I woke up with a dull ache throbbing at the side of my head. Noticing sibling No.1 and 4 were lying on top of me, I crawled out of their legs and languidly stretched. Yawning in a bid to perk myself up, I then realised I was being observed by something near the door to the pen. Turning to see who it was, I saw it was the adult humans from the day before – this time without the children.

 

I tilted my head while staring at them, a little unsure as to why they were at our pen. Sibling No.1 and 4 woke up soon after me and also noticed our human visitors. Of course, sibling No.1 decided it would be a brilliant idea to give a low growl at them, while sibling No.4 padded over to me and licked my cheek. Choosing to ignore the idiot making a fool of himself and an embarrassment to the rest of us, I licked sibling No.4 back before nuzzling his nose.

 

Seeing as this was a rare opportunity for sibling No.1 to not pay attention to me, I determined it would be the perfect time to ambush him from behind. Crouching down and sneaking silently towards him, I pounced on his haunches and bit his back before jumping off to avoid his instinctive kick. Distracted by my antics, ahem, I mean my superior battle tactics, he ignored the humans avidly observing us and initiated his retaliation.

 

As we were play-fighting, sibling No.4 just watched from the side since our actions were more rigorous than usual and he was still recovering from his injuries. When we finally finished fighting – with me as the obvious victor at least once – we both padded over to the water hole to slake our thirsts. Glancing at the humans that were still there, I noticed them discussing something while pointing at myself and sibling No.1. Unsure of what exactly they were talking about, I decided to ignore it and instead affectionately nuzzle sibling No.1 for letting me w—I mean for not using any underhanded tactics this time.

 

A few minutes after catching our breaths, Sam came up to our pen and entered with a gentle smile. “Looks like your special day, you two! These people have chosen you to be their village kids’ first crystal beasts.” He deftly avoided sibling No.1’s pounce before grabbing him by the back of his neck and holding him at arm’s length. Sam then gently picked me up and cradled me in his free arm before wryly smiling at sibling No.4. “Sorry, you’re not quite ready to be sold just yet due to your injuries. I’ll try to get Leonard to find you a loving home, though!”

 

Sibling No.1 constantly struggled in Sam’s hand to no avail while I gazed at sibling No.4 with a hint of melancholy and sense of loss. “Don’t go missing like Mother, Father, sibling No.2 and 3, okay? I’m sure we’ll see each other again!” I barked at him reassuringly while wagging my fluffy tail. Sibling No.4 raised his head to look at me before slowly making his way to Sam’s leg and trying to climb up – whimpering the whole time.

 

I whined in sympathy towards sibling no.4 while sibling No.1 went quiet and stared at him. Sam sighed as if he was exhausted before gently nudging sibling No.4 off his leg with his other one. Sibling No.4 relented and sat in the middle of the pen as he watched us get carried away down the aisle. “Please don’t bang your head against things again…You need to take care of your health…”

 

We were brought to the familiar room where we’d been given the stabby things – if I recall, the doctor called them vaccinations. Inside, the doctor was there in his white clothes with a non-descript expression on his face. Sam placed us both on the desk and held sibling No.1 down by the shoulders to prevent him from trying to escape.

 

“We’ll sedate them first before proceeding with the final medical check-up. Sam, make sure they don’t move while I administer their injections.”

 

“Yes, Doctor.”

 

“Injections? What are those? Are they a new kind of tre—Ouch! It’s a stabby-stabby! I…trus…ed…yo…” I ended up falling asleep within a few seconds of the doctor stabbing me with that thin stick. It looked like he did the same to sibling No.1 immediately afterwards since he began squirming more before settling down. I would have loved to have barked my objection to such transgressions against me, however I had already slipped into the land of nod…

 

+++

 

I woke up in a familiar, yet different environment. It was familiar because both sibling No.1 and I were in a cage being transported inside one of those vehicles. It was different because the surroundings revealed no signs of the market that the crystal beast ranch we were residing in was situated.

 

Lying down in the somewhat spacious cage, I managed to catch glimpses of some of our neighbours from the ranch in other cages. Yawning a little out of boredom from there being no toys to play with, I decided to peer outside so at least I could enjoy the passing scenery…At least, I would have been able to if sibling No.1’s paw hadn’t covered my eyes when he turned over in his sleep. “Fix that awful sleeping habit of yours!”

 

Lightly gnawing at my silly sibling’s paw in frustration, my ears perked up at the sound of movement from the outside. Releasing sibling No.1’s paw, I turned to observe the source only to find the children from a few days ago sneaking peeks inside. Tilting my head out of curiosity as to why they were there, I maintained silence since I couldn’t be bothered saying anything to them. Resuming my previous gnawing, I decided to ignore them unless they chose to interact with me. “My time and attention are precious! You must shower me with affection if you intend drawing my gaze!”

 

I would love to say that ignoring this group of children was an easily negligible task, however I was soon proven incorrect when my ears couldn’t help catching the conversation they seemed to be having…

 

“Wah! Look how fwuffy they are!”

 

“I want to stwoke their fur so much!”

 

“I wan’ da kitty!”

 

“No! The kiddy’s mine! You can have the…the thingy with the horn!”

 

“Dun be mean! The horny one looks scawy!”

 

“How abar’ tha wuns wiv stwipes?”

 

“Those ones?”

 

I felt a number of gazes fall on myself and sibling No.1, so gracefully let go of his saliva-covered paw and demurely positioned myself in a way that allowed me to retain my beautiful visage while ogling them. Of course, some of the children seemed to emit a squealing sound that reminded me of the warthog piglets my family sometimes came across when drinking at a watering hole – but I digress. It was clear the children were watching me and sibling No.1 who had chosen this moment to switch to his back and splay his legs in such a way as to reveal his nether regions… I then experienced a wave of a different kind of squealing as some of the girls within the group covered their eyes while their cheeks reddened. “Are they ill?” I wondered.

 

Eventually, the girls left to go do other things, while the boys gathered around more than before.

 

“Look at that one! It looks like it would win in a fight against the rest!”

 

“No, the snake will be the victor cos of its venom and fast movements!”

 

“Wha’ you sayin’? The bes’ one is clearly the one I picked!”

 

“Oh yeah, an’ which wun is tha’?”

 

“The wun wiv thi‘orn!”

 

“Hahaha, you havin’ a laugh? The ‘ard‘un covered in armah wud break tha’ ‘orn as soon as i’ hi’ i’!”

 

The group of boys seemed to laugh amongst themselves before they all nudged one another with their arms and pointed at something not in my line of sight.

 

“Wharrabart ‘im?”

 

“I heard ‘e was eyein’ the spider sling.”

 

“Really? You sure i’ wan’ th’ widdle kiddy?”

 

They all laughed again at some joke that I couldn’t grasp the context or punchline of. Choosing to ignore these imbeciles, I lay on top of sibling No.1 and went back to sleep. My beauty was far more important than eavesdropping on some mentally retarded humans! “I wonder when I’ll get some toys and treats…I’m hungry…”