Welcome to September!
We’re still looking longingly at pictures of Alaska. And Anna is trying a new training program with Crokell and Dante that at some point she’ll post about. We’re hoping it’ll help teach both of them to pay closer attention to her in the ring.
This month’s story is a fun problem solving story - with a touch or more of learning.
Carter and the Constitutional Perambulation
Carter and the Constitution Day Perambulation
From above the noise of his own snores, the sleeping Newfie heard a voice.
“Carter. Carter, wake up.”
What? He thought for a second. Wait. “Carter.” That’s me.
“Carter, wake up. I need your help.”
The big Landseer raised one eyelid and gave a snort, trying to clear his mind. His thoughts were still muddy with dreams of ducks and long swims in cool, deep water.
Benjamin stood over the black and white Newfoundland, his dark face even darker with worry. The human boy spoke again.
“Carter, I need your help. I have to give a report in class tomorrow about the US Constitution.”
Carter blinked blurrily. His collar with its blue LED didn’t quite blur the translation as much as the original Canine words. “You need my help teaching about the Constitution?”
Despite his worry, Benjamin chuckled. “No. But our class voted and decided that each of us should teach a bit about it. It’s more fun than the stuff that the school makes us do in September every year.”
Carter yawned, still wake up the rest of way. He sniffed and smelled Benjamin’s distress. His human pal was hunched over, his eyes red, and fingers constantly clenching and unclenching.
“But, Carter, I lost the storage tile with my report.”
Fully awake now, Carter gave Benjamin a helpful lick, drenching him in Newfie drool. “I’ll help you find it.”
Carter stood, shook himself, and looked up at Benjamin. “Mom, always says, when I lose something that I should just rewind my day. But I don’t have her memory. So, I walk it backwards. Let’s do that. We will walk back your whole day until we find it.”
Benjamin nodded, and they began rewinding his day. It was a weekend, so it didn’t take long before they were walking to the park.
Carter thought for a moment and decided to try something that Benjamin’s mom had told him about. “Can you tell me what was in your report? We covered the Constitution in Sapiens Classes, but it was really short. There’s a lot of other stuff for us to cover. It mostly focuses on how to act and common knowledge.”
Benjamin nodded and relaxed a little as he started talking.
“Well, most of the kids in my class like the original Star Trek series with James Doohan and William Shatner. They first hear about the Constitution because the Enterprise is a Constitution-class starship. And later in one episode, Shatner recites the preamble to the US Constitution to end a war.”
Carter tilted his head and gave his ears a shake. “Well, that wasn’t in the Nano-Sapiens classes, but I do remember that episode. I like Kirk.”
Benjamin scratched the Newfie’s ears, eliciting a moan of happiness.
“But you see, the Constitution wasn’t supposed to happen. They were supposed to fix the Articles of Confederation. People make a big deal about it being broken, but the problems weren’t insurmountable. The delegates from Rhode Island even boycotted the meeting because they didn’t want to create a strong centralized authority.”
Just then, they arrived at the entrance to the park. Benjamin looked in at the acres of wood and water. “The same way Mom will probably boycott me ever having dessert again.”
At the thought, Carter’s tail fell, and his ears slumped. “That’s okay, Benjamin. We’ll save you and your desserts. Now where were you?”
Turns out Benjamin had been near the water watching ducks and geese. Carter at first calmly walked toward the water.
By the time he reached it, he was in full galumph. It was so like his dream, he almost wished Benjamin had woken him up to bring him here earlier.
He splashed in deeper. He turned to look back at Benjamin, white and black fur floating out. “Let me guess. You were around the water, not in the water?”
Benjamin laughed and nodded.
Carter gave a Newfie sigh.
“Well, as long as I’m in, I might as well search anyway.”
The human boy searched the shore while Carter nosed around for a while, feeling with his paws and occasionally dunking his head under. Suddenly, he exclaimed, the sound coming from near the blue LED on his collar. “I found it! I found it!”
