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Cal was holding some strange snake eel machine in his hand. It was all sparky, but clearly one stomp was enough to kill it.

“What is that?” I asked him.

“I’ve seen these before. The mechanical constructs of the Spring witch, Mayhem.”

I whipped out my notebook and started flipping through the sticky pages. Somewhere in the middle was mention of this witch, Mayhem. Funny enough, she was depicted as a snake woman or a naga. Just like Cal said, those strange little snake things were her creations. I remembered her being a very stressful villain for Cal to deal with for some reason. But, why were they here of all places?

“Don’t tell me we’re dealing with another invader…” I sighed.

“Bark Bark!”

The dog with pale fur had a big old smile on as he looked up at Cal. his little eyes were so adorable and sweet, and that Labrador face was to die for.

Cal was curious about the creature. He’d seen dogs before, but none of them looked quite like this.

“It was with your aid that we discovered these automata serpents.” Cal rubbed his hand across the lab's head, scratching behind his ears. “Thank you for your service, dog.”

The dog was all happy to accept Cal’s praises. He jumped onto Cal and started licking his face like it was some kind of dog lollipop. The brave warrior had fought many foes, but this dog just broke right through his defenses and licked his heart.

“This creature is brave and wonderful!” Cal called out. “I shall take it as my own.”

“Hwooooo!” howled the dog, excitedly.

It was about then that June and the red haired girl peeked into the bathroom, both of them covering their eyes to prevent from seeing anything.

“What happened?” June shouted. “Like, seriously. I can’t tell.”

“And why did we hear barking in there?” the red haired employee questioned. “Did Labrys get out again?” She eventually gave up on covering her face and walked right up to the dog. As much as she tried to pick him up, Labrys just barked and growled.

“Such spirit!” Cal simply picked Labrys up without a hint of resistance. Infact, Labrys continued to lick his face. “I believe the dog has chosen me as his master… No, his best friend. He has performed a great service by leading us to these creations of evil.” Cal turned to me. “Princess Aurilia, would you not accept this beast into your kingdom? I believe he may serve us well.”

“Bark Bark!”

I wasn’t much of a dog person, but the way Cal was holding onto that really happy dog, how could I ever say no?

“Alright,” I nodded. “But you’re responsible for him, okay?” I turned to the red haired employee, who still had her name tag covered by a budgie bird. “Is he house broken, and does he live well with turtles?”

“No and yes,” she replied with a shrug. “He’s the only thing we have left in stock. So if you want him, he’s yours.”

“I know house broken is kinda’ make or break for some people,” June spoke up, “but why didn’t he sell?”

“Didn’t you hear him barking?” the employee asked. “He’s so loud, and he’s always barking at the walls. We think he can see ghosts.”

Honestly, that might have been pretty true. Labrys actually managed to find those snake things, so he definitely could have been one of those paranormal dogs.

“Now I want him even more!” Cal cheered. “Come along, Labrys! We shall find you a double bladed ax to fight with.”

“Bark Bark!”

-(^.^)/

Cal sat in the trunk with Labrys, playing around with him and trying to teach him tricks. Unfortunately, Cal being back there was making the Geep really back heavy, so we were constantly driving at a slight angle. June was convinced our front wheels weren’t even touching the pavement.

While they were busy doing their things, I started scrolling through the different pages of AntHill on my tablet. There were so many books here. I wanted to read each and every one of them. Not just to scout out the competition, but some of them kinda looked interesting.

Maybe I can learn a thing or two from reading the popular ones…

Eventually I found myself looking through those comments again on my book. There were still only five, and I’m now realizing that one of them was just a faker trying to steal my life… But it was nice to actually know I was getting any engagement at all.

“Ooh!” I cooed out. “I got a follower on my book!”

“Congrats!” June said. “Who is it?”

The website didn’t give me a name. It just notified me that I got a follow. Hey, that was one step closer to seven billion! Or is it eight billion now? I’ll have everyone on this planet knowing my name in no time. Wait, should I get it translated to different languages? Maybe I should make it into an audio book…

“Bark Bark! Grrr…”

“Cal, he’s really loud,” June said. “Don’t get him too riled up in here, okay?”

“He doesn’t seem to like the computer,” Cal claimed. “How should I proceed?”

There was a blanket in the back seat, so Cal just used that to cover up the computer. Labrys still seemed pretty bothered, but he wasn’t barking anymore.

“I don’t have a good feeling about this,” June said. “Maybe we just junk that thing and get you a new one.”

“June, no way!” I gave her a disgusted look. “Labrys is our friend.”

“Not Laybris, Auri.”

“No way are you getting rid of Cal either.”

“I meant the darn computer!” she shouted for clarification. “That computer is cursed. Let’s just dump it.”

“No!”

My secret fan fics are on that thing!

“It’s just a suggestion,” she claimed.

