I’m beginning to wonder if I’m taking to this new life a bit too well, compared with my other siblings. I say this due to how vastly different my siblings’ actions in this place have been from my own. Take our mealtimes as an example: I would happily wag my tail and wait patiently for the food to be placed in the empty stone, then allow my servant to leave before devouring said delicious contents. My siblings, however, don’t act with the same decorum.

Using Sibling No.1 as my first example, he has determined his best course of action during mealtimes is still to attack the human delivering his food and then run out of his mini-den, despite having his legs chained together. It’s kind of sad when you think about it. Sibling No.1 has not connected the dots inside his minuscule brain that trying to escape results in pain and less food. I mean, how can you purposely want less food, but more pain? Suffice it to say, he has become noticeably more emaciated since we arrived…I hope he matures mentally soon.

As for sibling No.5, she just sits in one place all day and licks her fur until the food arrives. Then, she slowly rises from her position and nibbles a negligible amount before returning to her pre-determined seat to lick her fur again. “I know licking fur makes it more attractive in the long run, but constantly doing it will cause it to turn manky!” I tried informing her, however she simply ignored my warning yaps.

Directing my attention to sibling No.4…well…he seems to have taken our new life here quite negatively. It’s not just mealtimes that he does this, but for the majority of the time he’s conscious…He’s been constantly bashing his head against the door and walls to the point of him swelling, getting blisters, bleeding, and having an awful yellow liquid begin to pour out of one of his blisters. I’ve noticed how, recently, the humans have been placing soft materials on the walls and door of his mini-den, although it doesn’t seem to be mitigating the effects of his self-mutilation.

From these astute observations of mine, it is quite clear that I am the only one who has reacted in the most logical manner. “What’s the point in being aggressive when we can get food without expending any effort? Why bother doing nothing but grooming yourself when you can be having tons of fun playing with the toys the humans provided? Lastly…why neglect and harm yourself to the point you go unconscious? I feel pain seeing you like that, sibling No.4…so stop ruining my view and sense of smell!”

With my musings on how each of us have reacted to our new environment over, I sat down and observed the people traversing the aisles of the ranch. Some of them seemed to be humans who performed jobs here, while the others appeared to have come for one of two purposes: to buy a crystal beast, or to browse through the variety of beasts on display. “Oh! It’s grooming time!”

Sam arrived at my mini-den with his various kinds of brushes, and smiled at me. I wagged my fluffy tail to show my happiness in seeing him, clearly eager for some grooming. I ran up to him as he entered and nuzzled his leg before going on my hind paws – stretching up to reach the bag of treats I could smell on him. “Give me! Give me! Give me! I can smell the treats! Give me!”

“Hahaha, slow down, girl. I’ll give you your treats after I’ve done your maintenance.”

Sam then rubbed my head with his hand before pushing me back to the ground. I gave some short barks of impatience, since I’d been waiting for this all day, but allowed him to push me down. As he was brushing my teeth, he hummed a soothing tune that made me feel drowsy. “Ah…it reminds me of that dream I had a while back…” Closing my eyes, I enjoyed the motions of the brush going through my fur as I imagined how much more resplendent it would be afterwards.

Once he was finished, he held some treats in his hand and left them there. “…?” I stared at his hand before turning to gaze at his face, completely confused by what Sam was doing. “Aren’t you going to give me them?” Sam gave me a wry smile before dropping the treats onto the ground, “Looks like you won’t eat from the hand yet…oh well, it was worth a try.” He scratched at my favourite spot behind my ears before erecting himself and leaving.

After demolishing the treats in record time, I rose my head to see where Sam had gone, only to catch sight of him in sibling No.5’s mini-den. She seemed completely lackadaisical as the human changed her position every now and then while examining her. From my small vantage point, I could vaguely see him frowning a little as he inspected sibling No.5’s fur before he shook his head and left. I tried yipping at my sibling to get a response from her but she just ignored me as she continued licking the fur Sam had touched.

A few minutes later, Sam returned with several things in his upper legs. Entering sibling No.5’s mini-den again, he placed a strange cone-shaped collar around her neck before sticking one of those painful narrow stick things inside her. He then did something which sort of reminded me of when Mother used to feed us milk: he placed an object with a soft and supple tip inside sibling No.5’s mouth and squeezed. My eyes widened in surprise as I saw sibling No.5 begin sucking on it eagerly. “Ah! You’re eating again!” I barked at her in happiness while wagging my fluffy tail, glad that she was partaking in consumption once more.

When Sam had finished dealing with sibling No.5, he cautiously made his way towards sibling No.1’s mini-den but then appeared to change his mind when he caught sight of my sibling’s glare. Instead, he moved to sibling No.4’s mini-den and leaned over the door to get a good look without disturbing him. Sibling No.4 was – as had become the norm with him – bashing his head against a wall. Sam bore a worried expression before taking out an odd device and inserting a white crystal inside. He then spoke into it:

“Doctor, I’m at one of the aardwolf pup’s pens and I think you should give a full medical examination on one of them.”

I wondered who he was talking to, since there were no other humans around at the time, however I was taken aback when a voice emitted from the strange device!

“Give me details.”

“It’s the one that’s banging his head all of the time, Doctor. I just had a quick look and I saw pus coming out of his wounds.”

“…Sedate him and bring him over.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

Sam then took the crystal from the device and pulled out another of those stabby sticks before entering sibling No.4’s mini-den. I was a little worried about what he was going to do, since I wasn’t sure what it meant for pus to be present in a wound. However, if it was referring to that awful smelling stuff that oozed out then I could only be eager for it to be dealt with. Having to be near such scents is nauseating!

Peering through the see-through parts of my door, I saw Sam slowly creep towards sibling No.4 before gently grabbing him. He then placed my stupid sibling between his lower legs as he shoved that sharp thing into him. Sibling No.4 seemed to react to it as he struggled to get out of Sam’s legs, however he soon slowed his movements until unilaterally falling unconscious. The human then took him away in his upper legs while maintaining a constant eye on him.

Since Sam had left, I decided to play with the toy on the pole to pass the time. I mean, how could anyone feel bored with such exhilarating things provided for mental stimulus? “Hmm?” I felt a sharp stare on my back and turned to meet the gaze of sibling No.1 who seemed to be glaring at me for some reason. I examined his own mini-den and saw he didn’t have my latest toy, thus presumed he was jealous of my preferential treatment. Gloating over his misfortune, I broke eye contact and continued playing with the toy – making an extra effort to show how brilliantly fun it was. “Ha! Take that, sibling No.1!”