Davion took a moment to consider their options. "Well, my sister is on the third floor. Do you think you can somehow reach it?"

  The duo looked up to the third floor and saw that it would take several dogs of the same size stacked on top of each other to reach it.

  "Never mind," Davion mumbled.

  "Maybe if there's a tree, I can jump from there," the dog suggested.

  His eyes widened. "We're not doing that."

  He could only imagine how much of a disaster it would be if they tried. With how big the dog was, he couldn't imagine a tree branch supporting its weight. It would just snap underneath the dog. Even if the dog somehow managed to stay on the tree long enough to jump, Davion wasn't sure the dog could fit through the window now that he thought about it. That was assuming there was even a tree close to his twin sister's room.

  "Are you sure you can't somehow sneak me inside?" the dog asked.

  Davion gave the dog a blank stare.

  There was no way he would be able to pull it off. If the dog had been a small one, he might have been able to hide it in a basket which he didn't bring or in his clothes. A regular dog wouldn't be able to go unnoticed much less a big one like the dog.

  "It's not going to work," Davion said as he shook his head.

  "Why not? Did the wolf in the story trick red riding hood by dressing up as the grandma?" the dog asked.

  "That's a story. It's not going to work in real life."

  "It can't hurt to try."

  He refused to believe it would work. No one would be fooled, but with no better ideas, he had no choice except to go along with it.

  Leaving the dog to hide among the bushes, Davion entered the hospital. No one batted an eye preoccupied with their own business as he hurried to his sister's room. His heart pounded in his chest as he occasionally glanced around to see if anyone noticed anything off. Eventually, he recached his sister's room and took a moment to scan his surroundings, but he didn't see any sign of his parents.

  That's strange. Why isn't Mom or Dad here?

  While he wondered where they went, he was glad that they weren't there. It would be hard to explain why he was stealing his sister's clothes.

  Once he found his sister's clothes, he scurried away. No one seemed to notice anything off as he hurried out of the hospital with the clothes in hand. When he finally reunited with the dog, he took a moment to catch his breath.

  "Here. Try them on," Davion said as he held them out to the dog. "Wait. How are you going to put these on? You don't have hands."

  "Don't worry. I got this," the dog said before taking the clothes into its mouth.

  Then it disappeared back into the bushes to Davion's confusion. The leaves rustled for several moments before something stepped out of the bushes. His eyes widened in disbelief.

  Davion couldn't believe what he was seeing.

  Was the dog really standing on its hindlegs?

  The sight was really outrageous. There was definitely no way they wouldn't be stopped at the front entrance.

  Instead of saying this out loud, Davion ended up asking, "Doesn't it hurt to walk on your hindlegs?"

  "It really is uncomfortable. I would love to get back on all fours. I can't see how you humans can walk on two legs," the dog said as it walked over.

  "We're just born that way."

  "I say four legs are better than two."

  "Well, I prefer having two legs over four. I like having hands."

  "Come on. Let's get this over with."

  The duo headed into the hospital as Davion threw occasionally glances at the dog thinking its cover would be blown the moment they stepped inside.

  However, Davion soon found himself mumbling, "I can't believe that worked."

  "I told you," the dog said.

  "It doesn't make any sense. How can't anyone not see you're obviously a dog wearing clothes?"

  "I make a convincing human, but it does hurt my pride as a dog a bit."

  Suddenly, they were stopped by a nurse.

  He was so sure that they had been discovered when the nurse said, "Sir, I understand that it's Halloween, but I don't think it's appropriate for you to be wearing your costume here."

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Her words hit Davion like a truck.

  Davion couldn't believe that he had missed something so obvious. No wonder no one was batting an eye at the dog's appearance. They all thought that it was some strange costume the dog was wearing because it was Halloween. He might not have needed to steal his sister's clothes for the dog to wear. The dog might have been able to get away with just walking in on its hind legs.

  Before either of them could respond, another nurse showed up. "Hey, you should mind your own business. It's not hurting anyone."

  "They could scare one of the patients. What if someone gets a heart attack?" the first nurse said, pointing at the dog.

  "I'm sure it won't happen. They're just here to see someone, right?"

  He nodded. "We're here to see my sister."

  The second nurse's eyes softened. "Run along now. Send your sister our well wishes."

  "Thank you."

  As they hurried away, he heard the first nurse say, "We should ban costumes from the hospital."

  "Just because you don't like Halloween doesn't mean no one else does," the second nurse said.

  "It's unprofessional. We're here to save lives, not fool around."

  "That human didn't seem to be happy," the dog whispered.

  "It's none of our business," Davion said before stopping in front of a door. "We're here."

  Without hesitation, he pushed the door open, leading the dog to where his sister lay unconscious on the bed.

  "Is that your sister?" the dog asked as it turned to all fours and sniffed at the unconscious girl.

  "Yes," Davion said, resisting the urge to push the dog's nose away from his sister's hand.

  "She's alone."

  "I don't know where my parents went. One of them should be watching here."

