Chapter 11: Mestizo and Raza's Test

Going out into the garden Crow took in three things.

One was of the huge expanse of the garden that contained every fruit, vegetable, flowered plant, and herb imaginable in the current climate. There were the usual tomatoes, carrots, okra, green beans, peas, lettuce and cabbages, along with some apples, grapes, bananas, oranges, and grapefruits. Then there were some unique editions, such as kiwis, peanuts, bay leaves, tea leaves, and other plants Crow did not recognise.

The second thing was of a section at the back of the garden that contained some sort of green house, which was marked "Compost Area", and a smaller building marked "Recycling Area" with the three arrows going in a triangle.

The final thing was of Tobias carrying the covered dish that he saw earlier, and running like crazy from two dogs, that were bigger than average and looked a golden-brown. They were barking and running after the frightened employee, and it was very clear they wanted whatever was under the dome on the platter.

"Toby! Quit playing with Mestizo and Raza! You know they play rough when they're hungry!" Kyona yelled through her cupped hand.

"I've been trying to feed them, but they still don't like me-OW!" Tobias responded as one of the dogs took a bite out of his seat.

At that moment Kyona whistled and the animals turned their attention to her. They stopped chasing their prey and went into a steady, fighting stance. Their ears flattened on their head, their backs arced, and small growling noises came from them as they looked at the whistler.

Kyona went into a stance of her own. She let go of Crow's hand, bent her knees, arced her back, and faced the dogs, her eyes narrowed and face completely serious. Her arms were slightly bent and her hands were cupped.

Crow took some time to look at Kyona's form for a very brief, blush-filled second before his eyes travelled to the dogs.

They were bigger than any other dogs he had seen, but could tell that one was a male and the other a female because of the small height difference and the way they were standing. The other thing Crow noticed about them was that they had long leg-bracelets on them.

One, possibly the male, had a turquios-colored bracelet with a black stone facing the front. The other, possibly the female, had a white-colored bracelet with a brown stone facing its front.

Crow then turned around and saw, to his annoyance and fury, that Tobias had crept up beside him, still holding the platter. The waiter was giving Kyona the same once-over that Crow had, except his eyes had a hungry, lustful look in them as they lingered at her most... noticable features.

"If Kyona knew that this creep was drooling over her like that she'd fire him, or beat him to a pulp whichever comes first. I vote for the Toby Pulp," Crow thought as he turned his attention back to Kyona.

The dogs and Kyona broke into a run. Kyona was still bent over slightly with her arms outstretched, and coming at the animals at the same speed. When they met in the middle...

The dogs became gentle at her touch and Kyona was being greeted by long, wet tongues as she laughed and ruffled their fur.

"How are my little cachorros this morning?" she cooed as they finished licking her face. "You hungry?"

At that the dogs barked and wagged their tails as their owner stood erect once again.

"Crow could you bring the tray over here please?" she called over her shoulder.

"Sure K," he smiled, turning to take the plate.

"But I've got it Miss Kyona," Tobias replied as he tried to keep the tray out of Crow's reach.

"I know," Kyona sighed, "but Crow's gonna be here for a while so I think it would be appropriate for him to formaly meet my puppies. ("Puppies!" Crow thought.) So either give him the tray willingly or I will be forced to order you to clean out the Compost Area and spread it over the plants. Again."

"One tray coming up!"

With that Tobias begrudgedily passed the tray to Crow, who was surprised by how heavy it was, and carried it as carefully as he could to the dogs and their owner while the other male coughed out what seemed like "Drop it".

On his approach the dogs stopped wagging their tails and stood at-attention, looking at him intensely. Their eyes took him in and they glanced at each other briefly, as though they were having a conversation between them.

When Crow finally got to Kyona she took the tray in her own hands and held it like it was nothing.

"What in the-?" Crow began.

"Alright Crow," Kyona cut him off, "when I lift off the lid I want you to hold whatever is under here in your hands and present them to Mestizo and Raza."

"O-kay," Crow said.

Kyona lifted the lid off of the tray and under it was, not the gourmet breakfast Crow had dreamed of, but four large dog dishes. Two of them, which were painted brown and turquios respectively, were filled with big chunks of medium-raw meat. The others were black and white respectively and filled with water.

Grabbing a piece from each of the bowls Crow knelt down before the animals and presented it to them, palms up and meat in the middle.

The dogs approached the stranger slowly and took a sniff of the meat before turning their eyes to look into his.

"Keep eye contact and don't blink," Kyona whispered.

"Gotcha'," Crow whispered back.

Mestizo and Raza made eye contact with each other a few seconds later and opened their jaws over the offered chunks.

"Keep still," the owner whispered again.

The beasts then chomped down on the meat, barely touching Crow's skin, and lifted their heads back up to look in his eyes once again before they raised themselves on their calves and placed their feet on his shoulders and chest.

"Ky-"

But Crow was cut off again by the sounds of his laughter as the dogs began licking his face. They then put their full weight on him and toppled him over as they continued to playfully lick and rub against him.

"K-KYONA!" Crow cried out between shouts of laughter. "C-C'mon now down! Sit! KYON-HAHAHA!"

Kyona whistled again and the hounds removed themselves from Crow, allowing him to stand back up with dirty paw-prints on his shirt.

The dogs made their way to stand at each side of their mistress and faced their visitor with sprakling yellow eyes.

"Apparently they like you Crow," Kyona said as she bent down to them again.

"And apparently I like them too," Crow smiled, bending beside Kyona.

Together they placed the dishes in front of the hungry animals and Kyona gave them a "formal" introduction.

"This handsome gentle-dog is Mestizo," she indicated to the one with the turquios bracelet, "and this lovely lady is Raza, his mate," she indicated to the one with the white bracelet.

"And this, my cachorros, is my friend from the Satelite Sector-" Kyona started.

"The sweet, daring, fun-loving, good-looking, kind, out-going and all-time great guy, Crow Hogan!" Crow proclaimed.

The hounds just looked at him, looked at each other, shifted their shoulders slightly and resumed eating as Kyona giggled at her friend's little display.

"Give 'em time, oh Mr. All-Time-Great-Guy, and I'm sure they'll get your humor," Kyona laughed.

Soon they were both laughing so hard they had to stand up again or collapse on the ground.

Still laughing the duo left the dogs to eat their breakfast as they passed another silent message to each other.

"Him?" Raza asked her mate.

"Him," Mestizo confirmed.

The couple then looked at the disgruntled worker as the latter gave the passing Crow a much stronger Evil Eye, and once again relayed a message.

"Trouble?" Mestizo asked.

"Trouble," Raza confirmed.

A.N. Hello all! I'm sorry I haven't been able to download anything more about this story, but my computer has been giving me trouble and I've had to use my parents' old computer to get anything downloaded.

But what do you think? Do you like the chemistry that's going on between Kyona's pets and Crow? How about the foreshadowing involving Tobias? Is he going to cause our Trick Stars trouble?

Tune it to find out, but don't forget to Review later!