Khale was back in the snuggle pile and took a minute to enjoy the experience before he had to get on with his day.

Could you even call it a day when you couldn’t even see the sun? Now that he thought about it, he didn’t even know if this place had a sun at all. If it was some vague dreamscape then it might just be tunnels forever.

Only one way to find out.

Extracting himself from the pile was a test of willpower as trundled out into the yard. The pep he got from his sleep was still there and he stretched a bit as he looked around the stone kennel. About half of the pups were up and active while the rest had decided that exercise was for suckers and had stayed in the slumber mound.

He could respect that.

Taking stock of his physical needs he got a drink of water from the crick and used the bathroom corner. Which he realized had been cleaned at some point. That or someone was stealing their poop.

Turning his mind from potential turd burglars he moved to the far wall of the kennel. This area was made up of natural cave walls instead of manufactured stone fencing. He started scratching at a few places with his claws, but nothing happened. He’d mostly wanted to get a look at the rock wall and it was just as unyielding as expected.

Deciding that he couldn’t put it off any longer he turned around and sat with his back against the wall to help him balance. It was time to see what kind of dream this was.

Focusing his mind he started chanting in his mind

This is a dream. This is a dream. This is a dream.

Over and over as he tried to gain some sort of control. All the articles he had read had mentioned that lucid dreaming allowed for some kind of control over whatever dream the dreamer was in.

He started by trying to will the colors in the room to change to something other than grey. The colors refused to change.

Moving on, the next attempt was him trying to levitate one of the stones making up the enclosure up and away to make an exit. Nope.

Getting frustrated he tried other things, like making a light appear, breathing fire, teleporting, mind-controlling the other pups. Nothing.

Figuring that he had started too big he rooted through the dirt until he found a grain of sand, he took this grain of sand and set it on a fairly smooth rock outcropping on the cave wall and pointed at it with a clawed finger, and threw his entire will at the speck of earth.

It moved.

Maybe.

He might have just been breathing too hard, but after a few more tries it wasn’t any more clear whether or not he was doing anything. It sometimes looked like he was moving it, but he had no idea.

He had read articles about people flying or doing other cool shit and all he could do was wiggle a singular grain of sand sometimes and that wasn’t even a sure thing.

Maybe that was because he was new at this whole lucid dreaming thing? None of the articles and new age blogs had mentioned HOW to control the dreamscape, they said you just do it.

That sage advice was falling short at the moment.

Seeing no better options for figuring out how to gain control over his own mental reality and he didn’t have anything better to do, he kept trying to move sand.

When feeding time rolled around that singular grain of sand was the bane of his existence.

Sometimes it moved, sometimes it didn’t. One time it had even jumped a little.

The main issue was he had no idea how he was doing anything, or if he was doing anything at all. He had to check to make sure it was a bit of sand more than once just to make sure it wasn’t a bug or something.

It didn't matter, any progress was progress enough. If he could get the hang of this lucid dreaming thing, he could change it back to a normal dream.

If that meant he had to start out by vibrating individual grains of sand then fine, he would vibrate the shit out of some sand.

Mealtime was more of the same, though more of the other pups had cottoned on to his 'leaping grab' technique. It made the backline more of a hazard, but for whatever reason, the basket keeper thought it was funny and so threw some extra gristle their way.

He was grateful for that, and at this point, he had come to accept that the food was only gross in retrospect. Besides, it was dream food and that didn’t count. He wasn’t going to wake up with food poisoning from undercooked meat in a dream.

After the meal, he retreated with the group back to the snuggle pile and made similar arrangements as before. Specifically making sure that his face was clear of the various blast zones and getting comfortable. Soon all the pups had arranged themselves and he could finally go to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Khale leaned up against the shower wall as he thought. His circumstances were definitely weird, but after three days as a dog, it was getting manageable. Heck, if things were like he suspected and he was in this for the long haul this would eventually become routine. Still, he felt uneasy, most of the articles that talked about lucid dreaming mentioned that people had to work at it. So far as he could tell, no one just woke up one day being able to do it.

