Cw: Blood, open wounds.

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Days turn to nights as nights turn to days as the others wait patiently for Carl to get better from his wound, luckily he does thanks to Shane and the hunter named Otis who dies at a side mission.

One day I lay on the porch while watching the others pick up boulders for Otis's funeral when my ears perked up at a familiar sound of a motorcycle, my tail wagging fast as Daryl pulled up with the others.

As soon as he got out of his bike his eyes met mine as he yelled out my name, I bolted from the porch and into his arms. He wrap his arms around me, "I'm glad yer okay. How the hell did you get all the way out 'ere?" He wondered.

It's a long ass story.

I just whine and lick his face, he immediately wipes his face and spit on the ground. "You know I hate that."

You love it.

◤──•❉🏹❉•──◥

It's been about a week since Carl's incident, Hershel's been a gentleman to let us set our camp as long as we don't go to the barn, which leaves a mystery to us.

I noticed that Glenn and Maggie were getting close every day. Maybe a spark between them.

Now to come think about it, I've come to enjoy Snowy's company — He's good company. (In his own way)

I notice that I've grown close towards him—Wait, what am I saying?

Anyways, I lay on top of the hood of the car as I watched the others come up with a plan to find Sophie. I was tasked to follow Daryl to maybe track her scent. "'m gonna borrow a horse, head up to this ridge right here, take a bird's-eye view of the whole grid." Daryl told them. "If she's up there, I'll spot her."

"Good idea."

"Maybe you'll see your chupacabra up there too." T-Dog teased.

"Chupacabra?" Rick asked, confused.

Oh lord, here we go.

"You never heard this?" Dale asked. " Our first night in camp, Daryl tells us that the whole thing reminds him of a time when he went squirrel hunting with Nyla and they saw a chupacabra."

Correction, it was a coyote.

Jimmy, Beth's ugly ass boyfriend laughed at Daryl.

"What are you braying at, jackass?" Daryl question.

"You believe in a blood-sucking dog?" Jimmy asks as if Daryl's crazy.

Again, it was a coyote.

"Do you believe dead people walking around?" Daryl said back. He grabs his cross and saunters off with me right behind him.

◤──•❉🏹❉•──◥

And so off we went back into the forest to find the missing girl. I wasn't very thrilled to have a four-legged horse with us — And to add a cherry on top, the horse's name was "Nervous Nelly". I don't think Daryl knew that.

I led the horse and Daryl through the forest. I was careful to avoid snakes since it was that season—It wasn't long before I saw something in the creek, so I alerted Daryl who mismounts off of the horse. "Stay." He either told me or the horse and I.

He slowly crept down towards the creek to retrieve it, only to be the doll that Morales's daughter had given her. He climbed back up and mounted back on the horse. We followed the trail while I continued to sniff out any tracks for Sophia but I couldn't find any.

A few birds flew into my face but I just ignored them but the horse was starting to get scared but only to calm down when Daryl spoke to it, suddenly a hiss of a snake made the horse squeals and threw Daryl over the small ravine and into the river bank and it galloped away.

"Dary!" I exclaimed. Looking down at him with a whine and a bark.

"'M fine." he shouts back.

No you are not fine.

I can see the arrow impaled through his abdomen, He ripped the sleeves from his shirt to tie around the wound like a bind. He proceeds to climb up the ravine with his crossbow behind his back — I trotted over towards the ravine and grabbed the vine to pull him up.

He almost made it...if the vine didn't break and sent both of us tumbling down the ravine, I was knocked out cold.

◤──•❉🏹❉•──◥

I woke up with a bad headache, I was surprised I didn't have a broken bone. I hissed when I stood up and lifted my back left leg up, I sprained my ankle. Great.

I walk over to Daryl who's either dead or out cold. I grabbed his shirt and roughly tugged at it, "Come on." I said muffled. "Get up, you numbskull ."

"Merle?" He mutters.
"No, it's Nyla." I said back. "And she wants you up."

My ears perked up at the sound of snarling, my eyes met a Walker scuffling towards us. I snarl back, letting go of Daryl's shirt to bare my teeth—The walker stepped closer to us, I stepped back and stood in front of Daryl just when he woke up and took out the walker and the second one that came for me.

For some reason Daryl took their ears and strung them up like a necklace or trophy, then both of us climbed out of the ravine and headed back to the farm.

◤──•❉🏹❉•──◥

It took approximately two hours to get back to the farm since I had to stop to let Daryl rest. I held his crossbow in my mouth to relieve Daryl from putting any weight on his wound — We made it out the woods since I could see the farmhouse in the distance. Then I heard somebody shout, "Walker!"

I looked at my surroundings but found none, did they mean Daryl? I mean he looks like one at the moment.

Soon enough Rick, Shane, Glenn and T-Dog show up with Rick pointing his Colt Python at Daryl for the third time. "That's the third time you've pointed that thing at my head." Daryl comments. "You gonna pull the trigger or what?"

Soon, a gunshot rang out and Daryl dropped to the ground.

I dropped the crossbow in shock; Who the hell shot my friend!?

"No!" Rick and I said in unison.

Both Rick and Shane helped him up, luckily he's still breathing. " I was kidding." Daryl said with a slight chuckle before passing out. I would like to know the culprit who shot him, I guess I found it since I see Andrea and Dale rushing up to us. "Oh my God. Oh my God, is he dead?" Andrea asked us.

"Unconscious." Rick replies. "You just grazed him."

"But look at him. What the hell happened?" Glenn asks while holding Daryl's crossbow that I dropped. "He's wearing ears!" He points to the necklace of ears.

Rick rips it off of his neck and places it into his shirt pocket, "Let's keep that to ourselves." I stay as close to Daryl as I can, I just hope that he'll be okay.

Then T-Dog spoke up from behind, "Guys, isn't this Sophia's?" He held up the doll that fell from Daryl's pocket.

We found the doll, we must've been close and I know that we're one step closer to finding her.

A/N: Slight Author's note here I don't hate horses in real life, in fact I love them as they are my second favorite animal. I just thought that it'll be funny that Nyla has a slight grudge with them after what happened to her(more to come).