Dunking his head under the water, he grabbed the tile his toes had felt and brought it - and a handful of sand - back to Benjamin.
Benjamin rinsed the tile off. His eager face fell, much like Carter’s tail had fallen earlier.
“It’s the wrong color, but let’s check it. Maybe… I don’t know - maybe the color washed off.”
He used his phone to read the tile. Then, Benjamin turned the phone screen toward Carter, who blinked and very carefully read aloud. “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne.”
He gave a shake of his mane. “Hey. I think Dad likes that writer.”
Benjamin gave him a scratch. “It was a nice effort, and we can give this to your dad. But we have to keep looking.”
Carter nodded in assent and stepped into the nearby vortex booth - the community park had put it in as a welcome to town gift when Carter’s family had moved here. Everyone made him use the booth after he got wet. Carter wasn’t sure why.
Conversation stopped as Carter’s fur stood out and swirled around him as the booth used a combination of static electricity and air to dry the Newfie. Scampering out of the booth, Carter asked Benjamin, “So where were you before that?”
Benjamin thought for a second. “I was at the coffee shop. Mom needed some Earl Grey tea.”
The two friends, closer than most brothers, headed toward the coffee shop.
Carter, remembering his plan, asked, “So, what came next?”
“Oh, with the Constitution? Well, there were two plans for it. There was a big-state plan called the Virginia Plan and a little-state plan called the New Jersey Plan. Eventually, this idea of populous states and smaller states both having concerns got turned into the House of Representatives, where big states get more votes, and the Senate, where all states get the same votes.”
Carter thought about this. It seemed to agree with what he remembered from his classes. “I sometimes think I should get more of a vote about food because I’m bigger.”
He thought about this for a second until Benjamin had finished laughing. “But my brothers and sister sometimes have really good ideas that I’d hate to miss. Who knew salmon was so good?”
By now, they’d reached the coffee shop. Carter tried to read the sign, but he had to ask Benjamin for help. “The font is too hard to read, and the color blends in against the background. What’s the name of the place?”
Benjamin read it for him. “The Caffeinated Canine. And there’s way too many people here.”
That Carter agreed with. But he had an idea. “Benjamin, I can smell the way to your tile.”
His big muzzle dropped to the ground, and he plowed into the shop. He didn’t consciously notice, but, basically, he bulldozed everyone out of his way. Some portion of his brain heard Benjamin following behind, apologizing.
After plowing through one family, Carter stopped, turned, and announced to the entire store, “Turns out, all I can smell is coffee and tea. Although the houjicha smells really good today, and I recommend that.”
Benjamin’s face went a little pale with the entire crowded store of customers staring at him and Carter. “I’m sorry, everyone. I lost a storage tile with my school report in it. And Carter here is helping me look for it.”
At that, a little red-haired girl in a green jumpsuit hopped up from a table. Her parents watched her run full bore toward Benjamin and Carter. She gave Benjamin a white tile and Carter a big hug before turning shy again and running back to her parents.
Benjamin said, “Thank you, and I’m sorry, everybody.”
Outside, Benjamin whispered in Carter’s ear. “Carter, it’s the wrong color, but I’ll check it anyway.”
This time when he turned his phone to Carter, Carter recognized the author more readily.
“Georgette Heyer? It’s a copy of The Grand Sophy. We can take that back for my mom. She’ll love it.”
Benjamin nodded and put the white tile into his pocket next to the red one.
“Well, the only other place I went was the vegetable shop.”
“Do they have fresh carrots?”
Without even waiting for a reply, drool started pouring from his mouth. Despite the thought of carrots, Carter kept to his plan and asked his pal about the rest of his report.
Benjamin started with, “Well, the Constitution divided the government into the legislature, which makes laws, the executive, which runs the military and foreign affairs, and the judiciary, which tries cases concerning the government, foreign governments, or between states.”
