"War hounds," breathed Feifei. "I've only ever seen them in photos before. They're magnificent."
"I'm sure they are, until they tear us apart for breakfast," Lili panted. "This day just keeps getting more and more shitty."
The women drew their daggers and crowded behind Miro, but the pack of dogs formed a circle around them and started darting in at them from behind the dragon, barking, growling and snapping ferociously, long strings of drool flying from their jaws.
"Oh!" Indy cried as a string of smelly doggy saliva wrapped itself around her arm.
"Settle down boys," Ruby used her horse whisperer voice and showed them her palms in a gesture of submission.
"Rowf!" a huge dog snapped right at Ruby's face, stopped at the last minute only by Miro's claws.
"Ruby!" Indy screamed. "Climb up here! Stop talking to them. They're wild beasts."
"I wonder if your blood can tame them, Delphi," Feifei mused.
"Well I'm not about to give one my arm to test the theory out," Delphi waved her dagger at the nearest beast. "Spit at them Miro!"
Miro started throwing gobs of poison.
It seemed the dogs were well-aware of its dangerous properties, because they increased the distance of their encirclement from the girls.
Miro now curled his tail around the group of women, herding them together and protecting them from the rapid darting incursions the dogs were making towards them.
One of the dogs behind him darted in and sank its teeth into his tail.
He let out a hiss of pain and Ruby screamed.
"Oh no look Delphi! It's teeth have pierced through Miro's skin on his tail. He's bleeding," she cried in sympathy.
"They must have reinforced teeth," said Feifei with scientific interest.
"That's not a good thing, Feifei," said Delphi grimly. "It means they could take down Miro if they all pack on him at once. They must know that too. They probably rarely catch a dragon out on its own. Miro," she called to him, "I hope that back-up is coming pronto…"
Miro was onto their dog tricks now because the next darting mutant canine was hit in the face with a tail flick. It let out a loud yelp of pain and withdrew hastily.
"Yay!" the girls cheered.
Another huge hound took the opportunity while the girls were jumping about in celebration to snap at Lili's extra-long flying ponytail that waved past the protection of Miro's curled tail like a bunny rabbit's fluffy tail tempting a greyhound.
By sheer luck, he caught it in his mouth. He pulled her to her back, and dragged her over, and then clear, of Miro's sheltering tail.
Lili struggled wildly, trying to stab the creature with her dagger, but her hair was way too long, giving him a good amount of clearance between her weapon and his nose.
Without hesitation, she sawed off her ponytail with the dagger, dropping to the ground and leaving the dog with only her hair in its mouth, just as Miro managed to hit the beast with a gob of poison.
The poison landed on the creature's side, immediately burning through its fur and causing it to run yelping madly through the gates to the gardens and out into the bush.
"One down," muttered Delphi, pulling the shaken Lili back into the tail ring, and to her feet.
The girl's remaining hair dropped down to just barely scrape her shoulders, after having been touching her ass for as long as Delphi could remember knowing her.
"Nice haircut Lil. Suits you," Delphi grinned at her.
The other girls laughed nervously.
"Next time go see Winter. She'll trim it for you with much less risk to life and limb."
Lili rolled her eyes at her leader. "It's probably for the best. I never realised what a hazard long hair could be. If it's a choice between my sexy long hair and being dog meat, I can sacrifice my ponytail."
Five lizards and their riders arrived at the scene.
Before the men could do more than loose one arrow, which struck a dog in the haunch, seemingly to no real ill-effect, the pack had turned heel and streamed through the broken gates, disappearing into the surrounding bushland.
The men dismounted from their dragons and rushed to check on the women.
"Jesus. You can't even do one 10K run without attracting trouble," said Alton to Delphi, looking her over with concern. "Do I have to follow you around everywhere?"
Delphi glared at Alton. "We held our own."
"Barely, by the looks of it," he said angrily.
"Oh no! Lili! What happened to your hair?" shouted Cormac.
Everyone turned to look as Cormac raced over to Lili's side, turning her this way and that as though he would discover the missing ponytail somewhere on her person. He ran his fingers through her newly shortened hair with its jagged, dagger-cut ends.
The other girls giggled at the man's overreaction.
"Anyone would think she'd been shot," whispered Loveday to Arrie.
"A dingo's got my ponytail," Lili said flatly. "I swapped it for my life. It was a good trade."
Now the girls collapsed to the road, shaking uncontrollably with laughter.
Cormac looked completely unimpressed, continuously running his fingers through Lili's shortened hair like he was in mourning the loss of something important to him.
Delphi was already ticking on the potential of those war hounds. She looked over at Feifei, who was clearly on the same page as she was.
The two of them moved off a little way into the woods.
"We need them," said Delphi, excitement creeping into her voice. "Imagine what assets they'd be in a battle."
"They were amazing fighters in the War," Feifei agreed. "Packs of them would hunt down runaway prisoners and assassins, or troops retreating from the battlefield. Working alongside the dragons they were an almost unbeatable pairing after the super-EMP's destroyed all of the air forces."
"What are you two plotting?" asked Alton, his eyes narrowed, as he came up behind Delphi.
"How to get some of my blood into one of those doggos," she replied cheerfully.
"I knew you were up to no good! Last time you engaged that closely with tubiàn, you came inches from death, Delphi. I thought losing half the skin off your bottom might have tempered your enthusiasm for close encounters with them."
"I'm not necessarily thinking of having a close encounter with a dingo. I'm thinking we bait one with meat laced with my blood and we only emerge if it shows signs of the biomarker."
"My exact thoughts," said Feifei with enthusiasm.
"Alright, General Chastain," said Alton formally. "Thank you for sharing the military strategy. You can hand over mission leadership to me," he pulled rank for the first time.
Delphi was suspicious it wouldn't be the last...