Moving on without Fred

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 88612

Velus wandered through the tunnels; it didn't take him long for him to think he had gotten lost. Then his nose picked something up: it was Astra's scent! He had been trying to think so much like a human, he had hardly noticed that he could pick up many more scents now.

He followed the lady's sweet aroma throughout the tunnels, but the further he went into the cave, the harder it became to tell it apart from the sulvur. Finally, he saw a figure crouched over, on a rock, in the distance. As he got nearer, he notice it was Astra... crying!

He knew that as a dog, he couldn't say anything to make fer feel better. What were those cute things dogs do? Oh yeah! Very slowly, and very carefully, he approached Astra, and tried to put his head under her arm.

Astra's warrior princess instincts enterred immediately, and she jumped up and got in fighting position. Velus was shocked.

"Oh, it's just you, Velus," Astra snivelled. "I'm sorry. You gave me quite a fright."

Understanding, Velus approached her again.

"Fred's not with you, is he?"

"Bark! Bark!"

Astra ignored him and looked around; no sign of Fred. "It's just that, he was being so stupid! You know?"

"Yip!"

"He's just so insensitive! It's like he didn't pay attention to what's going on! Sometimes you have to wonder how he survived his knighthood training."

"Yip!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Velus. Am I hurting you?"

"Bark! Bark!"

"I don't know what that means."

Velus whimpered, put his tail between his legs, and lied on the grownd.

"Aw, come on Velus, it's okay. We don't need Fred. In fact, for our purposes, we can act like he's dead, okay?"

Velus quickly sat up and yiped.

Contented by her new companion, she wiped the tears from her eyes. "Look, we'll even make our own system! Now what sound do you like for 'no'?"

"Bark! Bark!"

"Hmm... two barks. Okay. What sound for 'yes'?"

"Yip!"

"Are you sure of that?"