THE DARK FIGURE~

Suddenly, it began to run towards me. Fear took my breath away until it got closer, and I could see that its tail was wagging. A dog? This huge monster is a dog? Relief flooded over me, but I almost couldn’t believe it because I had never seen a dog of this magnitude. It appeared to be some sort of black lab on steroids.

By the time it reached me, I could tell by its body language that it was friendly. It plopped its big butt down right next to me and began licking my face. “Stop that!” I turned away, but the silly animal was adamant.

I laughed and started scratching its ears and chest. We were getting along quite well, until I saw the figure of the man standing at the edge of the lake looking at us. By now the rain and wind had kicked up enough that I was having trouble deciphering if he had a friendly stance.

At this point, he was my only option, so I lifted a hand to wave. He didn’t wave back. Instead, he started walking towards us. I wondered briefly if the dog would protect me fr