There were sounds,--reassuring human sounds.

And doors were opening.

His deities were coming forth.
All at once, Laddie stopped being a vengeful beast of prey; and remembered that he was a very small and very much hurt and very lonely and worried puppy.

He craved the Mistress's dear touch on his wound, and a word of crooning comfort from her soft voice.

This yearning was mingled with a doubt lest perhaps he had been transgressing the Place's Law, in some new way; and lest he might have let himself in for a scolding.