Read Wild Dog City (Darkeye Volume 1) for Free Online Page B

rotated his overlarge ears forward. "I'm afraid you'll have to
go further than the next room for me not to hear you. I would have
warned you, but I didn't know the house would have secret
conferences."
    Mhumhi wavered there nervously, one canine
exposed, until Bii added, "I don't plan to do anything about it. I
don't have any stake in what you and Kutta do, or in getting on
your bad side."
    "What about Sacha's bad side?" asked Mhumhi,
relaxing a little.
    "I think that's the only side she has," said
Bii, briefly drawing his lips back in a tiny, devilish grin.
    Mhumhi wagged his tail, reassured, though the
thought tugged at him that what stakes Bii himself had were as
mysterious as the inside of the meat dispensary.
    They made their way back through to the heart
of Oldtown. The streets were much quieter now, as the flood of dogs
leaving had turned into a slow trickle of dogs returning. Mhumhi
kept an eye on Bii, who was starting to limp worse, debating on
whether or not he should offer to carry him again.
    Quite suddenly Bii stopped dead in his
tracks, and Mhumhi nearly tripped over him. The fox had led them on
a short cut through a dim back alley filled with blue dumpsters on
the way to Food Strip Street. Bii was fixated towards the sunny
intersection ahead of them.
    "What's the matter? Is it your leg?"
    Bii did not respond right away, just stood
there with his ears forward and the fur on his back rising.
    "I don't know what it is," he said, "but it's
coming towards us."
    Mhumhi was puzzled. "What, it's a dog, isn't
it? How big is it?"
    "Very big," said Bii, quivering, and then he
turned and squeezed into the tiny gap between the nearest dumpster
and the brick wall.
    "You should hide too," came his strained
voice. "It's coming faster. Hurry, Mhumhi!"
    Mhumhi, bewildered, turned and sniffed
towards the street. All he could make out was dog… and meat… and a
faint scent of blood. He quivered slightly. Ordinarily he would
have thought nothing of the three together, but Bii's fear was
catching. He ran around to the front of the dumpster, thinking he'd
jump into it, but the heavy lid was shut tight. He dithered,
plainly visible in the middle of the alley, and briefly considered
abandoning Bii entirely for a sprint in the opposite direction.
    He deliberated too long, and now his ears caught the sound of it, big and round as they were. He
understood why it had frightened Bii. It was a slow, shuffling,
scraping gait that sounded like no dog he'd ever heard. And it
definitely came from a very large animal. Larger than him.
    Mhumhi, tail tucked as far up against his
belly as it would go, slunk to the other side of Bii's dumpster,
shaking, and pressed himself against the juncture between the metal
and brick. Maybe the thing would pass right by the alley, not go
in.
    The shuffle-scrape continued, growing closer,
pausing… Mhumhi was drooling now, out of fright. It entered the
alley.
    He heard its footsteps, and swallowed
convulsively, pressing himself as far back as he could into the
shadow. It had such a heavy tread, its paws must have been huge-
and that scraping sound, that must be something dragging -
Mhumhi was suddenly able to visualize it: a massive dog, badly
wounded, dragging its heavy back legs behind it as it staggered on
its front paws. Now that it was closer, it smelled like death.
    He squeezed his eyes shut as he heard it
start to pass the dumpster. He hadn't any idea what state Bii was
in now, jammed into that little crevice. He did not know why he was
so frightened. A dog was only a dog, and it sounded injured at
that, so what did he have to fear? Why was his heart hammering so
rapidly?
    It was so close now, so close, and its nose
should be able to pick up Mhumhi's scent now- it was coming past
the dumpster now- if it looked to the left it would see Mhumhi
pressed there, helpless- he had to open his eyes.
    It was not a dog.
    For a moment that was all he understood, that
it was not a dog, as it continued to make its