Kipling, an Ogre's Dog

By Nicholas David Evans

Ogres are a species from another planet. The ones that live on Earth are aware they are different, not that they are aliens.
Kip is happier than a dog with two tails, that Jevin, his pet Ogre has found love with Sally.

Sally thought her pottery fairies were fairly realistic, but it was only after she met some that she realised she was wrong, she has no clue about Jevin's Grimm heritage.

The Realm is not a place to be entered lightly and for humans to leave usually proves impossible.

Karl was an ordinary Ogre, but he had difficulty thinking anywhere in the vicinity of the box.
The Pyramids were not built in a day, or were they?

This story is based on actual events that purportedly happened in an alternate reality.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nicholas David Evans
• Release date: May 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301018239

Nicholas David Evans

I was born in Rotherham, Yorkshire but moved to Dorking, Surrey at an early age. Completed a formal apprentiship in Engineering, then moved to New Jersey, USA where I lived for several years. Later I returned to the UK and lived in Devon. Currently, I reside in Fuerteventura with my wife Sonya and lots of dogs (she works for a dog rescue charity). I have a passion for science and technology, I try to not only 'think outside the box' but 'live' there as well. To me, cynicism is an admirable personality trait. I am and will remain, young of heart and mind, and am an incurable romantic. Life's a garden 'dig it'!

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Kipling, an Ogre's dog

Nicholas David Evans

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Copyright 2013 Nicholas David Evans

All rights reserved.

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Dedicated to Michael and Sharon,

who in reality are an Ogre and Fairy

An author's introduction

To me, 'Genres' are a most peculiar and in some cases redundant form of literary convention; it seems that stories are often interchangeable between them, but my dear reader make no mistake, this one is not; (or is it?)

In order to try and anchor this story firmly in the genre of sci-fantasy (by story I do not mean fiction and by anchor I do not mean the nautical kind) I have left two blank pages at the front of this book and made a similar arrangement at the back. Doing this to allow those amongst us who are 'sci-fantasy aficionados', to draw family trees of the main protagonists in the front, and a map of the Magical Kingdoms in the rear, these will hopefully form metaphysical boundaries, bookends if you like, that will keep the story firmly restrained just for you, within an acceptable category.

My main reason for not creating a cartographic masterpiece at the rear of the book myself, is not my natural reticence to do more work than necessary, nor indeed my lack of artistic ability, it is simply because when I started to draw the boundaries of the first magical kingdom (and this was confirmed by a visit to 'Google Earth') they did not just resemble, but were identical to a map of Devon.

It is certain that if the portals are re-opened in the near future, then by the time this book is published we will probably be able to access a street view of 'The Realm'.

Just a word of advice: Make sure you take a sword!

Chapter 1

Jevin was not looking forward to the meeting, normally such reunions took place once every ten years, but this one had been called just three years after the last one, it meant that there was trouble brewing.

He had lived for the last five years in the same South Devon village community and done so without arousing any real suspicions as to his true nature. There were a lot of people there that he would call friends, he sincerely hoped that he could remain safely ensconced for another twenty years before having to move on. He was enjoying life, to him longevity was not in itself a nuisance, but as with all Ogres, he was well aware that human envy of it could be.

It was Saturday and he had no pressing work to attend to. If he had been at the workshop, his mind would have been occupied, bending and welding iron and steel into gates or garden furniture and he would not have had the opportunity to dwell on his lot. He loved his work and was still thrilled when driving through the Devon countryside that he would see his handiwork, substantial ornate testaments to his creativity and skill.

As it was he had been laying in bed awake for half an hour, trying to empty his mind, he had listened to the noisy chorus of birdsong coming from the trees in the cemetery and the not too distant complaints of milk heavy cattle, punctuated occasionally with the odd sheep bleating, all the while he stared at the ceiling. Its fake wooden beams forming dark square borders around the white artex, as his mind became mesmerised with the all too symmetrical pattern, he had unusually for him very nearly drifted off back to sleep.

The stairs in his small cottage rumbled as the ravenous beast climbed them clumsily, sharp dagger like claws were tapping and slipping on the varnished wooden treads. The more the claws protruded from the large pads for grip, the more traction evaded them and the louder the tapping became. Floorboards creaked as its considerable mass reached and paused on the small landing, its large bulk manoeuvred from the landing and onto the carpeted floor of the equally small hallway.

There was a pause as the creature listened for any sounds that would indicate that Jevin was awake and aware, although Jevin kept his mind closed and his body still, it was too late, the animal had sensed Jevin's conscious presence.

Tentatively a large black nose nudged the heavy bedroom door open, molosser jowls that did not quite cover sharp white canines were licked by a huge pink hungry tongue. Enormous dark isosceles ears that were erect and alert framed a broad alligator-like head.

Hello Kip, it's the weekend, no work today boy.

Kipling was Jevin's friend and a dog with character, he was a Canarian Presa-Bardino mix, a formidable looking animal with a heart of gold and the stature and appetite of a small horse. Kip put his large silver and black brindle head down heavily on top of the duvet and stared at Jevin, an act that he knew would require some sort of a response.

