I spent 3 hours in surgery to repair my leg and tail. The nurse sent me back to Gulton with some painkillers and instruction for a week’s rest. On the car ride back Gulton told me that I better live up to this investment or he’d ship me off to places I don’t care to repeat.

It was now the sixth day of said week and I was bored. They had made a pallet for me on the floor of the dining room. I had a bowl of food and a bowl of water next to me. The family said their goodnights as they disappeared down to hall. The lights flicked off and I closed my eyes to sleep. I was happy to go back to work tomorrow; I may not like work but it beat doing nothing.

I drifted silently into a dream. I was battling along side my friends to win a badge for Kathy. We were winning. Then I saw the opponent, it was Dario and he was holding Circe’s beaten and broken, and I was licking his boots.

My head snapped up from my nightmare. At first I thought it was the dream that woke me. Then the soft sound of footfalls caught my ears. A whisper of voices next came to my sensitive ears.

"This crystal vase will bring a pretty penny." I suppressed a growl. Getting silently to my feet, I crept to the doorway between the dining room and living room.

Dropping into a crouch, I watched eagerly. My chance to prove I was worth his investment. Swathed in dark colors two humans, beside them guarding their back was an Anubis, another black Pokemon that looked like a jackal. Across his fur ran rippling runes of Egyptian hieroglyphs in gold, but dulled by soot dusted across him to make them inconspicuous. I shrank back against the wall, hoping he had missed me.

Using my sensitive hearing, I listened closely. They continued to talk in hushed voices, picking up things, putting them back or dropping them into a sluiced material, with a scraping sound.

I held my breath; they were getting closer. My mind raced, should I attack or sound an alarm. I weighed my options. I was still a little weak from my injuries. But if I let these people leave Gulton would make good on his threats. I made my decision.

"DOOOUUUUUURRRRRR!" I roared as I leapt from my hiding spot. The two humans were so surprised they dropped their sac. I made a jump for the closest human, in response he raised his arm in front his face. My jaws locked around the limb as I collided with him. He gave a blood-curtailing scream as my teeth cut into his flesh.

I didn’t see the Anubis until he head butted me in the ribs. Using a rolling move Rogue taught me, I clamped onto the dark bushy tail and slung him across the room. Not stopping to see if where he landed, I leapt at the second human and caught the back of his leg. He screamed like a smoochum. The next thing I knew I was my head hurt and I was on the floor.

"Freeze!" Gulton yelled over the uproar and flipped on the lights. In his hand was what human’s called a gun. I wondered if the ‘gun’ used an ice beam attack, because the two humans stood perfectly still.

Gulton looked around and sized up the situation. I was sprawled on the floor in the middle of the room, the Anubis was at the base of the hearth out cold, and the two humans stood in front of him with their hands over their heads like idiots.

"Good dog," Gulton hissed in a tight voice. "Now get the phone for me."

I sat staring blankly.

"The phone," he repeated, miming with his fist to his ear and little finger and thumb out. I yipped heartily half bounding and limping out of the room with no clue at what I was looking for. The fist was curved, sort of, so maybe it was curved. Turning through maze of walls I gazed around me. Then I saw it. It was on a table. Bunching my hind legs, I scrambled up and took it in my mouth and landed on the flaw, my ebony nails clicking on the tiles as I hurried back to Gulton.

He still had the gun locked on them and they stood looking helpless and frustrated, the Anubis’s head still slouched on its neck, tongue lolling over the ground with tiny in out movements. He was still alive. I dropped the phone at his feet, feeling pleased I had helped in twice in one night.

Gulton skirted a sideways look, and then kicked it across the room at the men. "That’s a banana you dimwit dog! Ph-oh-n! It’s white and has a box with it."

Disappointed at his lack of graciousness, I tried again, looking for the curved white object with a box stuck to it. This time I tried a more detailed search for it. Looking under chairs and in boxes. I growled in frustration as it eluded me further. Then just as I was going to howl for Gulton to help, I saw it. It was on a tiny bench, smooth white shell sitting on a box. Patting myself, I took it in my teeth. Remembering this from Kathy’s house, hers had a curly tail when this one didn’t. It simply followed willingly.

Suddenly a gunshot ripped the air and a winded cry of pain followed. Snarling, I galloped after the sound my claws shredding the wooded boards of the hall. I clambered around the corner and saw him; Gulton lay crumpled in the corner, blood coming from his shoulder. On a second glance, I saw the last of the men vanishing through a shudder winder, its wooden wings slamming closed.

I rushed to Gulton’s side, nosing his face. He breathed, ragged breaths that grated like gravel, but that was good.

"Rowdour," I whimpered in his ear.

"Ph-one." He gasped with a shudder and an appreciative moan. I dropped it in front of his hand, then growled. Edging towards the back wall. Aside from the shudders, the window was fully glass and was large enough for me to fit through. The wooden wings would open for me, I was sure.

Tensing the muscles in my haunches and bending low, I lunged at it, digging my nails in for purchase and my gait tripled. The window loomed before me, I bent low, and sprang!

I landed with nary a sound on the dirt out side. One of the men was lying on the ground, a deep gash that ran from his hip to his ankle. He wasn’t going any were. His companion had abandoned him and was hobbling away nursing his own injured leg.

It only took me a few strides to catch him and knock him to the ground. He swung his arms around to try and knock me off, but to no avail. I sat in the middle of his back and growled at the other human to keep him on the ground.

Ten minutes late I started to hear a sound I had never heard before. It was like screaming but what ever was never took a breath. Not long after several cars pulled up along with a much bigger boxy car all with the same flashing lights on their roofs. These cars were making the screaming noise. People began to get out of the cars in pairs. Some ran into the house, while others approached me.

I growled. I had worked too hard, to have these humans get away. The humans surrounded me a moved in. They were all dressed the same and it made it hard to know how many their were. They were saying things like ‘easy boy’, ‘it’s okay’, and ‘we’re the good guys’. I didn’t know what to do. I was out numbered and their were still other humans inside doing lord only knows what to Gulton.

"Houndour!" Gulton snapped. My head shot up. He was on a long white bed on wheels. "Got on your pad and let these people do their job!" With out hesitation I did as I was told. The blue clad people let me pass then locked me in.

Gulton didn’t come home that night, or the next day, or the next. The people next door came by to feed up and let us out, then locked us all, including Nile the Anubis, up and left us there until the next day. It wasn’t until the third day that we were told that Gulton had died in route and we were being sold again.