"I'm hungry."
That was Mikey, of course. He was always hungry that winter. It was understandable - after all, food was scarce. Still, the constant complaints did no one any good. Especially me.
"Ok. Fine. You're hungry. What the heck do you expect me to do about it?"
He looked at me with those big brown eyes. I melted. I always do.
"You want food? Let's go." He stared at me in silence but made no move. "I said let's go!"
A half-minute of hustling and bustling later, Mikey was ready to go, leash in mouth. He bounded through the special flapping door I built for him and plowed through the two-foot snow outside. I followed at a more sedate pace, making sure to lock the door behind me, then followed through the trail Mikey had provided for me, dragging a sled behind me.
It was a flat landscape, unmarred from pure whiteness, except for the occasional bare tree. It was cold. It was wet. Even following the plowed trail I still managed to soak my lower legs to the skin. I don't like snow. Or cold. I was not happy.
Mikey, though, he was in his natural element. It never failed. Seeing him frolic with utter happiness in the snowy field brought the biggest darn smile to my face. It almost made it worth putting up with the cold.
He ran and jumped and buried his nose in the white powder. All the while holding that silly leash between his teeth. I never understood why he carried the thing. I never held it, and don't know if I could have restrained him with it in any case. Buy Mikey always insisted. The proprieties must be observed, I guess.
Outdoors at least after most of a winter cooped up, Mikey had forgotten the purpose of our little excursion. I called his name a few times until he deigned to give me his attention, then pointed in a generally north direction.
"Food is that way, Mike."
We traveled for half a day in the direction I had pointed. Mikey eventually calmed down and came to walk just in front of me, continuing to break trail. We didn't talk much, but there was no need. We simply enjoyed each other's company. But as I gazed on this foreign landscape, so different than my homeland, I couldn't help but feel homesick.
No help for it though. I was marooned. I had no way to contact my loved ones, or even my boss, and it seemed unlikely I would ever be rescued. Worse, I was alone here, with no one but Mikey and some scattered native wildlife to keep me company.
That afternoon we reached our goal. One species of animal kept a den of sorts in the area. For some reason this particular kind of creature repulsed me, but they seemed to provide adequate sustenance for both myself and my charge, and they were the easiest sort to catch. They had no defense to speak of, they did not run particularly fast, and they seemed to have no skills of note except for an ability to build shelter from fallen logs, not unlike a marine animal back home which uses trees to block the passage of small streams.
Catching the scent of the animals, Mikey did not hesitate to charge into the nest. With a fearsome growl he tore into their soft flesh with his teeth and swiped at them with his fearsome paws. Some attempted to run in that ungainly bipedal way they had, but Mikey had no problem running them to ground.
With the gruesome business done, I stacked the meat onto the sled and started for home. Mikey picked back up his leash, which he had dropped before the hunt, and once again leading, took us back to our home by that evening.
We had a good dinner that night - me by roasting the flesh over a fire and Mikey taking it raw - and we had what seemed to be a good enough stockpile for the rest of the winter. As I lay down for sleep afterwards, again I reflected on what a strange world this was compared to mine, and how I wish my interstellar ship hadn't lost guidance control and come down on this planet in an uncharted system.
And again, as I slept that night I had the same reoccurring dream. I was a member of that strange repulsive species Mikey and I use for food, and my specialization in that group was as a performer. More specifically, I dreamed that I trained large animals, like Mikey, to perform for a crowd, and I always proved my mastery of an animal by keeping it on a leash. A crazy dream.
Content in his corner, Mikey snored the night away.