20
The next couple of weeks went similarly. Orion helped his keeper
with the household chores, washing
dishes and sweeping and cleaning. She often helped him in these
tasks, and Orion was glad of the company.
The boy slept in the guest room, in the soft bed, with better accommodations
than he had had in years. He was
actually happy, and thought that if he had to live his life in slavery,
he would want Hintracrii as his mistress. She didn't mistreat him,
or make him feel like a piece of dirt. She treated him like a cub.
That was all he wanted.
Mowing the lawn had been an interesting occurrence. The boy did
not know how to work the ride-on
mower, and Hintracrii did not either for that matter. Her servants
had always done it for her. And so an hour
was spent simply figuring it out. Orion giggled as the rat tried
a button and the seat moved back. The child
had laughed more here than he ahd in a long, long time.
But the thing was finally deciphered, and Orion tried it out.
Now this was fun! He grinned as he started on
the large lawn of the estate. As he mowed the borders, he gazed
out the gate. It was wrought iron, and would be
easily climbed, .but Orion did not try. He liked it here, and
he believed everything Blackmoor said about finding him and punishing him
if he ever escaped. But it was nice to dream about freedom.
Hintracrii watched the little cat on the security monitors. Those
at least she had learned to operate before
her servants left. She wondered what she would do if he tried
to escape, and she did not think that she would
do anything to stop him...although she would be concerned about his
safety, he did not think she could bring herself to try and subdue his
attempt at freedom.
But Orion did not try and escape, only finishing mowing the lawn.
When he came back into the house, quietly as he was accustomed to being,
the expression on his face
looked haunted; the thoughts of freedom had made him homesick.
It was early in the day, there no chores that could not be left for
later. She smiled at the boy as he
walked in the door. "Orion, it is very warm out. Would you like
to go out for lunch? We could go down to the
lake. Do you swim?"
Orion immediately shook his head.
"Well...would you like to learn how?"
Orion bit his lip. He wanted to please the lady, but... "I-I—I'm afraid of w-water..." he said.
The lady rat nodded to him, remembering that he was claustrophobic as
well. She put a hand on his
shoulder and was happy that he did not pull away. "It's all right,
Orion. There is also a playground there. You
can play there while I cool off mayhap."
Orion smiled and nodded.
"All right then, let's get ready." She laughed kindly. "Your clothes are full of grass."
Orion looked down at his shirt and pants and found that they were full of grass, and he laughed too.
"Let's get you changed." Hintracrii had gotten the young slave
a few other sets of clothing., one was a
shorts outfit, one a light pants outfit, and the other another heavy,
warm set for the cold weather. Orion put on
the shorts and followed Hintracrii out of the door.
The park was near a lake whose waters were always warm, even in the
winter. The seemingly unnatural
lake was not chemical, or magical, only fed by a hot underground spring.
The pair had lunch outside, and Hintracrii let Orion order whatever
he wanted. As they ate, they
watched Mutants children playing in the water and on the playground
equipment. Orion was interested in the
playground. He had a flashback of memory of playing on similar
equipment on Thundera.
after lunch, Hintracrii turned Orion loose onto the playground,
She watched him at first, not afraid that
he would run, but afraid someone would give him trouble. She
noted that the child got disgusted looks from
most of the children there, and watched the parents take their young
ones away. But three did stay, and their
parents did not seem to mind a Thunderian playing on the playground.
The lady rat had a feeling that the only
reason the others left, and did not demand that Orion be moved, was
that she was with him, and she was well
respected.
When she was confident Orion would be all right, Hintracrii told him where she would be.
Orion nodded, and went back to looking the playground over.
"What's your name?" The question had come from a little jackal
girl of around the age of three who
had bounded up to the young cat. She'd never seen a real feline
before. She was a tiny little thing, and Orion
smiled, He had always loved children, even when he was very young.
And this one did not seem to be afraid of
him. he looked over to the child's mother, and the adult jackal
gave him a sad smile. She understood.
Orion got down on his knees to put himself at the little girl's level.
"M-my name is Orion," he said to
her. "What's yours?"
"I'm Jackli. And that's my brother over there, his name is Kkikris. That means fighter in plundaarian!"
Orion smiled. "I know...I know Plundaarian." He tentatively
waved at the other boy, who waved back
then went back to attacking a tree with his toy sword.
The talkative little jackal continued, pointing at the third of the
children still in the playground. "And
that's Vulturr, and he's a year younger than Kkikris. Kkikris
is eight, and Vulturr is seven."
Wow, she sure talked a lot! Orion grinned at the little girl. "Well, what is there to do here?"
