Strong

This is a story about Athena's past~

## Characters

* Athena
* Athena's parents
* The Junkyard Dogs

## Story

"Definitely this one!" The young boy smiled to his parents, pointing his finger to the mix breed excitingly wagging it's tail.

"This one, pleesase?" The little boy begged once more, sticking his arm through the bars as the puppy licked all over his arm affectionately.

"Alright, alright honey." The woman chuckled. "This one please," the lady said to the pound worker, looking at the pup.

The pound worker nodded as he unlocked the gate, and quickly retrieved the pup so none of the other dogs in the cage didn't try to flee, and then quickly slammed the gate shut. He handed the pup over to the boy, and the pup enthusiastically started licking the little boy all over his face.

"Hehe, that tickles!"

As the family started to leave, another mixed breed hopped over to the gate. She yipped, waving to her brother. "Bye Thomas! Bye!"

The pup stopped his licking and looked over at his sister, and over to his parents, a border collie and a dalmatian watching their son proudly. She smiled up at them, "Bye mom! Bye dad! Bye sis!" He called to the three as he disappeared with the family down the hall.

The other pup sighed happily as she sat down, still looking down the hall. "Do you think he'll be happy with that family?" She said, looking over at the border collie and dalmatian.

"I'm positive Athena," The border collie grinned. "That little boy looked like he had as much energy as him.

"I know he'll be very happy." The dalmatian chimed in.

"When will I get adopted?" Athena smiled, wagging her tail, exited by just the thought of being a part of a family like her brother's.

The border collie stood up and stretched, "Soon kiddo, but for now, you better get to bed."

"I get the whole hay pile to myself!" Athena giggled, as she pranced up to her bed, laying down and curling up on her small mountain of hay. "Goodnight mommy, goodnight daddy."

"Goodnight darling."

"Sleep tight kiddo."

The next few days were normal, Athena would spend the days playing in the hay, and talking to the other pups through the bars. While her parents spent the days talking with other dogs, each other, and they were chewing at the bar in the corner, Athena found that strange, they'd never chewed at the bars before, she and her brothers had, but her parents always told them not to. "You three are going to break your teeth!" Her mother had always told them.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she finally asked her parents what they were doing. "Oh nothing honey, we just think the bars are loose." Her mom said nervously.

"Oh.. Okay?" She said, slightly confused. It wasn't until a month later she finally figured out why...

"Athena... Athena dear.. wake up." Athena heard her mother's voice whisper to her, as she was being slightly shaken.

Athena slowly rose, stretching and yawning. She noticed it was still night, which confused her.

"Is everything okay mom?"

Her mom nodded, "Yes dear, come with me."

Athena, getting more confused, and slightly worried, followed her mom across the cage, to the corner of it where three bars were broken off, creating a hole..

A hole just her size...

"What's this?" Athena said, as she tilted her head, puzzled, not about the whole in the gate, but why her parents were always so secretive of it.

"Athena... sit down.." Her father, who had been sitting in the corner by the hole spoke up.

Athena obediently sat down in front of her parents, waiting for an explanation as to why they'd always been so secretive about a hole in the gate.

"Sweetheart, dear, your father and I were..." Her mother managed to choke out that shirt sentence before being overtaken by worry, and burying her face into her husband's fury chest. Her father sighed. "Athena, your mother and I have been told by some other dogs that they overheard the pound was getting crowed."

"So?"

"So, they have to get rid of some dogs."

"We'll that's okay, I've been waiting to get a home forever!"

Her father sighed again.

"But not all people want pound dogs, it's not easy selling them. And they can't let them loose, which gives them one choice.."

"Which is??"

Athena's mother took her head up from her father's chest, giving her father a slight nudge to stop him from responding.

"Dear, that's besides the point.."

Her father nodded in agreement. And turned over to the hole in the fence. "We don't want them to end up getting rid of you, so you need to leave Athena."

Athena felt her stomach turn. "Leave?!" She yelled. "Where would I go!?"

"Athena- be quiet." Her mother whispered, "Don't wake the others."

Tears were running down Athena's face, "But I don't want to leave.. I want to stay with you guys, until my owner comes- and what about you two?? What if they get rid of y-"

"Athena." Her father said sternly. "We've thought this through for a long time, you may not believe it right now, but this is the best thing we could do for you."

"The best thing??" Athena said in a choked up voice, "The best thing you could do is let me wait for my owner!"

"You've waited long enough for your owner, Athena. It's time you stopped waiting for them and went to find them. Now you need to go."

"I can't-"

"Go!"

Athena swallowed, and slowly and hesitantly crawled out through the hole. She stuck her face through the bars, getting a good last glimpse of her parents.

"Mom... I'm not strong enough to survive what's beyond that door."

Her mother smiled at Athena, and drew nose-to-nose with her daughter, tears rushing down her face. "Athena, I've watched you grow up from a tiny pup, I know a lot about you, and I know your strong."

