Waffles woke with the smell, and the changing of the light. It buzzed softly when it changed, a sound that was difficult to hear but not quite impossible. There was no light in the sky here on this strange place, not like there was light in her memories, on the place where the sky burned, and the ground was filled with the smell of things that lived and died, and had lived and died for a very long time. Here the ground was just beginning to smell of life, and that life was strange and unusual , smells that she did not recognize.

She had lived much of her life in the small place with the metallic smell, and the ground that thrummed and hummed under her feet, but in these last three years of her life she had lived in the dark open place with the strange soil smells and the weird other animals. It was hard to tell if she liked it here or not. At first she had because there had been open spaces and new strange smells, but then she had disliked it when Adam vanished and she couldn't find him again, and this time he had stayed away for a long time, what felt like forever, but then she liked it again when he came back, and suddenly things were more normal than they had ever been.

She liked this new version of life, even if she worried when Adam went away, worried that he would leave forever next time.

So, it was important he be the first thing she check on.

Now there was just one other thing.

She walked with a few quiet steps, paws soft against the cold floor and nosed her pup once in the side of the head. Pancake jerked upright, eyes opening in the near darkness glowing like they always did, like a cat's might glow in the beam of a stick light. She blinked and sat up licking at Waffle's face. Waffles nosed her again urging her to keep quiet but to get up.

Pancake followed her mother's lead, stretching out luxuriously before standing and trotting to her mother's side. Waffles nosed her again to quiet her down. The two legs were sleeping after all, and she didn't want to wake them up. She liked it when they were asleep because that meant they were relaxed. They stood by the big window that looked down over the strange dark place with the strange smells and slowly watched as the distant light changed from blue to yellow.

Waffles felt like this could be the time of day back where she was born, when the sky was just beginning to turn from dark blue to simple blue. It wasn't something Pancake would ever know, since her daughter was born here in the strange dark place and thought the smells were pretty normal.

Waffles nosed her pup again for attention.

This was important, she wanted her pup to know this for when she was no longer alive. Waffles liked the idea of her daughter being here, so she could do all the things that Waffles did for the two legs when the two legs didn't know it. All of the important things.

And now that Pancake was here, she was determined to teach pancake to do those things too, and that meant waking up when the blue was turning yellow.

That meant walking quietly too, and she nudged Pancake again with her nose to urge her to be more quiet, like they were stalking something. Pancake did her best, but she still wasn't very good at it. pancake was big, much bigger than waffles herself, so she had a lot of weight to be quiet on, which would only make things harder.

But she needed to try.

It had taken waffles a while to decide what was most important when Pup Kay was born. When Adam wasn't there of course Pup Kay was most important, but when Adam returned it had taken Waffles some time to decide. Later she figured that pup Kay was still most important, despite how much she had missed Adam.

So that is where they needed to go first. Sometimes Waffles slept with Pup Kay, but that was mostly if she could smell soemthing odd on him, like he was sick. When he was healthy, she mostly slept halfway in between where she could hear what was going on the best in all corners of their den. She trotted with pancake at her heels down the little hallway and into Pup kay's room. She paused so they could sniff the air to sense if anything was wrong.

The room was alive with the smell of something warm, and she could hear Pup Kay's slow breathing from across the room. She could see, by way of tiny light on the far wall, and together they made their way across the room to get a better smell at Pup Kay. Pup kay smelled strange, an odd mixture of Adam and Sunny. Waffles was sure pup kay had to be human, he looked human enough, but he had an extra set of arms where other humans did not. Of course Adam had always had one less leg than he needed, so maybe that was a trait that ran in the family, the ability to have more or less limbs than one needed . The only weird thing was how much pup Kay smelled like Sunny, and Waffles was smart enough to know how a mother behaved around her pup.

The whole thing had confused her at first, but eventually she had just accepted the fact that human Adam and Drev Sunny had made Pup Kay, somehow.

She sniffed at the pup's gentle fuzz of hair and snorted lightly her warm breath tousling the yellow fur on top of the little one's head.

Nothing abnormal here .