Then he did.

The whole thing gave him pause and he was getting closer to actually setting up a doctor’s appointment to ask about this.

On the one hand, it was just a dream, it was a really freaking weird series of dreams, but it wasn’t like he was in any kind of danger. On the other, the strangeness and the consistency of it was making him uneasy.

He sighed and turned off the shower. Whatever was going on, in the grand scheme of things, it probably wasn’t that big of an issue. It didn’t change anything, he still had bills to pay, he still had to go into work tomorrow and he still had to figure out what he was going to do for the rest of his life. Because while the freight crew had some great people in it, it still only paid grocery store wages and there was no way around that.

Maybe he would get his welding certification like Birdman, he had been waffling on it but maybe it would be a good step in the right direction.

The pay would be better if nothing else.

But was that enough? He wanted so much more. He wanted to be one of those rich assholes who had a yacht and three houses. Right now he was just an asshoie.

His mind went over the steps he’d need to take to get his certification, the equipment had to be expensive too. It was too much to do for a bump in pay. Wasn’t it? There was no guarantee that this would pay out, if he spent all that money on certification and equipment and if he couldn’t get paid for it what was he supposed to do then? It would be money down the drain. But if it did pay off…

Face twisted in a grimace, he scowled down at the water spiraling down the drain. How many times was it now that he had this same conversation with himself. His eyes focused on the drain, how long had he been going in circles without even noticing. Like a waterlogged insect circling a drain.

Like a dog chasing its tail.

“Fuck.”

Cursing, he started to wash his body, though with the water going cold it wasn’t a terribly pleasant experience.

He had today off, then had to head back in presumably on Monday, he still had to check his schedule. He’d been meaning to do that saturday but had forgotten after the game.

He dressed and drove off towards the store, it was late in the afternoon which meant that he had a bitch of a time finding a parking spot as the weekend shoppers flooded the store. He flipped off the parking lot in general and marched into the store, giving a few waves to people he knew and ignoring everybody else. He made for the break room and started looking over the shift schedules for the freight crew. After he found his name he was torn on the result.

He had Monday night off, but he was scheduled for the entire week up till Sunday night when he had a day off again. Presumably, Bryan was making accommodations for him, but damn this week was going to be rough going.

As he left his thoughts drifted to welding again. It wasn’t ideal, but it might be the best step he could take next. He’d need to do some research hours and costs and actually think about this. But maybe, just maybe he should give this some more serious thought.

For now, he’d take advantage of the one thing his crazy hours afforded him. Day drinking. After all, people assumed you were a responsible adult when you only showed up at the bar after seven. No one ever takes waking up at six into account.

He rolled into the parking spot next to one of his preferred watering holes and went inside. He ordered some food and drink then sat down at the bar. Soon he was nursing an ale as his mind spun back to welding. He dug out his phone and started looking at pricing for certification and welding equipment. He had no idea what he was looking for so it wasn’t much help but he did figure out that the price range for a good wire welder went from around five hundred to two thousand dollars.

He didn’t spit out his drink, but did nearly choke on it. That was a shitload of money, and that was just for a welder. He didn’t know a lot about welding but he knew that he’d also need safety equipment at the very least. He would probably need some other stuff too, worse if it didn’t fit into his car that would be another thing he’d have to figure out.

Birdman had a truck, so maybe it could work if he agreed to help him out? Except Steve would have his own welding equipment he’d need to haul around. Would a truck bed be big enough for both of their sets of equipment, or could they both pay for one of the nicer welders and use it in shifts.

His food arrived as he was wracking his brain.

“Need a refill?”

The question caught him off guard.

“What?”

“I asked if you wanted a refill,” the waitress shook his empty glass, having taken it at some point.

He nearly answered in the affirmative out of habit but a line from a song he listed to a while back jumped out at him from seemingly nowhere.

