At the same time Alan had begun to ponder his existence on this world and about his happiness at being an anthropomorphic dog, Dale was having thoughts of his own about the very same thing. He wasn’t crazy about being a source of amusement for a god of tricksters. And while this world had canine versions of his family and friends in it, it wasn’t his world to begin with. It was the other Dale’s world.
He looks at his friend Alan, breathes in his scent and knows that his friend is having the time of his life here and would most likely stay here if given half the chance. And why wouldn’t Alan being happy staying here on this world where everyone he knew was a dog? Here they all had a keen sense of smell and hearing that only a real dog would know back home. And here they had the thrill of wagging their tails and walking on two legs or on all fours if they desired. But as Dale continues to breathe in Alan’s scent, he also smells that Alan is unsure about his relationship with this Stacy. And that uncertainty makes Dale wonder if they three have any right to stay here while keeping the Dale, Alan and Mitch of this universe from ever returning.
Alan’s uncertainty also makes Dale wonder if Alan couldn’t have found his happiness at being a dog back in their universe and not in this one. If only Alan hadn’t step out of the spell circle when they had cast that Timed Polymorph Other spell on each other. If he hadn’t, then all three of them would have been real dogs back on their world and doing real doggy things with each other or with some human dog lover on campus. Dale muses on how much fun they could have had back on their world as real dogs. Going on long walks with a human friend or a private little romp with his friends. Playing a game of fetch with a human friend or a playful game of canine tag with his roommates. Having someone pleasurably massage him and his friends and enjoying and receiving that someone’s unconditional love and affection in return. As he continues to pleasurably imagine his life as a real dog, he looks at Coyote and Alan again.
And he sees that Coyote is trying to come on to his friend like an Alpha wolf to a Beta. He sees and smells that Coyote wants his friend to lick him on the muzzle and show him a sign of submission. Dale tries his best to hide his anger from his friends and from Coyote about how he is treating his friend Alan. If only Alan’s spell bundle didn’t have that Coyote leg bone in it to beseech the Trickster’s aid in helping them become real dogs. What was Alan thinking about asking for the Trickster’s aid in their little transformation experiment? There were other spells or magic items that could have done the same job of transforming them into real dogs than calling upon the aid of an amoral trickster. Dale goes from musing about what could have happened if the spell had worked to the things they could have used besides the Timed Polymorph Other spell or Alan’s medicine bundle and its’ material components for Skin-walking. They could have used the spell Circe’s Blessing to make themselves into real dogs or even were-dogs had they chosen it for the experiment. They could have borrowed some Rings of Loyalty or Dog Rings from the Arcane Sciences building to do the transformation job. Or they could even had Alan summon some canine spirits to possess them and transform them into real dogs. Any of those spells or magic items would have made them into dogs without the aid of Coyote. Why did Coyote had to muzzle into their desire to become dogs in the first place? But before Dale can figure out why Coyote had to muzzle in, a thought not his own pops into his head and makes him speak to his friend, Alan.
"Alan? What do you think?" He asks his friend along with Mitch and Stacy while looking toward him and Coyote. Dale sees Coyote wag his tail slightly and realizes that the god just planted that thought into his head and made him speak those words. But before he could find the means to express his anger to Coyote, he finds Alan looking at him. And he knows that Alan knows how unhappy he is to learn that his counterpart on this world is gay. And that look from Alan makes Dale wish that he could have told his friends, Mitch and Alan, about how hard it was for him to accept the fact that his counterpart was gay and one more. That other fact being the nagging thoughts of what their now-human counterparts were doing in their reality with their original bodies. What was his counterpart doing right now with his original human body? Was he having gay sex with Mitch’s counterpart or some other guy on campus? Was he going to gay bars in town looking for a date? And how were his friends back home taking this apparent change of the person that they considered as a friend? He knew that the students living in the same dorm building that he was living in back home wouldn’t see his apparent change in sexuality as a problem and that they would probably encourage it. But what about the friends that he had befriended from the other dorms? Not all of them were that accepting of the bisexualism and homosexualism that was freely expressed in his dorm building. How were they taking it? And even besides those questions about how everyone else was taking his counterparts’ actions back home were some even more nastier questions. What would things be like when and if he ever got back home to his own reality? And if he couldn’t ever go home, could he accept living in a reality where everyone considered him gay when he was not? Did he really want to live under that perceived notion?
