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[{J I S A}]

Where am I?

Oh man, it was so very cliche and too obvious, but god did Rio feel like a train wreck. Her mouth tasted of salt, her muscles felt as if they’d been beaten into pulp and her stomach lurched and rolled with every breath she took. Rio’s fur felt matted and salty, the air humid and sticky. Her eyes felt rubbed raw and crusted with sand. Slowly, the Brazilian female opened her eyes and whimpered, the white light of the harsh sun sending explosions through her head.

Ay dios mio…

The border collie groaned in her mind as she licked her chops, her throat parched. Taking a breath, and flinching from the agony of it, Rio braved the hurt. Gently, she rolled onto her stomach and opened her stinging eyes. Sand littered her white coat and fell back to the beach. Stretching out ahead of her was an unfamiliar bay. Turquoise blue waters reached far past the horizon. Paw prints littered the golden baked sand that stretched on forever. If Rio didn’t know any better, she’d assume this was Rio de Janeiro. But it wasn’t, and Rio had a crawling suspicion that she was very far from home. Getting to her paws, Rio felt old, all of her weight grating on her poor aching joints. Her mind buzzed with fatigue, and her stomach gnawed with hunger. Rio sucked up the pain and shook the remaining sand particles out of her fur.

Whimpering slightly, Rio assessed her situation. Strange place. Don’t even want to know how she ended up here.

It didn’t look good to say the least.

Before she could stop herself, Rio lifted her muzzle and howled, hunger, dehydration, pain and loneliness threading into her song.

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[TheNeonShadow]

A Day In The Sun

Shady awoke suddenly to a terrible howling. She flailed as she struggled to come to her feet and instantly regretted it. Hitting the ground again she gained some actual consciousness and attempted to control her breathing. Where was she? Why did everything smell and taste so different from everything she'd known before? And what was that sound?

Finally gaining her composure, the lady took inventory. Her coat kept most of the water from reaching her and the salt water had crusted and baked over the outer fur of her thick black coat. She felt like she was on fire. She rolled up to laying on her belly, already panting from the heat of the suns rays. She searched for the source of the sound.

It did not take her long to see that the sound was another dog, several yards down the beach from where she was currently. She had seen many types of dogs from her days on the streets and reckoned her a collie of some kind. The dog was too covered in sand and salt to see what color he or she was. The cry was too desperate for this girl to stay by herself. Besides, two are always better than one.

Shady pulled herself to her paws, the sand sinking satisfyingly between her pads. A little too loose for a good dig but perfect to walk on, especially in the ragged condition she was in currently. She took a few test steps to see what the damage was. Mostly some soreness, similar to what comes after a rough fight. She winced. It was never a good feeling.

She continued toward the other dog, making sure to make no aggressive stance and doing her best to look as friendly as she could being as tired as she was. She gave a casual half-bark to alert the other she was there. "Hey there. . . You as lost as I am?" She gave a half-smile to again reassure the other.