Dave had made up his mind.
If he was going to rescue the puppy who, he hoped, was still with that wolf, then he had to be able to use some kind of trap to kill it.
For the moment, he had secretly followed one of the dark-furred wolves that had gone out to look for the wolves that were recently hunted by the hooded figure.
They walked one after the other, watching all their sides for any threats, so Dave stealthily moved through high areas among rocks somewhat away from those wolves.
After walking for a while, the wolves stopped in front of a rocky wall. There were no holes in it through which they could pass, but they still stood in front of it.
One of them, the largest of all, barked at it, and after a minute, the ground began to tremble. The wall began to split into two walls that gradually opened a path between them, leaving a direct passage to the camp where that pack lived.
Dave assumed the gray wolf could be there, so once he saw them pass, he hurried to enter, hearing a loud crash of the walls behind him, preventing the possibility of escape.
The squirrel hurried to find a quick refuge to avoid being seen, rushing to hide among some somewhat withered bushes, but enough to hide his presence, at least he hoped so.
Through the open spaces between those plants, he could see what was in front of him, leaving him somewhat nervous with pale skin: dozens of dark-furred wolves walked back and forth. There were some puppies running through some beds and some she-wolves making sure they didn't get hurt during the training of some others.
It was the first time Dave had seen what a pack looked like, leaving him amazed. He knew wolves organized themselves intelligently, but he never expected to be able to see more deeply how that could be carried out.
"Woof"
A short bark, very different from the rest, caught Dave's attention. He would recognize that tender and whiny bark anywhere.
"Where? Where is he?"
Dave would look around, trying to identify where the bark came from. He looked from side to side, walking in the direction he thought he heard the bark.
"Woof"
"There he is again!"
Dave hurried to find the puppy, excited and at the same time fearful of being seen by any of the wolves, because now it wasn't just that he was afraid of them, he felt terrified to be near having been eaten by one before.
Sweating all over his body, he got into a hollow tree trunk lying on the ground, where he caught his breath and sighed deeply.
The puppy was close, he just needed to keep listening to his barks to see where he was.
Although something strange had him worried.
In all his running through the territory of that pack, he hadn't seen any gray-furred wolves. Only dark-furred ones. In fact, even all the puppies were of that fur.
Before any doubt could make him hesitate again, Dave shook his head and focused on his search. He was closer than he thought.
"Woof!"
Dave would perk up his ears, getting a scare. The puppy's bark was even closer than before. Confused and surprised, he would stick his head out of his hiding place, seeing the puppy face to face.
His orange and white fur was freshly cleaned, it seemed they hadn't hurt him; which made the squirrel very happy.
For a moment, they both remained silent, looking at each other, until the puppy would start wrinkling his snout, starting to growl.
Confused, Dave tried to reach out a paw to calm him down, but the puppy would attack him, making the squirrel retreat into the hollow as much as possible.
Dave started to break into a cold sweat, looking absently at the puppy's snout trying to bite him by sticking his nose into the hollow of the fallen tree.
"H-Hey, what's wrong with you? Calm down, buddy... What's going on?" He asked the puppy, who wouldn't stop growling at him. "Why are you just barking...? I know you can talk to me. Talk to me, speak."
But the puppy just kept on attacking, then withdrew its snout; it had gotten tired.
Dave would stare as the puppy walked away, leaving him even more confused.
"Doesn't he remember me anymore...? What's wrong with him?" —he asked himself, putting a paw on his chest to calm down. He had given him a tremendous scare...
No. What he really felt was... a feeling of abandonment.
Why did the puppy start growling and attacking? With all the good he made sure to do for him. Had he taken too long so that he was already tamed by the wolves? That couldn't happen, it had only been a few hours at most.
This wasn't possible.
Dave would look sideways through the tree hollow as the puppy left, being received with licks by a wolf, who ignored his playful barks.
"He... he never wanted to play with me. But... we got along well. What happened to him...?"
Dave would lower his ears, stroking his paws and arms, hiding in his hiding place again.
There was no doubt that it was the same puppy. It was clearly a Shiba Inu puppy, it clearly stood out from the rest of the dark-furred puppies.
It couldn't be another puppy... they were exactly the same.
Upon hearing footsteps outside the trunk, Dave reconnected with reality. He was still in dangerous territory.
He hurried to get out, looking for a different hiding place, in the branches of a tree that still had enough leaves to barely hide him.
