Wanderer was jerked out of her reverie quickly. The sights and sounds of the mess hall came flooding back into her brain as she looked up to see what had caught her attention. Somebody was saying her name. She recognized the voice immediately –Jamie.
"Wanda? Oh, finally! I've been calling your name for ages!" he said, having just sat down at the breakfast table across from Wanda and Ian. A full plate sat in front of the growing teenager and he was already shoveling it into his mouth. Ian, who sat beside Wanda, chuckled knowingly.
"Something on your mind, hon?" he asked. Wanderer looked up at him, brushing away a few stray blonde curls and smiled as she shook her head.
"Yes, Jamie?" she replied to her adoptive younger brother. He was probably about to ask her another question that he had thought of during the night about one of the previous worlds she had lived in.
"When are you next going on a raid, I was wondering?" he asked with that infamous mock innocent look on his face. Wanda frowned and exchanged a look with Ian, who had been looking at Jamie in a way somewhat similar to how Wanda had. Jamie appreciated the simple life style in the caves. Why would he be asking for something extra, now? Perhaps it was a different type of food that he wanted. The soul shifted slightly in her seat.
"Um, probably in the next month or so… why?" she asked curiously. Jamie chewed his lip. He looked as if he was thinking about how to proceed. Wanda readied herself for a long explanation of some sort. Then she realized what he probably wanted – to go on the raid with them. Even though there hadn't been a single slip up in the 8, going on 9 months that Wanda had been going on raids as Pet, she still was nowhere near comfortable with letting Jamie come along.
"Jamie! You know I can't let you go on raids… it's too dangerous. Remember what happened last time? What if the seekers came? I can't risk you getting hurt again," Wanda said as firmly as possible, though she didn't like talking that way to anybody, let alone Jamie. Ian raised his eyebrows and nodded as he slipped an arm around Wanda's slight shoulders.
"She's right, Jamie. You know she doesn't like you going," he added to Wanda's small speech. Jamie immediately shook his head, smiling slightly to himself.
"No, no, nothing like that!" the teenager said with a grin. "Though I do wish at times you would loosen up on that… I'm just as capable as any of the older people, plus that happened around a year ago" he added. "Well, I was wondering - do you Souls still keep pets like humans did?" he asked curiously. Wanda tipped her head with a quizzical look on her face, clearly caught off guard.
"Yes, they do. What does that have to do with going on a raid?" she asked, still not getting the idea. Ian started grinning and shaking his head.
"Kid, you can't have a pet down here… you'd have to be looking after it all the time. It just wouldn't work," the dark-haired man said to Jamie. A look of comprehension came across Wanda's face, and then she started nodding, agreeing immediately with Ian. In her short time as a regular "human" living in her little apartment, Wanda had never had any pets, and didn't want to. Jamie looked down at the table sadly, and Wanda's heart ached. He looked up at them both from under his lashes.
"It's just that I've missed it, you know, since moving down to the caves. I've always wanted a dog and Mel said we never could, being on the run and stuff. Before that, Mom was allergic. I was hoping now that we were settled down and everything, what with the raids going on all the time, we could have one," he declared with a distinct flavour of disappointment to his voice. Wanda sighed and Ian frowned at Jamie. They both knew that this was a clear guilt trip for Wanda.
"Where would you keep it? Where would it go to the bathroom? What would it eat? How would it have exercise?" Ian asked Jamie. "I used to have a dog when I was a kid and we had to take her on walks all the time, and get special food for her and stuff. How would that work down here?" Jamie paused for only a moment, clearly having thought this over.
"Look, I'm not just saying this on a whim. I think that we could section off an area and plant grass in it for the dog to to go the bathroom, and I'm sure that running around the caves every day will be good. Dog food's easy to get on the raids, because it doesn't go bad. We could even get a ball or something for it to fetch! Everybody would love it," Jamie replied, his voice high and pleading. He allowed himself to smile slightly as he looked back and forth between Wanda and Ian's faces. They looked like they were close to being convinced. And why wouldn't they be? It was a good argument, after all.
"Okay… but we have to ask Mel and Jared first," Wanda decided with a certain degree of finality in her high soprano.