Free An Android Dog's Tale by David Morrese Page B

of confusion
froze on her face until he smiled at her.
    She screamed and snatched the obsidian
dagger he wore at his hip. “You, too!” she yelled, pushing away and
holding the sharp, black point toward him.
    “Calm down, Ryenne,” her brother called.
“There is no need for this.”
    She swiveled and pointed the dagger toward
her brother. “No. Stay away!”
    He slowed but continued to approach. The
sheep followed him.
    MO-126 growled softly, fearing she might try
to stab her brother. His reaction ultimately resulted from routines
embedded deep in his firmware, but it signaled a legitimate warning
nonetheless.
    She shifted her attention briefly to the
threatening dog. Her eyes grew ever wider as she switched her focus
from him, to her brother, to the trader, and then to the sheep. She
screamed again, turned, and ran toward the village.
     
    ~*~
     
    “ I’m going to run ahead and make sure she
doesn’t do something hasty, ” MO-126 told his partner.
    Leaving Tork and Gault to lead the sheep
back toward the village, he raced past Ryenne. She ran as if demons
were chasing her, which she undoubtedly believed to be the case.
The artificial dog kept his distance, circling well around her, and
reached the spot where the old woman was tied ahead of her.
    Galinda was muttering to herself when he
arrived, sitting in her own filth and heedless of the stench.
    He turned to face the approaching mad woman
not tied to a pole.
    Ryenne waved the dagger dangerously. “Be
gone, Demon! I command it!”
    Galinda lifted her graying head at the sound
of Ryenne’s voice. She raised her arms as much as the rope would
allow and echoed the holy woman’s words. “Be gone, Demon!” she
croaked.
    This gave MO-126 an idea. Galinda did not
know that Ryenne was addressing him or, more specifically, the
demon she believed resided in him. The old woman apparently thought
the village’s speaker to the gods was trying to cast out the evil
spirit in her by scaring it with the knife. This might allow for a
better solution than any the canine android imagined possible only
a minute ago.
    He charged toward Ryenne. She abruptly
backed away, almost tripping in the loose dirt. Before she could
regain her footing, he turned and lunged at Galinda, snapping and
growling a finger’s width from her tortured face. He could tell he
scared her because of the shriek and the puddle.
    His behavior apparently confused Ryenne
because she froze, staring at him, the knife held loose and
forgotten in her hand.
    Come on, psycho lady, he thought. Don’t
start being sane now. He turned and growled again at the woman tied
to the stake. She cowered, drawing in her scraped and wrinkled
knees beneath the smeared tunic.
    Ryenne ventured closer, again waving the
knife, this time far less certainly. MO-126 dodged and snapped at
both women in rapid succession. They shied away, Ryenne by
retreating a few steps and Galinda by moving to the opposite side
of her pole.
    “Be gone, Demon,” Galinda choked out. MO-126
hoped she would say that again. Ryenne was being less
accommodating, but he could still make this work.
    “ I hope you’re nearby, Trader. I need
you, ” he broadcasted.
    “ I can hear you. What are you
doing? ”
    “ I’m casting out demons. When you get
here, try getting the villagers to chant, ‘Be gone,
Demon.’ ”
    “ What? ”
    “ Just do it, and when things calm down,
tell Ryenne what a good job she did. ”
    “ What are you talking about? ”
    “ You’ll understand. You’re a clever
android. Get here quickly. ”
    “ We just left the sheep with the rest of
the flock. I’ll be there in a minute. ”
    A crowd formed around the pole. So much
entertainment in so short a span of time was a rare event in
villages like this and not something to pass by.
    Ryenne, obviously not one to ignore an
attentive audience, resumed her threats with the knife. Now,
however, her movements became more theatrical. The wild madness she
exhibited before diminished. She