A/N: I haven't written anything in the first person format before and thought I'd give it a shot. Please let me know how I'm doing, or anything different that I can improve on. Thanks.

The Smallest Hero

Chapter 1

I wake in my warm, comfortable bed and playfully roll around. I'm just waiting for my human to come back, I know he'll be here soon, unless the other nice human distracts him and makes him late.

I hope the other one doesn't distract my human. I like the other one, I really do. I like his strange smells, he always seems to have different smells when I see him and it makes me wonder how he does it. I like the way he scratches me behind the ears and talks to me, but I don't like that he takes my human's attention away from me and sometimes making my human late with my food.

After a while of rolling, sniffing around, and patrolling my room, I become aware that my human is late coming to feed me. We have a routine, you know, and I don't like when my routine is disrupted.

Usually after I wake, roll, sniff and patrol my human is here. I run over to him, putting my front paws on his leg to let him know I missed him and that I've kept our area safe while he was gone. Then he speaks to me, letting me know that I've done a good job. After a moment for him to come in, he feeds me. That's one of my most favorite parts because I really like to eat. If my human left the food where I could reach it, I'd probably eat it all before he got back.

After I eat, my human always seems to have different fur on him. I always tell myself that I'm going to watch him to see how he changes his fur like that, but once my food is in front of me, I forget. Did I mention I like to eat?

After that, my human reaches in to a magic box and he has more food! Oh boy! I know that smell and I wag my tail while doing all the things that make him feel relaxed and playful. I don't know all the words he says since we speak different languages, but I know the words like "no" and "sit" and "Porthos." I figured out a long time ago that "Porthos" is what he calls me, like my name or something. It's ok that he calls me that because I know he couldn't pronounce my actual name in my language, so when I hear "Porthos" I look at him, or any other human that says it, to let them know I'm paying attention.

I really want that yummy smelling food that he eats, even though he tells me "no," so I give him my secret weapon...the eyes. He unusually lets out a noise that I learned was a good one and I'm rewarded with the yummy chunk of food. I try to get as much as I can from him, but when he says the word "doctor," I stop my begging.

I learned the hard way that the word "doctor" is a bad thing, the person isn't bad exactly, it just what they do to me that I don't like. One time this person that my human calls "doctor" made me go to sleep. When I woke up, I was wet, but it wasn't water, it smelled very gross and tasted even worse! Plus I had a headache for a long time and I couldn't play because I felt so terrible.

I could sense my human was very worried about this, but he didn't seem to be angry with the one he calls "doctor." He just took me back to our area and gave me the most attention I had had since I was little and taken away from my mom, brothers, and sisters to live with him. Even though I liked the attention, the headache, being wet with gross stuff and feeling sick wasn't worth it, so now these days, I do everything I can to make sure I don't have to see "doctor," even if it means not getting anymore of my human's yummy food.

I've been waiting a long time for my human to come back and finally deduce that the other one has distracted him...again. I walk in circles and whimpering near the area that makes my human vanish because I have a problem...a BIG problem!

By this time, my human would have opened the vanish area and I would get to go out and explore. It wouldn't be long before we would get to our other area where the grass grows and I'm allowed to relieve myself there. I had a few times in the past when I couldn't hold it, or simply forgot, and found a nice corner in our main area to relieve myself and I got into a lot of trouble for it. My human yelled at me, saying "Porthos! No! Bad! Bed!" He said other words too, but I don't know those words in his language, but I could tell he was very angry, and when he said "bed," I knew we wasn't going to play and I wasn't going to get much attention that night.

I'm about to bust, but I don't want my human to get mad at me, I have to think of something to get out of here and to the other area that I'm allowed to relieve myself. I look up to the wall and it suddenly occurs to me. Whenever my human is about to disappear, he touches that spot on the wall to make the vanish area open.

I wonder if it would work if I touched that spot. I jump as high as I can, but it's still too far. I try a few more times, closer, closer, closer...BINGO! I touched the spot! The vanish area opens and I quickly run out.

The first thing I notice is something isn't right. Some of the humans are on the floor sleeping, and that's very wrong since I never see humans sleeping out here. I give a few of them a sniff, only vaguely recognizing their scent, but once assured that they are only sleeping, I rush to my relieving area since the problem has become very urgent. I'll investigate this other matter further in a moment.

After my much needed relief, I begin to wander around to sniff at the humans on the floor. It's so odd that they would be sleeping in these areas, usually they are walking on their two legs and making their noises. I sniff at one particular human. I know her scent. Yes, my species knows the difference between male and female of the humans. This female is a little different from the others though, she smells a little different, her natural scent not as strong as the other humans and her ears are the standing type.

In my species, there are those of us that have the down ears, like mine, and others who have standing ears. Some are born with standing ears, but some go to a special place to have their ears changed from the down type to the standing type. I could never figure out why they do that, I personally would never have that done because I like my down ears and my human seems to like them too.

This female doesn't like me very well, even though I like her. I don't know why she doesn't like me, I've never been mean or angry with her. My mom once told all of us that some humans simply don't like our species, no matter how nice we are to them. She also told us to be careful of the ones that don't like us because some can be mean and hurt us.

This female has never been mean or hurt me, in fact, I've never met a human that has hurt me, she just simply doesn't like me. I carefully nudge my nose against one of her front paws, hoping she'll wake up, hoping she won't be angry with me touching her. She did touch me once, but that was only because my human made her do it and I could tell right away she didn't like it. I guess from that moment on, we had an understanding. "I won't bother you as long as you don't bother me."

