Authors Note: So, the schedule is going to be a bit off this week. There might be more content, there might be the same amount of content. But, I'm participating in a writathon and while fun, it's throwin' things off a little bit to make sure deadlines are properly met!

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A few hours had passed, and the two companions had been trading off choosing what to watch. Star really enjoyed the cooking shows and was adamant that he was going to learn to cook and then hold a dinner for his whole pack of friends. Lily thought this was adorable, so she was encouraging. Meanwhile, her picks had all been her sitcoms as normal. The only difference being, now Star could understand them.

“I don’t understand this show.”

“Why, what’s wrong with it?”

“Ross is the largest friend, yet they all make fun of him. Why does he not assert dominance?”

“Well, size doesn’t really matter as much to humans.”

“I see. Then who is the dominant friend?”

“That’s… a good question. Well, I mean, it doesn’t really work that way for humans, we like to all be equals.”

“No you don’t.”

“Huh?”

“You don’t all like to be equals. We watched Master Chef. Gordon Ramsey was the dominant Chef. We watched It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Dennis was the dominant gang member, although Frank could be when he wanted. Now we are watching Friends, Ross is not the dominant friend, he is on the bottom. So someone is on the top. Which one? I think it must be Pheobe or Monica, but I still think Ross would win in a fight.”

“You’ve uh, put a lot of thought into this.”

“Of course. Social dynamics are important. You are wrong. Humans do not like to be equal. All of these things have people on top and on the bottom.”

“Hmm. I guess that’s fair. Well, we like to pretend.”

“Why?”

“It’s complicated. Bad things happen when the wrong people are in charge. In a fair society, everyone has a chance to succeed and do well. Not everyone is born strong, or a leader, and their needs are important too. It just… doesn’t often work out that way.”

Star took a moment to digest this. Lily took the time to put a little more thought into it too, and broke the silence.

“I mean, there are a lot of reasons really. But, what it comes down to is that we want everyone to have the best quality of life they can. We just have yet to find a way to make that happen that doesn’t get completely ruined by even just a few selfish people.”

“Things would not be so if you were the leader. You share the eggs, and the duck feet.”

Lily laughed at that.

“I’d never be. In the world before I was on the bottom of society. If things went back to the way they were, I think I’d still be. I’ve never been very strong, and I’ve always been more controlled by my fear than anything else. I just sat in my–”

Star leaned forward and nipped Lily on the arm. Not hard enough to draw blood, but it still hurt!

“Ow! What the heck was that for?”

“You were insulting yourself.”

“I wasn’t saying anything untrue!”

Star nipped at her again.

“Cut it out! That hurts!”

“No. When you insult yourself, you insult me too. I choose to follow. I would not follow a weak coward. You are wrong.”

Lily pouted at Star for a moment, and then couldn’t help but laugh.

“Okay, fair point. I’m sorry.”

“Not good enough. Say you’re brave and determined.”

“Hey, aren’t you being a little demanding? Forgetting who is the leader around here?”

“My leader is brave and determined. If there were some such person around here, I would listen and be a good boy.”

Star’s tail was wagging.

“You really do understand sass haha. Yes, fine. I’m brave and determined, and you’re a sweet little puppy dog and I love you.”

“I love you too, Master.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, when Star spoke again.

“Ross would still win though.”

“Bullshit. Phoebe is smaller but she grew up on the streets. Ross doesn’t know how to fight. Phoebe would have him begging for mercy in a heartbeat. My vote is Monica for pack leader though.”

---

 

Morning found them fast asleep crowded into the back seat of the car. It really wasn’t enough space for either one of them, much less both of them, but through the same magic that powers middle school slumber parties they had made it happen. 

Lily woke with a groan of sleepy pain. Her arm was extremely asleep, and she had drooled all over her pillow, which upon closer inspection was Star’s leg. She carefully sat up and wiped the messy hair and saliva off her face.

She paused when she saw Star still fast asleep, and debated whether to wake him. After a minute of deliberation she reached down and gave him a gentle shake.

“Hey, s’time to get up. We got work to do today.”

Star roused himself slowly, and yawned hugely. He stared at Lily through sleepy eyes.

“What’s the rush Master? Can’t we sleep as long as we want to?”

“Today’s gonna be busy. Like every day lately. We gotta set you up with a lasting translation spell, and see what we can do to secure La Mancha. I think tomorrow is Basement day. I wanna get as much done as we can before then.”

“Do we not decide when we cast the spell?”

“We do! But like you said. I’m determined. If I delay, it gives a chance for fear to worm its way deeper into my heart. Right now, I feel like I can do this. So, we’re going ahead with it. Today we’ll get as many essential things as we can done. Tomorrow too if need be. But by tomorrow night, we’re casting that damn spell.”

Star feigned being grumpy, but got up anyways with his tail wagging. Hopping out of the car he stretched real good. Lily joined him.

“After the sun goes down we can come back too. I have an idea for a movie to watch with you.”

“What is it? What is it?”

