A Raccoon and his boy
A baby Raccoon, no older then a few weeks, opens its tiny eyes for the first time. Its mother licks it and purrs. It wipes the spit off his tiny face, making him squeak in slight terror. She picks him up by the scruff with her front paw and wipes the dirt off him. She sets him down in a wiggling pile of fur and pats his head before leaving. He and the pile squeak for her to come back. She came back a few minutes later and nursed them. This went on for a few more weeks until they were able to leave the small den they called home. One night while looking for food, it began to rain. He ignores it and continues picking berries. His mama heads back to the den with her babies and counts heads as they piled in. She notes that one's missing and heads back out into the rain.
The little raccoon looks around and notices the quickly changing downpour. He heads for cover under a bush and squeaks loudly for his mom. His mama hears him and runs towards him. Just as she was crossing the muddy road a horse pulled carriage comes racing towards her. Her back foot gets stuck in a pile of sludge and as she tried to free herself, the carriage wheel rolled over her, killing her instantly. The little Raccoon stops squeaking in horror as the carriage left the scene. He comes out and pats her face in hopes that she'd wake up. After no response, he curls up next to her and quietly whines. He looks up at the sound of another carriage and runs away in fear. He ran until his little legs couldn't take him any farther and he hides under a thick berry bush. He shivers from the cold and hides there til morning.
The next morning, the little Raccoon wakes up with a nasty cold and comes out to search for food. He spots a cabbage head in a basket and he rubs his little hands in anticipation. He sneaks over to it and trips a tripwire. A little tube opens and a ball of pink goo splatters around him, trapping him instantly. He freaks out and tried yanking free to no avail. His loud hissing and barks attracted an excited raven haired boy with a blue streak. The boy sees the baby Raccoon and does a little happy dance, "It works, it works, it works..."
a tall man with a rake and a sheep leather vest walks over and puts a hand on the boy's shoulder, making him stop the embarrassing display, "Varian..."
the boy happily looks at him, "Yeah, dad?"
"Now that it's caught, get rid of it."
the boy pulls out a small glass vile of yellow powder and salutes, "Yes, sir." the man walks off and Varian pets the scared Raccoon, "It's okay, little guy. I'm going to free you, then take you back to the woods. This won't hurt a bit." he pours it on the goo and the pink stuff dissolves. The scared animal clings to his arm as he picks it up. He pets his head, "It's okay." he heads towards the woods near the large stone wall. Then stops at the edge and tries putting him down. The poor creature lands on the ground, then runs and clings tightly to his boot covered legs. Varian sighs, then struggles to push him off, "Your home is in the woods. I'm not your mommy!" after a few minutes of struggling, the Raccoon clings to his face. Varian mutters through his fluffy gray fur, "How hard is it to take a wild animal back to the wild?" he holds out both arms at full length and answers his own question, "This hard." he pulls the animal off and holds him at arms length, "Okay, if I can't send you away, I'll make you useful." the animal tilts his little head in confusion. Varian puts the Raccoon in the pocket of his large apron and walks back to the house.
His dad sees him and plants a palm on his face and sighs, "I said get rid of it."
Varian stops in front of his dad and pets the coon's little head, "I couldn't. I figured that if he won't leave me alone, I'll keep him as an assistant." the Raccoon sneezes on his hand. Varian wipes his hand on his apron, "I promise to take care of him."
he sighs again, then crosses his arms, "You'll have to feed him, clean up after him, and keep him out of the garden. A pet is a big..."
Varian corrects him, "Assistant."
"...responsibility. I am not going to take care of him unless you're sick, is that understood?" he finished.
Varian thinks for a minute, then smiles, "It's a yes?"
"Yes."
