I jumped out of the car and danced around in a circle happily, inhaling the fresh mountain air.
A squirrel chattered at me. I just grinned at it – I was a vampire hunter, I didn’t need to worry about cheek from a small critter like that.
My human came over and ruffled my ears before clipping my leash to my collar and handing me the extra length. I held the old leather in my mouth and grinned around it. We had to be careful of the rangers up here too.
The squirrel chittered again, sounding annoyed that I ignored it. I wagged my tail once and followed my human as he started carrying things from the car into the small clearing. We stayed in the woods once or twice every summer and it was always quite fun, fishing, playing in the water, chewing on new sticks. It was a welcome break from the city we lived in. We hadn’t always lived in the city. Before, when my human had his lady, we had lived in the country. I missed those days, but I had my human and that is what mattered.
“Alright Doc,” my human said once he was done with the tent. “Let’s go fishing.”
I wagged my tail and took a quick drink from my water dish before picking up the end of my leash. Fishing meant water, and running and chasing balls while my human sat on a rock and held a long stick over the water. I followed when my human picked up his long stick and box and headed away from camp.
As we left the offended squirrel told me off one more time. I just flagged my tail for a moment before dropping it back to the proper position and trotted after my human. It was hot and I wanted to play in the water.
* * *
I went to get a drink when we returned to the tent and stopped cold – my nose inches above the water. Small brown pellets floated in the dish and the water reeked of urine. I wrinkled my nose in disgust and whined.
My human came over and inspected my dish.
“Huh,” he said staring at it for a moment. “Well, let me get that cleaned up.” He took the dish to the stream.
The squirrel chittered – sounding amused. I flattened my ears to my skull but I turned my back to the offensive creature. I hunted vampires. A little squirrel should be easy to handle…
* * *
After my human had to empty my water for the second time, he started keeping it in the tent when we were not in camp. Even he had noticed that the squirrel, a small brown nasty little thing, seemed to dislike me.
There wasn’t much I could do though. I had tried to use my eye powers on it, but that had failed. Apparently it was only the dead things that responded to that trick. After my human moved the water, the squirrel started to get into our box. He left my human’s food alone, but he spread mine all over the campsite.
That was about all I could handle. Unfortunately I didn’t know what to do.
After the latest bit of mayhem my human and I sat by the stove and he whispered to me.
“Ok, I will cover you with the tarp then leave. We’ll try to do it when the rodent is distracted, then you can surprise him when he comes into camp.”
I grinned.
“I hope you understand Doc.”
I nodded, hoping he would understand that I did.
My human ruffled my ears and smiled. “Ok.”
It took a while, and diligence on our part, but we finally saw our chance. The rodent dove into his tree for a short time.
My human lifted the tarp he’d already placed on the ground, near our supplies, and I crawled underneath, lying as flat as I could. I couldn’t see, but I could hear. I shut my eyes so I could hear better and worked hard at staying awake.
It took a long time but finally I heard something rustling around in all the spilled food. I grinned and sprang out from under the tarp, excited to catch the little twerp. My eyes saw what my nose was frantically trying to tell me just in time to avoid the main stream as the skunk that was eating my food flagged its stinky tail and sprayed in my general direction.
I yelped and ran to the stream, certain I was going to die of the stench. I plunged into the icy water and tried to drown the stink from my nose. I stayed under until I couldn’t feel my face anymore and I needed to breathe.
“Doc!” There was a hint of panic in my human’s voice as I sprang from the cold stream.
I shook and gave a quick bark to let him know where I was. Then I went back to shaking the water from my fur.
“Doc, what happened?” he said.
I snorted water from my nose in answer.
“I see you found a skunk.” My human sounded less than pleased.
I wrinkled my numb nose, or at least I thought I did and my human laughed.
“Alright Doc. The squirrel wins. We need to get home. And we need to get a new tent.”
The squirrel chattered, seeming to laugh, as I followed my human back to the campsite. Most of our gear had escaped the spray, but the tent had taken the full brunt and we’d never be able to use it again.
He sighed and started packing while I shook the last of the water from my fur.
“Doc,” my human said as he threw the last of our gear in the car.
I grinned at him, ears perked.
“You stink.”
I know the squirrel was laughing as we drove away. Next time I’d be prepared.
* * *
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