Lily laughed. He was so serious and contemplative when they were talking, but when you got him excited the dog really showed through.

“It’s about a dog! I thought it’d be interesting to watch a movie starring a dog together. See if it’s good, or laugh about it if it’s terrible.”

“Oh, that is exciting. I can’t wait, Master. Let’s watch it now!”

“No no. We gotta get to work. Besides, there are actually a few movies like that. So, it’ll take a while. First though, we’re headed over to Target to get you something to wear for your translation spell okay?”

Star was already hyped up and ready to go. Lily somewhat envied his youthful vigor. She was still sore from sleeping like that. Come to think of it, she’d slept in poor conditions more often than not since everything happened, despite having several beds she could use. She really needed to get better about that. Oh well. A problem for the future.

“You ready? Let’s get going!”

---

 

Target was pretty much a straight shot down the main road from the theater. It was the same store she’d gotten Bay from. Of course, now he was upgraded with splotches of magical purple, so the other seals likely still inside were notably less cool.

As Lily pulled up she was explaining to Star the options, a little less sure he understood her now. The language barrier was a pain. He definitely understood some of what she was saying without the spell, but it was maybe ten percent of what she said.

She wondered if there were any studies in the before times about perceived intelligence across a language barrier. Because while she knew Star was smart, it was really difficult to think of him as just a very smart dog after a night of having full conversations. How long would it have taken her to figure out without speaking to him? 

“So, there’s collars which go around your neck and are made for you. So they’re definitely gonna fit. But if you don’t like the collar, we can find other options. Maybe a bracelet? Fake earrings? Maybe I can enchant a piece of gum and have you swallow it? Or, wait, is that thirty years thing a myth?”

Star was clearly not following along entirely. But he seemed to just enjoy it when she talked, and the more she did the more she knew he’d understand with time. Although she wasn’t sure that was still necessary.

They made their way up to the doors after parking, and Lily had a thought.

“Hmm. This place has had open doors for over a week now and there was food inside. Be careful, there could be danger. Wild animals. Dogs. Something else I didn’t think of. Okay? Understand? Danger?”

Star seemed to understand just fine, because he immediately began sniffing around the entrance and carefully proceeded inside. 

Lily dodged some cobwebs that had started to form around the entrance. She was a bit of an arachnophobe, and while that had been the least of her worries so far with the world ending and all, spiders were becoming a bit more common in previously human occupied areas. Lily wasn’t a fan.

Once inside, it looked like some birds had been here, and Lily suspected rodents and bugs at a minimum. She reached for her phone light, then decided it’d probably be better to get some magic practice.

She had cast her light spell a number of times at this point, so she wasn’t worried about it going wrong in any way. So, she focused her mana into the spell. No mana gathering component, just the light glyph and the concentration glyph. A ball of light formed in her palm. Lily pointed it like a flashlight. It wasn’t perfect. The light was still more ambient than directed in the way a flashlight was. But if she held her palm facing away from her, it blocked the light from her eyes and allowed her to see acceptably well. In the long run, she’d have to practice getting the light to float above her head or something, but this was good enough for now.

The mana drain wasn’t too bad. Compared to conjuring fire or any of the other spells she’d tried to cast with her internal reserves it was on the easy side. Still, she couldn’t keep this up all day. Lily estimated ten or fifteen minutes tops. But, she was still amazed at how far she’d come. It really was like exercising a new muscle. This only got easier and easier. She was wondering what the upper limit might be, when she heard a low growl from Star.

She shone her hand light in the direction she heard it from and saw two glowing eyes in the darkness. Based on the height, she immediately thought this must be a giant creature. She stifled a scream, but her eyes adjusted and she realized she was looking at a small creature up on a shelf. It was a raccoon.

Immediately Lily felt a wave of relief rush over her. That was, until the little creature hissed and leapt down from the shelf. Lily yelped and backed away, as the creature approached.

“Oh my god. Um, I’m friendly! Friendly!”

It kept advancing. It wasn’t running, but Lily really didn’t want to kick it in the face if it approached. She hadn’t expected it to be so aggressive.

At that thought, a memory rose to the surface. Weren’t rabid animals extra aggressive? And awake during the day, and–

Lily grabbed an umbrella from a nearby stand so she had a tool to keep it away, when Star made his move. He was about to tackle the beast when Lily shouted.

“No! Don’t touch it! Don’t let it touch you! Danger! Danger!”

Star stopped in his tracks, and the raccoon shifted focus towards him, lunging.

“Run!”

Shit. Shit. Shit shit shit! How did she communicate this to Star? If it bit him, or he bit it and got rabies there would be nothing Lily could do for him. The raccoon was chasing him! He had a good amount of speed on it, but it was climbing shelves and using verticality to get to him.

She had to talk to him. Right now! She focused on a new spell, letting her light dim in the process. Rather than her hand, she concentrated on trying to anchor the spell on her tongue. It felt like the right place for this, but that was entirely a guess. The translation glyph. She poured her magic into it.

