Regrouping and Realizations

You plunge through the forest hapazardly, clutching your big stick and pointed rock as you dash for the hideaway cave and try to ignore the sounds of your slower pack mates being slaughtered behind you. Maybe those screams and shrieks are something else! Yeah, they're inventing a new sort of song! One so good that, uh, you'll never see them again!

Fuck, just keep running.

You aren't paying enough attention to avoid stumbling over something soft and struggling as you sprint for your life, but do have the presence of mind to realize it's Mo-Mo, the runt of your pack, whimpering and writhing as she tries to free herself from the root she's become tangled in. Every nerve in your body is screaming for you to just keep running, but she looks up at you with big, pleading eyes, and you can't help but turn back to free her. You clumsily but quickly hack apart the base of the root with your stick and rock to allow Mo-Mo to scrabble to her feet, the little mongrel still whimpering and blubbering her thanks as you try to drag both of you to back to the cave.

Luckily, but morbidly, the monsters seem to be content busying themselves with the massacre of their first dozen or so victims, because you realize that you're no longer being chased. Which is good, because you think your lungs are going to explode. You release Mo-Mo with a gasp before collapsing against a tree, body shuddering with exhertion as you try to catch your breath. The runt whines nervously, her ears laid flat against her head as she starts and jumps at every noise in the woods.

"W-w-we gotta go to the caaave...," she all but bawls, rubbing up against you in a manner that you would both normally find soothing, but right now is just making it incredibly difficult to get your second wind. Snapping at her won't help anything though, it would literally be like kicking a puppy. Instead, you gulp down one more lungful of air and wrap your arm back around her to exhaustedly begin limping the rest of the way towards the hideaway. This is alright, you're both okay.

Not all of your pack mates can say that right now. So wag your tail already; sad as it sounds, this is as close to a win as you'll get tonight

The cave that's revealed when you bush aside the veil of vines and brush that conceal it is cold and damp, without so much as a bonfire for light and warmth, but right now it's the sweetest sight you've ever seen. Though you note, with a sinking feeling, how few of the other mongrels made it back. It took you and Mo-Mo a long time to make it, and you're pretty sure there was no one behind you. You collapse to the ground, Mo-Mo immediately snuggling against you for comfort and warmth as her tail wags furiously in both relief and stress. Better look around, see who made it. You're gonna have to figure out who's the biggest now.

You immediately notice, with no small amount of pleasure, that Gert made it. Not that there was any surprise; if anyone was going to get out of this alive, it was her. The big female is curled up sullenly near the back of the cave, purposefully keeping her distance from the others. Still, beyond being happy to see she's still alive, you immediately discount her as the next leader. Oh sure, she's big and strong. Nearly as big as Yip-Yap was, and certainly a hair bigger than even the biggest of the other survivors. But Gert is a loner, and that's not the way of your kind. Some kinds of bigness make you not-big. You've always been proud of that bromide, though you're confident if you ever expressed it aloud you'd be laughed at and punched, and fed dirt. Probably by Gert.

So, who else. Only about ten, it looks like. There's Dool, and Hi-Hi, and Fat Face, and Soup...is Soup bigger than Fat Face? You ponder that as you try to soothe Mo-Mo, the little pup sniffling in your lap. Soup is probably a bit taller, but Fat Face is way wider. You'd be fascinated by the implications of how exactly Bigness is quantified under other circumstances, but right now you're bone tired and just want someone to tell you what you're all going to do. That's why when Hi-Hi, certainly not small but probably not the true biggest, stands up and starts barking out how it's going to be, you're more than happy to just drink it all in.

"Okay you guys!" The mongrel puffs out his chest as he addresses the motley group of survivors. "So it didn't work! Who knows why?"

You open your mouth, but Hi-Hi barrels on. Guess that was one of those no-answer questions.

"It was the fault, obviously, of all those guys that didn't make it! They were too small and weak! Or they'd've made it! Those dead dumdums really messed up!"

The others murmur in agreement, but you're a bit skeptical. Sure, obviously Hi-Hi's logic is flawless, and he's a very gifted orator, but something still seems wrong. You're confident he'll bring it around for you. He's the biggest after all, right"

"It was because of dead runts like Flan! Like Whimmy! Like Mo-Mo!"

Mo-Mo whimpers against you, and you decide it's probably for the best not to mention right now that she actually survived.

"They got Yip-Yap killed! But don't worry, because I know how we'll get ! I know how we can still come out on top, like we were always S'POSED to!"

You and the other mongrels lean forward in anticipation, tails whapping against the floor. Besides Gert, at least, who just looks tired and bored. Which is crazy! The biggest is about to give you guys the big idea! This is big!

Hi-Hi raises his finger dramatically. "I say that tomorrow, when the sun beings to set, we go back to the fortress..." He pauses, one of the others whining for him to go on, "...and. We. ALL. PEE ON IT!"

The others immediately howl their approval, rapturously delighting in Hi-Hi's big plan. You, on the other hand are struck by a piercing chill. But...that was Yip-Yap's plan. That was the dead Yip-Yap's plan, and it got most of the rest of the pack dead as well.

You almost when the thought strikes you that maybe the biggest dog in the room isn't the smartest one, and that Hi-Hi is definitely sending everyone who managed to survive the night back to their deaths before they can even have another supper. You glance wide-eyed down at Mo-Mo, who's exhaustion finally won out over her nerves and has passed out against you. Did you pull her from those roots just so she can be chucked right back in the next day?

You growl faintly to yourself, resolutely clenching a fist. No way. Not a chance. You've got some serious thinking to do about what it actually means to be Big, but right now? As far as the next few hours are concerned? You've only got one concern. And that's saving everyone's stupid, pee-obsessed lives.