Pancake blinked at her, and her eyes continued to glow softly. It was important that Pancake know pup Kay came first. He was the youngest and so needed the most attention, and the most care. Adam and Sunny were very protective of pup Kay, and what was important to them is what was important to waffles and what needed to be important to Pancake.

Together they walked from the room and began their way up the hall sniffing systematically for anything wrong or unusual. Now most of the smells smelled unusual to waffles, but she knew which ones were normal. Pancake on the other hand thought all the smells were normal, but either way it was a good sign.

Sweeping the entire house, making better time with two instead of just one, they made it to the far bedroom where Sunny and Adam were still asleep. Sunny always slept well, but sometimes Adam did not, and it was important to be there in case he needed someone.

Pancake was being given different training than waffles. Waffles had been trained to notice and deal with distress, night terrors and flashbacks , while Pancake was learning to be a basic service dog, but Waffles still wanted her pup to know as much as possible in the event something like that did happen. Sunny never needed her help, but sometimes Adam got agitated. They walked together quietly into the two legs room, and were both happy to find them sleeping soudly.

Sunny was on her back with her face towards the ceiling and Adam was curled up on his side, head resting on his hand. Neither of them moved, both of them were breathing evenly. The smell in the room was as normal as it could be even with the other weird smells besides. It was important for pancake to know that the two legs were missing a few key senses. Sure they could see better on most occasions but both of their noses and ears were woefully lacking. It was up to them to make sure that the house was safe , and that everyone was healthy and doing as well as they could be.

All seemed ok that morning, but there was always the chance something was going to go wrong.

She wanted Pancake to understand this, needed her pup to know that it was with constant vigilance that they kept this little pack together and safe. All except for Adam who had a habit of vanishing and then not returning for a very long time. That was soemthing she had to impress upon her pup, keep watch of Adam because sometimes he likes to disappear. She never knew where he went, but out of all the times that he had gone, others were usually sad about it.

Waffles could smell the chemical makeup of tears. Thousands of years of evolution had given her the ability to smell, and a few more thousand years evolving side by side with humans had given her the ability to understand the smells. She instinctively knew when a human was happy, when a human was sad, when a human was angry. She could smell when a human was sick, and where, and she could sometimes, if she tried really hard understand what the humans were saying.

All this she needed to teach to her pup, who had thousands of years of evolution behind her along with another strange smell.

There was something about her pup that wasn't normal, just like Rogue, her mate. In a way they smelled.... Artificial, but that was a common smell that occurred here in this strange place. Pancake smelled like other animals and strange chemicals, and waffles knew that there was soemthing different about her daughter.

Pancake understood things that waffles could not. Pancake could hear the human noises, and she could pick out what they meant. The sort of effort it took waffles to understand came naturally to pancake, but it wasn't something that Waffles was jealous of. To the contrary she was pleased that her pup would be a better fit for this family than she was. Or at least she would be when Waffles trained her up properly.

With the house patrolled and all the two legs happy and asleep .

That was the first rule she taught her daughter. Always make sure to patrol the house. At least two or maybe even three times a night. If one of the two legs was sick it was their job to stay up and make sure that it didn't get worse. There were a few important things to watch out for, two legs didn't have strong enough noses to warn them of danger, so it was their job to make sure that there was no smoke, or other deadly smells.

Waffles knew smoke meant fire, and fire was hot and could kill you. She had smelled other bad smells before, and never knew what they meant other than her instincts told her there was something wrong dangerous.

Waffles almost always listened to her instincts, and made sure that pancake understood that, however there were times where ones instincts could be ignored, and those where times when the two legs were in danger and she needed to go back for them, or if the humans told her to, or for a few other reasons, but then again she wasn't really ignoring her instincts when that happened, but her pack instinct was stronger than whatever instinct was telling her to run for the hills.

It was complicated and soemthing that Pancake would learn with time.