“A pretty bad one. You know how much writing I have on that thing?”

“Is it really worth keeping for that?” June asked.

“How could you?” I said, a bit sad at her words.

I knew my stuff wasn’t the greatest, since people kept telling me that, but it was still special to me. I put a lot of time into all that stuff. It felt like a piece of me, and getting rid of it was like throwing away part of my soul.

At first I was thinking of at the very least saving Cal’s stuff, but even the midcore things felt worthwhile.

“I-I’m sorry, Auri. I just said that out of frustration, that's all.” June said. “When you were first thinking about throwing out the Cal story, I couldn’t believe you weren’t going to keep something like that. I mean, it was written so well by and for you, you know? The other stuff felt so different, like you were trying to make others happy and not yourself.”

“I still had a lot of fun writing it all,” I replied.

“Keep every word then,” June smiled. “The good, the bad and the ugly. All of it. I want to read it all too after we fix your computer.”

“Thanks, June,” I smiled back. She could read anything she wanted, except my secret fanfics. “I’m glad you’re my BFF, June. You’re always so supportive.”

“I’m glad you’re my BFF too, Auri,” June said in a kind voice.

[(v-v)]

The electronics store wasn’t far from the pet shop, but we had to make a stop to get more food, because Cal was very hungry again. But once we got there, we noticed there was another huge line out the door.

“What is this, line day?” June commented. “What’s going on here now?”

This one wasn’t just a line like the last, there were people camping out in tents and grilling hotdogs on portable stoves and handing them out for free. I suddenly regretted getting Cal food, since he could have eaten here instead.

“Excuse me, what’s going on?” I asked one of the dudes in line.

“Haven’t you heard? There’s a release party today for the new GameStation portable console. It’s got three screens instead of one.

“I heard the MSRP on that thing is a thousand bucks,” June commented.

“And by bucks, she means dollars,” Cal clarified.

“Thank you, Cal.” June snickered. “You’re really willing to pay that?”

The guy didn’t seem really bothered by the price. “Eh. I just gotta’ consume product, even if it costs me an arm and a leg. Not like I have anything better to do.”

“Is he possessed?” Cal asked.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “By the corporate overlords.”

“Hey!” The guy got offended. “Don’t come crying to me when scalpers double the price on Dbay and make you pay shipping!”

“You think I need video games to entertain me when I’ve got these two weirdos and their dog?” June said, flattering me.

“Bark!”

“Hmmm…” They guy brushed his chin as he squinted at Cal and I. “They do look pretty interesting.”

Wait. It hit me that we had a potential reader!

“Yes we are! If you wanna follow us and our journey, you can check out my very own book that tells this big guy’s story!” I gestured to Cal, who waved at the stranger.

“Oh, okay.” he nodded. “Do you have a business card or something?”

“Business card?” I looked at June, who shrugged. “Uh, one sec…”

I ran back to June’s car and started chopping up scrap napkins from our last meal. Then I drew up all the info in ketchup of where to find my book and handed it off to the guy.

“Here you go!”

“Thank you,” he replied. “Now I have an excuse not to stand in this line for the rest of my life.”

The guy actually stepped away from everyone else and marched to his car. Then he drove away, and that was that.

“I think we just saved that guy a thousand dollars,” June said.

“And I may have just got a new reader!” I squealed.

“Oh, let's talk to this guy too!” June suggested.

We pretty much had the same conversation with the next guy in line, and the outcome was identical. Our momentum was so good that we actually got nearly everyone to leave, except the hotdog guy, because those were pretty tasty. Too bad we couldn’t keep him from spending all his money though on a game console and franks…

With the line gone, they let us into the store right as they opened. I’d never seen the electronics store so empty before.

“Hey, what happened to everyone out there?” the manager of the store asked us and the hotdog guy.

“They all left,” I said.

“But, they all pre ordered and made a down payment. We already ordered this mountain of GameStations for them…”

There was a huge stack of those portable consoles in the middle of the store just waiting for anybody to come and pick them up.

“Oh well,” I said, pushing Cal forward. “Hey, can you guys fix my computer? I have one of those CIA viruses.”

“Well, I guess we can help.” he really was bummed out that nobody was buying the console, but that really wasn’t my problem, especially since I got some marketing done. “Just head over to the Einstein Bar and see if anyone over there could help you.”

We started walking in, but once we were about halfway to where he recommended us, Labrys started barking like crazy at a 16 K Nova screen display that was looking all glitchy.

“Should we be worried about that?” I asked.

“Maybe…” June walked up to the TV and started inspecting it. “Cal, are you getting any bad vibes here?”

“Now that you mention it, yes.”

“Stay with June and get her computer fixed then. I’m going to check things out around here.”

That was ominous… But she was pretty dead set on checking things out here with Labrys. I wondered what was wrong?