Half and Whole

Intro to Life

There I was, finally free. Miss Allen had never let me or the dogs leave, but Chaos and Halo are the size of horses, and have massive wings. When I finally realized that I had to get out, they were very helpful, especially Chaos. They probably wanted me to get out earlier, but I was blind to my situation. As I wandered into the first public building I could find, I realized that Chaos and Halo wouldn't fit through the door. The inside of the building was loud and full of people, completely different from home. There were big men with huge beards, and women in pretty yet simple dresses, a lot of them trying to show off their bodies to the men. I wasn't sure what I should feel when I saw them- I just knew that I wasn't like them. There was a stage across the massive room, with a small band playing some really nice music. I just had to leave my protectors behind to know what this place was. I walked up to a man carrying a tray with some bottles and food on it. 

"Hey, what is this place?" I asked him. He seemed taken aback, and was a bit rude when he answered.

"You've never been to a bar?" 

"No, I've never been anywhere," 

"You get food and drink here," he said, and held one of the bottles in my face before walking away. I followed him.

"How do you get the food and drink?" I asked him.

"You order it," he seemed annoyed and tried to sidestep me.

"How do you do that?" I stepped in front of him. 

"Go to the bar," he said, pointing to the big table against the wall with bottles and people behind it. 

"But I thought you said this is the bar?"

"Listen, I'm trying to work, leave me alone," he shoved past me and walked over to a table to set down the tray. I walked over to the bar.

"Hey, how do I get food and drink here?" I asked the man behind it. He shoved a piece of paper in front of me. 

"Pick what you want and ask for it," he said. This man seemed a lot nicer, even though he looked a lot scarier. I looked down at the paper. There were no pictures. I flipped it over. Still no pictures.

"Do you have one of these with pictures?" I asked him. 

"What?" 

"I can't read," I said. 

"Ugh, not surprising, what do you like to eat? I'll see what we have," 

"You got any pies?"

"We got vegetable pies, and some meat pies but they're rare these days so they're expensive,"

"What is expensive?"

"Meat pies, I just told you,"

"No, what does that word mean?"

"It means it costs a lot of money,"

"Money?"

"Have you been living under a rock?"

"Kind of," the massive man sighed and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a gold coin. I'd seen coins before, but had never known what they're for.

"This is money, you work and people give it to you, and then you trade it to get stuff like food and drink," he flipped the coin, caught it, and plopped it back into his pocket.

"I can do work, how do I get people to pay me for work?" He sighed again, and seemed like he was about to answer, but at that moment there was a lot of noise by the door. Chaos had shoved herself halfway in, trying to crawl through, and growling.

"WHAT IS THAT THING?" the big man asked. The rude man I'd been talking to earlier screamed and fell on the floor.

"That is Chaos," I said, and walked over to her. "What's wrong?" I asked. She was growling and barking at a specific man, who was small and slipped between the panicked people, but she would not loose him. She kept scratching at the floor, wriggling around trying to get through. I decided to follow the man. I ran at him. "Who are you? Are you dangerous?" I yelled, and grabbed at him. He almost evaded me, but I grabbed him by the collar. 

"Leave me alone!" He screamed and slapped me. At that moment, there was a loud crash, as Chaos broke through the wall, and the massive man yelled again. She ran at us and growled at the man. She blew air at us, and snatched him up and threw him against the ceiling. As he hit the ground, a bunch of small brown bags came out of his clothes. A few of those bags opened and coins slipped out.

"Hey!" one dude yelled, and picked up one of the bags. "This is my coin pouch! I know because my wife embroidered it with my name for me! This guy's a pickpocket!" A few people milled around him, picking up their own pouches and complaining about the small man. meanwhile, the big man had come out from behind the big table and was rushing up to his destroyed door. He moved surprisingly fast for someone his size. The little man groaned, but he didn't even have time to try to lift his head up, because Chaos quickly chomped him up, making people yell, a few girls fainted, and one guy threw up. I heard the big man yell again, and he came back to me with his face red.

"WHAT IS THAT THING?" He yelled. "WHY IS IT DESTROYING MY BAR?" he said, gesturing to the massive hole and the tables she'd knocked over in her pursuit, with broken bottles and food all over the floor. "AND WHY IS IT EATING MY PATRONS?" Chaos growled and circled around me, keeping her eyes on the big man. At this point, Halo had wandered into the bar through the hole Chaos left. "YOU'RE PAYING TO FIX MY BUILDING! AND GET THOSE MONSTERS OUT OF HERE!"

"Yea, I don't have money, but I do have a way to fix this," I told him. His face got redder.

"HOW? HOW DO YOU EXPECT TO FIX ALL OF THIS?"

"With the 'monsters'," I said, and walked over to Halo. I crawled on her back, and whistled to Chaos. I signaled them to leave, then did one of the few things I actually did know how to do. I had the dogs reverse time- they could not undo Chaos killing the thief, but they could fix the building and undo any injuries. Once the door was back on its hinges, the big man opened it and walked out. 

"What was that? Are you a witch or something?" He asked me.

"No, I'm pretty human, the dogs are the ones with magic," I answered. He looked around, as if waiting for something bad to happen. 

"Alright, get out of here then, if I see you around here again, I'm having those things hunted," he told me, and slipped back into the building. I shrugged and signaled the dogs to leave, looking for my next adventure.