The Dreamfarer

27

"Room service!"

Mae scowled in the direction of the door. The voice was overly enthusiastic and pitched at a high enough octave to make her wince. This was only the second time she had heard it so far, but she already wished she could squash its source so that she would never have to again.

"We've been over this, little princess!" the voice called. "You need to tell me I'm allowed to come in!"

Mae wrapped her arms around herself and got to her feet, not wanting to be sitting when the creature came inside - which it would, eventually, whether she gave it permission or not. She knew that from this morning, when she had refused to say a word and her door had been kicked open anyway. The stupid little creature had then served her a monologue that it must have been rehearsing since it woke up, or maybe even before, about the courtesy of people and what it means in this world. 

If she was standing, she had better odds when it came to squashing it.

"Come in," she said, though it was more of a growl, really. There was a chittering laugh from the other side of the door, and then it swung open.

She had no idea what the creature was, and she had not bothered to ask earlier, as all she had wanted was to be left alone. She had heard quite enough of its talking, anyway, and she had not been fond of the idea of giving it another topic of conversation to start on.

The thing that walked into the room was shorter than the small cart it was pushing in front of it. Its arms were raised above its head, and it could have used the handle of the cart as a bar to swing on if it so desired. Its eyes were as black as a warlock's, but they were nothing more than little dots on the creature's face. She thought that she was perhaps seeing a vertical slit where a normal person's pupil would be; bright red, but small. She was not sure what the creature's skin was; it looked scaly, which automatically made her want to stay as far away from it as possible.

The thing that caused her the most unease would probably be the creature's hands and feet. It only had three fingers on each hand, each one of them tipped with a pointed talon. It was the same with its feet; three toes, three sharp talons. The creature wore no clothes, but Mae supposed that clothes would not fit on it too well anyway, considering the spikes that began on the roof of its head and ran down the length of its back. 

It had not proven dangerous to her so far, but Mae knew that did not mean that it was harmless. She might not know what the creature was, but she was wary enough of her situation to be cautious of it.

"Lunch for the little princess!" the creature sang. It chittered out another laugh and shoved the cart towards her. She stepped out of its way without so much as a blink and watched it impassively as it crashed into the huge, luxurious bed that she had been given as some sort of cruel joke, the food it had been carrying spilling and splattering all over the floor.

The creature clicked its teeth together, and she thought that it was meant to be a sound of irritation. "That was rude, little princess! More cleaning for poor Sado! More trips to the kitchen for poor Sado! If I were your father, I would teach you to be more courteous--"

"I don't have a father," snapped Mae. She knew that some of her anger stemmed from her exhaustion, but after everything that Dael had done to her, after everything that had happened recently, after being separated from Folco, she could think of no good reason why she should try to keep her emotions in check. The more trouble she caused for Dael, the better, in her mind.

Sado chittered again. "You'll want to be careful with those kinds of words, little princess! You don't want Mister Kingsie to hear!" he chanted, waddling towards the mess she had caused. She turned as he passed her, not wanting to take her eyes off of him; though she didn't feel all that comfortable turning her back on the door, either.