That's what they were, dream thieves. Hounds, anyways.
Even now, Haji sat, rotting away behind crude, filthy bars, wondering just what had happened to her brother and just when, or rather if when, she would finally be taken home. Would her new master be kind? Cruel? Indifferent? School had taught her how to behave and she really did want to please, but sometimes she felt as though doing right was nearly impossible. She had changed homes on more than a few occasions, though many of these changes hadn't been her fault at all. She felt like they had been and she had been able to do lots of thinking over the past few weeks. There wasn't much else to do, after all, when stuck in such cramped quarters. She wasn't exactly wonderful at selling herself, either, being somewhat more humble and unassuming.
What she was was clumsy. And curious.
The combination of the two, as well as her usually positive demeanor made her almost endearing, yet at the same time frustrating. But she really did try her hardest and the lashings she had gotten for that time she knocked into the master's favorite vase... Well, let's just say she would never forget, nor could she comfortably sit down for many days. That had been a hard lesson to swallow and handle, nor did it really "fix" her none-too-good depths perception, but it diiiiiiiid cause her to be a little more attentive, at least.
And then there was the time that she pinched a bit of food from the pantry, when she was just fresh out of school. That hadn't been a pleasant learning experience, either.
She reflected on her relatively short and eventful life as she ran her pink, rough tongue through her splotchy fur, doing her best to stay clean and presentable for any hounds that might happen to be passing. She was rather pretty, at least, right? At least, she hoped the hounds thought so. The pretty ones always went the fastest, after all.
