Arf Arf! Woof Woof!

It’s been 5 days since I arrived in this new world. Every time I look at my reflection from the river, its water level increases bit by bit from the droplets of my tears. But the game’s the game, I killed someone, hence I’m stuck as a dog.

Fortunately and unfortunately, during that period of time, I stumbled on a small village. The buildings, almost medieval, were completely different from the ones in my world. The doors here opened like gates, but I couldn’t see any contraptions that suggested someone operated them; they opened on their own whenever there was someone in proximity, as if they were automatic doors like the ones in shopping malls.

Except there were no signs of any technological advances like the ones of my previous life; no metal light poles, no trucks, not a phone in sight and cars were nonexistent here. In fact, there was no transport vehicle in sight anywhere. Walking through this town felt like a time lapse through the Middle Ages. Most of their structures were made of timber, so there was at least some resource processing knowledge to an extent.

Not that timber was the best material for building an entire village, because if I threw a cigarette butt near one shack, the whole town could be engulfed in a blaze. Let’s hope there’s no avid smokers here. From my architectural point of view, the whole place looked like the Town of Salem.

In conclusion, it was a stark contrast to the bustling city of my modern world. Nevertheless, there were moments where I felt like I was back home: namely, when I found people drinking booze and yelling early in the morning.

Unfortunately, I still had to be on my toes. Let’s say the villagers weren’t exactly the most friendly of people. Perhaps the idea of a domestic animal didn’t occur to them, but everyone here treated me as if I was some sort of wild beast, which wasn’t entirely wrong considering my rather unsavory behavior. Well, being the piece of shit that I am, it’s a given.

Since I couldn’t talk with my dog head, I’d bark relentlessly, demanding food in the only way I knew how.

But in vain.

To combat this injustice of leaving me with an empty stomach, I’d leave unsolicited “gifts” — namely duties number 1 and number 2 — at their doorsteps, much to the dismay of the villagers.

And if I spotted children, I'd immediately give chase. Mind you, it had nothing to do with my innate pit bull tendencies. In my past life, there were two sides of communities in regard to pits: The ones that liked them and the ones that absolutely despised them.

The former that defended them always said that it was the owner’s fault whenever something gruesomely wrong happened. As for the latter, they always said that the pit is a natural bully and it’s their instinct to kill weaker prey, so we should kill them on sight.

In my case, my actions weren’t explained with either of those explanations; I just wanted to get this chance to taste test the flesh of a human of my own free will — children just happened to be more fragile and simpler to hunt. 

I mean, if someone had to fight an adult or a child in a life or death situation, surely they’d pick the small child; it’s a guaranteed win. But those little wimps were real fast to run to someone bigger, which prevented me from eating the meat of my own kind.

Anyway, I thought, quite illogically to be honest, that perhaps eating human meat would reverse my four-legged predicament.

All in all, my actions didn’t win me any friends here. Life here wasn’t all that terrible, just boring, but at least I could understand what they said. If I was hungry, I’d eat some crops in the farms or I’d go look for left-over garbage near the street. And sometimes, the occasional small rodent. After eating, I’d usually go for a walk or go to sleep in a secluded area to avoid dangers like hunters or other beasts.

“No responsibilities”, yeah right.

___________________

Just like the past few days, I was hungrily crossing a bridge over a river, because on the other side was a grocery store that usually left garbage out at this time of the day. 

This time, I stumbled upon a familiar looking girl; her face held a spot in memory, yet I couldn’t quite recall it. She was perched down on the side of the bridge with her arms crossed between her knees, her gaze fixated on the streaming water and her hair flowing through the windy breeze.

As I approached her, she turned around and her empty eyes met mine. She wasn’t like the other people in this village; she didn't shy away or run from me — truly not like the other girls. Although she wore similar simple clothing like everyone, I could tell that hers was tailored to a much better quality.

Her face seemed surprised, perplexed, but also comforted with a sense of familiarity. In a quick second, a new sense of humiliation washed over me.

“C’mere boy, c’mere.” Softly spoken words followed by the clicking noises of a tongue going down from the roof of the mouth.

Still, I came to her; it’s been so long since I’ve had a proper interaction with someone.

As soon as I got into her hands’ range, I was met with a barrage of headpats and then it turned into head scratches. Next, I did what I thought was the most natural thing for a dog to do when meeting someone new: smelling. I stepped under her grey robe, which covered her lower legs and started sniffing the scent of her knees.

As she was pushing and rubbing my behind to try to get me to come out, I jumped a little bit with the goal of tripping her to her butt.

Mission accomplished. She used her hands to brace her fall and the objective was right in my line of sight. It was fluffy white with a small bow on top that added some charm and elegance. In truth, that was just an excuse to check out her underwear.

During that whole ordeal, she kept telling me to sit. So I came out and sat in front of her as she was dusting herself off.

Feeling satisfied, it was time for me to execute the next stage of my master plan: asking for free food.

