MOLLY<br/><br/>I heard the thudding on the grass behind me and turned to look.<em>Something running fast...? Oh. Nothing. Oh well, I... Nyehh!</em>I made a sort of yelping gasp sound in surprise, something like<strong>"Moohnk!"</strong>as I turned my head back only to find my face full of dog. I took a pace or two back and frowned at Raiga. I knew the dog had the name because the people called the sound when they wanted him. Like they called me Moll-hee. I liked the name Moll-hee, it had a nice slow soft whee sound to it like a cuddle. Raiga though, looked like a Raiga. He acted like a Raiga too. RAIGA! RAIGA! The people called. It suited him. Sall-ee was definitely a Sall-ee as well, all soft and slippery and slithery with mud. There was something about Sall-ee though, her face and the curvy udders and the shape of her back. I couldn't work it out but watching her roll in the soft cool mud made me think of something... something I couldn't place. It bothered me, like an insect bite I couldn't reach to scratch. Then a passing farmhand would slap my rump and put a hand to my neck and force my face to the grass and mount me and I wouldn't care anymore.<br/><br/>"Narf! Narf! Naaarrrrr-arf!" Raiga barked at me and under that weird covering of hair that Sall-ee and I didn't have for some reason I could see his mouth was curled into a smile and his eyes crinkled with a happy look. I rested back on my shins and knees, my rump resting on my heels, pushing up my arms so they were straight and smiled back at him. My large udders shifted and I felt their weight.<br/><br/><strong>" 'Lo Raiga,"</strong>I said, grinning at him. I pushed a lock of hair out of my eyes and scratched an ear before reaching out to let him sniff my hoof. It's funny I call them hooves and think of them as hooves but they look a lot like the hands of the people. He sniffed my skin and then I ran the small separate parts of my hoof through his long thick hair,<strong>"You pant! Raiga hot in sun?"</strong>I asked him,<strong>"Play in stream?"</strong>I suggested, trying to make the thoughts that curled painfully slowly about in my head into words. I wondered why Raiga didn't use words, or at least, not many but I could sense his thoughts and what he wanted from how he shaped his body, changed his face and made sounds as necessary - barks to warn, growls to alert, whines to show unhappiness.