A human who hires out as a protector has two large, beautiful, Newfoundland dogs. They gets some very interesting looks both on ships and on stations. -- Fighting Fit
The Human entered the ship with two bears. Not teddy bears, actual ursine life forms. The fact that they were padding amenably at Human Hip's heels did nothing to reassure the crew of the Indigo Shamrock. Companion Ty almost scurried onto a high shelf from the terror.
"How is having Ursid pet?" she squawked in GalSimple.
"Not Ursid," said Human Hip as she petted one. "These are dogs." They were enormous. Almost the height of Hip herself. They were certainly more massive than her. Any minute now, she was going to say they were old softies, really.
They were introduced as Bear and Tux, just to make things confusing. Bear was brown of coat and Tux was black with a white blaze on their chest. They certainly behaved like dogs, up to and including showing their bellies for Ty's curious hand.
Humans did odd things, and making dogs the size of bears was just one of those.
"They're really old softies," claimed Hip, assisting in the belly rubbing. "Believe it or not, they're water dogs, adapted for a colder climate. They're so gentle, we trust them with our babies."
Given the reputation of some human babies, this was not as reassuring as it could have been[1]. "Do you trust the babies with your dogs?"
A brief boggle. "Oh right. Pib is a statistical outlier and should not be counted. Most of our babies are harmless. My gentle giants put up with Cousin Cees' first and they stick their little fingers into any orifice they can find."
This, for Humans, was a shining endorsement of canid patience.
Humans. They took one look at the Wolf and wondered if they could be friends. Centuries later, they took the wolf and turned it into a mobile shag rug. With a waggy tail and an attitude so chill that it approached absolute zero.
Ty risked the next question. "Are these rideable?"
[1] Word about Human Pib has gone around.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / ESIGHT]
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