Lost Change

Chapter 31

I lazed around outside the cage for a bit longer, occasionally getting up to explore the table my cage was on, but it was too far of a jump to the floor to consider exploring anything else in the house.  My leg was still sore, and too much movement caused my wings and side to ache.

I also didn't want to risk being caught away from the protection offered by the cage while she was around.

I did take some time to knock all the containers off of the end table, though.  I was pretty sure that at least some of the small boxes around the cage held that stupid sedative.  Which meant they looked much, much better on the floor, as far away from me as I could throw them.

She always kept me in view while I wandered around the table, but after about an hour or so had passed she began to glance at her tablet before looking at me with an uncertain expression.  I got the impression she was worried about something, and I thought about staying out longer just to see what would happen... but I had climbed over and around the cage too much, even with the breaks to rest on the roof of the cage, and my leg was bothering me.  I slipped back into the cage and curled up on the blanket, taking care to put plenty of the soft padding between me and the hard glass floor.

A flicker of relief passed over the Kymari's expression as she watched me return to the cage.  She got up from the couch and approached me.  I hissed at her when she got close, but she ignored me and quickly shut the door of the cage.  She eyed the half-empty bowl of clean water and the empty food bowl, and I could tell she was trying to decide if she should refill them.

I didn't really want her poking around in the best of situations, and certainly not when my leg felt so weak, so I hissed louder at her.  She got the hint and went back to the couch.  The screen flickered on and after a few minutes she settled on a weather station.  The forecasts began droning on for places with strange alien names.

I leaned into the encyclopedia in my head for some of them, but most of the time the strange pool of knowledge had no answer.  I assumed that meant the places had been named by the Kymari sometime after the information had been put together to dump in my head... which made sense.  The Kymari probably had come up with new names for places when they had chased away the Votak - names that wouldn't have meant anything eight years ago, when the human scientists were experimenting with my body.

I tried not to get too dark with my thoughts and instead tried to make a guessing game of what places the alien words might refer to.  I doubt I got many of them right, but it helped take my mind off the soreness in my leg.

The Kymari became absorbed in whatever she was doing on the tablet.  I was starting to get the impression she usually only had the screen on to serve as background noise while she worked rather than out of any actual interest in whatever was on it.

Eventually the soft chime of the doorbell sounded through the room.  The Kymari didn't even look up from her tablet before she called out a distracted, "Come in."

The door opened with the same 'ding' noise I was starting to get used to, and Arlia walked in with several bags held in her arms.

The other Kymari dropped the tablet on the center table and got up to help Arlia, taking some of the bags and walking with her down the hallway towards the kitchen.  I heard some of the conversation through the wall - muffled questions about how their days had gone, updates on my trips to the vet, questions about what they might could do with some of their free time - but the hum of the heat lamp and the sound of the weather forecasts made it hard to make out too much.

I tuned back in when I clearly heard Arlia's voice.  She sounded confused, but was much closer.  "Sure, I can do that."

I lifted my head up from the soft blanket and saw her returning to the living room.  She crossed over to my cage, opened the door, and pulled out the bowls.  She closed the cage door behind her and walked back towards the kitchen, so I yawned and put my head back down.

A few minutes went by... then I caught sight of the other Kymari coming back from the kitchen.  The bowls had both been refilled - I assumed the water was clean, since I had knocked the sedatives to the floor and she still hadn't picked them up, but made a mental note to sniff it to be sure - and approached my cage.

I hissed at her as she got near.

She... actually seemed hurt, for some reason.  I wasn't sure why - I couldn't think of any time I hadn't hissed at her, aside from the times I had been on the sedatives.  She shouldn't be surprised.

She opened the cage door and sat the bowls down for me, then closed the door behind her.  She quickly picked up the boxes I had knocked over and set them back on the table, then walked back out of the room.  I stopped hissing and rested my head back down on the blanket... though for some reason, I couldn't stop thinking about that hurt look.  That bothered me.  This was her, this was the Kymari that had shot Susie.

Why did I even care that she might be sad?

The two Kymari talked in the kitchen for a little longer before they came back into the living room.  They settled down on the couch with snacks and flipped the weather forecast over to a movie Arlia suggested, but after a few minutes of spying on it I decided it was boring.  I shifted and got comfortable on the blanket, then zoned out for a bit.

I looked up again when I heard the soft chime of the doorbell ring through the room.  The Kymari looked up and exchanged a confused glance with Arlia, then reached for her tablet.  She tapped on it a few times before her eyes went wide.  She stood up and rushed to the door, dropping the tablet on the table as she went.  Arlia rushed to straighten things on the table, then paused the movie they had been watching.

The Kymari lowered her head slightly as the door opened with its familiar 'ding'.  "Greetings, Elder."

I craned my head a little to try and get a better glimpse of who could have gotten such a reaction from the pair.  A female Kymari stood in the doorway, slightly shorter than most I had seen, with light gray streaks in her skin and thin, wispier strands of hair.  Her clothing was about what I had come to expect from Kymari fashion, but she had a ring on her right hand with a very pretty green gem.

Arlia and the other Kymari both looked like young children standing next to the Elder.  She was old.

I thought questions towards the encyclopedia in my head, and it explained that Elders with the ring this one wore were the closest thing to a governing body that a local Kymari city would have.  They could act with the force of law, but were so highly respected that they rarely had to do little more than suggest something for it to be done.  Which made sense - anybody who had survived as long as this individual had, especially in a culture with such an obvious martial interest as what I had seen in the Kymari, would be somebody to pay attention to.

I figured the closest equivalent would be if the mayor had just knocked on my door back when I had been human.  And... back when there still had been mayors, and human cities, and when I had still had a door for somebody to knock on.

I pushed those thoughts aside and focused my attention back on the doorway, listening with eager attention.  The Kymari must be in trouble.

"Greetings, Minna.  I apologize for coming on such short notice, but I feel the issue I need to discuss with you cannot wait long enough to allow for the usual pleasantries.  If this is a good time, may I come in?"

Yesss.  Busted.