Something still didn't add up.
"Should I leave him... and go away alone?" —the squirrel asked himself, looking at the puppy playing with the tail of the same wolf, even though it growled at him—. "Does he want... to stay here?"
Dave, very different from before, began to feel dizzy. He tried to decipher what that feeling he felt inside him was, that feeling that wouldn't let him leave without the puppy.
"I wanted to take him to the surface... and take care of him or find him a good home."
He watched as the puppy ran after the wolf, but would end up rolling in the dirt as he was pulled by several puppies playing with him.
And the puppy seemed happy to play with them.
"..."
"He looks so happy... without me."
That was all he could think, blinded by a deceptive feeling.
He felt betrayed, strangely betrayed.
But, for the first time since he had seen the puppy in that trunk, he now looked very different.
And if he wanted to be a good friend, then he would know how to let him go...
rs of his guild knew him, lay sprawled in the adjacent room. He watched the scene in astonishment, partly unwilling to intervene.
But that call brought out an impulse in him.
"Shinma!"
"Woof!"
Leaping into action, Shinma ran out and bit Doris's leg. She jumped in fright, trying to shake off the puppy. However, he bit down with all his might, refusing to let go.
Melman approached Eva to tie her arms. Then, between him and Gorgon, they pinned her to the ground. The swordsman knelt to grab the girl's chin, but she spat at him.
"Disgusting! It got in my mouth!"
Tenma saw his owner fall to the ground, moaning in pain. It was a strange feeling, but he didn't want her to die.
"Get out of here, Shinma," Doris told him, grabbing him by the scruff and lifting him. "You don't need to see all this. Just go, and we'll come back for you later."
Tenma whined a little, disheartened by his weakness against someone who wasn't even using a weapon on him.
"Woof!"
"Shinma... you're going to make me kill you if you keep insisting—"
Suddenly, Melman drove his sword through Doris's back, leaving everyone stunned.
"You... what do you think you're doing?" Doris demanded, releasing Shinma to cover her mouth, ending up spitting blood. "Melman..."
Melman still held the sword firmly, seemingly unwilling to retract his attack.
Hysterical, Doris looked to Gorgon.
"Gorgon, stop Melman!"
Gorgon kicked his boss hard to prevent her from getting up, heading toward Melman.
But he changed direction and aimed his fist at Doris, punching her square in the face.
Doris, in pain, looked at her two comrades going against her. She began to stutter and tremble, not understanding a thing that was happening.
"The government... won't leave me alone, huh?"
Getting up carefully, Eva stood, adjusting the tie of her suit. Her face was bloody, and her suit dirty, but she kept the strength to look firmly at Doris.
"What's happening...? What is this?"
Eva picked up the knife Gorgon had left on the ground. Melman stepped back, drawing his sword, and Gorgon kept the girl held by the neck.
"How did you find me? Were all our adventures... fake?" the leader asked, pointing the knife at the girl.
In a desperate attempt, Doris raised her gun and shot at Eva, but she deflected it with her sword, causing it to ricochet and hit Melman. He fell to the floor.
"Answer. Was everything fake?!"
Doris began to cry, anguished by the pain and the betrayal of her comrades who were not responding to her calls. When she looked again at Eva, she exclaimed:
"We're just... bounty hunters. No one would join you. You are... the threat the government seeks to eliminate," the girl replied, spitting blood. "The assassin we sent to kill you... didn't do his job... and we paid him in advance. Why couldn't you die there?"
Eva stared at the traitor. She took the gun from her hands and pulled out the explosive material, throwing it to the ground.
Doris was stunned, trying to call out to her comrades to stop her. She screamed in alarm.
Tenma watched everything, scared. He was picked up by Eva and carried to the bar's exit.
"Melman! Gorgon! Why aren't you responding?!"
But both remained still. Doris tried to escape from the explosive material, getting up as best she could, leaving blood in her wake.
But Eva was already at the exit, with an explosive berry in her hand.
"Explosion... goodbye, friends."
With a flick of her thumb, she threw the berry at high speed, making it land on the explosive material.
Causing a massive explosion in the place, with the three guild members inside.
"Woof....! Woof..."
"Shinma...."
Eva hugged her pet in her arms, trying to calm him.
"Forget... everything you saw today. Okay?"
"Woof...!"
...
Eva kept walking, stroking her dog's head until dawn.
Leaving town before anyone could discover she was responsible for the disastrous fire.