Wild Dog City (Darkeye Volume 1) by Lydia West Page B

hulkers speak, and that's- I don't know the
word for it. Hulker language."
    Mhumhi thought it over, wrinkling his brow.
It had not occurred to him that the language he spoke might not be
shared by all. "If there's a hulker language, why don't you speak
it?"
    "Cause I'm not a hulker, I'm a dog ,"
she explained, as if he were stupid. "My first and third mamas were
dogs."
    Mhumhi gazed at her, and she sighed. "Our
mother was my third mama. My first one, I was in a family of
domestics and they took care of me and some others. I think- I
think my…"
    She paused for a moment, then used a word
Mhumhi did not know. "My human mother got killed, so they
took care of me and some other puppies, but then the police got
them and they killed all of them but not me. I got into a little
pipe like that one where they couldn't get me." She grinned, baring
her square teeth. "They tried and one fell in and died. So they
left me alone."
    Mhumhi looked nervously up the long tunnel in
the ceiling again. It would be a terrifying fall down onto the
concrete below.
    "Then I went and found Tareq and his mama,"
said Maha, putting her hand on little Tareq's head. He was coughing
and whimpering again, his face somehow streaming wetness. It made
him smell even sicker, and Mhumhi leaned away from him.
    "That was my only hulker mama," Maha said. "I
didn't like her. She tried to make me learn hulker language and
everything and wouldn't give me meat. But she didn't last long. She
never came back one day. Same as your mother."
    Mhumhi stiffened a little. "And how long were
you with… my mother?"
    "I don't know," said Maha. "A little while. I
thought we'd be able to stay with her. Or at least me. Tareq cried
all the time."
    Tareq sniffled loudly at this, seeming to
recognize his name.
    "And now she's gone too," said Maha, and she
looked upwards for a moment, perhaps at the long tunnel, perhaps at
nothing. "And now all we have is you wild dogs. I bet you'll eat
us."
    Mhumhi decided the option was still on the
table. "What do you mean, wild dogs?"
    "I mean not domestic, right? Mean dogs that
kill people. Domestic dogs don't do that."
    Mhumhi felt a little slighted. "We don't just
go around killing people!"
    Maha gave him a flat stare. "They killed and
ate up all the hulkers I knew."
    "Well, hulkers aren't dogs ."
    "Yeah they are!" Maha aimed a kick at him
with one of her hind legs, which he sidestepped easily. "You wild
dogs eat your own kind! You wanted to eat me, didn't you! I know you did!"
    Mhumhi raised a lip, suddenly very angry in
spite of himself, because he did, in fact, still have that
desperate urge. He thought bitterly that it would leave a great
deal more meat for the rest of them, especially Kutta.
    "I'm not going to eat you," he said, "so shut
up about it. Be glad I even came down here to feed you."
    "I bet it's just because Kutta said!"
    "I said shut up!" Mhumhi growled, and stepped
close to her, letting her see his teeth, making her cringe down and
whimper.
    Tareq said, "Bad dog!" and Mhumhi shot him a
look that made him clamp his mouth shut.
    "You're meaner than Kutta said you were,"
muttered Maha.
    "I'm not mean!"
    "We're puppies, and you're mean to us!"
    "You don't even act like real puppies!"
Mhumhi said, a tad desperately.
    "You don't even act like a real dog!"
    "Oh!" said Mhumhi, and gave a little thrash
of frustration. "If I was a real dog, I guess I would have
eaten you already!"
    Maha opened her mouth, then shut it again,
her lips trembling.
    "Now I have one more thing to ask," he told
her, pacing a little in the small room. "Listen carefully.
Tomorrow, if I scratch on top of that hole, will you move the
top?"
    "Why?" she asked, her voice oddly
quavery.
    "If I know where it is aboveground, I won't
have to drag things through the sewer," said Mhumhi, thinking that
it should be fairly obvious. "You need blankets, and those candle
things, don't you? If I find the top, I can drop them down." He
paced a little in the small room, pondering.