Growing Lilies

When Lily woke up it was morning. Her hand was throbbing and painful, but she was pretty sure that was better than waking up and not feeling it. She was roused to the sound of the laugh track coming from the TV. A sitcom she didn’t recognize was playing, but that didn’t stand out. She’d downloaded a couple large packs of media that contained things she wasn’t familiar with. Two characters were having a fight over who had to clean their messy basement. Lily shut it off.

She groaned, and Star stirred. Star had fallen asleep against her stomach, and had been drooling a little. Lily immediately felt the wet spot against her skin. She hadn’t put back on a shirt last night. A jolt of modesty flashed through her mind before she shrugged it off. It didn’t matter. She could walk around outside like this. There was no one to care.

“Good morning Star. I hope Bay’s not too lonely out in the boat. Probably living it up in my room. Smug little bastard.”

She sat up and rubbed at her eyes with her good hand. She reached across to the broken coffee table and retrieved her glasses, then turned her attention to her wound. It looked… bad. The blood had soaked through the fabric thoroughly. It did look like dried blood, which was something. But, this was going to be a pain to deal with.

Star hopped down from the couch with a yawn, and proceeded immediately around the couch and behind it. Lily was about to shout at him not to pee, but instead of that she heard ripping sounds.

She carefully stood up, and walked around the back of the couch to see what he was tearing into. It was… paper. It had to have already been torn up from yesterday because Star couldn’t have done this much damage this quickly. But, he was tearing the shreds into smaller shreds.

“Aww man what did you get a hold of huh?”

Lily was getting dizzy but also wanted to see, so she let herself half fall half sit on the floor, and grabbed one of the shreds. It had a pen mark on it. Wait, this was one of her circles!

She looked over the mess. This must be all of her circles.

“Oh no! Star! How could you… wait.”

Wait. Was this dog just playing with paper, or was Star… defending her? How smart were puppies supposed to be? Surely he didn’t understand that the circles on the paper had caused the magic accident?

Well, whatever. Lily remembered all the glyphs she would need to do more work. So, let the little guy play, or defend her, or whatever he was doing. Although maybe today was a good opportunity to do some training. She was going to be more or less forced to stay in anyway.

Either way, she’d have to take care of her bandage first. Heaving herself up onto her feet, Lily dragged herself to the Master bathroom and started looking through cabinets for first aid supplies.

It wasn’t long until she found a small bin of things under the sink. There wasn’t a medicine cabinet in this room, so it seemed like this is where they had kept their stuff. Although, she suspected there was probably an area meant for the whole house that might have a greater supply, for now she didn’t have the energy to look.

The first thing she looked for was painkillers. Thankfully, she found an assortment. The pain in her hand was near unbearable, and it was only through a lifetime of practice dealing with shit like this that she was able to think through the pain. It wasn’t her proudest moment, but she immediately popped 800mg of ibuprofen with some bathroom sink water to wash it down. She plopped back down onto the floor with a huff, and heard a small yelp. She’d almost landed on Star!

“Oh, hey buddy. I didn’t realize you were following me. Don’t worry, I’m just taking care of myself okay?”

He looked at her curiously, then cautiously wagged his tail. She gave him a pat with her good hand, then she gathered up the bottles of ibuprofen and acetaminophen. Now, what else was in here? Regular sized band aids. No, those were out. She kept digging. Gas X, Imodium, Pepto, Nyquil, cotton swabs, Q-tips, Chewable Flintstones Vitamins, and… Well, there were some bigger bandages at the bottom. She wasn’t sure if they were big enough, but she also wasn’t sure how big the wound actually was.

So, she dug them out. She also put aside the vitamins, because why not. Well, that left only one thing to do. It was time to try taking off her bandage. She looked over to Star.

“Hey so… There might be a lot of blood here in a second. Don’t panic okay? I gotta remove the bandage, wash the wound, and put a clean one on it. It’s gonna be okay, but it might hurt. A lot. Okay?”

She wasn’t sure whether she was talking to Star or herself. Well, nothing was going to change until she went ahead and did it. So, she took a deep breath and began untying her bandage. Lily was as gentle as she could be, but that led to her first problem. Untying the knot wasn’t too hard, although jostling the bandage hurt like no one’s business. But when she went to pull it off… it was stuck.

“That’s.. Not good is it?”

The blood had coagulated around the bandage, and as she was gently pulling on it, it felt a lot like pulling off a scab.

“Um. Did it heal around the bandage, or is it just sticky..?”

She pulled a little harder, the pain was horrible. She stopped, gasping.

“Oh shit. This is really going to suck. Do I just pull once really hard? That seems like it might cause more damage. But it’s gonna hurt like hell to pull it off slowly…”

She decided to go with the slower option. Star watched patiently as she slowly peeled the bandage away. It was agony. The pain blossomed in her palm but the intensity made it feel like it went half way up her arm. Lily gritted her teeth as she worked. Around a third of the way in, she saw her first signs of fresh blood. It seemed like the bandage had been part of what was sealing it closed. But, she couldn’t leave it like that, so she kept going.

