CHP41

Seneya slipped into the general store with Kael. He grumbled as he slouched in and looked at all of the odds and ends that humans found necessary. Seneya had a toothbrush and toothpaste; what more did she need? He scoffed at all the silly things as she searched through cleaning supplies

“Don’t get anything with garbage. There’s nowhere to throw it.” Kael grumbled.

Seneya had been looking at different detergents and things but just sighed and opted for two boxes of the soda ash. It cleaned everything well, she found. Unfortunately, she had run out the other day, and laundry had started to pile up.

“How did you do laundry before I came?” She asked him. The bored-looking silver-eyed attendant gave them lingering stares.

“Sael sent someone occasionally to clean up and take care of that. Otherwise, I just swished it around in the creek a bit….”

Seneya sighed heavily. “Kael… I can’t leave you alone… There’s no way you can function as a human being without me aro—”

“I’ve never functioned as a human being.”

“You know what I meant,” she groaned. Seneya loved Kael despite all of his shortcomings. They acted like old friends, but Seneya’s heart ached for family. If she’d ever had a family, had a habit of calling someone ‘dad,’ she’d have let it slip.

She bought a few small slices of unscented soap from some kitschy ‘slice your own soap’ display and called it good. Seneya had particular want of soap for certain parts of her body. But, aside from the toilet paper he kept in the outhouse, he kept nothing that made waste.

Seneya had to plead with Kael to stop urinating in bushes around the property.

“Marking my territory!” he called it. Seneya had half believed him until she remembered they had ault for that and that Kael was just gross. Her resulting fit had been one of her first heated battles over something with Kael that she’d won after the complete cleaning of the cabin.

From there, they slipped into the liquor store where golden eyes followed them; Tim, she thought, as Kael squinted at labels and turned bottles over. Whiskey was expensive, Seneya noted as she stood politely by the door, waiting. The owner, Tim, eyed her for a moment but watched Kael as he grabbed two bottles of what he thought was good stuff and haggled over the payment for a few minutes. Dee had called over to tell Tim not to charge Kael, and it made him feel useless, like he hadn’t earned anything.

“I guess these two bottles can be yours, then.” He scoffed, and they left the store.