I took my belt from the cart and put it around my waist and then took a treat from the bag and tossed it to him. I told the girls that we would be back in a few minutes and the big dog and I walked about 50 yards away together.
The dog was a very quick learner. I called him by name and associated it with the reinforcement of the food. Soon, he was walking at my side reliably. Training went really fast. The telepathic component made it very easy to communicate what I wanted. I would say ‘sit’ and the word was instantly associated with the behavior. I still had to get the behavior first because ‘sit’ to me wasn’t the same as ‘sit’ to the dog, but once I got him to sit naturally or by luring him into the position with the treat, the verbal cue took on meaning the first or second time that it was used. Within a short time, Cassius responded to his name, sit, down, stay, and come. I could have done the same with a dog on Earth in about an hour or so; I had done a lot of animal training in my past life. With Cassius, it took a little less. It wasn’t magic, but it was easy.
Cassius and I walked back to the new camp spot with him loping along beside me.
Rani said, “Well, does the Calot have a name?” and she laughed at the idea.
I said, “Rani, you surprise me.”
Aeyli laughed and said, “Me too!”
Alexia said, “Rani, I think that you have lost your mind.”
Rani frowned and said, “Why? Why me? He’s the one who wants to know what a Calot’s name is!”
Aeyli and Alexia just smiled.
I said, “Rani, sit on the ground.”
She sat down and waited.
While looking at Rani I said, “Cassius, sit,” and the big dog sat on the ground. Still looking at Rani I said, “Cassius, down,” and the big dog lay down on his stomach and watched me. I tossed him a treat and said, “Cassius, stay.”
I walked about 20 feet away and said, Rani, come here for a minute.”
She got up and walked over and stood in front of me.
I whispered, “I love you,” and I gave her a little kiss. Then I whispered, “Cassius, come.”
The dog jumped up and hurried to stand at my hip. I took Rani’s hand in mine and patted Cassius on the head and we all walked back to the others.
Alexia said, “Rani, if Mark says that he taught a Calot a name, why would you question it? Is there something that he has said that he would do that he hasn’t done? The Calot does what he tells it, but only when he calls him by name, the same way that when he told you to sit on the ground you did it but I didn’t. If he said ‘Alexia, sit down’ I would. But he said, ‘Rani’ and then he said ‘Cassius’. The Calot definitely knows that it has a name.”
Rani said, “Yes, I guess he does. Will he do it for me?”
I said, “I don’t know. Here, take this treat and ask him to sit. If he does it give it to him.”
Rani looked at the dog and said, “Cassius, sit.” The dog just stared.
I said, “Cassius, do what Rani asks you. Rani, try again.”
Rani said, “Cassius, sit,” and the dog sat and Rani gave him the treat.
I said, “Maybe he wants to know if I give you authority to ask him to do things. Let’s have everybody try it.”
I said, “Cassius, watch me,” and I deliberately showed him a treat and handed it to Aeyli. I took another one, and showed it to Cassius and then handed it to one of the other girls and then repeated it until each one was holding a treat. When the girls asked him to sit or lie down, he did so and received his reward.
Belle said, “What commands have you taught him?”
I said, “Um, none. We can ask him to do things, but there are no commands. We ask each other to do things, but there’s no punishment if you don’t do it. They are requests. If I say, ‘Belle, come here for a moment’ you choose if you want to do it or not. What happens if you don’t do it?”
She said, “If I don’t do it, I don’t get to do or hear or see whatever it was that you had in mind. I want to do whatever you ask because I love you. And it’s fun. And you love me.”
I said, “Exactly! And, if we make it fun, and if he loves you, and if he knows that you love him, then he wants to do what we ask him to. If a dangerous creature comes and threatens me, if you tell him to lie down, he’ll probably ignore you because he wants to protect us more than he wants to lie down, and that’s the right thing for him to do.”
I took off my belt and put it back in the cart and lay down on my back and relaxed on the soft carpet of moss.
Aeyli said, “That looks like a good idea,” and she lay down next to me. The other girls smiled and did the same.
I said, “Tell me what kind of dangers there are here in the open and what will we find when we get to Nobrus?”
Aeyli said, “Here in the open, there will be almost no chance of seeing any wildlife at all. The apes or other creatures would only come here if they were tracking prey. That’s what happened on our way from the woods back to the ruins. Those ruins don’t have a name that I know of. Those attract beasts because there’s water and the woods aren’t too far away, but also because there are basements and sewers and other underground passages where vermin hide and multiply. It has been uninhabited for a very long time. Maybe 800 years, but we don’t really know.”
I wondered at how furs and tapestries, and even wooden poles could last 800 years without disintegrating. Maybe the atmospheric differences or the relative sparsity of insect life played a factor. Or maybe it wasn’t as old as Aeyli thought.
She continued, “Nobrus was abandoned about 60 years ago. When I was there last, a small wood came right to the edge and the people would gather wild foods and hunt, and children would play there. It wasn’t dangerous except at night. There are caves in the woods where the rats lived, and those are dangerous.”
Sashar said, “How dangerous can a rat be? I’ve killed a lot of rats in the fruit orchards.”
Alexia said gravely, “These rodents are of an unusual size. Like small Calots. They stand as tall as your knee and they have large teeth. Aeyli and I saw a dead one when we were children. It was a hideous thing.”
Aeyli said, “Yes. These rats are much more dangerous than orchard rats. Fortunately, they don’t hunt large animals. If they have to defend themselves, they will fight fiercely, but they will run from us if given the chance, unless they’re starving. There may be snakes, but they don’t hunt us either. When Mark and I were at the ruins, it was more dangerous because of the underground beasts, and there were just the two of us and we were weak from lack of food and water. I don’t think that we’ll have much trouble in Nobrus.”
Belle asked, “Where will we stay, do you think?”
Aeyli said, “There is a wall around the village and a gate. I’m sure that the gate was closed when the villagers left, and if it hasn’t been opened since, it will still be closed. Um, Nobrus… well, like Alexia said, it has its demons. Or it used to. It was attacked many times by the final tribes of the insane green men, and even some of the people of Nobrus went insane from the horrors that they saw and experienced. At the end, those who were left did what they could to clean up the bodies and debris and make it livable again, but there was just too much pain and memories of how much was lost for anyone to stay. Finally, the last of them put on their belts and left. Many came to Tranna. Some continued on to other places. The fall of time was very devastating.”
She paused for a few minutes and then said, “So, here’s what I think will happen. We will walk up to the gate of Nobrus and find it still closed.”
I interrupted, “Aeyli, if it has such a sad history, should we disturb it? Would it be better to leave it as it is? Will others be upset if we go there?”