Dale looks at this world’s Stacy and wonders if she couldn’t have given them something else to help distinguish this world from their own. Why did it have to be the fact that his counterpart and Mitch’s counterpart were gay? Why couldn’t it have been something that all three of them could have appreciated? Dale’s confused and angry thoughts turn back again to musing about how things could have been played differently on this world if it wasn’t for that confusing revelation of Stacy’s. He was having a lot of fun being here before that revelation was let out of the bag and brought those unwanted and unspoken questions to his mind. Wouldn’t it have been nice if she told Mitch and me that we had girlfriends in this reality? Dale muses this to himself while slowly and happily twitching his docked tail from side to side.
He then turns away from Stacy and looks at his friend Mitch. He sees and smells that Mitch also likes being on this world. Dale notices that his friend likes being a pack follower like Alan. And he realizes that they are a pack without an Alpha to guide them. He also knows that he is like them, he is a follower and not an Alpha. That he also desires to please them in turn like a pack follower would. At the same time he realizes this, he wishes that someone else and not Coyote here should be the Alpha of their little pack. An Alpha leads whereas a trickster’s only position in the pack is to serve as the Omega, not the other way around.
.
His musings end when he hears something unexpected from Alan.
"Okay I give up, what was the question again?" Alan asks his pack mates sheepishly.
But before he or Mitch or Stacy can answer their somewhat wayward friend, Dale finds himself face to face with Coyote again. Coyote smiles at him.
"I can see that you have been asking yourself a lot more questions than Alan has about your current situation. And that you can’t help but wonder if things couldn’t have turned out differently for you and friends both here and on your own world. You wonder what things would have been like if the experiment had turned out okay and you three became real dogs in your reality if only for a little while. You wonder if there couldn't have been another way to turn yourselves into real dogs that didn’t require my help." Coyote tells him as he twitches his tail from side to side in amusement. "You even wonder about what your gay counterpart is doing with your original body back home and why you couldn’t admit that fear to your friends here."
Dale tries to be firm and not tuck his tail from Coyote, now that the trickster has openly revealed his own personal thoughts to them all. He looks at Mitch and Alan and smells their concern and puzzlement about the nagging thoughts regarding his canine counterpart. He smells that they hadn’t even thought about what their counterparts were doing with their original bodies as well. That they were having too much fun being anthropomorphic dogs in this reality. They almost tuck their tails between their legs before giving him a reassuring look that they now understand why he was having such a difficult time accepting the nature of his counterpart. Coyote then interrupts them again.
"Since you have been the one here who has pondered the most about how things could have been and how things are now for all three of you, I’ll allow you three possible choices to wish from me. You can either wish that Stacy here had offered you a different revelation about how different this reality is from your own without making it painful for you. Or you can wish that your original transformation experiment had worked and transformed the lot of you into real dogs. Or you can make a wish to redo the experiment all over again without calling on my help to see it through." Coyote tells Dale and his friends. "What you would like to wish for Dale?"
Dale gulps audibly from suddenly feeling so transparent to this god and looks toward his friends for help and then back at Coyote.
"Would you mind if I ask my friends about which choice I should wish from you?"
"Go right ahead, Dale. Ask your friends for advice and then tell me what you want from me. I’ll be happy to grant whatever you wish for yourself and your friends."
Dale then leaves Coyote’s side and walks over to his friends without trying to give any sense of satisfaction or amusement to the Trickster by being nervous. They gather around him almost protectively as he tries to ask them for advice without sounding foolish to them or Coyote.
"So what should I wish for guys?"