Commissioned artwork by Leucrotta of FA. http://www.furaffinity.net/user/leucrotta

Featured in the story. https://www.weasyl.com/submission/348839/dog-watch

*Their ancestors roamed the void of interplanetary space, taking old nautical names and traditions from a planet of deep blue skies and oceans. Customs who's origins were lost in the forgotten well of the past.

A smaller group made the leap across the wider void between Stars to find a gas giant circling a G type star in a year long trot. Adorned with planetary sized moons and the fourth streaked with clouds and shining blue and brown. A place to call home.

Hike the coastline along a continent still largely unexplored. Stand on upon a cobblestone beach with the cliffs of patterned rock behind you, watching the sea surf in. And one could be forgiven to think this was the rocky coast of Terra's Pacific Northwest region.

But small details creep in. Of an odd and subtle alien quality. From strange dwarf trees growing near the edge of the cliffs, like crooked umbrellas of needled green. To the more distant larger 'trees' with overlapping armored scales that spiral around trunk and branch. With triangular hooked leaves instead of spruce needles.

Before your feet are shells embedded in the rough gravel and sand. A familiar sight in many a beach of your home world. How odd that the empty detritus are patterned in shapes not found on the beaches of Terra. Gracile logarithmic spiral shells that once housed swimmers and much heavier shells ribbed like armor suggesting they once belonged to dwellers buried in the bottom silt or hiding under gravel. Here and there are long, narrow cones made of material suggesting both weaved fiber and hardened material.

Evening twilight. A quick gaze to seawards and you notice a boat at anchor. Aboard are two man like figures, denizens of Kopno, patiently awaiting the night's catch to arrow in on the waves. Slim bodied with tall eared dog features.

The boat is bathed in the light of a rising gibbous disk with a faint ring. Too large to be a moon. The final confirmation. 'We're not in Kansas anymore'.*