Snap Out of It

(July 30th, closed to Mooch and Dipstick. Mooch, you need to slap some sense back into Dipstick's thick skull xD)

The sun was shining brightly that afternoon, and African birds sang their foreign song and flittered and flitted about cheerfully. As if there weren't a war going on beneath their noses. As if everything was as it always had been since the dawn of time.

The doofy dal mirrored their actions. He'd witnessed the dead body of his crush, learned his father had died soon after, and just recently, witnessed the death of his own sister, Pepper. But he was as cheerful as the day is long. An eerie, unsteady cheerfulness that seemed unsettling as a result of said events.

He hadn't seen Mooch in a while, he'd reasoned to himself, so he'd sought the sheepdog out for an afternoon hanging out, like old times. Now he stood just in front of Mooch's tent with the bigger dog by his side, breathing in the warm, perfumed African air and looking at his companion with a big smile.

"Uhh, Mooch, hope you don't mind if Becca tags along," He said, looking at something to his left, although there was nothing there, and grinning happily. "She follows me everywhere anymore. I can't get rid of her, hahahaha..." The laugh was quiet, but somehow carried a note of unsettling instability.

"Not that I'd want to anyway.." He turned a bright, eerie grin toward the sheepdog, "Um...so where do you want to go Mooch? I'm game for anything."

Yellow orbs widened in a seriously disturbed expression. That laugh was just plain disturbing. Not to mention Rebecca had DIED some time ago and Dipstick seemed to be acting as if she was still alive and with him, out and about.

"She follows me everywhere anymore. I can't get rid of her, hahahaha..."

The frigging hell was with that laugh? It send chills up the sheepdog's spine. Dipstick hadn't been seen by Mooch's side in a while. Mooch missed that. While he loved hanging with Gurri and Geno he missed playing pranks on the farm and bothering Lucky...Lucky...the thought sent a sting through his heart. He missed the black and white runt more than he cared to admit despite all the trouble he'd caused. Then Pongo, then Pepper...Pepper...another sting in his heart. Poor girl. He'd wished he'd payed more attention to the femme when she was alive.

Mooch, disturbed expression still poised on his maw, stared at the happy doofy dal before him. "Uh...Rebecca's dead dude...she can't follow you anywhere." His words were blunt and to the point, no sense in beating around the bush. The sooner Dipstick stopped being a loony the better.

For a brief moment, a disturbed expression crossed Dipstick's face. His nearly nonexistent chin wobbled and face fell in a very sad way. And then it was like a switch flipped and the eerie grin replaced it. "Uhh...no she isn't. Can't you see her?" He indicated the empty space to his left. "Haha....Mooch is blind as a bat isn't he Becca..." Another unsteady laugh. Then he looked at Mooch again, some semblance of his former self returning to his face. That same doofy, sleepy expression he'd donned sitting under the wagon so many times in the past.

"You still didn't answer my question, Mooch. Where are we going?"

(sorry this took so long Dipstick)

Mooch made a face that was somewhat disgusted, somewhat freaked out and...well mostly just freaked out. Dipstick was acting weirder than that time he'd drank that red stuff out of a bottle in the kitchen. True it was on a dare he'd done that, and a dare from Mooch himself, but it had made Dipstick all loopy. He shook his face free of the disturbed look and padded next to Dipstick. "Dippy, she's dead, can't you see there's no one here?"

Truthfully, Mooch hadn't seen much of Dipstick since Rebecca's grisly death and Lucky's plunge off Pride Rock. Maybe he was too busy with Gurri. Perhaps he was too busy training. Whatever the reason was his little buddy had gone completely nuts.

"Dipstick, come on," he said, poking the pup with a huge paw, "Snap out of it, crazy. There's nobody there! Look." He waved his hands through where Dipstick said Rebecca was.

An easy grin crossed Dipstick's face. "Hey, not so close Mooch, you're gonna touch her. She doesn't like being touched you know." He seemed to ignore or otherwise not comprehend Mooch's statements about Rebecca being dead. That made no sense to the doofy pup. How could she be dead when she was right there?

"Haha, come on Mooch." He said, casually changing the subject, "If you're not gonna decide where to go then I will." He took a few steps forward, and in his mind's eye he saw Becca step up next to him, a timid smile on her face. "Me and Becca are gonna go to the water hole. I'd like it if you came with us Mooch, I mean... if you're okay with it being the three of us."

"DAMNIT Dipstick!" Mooch was getting irritated now. The bully of a sheep dog wasn't so far removed from his pushy tendancies that he couldn't get Dipstick too stop being a looney. He pushed the dog's side gently with his paws, not to hurt him mind you, just to get his attention. "Dipstick...wait a second..." He paused gaining an idea. He grinned.

"No, I have a place for you and 'Becca' to go," he said, padding towards the hill, "Come on Dippy, I'll race ya!" Okay, so rushing him towards the graveyard wasn't the best idea but Dipstick had clearly lost his mind from grief. He needed to see Rebecca's grave, adorned with a heart and her name engraved into the stone. Placed right next to Lucky's grave.

Dipstick's face brightened even more when Mooch said he had some place in mind to go, and his tail wagged a little at the idea of a race. "Ok but not too fast okay, Rebecca can't keep up." That said, he took off running after the sheepdog, laughing. For once, it wasn't an unsteady or unstable laugh, just a gentle, happy noise, as if the poor pup hadn't a care in the world.

Still a few feet behind Mooch, Dipstick slowed to a stop when he saw where they were, the grin sliding off his face. It was replaced by an uncertain, almost fearful look. "Uh Mooch, why'd we come here?" He padded toward the stones slowly, hesitantly, his apprehension mounting.

