Crossing Boundaries Pt. 01

"Her."

He pursed his lips, rocking back on his heels as if he was considering his decision. In fact, his heart was beating so hard that he knew that his decision had already been made.

"This is my choice."

He only hoped as he hid his sweaty palms in his pockets that they did not realise why he'd stared at her so much, that there was something twisting in the pit of his belly that he'd tried to push down for years already.

"Yes, you do seem to have quite the eye for her... A good choice, son. Tall, muscular, intimidating. There will be no one there that will bother you with her to guard you."

They did not give him her name, though he found out later, on the ride home with a collar around her neck, that her name was Giselle. It was a name that rolled off the tongue as if it didn't want to be there, bravely and daringly leaping forth into the world. Maybe that was indicative of how she would be in the future with him and he could only hope that he had not allowed his attraction to sway him too much, for he did, actually, need a bodyguard when things changed, studying away for the very first time in his life.

It would be a change like no other as he got used to her, running her through her paces as the days passed. She was a servant to him too and not simply a bodyguard, though it felt strange for him to ask her, rather than merely ordering, to carry his books and scrolls to his desk. Humans expended so little energy, except when they wanted to, though it was something that he had not understood, even as he followed right along with their ways because it was what they had always done. Everything followed a pattern and the expectations of culture and anyone that diverged from that was drawn attention to in a negative light time after time again. He'd seen it happen and, truly, that was not a path that he wanted to walk.

Yet why then did he watch his new dog servant so intently, breath caught in his throat? He wanted to see more of her even if it would have been very strange indeed to ask her to take off her clothes. He felt as if he should be more respectful to her than norms dictated, something that desperately did not make sense to him. Kael was aware that there were some humans that had their servants bathe them but surely that was something for the ultimately socially elite, not so much the working elite like his family?

He did not know, not having any frame of reference by which he could at all explain why the sway of her hips and her thickly fluffy tail drew his attention so easily over and over again. He caught himself watching her while she cleaned his private quarters and not in the way that his mind wanted her to, much to his shameful embarrassment.

"Sir, why are you blushing?"

He gulped and shook his head, brushing his fingers back through his hair as he pretended to be frowning over a scroll once again. He'd seen it many times over even if he did not yet know the words off by heart. It was enough to pretend that he had been concentrating, however, and not staring at the canine, Giselle pausing with that distinctive canine tilt to her head. She only wanted to serve and to assist him and, in her eyes, there had to be something wrong for him to be uncomfortable, surely?

"No, no... Don't worry about it."

He'd been a little surprised that she was able to converse so eloquently but felt silly afterwards for assuming that there would be any difference in intelligence between them. Of course, canines had certain personality traits that went with their species but it was not that they were slaves at all but devoted to servitude, something in their natures linking them to humans inexplicably. As far back as records stretched, tales of their loyal, loving demeanours were inscribed, their protective natures beyond anything that had ever been seen in other humans or even anthros - though those still required more research again, he was sure. But to think that she had been able to match up to him on issues in the world and speak about her favourite foods as he got to know her more and more... Well, it was a perk that he could not have expected.

Giselle surprised him - and not just in how she held and presented herself. She was more useful to him than he could have imagined, though his parents would never have bought a servant for him under any other circumstances, he was certain. It was a luxury that he did not really need, even if he appreciated what she was doing for him, every last little bit of it. Whatever his needs were, she was by his side, a cup of herbal tea at his elbow, ready for him before he'd even wondered if he was becoming thirsty or not.

"Here you go, sir."

"Giselle..." Kael said, sitting back and sipping at the hot beverage, wincing as it burned his tongue. "Are you happy here? Is there anything that you need too?"

It was a strange question to ask a dog but he didn't want to forget her needs too, though there was a wage paid to her, he thought, to cover anything that she could want. The fact of the matter was, when it came to money, that dogs simply did not spend too much, not clinging to worldly possessions like humans did. Therefore, the money made often went back to their training centres to further the lives and livelihoods of other canines, fed back into the world to benefit all. Yet they could not surely be selfless forever, he was sure, even as Giselle cocked her head at him again.

"Sir, that's a question I have not been asked before but I am very happy here. Thank you for asking me! Is the tea okay?"

He laughed shortly, rubbing his cheek.

"Actually, I think I was trying to enjoy it a little bit too much there - I should have waited for it to cool!"

Giselle laughed with him, though she had learned after the first time she had gone a little too far in helping him "cool his tea" by blowing on it to allow him to let it cool on his own. That was another thing that Kael had found surprising about her: her laugh. There posed a hint of a bark in it, as if she was on the edge of letting one out at all times, the sort of laugh that made him want to join in with her. He often did too.

They were easy in each other's presence, Kael smiling at her as she stoked the fire on an evening. Her large bust was something, to be fair, that still got in the way, but it was just another feature of her that caught his eye and attention when she could have otherwise have slipped by, so quiet and sleek was she about going through her work. Giselle knew how to be unobtrusive while acting as a servant but Kael wanted to watch her, to pay attention to her even while his mind should have been better focused on things like his upcoming move and the travel involved. It was hard to worry or stress about things like that when he knew that it would be Giselle coming along with him, not so much a guide but someone who would be steadfast by his side the whole time. And what more could he possibly ask for under those circumstances?