It took ten absolutely horrific minutes to get it all the way off. By the end, Lily was covered once again in a cold sweat. She was gasping for air. But she’d done it. Her hand was bleeding again, but it thankfully wasn’t as bad as the night before. The wound was made up of two cuts about an inch apart. One was large and covered a good portion of her palm. The other one was closer to her wrist and was thankfully not as deep. She rose unsteadily and turned on the sink. Using her good hand, she waited until the water warmed up to around room temperature and then she let it flow over her wound.

Lily bit her lip to avoid screaming, but a groan of pain still came out. Star whined and did a few circles around her feet.

“FUCK. Fuck fuck fuck fuck that hurts!”

Despite it though, she rinsed it thoroughly. An infection would be hell to treat with the way things were, and if she wasn’t careful she might end up without a hand. Or worse. So, she bore the pain as best she could. She was diligent, and when she finally reached her limit, she collapsed onto the floor without even turning off the sink.

She lay there, panting. Star toddled over and started licking her face. It was such a bad time, but she couldn’t bring herself to be mad. Still she flailed a little.

“S-stooop. I’m wounded. You got me. Okay?”

She gave Star a grin, and had to fight to hold back tears. When she had caught her breath, she sat up and took a glance at her hand. It was still bleeding, but very slowly. Opening the box of bandages, Lily clumsily got one out. She kicked herself for not doing this part first. Then she applied two bandages. One over each wound. The larger one only got covered up most of the way, but it at least covered the bits that were actively bleeding so Lily decided that was enough. She would be careful, and clean it again later today.

Lily found her feet, and turned off the bathroom sink. Then she made her way back to the couch, plopped down, and promptly passed back out.

---

 

When Lily woke from her nap, she was laying on her stomach. Star had climbed up onto her back and curled up to sleep there at some point. He was heavy, but not heavy enough that she couldn’t breathe. Still, when she tried to move she found her body was too weak.

“Hey. Hey Star. You gotta move.”

The puppy stirred. This was pathetic. Lily groaned.

“Star! Move!”

She rocked back and forth a little, trying to dislodge her passenger. Eventually, Star stretched, yawned, and jumped down onto the floor. Lily sat up and glared at him in mock outrage. He didn’t seem guilty in the slightest.

“Fine. We’re going to do some training today okay? First we’ll grab some treats, then head to the boat and you’re going to learn to behave!”

Lily gathered herself up, grabbed a box of milk bones and the duck feet, and headed toward the boat. When she got to the back door she noticed a smell. Taking a quick look around… yeah. Star had been using the bathroom here. She couldn’t even be mad though. She’d been passed out from the blood loss. Really, going by the door was better than she expected from him.

“Huh. Good-ish boy. You’re going to go outside whenever possible from now on though okay? We’ll work on it.”

She took a few minutes to clean the mess, before heading out. Star snuffled around and used the bathroom in the yard. That… was probably a coincidence. But she was pleased he was making progress. She passed by the chickens. They didn’t seem happy. She wondered how hard it would be to get them a shelter. But, they had a porch to sit on that was covered. If she hadn’t gotten injured she’d be on it today, but as it was… It wasn’t a good idea for her to do lifting like that. She apologized to the chickens, and promised to find out what she could give them as a treat later.

She was still a little unsteady on her feet, so she stayed as close as she could to the center of the path down the dock and up the ramp. Lily had expected Star to have trouble with the ramp, but he ran right up without an issue. So, Lily shrugged and followed him.

She had missed her boat. She really did feel so much more secure here, despite the amenities not being as good. She found her way to her fridge, grabbed an energy drink, a few of the hostess snacks, and a bag of chips. Not healthy, but she just wanted comfort food right now. She’d swing back to that watermelon in a little if she thought she could get it from the fridge with one hand while dizzy.

In the meantime, she plopped down on her couch and put something on in the background. The movie was Princess Mononoke. She thought the wolves might be a good background for teaching Star some tricks. Plus, it was just a good movie.

She took the time to do some research on her phone about how to train a dog. It was getting harder. Most of the links that weren’t directly hosted on a huge platform didn’t seem to work anymore, and even platforms like Google were starting to have some troubles. The internet wasn’t going to last much longer. That was a scary thought.

But, while Lily had access she was determined to use it. She got a basic idea of how training was supposed to work. Use your hand with a treat, and guide the dog into position. Give it the treat when it does the thing, and reinforce it with a command. Eventually the gesture and command ought to be enough, and then you can even phase out the gesture. But you don’t have to, if you want the option of non-verbal communication. That seemed easy enough.

She thought she could probably get Star to do it a few times today, and then it would just be daily repetition over the next few weeks and branching into different commands. She thought she ought to start with Sit.

So, she called Star over. He was already getting better about responding to his name, which surprised Lily. The guides she saw all talked about spending time teaching the dog its name as a sort of command as well.