Okay, get your big slobbering lips off of the duvet cover, I'm up. Let's go and fix breakfast. Kip did not move.

Honestly, I'll be up in just a minute.

Kip looked at Jevin with eyes full of doubt, his head stayed still but his whole body became animated as he wagged his tail. Jevin finally sat up in bed, then swung his legs down onto the floor and stroked Kip's chest.

See, my feet are on the floor, I'll just clean my teeth do my ablutions and I'll be down.

Without waiting for his pet, Kip turned and galloped down the stairs, as he reached the bottom his momentum nearly made him slide down the full length of the quarry tiled hallway and into the front door. After deftly braking just in time to prevent its demolition, he turned around and padded back towards the tiny kitchen, where he simply sat down in front of his bowl and waited patiently, drooling in anticipation of it being filled.

Dogs are supposedly man's best friend, with Ogres this 'friendship' goes a little further. As with all Ogres, Jevin had the ability to connect his mind to that of most higher animals.

His communication with Kip was at a level beyond the current understanding of science. Their relationship was not that of servant and master, they were partners.

Vocalisation was not necessary for them to communicate, although Jevin usually supplemented his mental requests with verbal clarification. This was a habit developed to prevent awkward questions about their sometimes unusual behaviour in the presence of humans. Kip sometimes also responded vocally. Jevin knew that despite it being the weekend, if breakfast was not forthcoming shortly, Kip’s vocalisation would probably start. Once it had started, it would almost certainly wake up the neighbours.

Jevin almost never missed an episode of 'The Dog Whisperer' and although Mr Millan was rather short to be an Ogre, he had a suspicion that the kind and gentle Cesar might actually be connected in some way with the Guild.

Looking in the mirror as he shaved, he saw that despite his genetic heritage he was ageing, albeit relatively slowly, some wrinkles had made an appearance around his dark brown eyes and the odd hair had not only started to sprout from places that were quite unexpected, but had done so advertising its presence by its greyness. Never mind he thought, all in all he did not look not too bad for one hundred and fifty years old.

Jevin showered and then dressed in his weekend jeans, he stumbled across rather than selected, a t-shirt with a logo on it that declared he was a ‘Grumpy old Git’.

His sense of haute couture was limited to the knowledge that one shouldn’t wear sandals with socks, and he had even been known to break this fashion law on informal occasions. Being well aware of his limited knowledge of clothing etiquette, he usually played it safe, T-shirt and jeans were a combination that he rarely varied.

After serving Kip a large bowl of cold rice and gravy, Jevin made himself some toast, on top of this he put a four-egg French omelette, six rashers of bacon and two Lincoln sausages, he completed the waking up routine with a large mug of coffee. Kip had finished his meal long before the bread for the toast had even been sliced.

Listening to the radio, Jevin took a little longer than normal to eat his breakfast, but once sated, he sat back and began picking his teeth with a matchstick. He thought about calling his father and getting a heads up on why the impromptu meeting had been called, but decided instead that when he had finished his chores he would surf the net. He thought it would be better to see if he could figure out the reason for himself.

He did know that whatever the reason was for bringing it forward, it must be fairly important and the social media might possibly hold a clue.

Such gatherings were never to be taken lightly as they always increased the risk that their species would be exposed to humanity.

As far as he could recall there had been no indications of anything out of the ordinary in the newspapers recently, through necessity all Ogres took their responsibility to remain incognito very seriously indeed.

Because of their longevity Ogres did tend to collect a fair amount of wealth and this in itself could be a problem nowadays. For instance a couple of years ago, one renowned French Ogre had run foul of the local tax authorities and rather than try to answer the awkward questions about a 100 year old tax return from his estate that appeared to bear his signature, he had changed his nationality and moved to Russia.

Just six months ago the newspapers had run a story about an aeroplane crash, witnesses claimed that a passing motorist of ‘large stature’, had stopped and rescued four survivors by tearing open the fuselage with his bare hands. The Guild through necessity have people in a lot of sensitive areas, the Police Force, Fire Service and medical professions all had a surprising number of Ogres in their midst. Ogre journalists are in place in most press agencies, it was their job to discredit the witnesses reports.

Normally when something out of the ordinary involving an Ogre did occur, other stories were planted, for instance running parallel stories about the effects of alcohol and adrenalin under stress and the increase of the use of PCP's, (Angel Dust) in modern Britain, usually the public could be misdirected.

Most Ogres managed without too much effort to remain hidden in the world of men. Longevity was the biggest area that provided risk of revelation. The usual scenario meant that changing location and identity had to be done every thirty years or so, this was becoming much harder since the electronic age had begun in earnest. Credit cards, chipped passports, digitalised birth and death records, were all a hindrance to the procedure Ogres referred to as 'moving on'.

Jevin's father had actually managed to live in the same house for three hundred and fifty years without 'moving on', but his case was exceptional. He had