From there, he went into an explanation of exactly how each worked and how the original timelines and setup were agreed upon.
Carter gave Benjamin a lick. “And then they ratified it?”
Benjamin laughed.
“You’d think so, but no. That took years. And we ended up with a group called the Federalists that wanted a strong central government and thought there were already enough protections. And another group called the Anti-Federalists that, rightfully, it turns out, wanted more protections. This means eventually, they added 10 amendments called the Bill of Rights. The idea was to make sure that government would only recognize and protect rights and not license or limit them. Most people of the time understood rights were natural, coming from each individual’s personhood.”
The big Newfie snorted agreement. “I know all about that. Mom told me about the Nano-Sapiens trial. I didn’t get to go because I was taking care of my brothers and sister. Although, when she tells the story, there’s a lot more cats involved than when Critter Explainer website tells me about it. The nanotech shots make us age more like humans. So, we end up with the same amount of wisdom and experience. But she rants about some wanting to consider all of us children. She gets pretty angry about it still.”
At that point, he saw they were at the vegetable store. Carter actually knew the shop owner, James, pretty well and explained that they needed to look for a tile with Benjamin’s lost report. Then they pawed, literally, through the vegetables.
After a half hour, they found nothing. Benjamin’s face and Carter’s tail both fell, but they thanked James.
Benjamin bought a bag of baby carrots. “Here, Carter, this is to thank you. I appreciate the help even if we didn’t find it.”
Benjamin held up the bag, and Carter buried his muzzle in it. He started chewing, closing his eyes to appreciate the tastes.
Soon, he ran out of carrots in easy reach of his tongue, so he opened his eyes to see if there were any more. He found them, angled his head, and started eating.
About that point, a neuron in his brain fired, and he stopped eating.
Unfortunately, it was after he swallowed. “Blue.”
“What was that, Carter?”
“Benjamin, was your tile blue?”
Benjamin nodded slowly.
“I think the tile was in the bag of carrots.”
Benjamin searched through the bag with his dexterous fingers. “Carter, there’s nothing in the bag but carrots, and not many of those. And dog drool, of course.”
Carter nodded. “I know. Benjamin, your mom upgraded my collar. The good news is I’ve been recording you telling me about your report. We can print a transcript and turn that in.”
Benjamin tilted his head at his friend. “I sense an ‘or’ coming next.”
Carter tried to sit up even more straight.
“Correct. Or you can wait a day or two for the original. Either way, you can tell your teacher that a dog ate your homework. I’ll even sign a confession admitting to it.”
We hope you’re enjoying Carter’s adventures in learning to be sapient!
~Anna and Tod
More IP Writing on the Way!
Anna and I are please to announce that our story, Family Honor, has earned a spot in the Annals of the Auran Empire anthology. The anthology is set in the Adventurer Conqueror King System Imperial Imprint RPG universe of the Auran Empire. (Think Fantasy Rome.)
Crowd funding opens in September. But don’t fret - you can sign up to be reminded via BackerKit now and get the first chapter of John C Wright’s story “Shadowblade”!
https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/8b8be898-82a5-4dc9-868d-aa9a9b449f6e/landing
We’re pleased to see our fellow Alpha Mercs joining us: Zane Voss, Sam Robb (the first anthology we were in was also with Sam), B.K. Gibson (who also gave great developmental feedback during edits https://coldlightrpgpress.weebly.com/), and Nathaniel McIntyre.
We think our story has the most interesting one liner in the announcement:
“Family Honor” by A. Kristina Casasent, featuring a Ring Against the Wolf, tells the story of a Tirenean nobleman struggling with the challenge of producing an heir with his new wife.
For more details, checkout the Arbiter of Worlds blog!
Anna & Tod, Loved it! I think we don't talk about the constitution enough. You explained important points just enough in the story to educate and make it fun!! Love you both!!
I can't make it on the 17th. I have a dentist appointment.