Wild Dog City (Darkeye Volume 1) by Lydia West Read Free Book Online Page A

it
had aimed at him, at the way that coyote's skull had been
smashed.
    Mhumhi felt ill. He had to go back, to at
least see if Bii was all right. At least now he felt certain that
he could outrun the hulker… unless it had been startled, or
distracted, and had chosen not to chase him…
    Forcing himself to retrace his steps back to
the alleyway was the most difficult thing Mhumhi had ever done, but
he did it, dragging his feet and shaking, until he saw the brick
alley and glimpsed the blue bins.
    The smell of the hulker- which he now
recognized, though it was strangely indistinct- was still fresh in
the air, but Mhumhi did not think it was in the area anymore, for
his swiveling ears weren't picking up any movement. He crept back
into the alley, hugging the wall.
    No one was there, no lurking hulker or
bat-eared fox. There were only a few smears of blood on the
concrete to suggest that anything had ever happened.
    "Bii," he called softly.
    For a moment there was no response, and then
suddenly the fox's tiny head wiggled out from behind the dumpster,
nose first and huge ears popping out after.
    "It's gone?" he gasped.
    "It's gone," said Mhumhi, and Bii came the
rest of the way out, back arched and quivering.
    "What was it? I heard you scream- I
thought-"
    "It was a hulker," Mhumhi told him. "I've
never seen one before. Bii, it was carrying a dead- a dead
dog!"
    "Ah," said Bii. Mhumhi suddenly caught a
whiff of urine- the fox had responded to fear in his own way behind
the dumpster. "Let's get out of this place, Mhumhi."
    Mhumhi had no argument with that, and they
trotted quickly out of the alley, aiming for home. Bii kept close
to Mhumhi's legs, and Mhumhi kept turning to lick him between the
ears, to reassure himself.
    "I've heard that," Bii said, once they were
in the same bright place where Mhumhi had originally stopped, "I've
heard that the hulkers'll kill you if they can. I hear they eat
dogs."
    Mhumhi suddenly had an awful vision of the
creature hunched over a dog's corpse, digging those talons into the
belly and tearing out meat with its flat teeth, and shuddered.
    "My mother always said that they were our
brothers," he said. "She said they were dogs."
    Bii sneeze-laughed. "Of course she would say
that! She's a domestic."
    "What do you mean, she's a domestic?" asked
Mhumhi, feeling his hackles rise. "What's wrong with that?"
    "There's a reason they're not well-liked,"
Bii said. "They have some sort of relationship with the hulkers.
Protect them, bring food to them, that sort of thing. Nobody knows
why they do it."
    "Ah!" said Mhumhi, suddenly recalling the
blue-eyed domestic. It had said it was carrying meat to its sister,
but Sacha had been so suspicious. Had she thought…?
    He thought of that dog, cringing with its
meat, and felt a surge of disgust.
    "My mother never went near any hulker," he
said. "I know that much."
    "I didn't say she did," said Bii. "I don't
think all domestics associate with them- there's just not enough of
them left. The police drive them to Big Park whenever they find
them, to hunt them down."
    "Big Park," Mhumhi repeated, and then shut
his jaws tight. Big Park was where his mother had been last
seen.
    "I hear they can even speak," said Bii,
apparently not noticing how stiff Mhumhi had gotten. "Or at least,
they can mimic speaking, make it sound as though some dog is
calling for help, lure you out, and then…"
    The fur on Mhumhi's back rose. "I'm glad
there's not many of them left."
    "Yes," said Bii. "I think the police want to
eliminate them entirely."
    They didn't say much else the rest of the way
back, and Mhumhi felt a great deal of relief when they finally saw
Sacha's little head poking around the door of their home.
    "Come on, come in," she barked. "Kebero's
hungry!"
    Mhumhi bounded up to her, twittering and
whining, frantically bathing her neck and chin.
    "Oh, Sacha, let's not ever leave the house
again," he said, rubbing his head against hers so that she was
shoved along the floor,