But he wanted to do other things, finding himself with strange desires, looking in the mirror in the morning and shifting his weight from one foot to the other. He was pleasing enough to look at but those other dogs had outstripped him in terms of muscle so easily. Would she think less of him for looking as he did? He could not be sure about that, not truly, but he did ask her to fetch him some equipment to exercise with, something small and unobtrusive that could be used in his own quarters.

"Why are you doing this?" She asked one day while he used his psychic abilities to add resistance to a simple push-up. "There are no other humans here that seem to be doing what you are. Is there something more that I can do to you to make this easier? It seems so difficult..."

If he had not been struggling through a repetition, Kael would have laughed, sweating from maintaining his position and using his psychic powers too. Leaning as much into magic as he did, he didn't often reach for it, though it was something, as with every human that he knew, that would always be there as and when it was needed. That did not mean that it was any less difficult to do two things at once and much less to answer her question as to why he was doing it.

He didn't even know. Or maybe he did and didn't want to yet admit it to himself.

Her loyalty was absolute. Kael mumbled something in answer and she allowed it to be, not pushing the issue further. It was not her place, even if a dog's curiosity was as present as it was on a human. The difference between them in that regard was that she knew that she didn't have to have every answer instantly when she could use her nose, later on, to sniff out any answers that had eluded her in time. There was no rush, a creature who lived far more in the present moment, not needing to think too far ahead or worry about the past. In that way, she was luckier than most humans that always had so much on their minds regardless of their status in life or success.

She slept on a sleeping mat beside his bed every night, though there was the option of sending her to the servant's quarters too. Kael made the point to his parents that it was, very likely, going to be the required sleeping arrangement when he went away to study, so she should get used to it. There were some, of course, that could not manage to sleep in such a fashion and it was something too that had to be taken into consideration, just in case it was going to be a physical problem later on.

But there was nothing wrong with Giselle, not even if he spent all day and every night wracking his mind to find something that could have faced something that could possibly make her any less perfect to him. She went everywhere with him and his parents allowed him greater freedom as a direct result of that, only wanting him to be safe and guarded. Being diplomats, they had something to be cautious of amongst humans if not with the anthros in other lands, cautious without worrying, which was a fair place to be. He didn't think that there was anything to be concerned with but he did not know what world experience they had either that they had not taken the time to share with him.

She sat on a lower stool by his side when he took breakfast with his parents, refusing politely to eat at the same time, something that his parents approved of.

"You're very well-trained, Giselle," his father said; it had taken him a little longer than Kael's mother to get used to calling her by her name. "How many years were you in training?"

"Oh, I entered training officially after I turned sixteen - I did not want to continue with our education system." She grinned, tongue lolling out, happy to talk whenever she was asked to. "There were other programs before that I was more interested in than schooling, of course, so I was hiking and camping and learning all sorts of skills that I knew would be applicable to getting into the training program that I wanted."

"I'm surprised there were not trainers better directing you in that way," Kael's mother said, interested but not beyond a passing curiosity in Giselle, to be fair. "You would have done very well in manual labour too, with your physique, though I can see just why becoming a bodyguard was your chosen path."

Kael sighed. They wouldn't understand that there was more to dogs than just the work they did, though he couldn't blame them either for not digging into conversation with Giselle like he did. For a start, they would not be spending a very good portion of the coming years with her as he studied, which was incentive enough to get to know just who he would be living with and close with. He wanted to know that there was a relationship between them, so at the very least he'd know that he'd have someone to talk to when he was away, for the jury was still out on whether the anthros would accept him amongst them to study, even if that had been the official decree. In that aspect, his parents may have been just a little bit too optimistic for realism.

"Sir, why do you study so late? Do you not tire?"

She spoke strangely but the odd lilt and tone of her voice, at the very least, made her voice all the easier to listen too. For a German Shepherd who had spent so much of her life and career in a training facility, it was amazing just how well she spoke, how much she could engage with him. But her life had been designed for something else and loyalty honed her skills, polishing a blade by the light of a lamp on the evening or assisting her master with his scrolls. It felt right to her, even though there was something in her that, of course, wondered why he did what he did. She was not, by any means, lacking in any kind of intelligence.

"Well..." He pondered the question, wanting to give her an answer that he had thought out. "I want to do well in my studies. I don't know if any of this will be taught there but I still want to be as prepared as I can be. I want to give the best impression there, because..." He trailed off, putting his head in his hands. "Oh, lord..."

"What? Sir, what is it?!"

Her hands were on his shoulders then, pulling him back, trying to turn him to face her, all so that she could best serve him. It didn't help her that her master was upset, his eyes squinting, doing everything he could to look away from her, though it was Giselle's loyalty and over-eagerness to please that kicked in, dropping into a crouch to put herself on a lower level to him.

"No, no... It's fine, it's fine, it's nothing..." He growled roughly in the back of his throat, though not even that sound came naturally for Kael. "Perhaps it is time we turned in for the night."

