She squatted down and carefully petted the puppy. It had red eyes which should have unnerved her however it was small and looked adorable. She would have backed away but the little thing was whining so pitifully that it tugged at her heart strings. Only grim reapers, dead souls or deities could enter the underworld realm so she guessed that maybe this was the soul of a dead puppy.
"Well hello there you tiny thing, what are you doing in the underworld?"
She looked around and tried to see if there was an owner of this puppy nearby.
"You have really soft fur, it's too bad that you are dead. I would have loved to keep you as my pet, I have always wanted a dog. Maybe I should get a dog as my soul pet."
The puppy whined and licked her hand. It felt ticklish and she laughed.
"You are a good boy, or girl." she praised it and it wagged it's tail.
"Well I have to go but I hope you reincarnate in a really good world where you will get to eat all the meat, eggs, milk and the other wonderful foods life has to offer."
She did not notice the dogs teeth elongating and all she felt was a sharp bite on her hand. It was hard enough to cause her a weird kind of pain. If this were her physical body, her blood would flowing like a small stream already.
Just as sudden as the pain came, it disappeared and she looked at the puppy with a disappointed look. She was wrong to call it a good dog, it was a bad dog.
Just before she could scold the puppy, it disappeared and she jumped back.
"That's it, I am going home." she muttered to herself.
About thirty seconds after she disappeared, five warrior reapers who appeared frantic showed up just where she had been standing. One of them was sniffing the air like a dog.
"It was here." he said.
"There is nothing here." another one barked.
"I am telling you it was here." the sniffer said with absolute confidence " I can still smell it."
"Move." Another one told the rest. He was given space and he took some glittering dust out of a pouch and scattered it on the ground.
Other grim reapers who were delivering souls kept a distance away from these one. They looked mean and they had scythes that glowed red.
These were higher level grim reapers who frightened even the normal reapers because they were cold and merciless.
"What are they looking for?" a reaper nearby asked another one close to him.
"I don't know." the other answered.
"A contract was established here." the reaper who scattered the dust said. "A contract between a reaper and the hound."
One of the reapers scoffed and shook his head, "That's impossible, no reaper would want to contract a hound. They cannot be easily controlled and their loyalty is not easily earned. Feeding them is a nightmare because of their huge appetites and you have to be strong enough to earn the hound's respect. That fuckin dog did not respect any of us and we are high level reapers. Only the gate keepers can beat us in terms of strength and even they do not contract hounds. There must be a mistake here. "
"Yes, another one added. "Only one reaper has ever contracted a hound of hell. He is a legendary figure we all aspire to. No one has come close to doing what he did. We are sure of that because we know every high level reaper in the underworld."
"Well someone has contracted it. We need to report this to the higher ups, it's not our case to handle anymore." the reaper who scattered the dust put his pouch away.
The high level reapers walked away as other low and medium level reapers whispered among themselves what they had overheard.
The news soon hit the forum that a super powerful reaper had contracted a hound of hell.
The reaper who had no idea that she was now a topic and a hero to many reapers was sleeping.
At some point in the night, woken up as if by instinct she got up sat with her legs crossed in the meditation pose and started cultivating.
She used up five crystals and managed to stabilize her soul at infant level two. She had three more levels of infancy to go before entering the foundation level.
Early in the morning, she was once again woken by the sound of the ducks quaking. They were loud and irritating.
To make it worse, the chicken were just as loud and competitive as the ducks when it came to noise making.
Unwillingly, she opened her eyes and kicked the covers off carelessly.
"Watch it." a voice in her head said.
Naturally she was irritated because she thought it was the old deity once again. His voice was deeper but since he could change his face, he could naturally change his voice.
"What do you want old deity?" she asked.
"Old deity, are you kidding me!!! get up and feed me. You said I would eat plenty of meat, milk and other wonderful things."
She sat up quickly as her mind replayed the scene where she said those words to a puppy which then bit her and disappeared.
At the foot of her bed, she saw the familiar black puppy with red eyes staring at her with a very bored expression on it's face. This puppy however was bigger than the one she imagined yesterday. It could not possibly be the same dog. Dogs don't grow overnight.
"Hahaha," she laughed, "I think I am going crazy. Maybe I am too exhausted."
She fell back on the bed and closed her eyes.
"I will bite your legs off if you don't get up and feed me." the deep voice in her mind threatened.
"Yes, go ahead and do as you please." she responded and close her eyes.
She imagined what a good day it was going to be since she was planning to dissolve some crystals and water the crops.
She suddenly felt something licking her foot and this prompted her to open her eyes, scream and jump up.