Varian runs into the house shouting, "I got a new assistant!" he shuts the door behind him and runs down to the basement/lab. He puts the Raccoon on the table and grabs a small test tube. He hands it to him, "Taste this and tell me if it's any good. It's my own cold remedy. My dad won't let me outside to catch one to test its effectiveness, but you already..." he stops talking as the coon spits it in his face and wipes the taste onto the table. Varian's face droops for a moment as it ran through his hair. He grabs a rag and wipes it off, "Okay, so the flavor needs a little work. No biggie." he grabs a few chemicals from around the room and mixes it together. He stops midway when the baby coon started chewing on test tubes. He snags it from him, "No! Don't eat that. It's sensitive equipment!" the coon whines as it looks up at him with large, sad eyes. Something clicks in Varian's brain, "Oh... you're hungry, aren't you." he looks about the room and spots his half eaten breakfast. He grabs the partly eaten apple off the plate and hands it to him, "There you go. Now, what to name you?" he stands there and rubs his chin in thought, then snaps his fingers, "I got it! Sir furry!" the coon continues munching. He thinks some more and spouts names until he got a reaction, "Kevin?... Tyrone?... Pekachu?... Dib?... Binky?... Kit?... Lu... no, that's a girls name... Assist?..." the coon finishes the apple and puts the core on the floor, then starts playing with a glass ball. He knocks it off the table and Varian catches it before it lands on the ground. He puts it back on the table and picks the coon up, "Okay, I'm just going to call you Ruddiger. It means spear. I suspect that you're going to be one in my side until you learn not to make a mess." Ruddiger tilts his head in curiosity, then chatters happily. Varian smiles and puts him in an open box with a towel in it, "This is your bed, Ruddiger." he pets his head, then turns to face the table. He panics and runs over to it, only to have the stuff blow up in his face. He coughs up some blue soot and writes something on parchment, "Do... not... boil." he puts it down and looks at Ruddiger with a smile, "At least it didn't blow the roof off this time. I'd call that progress." he turns back to the table and gets back to work. Ruddiger yawns and curls up into a ball. Varian smile at him and covers him with a clean rag.
Ruddiger wakes up and looks around. He spots the lab door and heads towards it. He walks through the halls and finds Varian's room. Inside the room was a cloth cot with blankets and a pillow, a small chest with a pant sleeve poking out, and a bunch of test tubes sitting on a table under the window. He turns to leave, but stops when the blankets move. He stands there for a moment, then wanders in. he climbs onto the bed and lifts the edge off the pillow. He relaxes upon seeing Varian's face. He gently pats his cheek and gets a smile. Ruddiger sniffs his breath and decides to clean his teeth for him like any caring animal would. Varian wakes up to the feeling of a flat slug smacking his incisors and top lip. His crystal blue eyes open and meet Ruddiger's glowing pupils and instantly knew what was happening. He grabs Ruddiger and holds him at a distance, spits a few times, then puts him on the floor before running to the kitchen. Ruddiger follows him and watches as he scooped some water out of a barrel with a cup and cleaned out his mouth. After Varian spat the last of it out the kitchen window, he sets the cup down and comments, "Okay, starting now, first lesson you're going to learn is boundaries." he picks Ruddiger up and gets to work.
Quirin wakes up moments before the sun and tosses on his vest. He steps out of his room and notices a trail of crumbs leading into the living room. He sighs, then follows it. He stops next to the bookshelf and looks down at his sleeping son. He lay on his chest with messy hair and a missing boot. The boy's right arm loosely hugged Ruddiger and his left lay on top of an open book. The candle near his head had died out hours before, thankfully without lighting a single hair, book, or wood panel on fire. The most noticeable thing was the half eaten loaf of bread and tiny black turd on Varian's back that Ruddiger left behind on his first night in the house. Before Quirin could remove it with a gloved hand, Varian stretches, flips away from Ruddiger and pops a gloved thumb in his mouth. His dad sighs while looking at the squished turd, "Looks like it's laundry week again."
Ruddiger looks up at him and yawns with satisfaction. Quirin turns around and walks towards the kitchen to boil some bath water. He stops just as he crossed the thresh hold and looks upon the torn apart kitchen. Dried and salted foods alike were sewn across the floor and table with pink globs of glue placed randomly. One glob had Varian's missing metal plated boot sticking out of it. It didn't take much to realize what happened. He sighs deeply and heads back to get the glue dissolving powder and cleaning bombs hidden in his son's room, commenting, "This is going to take awhile."