“Star! Don’t touch it! Don’t bite it. Don’t get bit by it! You could die! Just one is all it takes! Get to the car!”

She heard a bark and hoped beyond hope that meant he understood. With that, she started making her way back to the entrance too. She found the open button on the umbrella in case she needed it, and moved quickly but carefully.

As she approached the door, she heard the sound of Star’s feet approaching, and turned to see him making a break for the entryway. They were not ten feet away. The raccoon was hot on his tail, on top of a nearby shelf of holiday goods.

As Star made it into the open, the nocturnal little monster leapt for him. She could see it. It was going to land on him. Lily gritted her teeth, and pushed down her fear.

She took two quick steps forward and swung her umbrella like a bat, screaming as much out of fear as determination.

“Eat this!”

Her swing collided, and sent the animal flying. Lily took the opportunity to make another break for the door. Star was already there, looking back in.

Just as she made it into the light, Star barked. She turned just in time to see the horrid little creature approaching for a second attempt. Lily popped open the umbrella and thrust with it, slamming it back one more time.

With that, they made it into the light. By the time they were in the car, they could see the wretched thing making it’s way out of the doors. It didn’t seem to want to go into the light. Lily was gasping for breath. She looked over at Star and activated her translation spell again.

“Did you get hurt? Did it bite you? Did you bite it? Bark if you’re okay.”

For the split second it took for Star to parse what she meant, her heart pounded out of her chest. Then, Star barked. Lily almost fainted with the relief of it.

“Really? You’re sure it didn’t bite you, and you didn’t touch it? One bark for yes, two for no.”

Star barked once. Lily threw her arms around him, and sobbed in relief.

---

 

They arrived back at the house a short time later, and Lily went digging through the previous occupants' things to find temporary translation anchors. It only took about fifteen minutes to find a pair of earrings for her, and a bandana she could tie around Star’s neck.

She cursed herself for going someplace unknown and dangerous instead of just looking around the house. She might have gotten better items from Target, but she hadn’t thought they’d run into potentially mortal danger just because the doors had been open for like a week.

The earrings were simple studs, but she’d never enchanted something that small before. It took a little extra time, because she just wasn’t used to working so small. It made her feel clumsy, and it didn’t help that she was still a little shaken up. Once she got them on, Star could understand her. She still needed to make one for him though. She was pretty sure that if he had a spoken language, he wouldn’t need to wear one for her earrings to be a two way connection. But even though he was trying to communicate, only the very basics were coming through. So, Lily explained and then enchanted his bandana. Fortunately, that was a much simpler process. She was just copying the spell, only larger and easier.

The second she finished, she heard Star’s voice bordering on panic.

“Are you okay? Are you okay? It didn’t get you, did it?”

Lily almost laughed. Of course he had been just as worried for her as she was for him.

“No, I’m fine. You kept it away from me almost the whole time. Are you okay? Did it touch you at all?”

Star whined, and it was a small realization for her that dogs could even make that sound in relief.

“It didn’t touch me. I followed your instructions and gave it the run around. What was that? It was a magical creature. It had mana, and enhanced speed. It was also very aggressive.”

Lily leaned forward and hugged him tightly.

“I don’t know. I don’t even know for sure if I was right. It wasn’t foaming at the mouth that I could see, so maybe it was just the magic but, I wasn’t about to take a chance with either of our lives.”

“Good. You did the right thing. But what did you think it was?”

“I– I don’t even know where to begin. I don’t think you’ve been really sick in your life, and you’ve only seen me. Do you understand being sick?”

“I have vomited, yes.”

Lily sighed, seeing some of the limitations of this translation spell. She said sick. Star didn’t have the concept, so he seemed to just get the nearest thing. This was going to be tricky.

“That’s not… Okay. There’s a lot of different kinds of being sick. Some of them are worse than others. Some of them can kill you. The sickness gets inside of you, and then your body has to fight it off.”

“That does not sound so bad. I have a strong body. I would fight it off, yes?”

“No! Sometimes it doesn’t matter how strong your body is. The signs I know to watch for with this specific kind of sickness are animals that foam at the mouth, behave aggressively, and are out during the day when they are usually night time animals. And it is ALWAYS fatal. In a really, really bad and horrible way. Suffering sickness death!”

Star’s ears drooped. He looked frightened.

“How does it get you?”

“Only if you get bit, or consume some of its saliva or body. So if it didn’t touch you, and you didn’t touch it, you should be safe. Me too.”

“It did not touch me. I almost bit it. You stopped me. Thank you Master.”

“Thank YOU! I don’t think I could have gotten away if you didn’t get it to chase you. That thing was so fast! It could have just been the magic. Maybe it wasn’t sick at all. But, it had two of the three things to watch for. Before everyone disappeared, if we got it treated fast enough you could survive an encounter like that. Now– I don’t know what I can do. I was so scared I was going to lose you!”

“I am fine, Lady Flamewalker. It never got within a body length of me, thanks to you.”

Lily burst into tears and hugged him fiercely. They stayed like that for quite a while.