The Kennel
TBD woke up in a cold metal cage, so naturally, he was terrified. But TBD didn’t have time to figure out where he was because he suddenly smelled his warden… John. John walked over to the cage and poured in some rocks. TBD was rightfully confused and so he went over to the rocks, and they smelled like… Meat? He was confused but he never gave up a good meal, so he ate all of the small rocks. Then he finally got a good look at his surroundings.
He was still in the store, but now he couldn’t leave. Then he heard a familiar sound, a bell. Then people started flooding into the small store. Most of them just ignored him but there were some people who just came to see TBD. He was very afraid but suddenly through the holes in the cage people were trying to pet him. He went to the back of the cage but then John came over and opened the cage. Later he grabbed TBD and gave him to the customers. They started petting him but TBD had a history of hating being touched so, he immediately started attacking everything nearby. The customers ran out of the store and that’s when TBD had his chance to escape, leaving John with nothing but a broken business.
TBD was now free but alone. In the past, he went to the fruit shop every day of every week of every month. But now he had no meaning… no purpose. So, he just went through his life on autopilot walking through the market hoping people would give him some scraps of meat. This went on for many weeks but, with no one to interact with, he just went into a deep depressive state. He spent weeks just being as far from people who knew about his connection to John. One day he saw John again. He was chasing TBD
“YOU GET BACK HERE!” John screamed.
But TBD knew better than to go back there. If he went then he would never see the light of day again. So, TBD ran. And he ran. And he ran. He ran for so long that the town went past the horizon and then even the smallest chance of John finding him was disappearing along with any hope of ever going back to his home.
End of chapter.