My stupid dog movements were limited, so I had to use a universal language to make her understand I wanted to eat. So, I just raised my paw to my opened mouth, begging for a morsel of understanding — in this case, meat. I also added a puppy face into my arsenal to enhance my chance of victory. It was an odd gesture, but she seemed to comprehend the meaning behind those moves.

She gave a puzzled look. “You… want food?”

To my surprise, she vanished for a moment, only to reappear in an instant with dried meat, holding it out in her outstretched hand. I didn’t snatch it right away. No, no. Something was more pressing than eating right now.

What the fuck was that? Could she be a fellow reincarnate from my previous world, reincarnated into this medieval-esque realm with a special power from the bowl like I was?

From what I observed from the villagers here, none of them showed any signs of having powers; therefore, this girl was special. But I couldn’t be sure if she was from my home planet.

She arched down with one of her hands on her knee, still offering me the piece of meat. “You don’t like dried meat?”

I licked it off her hand to try to show her that I understood her. I also wanted to put something in my stomach so I could think better by refueling myself. I wasn’t skeptical of the food, since I was pretty sure I had built up an immunity to poison ever since I had arrived in this town.

In short, I think after the villagers saw me looking for food in their garbage, instead of shooing me away, they began to leave some food outside their homes. Of course, it was suspicious; I’ve learned in my human days that not everything that glitters is gold. But being the freeloader that I am, I’d eat them all and go back to my sleeping spot. However, my suspicion proved valid when I discovered later on that all the food was laced with a small quantity of poison from the sudden pain tearing my insides. It wasn’t a pleasant day. My stomach writhed in agony and my vision was growing dimmer by the minutes. It was a grueling battle, but I held on.

 My dad’s beating was way worse than this, I thought.

Eventually the pain passed and I was as good as new. But I was hungry from laying around for so long, so I went for seconds at their doors to eat more poisonous food. In my head, I thought: what doesn’t kill me, will make me stronger. And this is how I built up my resistance to all sorts of poisons. They should’ve put a bigger dose of poison from the start.Back on the bridge, the headpats kept coming in as I was eating the food from her soft hand.

All of a sudden, from across the bridge, I heard a woman cry out:

“Kyaaaa!!! Someone help! There's a thief!”

Without a second thought, I left the girl and the feelings I had against these villagers on the ground to spring into action. Bearing nothing but my spirit and my teeth, I wanted to be fast so that no one would steal my glory, and the image of a German Shepherd came to mind. It was a handsome, and yet menacing, dog I used to admire when I was a kid.

As I raced across the bridge to the grocery store, I could feel myself getting faster from the transformation. The air flew through my fiery colored fur and my ears pointed to my back from my immense speed.

This is it! This is it!! THIS IS IT!!! 

All the protein I ate, all the poison I purposefully took and all the barking I made led to this very moment. I was drooling for this opportunity all my life. This was my calling. I wouldn’t even let this dog body get in the way of what is every high school boy’s dream: being a hero.

After reaching the storefront, I let out two of my meanest barks of all time.

“ARF! ARF!!”

With the front of my fangs in full view, the thief stopped right near the doorway with a kid and groceries under his arms, bewildered by the view of my appearance. There was no more need to bark, as actions spoke louder than the meaning behind those barks.

Seeing how he was a man, I pinpointed the area where I could inflict maximum damage and lunged toward his junk. He tried to kick me away, but I dodged his clumsy foot and sank my teeth into his crotch. He screamed in agony and dropped the kid and the grocery items, clutching his bleeding wound.

I realized what I was doing was absolutely disgusting; so to let go, I snarled and shook my head in a singular motion, tearing off his seed-maker and making him kneel down and cry louder.

I didn’t give him any chance to recover. After letting go of his crotch, I leaped at his throat, aiming for one of the big veins. He tried to push me away, but I was faster and stronger. He fell down like a sack of potatoes, then, I bit down hard on his neck, feeling his pulse under my teeth. He gurgled and choked on his own blood, his eyes wide with terror. I knew he was done for.

Now that I had saved a kid, I was a good boy and I assumed people would come embrace me with gratitude. But when I looked around, I saw that the town folks were watching me with horror and disgust. One of the town's doctors was even tending to the poor guy on the ground. They saw me as a monster that had just hurt one of their own. They didn’t care that the thief tried to steal and kidnap. They only saw his blood on my fur and teeth. They all cursed at me, except for the kid who looked at me speechless. I knew what I did was right, so I decided to stand tall and defend myself by howling.

Even when they started throwing rocks and sticks at me, I stood proud, receiving the hits like a champion.

A desperate cry from a distance caught my attention, a voice I recognized. “Stop! Leave him alone! Let me through!”

It was the familiar girl I had seen on the bridge earlier. She pushed her way through the angry crowd and ran towards me. She reached me and wrapped her arms around me, holding me tight. I felt a surge of warmth and gratitude. She was the only one who cared about me.

In an instant, I found myself in a completely different place with the girl still holding me.