"I want a dog."
So said the boy in the woods.
Today was his birthday, his eleventh birthday.
It was also a very important day.
The dark-skinned girl with curly hair tied in a single ponytail said, "Then your mum and dad will get you a great big Rottweiler, Adam."
Children their age were at the stage where they wanted their parents to acknowledge that they were growing up.
The girl, for instance, wanted a Racing Bicycle with a Blade Saddle and twelve-speed gears for her birthday.
Unfortunately, in her parents' eyes, a little girl was always a little girl.
She had received a girl's bicycle, the kind with a basket.
That had left her very unhappy, even though she really was a little girl.
The friends in the woods were discussing birthday presents.
The large black-and-white dog, its mouth full of fangs, could hardly wait for its master to describe its magnificent appearance.
Behind it, John was studying the dog's size and its obviously unhealthy teeth, trying to assess it.
"With a dog this ugly, could it be a demon from Hell too?"
John sensed something familiar about the large dog.
It reminded him of White Wolf, and of Surtur too.
He remembered that feeling. He called it destiny, or fate.
"A big dog tied to fate?" John frowned in thought. Things like this were usually harbingers of the end of the world.
Yet that feeling coming from the large dog was also exceedingly strange.
He was considering whether to pin the dog down and dissect it for research when he heard the boy describing his dream dog.
"I don't want a big dog."
The large dog froze at those words, apparently not expecting its master to dislike its imposing, majestic appearance.
Adam said, "I want a little dog