The girl closed her eyes so tightly it hurt her head. Time seemed to stretch on and on in front of her. Suddenly, she felt something hot and wet slide up the side of her face. She opened her eyes to see the giant black dog and its open mouth right in front of her, its moist breath hot on her skin. It licked her face where tears had streaked. She hadn’t even noticed that she had been crying.
Several smaller dogs, the ones that had been hanging around, came tumbling in behind the larger one. The girl noticed that they were clumsy, their feet and heads too big and not in proportion. They tugged at the larger one’s ears, nipped at its ankles.
The pups crawled all over the girl. With no concept of personal space or stranger or of the unknown.
They simply loved her.
They kissed her face and rubbed themselves against her. Twelve the girl counted. Twelve pups. The bigger dog that towered over them all had teats heavy with milk, the girl guessed that she was their mother.
The mother dog lay down on the ground and the girl watched as the pups, the size of large dogs themselves, all crowded around their mother. The giant beast of a dog offered up her belly to the hungry brood and all the pups took a teat and suckled.
A peace fell on the forest – the quiet that surrounds a mother feeding her young. A quiet the girl had never known.
The girl relaxed as she watched the pups, who had been rambunctious only moments ago, become sleepy and content. That is when she remembered the strange dream she’d had. She remembered suckling at a giant black dog, the milk of the mother saving her.
The mother dog looked up at the girl, her big head heavy with sleep, ears flopping, eyes burning. The mother blinked slowly then placed her massive paw on the girl’s leg and tried to pull her in toward her.
The girl hesitated a moment, but the mother was insistent. Eventually, the girl gave in and suckled alongside her new brothers and sisters.
This part is a short one. Sorry, guys. Hugs xxx
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