{"sf1_id":500717,"sf2_id":"znJRYzQn","title":"Evolution Part I: Chapter Fifteen","author":"Shalion","words":2624,"posted_at":"2013-02-13T01:47:00.000Z","tags":["Collie","Dog","Fat","German Shepherd","Golden Retriever","Mobility","Obese"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/500717-evolution-part-i-chapter-fifteen","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/znJRYzQn","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/66/46/6646cb9a-281c-484d-87db-7314527bb19f","description":"#15 of Evolution Part I\n\nBehold the new Alpha.","content":"I went to go lie down in the shade under the canopy over the fountain.\u0026nbsp; Several dogs lay nearby, eager to lick the wounds covering my body.\u0026nbsp; They were already trying to worm their way to better positions in the hierarchy by subservience to the new Alpha.\u0026nbsp; I let them, I owed nothing to them for the service and also their tongues felt good against my skin as they cleaned the many scratches all over me.\u0026nbsp; I drank, but not to bursting, just to wet my thirst and make myself comfortable.\u0026nbsp; It'd been a while since I'd done that and the shock of it hit me as I settled down.\u0026nbsp; Another thing shocked me.\u0026nbsp; For the first time in my life, I had no idea what to do.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI lifted my head on my thick neck and looked over my shoulder to see the shepherd-lab, former Alpha, still lying where I'd put him.\u0026nbsp; I'd plowed into him with everything I'd had and he must be hurting.\u0026nbsp; But the old viciousness and hate was gone from me, shed like the past that was so easy to roll off my back if I let it.\u0026nbsp; He'd lost his power and so couldn't hurt me anymore.\u0026nbsp; I found myself only hoping that the humans would arrive to see to him as I didn't think that this was going to be something he could just walk off.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nAnd indeed, the scientists had seen our fight on the cameras and came rushing out of the building and around the corner.\u0026nbsp; All told, the fight had taken nearly ten minutes.\u0026nbsp; The scientists and the lab techs showed up.\u0026nbsp; They had stethoscopes and first aid bags and... tools.\u0026nbsp; All of their instruments remained as mysterious to me as the reason the sky was blue or the sun rose in the east.\u0026nbsp; It was just a human thing.\u0026nbsp; An older female scientist I hadn't seen before stooped over the prone Shepherd-Lab and examined him briefly.\u0026nbsp; Then two male humans stepped over and carefully loaded his heavy body onto a wide canvas with handholds.\u0026nbsp; They used this to cart the mass of shepherd-lab away.\u0026nbsp; They stood and talked for a bit and I thought that they might simply ignore me.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nBut they knew very well who had beaten up the old Alpha.\u0026nbsp; They spotted me without effort and came to kneel over me as well.\u0026nbsp; They looked at my scratches and listened to my heart and breathing.\u0026nbsp; Then someone slipped a nylon loop over my head and I knew it was time to get up.\u0026nbsp; They led me out the gate and into the research building.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe inside corridors and rooms were identical to what I remembered and the time I spent inside was hardly memorable.\u0026nbsp; They kept me over night and on drugs that made me sleepy, so that was new.\u0026nbsp; At some point in time, they must have gone over me and stitched up the worst scratches, but I don't remember exactly when.\u0026nbsp; My tail was still bothering me the next day as I sat in a large metal kennel, starving for lack of dinner.\u0026nbsp; However, the humans didn't do anything with it.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nAlthough it hurt, I felt comforted by the lack of treatment because surely it meant that it was nothing serious.\u0026nbsp; If nothing else, I'd learned by now that the people in the lab valued and were invested in my health.\u0026nbsp; The whole time I was in the blissfully cool, air-conditioned confines of the lab, I kept hoping that I would see the black lab.\u0026nbsp; But I didn't catch so much as a whiff of him.\u0026nbsp; Aside from the stitches, I required very little care, actually.\u0026nbsp; I still felt sore, but I wasn't limping as they led me back to the yard.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI was slightly fearful that they had returned the shepherd-lab and that he had reasserted himself as Alpha in my absence, but my fears were unfounded.\u0026nbsp; As it would turn out, it would be almost two weeks before the shepherd-lab returned to the yard.\u0026nbsp; Thankfully, they got me back in time for breakfast.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe day after the fight, I slept most of the time.\u0026nbsp; I still had drugs in my system and couldn't be motivated to move much except for food and essential needs.\u0026nbsp; Still dogs hovered around me constantly.\u0026nbsp; It was a new feeling, being popular, as before I'd mostly been a loner and the other dogs had ignored me.\u0026nbsp; That, of course, couldn't be the case any longer.\u0026nbsp; Certainly if I wanted to keep being Alpha.\u0026nbsp; So I rubbed noses with the dogs and sniffed them as they all came at one time or another to introduce themselves.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nOf course, I pretty much knew them all already.\u0026nbsp; It wasn't a big yard, but the status shift had been so extreme, everyone felt a little out of sorts.\u0026nbsp; All day as I napped on and off, scuffles broke out across the yard.\u0026nbsp; The hierarchy was reforming itself around me.