With their patrol of the house over, waffles had pancake lay by the hallway to pup Kay's room, while she went to lay by the door into Sunny and Adam's room. This way they could cover more ground and hear more easily. It was only when the blue had changed completely to yellow that the two legs began to stir. It was Sunny who got up first quietly stepping out into the front room to do her strange morning routine of kneeling in front of the little alcove head bowed. From there she would get up and wave around her metal stick for a few minutes. Waffles and Pancake watched her from the ground and waited until she was done before approaching.

Sunny scratched them both behind the ears, and then said one of the words that Waffles knew in both human and Drev.

"Hungry?"

For the time being her mind was less filled with thoughts of protecting the family, the sweet aroma of sustenance filling the room. Ever since they had come here to the dark place, Waffles had been happy to find a more varied diet for herself. The strange berries and weird meats offered to her were much better than the bagged brown pebbles she had eaten in the metal place. Waffles ate slow, but pancake ate quick, so quick in fact they had purchased a bowl with little cracks in it so Pancake had to go slower to eat.

That had worked until pancake learned to tip the bowl over. Waffles had found the whole thing a load of fun to watch especially when the two legs had used their magic abilities to stick the bowl to the floor so Pancake couldn't pull it up. Pancake was stuck forced to eat slowly much to her annoyance.

Waffles on the other hand could eat her food whole and at her leisure.

That's what you got for being a good girl.

There were other things of importance to note, which her daughter was learning quickly. Any food that falls o the floor is their food, and pup Kay is a food dispenser. Only take food that is offered to you, even if pup kay is holding it and it is in reach. If at any time pup kay drops it, however, the food is in limits.

They may not mark anything inside, but there is a magic little door that opens letting them outside that they can mark all they want.

Walks generally happen once in the morning and once at night, though they always get to come if Sunny and Adam go out. When their vests are on, they are working and cannot play, but if their vests are off than they can play or nap all they want.

Be kind to strange two legs.

No jumping, and not too much licking, some two legs don't like licking, which mystified waffles but she was smart enough to understand the rule. If you want a two legs to pet you approach with caution and offer your belly to them, that makes two legs feel safe.

Some two legs don't like barking even when it is friendly barking.

Waffles had found that two legs of the human variety were better at understanding barking than other two legs. Sunny was pretty good, but Adam was better, though sunny was still better than some humans. Usually the humans who didn't understand didn't smell like dog themselves.

Sometimes they smelled like other animals.

But not cats.

Waffles hadn't smelled a cat since they had gone back to the bright place. Cats only existed on the bright place, so that was odd.

As for the other animals.

There was waffle's friend Jeffery. Jeffery came and went as he pleased, but he mostly stayed. He was a strange creature that smelled even more different than the other creatures, but he liked waffles and waffles liked him. Pancake hadn't been so sure of him at first, but that had soon changed. Jeffery was here now draped over Adam's shoulders. This had worried waffles at one point, but know she knew Jeffery was a friend.

There were a lot of creatures like Jeffery on this planet, and all of them were very friendly. That was the rule, you couldn't chase other animals, you had to be nice to them. Pancake had gotten in trouble for chasing the jellies, and one time a deer, but the two legs had been mad so she had stopped. This is one of the times that waffles knew to ignore her instincts. She knew she wanted to chase, or more accurately herd things, but she also knew that the two legs didn't want that.

She had other jobs to do.

Pancake was learning if slowly.

After Sunny was awake, Adam woke up to, and Waffles had to lay there and watch as the two of them play fought. When this had first started happening waffles hadn't like it much because she couldn't tell the difference between play fighting and real fighting. However, now she understood that all fighting between Adam and Sunny was play fighting.

Pancake's ears perked as she heard Pup Kay wake up in the other room, and she yipped softly at the two legs, who knew what she meant.

Adam reached down to pat Pancake, "Good girl mumble mumble Kay mumble."

Pancake whimpered again understanding more than waffles did, but followed him to the other room to retrieve his pup.

The tiny two legs was still rubbing its eyes when they came out, and both pancake and waffles waited below his chair as he had breakfast.

Pup Kay always gave them food.

When they went out for their early morning walk it was their job to make sure everyone was safe, but it was also ok to play as their vest sweren't on.

For once in a long while.

It seemed as if things were somewhat normal, here in the dark place.