Death's Pet 4

Part 2

   Mort enters the room moments after the goddess departs. He looks around curiously then shrugs his shoulders.

  "What did I miss?" he asks me as he strides over toward me and the bird. I don't answer knowing he'll see soon enough for himself.

  It's almost comical the way he is rendered speechless as his eyes pop out. "Is that a Phoenix!?" I'm impressed with how high his voice gets. I nod, still watching the sleeping baby. Mort stares on, going from me to the bird and then back to me. "Why is it here? Did the Goddess Bastet leave it? Does she realize she's even left it here?" he eyes me warily on the last question. I can see he's torn between leaving to summon Bastet back and staying in the room as his eyes dart back and forth while his hands twitch toward the box holding the infant bird.

  At that I laugh, finally breaking from my stupor over the ridiculous task given to me. "Relax Mort. Just because I'm feline doesn't mean I'm going to eat the thing." Though I don't bother to add in that I voiced the same concern to the Bastet earlier.

  He shifts uncomfortably from foot to foot still watching the phoenix. I let out a sigh, "I may be a cat Death, but I'm not exactly a normal one, now, am I?"

  Mort's cheeks turn a slight pink as he relaxes his stance. "My apologies Little One." He says quietly.

  Before he can say or ask anything else, I fill him in on all that transpired between me and the goddess earlier. By the time I finish, Mort is quiet and deep in thought.

  The lack of commentary from him is killer. "Say something Mortimer!" I exclaim. My outburst startles the small creature between us, and it lets out a frightened squeak.

  Mort immediately jumps into action, approaching carefully while providing soothing, almost to the point of cooing, words. The tiny bird responds instantly to him, chirping happily. I can't decide if I want to roll my eyes at him or study the interaction. After all, caring for the bird is my task. But instead of jumping in I sit back and watch Mort with the bird.

  Several minutes go by before Mort turns from the baby and speaks. "Well, this tiny one definitely will complicate things for where we are going." He sighs and runs a hand through his short hair.

  I perk up at the information. "Going where?" I practically want to sing and dance at the thought of finally leaving the cabin.

  Despite trying to keep the excitement from my voice, he hears it and smiles at me. "Always so eager my Little One." He sighs again and sits down on my chair bringing the tiny phoenix with him. He motions for me to come over and waits until I'm seated on his shoulder. A long silent moment passes before he finally divulges what the phone call was about earlier. By the time he is done I'm dumbfounded for the second time this evening.

  "How can the devil not be able to contain a few souls? And why is it our job to clean up the mess?" I finally ask.

  Mort shrugs his shoulders, careful not to jostle me off. "From what it sounds like these souls are not meant to be in his after, but I won't know for sure until I talk with the reaper who delivered them."

  Mort goes to say something else but the tiny phoenix squeaks just then. We both peers down at it and it squeaks again and again and again.

  "Good Goddess! What is wrong with the thing?" I flatten my ears back as it squeaks another three times in succession.

  Mort looks thoughtful for a moment then says, "Perhaps the tiny one is hungry. Did the Goddess say what to feed her?"

  I go to reply but then come up short. Come to think of its Bastet didn't say anything about how to care for the creature. Mortimer picks up on my lack of response. "I suppose this is part of your test. You need to learn how to care for the creature on your own."

  Frowning, I ask, "And just how the hell does she expect me to do that?"

  Mort smiles, "Perhaps I can give Nick from the Forever Pet Shop a call."

  I brighten and then frown again, "but don't you need to track down the reaper tonight?"

  He grimaces. "Yes, I do. But ..." he lets out a long sigh, "perhaps it's time that I stop hovering over you so much. I know you would be able to track down Reaper Jon faster than he responding to my summons. Especially since I know he's out in the field. And while you do that for me, I can find out what your tiny phoenix is going to need."

  I beam down at Mort. Finally, after weeks of being cooped up I finally get to get out of the cabin!

  Within less than an hour I have found reaper Jon and have dragged him back to the cabin. He was far from willing, being in the middle of collecting a soul and all, but I wasn't taking no for an answer. By the time we reappear next to Mort, Jon is a blundering and spitting mad mess. Mortimer may have been expecting us, but the tiny bird was not. It squeaks in protest and Mort immediately places a soothing hand over it. The distressed sounds coming from the baby set me on edge but, I hold myself back. Death frowns at his reaper but says to me, "Kasha, what did you do?" Before I can answer though, I take notice of the other person sitting across from Mort. I narrow my eyes at our guest. "Kasha?" Mort asks again.

  Without taking my eyes off the man sitting across from him I answer, "Jon boy here needed some persuading to come, and I was just a little so happy to help with that."

  Mortimer sighs then waves his hand over to the other man sitting across from him. "Little one, you remember Nick do you not?"

  I growl in response then leap up to sit upon Mort's shoulder. Nick shivers at my less than friendly greeting but nods his head to me. "Hello Kasha. I'm glad to see you're doing well." He smiles but it quickly falls as I aim a death glare at him. I don't trust Nick after him selling me to Death (even if it turned out to be the best thing in my life) I trust him even less when it comes to him being anywhere near my phoenix. That thought gives me pause that I'm already calling the bird mine, but don't have time to read into it further as Mort lets out a frustrated sigh.

  Death shakes his head at the glacier attitude rolling off me while giving me a look. Turning to the pet shop owner he says, "Thank you, Nick, for your aide. Death will return the favor." Nick's eyes light up ever so slightly. It doesn't go unnoticed though, so I add, "Don't read too much into that Nicky." Nick's eyes grown bigger than saucers as he glances my way and nods his head vigorously. Being as I was with him for a few years in the shop, he already knows that I know where his line of thinking went.

  "Of course! It was no trouble at all to help you Mr. Mortimer! Thank you so much for reaching out to me. Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with. Also, I just got in some new creatures if you are interested and..." he would have rambled on, but Mort has already turned his attention upon his reaper. Nick stands uncertainly looking between Death and myself. "I'll just go then...". Mortimer doesn't even he give him a glance just waves his hand and Nick's gone, presumably sent back to his pet shop.

  With him gone, I check down upon the little phoenix to find it sleeping peacefully in its box full of ash before I also turn my attention to reaper Jon. There will be time after we are done with Jon to discuss what Mort found out about phoenixes. Hopefully then, I will also be better able to understand my reaction to the tiny bird's cries. For now, we get to the fun part of interrogating a reaper.