The First Dog

Once, in the furthest reach of pack memory, there was a dog named Kane. Kane was the greatest warrior of his time, and had many fantastical adventures in this world and beyond. But every great dog has humble beginnings, and so did Kane.

Kane was born in the streets of the meanest human city there has ever been. From the moment Kane was born he had to fight for his life against rats, cats, and worst of all humans. Any living thing that saw Kane would try to kill him for food. He was born into a real dog eat dog world. Out of his litter only three grew to be full grown dogs, Kane and two sisters who were once great in their own rights but have now been forgotten to the winds of time.

In Kane's third year of life his first great feat was accomplished, the one that ensured he would be remembered forever by our kind, Kane bonded the first human.

Kane had made a name for himself on the streets of his city, and was well respected, if not liked, by the local animals. The humans of the city lived in fear of Kane and his animal followers, so they employed the most feared humans, the dog catchers.

For weeks Kane evaded the dog catchers, leading them all over the city only to appear on the other side moments later. Then one day a dog Cather tracked Kane to his den and waited for him to fall asleep. Silently the dog catcher creeped upon Kane and slipped his wire noose over Kane's head. Before Kane was awake the dog catcher had tightened his noose and was pulling Kane towards his motorized cart and the metal cage in the back. In a moment of desperation Kane sent out all of his mental force against the dog catcher as he tried to dig his paws into the hard, unforgiving ground.

In complete surprise the dog catcher stopped and looked at Kane. He thought he had finally lost it and was hearing voices like a schizophrenic in the movies. Kane sent a second signal telling the man to let him go, and the human did. Kane ran as fast as he could away from his den, he ran until he was far outside of the city, and couldn't run any further. As Kane lay in the shade of an oak tree he realized he could still hear the thoughts of the dog Cather in his head.

In the following years Kane tried to run away from the voice in his head and never could. After many years of running he returned to his home city only to find the same dog catcher waiting for him at the city limits.

As Kane walked slowly up the dog Cather turned and started walking back towards the city and his home there. As the walked the dog Cather thought about how his family had all left him because he had lost his job because of the voice in his head. Now that Kane was close to the dog catcher he couldn't tell the difference between his thought and the humans and quickly lost himself in the painful memories the man walking in front of him was reliving. Kane thought back to the day when he first heard the mans voice in his mind and realized that he had caused all of this mans suffering. Kane tried to project all of his regret at having caused all of the mans pain and was mildly surprised when them man stopped suddenly in the middle of the street and started to weep openly. Kane made a promise to himself and the man who shared his mind that he would do everything in his power to help right the wrong he had done to this man. The dog catcher turned to Kane and gave his a small timid smile, and a small gesture that seamed to mean 'follow me', and Kane did.

Kane and his human lived long, happy and eventful lives together, but those are adventures for another day.