I am His Highness's Dog

[Pepper]

June 1st | Court of Miracles

Pepper couldn't help the excited bounce in her steps as she made her way through the Court of Miracles. The shock of winding up in Paris when she had thought she was staying in England had still yet to fully wear off and she wondered how she could have made such a stupid mistake. She was so sure the man at the dock in London had said "Penzance" not "France". Still, she was here in Paris now and she would have to make the most of it. Thankfully, she had found the army living here ready to welcome her with open arms which made the pup feel slightly better about the whole mess.

And now she'd be meeting her mentors.

She'd been told that her mentors were supposedly King Clopin's canine bodyguards and she wondered why such important people would be assigned to her. She was one of the famous "101" but apart from that she was nothing special, just a regular dalmatian pup who'd ran away from home for the promise of an adventure.

[Dante]

"Virgil, I can't focus on this with you bouncing around. Weren't you and Varian supposed to go pick up more supplies for the lab?"

"Yeah, but Belle said she'd go with him, because he needs supervision. You know how he gets all excited when it comes to science-y stuff."

"Virgil, that's why you were supposed to go! To keep an eye on them!" Dante groaned. The golden shepherd was only a few years younger than he was, but this was one of those times when Dante felt he was talking to the young puppy that Clopin had picked up years ago.

"Dante." Virgil said, as he sat in front of the silver shepherd.

"What is it?" Dante asked, as he rolled up the map of Agrabah that he had spread out underneath his paws.

"You've got that angry look on your face again. I don't think we're trying to scare Pepper now." Virgil muttered. The wolfdog's eyes widened, as he hopped to his paws.

"How could I forget?!" he barked, before he took off running from Clopin's chambers. The king had gone off on some duty that day, and he told the two that he would return by the afternoon, leaving the two of them to their own devices. Virgil was nearly knocked over as Dante rushed past him, scrambling to his own paws to join the other.

Dante's emerald eyes scanned the Court, looking for a small spotted puppy. He thought that for such a unique pelt, she'd be easier to find, but for some reason, he was having a hard time spotting her until he noticed Virgil talking to something behind Sophia, who was too engrossed in her conversation with Quasimodo to notice.

"So he won't be back until the afternoon, but he did mention that he wanted us to show you some ropes and show you around Paris a little bit before you get to meet him." Virgil said, as Dante joined him.

"My apologies, I had some trouble finding you." Dante said, with a sheepish grin as he flexed his paws.

"I guess that's what happens when you're staring at maps for too long, no?"

[Pepper]

When Virgil arrived, Pepper was quick to bounce to her paws. After all, this would be her trainer, her superior officer, now that she was a member of an army and best that she get off on the right foot...or rather paw. The fact that she would be meeting the King was intimidating but she was determined not to show that. She was lucky they had decided to take a lost puppy in and give her a purpose.

"That would be wonderful, Mr Virgil." she replied, eager to see more of her new home. She had been a little reluctant to explore considering how she had managed to arrive here in the first place. What if she got lost again and ended up somewhere even more remote where no one would be able to find her? It was scary enough being out in the world essentially on her own for the first real time without adding her own stupidity getting her into trouble.

"It's alright!" Pepper said brightly to Dante as he arrived, a beaming smile on her face, just happy to be included more than anything else "I have a lot of brothers and sisters and we all kinda look the same so I'm used to it." When all you saw was a sea of white and black spots, it was easy to meld into the crowd and get lost. Her own father had accidentally called her the name of one of her other siblings so it was easy to simply shrug it off and move on.

[Virgil]

"Magnifique!! Let us begin then, with Notre Dame herself." Dante said, as he motioned for both Virgil and Pepper to follow. He had explored these streets since he was small, learning as many of the various back alleyways as he could in order to make his job easier when he stole food to survive, especially from the butcher. The poor man was not very bright, and frankly, too slow to ever catch him. Of course, this was all before Clopin had found him and taken him in to be the one that was always at his side.

And that was exactly how he intended to bring Pepper up, to be a guard dog that was worthy of the monarchy.

"Not to pry, but your accent? I feel like I've heard it before, and the scouts did say that you were from some place up north? England was it?" Virgil asked, dropping his head down to the puppy's eye level as they trotted after Dante.

[Pepper]

Pepper was eager to bound off in Virgil's footsteps, eager to begin seeing her new home and learn all about what she would be trained to do. It was rather exciting, like she was beginning some grand adventure. She may have been sad to leave her home and her family, but surely it would be for the best if she could do something useful! Perhaps she would even be able to find where Two-Tone had disappeared to.

"I was born in London." she answered Dante with a bright smile "That's the capital of England, yeah, but my family moved out to the countryside when...well, when we grew a bit bigger." An understatement if there ever was one. Seventeen dogs, including her parents, to just over one hundred was more than "a bit bigger"

She turned to Virgil and asked "Is it true that the gargoyles in Notre Dame come to life? I heard that they did." At least, that's what one of her many many siblings had once said about the cathedral. She would have thought it nonsense but since arriving in Paris she had seen all sorts of wonderful and awesome things that perhaps they hadn't been lying at all and it was indeed true.