In The Bird Song | TWD

chapter 19 - A lick of luck

TW: graphic description of injury's specifically cuts and wounds

Harlow pov

Somethings wet is on my cheek. I groan groggily muttering "Judith don't slobber." I reach over beside me expecting to find Judith snuggled up beside me but instead my hand is met with thick matted hair. Wait not hair fur. My eyes fly open and I frantically scramble away from the unknown creature beside me.

However once my eyes adjust to the daylight I'm see what I think is a small black bare but upon further scrutiny I realise that the snout is to long for a bare and the ears to big. The animal is sopping wet which makes identifying the creature harder than it would have been otherwise but after a minute of staring I can confidently identify the black mass of fur as a dog of some kind.

Slowly my memory's come back to me breaking through the fog that seems to have taken up a permanent residents in my brain. I remember fleeing terminus and my desperate hunt for water. I remember falling into the stream and being to frail to get up.

I look up at the dog lying a couple meters away from me in wonder. He or she must have pulled my unconscious body from the water and dragged me to land. I realise the dog is staring at me with big black eyes expectantly, however I'm not exactly sure what to do next. The dog doesn't seem aggressive or diseased but it is also the size of a huge wolf or a small bear and could probably mall me to death if it felt inclined to do so.

On the other hand the creature saved my life and then sat by my side liking me until I woke up. making up my mind I tentatively scoot closer to the animal holding my hand out for it to sniff. The dog lifts its head and sniffs my offered appendage hesitantly before gently licking my fingers.

"Thank you for saving me" I coo. the dog who I decide looks like a girl tilts her head in a confused gesture. "you're a good girl" I praise and this time she seems to understand because her tail gives a lazy wag and she lets out a soft bark that's more of a yip.

Now that I'm more confident I'm not about to be mauled I give the dog a scratch behind the ears and she turns her head into my palm in a sine of trust. My hand brushes something harder and courser than fur around her neck so I brush away her matted hair discovering a collar. "You were somebody else's once huh?" I say as I turn the tag on the collar round to read the information engraved onto the metal.

Posy MacKinnon

Born: 2004

Call: 66 0145 6897

I smile "posy huh girl?" the dogs head turns to the side in recognition at hearing her name confirming it is indeed hers. She's an older dog, if she was born in 2004 that would have made her around 8 years old at the start of the apocalypse and were on the second year of the world ending making her around 10 years old now. it makes sense now that I properly look I can see grey hairs around her eyes and snout.

Posy must have been on her own for a good while judging by her emaciated body that is hidden beneath her thick coat. Just as I begin to wonder how she's fed herself I notice something lying just behind her.

A fat grey rabbit lays dead on the ground bearing what I'm 90% sure is a dog bite on its neck. "Did you catch that" I ask pointing to the dead rabbit. Posy's eyes follow my finger and upon seeing the dead animal she gets up tail wagging and trots over to it, she picks it up and prances back to me dropping the rabbit into my lap. She is clearly extremely pleased with her catch so I match her energy excitedly praising "thank you. You're such a clever girl."

Posy lets out a huff as if to tell me she knows fine well how clever she is and I laugh at her indignance. I'm not sure if its actually safe to eat an animal that a dogs taken a bite out off, especially a potentially diseased dog but I'm willing to take the risk because I've not eaten in days and I'm not sure I can hunt until I get some energy back.