[ WP ] You notice more `` Lost Pet '' signs than usual one day . Then you start seeing the signs everywhere you go . You realize you ca n't remember the last time you actually saw a dog or cat . What 's happening ?

`` So it's agreed then?'' 
 
 Percival looked slowly around the circle as each shadowed figure nodded in turn. 
 
 `` By unanimous declaration, we shall no longer abide this state of affairs. We, who have shepherded the children through the long night, who have hunted the plague bringers and the food-stealers shall no longer sit by and watch as our wards walk down this path. 
 
 We shall lay aside our ancient distrust and animosity and we shall leave, together, for another world. One free of this idiocy. 
 
 Spread word by scent or bark or blood sign, the coalition of the watchers is leaving.'' 
 
 The leaders gathered hesitated, lingering a long moment as they contemplated what they had just agreed to. Then they once again in turn nodded, as if affirming to themselves the righteousness of the decision. They each placed a print upon the soft clay around which they gathered, though even if the humans found it they would not recognise the watcher signs etched upon the clay. After their mark they turned and departed; Scampering, bounding, running, gliding or simply walking away to spread word. 
 
 Percival was the last to leave, slipping beneath a loose fence post from the meeting place. He had been a good boy for many years... He'd served faithfully in the endless war with the couriers, the battle of the new neighbours cat... He'd even unleashed his bark against the-great-noise-above on countless occasions, not that his humans ever seemed to appreciate it. 
 
 But this... This was a step too far. He paused beside the wall he was walking alongside and glanced up at the dead-thin-trees the humans had stuck there, with their frozen no-smell depictions of the terrible conflict that was brewing. 
 
 He and the others had served faithfully and nobly, but they could not confront this battle. It was a terror wrought by the humans own hands and they would have to deal with the consequences. A shiver passed down his glossy coat, urging him homeward to his yard. 
 
 He would need to spread the word by bark and scent for three nights, as the accords required, before he would long-walk to the new world. Advance scouts suggested there was a primitive species there that the Watchers had agreed would be their new wards, that they would shepherd and guide through the long cold night of ignorance until they were not-pups or until they did something... Similarly bad, bad dog. 
 
 He sighed to himself as he headbutted his way through the gap beside the gate. Honestly... Trump or Clinton? How stupid were the humans?!
