Chapter Eighteen: Pets II Part One

“Guess who’s home?” I roar happily as I open the door to my shack.

Only to find it empty, with the no one inside and my pets nowhere in sight.

“Huh,” I say while I scratch my head in confusion. Could have sworn I left some here to watch them, but where are they?

I take a deep breath, smelling my shack thoroughly as the familiar stench of earth, blood, leather, and wildflowers, appear in my mind's eyes, followed by a foreign scent of someone other than me and the weak scent of my pets and their awful formula. But oddly the stench of death is absencent…. And small smile forms on my face.

Which is then wiped away as scowl forms on my face and my brow furrow, it seems likely my pets are alive, but not here. So looks like I’m going to have to track down whoever I left to watch them.

But not before taking a meal bar out, ripping into it and devouring it. It tastes savory and a little sweet, but melts in my mouth fast before it can become overwhelming. It glides down my throat smoothly and leaves nice aftertastes, and causes my stomach to feel full but not overly so. I slide the box under my bed and get up to go outside.

Outside, I take a deep whiff of the air and search for the foreign scent in my shack and my pets. It takes a couple deep breathes till I find the scent, but when I do I grab a hold of it tight and run after it.

Soon I reach where the scent is the strongest, near the front end of the lot and see a large house standing before me. It stands at least three stories tall and is made of stone bricks and wood, and It has a pretty nice little garden surrounding it. Huh, when did this get here?

I walk up to the door and knock on the door loudly. No one answers and I tap my foot impatiently as I wait, and then I start to run through my memory trying to remember who I left to look after my pets. No one comes to mind, and decide to fuck it. I’ll pay em back for looking after my pets afterward.

My irritation grows as I wait in front of the door, and my tapping grows louder and heavier. Irritation beginning to turn into anger I reach for the door ready to rip it out of its wall, but before I can I hear the get to wrecking I hear some say “Please wait.” The tiredness and sleepiness were evident in their voice, and I felt a little bad waking them up so early, but it’s quickly replaced by irritation about the situation, just leave a note or something if you’re going to move my pets.

A moment or two later I hear the sound of locks turning, chains rattling, and what sounds like a high pitch whine easing off, which are probably his wards going down.

The door opened and I hear a different snootier voice, “Alright, which peasant wants something from me today and-” The voice stops midway after opening the door and revealing a thin, brown-haired boy in a fine, white robe. Who looks at me with eyes wide as saucers and a mouth open.

I smirk at him “That peasant would be me,”

“At-atlas, good to see you, my brutish friend, how can I help you?” The boy stammers out.

“Are you the one I left my pets with?” I ask the thin boy.

“What? No, I would never willing look after someone’s mongrels,” The boy says quickly, before covering his mouth and as a look of horror comes over his face. “Not to say that your pets are-”

“Cut the crap, I know they’re mongrels, the question whether you have them here or not.”

“No, but might I ask why you think they’re here?”

“I left someone to look after them, and I followed the scent here.”

His eyes narrow slightly as he relaxes, and he lets out a short laugh. “You don’t even remember who you left to look after them do you?”

“I’ve had a couple of head injuries since I left, so no I don’t.”

He puts a hand on his head, and sighs “You brutes are, all the same, all muscle and no brains.” He then turns behind and barks outs “Eric get down here!” And then turns back to me “Join me for breakfast?”

“Sure, but one thing?”

He raises a thin eyebrow.

“What’s your name?”

His face flushes a deep crimson, stands tall and attempts to look me in the eyes with hostility and anger deep set in his amber brown eyes. “My name? You dare ask for a name freely given and forget it, my dear idiotic brute you will rue the day that you dare make a jest at Acelin Dis, scion of the Dis house, successor of Lord Michael Dis and Lady-”

“Oh, your name’s Acelin? I knew you looked familiar, so we still doing breakfast or what?” I asked ignoring his obvious rage, but if he wants to fight me I won’t let him down, though I’d still like to find my pets first. So I stare him in the eyes uncaringly and unflinchingly while waiting for his response.

I watch his eyes move rapidly back in forth weighing his option before he visibly deflates under my gaze, then sighs tiredly “Sure,” Then mumbles. “It’s way too damn early for this shit, just wipe your feet off and get in the fucking house,” Acelin says with defeat while rubbing the bridge of his nose.

I do as I’m told and enter the house, but have to duck under the doorway to enter first. The inside of the house is nice and very clean, with dark wood walls, and torches lighting the walls, but a noticeable lack of furniture.

Acelin seems to notice my gaze around his house, “Nice isn’t it? I just got done getting it built so I haven’t had the time to have it furnished.”

“Yeah, it is,” I say honestly, “But why build a house at all? I imagine a scion like yourself is pretty well off and could just move out of the lot, and no one would mind as long as you showed up for training.”

He lets out a belly-deep laugh, “Haha, my dear brute, you never cease to entertain. Move out, what a quaint idea, but what over my future servants and subjects? I’d be shooting myself in the foot if I didn’t take the time to take advantage of the people here and recruit as many as possible before someone else does.”

“Huh?” I say befuddled.

He lets out another laugh. “You don’t think that scions like myself come here just for training, do you? No, no, no! We come here to recruit for our personal staff and armies! Scion has to be here, it’s the best way to gain allies and find the best servants with potential! So if I moved out of the lot and just went to train all day and do nothing else like you, It’d defeat the purpose and I wouldn’t be able to get to know anybody, or recruit them.” He then turned around to look at me. “You do realize, that coming here isn’t just about training and getting a class right?” He says seriously.

I stopped in my tracks at those words “What?!” The words stumble out of my mouth clumsy. This is the first time I’m hearing of this!

“Yeah, they don’t just bringing us here to train and make soldiers, if the Union wanted that they’d just shove us into a three-month training camp, shove a weapon in our hands and push us out onto the frontlines. No, they also don’t just send us here to make friends and allies, and they also do it to let us know what we’re fighting for.”