Endless Sky ~New Beginning~

Chapter Twenty

Tonight.
It was tonight.
OStar's fur felt heavy with both excitement and fear. She had no idea what to expect. What if it was worse than she thought? Maybe it could be better though! She had not a clue.
The only way to get answers was to go there herself. Alone. At least for the first time.
Looking for distractions to make the day go faster, OStar found herself painting.
Painting, as in getting her paws covered in thick colored liquid as she smeared it onto a canvas on the floor, making a massive mess.
She tried hard not to drip everywhere, but she didn't succeed that well. In addition, her painting looked more like someone guzzled paint and spat it back out onto the canvas. It was supposed to be the central fountain, not paint vomit.
OStar kept trying until Roxxan came in, somehow sensing that something was wrong.
"WHAT THE FUCK!" she roared at the mess.
"I was bored, okay? There was paint, so I decided to use it!" OStar quickly explained, frowning. "Besides, this is my room anyways, I'll clean it up myself."
Roxxan fumed but couldn't really say anything. It was OStar's room, after all.
With a small growl she told OStar to stay in her room for now while her paws were covered in paint.
"I don't need paint pawprints trailing down the hallway. If I do see that, you will be covered in pain as well as paint," Roxxan hissed before leaving.
"She didn't mean that" OStar yawned, having never heard of someone being beaten by Roxxan. There were times she smacked or threw something, but she knew Roxxan would never go too far to create too much pain. Just enough to sting for a moment. If anything, Roxxan would rather humiliate or scare someone rather than hurt them.
OStar chuckled as she remembered the robot dumping slugs onto Avaro. She should ask why that dragon hates slugs so much.
OStar sat up and shook a paw out of reflex. Big mistake. Paint splatters went everywhere.
"...Shit" she silently cursed, looking down at the paint on her chest, also feeling it on her face and whiskers.
Her first action was to try and wipe it off, but instead she smeared more onto her face.
OStar whined, not liking the clumpy feeling she was getting on her fur, she'd rather be wet with rain. At least that didn't cling so much and eventually evaporated.
There weren't even any cups or bowls of water nearby that OStar could use. That was her big mistake. She'd forgotten about that.
OStar tried resorting to wiping the paint off her paws and onto her painting, it did help some, but not much. She could already feel it drying on her face as well, hardening her fur. She hated it.
"I'll never paint again after this," she swore to herself, frowning at her paw that was covered in a green-brown mess of colors.
Grooming herself was not an option. OStar was sure even Afina wouldn't groom herself if there was paint on her fur.
The door reopened as Roxxan returned, not even knocking.
"Go. Bath. Now," she ordered, stepping back.
OStar looked over to see the robot had made a paper towel trail for her to walk on, keeping the paint off the floor. Nodding, she quickly followed it. Nobody had to ask her twice to clean herself, she jumped straight into the tub without hesitation. Roxxan left her alone as OStar washed herself, making sure the paint was gone from between her claws, off her face, chest, and even her portal locket had some paint that needed to be washed off.
Luckily it was all easy to wash out, no stains left behind. Well, maybe a small stain but it would be gone by morning.
Hopping out once she finished, OStar shook herself like a dog and let her fur puff out, feeling better.
The paper towels were all gone, no sign of paint except some left in the bathroom when she rushed into the tub. OStar would take care of that later. Maybe.
She headed back to her room and hesitated, did she really want to go into that mess? Right after taking a bath?
Her fault anyways.
OStar opened the door and blinked. Spotless.
All the paint was gone, all that was left was OStar's drying canvas. She was surprised Roxxan didn't just throw out that mess.
OStar looked around, wondering if the robot had done all this and if she could thank her. She had planned to clean the mess herself after washing. She didn't think Roxxan was going to, especially after how she reacted.
"I'll thank her when I see her again, if she's the one who cleaned it, that is," OStar thought to herself as she closed the door and examined her mess of a painting. Maybe it looked somewhat like a fountain, but the smudges of green brown threw it off a lot. If someone didn't tell another what it was supposed to be, they wouldn't see the fountain at all.
"It was my first painting, I had no idea what I was doing," OStar reasoned with herself as she looked around her room. Indeed, it was spotless, the mess was gone, even in the tiny cracks.
After sitting down, OStar twisted a paw around and started flattening some of her fur as well as she could. It was still damp from the wash, but no longer felt uncomfortably clumpy.
"What time is it?" she questioned, glancing at a clock.
Four twenty. Nice.
The day was really going by slowly, every hour seemed to drag on endlessly. Maybe OStar should get something to eat, the last meal she'd had was breakfast, hours ago.
It was something to distract her.
The more OStar focused on how much time she had left, the slower it went,
the same way a student feels in class if they keep watching the clock.
Shaking once more, she left her room again. This time she headed to the kitchen rather than the bathroom, hoping the light paint stains on her fur weren't too noticeable.
Charlotte was in the main room this time with Avaro and Lucerne. The dragon had either forgiven, or forgotten, the monopoly game from earlier. On the table where they were sitting was a pile of construction paper, scissors, glue, a few open books, and cute folded origami works, with bonus crumbled paper scattered everywhere on the floor.
Charlotte seemed to be trying her best, with one hand being clawed and lacking a pinky, it was a little challenging.
