Chapter 3 - Icebreaker

After staring at me angrily for a short moment, the man started to walk towards me. His movements were slow but steady and his eyes never left mine. My instincts were yelling at me to bolt immediately, but I quickly relaxed myself. Running is probably my best bet, I’m small and probably much faster than this guy, but I have to choose the right time.

Before I could enact my plan however, another voice called out from beyond the door. The speaker sounded young, and they seemed to be asking the man something. At hearing the words, his expression turned wary and he turned towards the door, calling out a response

Why was he back to feeling wary all of a sudden? The voice sounded out another question, closer this time, and the man responded nervously. A superior? Maybe he isn’t supposed to be in here? Or he doesn’t want to be blamed for the mess perhaps? I used his momentary distraction to shimmy myself further away along the shelf, occupying the space where the bag of glassware had been.

I readied myself to run, but my plans were once again foiled by the appearance of another body filling the doorframe. The man quickly moved slightly to the side, blocking my view of the person. Or maybe he’s blocking their view of me? The person in the doorway said something else, sounding somewhat suspicious. The man made placating gestures with his hand, and from the body language I guessed he was trying to get the person to leave. Sounding even more suspicious, the other person stepped into the room and tried to look past the man.

The man quickly moved to cover me but I managed to catch a glimpse of the other person's face. It was a young girl, her green eyes shone with curiosity as she too managed to peek over the man’s arm. It seemed she had seen me as well because the tone of her voice suddenly became very excited. She started pushing at the man to go past, her expression almost ecstatic. At this the man’s expression turned frustrated but resignation seemed to quickly overtake him. He barked a short word at her, but let her pass.

It seemed she ignored him because he grabbed her shoulder before she could get more than a step further and barked another word, pointing to the glass. His expression softened quickly though, and he gave a short lecture, waiting until she reluctantly nodded before letting her go.

This time, her approach was much slower, carefully circling the glass, and I could see that she was young, maybe ten?. Her slightly curled brown hair was a bit longer than shoulder length, and tied back with a piece of cloth. Comparing the two people in front of me I could tell they were related, they shared a strong jawline and button nose.

My observation was cut short as she reached me, slowly reaching out a hand towards me. I obliged her, carefully sniffing her hand. She smelled strongly of soot, metal, and what my instincts supplied was some sort of meat. If I focused I could distinguish more faded and discreet smells, some sort of scented soap, wood, general body odour, and so on. I didn’t get any more time to parse the smells apart, as she quickly moved in to pet my head; her excitement coupled with my modest reaction enough to forget the man’s admonitions.

‘Ooh, that feels good.’

Letting my instincts take over I pushed my head into her hand, earning an excited giggle for my efforts. Just as I started really feeling it, she stops as the man starts talking again. While I was gone in the pet-zone, he had moved up to the girl and now had a hand on her shoulder. His emotions were once again waging war on his face, resignation and happiness doing their best to come out on top. This time however, the battle was obscured by a fog of put upon seriousness. It seemed enough to fool the girl however as she did her best to compose herself and mimic the serious expression of the man.

They have a short exchange, and I’m pretty sure I can follow along pretty well, even if I don’t understand the words:

“Can I keep it?”

“Yes, honey, but you have to take care of it yourself, ok? You have to be a responsible owner and feed it and clean the litter box”

“Of course! Thank you dad! thankyouthankyouthankyou!”

Well, I can confidently say I know what “thank you” is in this language at least... She was literally bouncing. She hugged the man, her father I’m assuming, and turned back to me again. This time she reached out with both hands. Leaning towards her hands excitedly I begin to purr out of anticipation for the double petting action before letting out a short yelp as she instead picked me up.

‘What the hell, girl, you can’t just work a man up like that and theuaaah…’ I couldn’t manage to finish the thought as she had managed to cradle me in one of her arms and was using her free hand to scritch around my neck, ‘Damn this feels soo goood’.

Taking advantage of the girl being distracted, the man did not try to hide his happy expression as he looked at his daughter. The moment was short-lived though, as a third voice called out from further away beyond the door. They both jumped slightly, returning to the real world. The man called back, then said something stern to his daughter and pointed to the glass mess I had made on the floor. The girl looked like she wanted to complain, but caught herself and instead set me down on the floor carefully and walked over to the bag.

I followed curiously, but quickly stopped as a strong smell hit my nose, wafting off from the liquids spilled on the floor. I sneezed hard and backed up quickly, it smelled like a mix between strong vinegar and something sweet. The girl let out a small giggle at the probably very cute sound, but continued with her work under the stern gaze of her father. Lifting the bag she started carefully sorting through the contents, slowly pulling out glass vials. Any intact vials got set aside while the rest was unceremoniously dropped into the growing pile in the middle. Soon, the bag was emptied, a small row of colorful fist-sized vials on her side.

My growing confusion at her apparent disregard for the sticky and glass-filled mess on the floor suddenly changed into wonder as she moved her hands over the mess. Where her hand passed over, the liquid simply disappeared, leaving only clear floorboards and clean pieces of glass.

‘She must be using some sort of Skill or Spell,’ I realized.

She finished up removing all the liquid from the floor and picked up the empty bag, giving it the same treatment. Hefting the opening of the bag with one hand, she laid it down so the opening was facing the glass. I almost cried out in alarm as she started pushing the glass into the bag with her bare hand, but quickly realized I had no reason to worry. The glass was being pushed a small bit ahead of her hand, picking up every little piece on the way, however tiny. Another Skill, or maybe the same one used differently?

Having pushed all of the glass into the bag she handed it to the man which took it, a proud smile on his face. She bent back down and started moving the vials back to the shelf, and I took advantage to go investigate. As I got closer, I found that the smell was still there, but much weaker than before. I hesitantly smelled the floorboards and almost sneezed again, it seemed there was still residue stuck in the cracks.

Giving up on that I set my eyes on the vials still on the floor, but before I could even start moving I was pushed back by a finger on my nose. Pulling back her hand, the girl gave me a stern look and said something in an admonishing tone.

‘Alright, fine, I’ll stay here I guess,’ I thought and sat down.

Satisfied that her message had come across, she continued with her work until all of the vials were back on the shelf. Bending down once again, she picked me up, though to my disappointment she didn’t scritch me. Instead she walked over to the door where her father was already waiting. They exchanged some words as she left the room as the man closed the door.

We came into a larger room, and the man headed straight across to another door set there. As he opened it, the background clamour that I had noticed when we came into this room increased and I could see into what looked like a large kitchen. Several people were kneading dough and cutting things. Leaving the door open, the man continued into the room, calling out to someone on the other side.

Breaking me out of my observation, the girl held me out with both her arms and studied me. She was frowning and looked like she was torn over something, but seemed to come to a decision quickly. She said a word slowly, expression thoughtful. It seemed like the word was acceptable as she nodded happily and repeated the word, firmly this time. Suddenly a box appeared:

[{Emma Jansdottir} has bestowed the name {Milo} to you]

She set me down gently and said something else, including the word - my name, apparently - then hurriedly went over to the kitchen door, closing it on the way through.

I sighed and sat down, finally having a moment to collect my thoughts. So, it seems I have been adopted by a girl named Emma. While the notion of being someone's pet did grate me slightly, I could not deny the benefits. I would have food and shelter given to me for free, and I would probably be given more scritches.

‘Yes, the outside world is probably highly dangerous and it’s only prudent to ensure a proper food source and good shelter. I will stay here for the time being,’ I decided, ‘now I just need to find out what and where here actually is...’