#hound!au

Muzaka swallowed when he noticed that he had just growled, and not that softly. He should retreat for the time being to cool down before the puppy could assume again that he wanted to attack someone. He had to credit the puppy for his ... hm ... protector instincts. Only unfortunately, he had concluded that Muzuka would hurt him as punishment later.

He pushed open the door to the garden and stepped out. His hands were buried deep in his pockets, so that he had them at least somewhere. He simply stood there motionless, thinking.

He contemplated everything that Frankenstein had told him, about the experiments the Union had been carrying out on his people. He hoped and believed that the Union had not managed to enslave all his people. Which, however, did not solve the question of how the Union succeeded in capturing some of them on the first place. Yes, almost to breed them to their advantage, to cripple them, so far that none of them knew anymore who they really were.

He was so angry. Not on the puppies, by the honor of ancestors he could not blame the child for behaving like that. He had never learned anything else, and only understood himself as a lower existence. His dignity had been taken him before he even realized what it was.

Now Frankenstein’s household, and Raizel himself had given all their efforts to show the puppy that he was not their pet. He was no one's pet, but in some moments, Muzaka strongly doubted the boy understood them correctly. That he even comprehended what the others actually wanted from him when they encouraged him to speak, and to make his own choices.

To make it even more difficult, he had left a bad impression on their first meeting which caused the puppy to handle his presence even less than the other strangers. The puppy won’t even look into his eyes anymore, he had become so afraid of him. His attempt to loosen up the relationship during a training fight had only made it worse.

Muzaka massaged his forehead exasperated, and thought about ways he could become friends with him. Involuntarily, he remembered the moment the puppy had dared to attack him. In the first moment he had been too surprised to react, but on that occasion he had seen something in the boy's eyes. Something that showed him that the puppy was not completely broken. That he still had something in him that reminded of a real werewolf.

If he only ... A soft creak interrupted his thoughts. He did not bother to turn around as he knew who this aura belonged to. At the same time, Muzaka feared that the puppy might be frightened again as soon as he moved too fast.

Tugging in his aura, trying not to scare the child, he slowly turned around to face the newcomer. The puppy was not looking at him, he always stared at some point beside Muzaka. Then his eyes wandered quickly to him, a mere glance and hastily looked away again.

Muzaka frowned, but the boy said nothing and seemed to be getting more and more nervous as the seconds trickled by. He turned around again, and looked at the dim moon, listening as the boy crept behind him indecisively.

Could it be that he was curious? It was full moon last night. There was a possibility that the puppy was still largely instinctive or at least influenced. Muzaka lamented that the Union had forced him to suppress his instincts, or it would not be so difficult for him to interact with the puppy as a werewolf.

Muzuka could feel the boy creeping closer to him, and sniff. Then suddenly he jumped back as if something had frightened him. Muzaka could not prevent himself from twitching a little even though he had really tried not to move.

What the … ? He turned around and found the kid intently staring at the floor, hunched on himself. He gave a strange whine. Muzaka narrowed his eyes when he realized that the boy was trying to apologize.

"Stop it," he snapped involuntarily, and the puppy immediately fell silent and made himself even smaller, if that was even possible. Damn, he was not good at it. Muzaka ran a hand through his hair and muttered a soft, chosen curse.

"Look at me boy" he tried to encourage the puppy and crouched down in front of him. The boy avoided his gaze. Muzaka stifled an impatient sound. "Look. At. Me" he growled almost more emphatically.

The puppy twitched noticeably and raised his head to look very briefly into his eyes. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. No trace of the will he had seen when the puppy had felt compelled to defend Raizel from him. Before him was just a hound. A trained dog of the Union, without his own identity.

He was sure that the boy had taken everything out of himself to pull through. Werewolves were survival artists who adapted to their environment to have a better chance. The child had adjusted to the Union in order to survive, and Muzaka could he not grudge that. But now he was no longer in the Union.

"I want to ask you something," he began, still trying to look into the child eyes. "You do not have to answer if you don’t want" he got up and moved away from the puppy, hearing his sigh of relief.

"And I will not attack you either," he added bitterly, assuming that the boy probably expected exactly that.

The puppy did not answer him, but he got up and moved independently. He had not dared to do so at their last meeting. Muzaka counted this as an improvement. "If your comrades," he began, thinking of the two modified humans who were trying to teach the puppy certain things, "ask for your opinion or ask you to talk to them, do you understand why they do that?"

The puppy did not move. Muzuka decided to become more emphatic.

"Do you follow what they tell you just to obey them, or because you are interested and want to do it?" Muzaka crossed his arms in front of his chest and waited.

The puppy looked nervously back and forth "I ... understand ..."

"Not?" Muzaka finished the sentence for him. Of course he did not understand. "Look, M-21, what they are trying to make you understand is that you are not a goddamn dog! You are a human! The Union didn't treat you as such, but that doesn't mean that you should stop being a human! You are a werewolf. Just like me! Or, if it's better for you to understand, you're a free hound!"