Avaro was noticeably succumbing to anger as he accidentally ripped his work while trying to fold a wing, while Lucerne sat in peace and folded his calmly, frequently glancing back at one of the books and examining his origami before making another fold.
"These oreganos are stupid, how do people invent these?? Who wakes up and goes, 'Yeah, let's fold a piece of paper impossibly into a whole ass 3D horse,' NOT ME!" Avaro fumed.
"You asked to do one of the harder ones," Lucerne added in, tucking a corner into its place.
"I didn't think they were THAT hard!" he huffed back as he crumbled his torn, half folded, origami and tossed it onto the floor. This made OStar wonder how much of the mess was from Avaro, maybe it was all from him.
"He'd better watch out, Roxxan will be very displeased if she finds crumbled wasted sheets of paper strewn about on her floor," she thought, quietly creeping off before she got caught into their activity. It looked to be a good distraction for her to pass the time, but food came first. OStar didn't want another repeat of the arcade, she was already feeling starved.
The kitchen was empty, at first glance. By the time OStar had the sandwich meat out and was getting some bread, Afina yawned and moved from the chair she was sleeping on.
"OStar?" she mewed, poking her small head out to look over the table.
OStar nearly jumped out of her fur.
"Afina?? When did you get here?" she exclaimed.
The little cat yawned. "Sleeping."
OStar blinked, then nodded. "Oh..."
Afina hopped onto the table and padded her way over to the meat as OStar worked on getting out two slices of bread from the loaf.
Turning, she caught the grey and blue cat carefully pulling out a slice of ham. The thin meat was hooked by one claw before being snagged by teeth and yanked the rest of the way.
OStar just watched as the bandit jumped off the table and fled to the main room with her prize.
"I was expecting a conversation, not a robbery..."
Shaking her head, OStar went back to getting herself a small meal, using the table to keep herself balanced on her hind legs. Stowing away the meat and bread, she was finally able to feast peacefully. She sat on her haunches as her forepaws carefully held the sandwich in place, keeping it from both falling splat on the floor or falling apart, then going splat.
It wasn't the best meal she ever had, especially compared to some of the meals Roxxan prepared, but it was enough to keep her full until dinner.
OStar thought briefly for a moment that she should leave early, before midnight, but quickly discarded that idea.
She didn't want anyone to realize she was gone. The best way to do that was to leave when everyone was, hopefully, asleep, then return before they awakened. In addition to that, in the week OStar has been here, she'd noticed Roxxan had some kind of weak connection to the mansion. It wasn't hard for her to focus and determine whenever or not someone was inside. Maybe even with some more focusing, she would even be able to pinpoint their location.
Quite a helpful ability, honestly, especially if someone were to wander off and get lost. But it also created worry.
It would mean, with this ability, Roxxan would be able to tell if OStar was gone or not.
She hadn't yet questioned the robot on it, so she was not positive that it was true. Even if it was, there could be the chance Roxxan wouldn't realize OStar was gone until she looked into her empty room and focused.
More reasons to go at night.
Roxxan would be asleep.
"It's just one night, then I will tell someone, then the others. It's not like I'm purposely refusing to get any help at all," OStar thought with a small frown, taking a bite of her sandwich.
"I could be keeping them from danger anyway. I don't want any of my friends getting hurt because of me..."
She swallowed the last of her food and frowned more, feeling as if a rock was sliding down her throat.
Maybe a distraction would be a good idea now.
OStar got up and shook her paws, removing any crumbs, then headed off to the main room.
The three were still working. No. Now it was two. Avaro was sitting back with his arms crossed as Lucerne was trying to describe where to fold, how to fold, and even where to tuck in some corners and cut if needed.
"Honestly, I would rather make a paper airplane and try to see if I could poke someone's eye out with it," Avaro grumbled. Charlotte snorted and Lucerne seemed not to have heard his friend, too busy looking at the book.
OStar spotted Afina under the table, laying on her belly with her paws tucked in and eyes closed, perhaps half asleep. Everyone seemed so peaceful, it felt odd. OStar was about to do something that may be dangerous, and everyone was relaxing, unaware. She couldn't ruin that. She didn't want to be that one, the one who shows up, then suddenly everything starts going wrong for everyone.
"But maybe that's what's going to happen anyways," a voice spoke behind her, a familiar voice, but she couldn't remember whose.
OStar spun around, nothing. Nobody was standing there.
"What?"
"Maybe it's better to forget it all," it spoke again, behind her once more. Again, nothing.
This wasn't the other cat with Pargenti. This was a man speaking, one of the ones from her dream, but not her brother.
OStar's fur bristled once she realized the main room was empty now, something was clearly wrong.
"What's going on?!" she panicked, blinking rapidly and shaking her head. Repositioning her paws to keep from falling over, OStar looked around once more. This wasn't the mansion anymore.
It was all black, completely flat as far as the eye could see with a dark grey and black speckled sky. A single large black dot stared back down like a moon or a sun.
She froze in fear, beginning to feel numb.
OStar had no idea what was going on, hopefully someone didn't lace the bread or meat with some kind of drugs, but that was unlikely.
"Maybe this is all a dream, maybe I passed out, or-" she didn't have the chance to finish her thought as something knocked her to the ground.