Leather Bones

Writers: AmajoS, Suzee
Date Posted: 25th April 2019

Characters: Rothen, Loella
Description: Rothen seeks out Loella for some canine advice.
Location: Amber Hills Hold
Date: month 10, day 13 of Turn 9
Notes: Mentioned: Karhal

Loella

Rothen knocked on Karhal's door, hoping that the Captain was home. He
was needing some advice about his new canine partner, who happened to
be a black and tan puppy, only a few months old. Said puppy was
sitting at his left like she was supposed to be, though she was
wiggling a bit. She had learned that fairly quickly, and he thought
that Karhal or maybe one of the other trainers had already started
that with her before she'd been assigned to Rothen. Or maybe she was
just that smart.

"Rikka!" Loella called her canine to heel instead of snuffling the
door. "Hi Rothen," she smiled and opened the door. "Karhal's not here
right now.

"Oh," Rothen was disappointed. He'd really hoped to ask the Captain a
few questions regarding the puppy he'd been given. "I don't suppose
you know about canine pups?" He asked hopefully. He could see the
canine beside the woman and she seemed very well behaved.

"Some," she smiled looking down at her own canine. "I trained her
myself," she said.

"Oh good!" He was relieved as he needed the advice but honestly hadn't
looked forward to asking the Captain. He didn't want the man to think
that he wasn't capable of handling the responsibility of training the
young canine he'd been given. He didn't want him to change his mind
and decide that it was too much responsibility or anything. He'd
gotten quite attached to the little animal in the short time he'd had
her now and more than that, he liked the challenge of training her.
For the most part. "Maybe you could help me with a problem I'm
having?"

"I'm happy to try," she nodded.

"Well, she seems to really like chewing on things. Particularly
leather things. Like shoes." He glanced down at the puppy who was
sitting at his left foot watching him with an adorable level of
attentiveness for such a young animal. Looking for all the world as if
she hadn't completely destroyed one of his mother's shoes just last
night.

"Oh they all do that," Loella smiled. "It's like a baby teething. You
need to give her some things she's allowed to chew."

Well that was good. At least she hadn't said that he was a failure as
a canine trainer. "What do you recommend? I suppose I could just let
her keep the shoe she's already messed up, but that might make her
think that shoes were good for chewing and I don't want her thinking
that." Besides, it wouldn't last much longer. She'd really done a
number on it. If his mother hadn't said, he might not have realized it
even was a shoe when he saw it.

"Karhal has some here," she said and turned to reach into a cabinet
and pulled one out. Rikka whined and then yipped but Loella just
turned and said, "No, this isn't for you."

Rothen eyed the object in her hand, "What is it?"

She smiled. "It's a leather bone." She turned it over in her hand.
"Its a bovine or porcine bone wrapped in leather that's nice and tough
for them to chew."

"Oh, that sounds like just the thing!" Rothen smiled, "A lot more
sturdy than a shoe."

"Yes," she nodded. Then she looked at the pup. "So what did you name him?"

"Her," he corrected absently, reaching to take the leather bone. "And,
that is an issue. I think I waited too long to give her a proper name,
and now there's only one thing she really answers to. I'm not sure
it's the right kind of name for a guard canine, but she seems to like
it," he sighed.

"I wonder if you could change it up just a little to make it sound
more like a girls name? I know Lady Benani's niece named her little
girl Pippa." Loella offered.

He'd tried that, but the names all sounded too, well, girly. He'd
tried giving her tough sounding names that would fit a guard canine,
but couldn't even say them with a straight face looking at her. He'd
tried out common canine names he'd heard all his life, but they were
too boring. Besides, she seemed to have already picked her name out.
"I'll give it a shot, but she does seem to have settled on 'Pup.'"

At the sound of the word, the puppy perked her ears, even the slightly
floppy one, and gave a yip.

She chuckled. "Well they do get used to name changes over time," she
said. Indeed she remembered a lost canine from her childhood that had
started following her everywhere. At first, he didn't understand his
name but after a while, he began to.

He couldn't imagine changing a canine's name after it had been given.
It just seemed wrong. What if someone just decided he had a different
name and kept calling him it till he gave in and answered? No. It
seemed Pup liked that name, so Pup it would be. Even if it was a
ridiculous name for a guard canine.

Still, he smiled and nodded agreeably to be polite before changing the
subject, "Where can I get more of these leather bones? I don't want to
take them away from you." He thought of something and added, "and I
can pay for this one, of course."

"I think over at the tanners. They make them for all the guard
canines." She smiled and shook her had. "Don't worry. Rikka get's hers
from the Lady Holder. She's been of service and Lady Benani is
generous."

"Alright then, thank you. I'll get her more from them then." He stuck
the leather covered bone in a pocket and then added, "I'll get out of
your hair now. Thanks again for the advice on the chewing and I know
my mother thanks you too."

"I'm sure she will, shoes are not easy to come by," Loella smiled.

Last updated on the April 26th 2019

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Leather Bones