Space

“Blue?” She touched her ears. Furry and soft, it brought confusion upon her symmetrical face.

“Like a bright blue I think.” He stared at his hand. The strong, lengthy jointed fingers spread so far apart than what he was used to.

She wrung her orange fuzzy tail through her fingers. Maybe not fingers but talons. “No, more of a teal.”

He saw the fur on his body, everywhere. “Oh yeah, yeah that's it.”

“Is this real, Dab?” She asked, tracing her jaw in the mirror.

He rubbed his hand down his chest, feeling the muscles under his safe fur. “Egy, this used to be a paw… why isn’t it my paw?” He started breathing heavily.

Egy rushed to his side; she placed her human-like claw on his shoulder. “It’s Oke! Remember, it’s who we were before.” A sigh of a smile hung loosely upon her muzzle.

Dab stood up abruptly. "Half Breeds?! What was our life, uh, uh, a dream, a zoo?”

“Maybe we stayed asleep too long.” she shook her head regretting the turn of phrase.

“Too long! What about Raj or Tegha? Were they just a book? Did their deaths not mean anything?” He brushed his hand through the longish hair in between his pointed ears.

Egy looked at the, ground? “What if they were a simulation?” Tears stung.

Dab sharply glared at her. “Eg! You had a child.” he barked.

“At least we know you are still a dog.” Egy fashioned a smirk.

“Yeah, and I know you’re still human, forget the cat.” He kneeled at her side. “Arlo was real… She has strength, love and pain! You can’t forget that. Remember her first steps? She fell almost immediately and grabbed onto my tail so hard, my yelp had the cops called.”

Egy’s smile faded. “Yeah, I remember hearing about it.”

Dab rubbed his brow. “What about when Tegha and Rajut had a mock trial arguing about who did the dishes last?”

“Dab… they are gone. In the last few hours before THIS, we had witnessed four deaths. Then got kidnapped and woke HERE.” she gestured around the space. “For what feels like millions of years! I can’t hold onto Arlo or any of them if time has changed out there.”

Dab stormed off a couple of feet, hit the potential wall, and side-glared at Egy over his shoulder. A few moments passed. The two only saw each other. Egy sitting on nothing and Dab leaning on an equal amount of nothing. Silence echoed in their ears until abruptly the two beings burst out in laughter. Smiles overtook their faces, glee danced in their eye.

“I’ve always wanted to do that!” Dab managed to let slip through the hysteria.

Egy gasped “I know! Remember when we first saw that, I saw the desire in your puppy eyes!”

“And then you would do it randomly in the middle of a family outburst. Rude! Made me so jealous.”

Egy sighed “I miss the Den. I miss Huse and the kids. Even that ditch Stef.” she let a tear slip down her face. “Before I missed those, I missed being able to talk to you.”

Dab sauntered back to her. “What do you mean? We talked all the time.”

Yeah, in our minds Egy thought “But that's not the same. Before I was a full human and you were a full dog, we were this. We ruled side by side!”

Dab wined “Things change. but it was still you and Me. The Dab and Egy show. If we get out of this space then you go back to being a parent. You don't understand! That's all I’ve wanted. All I thought since the first Change was, what was I made for?”

“To be there when I couldn’t." she shrugged. "All the kids loved you, trusted you. I was the one that made rules, put up boundaries. A dog can only love.” Egy gestured at her whiskers. “A cat is there sometimes. Around for the big stuff, the food.”

“Egs! Do not put yourself down like that. Let's do the highlights. Single parent, inventor of a drug that will change the world, Provider for the homeless, feeder of strays, protector of shifters!”

“I’m going to stop you right there with a counter… holder of emotional burden, developer of a video game, protector of the house and the household. Not to mention, Developer of a video game in the body of a dog. Like What? Dude, you did that?”

“Yeah, but I’ll never see it be played.”

Egy suddenly got confused. “Then what was that time that Sara swung into our lives?”

“She wasn’t playing it, she was the character!”

Egy burst out laughing again. “Duck dude! Did you just hear yourself?”

Dab’s face drew a huge smile. “One of our descendants was playing my game and the main character talked to me, the creator.”

“Yeah! We ducking talked to the future!”

“Us together!” Dab said, booping Egy’s little cat nose.

Egy swatted him away. “Duck yeah, Smelly. So.” She stood up, put her hands on her hips and smacked Dab with her tail. “How the duck do we get out of this?”

A triumph sound of chewing served as background.

“I don’t know.” He replied with his mouth full.

Egy stared at Dab with wide eyes and mouth agape.

“Oh, did you want some? I grabbed a bundle of cookies from the lab while you talked to the cops.” He handed over a half-eaten cookie.

Her eyes got wider and smiled so big that her little fangs showed. (awe so cute!) “DUDE! Lab cookies, duck yeah... That's Hues, we can use this duck to get out!” She gulped down the cookie.

OOOOO, wait how? Dab thought. Suddenly instead of seeing space, colors of all kinds swirled in front of him occasionally clinging to certain areas.

Egy pushed dab down into the couch. We want to sit for this. I’m only gonna think about this once. Suddenly important sounding music filled the space. We are about to see the world from someone else’s perspective. Someone we are related to... or a random person if you aren't a pro.

I can tell you’re smirking over there Eg.

Oh whatever, I’m gonna watch Arlo, you go for Tyas or Mori. Actually, just enjoy it.