Lament of the Slave

Chapter 16: Testing

What could I use poison on and not cry over the possible loss of it?

My hand went into my pocket, where I still had a pebble I picked up for this purpose on the street in front of the inn. Yeah, now that I think about it, the pockets weren't as useful here as they were on Earth when you had spatial tools. Even so, I thoughtlessly put the pebble in my pocket, and it never occurred to me to use the ring until now. I was still getting used to the possibility of storing things in a magically created space.

Anyway, I was much more worried about fabrics. People wore clothes, but because of my poverty, I didn't have much of them. That's why my eyes fell on my feet. I didn't plan on sacrificing shoes, but socks were a different matter. I've been wearing them for two days now.

I know, a year ago, I would have thought it was gross. I wore clean socks on Earth every day, but when something simple like clothes or hygiene is denied to you for a long time, you will change your priorities. I didn't need to wear clean clothes every day; I was excited to have some. I didn't need to bathe every day because I was happy to know that I could wash if I wanted to. Of course, it required more money that I didn't have. Not enough to be able to bathe every day. For now, it must have been enough for me to wash with the cold water from the inn's well.

To save money, I didn't even buy enough socks to wear a clean pair every day. So I took off my shoes and socks.

"eww" I grabbed my nose in disgust as I sniffed at my socks.

I must wash them tomorrow when I do the laundry at Broken Heart. I should have thought of that yesterday, but I didn't. Although I wanted and tried to return to everyday life as fast as I could, it was not as easy as I had hoped. Some things took time, such as getting used to having to do my own laundry.

"Stop whining, Korra," I scolded myself, back to testing.

I raised my tail to my face so I could sniff it. "Hmm, Apples. Nice"

(ding) You were poisoned.

Yeah, there was still poison between the tail hairs. So I wiped one of the stinky socks on my tail and sniffed at it again. I almost threw up. The smell of the sock wasn't so bad, but after the smell of the apples, it was as if sniffing a rotting corpse.

"Maybe I wiped them on my tail too lightly?" I wondered aloud.

I didn't smell the poison on them, nor did I get a system notification about my poisoning. Following thorough rubbing of the sock did not go without the resistance of the tail. He didn't like it, and I wasn't surprised. It wasn't pleasant for me either. I just hoped my tail wouldn't stink like my smelly sock.

To my delight, the result was the same. The poison did not stick to the cloth. Unfortunately, the idea that the poison could become a shoe deodorant was not possible. The poison did not kill the stench.

Putting aside the socks, I tried rubbing my tail on the various surfaces I found in the room. The poison didn't stick to anything, and since I knew it wasn't transmitted by contact, just by inhalation, I was relieved.

I didn't have to worry about causing mass murder, that if someone caressed my tail, they would die. If someone doesn't bury their nose in my tail hair and inhale the poison into their lungs, everything will be fine.

"Ehm" I coughed after my tail attacked me. He savaged my face with his soft hair.

(ding) You were poisoned.

Yeah, soft but deadly.

I stroked him carefully, whispering, "I know you didn't like it. I'm sorry."

I was not too fond of it either. I knew animals shouldn't be rubbed the wrong way. Now I knew why. It was quite unpleasant, sometimes painful, but necessary for testing.