'We learned to be satisfied with not getting very far. We’re paid what we’re owed and give it right back at the bar.'

The glass dangled tantalizingly in the waitress’s finger as he thought about how expensive that equipment would be.

He groaned and finally relented to what he hoped was his better judgment.

“That will be it for me tonight. Can I get a check?”

She set about the task of extracting money from him as he finished his food, throwing out a few bills.

He’d need to stop boozing for a while if he was going to be serious about this.

As his car exited the bar’s parking lot he tried to figure out what his plans for the day should be, he drove around aimlessly for a bit then realized he was wasting gas. He gave an annoyed grunt as he pulled a u-turn and started heading home. His annoyance evolved into full-blown frustration as blue lights flashed in his rearview mirror. The accompanying siren whoop drowned out his bitching somewhat.

Cursing up a storm, he pulled over onto the shoulder of the road and parked his vehicle, and kept his hands on the steering wheel. He knew this song and dance he just hoped that having just one tonight was enough to save his ass.

The officer walked up and asked him for his license and registration. He provided both and waited for the words he knew were coming.

“Sir, have you been drinking tonight?”

Well, at least that didn’t take long.

“Yes, officer, but only the one tonight.”

Judging by the officer’s expression they’d heard that one before from many less than honest individuals.

“Sir, I’m going to need to ask you to step out of the vehicle.”

Khale had to bite back the numerous jibes and less than helpful comments and slowly exited the vehicle. He had learned long ago that his general attitude seemed to rub authority figures the wrong way. He couldn’t even begin to guess why. He had learned the hard way, multiple times in fact, that the best way to ride out these kinds of situations was to keep his mouth shut and not be a vindictive asshole. He could probably do that, how hard could it be?

The officer’s flashlight was in his eyes again and he had to work to keep from squirming under the scrutiny.

“Alright, put your arms out to your sides and touch your nose.”

He did as he was told and kept quiet while doing it. He was put through the usual tests and then given a breathalyzer test. He nearly whooped aloud as the cop told him he was free to go.

He scuttled back into his car and drove off at the exact speed limit. He was so happy at not getting a ticket he forgot to flip the cop the bird. Maybe he was making progress. Maybe this was a sign.

As he pulled into the driveway of his home he felt surprisingly good, he practically skipped his way inside as he went down to his room and fired up his computer. He started researching in earnest. If worse came to worst he would be out a chunk of change. If the pay didn’t pan out like Steve said it would he’d always be able to go back to the store.

That thought gave him pause. He liked the store, he didn’t mind the work too much and he had some of the best coworkers he could ask for. But for some reason the thought of going back to the store after trying to leave. After making his break and failing, then having to crawl back like that. He felt a lead ball drop into his stomach. He couldn’t do it, if he made a break for it, it would be do or die.

He looked at the pages he was looking at, they were pricing for welding classes. He didn’t close them but kept them tabbed in the background as he booted up a game from his vast library. He could only do so much on his own anyway, he’d talk with Birdman about it in a more serious capacity.

Yeah. Yeah, that was a better plan than trying to do this himself.

It took a moment and eventually he just pushed it out of his mind and turned his thoughts to the game. He would take care of it later, once he had talked to Birdman.

He jumped from game to game until it was time for bed. Sleep took him soon enough.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He basked in the warmth provided by the snuggle pit, trying to overcome his melancholy mood. The games hadn’t scratched the itch he had like they used to.

One of the other pups climbed over him and away to go somewhere. He wiggled himself deeper and turned to lie on his back. Some part of him said that he should be working on figuring out the dreamscape and working to understand his situation. The majority of the factions his being was made of replied that they didn’t give a damn and no one wanted to do that shit today.

Mind made up, he rolled over and went back to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wakefulness broke over him as rose in his bed, euphoric pep still there as scheduled.

He blinked once. Twice. His confusion mounting.

“Wait,” he cried out in incredulity. “That WORKS?!”