\u0026nbsp; I had to assert myself once to break up a bad fight and twice more the second day.\u0026nbsp; The dogs cowered and accepted my judgement in all cases I rose.\u0026nbsp; No one was questioning my authority.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe old betas, Terrier-face and Fatty - as I thought of him, even though the shepherd-lab was much fatter than him - hounded my steps more than most of the other dogs.\u0026nbsp; They wanted to be betas again, that much was clear, but I wasn't sure if I wanted the shepherd-lab's old seconds.\u0026nbsp; We might have been dogs, and all old allegiances should have been dissolved with a new Alpha, but I was concerned that some of their old loyalty might still linger on.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nAs for the duties of my new job, there wasn't a whole lot more to it other than _being_ the Alpha male.\u0026nbsp; Still, I was inquisitive and when the drugs ran their course and I was feeling more alert and less sore for two days rest, I began to make my rounds, finally free to move about he yard as I liked.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI wasn't kidding when I said that most of the dogs here were very fat and getting fatter.\u0026nbsp; The last batch of ten-week olds we got had been a month ago and most of us who had been infants in spring made up the larger dog population now that summer was passing.\u0026nbsp; Again, all of us were mixed bred, with shepherd, labrador and collie being the most prominent in our bloodlines with some terrier thrown in now and again.\u0026nbsp; Not a lot of the dogs stick out much in my memory now, but there were a few.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nFatty and Terrier-face, I already mentioned, but there was another dog who'd been high up in the ranks, just under the betas.\u0026nbsp; Perhaps I gravitated to him because he reminded me of the black lab.\u0026nbsp; At any rate, he was a dog displaying a great amount of waistline with substantial pride.\u0026nbsp; He was nearly as fat as the black lab had been before he'd been taken.\u0026nbsp; He was also strongly labrador in characteristics, but his coat was chocolate.\u0026nbsp; I l sat down near chocolate-lab as he was lying in the shade of the concrete house, his nose inches away from the music toy.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nFor a lark, I pressed the Sun button to start up a tune.\u0026nbsp; It had been months since I'd last played with the device, but it came rushing back to me as if I'd never stopped.\u0026nbsp; Chocolate-lab lifted his head and sat heavily up, his large tummy bulging from between his forepaws.\u0026nbsp; Technically, he was fatter than I was.\u0026nbsp; He, along with fatty and the shepherd-lab and about three other dogs still were.\u0026nbsp; He was calm and submissive in his demeanor towards me regardless and his face brightened when I started with the music.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI scooted over to allow him some space.\u0026nbsp; He eagerly pressed the buttons, but soon made a mess of the harmony I'd been creating.\u0026nbsp; He liked the sounds, but the device was a toy to him, not a thing for creating art.\u0026nbsp; Immediately, my spirits deflated. And I let my forepaws sit on the ground, feeling my own tummy press against the backs of them.\u0026nbsp; The music died when I stopped interacting with it.\u0026nbsp; I don't know why I'd expected him to be the same as the black lab, but it was harsh disappointment regardless.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nAnd then I felt a cold nose touch my shoulder.\u0026nbsp; It was the chocolate lab.\u0026nbsp; He put his paw on the toy and started the music again.\u0026nbsp; He surprised me greatly by pressing the Sun button which I usually liked to start with.\u0026nbsp; I allowed myself a small grin and began to form the harmony again.\u0026nbsp; This time, I began to correct the chocolate lab when he would inadvertently start throwing off the sounds.\u0026nbsp; He surprised me again by learning.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nOn the fifth day after I became Alpha, Fatty and Terrier-face got into a fight.\u0026nbsp; It was a bad one because they both knew how from sparing together with the shepherd-lab.\u0026nbsp; I should have realized something was wrong when they were hovering around me.\u0026nbsp; As it was, I had to jog across the whole distance of the yard to reach them.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nIt was not an epic battle such as between the shepherd-lab and I.\u0026nbsp; Their beta status revoked, this was just another brawl between two dogs of nebulous hierarchal position.\u0026nbsp; There was a younger collie watching them go, he was about three months old and curious, but that was all.\u0026nbsp; As I got closer jogging towards them - I hadn't run in a long time and I didn't plan to start again, even for these two - the realization that I really didn't like seeing the two formerly inseparable friends fighting hit me hard.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nFatty was predominating the fight... or at least he clearly thought he was judging by his stiff legged, cocky movements.\u0026nbsp; Terrier-face was intimidated for sure, but since there was no defined fighting arena, he was free to use more mobility on his much heavier opponent.\u0026nbsp; Judging on my experiences alone, I thought that Fatty might be in for a series of hard lessons, but then again, he was not so hindered by his weight as the shepherd-lab had gotten for our fight.\u0026nbsp; Nevertheless, I wanted to put a stop to it as quickly as possible.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI jogged closer, again feeling the slowness of my body as an irritating hindrance.