Tears continued to flood through Athena's face as she whimpered. After a while, she took a deep breath and stood tall.

"O-Okay... I love you mom, I love you dad."

"We love you too." Her parents both said.

Athena knelt low at the door, that door is where she was told was the only way out. Luckily, it was rickety and old, so she could push it back with ease. She took a deep breath, and charged at the door.

Blam! The door flew open when meeting contact with her.

"Oof!" Athena said, after a slight crash with the door, she has tumbled outside and rolled into a puddle. She could recognise she'd landed in water, but this was a lot of water compared to what her bowl could hold in the pound.

Athena shivered as she leapt out of the puddle, and shook off the water. "I didn't know water could get that cold."

Athena stepped out of the puddle and instantly froze, she'd stepped back on something... it was like when it rained through the cracks of the roof, and the hay got wet, but it wasn't... This stuff was much softer, and not damp, but still soft, and it was, green? Athena didn't understand at first- and then she remembered the stories that some of the dogs that had lived outside of the pound told to her and her brothers. Since they'd have no idea what trees, houses, junkyards, or grass were, the dogs would have to describe it in great detail, much to their annoyance. But this fit every description they'd described grass as.

"Grass.." Athena murmured to herself. And then she looked up, and let out a loud gasp, the sky...

Yes, Athena had seen peeks of day and night from the top of the wooden roof, she knew what it looked like- but this was so big, much bigger than the shreds of the sky she could glimpse through, this sky went on forever.

Athena continued to stare up at the night sky in wonder, it was unbelievable how many stars litterd the sky, more than she could have ever imagined. She would've kept staring up, until something interrupted her stargazing.

"Um.... hello?"

Athena quickly turned to her left, where the silhouette of a cat stood, inching closer and closer, to Athena's horror, she realized it wasn't a dog, it was like a dog, but slightly different.

"I appear to have lost my way to-"

In that instant Athena ran as far as she could, yelping the whole way, leaving the small wandering cat very confused.

Athena was now in an alley, panting heavily and looking around for anyone else that could have happened to be in the alley. After being sure she was alone, she sat down. Everything was all so new, and so scary, but... it was also so cool, and so pretty, she looked up once more at the stars and yawned.

After getting comfortable on a box, Athena started drifting off to sleep, she was starting to get a good feeling about this new world.

Athena's eyes flew open to the sound of a roster, she had heard them before, and also been told about them. She was also told they were fun to chase, so she could try that later.

She stumbled off of the box she'd been sleeping, she looked onto the street in front of the alley that had been empty just last night, was filled with horse drawn carriages along with a couple of old black cars. She slowly walked closer to the busy street, poking her head out from the alley to see them.

"I definitely don't want to get near those," She said to herself. "But how am I gonna get across?"

Athena crouched low to the ground ready to make a run for it, she took a deep breath ready to make a run for it once she got the chance. Once the street traffic calmed down slightly, she make a run for it to the opposite side of the street.

Athena was almost there until she was interrupted by a sharp whiney. She looked up to she a horse towering over her. Startled, she took off forward just barley missing being ran over by the wheels of other carts. Once she made it across the street, panting and shaking slightly, she took off running.

After running as far as she could from those carts, Athena turned around briefly to see how far she ran. When she fell backwards after hitting something. She turned back around to see she'd ran straight into an adult labrador. It turned around and looked down meeting eye contact with Athena.

Athena was sure she was doomed, sure the big dog was gonna eat her in one bite. Much to her surprise, the dog wasn't startled, it didn't even look mad. It just smirked at her.

"I'm sorry..." Athena whispered, getting back up on her feet.

"Don't sweat it kid." The labrador said calmly.

Athena, now more embarrassed than scared, turned around and started to walk away. Until the labrador stopped her.

"Where you off to?" He called to her.

She turned back around, and then realized there were four other dogs with him.

"Nowhere..." She said, looking down at her paws.

"Really, now?" The labrador questioned as he took a couple steps towards her, causing her to back up quickly.

"Relax kid, I'm not gonna hurt ya." The labrador assured her as he stopped moving towards her.

"You won't..?"

"Of course not, in fact, maybe you could join me and my friends here," He smiled, gesturing to the other dogs. "A pup won't last long on these streets without protection."

Athena couldn't argue with that, besides, they would've hurt her by now if they were going to hurt her.

"I guess." She said unsure.

"Perfect, it's settled then. You can join me and my friends, as long as your willing to do us a favor."

"A favor..?" Athena tilted her head, "How could I help you guys?"

"It's simple, really. See that junkyard over there?"

Athena turned her head to where he gestured, sure enough, there was a big wooden sigh that read out "Junkyard".

"All you gotta do is go in there, and grab this trash can lid, it's full of meats, you can't miss it. Just grab that, and bring it to us, we'll be right outside waiting for ya. Think your up to it kid?"