"Father! He's still following us!" The child replied with a sense of urgency as he felt the cold winds ruffling past his ears as he stared at the huge back of his father sitting in front of him in the scooter.

Glancing back from the side mirror the man replied, "Don't worry, he'll stop following us and return back home after a while,"

Hearing his father's words relieved some of the child's worries but he still turned back to look towards the small pup that was running after their scooter since the moment they left their house.

The child saw the black pup slowing down and changed its direction to jump sideways into the bush before he could look any further the scooter took a sideway turn and the pup was no longer visible to him.

He silently hoped in his heart that he would still be able to see it when he returned home from school. The school wasn't very far away from his home and it took around three to four more minutes and he was at his school.

His father dropped him off at the regular place and bid him goodbye.

"I'll see you after school," His father said as he sat back on his scooter and left for home. The father tried to look for the pup on his way back home but was unable to find it.

It was a pup which had followed them home the day before and only after the incessant pleadings of their son did they agree to keep the pup.

The child with the heavy backpack on his back walked towards the gates of his school with the thoughts of his pup still there in his mind but not as much as before. The crowd of children at the entrance of the school gates was another stressful situation for the five-year-old to face.

He walked through the school gates with his head held low looking towards the ground. The school was a gloomy place for him and he never liked it. He didn't even know the reason why he was going to school in the first place.

From what he knew was that the reason he was going to the school was to study but as to the reason why he needed to study he didn't know at all nor did he have enough mental ability to realize that he could simply ask someone to explain these doubts to him. He never did. He just kept his mouth shut all the time and processed only what was told to him never raising a doubt.

With all these thoughts going through his head, he slowly made his way towards the primary school building.

Step

Step

Step

His small feet made a feeble sound on the grey cemented ground thanks to his well-soled shoes that cushioned the impact after each of his steps.

The child suddenly felt something, a sort of inexplainable pull and he raised his head, staring at the ground to look towards his left.

On his left was a raised platform made of stones above which there were several small shrubs and pine trees planted. It looked quite dense from the perspective of that child but what attracted his attention was not the dense greenery but a small face that was looking towards him from a narrow gap in between those leaves.

On a closer look, the child's eyes widened as he realized that the pup had followed him all the way to his school and was now looking right at him. The child stood there as various thoughts crossed his mind.

He wanted to go to the pup and take it with him to the class but fear overtook him as he knew deep down that something like that was not allowed and he might end up hearing an earful from that teacher of his.

In the end, fear of doing something inappropriate overwhelmed and won over his desire to walk up to the platform and grab the pup and he started moving towards his school building not forgetting to turn back to look at the small head that was still peeping towards him.

When the distance between the two of them increased the child saw the pup going back into the bushes to the land unknown.

It was the last time that child saw the pup, something the child would never be able to remove from the back of his mind until his death. These words were not just words as they were proved to be true a few decades later.

A few decades later…

*COUGH*

A fresh pile of blood splashed on the dark wet ground from a man's mouth as he dragged his weary body towards the closest tree for cover.

Blasts of gunfire could be heard and the sound of each blast was enough to shake a common man out of his wits but this was something the wounded man was not concerned with. He had long been desensitized to the sound of gunfire.

What the man was concerned with at the moment was the wound on his stomach. He knew that if it kept bleeding like this then today would be his last day. The man continued to drag himself with one hand pressing his wound tightly to reduce the blood loss while he used the other hand to move his body to the nearest tree for cover.

The rain of bullets showed no respite forcing the man to continue to crawl his way towards the tree. Thankfully it was dark otherwise he would be like a sitting duck for those ambushers. He finally made his way towards the tree and stayed there as he waited for the firing to stop.

After another two more minutes of continuous firing the forest silence took over. The man subconsciously slowed his breathing afraid that his sound of breathing would be caught as the sweepers could be coming in soon.

Just like he had thought many rays of flashlight illuminated the dark forest as sounds of abuse could be heard from behind. By now, the man had lifted his torso and was resting his back on the tree trunk with his legs in front of him.

He was listening and deciphering the sounds of the enemies as they were making their way towards his spot.

Thinking that this might be the last time he'll hear them he switched on his mic and asked, "This is Gama here, anyone copy?"

A desolate smirk soon formed on his face as by now it was clear to him that of his five-man team he was the only one who was alive at the moment.

The sounds of men were coming closer and closer and if he was not wrong then they were only around fifty meters behind. He knew he had no chance to make it out alive of this.

"It was a wise decision to postpone my marriage hehe," The man chuckled not minding whether he would attract another hail of bullets from the enemies behind.

He no longer bothered with his wound and removed the hand that had been holding the wound as the pace at which the blood was rushing out of his body increased.

Not bothering with the bleeding, he took out a grenade from his chest pocket and waited for the men to come closer.

A sense of dizziness started taking a toll on him as he resisted the urge to close his eyes. His struggle was not in vain as soon after he heard a footstep approximately 5 meters away from his position and without further ado plucked the pin out.

GRENADE!

A shout rang as one of the men saw a grenade roll out from behind a tree and all the men soon made a run for their lives while some ducked on the ground.

While he was waiting for his death a memory, he had long forgotten soon came back to him filling him with a sense of helplessness and guilt.

'If only I had the courage I had now back then…' the man thought to himself as the image of the pup that had followed him to his house became very vivid to him.

He tried to remember its name as he clearly remembered giving it a name but it was to no avail. It had been too long for him to remember something like that.

BOOM

….. 

Woof!

Tiger!

A man in his late thirties bent on his knees as he welcomed a black-furred dog in his arms.

Woof! Woof!

"Good boy! Good boy!" The man exclaimed as he felt the whole of the dog's face with his hands and the dog reciprocated by covering all hands with saliva.

The man didn't know whether to be happy or angry after feeling the wetness of his hands. He shook his head and tried to wipe his hand on Tiger's back but realizing the man's intentions Tiger immediately backed away.

Woof!

"You! The man ran after his dog to catch hold of him but by the time he caught hold of him the saliva on the man's hands had long evaporated leaving him frustrated.

He couldn't help but sigh with a smile on his face as he asked, "Should we start going then?"

Woof! Woof!

"Alright, let's see where this road takes us," The man said as he walked along with Tiger on his side towards the only path which was visible to them.