Giselle shuffled back, her ears splayed, nodding unhappily.

"Yes, sir, of course. But please know that I am always going to be here for you, whatever you need."

He knew that, even as the lantern was snuffed out for the night, a flame that he liked to see flickering and dancing, eating up the wick as so many in the world were apt to eat up the very land that sustained them. He could have had one that worked off electricity, if he wanted, but he liked the effect of the flame. Plus, once he had snuffed it out at the wick for the night, it was difficult to re-light it if he ever tossed and turned.

That night, sleep did not come easily. The owls called outside, a screech heralding a tawny owl, for it was only one of the pair that made the typical "twit-two" call of an owl. He rolled onto his right side, pummelling his pillow into shape, his four-poster bed draped with awnings: enough to give an air of class, that such fineries could be afforded by his family. Not that anyone ever saw the bedroom of course, but merely having it custom-made by the preferred carpenter was enough to refine and define their position in the world.

"Sir?"

He stiffened. Sometimes he forgot that he no longer slept alone, his nightclothes lying uncomfortably even though the cloth was of a high quality and soft to the touch.

"Yes?"

Kael sweated. That was strange. That was very strange. He swore he could feel her presence there, so close to him, though he did not turn to see her sit up, eyes reflecting what tiny bit of light there was filtering in through the gap in the curtains.

"Sir, I only want to help you. I don't want to offend in any way but please let me know if there is anything..." She paused, taking a breath that did not seem to fit the time. "Anything at all I can do for you, I will do. You're one of the only humans that's ever treated me as an equal here. I hope that is not too...forward to say."

He swore there was a lump of tightness in her throat, something that held her back when none of it made sense. Giselle was quite right - he should never have talked to her the way he did, though neither was there anything wrong with it either. People talked to dogs all the time but the fact of the matter was that it didn't matter how they talked to dogs or whether they talked to them or not. They could if they wanted to and there was nothing wrong with ignoring them too. The dogs, most certainly, never seemed to mind.

Until Giselle. Or maybe she had been the only one to speak up about it, if only with one that, for some reason, she trusted explicitly.

"Giselle..."

He couldn't help himself. Without thinking, Kael had sat up in bed and swung his legs over the side, bare toes curling into the plush rug lying over the oiled and fed floorboards of his sleeping quarters. He saw her there, eyes adjusting to the fuzzy outline of her, her ears sticking out the most.

"What, sir?"

"You don't always have to call me sir."

It didn't match up with everything but it was still a moment that stood out between them, seconds stretching into a minute, maybe longer. In the dead of the night, there was no way to tell.

"Sir?"

"Giselle... Yes?"

"Can I come over there? Please?"

She was so keen, so soft, so eager to please. He could not say no, shifting over and patting the bed beside him. Giselle leapt up beside Kael with a soft "wuff", indenting the mattress to her side, larger than him even though that was not something that he thought about all that much anymore. There were just so many more things to think about but he could think of nothing but her as her shoulder brushed his, bare fur tickling his clothes, only wearing a vest top that exposed the muscle in her arms on her top half.

Why did he like those muscles so much?

Kael leaned into her, his head on her shoulder. Anything was allowed, no one there to bear witness to the softness between them but the dark of the night, boundaries breaking down, bit by bit. It was there that anything was possible.

"Sir?"

"Call me Kael... Please."

At least when they were alone. There would still be appearances to be kept up in public, even as they leaned into one another. Neither could have said whether Giselle or Kael moved first, not even in the aftermath of the moment, but their lips touched, hands sliding together, clutching at clothes. It was their first kiss, the first time for both of them, Kael not really counting that time when he'd had a few too many drinks and missed Susannah's lips, landing sloppily on her cheek instead. That was nothing in comparison to what would come in days and weeks to come, his bond with the dog growing and growing.

But she was so much more than a dog, just a dog, as he kissed Giselle tentatively, their tongues slipping out. She knew better how to lap than he did but, strangely, the tease and twist of her tongue was sensual in how it curled over his lips and dipped into his mouth, a divine touch that left him hungry and wanting more, always more. Her heart beat more quickly while he was there, pressed up against her, yet it was the feel of her round bosom pushing into his chest that had his heart hammering all the harder for her.

Nothing came in a night, however, even though the warmth of their bodies together was too much for either of them to separate from, at least so swiftly. There was too much that was yet to come and too many days to delight in together. They may not have known it as yet but times like that were best savoured, taken slowly, his eyes only drifting closed when she was pressed up to him, cradling him, his head tucked in under her chin and a little too close to her chest for Kael's dreams to be entirely clean.

They didn't say anything in the morning, things too strange for either of them to acknowledge. Instead of talking about it, Giselle accompanied Kael to the shooting range, his arrows sailing forth into a target that did nothing to soothe the edges of his frustration.

"Why do you not use guns and other metal-firing weapons?" She asked, sitting cross-legged, though it was no secret that she would be up and on any threat that appeared before one could even blink despite her position. "I see that humans tend to prefer those. Your technology is preferred to most over the magic that you seem to prefer."