Bark and Bite

[WP] 11:11pm. Winter. A dog trainer can't understand why their most well-behaved dog is acting so anxious and panicked. Over and over, the dog slaps its paws on a string of Pet Speech Buttons: "NO/OUTSIDE/BAD/AFRAID", and does everything it can to keep you from approaching the front door...

*****

In all my ten years, indeed a great decade of being a professional dog trainer and certified veterinarian, I had never experienced something like this. And more importantly, not with Al, who was the most obedient and well-behaved in my large kennel and barn which housed up to twenty four dogs.

Something was off, and I was determined to find out what it was.

Craig Jordans was my name, and I'd lived on the barn for all 38 years of my life. It was actually a family barn, and had been in possession of the first sons - or any sons at all in the case of death - in my lineage. I was the 5th owner so far after my father died 15 years ago when he fell off a horse that had gone crazy and broke his neck.

That was such a weight on my shoulders, fresh from college at university and wanting to explore the world and enjoy my youth. The last thing I wanted was to be confined to the same barn I'd spent all my years on, bit my mother, bless her soul, died when I was still a kid, and I didn't want to dishonour my father and allow his brother's seize control of the barn and do with it as they wished.

It was one of the first sacrifices I would have to make for that barn, and looking back on that decision, I have to say that I have no regrets. It was the right decision, and it was a profitable one.

Then, Al's mother had not even been born. She was born as the third of four puppies in my second year of managing the barn which was around 13 years ago. Al was 8 years ago, a beautiful Great Dane which served me well, leading the herd of sheep I owned a lot of times without my presence.

Al was perfect, my friend and to an extent, a co-owner of the barn. That was why this incident put me off for a second while I tried to understand where Al was coming from, and what mad him act like that.

The day started like any other, and ended almost the same, save for one significant incident that occured earlier in the afternoon. Al, out on one of his many runs, soon came dashing back, barking to attract my attention.

I followed him to the site of my barbed fence, where Thrasher, one of my horses who had been missing for two days, lay, entrapped in the wires and neighing weakly. He looked visibly malnourished and hungry.

I wondered how he managed to reach this place as I for his head distentangled and led him back to the barn. But Al stood at this spot stillz sniffing where the horse was a few moments ago and looking around, whining in his characteristic manner to show that something wasn't right. I stood around, waiting for him for a while before I decided that time was running out for Thrasher, taking him back to get fed and nourished again.

I pondered the events of that afternoon again for a few more hours, but decided that Al was just a bit too hyperactive and went to bed. In the morning I would have to answer the question of how Thrasher managed to escape, and address those issues.

I have to add that I was a light sleeper, something I got from my Dad, and small things like like strange sounds, or even sudden temperature changes were enough to make me wake up. So when I heard a scratching from the barn for downstairs, the barn where I kept the horses, I was up, grabbing my rifle which lay under the bed.

The German shepherds must have left that area since they had not been barking, or even worse, they had been put down. I went down the stairs immediately, telling myself that I was going to shoot first and ask questions later.

But at the bottom of the stairs was Al, who sat up and looked at me, an uncharacteristic scared look in his eyes as he whined and growled lowly.

I had come to understand that growl and what it meant. "Danger, get back."

The growls intensified any time I tried to get closer to the door. It became clear to me that whatever was outside was something or someone that Al had assessed to be more than I could handle. This only made me more curious than ever.

I turned and went back to my room upstairs, monitoring the proceedings from the barn. Apart from the wind blowing the leaves on the trees, nothing seemed to be happening.

And then I saw it. Or him, rather. A figure standing under the tree. Whether or not he was watching me, or the barn, was what I could not confirm. But there was someone outside the window, that was for sure.

I sighed. Whether Al liked it or not, I was going to have to leave the house.

*****

TO BE CONTINUED.

New series alert! Just a few chapters though, no guarantee that they'll be up to 5, but just enough to milk this prompt properly.

Enjoy!