220 Vol. 4 pt. 23 Patch 4.0: Ferrets and Dogs (1/2)

”So, Red told me that your dog here can find the right trees?” Tabitha asks.

”Kind of. She doesn't get it right every time, but she does a pretty good job,” Fenrir explains.

Tabitha looks down at Rock and taps her foot as she thinks. ”Why?”

”What do you mean why?”

”Why – how, whatever, how can she tell?”

”Maybe she's just naturally attracted to really hard things?”

Oleander snerks which causes Corwin to join in him corrupting Fenrir's words.

”I should have expected that. But really, maybe she's attracted to things with the same density and hardness as rocks?” Fenrir proposes, trying his best to phrase it in a way that can't possibly be corrupted by Oleander.

It doesn't work. Oleander still ends up covering his mouth to laugh.

”Eh, whatever. Not like it matters as long as she can find what we're looking for. You got that, Rock?” Tabitha tells Rock. ”Now, go find us some steel oaks!”

Rock barks, runs off to the forest, and chomps onto the first tree that she sees!

Going by how much bark she peels off with her fangs, it's not the tree that they're looking for, and doubt in her grows.

”Ya sure she can do it? I'm about to just start choppin' away,” Tabitha says.

”Hang on,” Fenrir says. ”Rock, think you can try to lead us where we were yesterday? Remember where those really tasty,” at least, he's asumming they were tasty to her, ”trees were?”

Rock wags her tail and tilts her head. Then she tilts it the other way. Then she tilts it back in the direction that her head was previously tilted.

Then she barks and runs off deeper into the forest.

Everybody takes off after her to try and keep up, but only Fenrir and Shogun are able to keep up with her easily. Fenrir has to hang in the back a bit to ensure that the rest of them don't get lost.

Unfortunately, Rock leads them to a clearing in the forest that looks nothing like where they were yesterday. Fortunately, Shogun lifts a paw and points his snout to the left. Rock runs in the direction that Shogun pointed at.

With Shogun's assistance, Rock leads the group to where they were yesterday and Shogun rewards her with a few kisses, letting her take all of the credit.

”Ya could learn or two from him, dog boy,” Tabitha tells Fenrir.

”What was that? You're just so short that I have trouble hearing you from up here,” Fenrir replies.

”That wasn't even a good comeback. Besides, I like being short.”

Fenrir looks down at her and tries to think of a comeback but fails. Tabitha, seeing the failure expressed on his face, smiles and gives him a slap on his back. ”Come on, we've got work to do. These the trees?”

”Yeah. Rock, can you find more trees like those ones?” Fenrir asks, pointing at a few of the trees that she tried biting chunks out of yesterday.

Rock barks, runs to one of the trees, and bites it! Just like yesterday, it sounds like rock banging against metal as her teeth struggle to pierce the hard-as-metal wood. Of course, that doesn't stop her from hanging onto it and shaking her head around to try and break the wood free from its source.

”I'll be darned, she actually can find 'em,” Tabitha says.

”Darned?” Fenrir asks.

”Ya got a problem with that, ya darn dog boy?”

Fenrir tries to think of a comeback again, but Tabitha sees him failing at it, smacks him on the back, and says, ”Let's get to work!”

And so, they work.

They only need a single tree for this expedition to be worth it. One tree will provide all that Tabitha needs to make them some improved tools.

But, cutting even a single steel oak down with regular axes is difficult.

Fenrir's axe manages to cut a few inches into the tree before the blade cracks and shatters into pieces. Cassiel's axe is next. Hers makes it farther than Fenrir's did since he already got past the bark, but it breaks before even making it halfway through the tree trunk. Meanwhile, Corwin and Oleander are going around, tree to tree, with Rock to mark all of the steel oaks that they find. They may only be able to cut down a single steel oak for now, but they can at least go ahead and mark more of them for ease of finding in the future.

”Let me show ya how it's done,” Tabitha says, stepping up to the tree that Fenrir and Cassiel have been working at.

”I don't see how we're going to chop it down without ten more axes,” Fenrir says.

”Yeah, I don't – what are you doing?” Cassiel asks as Tabitha gently places her axe's blade into the cut.

Letting go of her axe now that it's secure in the tree, Tabitha takes her hammer off of her back, extends it to its full size, and holds it like she's about to swing a baseball bat. ”This,” she says, swinging the hammer into the back of the axe's head!

The axe shatters from the blow of Tabitha's hammer, but not before cutting clean through the rest of the tree.