Introduction

It's not a dark and stormy night. It's a cold, crisp, clear November night, and stepping out of the warmth of the car you wonder when it will snow. You're here to check on your friend Jim, who had a high fever during breakfast, and couldn't keep down Main Street Over Easy's delicious buffalo scrambler. "Oh probably just a bug I caught on vacation, I should have known better than drink the water in Mexico," he had said, laughing off your suggestion that he go the hospital. Your momentary reverie is broken when a big dog runs up barking at you, stopping ten feet away to start pacing back and forth. "Oh quiet Nolan, it's just me!" You say in that cutesie voice people use to talk to kids and animals.
Then you freeze as you notice the blood on his face. "Are you okay Nolan? You get in a fight big guy?" You say aloud as you crouch down to walk over to him. He lets out low mean growl, then a whine as he abruptly turns and runs away.