  Their absence really bothered him. It didn't sit right with him that they would leave her all alone even though this let the two of them go in without any trouble. His parents would have definitely freaked out at the sight of the dog.

  "Are you worried about them?" the dog asked, looking up at Davion.

  "Of course, they're my parents," he said.

  "We can look for them afterwards if you want."

  "I don't think they would be happy to see you."

  "Why not?"

  Davion gave the dog a look, but it really didn't seem to understand why it wouldn't be good for the dog to meet his parents.

  He sighed and said, "Just help my sister."

  The dog walked over to the head of the bed and licked at his sister's head. Davion nearly shouted at the dog before biting his tongue as he recalled that the dog had done the same to heal his injury.

  Since his sister hit her head, it made sense that the dog would lick her head.

  It's still gross to watch. I'm really glad no one else is around, or they would lose their heads if they saw this.

  Suddenly, one of his sister's fingers twitched, and he rushed forward. "Sharlene."

  The dog took this as a sign to back away and let Davion get closer. It retreated behind Davion as his twin sister slowly opened her eyes. She stared blankly at the ceiling before she turned her head slightly towards Davion.

  "Davion, what happened?" she asked in a small, confused voice.

  Tears prickled at the corner of Davion's eyes as he said, "Sharlene, you're awake. Thank goodness. We thought you might never wake up again."

  "You're creeping me out. What's going on?"

  "It's a long story."

  "Okay?" Then her eyes glanced over his shoulder. "By the way, what's with that huge dog behind you?"

  At the mention of the dog, Davion looked behind him. The dog met his eyes before the duo turned their attention to Sharlene.

  "It's a really long story," he said.

  "Then you better get talking," she said as she pushed herself to sit up.

  Davion helped her get comfortable before giving her an abridged version of what happened since she fell down the stairs until now.

  At the end of his tale, she asked, "Are you seriously telling me that you went on a wacky adventure while I was in the hospital?"

  Is that all you got from this?

  He supposed he shouldn't be surprised and nodded.

  "That's so unfair. I want to go on a crazy adventure too," she whined.

  "Sharlene, I was chased by a crazed huntsman who looked ready to chop me to bits with his ax," he said dryly.

  "At least he didn't shoot you with his gun."

  Davion had forgotten that the huntsman was supposed to be carrying a gun. Every time they encountered the huntsman, the man only carried a single ax with him. In the story, the huntsman didn't even use his gun, so it never crossed his mind that it had been a possibility. They had really gotten lucky that the huntsman never used it.

  He shuddered.

  "Anyway, I'm glad to see you're better," he said.

  "Me too." After several moments of silence, she asked, "So what's going on with the dog?"

  "Huh?"

  "I mean, is it going to leave any time soon?"

  "I don't know." Davion turned to the dog. "Will you be going now?"

  "I think I'm going to stay here and rest," the dog said as it plopped itself to the ground. "I'm exhausted."

  "I don't think it's a good idea."

  The dog absolutely couldn't stay. The longer it stayed, the higher the chances it would be caught by someone else. Whether it was his parents or one of the nurses, there was no way no one wouldn't recognize it was a dog when it was doing dog things.

  That's when Davion noticed the look on his sister's face. "I don't like the look in your eyes."

  "The dog did save me," she said slowly.

  "It woke you up."

  "It saved me, and we should repay it."

  She had a point. The dog had helped them out many times already, but he didn't have any idea how he could repay it.

  Give it dog treats?

  "What are you thinking?" he asked.

  With a smirk on her face, she suggested, "Why don't we ask our parents to take the dog as our pet?"

  "Excuse me?"

  "I'm serious. I'm sure if we worked together, we could convince our parents to agree."

  "I don't know about that."

  "Please."

  "Why are you so insistent that we adopt the dog as our pet? I thought you didn't like dogs."

  "I never said that. I never had a preference." She paused for a moment before asking, "Do you hate dogs?"

  Davion shook his head. "No, I don't."

  "Then there should be no problem taking it as our pet."

  "I mean, there have to be other ways we could repay the dog." Then it hit him. "What are you scheming?"

  "Rude. I can't believe you would think so badly of me. Why wouldn't I want to adopt a dog that has been so good to my twin brother? It's basically part of the family already." For a moment, Davion felt touched, but the moment was ruined as his twin sister continued, "Our relatives would also hate it. I think I remember one of our uncles saying they're allergic to dogs."

  Yup. I knew it.

  Turning his attention to the dog, he asked, "What do you think? Do you want to become part of the family?"

  "...I've never thought I would have a family," the dog said quietly.

  "Well, you're ours now. No take-backs," Sharlene declared.

  A smile stretched across Davion's face as he finally felt himself relax. Everything seemed to be going well when his sister frowned. Davion immediately tensed, wondering anxiously what was wrong.

  "Davion, I just realized something." She narrowed her eyes as she asked, "Is the dog wearing my clothes?"

  He froze. "Uh, I can explain?"