Page 77 of Phoenix's Fire

Bouncing baby Taris against his chest, Lansin chuckled. "Go, Zasen. I'll stay so the kids can pet the puppies."

"Puppy!" Tamin squealed as if on command.

The brown dog leaned closer, but her rump was almost glued to the ground. Still, her tail wagged, but Lansin saw me watching.

"Shadow, kiss," he ordered, pointing at me.

The black dog casually jogged over, but unlike the brown one, this one licked at my hand. It was enough to make me crouch down and reach out. I wanted to pet it, but this was an animal. Would it understand that?

"It's okay to touch it?" I asked.

"Pet away," Lansin assured me, giving Zasen a pointed look. "See, they're fine. Get a good price for that, because you didn't take down a little one."

"No, we did not," Zasen agreed, clasping the man's shoulder before walking off.

So Lansin passed the baby back to her mother, then made his way closer. "So these are the first dogs you've ever seen?" he asked, kneeling down behind the dog to talk to me.

I nodded. "I saw pictures, but not like these. They were old, from before the compound."

"The Mole base," Saveah clarified.

"Ah," Lansin murmured. "I grew up with them. My mother raised dogs, and her father before her. Now I do as well. Have a litter of puppies back home, and another on the way. See, they're born with people, so they don't know how to live without us."

"How does it understand Vestrian?" I asked.

He grinned at me. "They understand the sound and we show them the meaning. Kinda like this. Shadow?" Then he reached over and pressed on the dog's rump. "Sit, boy."

The dog turned its head to look at him, but it did lower its rump to the ground. To me, it was very similar to the gestures and communication I'd had with the guys before we'd figured out how to talk. Clearly, the dogs learned what the words meant the same way a child learned their language.

"So they just follow you around?" I asked, reaching in to finally pet the black one.

"And more," he said. "But this is Shadow. That one is Holly, and yes, they know their names."

"Hi, Shadow," I breathed, getting a little more brave with how I touched it.

"Also," Saveah said, "the Reapers use them to hunt, to bring things back, like messages, and to guard themselves against Moles."

"Yeah, and Shadow doesnotlike Moles," Lansin said.

I jerked my hand back. "What does he do to us?"

"Them," Saveah reminded me.

"Definitely them," Lansin agreed, "because he bites Moles. They find them by the smell. Holly is the one who found that girl. Irrik had to call her off before she attacked."

"But Meri didn't even know!" I insisted.

Lansin lifted a hand, holding off my horror. "Which is why we called her off. The deputy mayor asked us to bring sacrifices back - alive. We didn't know why, but Naomi has filled me in on you and the things Dragons know about Moles now."

"The women don't know," I told him, feeling the need to make sure he understood that. "The men lie to us. I didn't even know my mother was from the surface. They said she was possessed!"

"I heard," he soothed.

"And the girl you brought back is her friend," Saveah added. "There's one more, so make sure the Reapers know to keep an eye out for her?"

Lansin nodded. "Can do, but we'll be heading south at the end of the year. After that, no one will be there to look for them."

"Where is there?" I asked.