She doesn't wake from my touch and I decide that a little more prodding is in order and give her paw a tentative lick. She still doesn't wake, but somehow I just know that she shouldn't be sleeping on the floor in this area and I don't want my human to find her here sleeping and become angry with her.

I let out several loud yells. That usually wakes my human up, so it should work on her...right? "Wake up, human! Wake up!"

She still doesn't wake up and I realize she most likely doesn't understand my language, even though my human doesn't understand either, he at least knows "wake up," "play," "food," "potty," "danger," and "I'm sorry."

I take a chance. I know I'm crossing a line, and if she tells my human, he'll be angry with me, maybe make me go to bed early, but she's leaving me no other choice here! I give her quick, sloppy licks to her face. She still doesn't wake.

"I give up!" I groan out. I turn my head slightly to the side, watching for any movement that she might wake. "Ok. If my human finds you, don't say I didn't at least try." I mutter to her as she continues to sleep.

I walk away, trying to find at least one human that's awake. As I sniff at some of the others and trying to wake them, I find one that I know very well. Oooh! I like this female a lot and she likes me too!

Sometimes when my human has to leave for a long time, he lets me stay in her area. We have lots of fun together playing "chase the round thing," and "pull the rope thing." She even gives me lots of snuggles, ear scratches and belly rubs. I like belly rubs! She never uses the "doctor" word when she gives me the yummy chunks of food and gives me a few chunks more than what my human gives.

Sometimes I wish my human would let her stay in our area all the time, not just because I like her so much, but my human's scent changes when she's around. His scent is happier, more calm and relaxed, but for some reason, whenever she leaves our area, my human feels a sudden need to bathe himself. Not really sure why he does that, he bathes me and I hate it! I snuck in to the bath box once after she left and he needed his bath. Crap! That water was cold! Never did that again.

I get to another vanishing area. Jump. Jump. Jump. Bingo! I hurry through and...crap. It's the moving box. I know this box, when the vanishing area opens again, I'll be someplace else. I don't really know why or how it works, it just does, but for some reason, I don't feel it moving! I start to panic. Maybe it's not the moving box. It smells like the moving box. Maybe...oh dang it! I look up and see another one of those touch things. Why do they have to be so high up? Jump. Jump. Jump. Bingo! Now it's moving...yea!

The vanishing area opens. I've never been here before, I must be careful. I take slow steps out. I feel something brush the tip of my tail and yell a little from being startled as I spin to see what touched me. The vanishing area closed again. I spin a few times to look at my tail. It seems to be in one piece, so I move along to explore this new place.

I see a human standing and rush over. "Oh thank you! Please you have to-" I stop talking as I notice something isn't quiet right. He's standing, but not really. He seems to be partly on top of this table thing. I'm not allowed on the table, so how come it's ok for him? I give him a sniff. I know this scent too. I can tell he likes me, but he usually keeps his distance. Whenever he gets near me, he starts sneezing loudly. Once I accidentally ran into his legs when we were someplace that had grass, dirt and trees. For some reason, his fur wasn't covering his legs. A few minutes later, he started scratching where I had ran into him. For some reason, it just seems best that I stay away from him.

I move along, giving little glances at the human to make sure I didn't make him sneeze or scratch when I come across another human. This one is sitting down, but he's laying across the table sleeping too. I give him a sniff. It's my second favorite human! The one that always smells different! "Wake up! Wake up!" I yell.

He doesn't move. I'm a little worried about this because he always gives me ear scratches when we see each other. "Please wake up." I say sounding very sad and alone, but he still doesn't move.

I sniff around some more. My human! My human! I see him sitting in a chair and he looks like he's sleeping. "Wake up human! Wake up and give me my food! What is wrong with you?"

I jump into his lap. I know I won't get in trouble for this, he usually likes when I sit in his lap. Once in a while, he'll put me back on the floor and say "blah blah no, blah blah Porthos." I really wish I understood the other words he says, but I figure if he puts me back on the floor, he has his reasons.

I lick his face frantically, trying to wake him. I know I won't get in trouble for this either because when I lick his face, he makes those good noises and his scent changes to a happy one.

I felt my back paw touch something on the chair, but I don't care, I'm just trying to wake my human up, then I hear this beep noise that makes me look around. I don't know what the noise was, or where it came from, I just hope it wasn't something bad.

I hear a voice behind me and turn. Holy crap what is that? I can't get a scent from it, but it looks like the other humans, only... ginormous! "Danger! Danger! Wake up human! Danger!" I begin to yell.

The "no scent" thing speaks. "Porthos?" My ears perk and I turn my head to the side as I stop my yelling. This "no scent" knows my human name? How could this be? Maybe the "no scent" can help me. "Help! All the humans are sleeping and won't wake up! Help!" I call out to the "no scent."

All I get in return is. "Blah blah, CAPTAIN, blah blah blah. Porthos, blah blah blah."

I know the word "Captain" and know that the "no scent" is talking about my human. I hear it a lot. "Captain," "Jon," "sir," "Archer," and "Jonathan." I know those are all words for my human. I don't know what he does around here, but he must be very important to have so many names.

Even though I can't smell the "no scent" the tone it used sounded angry when he said "Captain." I didn't like that tone. "Hey! Watch how you're talking to my human, or there's going to be trouble!" I tell the "no scent."

That must have scared it, because it vanished, leaving a dark spot on the wall. Well great! Good going, you just scared off the only thing that might be able to help me. I whine to myself.

I scrape at the chair, trying to make the beep again, and maybe bring back the "no scent," but it doesn't work. All I can do now is lay down in my human's lap and keep him safe until he wakes up.