"This is a graveyard....why are we stopping-" He came to a dead stop. What he saw first wasn't Rebecca's grave but Lucky's. The horseshoe-spotted pup's collar hung aslant across the top of the stone. Dipstick stared at it with eyes as wide as saucers, a heartbroken look on his face. Mouth hung open, lower lip wobbled. No, no no it isn't true. Lucky isn't dead....Lucky isn't dead!! That same disturbed look on his face, Dipstick glanced around the graveyard. There was Pongo's grave....and Pepper's....

Every time his eyes passed over a grave, his heart broke in two a little more. T-this can't be happening...it can't!!!! Pup trembled all over.

Mooch felt like a jerk of the highest degree when he saw Dipstick's face. He closed his eyes tightly, fighting back a look of sympathy. He opened his orbs again and padded towards Rebecca's grave. He placed a paw on the stone. He had a stern look on his face, yellow eyes narrowed and his mouth fixed in a frown.

"She's dead Dipstick," he said, "I know you loved her dude. Any idiot with eyes could see that. But you have to let go." Paw stayed firmly on the headstone. "She's...uh...up there, in the sky, playing with Penny and Lu-" He thought better. "With Penny and Pepper and Scamp. They're happy, I can tell you that right now." Mooch removed his paw from the stone and placed it on Dipstick's shoulder.

"Dippy, you gotta let Rebecca go..."

Dipstick was trembling violently. "No...NO!! You're wrong!! S-she's not dead, she's r-r-right here with m..." He looked around desperately, but the apparition he'd conjured up had disappeared. "No. NO!! Where'd she go?!" Suddenly wild with panic, Dipstick swung his head in every direction. "She's gone!!! I gotta find her I gotta-" Suddenly, his eyes caught on something just in front of Mooch.

"There. See? She's right th-" But the apparition was standing in front of a headstone. Her blue eyes peered into his soul, almost as if trying to convey a message. Then a tiny smile appeared on her face, and she walked away. Rebecca passed through her own headstone and was gone.

"NO!! NO Rebecca!! Rebecca come back!!! Where'd you-" Dipstick dashed up to the grave, stricken, totally ignoring Mooch's words. "REBECCA!! Come on this isn't funny!!" at first he didn't seem to notice the tombstone. He looked all around it, front and back, trying to see where his beloved apparition had gone. "Rebecca!! Rebe-" And then his eyes caught on it. Those words. Those words tore a hole through his shattered heart: there was her name. Her name, birth and date of death. Circled around by a gigantic heart, with Penny's bandanna tied to one corner, floating gently in the breeze. The bandanna she used to wear...

He stood still. As if he'd frozen in place. Not even appearing to breathe.

No....

Mooch lowered his head and walked next to Dipstick. The pup was like a brother to him. Mooch had never fit into his own family. Hell his family had dropped him like a hot potato when the Radcliffe's came to the farm. So he'd always secretly seen Dipstick and Wizzer and Two-Tone like his little family. He placed a paw over Dipstick's shoulder and pulled him close. "Dipstick," he said, "I'm sorry."

He held the doofy pup close to him, eyes closed. The wind blew as if Rebecca's touch was on the wind. "Father's watching over us," he said, "If my father, the Great Prince is watching us, then Rebecca's watching you. You got that, buddy? She's watching over you."

Dipstick didn't reply to Mooch's words. He hardly seemed to hear them. The same disturbed expression appeared to be permanently plastered to his face now. Lips parted, mouth hung open slightly, and lower lip trembled continously. For several moments, he sat still, not even reacting when Mooch hugged him.

Then he sucked in a huge, gasping breath. The world seemed to be spinning all around him. He couldn't make sense of anything anymore. He leaned his head against Mooch's chest. "M-m-m-make it stop Mooch......make it stop!"

Mooch was previously the most shallow dog in the world. He was jerk, a bully and the biggest pain in the neck the Radcliffe farm had ever seen. But something had reached deep into his soul during the war. Maybe it was Gurri and Geno and their grandfather, the Great Prince. Perhaps it was being adopted into the dalmatian family officially. Perhaps it was the deaths of his friends. But whatever it was it made Mooch draw Dipstick close to his chest, wrapping his paws around his best friend.

"Shhh," Mooch said, discomfort sitting on his voice, "Shhh. Its okay now Dipstick. You needed to see this. You needed to hear this." He hated being harsh but Dipstick needed to stop following around an imaginary Rebecca. It was unhealthy and in Mooch's opinion pretty stupid. But he wouldn't say that last part out loud.

"M-m-make it stop!!!" His head was swimming. Groaning, Dipstick sank down onto the ground, and tears began steaming from his eyes. "No.."

Harsh as it was, Mooch's visit had had the desired affect. It had been too much to handle. Too much for the doofy pup to deal with. So he pretended it hadn't happened. But this...seeing their graves, right in front of his eyes....he couldn't deny it any longer. His family members were dead. Rebecca......Rebecca was dead. And the fact broke his heart all over again.

He just lay there on the ground, sobbing his eyes out.

Mooch frown deepened as Dipstick sunk to the ground. He placed a paw on Dipstick's back and rubbed it softly. "Its okay," he repeated, "Its going to be okay." He nudged the pup with a paw.

"Alright Dipstick, enough," he said with a growl, "Its time to stop moping and crying. Time to get serious about this war." His eyes narrowed. "You need to be there for your family, Jewel and Spotty and fuzzy and all the rest of those dalmatians I have no idea what their names are." He growled and tried to roll Dipstick over.

"Come on," he sneered, "Its time to get up."