\u0026nbsp; I watched Terrier-face close in rapidly from the side, tackling and biting Fatty's shoulder region.\u0026nbsp; There was only small effect due to the depth of padding, and Fatty countered, pushing Terrier-face back, and back.\u0026nbsp; Unfortunately getting farther away from me.\u0026nbsp; Fatty kept pushing and trying to get at Terrier-face with his teeth, but the slimmer dog stayed out of range and kept his mouth clamped on Fatty's shoulder.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nFatty made a bold move, rearing partially despite his great bulk to body slam Terrier-face.\u0026nbsp; Terrier-face's teeth twisted in Fatty's blubber, but he let go in favor of getting out of the way... partially.\u0026nbsp; Fatty landed across Terrier-face in a hurtful way, but they were at it again as soon as they hit the ground.\u0026nbsp; They were rolling and grappling each other.\u0026nbsp; Fatty clearly had the advantage, but Terrier-face didn't seem to care and he was biting with such extreme force that blood was beginning to appear on Fatty's thick chest and abdomen despite this.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nFinally I reached them.\u0026nbsp; They ignored me at first, the battle-rage infiltrating their eyes.\u0026nbsp; I had to force them to acknowledge me.\u0026nbsp; I steamrolled the grappling canines, plowing into their fray.\u0026nbsp; I wasn't angry, but I was assertive as I mounted on top of Fatty and terrier-face beside him.\u0026nbsp; We tussled for a few moments and there was some growling and snapping of teeth, especially when I inserted myself in between them, sliding over Fatty's rotund body.\u0026nbsp; We were a big furry mass of wavering limbs and soft bulk, but the two ex-betas came to their senses rapidly and realized who it was on top of them.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nTerrier-face scrambled out from under my chest and then fatty had more trouble extricating himself from under me.\u0026nbsp; I stepped over him gingerly, though I was not able to fully clear my foot over his considerable girth, so I ended up stepping on him with a knee.\u0026nbsp; The second fattest dog - although with the shepherd-lab still absent, he was actually the fattest right now - rolled over slowly and got to his feet before standing placidly beside terrier-face in front of me.\u0026nbsp; They didn't look at each other, instead they both looked humbly at my feet, tongues hanging from their mouths and panting lightly.\u0026nbsp; Terrier-face was bleeding a little from his neck but I doubted it would bring the humans.\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe reason why they were fighting hardly required answering.\u0026nbsp; Tensions in the community were high.\u0026nbsp; If a beta had taken the spot of Alpha, the hierarchy would have hardly hiccuped, but I had been very nearly the bottom and now was the top dog.\u0026nbsp; Everyone felt like they could either get a higher place if they pushed a little or they had to defend their position and assert themselves.\u0026nbsp; Something trivial likely set these two off, like a spark to the powder keg of pent up emotions.\u0026nbsp; The worst part was that since I'd intervened, the brief fight had resolved nothing.\n\nLooking at their apologetic faces, sincere as dogs can be, I felt a twinge of guilt.\u0026nbsp; So far, my ascension to Alpha had brought only conflict to what used to be an orderly and peaceful pack. \u0026nbsp;I told them not to fight again in the future, but from the blank looks on their faces, I could tell that they'd only got the barest drift of what I was saying. \u0026nbsp;Of course, the way the black lab and I had learned to communicate over time had been unique. \u0026nbsp;None of the other dogs could \"speak\" as we used to. \u0026nbsp;I growled softly in frustration and the two smaller dogs cringed.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nAgain, I felt that pang of guilt. \u0026nbsp;They wouldn't be fighting except for me. \u0026nbsp;I began to pace away from them and a swish of my tail invited them to follow if they wished. \u0026nbsp;They both got up at their respective speeds. \u0026nbsp;The yard was not an exceptionally large place, but I walked around it, trying to gather my thoughts. \u0026nbsp;There didn't seem to be a way to guarantee their non-fighting except by making them betas again. \u0026nbsp;But did I really want to do that? \u0026nbsp;Could I really trust them when - I never once thought \"if\" - the shepherd-lab returned? \u0026nbsp;Their affectionate grins told me yes, but I could simply not predict what their behavior might be like when the dethroned Alpha returned. \u0026nbsp;Their behavior might change. \u0026nbsp;The conflict tore at me.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nAnd even if I did solve these two dogs' problems, there was still the snapping and posturing going on in the rest of the pack. \u0026nbsp;They rarely devolved into outright fighting like the two aggressive betas, but still, there was strife. \u0026nbsp;I wanted so badly to be a good Alpha, but of course, there was no one there to tell me how...\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nWell, actually, I supposed that there were at least two canines here with a lot of personal experience with a good Alpha... \u0026nbsp;I pondered for a bit more, and decided that there was nothing to it but to put my trust in the two dogs obediently following me around the yard. \u0026nbsp;I just hoped that I would not come to regret it.\n\n  \n  \n\n","series":{"name":"Evolution Part I","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/500714-evolution-part-i-chapter-fourteen.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/500718-evolution-part-i-chapter-sixteen.json"}}