But, he was already starting to get that one. So, she was gonna start with one he couldn’t do. When he approached, she showed him the milk bone to get his attention. That part was nice and easy. She lifted it in her hand in front of his nose and pulled it back over his head so it would be easy to reach if he sat down. He did.

“Sit.”

She gave him the treat.

“Good boy. Good boy Star. Good Sit.”

He happily chomped the treat down, wagging his tail, and at the praise stood up and started doing small circles. Lily smiled down at him, and grabbed another treat.

As she held it in front of him, she started to do the same motion. Before she could even manage, he sat and looked up at her hungrily.

“Um. Sit?”

She handed him the treat. He scarfed it down.

“Good boy! That was really quick!”

She reached in and fished around for another treat.

“You’re going to get this sit thing in no… time.”

As she said the word ‘sit’, Star sat down. He tilted his head at her curiously. She stared at him. He whumfed, waiting impatiently for his treat. Lily handed him a treat.

“That had to be a coincidence, right?”

She threw a treat across the room so Star wasn’t sitting right in front of her. She had to break up the pattern to test it. Star ran over and ate the treat, and as he was midway back to her, she raised her hand with the gesture.

“Sit!”

Star immediately sat.

“What the actual fuck. There’s no way you’re that smart. Absolutely no way. Maybe you had owners before me that taught you that one?”

But she couldn’t remember him sitting on command before now. Then again, she wasn’t sure she’d said the word out loud. Okay, then all she had to do was try to give him a command, and if he didn’t obey it she could try to teach him that one.

She pointed her hand with a similar gesture downward instead of up.

“Down.”

Star looked at her curiously, and whined a little. She grabbed a treat and called his name. He ran right over.

“Sit.”

He sat. She put the treat in front of his nose and guided him down into a laying position.

“Down.”

Then she gave him the treat.

“Good boy! Good Star. Good Down.”

She fished out another treat.

“Sit!”

Star sat.

“Down.”

She made the gesture without putting the treat near him. He laid down.

“Huh.”

She gave him the treat, dreamily.

“What the hell? This isn’t normal right…?”

Star let out a small woof and licked his lips.

---

 

By the time Princess Mononoke had ended, Star had learned a truly shocking amount. Using hand gestures or words she could get him to sit, lie down, stay still, bark, or come touch his nose to her hand. Repetition did still help. It made him sure of himself, and he was very eager to please. Even moreso when she occasionally gave him one of the dried duck feet. She was lavishing praise on him too. She was genuinely…impressed?

What else could she teach him to do if he was this smart? If she talked to him enough, would he eventually just… understand her? Well, no. Not necessarily. It’s possible he was very smart when it came to processing but still had the capacity of a normal dog. An upgraded CPU and RAM but the same hard drive.

She would have to keep trying to teach him new things. But he seemed eager to learn. Really, really eager even. He was visibly disappointed when she got too tired to continue.

“Look, I’m sorry. But I’ve lost a lot of blood, and you can’t eat only treats. It’s bad for you.”

Star whined.

“I don’t make the rules of reality! You gotta eat healthy food sometimes too!”

She looked over the remnants of her own meal. Star barked.

“Okay, I know you’re smart but there’s no way you understand how hypocritical that was for me to say.”

Star barked again. Lily rolled her eyes.

“Fine. I’ll eat a good meal too. But so will you. We’ll do it together, okay? I don’t know how to cook though, so… if it’s bad don’t blame me!

Lily retrieved Bay before leaving the boat. It was tiring walking all the way back up to the house, Bay in hand, but she made it. It was time to cook a meal!

Rummaging through the fridge, Lily dug out bacon and eggs. That couldn’t be too difficult right? She was pretty sure you just heated up the bacon in a pan, then mixed up the eggs real good and heated them too. Doing this all one handed was going to be the tricky part. Ah, if only she was already a magical expert. She was sure there had to be some combination of glyphs that perfectly cooked meals, right?

She put the pan on the stove and laid out the bacon. It was a little embarrassing, but she had to climb up onto the kitchen counter so she could sit while watching the food cook. She shrugged it off though. It didn’t matter anymore. No one was around to see, and if she somehow ruined this counter and that was a big deal she could move next door in either direction.

It took a while for the bacon to cook. She wasn’t sure how much of that came down to her being bad at cooking and how much was just how bacon was. But, after a while she was able to take it off the stove and move the pieces onto a plate. Then she cracked some eggs and mixed them up before dumping them into the same pan. You could use bacon grease instead of butter, right?

The bacon was cooling, and… getting darker. She was starting to think she may have overcooked it a bit. But that wasn’t so bad right? Only one or two pieces actually looked black.

Then she noticed the eggs starting to smoke. They’d only been in there for a couple minutes! She turned off the stove and moved them over. Then she took a minute to prepare two plates.

The eggs were overcooked, bland, and greasy. The bacon was definitely overcooked too. But it was the first home cooked meal Lily had had in a long time. Star was a dog. So, there were no complaints from either of them.