Ashya giggled as the assassin’s little dog ran off with yet another happy bark to fetch the small dead piece of wood she’d thrown for it to fetch – for the tenth or fifteenth time. Hearing it scrabbling in the darkness beyond the reach of the fire made her sit up in interest every time – little yelps as the overexcited dog crashed through the undergrowth, taking the game very seriously.
Eventually the little dog returned to her, panting, wagging its tail, but this time flopped down right next to her, dropping the stick and placing its head onto her lap, looking up at her with huge liquid eyes. The girl laughed, running her fingers through the dog’s long fur, which had garnered no small amount of soil and small particles during its stick fetching adventures. “Are you tired? Do you want to go to sleep? Yes you do, don’t you, you cute little thing you,” she told it happily, picking it up and pressing it to her chest. “You’ll sleep with Signy and myself tonight, and keep us warm!”
She strode off to her tent, finding Signy right in front of it, holding her pack and looking, as always, adorable. Really, it was still so hard to think of her as anything but a cute little doll, with her wide eyes and extremely shy demeanor. “Hi Signy,” she said, as Savio’s little dog barked happily and licked Ashya’s face. “Hey, that tickles!” she told it, scrunching her face mock-disapprovingly, a smile playing on her lips. “You don’t mind if he shares with us, right?” she asked Signy. The dwarf was tiny – it wouldn’t be a crush even with the dog running around them all night long. However, getting some sleep might be a problem if it didn’t calm down.