, feeling the weight at the other end. Some wells had a crank one could operate instead of pulling on a rope, but Peter's family weren't that luxurious. A little manual labor wouldn't kill him. It'd been some time since he had gotten to do something for himself anyway.

"Bark!"

Peter jumped, letting go of the rope and hearing a splash echo up from the well as the bucket landed in the water. Whipping around, Peter looked for the origin of the low tone bark.

A few meters away was a medium sized dog, standing stiff with its chest out, its pointed ears facing the direction of Peter, staring at him with dark, beady eyes, unblinking. It's coat was black, but had light brown patches that gave it a splotchy look. Most notably was a spot of brown that was just below its left eye. A dark brown leather collar sat around its neck.

A sigh of relief left Peter as he discerned the details of the dog. "You scared me, Duck."

The dog cocked its head to the side at the mention of its name.

"Don't you recognize me? Cmere!" Peter whistled in a high pitch and bent down, clapping his hands and gesturing the dog to come forward.

The dog's tail began to wag, and it bound over in excitement at Peter's welcoming. Huffing as it trotted up to him and jumped on him bodily, whining a bit as it sniffed and lapped at his face.

"Hi Duck, I missed you too, girl." Peter said between laughs as he craned his neck back to keep from getting dog slobber in his eyes. Petting all up and down the dog's body as she made no effort to contain her excitement.