12th June: The noose for the long-eared

"Talk to him, low an' calm, the way I'm talkin' to you. He ain't goin' to bite. He'm more'n likely to run off if you do anythin' to startle him or look like you want to hurt him." Cotton said. "Y'know, the thing with dogs is that they'm clever. You can teach 'em all sorts of tricks, an' how to fetch things. I never had a dog when I was young, though I'd've liked one. We had more trouble with they mickies than with rats, where we was, so mum had a coupla cats to deal with they. Reckon we could've had a dog if we'd had trouble with the rats - the shepherd had a dog o' course, to help with herdin' the sheep."

"How do you know he won't bite. Look at him. He's an animal. I've had bigger n' him chase me for no reason but fer bein' there." He snapped sheltering his arm that had his fingers damaged.

"The army has no need o' dogs. They just bark an' alarm t' enemy of us bein' there." He reasoned inching back a bit, frowning.

"He didn't bite me when he had the chance," Cotton replied, still in a low-toned, calm voice. "They can give the alarm when folks they don't know are lurkin' around - so they can warn when the enemy's around an' we mightn't know it."

He shrugged. "You don't have to, like. I jus' think it'd be a good idea to get to know him, a bit." He smiled. "You can sit back down an' jus' talk to me if you'd rather. Only, don't go threatenin' him, all right?"

"He did not bite you.. yet. " Zachary answered curtly. "He'll bite me when I'll need ter go!..An' he'll wake t' whole camp jus' couse I turned by me fire." He shook his head again. "They bark at anythin' anytime, ain't trustworthy, them." He indicated the dog.

Pye felt threatened enough by the dog and thought that he was hardly threatening him back. "...Dogs are.. evil." He whispered unhappily.

The Angry Human was still too close for his liking, but at least there was no further obvious threat. For now. He had little doubt the two-legger had a bad mind about him. This one certainly needed avoiding in future.

Reluctantly content for the moment that the Angry Human was no danger to him, the dog relaxed, though his ears stayed mostly back. It was nice to be petted but he wouldn't truly be at ease again until the Angry Human went away.

Pye observed the dog for a long while. "..Gabriel...Cotton, is there anything.. that you are afraid of?" He thought to leave soon, or perhaps to lay down and sleep until he was needed. He could even look for Burke and talk with that man. He felt restless. Having been told he had to be around, made him feel fidgety. He wanted to go get wood, water, do something useful, he could not busy himself with reading because he had no idea what those marks on the paper meant anyway.

"Do you need help with anything, here?" He asked with a faint sigh.