Immune

Chapter 4

We stepped out of the elevator on the ground floor, Fenrir weaving between Sif and myself excited at the prospect of a walk, like he was still a puppy, earning an almost musical giggle from Sif as he very nearly knocked me over. I walked over to the door and held it open for Sif, earning a soft smile and a quick thanks. Fenrir closely followed her out of the door and I followed after them.

We walked side by side down the street, Sif slightly in front, leading us to a place called 'Hyde Park' making casual conversation, until Sif asked me "so what was your life like before you went on the run?" I looked around attempting to avoid her gaze until I gave up, and with a sigh, I gave her my life story up until I met Perseus. She had been rather angry at the bullying and abuse I had received throughout life, at the end of my story she was speechless for a second before exclaiming "I can't believe he did that to you! and made you provide for him at the same time! it's ridiculous!" she was obviously going to go an about it for a while so I gave her a slight laugh and said "it's fine, I'm fine and it's not happening anymore, is it?" she looked at me, dumbfounded saying in a hushed voice "how can you say that? he abused you! you should at least want revenge!" I thought for a second about that, of course I wanted revenge, but it just wasn't very high on my to-do list. "I never said I didn't want revenge, it's just not the most pressing matter right now, is it?" she looked at me surprised before asking "then what is the most pressing matter?" I, thinking that was obvious, said "making sure this place can sustain Fenrir, I mean, it's great that we can go for walks, but is there dog food? is there a place for him to sleep? and most importantly, does he feel safe?" her expression softened at that, and she replied "of course Old London can sustain him! there's plenty of pet shops around with loads of dog food" she pointed out a shop called 'Pets At Home' to prove that point I asked her if we could stop to look around the shop and she simply nodded happily, so we entered the shop

I'd wanted to see if I could find some new toys for Fenrir since we had ran away with nothing but a rather beaten up tennis ball that barely bounced anymore and his lead, that we barely ever used as he had grown accustomed to walking at my heel and I trusted him to catch up with me if he lagged behind to sniff a lamppost or watch the birds. I walked over to aisles labelled 'dog toys and treats' and searched through the wide range of toys for something Fenrir would like. I picked up another of those rope toys that you could play tug of war with as Fenrir had always loved it, a squeaky chicken, that sounded more like it was screaming that Fenrir was eyeing up, and a can of tennis balls to play fetch with. I handed Fenrir the chicken and was about to head for the door where Sif was standing, when I remembered treats, so I grabbed a kilo bag of gravy bones and two giant dog bones that Fenrir could probably plough through in a week each.

the rest of the way to Hyde Park was filled with the screams of the rubber chicken as Fenrir bit down on it mercilessly and Sif's giggles as what had seemed to her to be the most fearsome animal alive turned into a playful little puppy once he had a toy in his jaws. I beamed at her, noticing her complete ease around Fenrir that seemed rare from the reactions of the others upon meeting him, fair he was snarling at them, but Sif trusted him, which by extension meant she trusted me too, and I took great pleasure in that, as I was trusted by no one on the surface. 

we had finally arrived at Hyde Park, which was surprisingly not that overgrown "we wanted to keep the park in check, so we'd have something under control down here, it's a nice place to walk and just, sit for a while" Sif told me. "How do you keep it watered?" I asked, bewildered. "they set up a sprinkler system at some point, so we just keep light on it and restock the water every now and again" she answered, and I noticed that the park was much more lit up than the rest of the city. Giant trees reached towards the metal ceiling that had massive screens covering it that seemed to show the sky before the world had covered it up with clouds of smog that covered the entirety of the Earth, it was a beautiful light blue, just like the colour of my eyes, and was littered with fluffy white clouds. This sky was so different from the one I was used to, the one I had grown up staring into was steel grey, with black clouds that seemed to meander aimlessly through the sky, laden down with ash and soot from industrial chimneys that belched smog into the air.