by tsunami glacier

One night in the backyard, Echo and Charlie were talking about what kind of trouble they were going to get themselves into this week.

They both looked at the moon and then Echo randomly barked, “we should get some of Artemis’s moon dog treats.”

They nodded in agreement and thought of some ideas and wrote them down on the ground in the mud. One was to beg. Another was threatening her for some of the dog treats with Zeus’s lightning bolt that their friend pigeon had stolen. Another was getting a walk to the agility dog park to see if she would be there and if so, they would have some. That was the dog’s list of plans. 

The dogs were both so sweet and kind and had the cutest faces, so when a week passed they would try some of the plans. “One plan a week” ordered Echo. They wanted to do one plan a week because they all know that Artemis always does these things after a full moon, and the full moon is in a week. So all the dogs were planning to get some of the treats, then brag to all the other dogs. 

ONE WEEK LATER

“Okay, tonight is the full moon for this week. The first plan is a go.” Echo told the narrator.

What you can see me telling the story… that is preposterous!!! yelled the narrator.

“Well duh we can hear you, because we are the best dogs in the world we are the only ones that can hear the narrator,” bragged Charlie and Echo in unison as they ran in circles laughing. All of a sudden the dogs became quiet. Their faces became sad. Their ears flopped. Their tails trooped. There are eyebrows pushed together. Then the most pathetic whimpering sound started coming from Charlie. Echo picked it up just like an echo. “Dog treats boohoo” they howled and howled as loudly as they could, and hoped Artemis could hear them. They’re begging skills were legendary. How could she resist such pitiful pups? She apparently could resist the pitiful pups, even with the legendary begging, the narrator said in his favorite tone. 

ONE WEEK LATER

“Another full moon, and here we go on our second plan” yelled Echo. “Pigeon where are you? We need your lightning bolts to get some of the Artemis moon dog treats.” Charlie yelled kindly, just loudly enough for the pigeon to hear.

“I am coming right now, here are the lightning bolts. I’ve made my decision. I will help you. I am the only one that knows how to use these lightning bolts without lighting anyone on fire. Artemis loves me. I am her speakable bird. I tell her all about you. She wants you to be one of her hunting dogs someday,” babbled pigeon.

“Okay we got it, she seems really nice. But we need to start soon because if not, we are going to miss the full rise of the Moon, and that is when she listens most to dogs, especially the ones who are so cute.” Charlie interrupted. 

Charlie, Echo and pigeon left the yard and trotted to go down the street. Close by was a park on an open, grassy hill. Charlie and Echo ran easily up the path to the peak where the pigeon, who had flown, was waiting for them.

“Slowpokes,” said pigeon.

“Show off,” said Charlie. The sun was just setting and as it got darker they turned their backs on the sunset and looked to where Artemis would soon be rising over the horizon. “Here we go, we are on part 2, we are going to shoot these at the moon, are you ready?” Echo screamed. “Yes Echo,” replied pigeon. “Off we go on the plan to start firing.” Pigeon and Echo get your voice ready for phase 4. “We are going to start the launch, we have the baskets, we are preparing the shot, and off they go,” yelled Charlie.

It was a fail and we got nothing. 

ONE WEEK LATER

“Soon we will be able to start the walk to the agility dog park. We are dogs. We love walks. Walks are our specialty! Here are my top three rules for how to go on a walk if you are a dog: one, pull on the leash whenever possible. Two, stop and smell something at least once every 3 feet. Three, bark at every squirrel you see. If there are no squirrels, bark at the birds. If there are no birds, bark at people. If there’s nothing living in sight, bark at imaginary creatures.   

It’s going to be getting dark soon, so we should start our walk to get there when the moon is up. Then Artemis should come down on her silver chariot and give out the dog treats because it is her birthday, and that is when she’s the most generous to the dogs that go to the specific agility dog park.

We just turned right off of Johnson Street and are now on Roosevelt. Now we will cross El Camino Real, turn left after we cross, then we turn right on Beach Street and then cross Main Street and then we’ll be at the dog park.” said Echo. 

A glowing light is coming from the dog park, illuminating as we walk through the gate. Our eyes adjust and we see a silver chariot beautifully decorated with a pattern of bows and arrows. Surrounding the Chariot are all shapes and sizes of dogs. We look up and the woman turns around in the chariot to look at us. She has long silver hair with flowers woven in it and is wearing a moon color dress of silky blue. she reaches into a bag and takes out a handful of dog treats! 

We hold our breath and look at each other. We think we are the luckiest dogs in the universe! We are about to get the most rare and delicious dog treats. The stuff of legends among dogs. No other dog has had one since she lost her hunting dogs, they were her best friends. She would always be the one to look over the dogs when Hermes would make them do some of those obnoxious tricks. She felt that they would hurt themselves and then not be able to hunt or do anything a dog needs to do. The dogs meant everything to her. If one of them got hurt, she got hurt too. So ever since she lost her hunting dogs, she’s been coming to this dog park disguised as a dog and telling them that they should be careful about what they do because they are on the list to hurt with Artemis and sometimes she even would tell the dogs if she really wanted them to listen. 

It’s hard to describe what happened next. It was a blur of leaping dogs and we leapt up too. Dog treats were falling all around us!  We closed our eyes and jumped-up, mouth open wide, and then the most amazing taste I have ever known hit my tongue. It tasted like old shoes and my favorite bone and the bark on sticks and chicken and salmon and stinky socks and grass all rolled into one big flavor. We leapt and gulped and leapt and gulped over and over again until the treats stopped. We opened our eyes and Artemis was gone. So we went home and bragged (like a dog wood) when they had just tasted moon dog treats.

“How were the dog treats? Did you save me any? I always wanted one? How did they taste? I have so many questions,” said pigeon. “They tasted great but I don’t think that you would like them, they tasted like birds.” I answered. Pigeon let out of strangled “squaw!”” and flew to the top of the tree and turned her back on them and stuck out her nose (well her beak) defiantly in the air. 

Charlie and Echo went back to the house and slept like nothing happened, and in the morning Echo bragged so much to all of the other dogs that weren’t at the dog park that there might have been some fighting involved, but that’s a story for another day.