Jackli was quite willing to show Orion how all the playground equipment
worked. Orion liked the slide,
which made him almost feel like he was flying; it was a feeling of
freedom. He liked the swings, too, as he
never had a fear of heights. The play tunnels, though...he had
spent a few moments trying to explain to the little
girl why he could not go into them, but she had finally accepted it.
After a few hours or so of strenuous play, the two children sat down
on the bench to rest for a little bit.
Jackli frowned and reached up a hand towards Orion's neck. She
lightly touched the collar, and asked, "What's
that?"
Orion winced. it was only childish curiosity, he knew, but he
was ashamed. "It's a collar," he told the
llittle girl, unconsciously fingering the hateful metal band around
his neck. He had almost forgotten about it, playing on the playground.
"A collar...? But I thought only pets had collars."
Orion sighed and looked down, and then looked at the llittle girl.
"Do you know what a slave is?" he
asked her.
Some understanding came into the child's eyes. Yeah...our...our mama told us about it."
"She says it's wrong," came an older voice. Kkikris and his avian
friend and come over and were
listening.
Orion shrugged uncomfortably. "I-it is. but that doens;'t stop anyone."
"You're really a slave?" Vulturr asked, looking at the collar.
his eyes widened. "You're with
Blackmoor? I hear he's really mean!"
Orion felt a grim amusement at the vulture's words and expression.
The young avian was impressed.
Great, he thought. "Yeah," he said. "He is."
Kkikris nudged his friend with a look of contempt one saves for his
best friend when they're being a
dork. "Yeah its a great honor," he said sarcastically.
he turned to Orion. "You know how to shoot arrows?
There's a booth on the other side of the park that teaches you and
it doesn't cost anything."
Looking somewhat interested, Orion said that he did not know how.
"Well you want to?" Orion nodded. "Okay, it's over there...me and Vulturr will meet you there okay?"
Orion smiled a little and nodded again, but as he looked down, he saw
the llittle girl, Jackli, crying.
"What's wrong?" he asked her.
"I didn't mean to make you sad," she sniffed.
The young slave felt bad. "Aww, it's all right, I'm not sad. You
didn't make me sad, I promise." After a
moment, he timidly put an arm around her and gave her a llittle squeeze.
He guiltily looked over to the jackals'
mother to see if she disapproved. but she only smiled at the
sight. Orion was relieved.
Jackli sniffed. "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure. Come on, do you know where that archery place is?"
The child nodded. "Can you take me
there, or are you not allowed over there?"
Jackli stood up, wiping her eyes. "I can go there only if my brother
is there..." She took Orion's hand.
"Come on, it's over here."
Orion did not recoil at her touch. The touch of children never
bothered him...it was only those his age,
and adults whose touch he hatred. He only endured it because
he usually got in trouble if he did not.
The four children spent long time shooting arrows. Orion
decided that he liked it, and had a good time,
despite the Mutant at the booth. He had wanted to throw Orion
out of the park, and said a few derogatory
things about him...but Vulturr, a born con artist if there ever was
one, convinced him to let Orion stay and shoot
arrows. he went there all the time, and his family helped build
the park. And so Orion stayed.
after a while, the jackal's mother came and got them,. "It's
time to go," she said to them. "Maybe you
can see your new friend here again." She smiled at Orion as she
said so, and it ws a sincere smile.
"Awww....okay mama." Jackli pouted, but she gave Orion a hug before leaving. "Bye, Orion!"
"Come on, Kkikris," the mother said. "And Vulturr...you were supposed
to be home a half hour ago!
your father is going to be pretty mad."
"Oops...see you Orion!" And the young Mutants dashed off.
The woman smiled. "Good luck to you, child," she said to Orion before she left.
Orion waved to his new friends, feeling very happy at the moment.
Not knowing what to do now, he wandered back over towards the lake.
he was amazed that his mistress
had trusted him thus far, and he did not want to break that trust.
He found her floating lazily in the water, a bathing suit of shorts and
a short shirt on. He watched her, but did not get anywhere near the
water.
Seeing her young guest, Hintracrii smiled and swam to the shore.
"Hello Orion," she said. "That water
is very warm, why don't you come in a llittle bit? Maybe we can
teach you a little bit how to swim. Then maybe you won't be afraid
of it."
Biting his lip, Orion shook his head.
"Of course you don't have to if you don't want to," she hastily added.
"But maybe you can just sit on
shore, a little bit into the water for a start."
It took a great deal of convincing, but Orion finally started inching
towards the water. there was so much
of it; if only Hintracrii knew how difficult it was, how he had
to force down the terror...how he had to make
himself move. But she had shown trust in him...and he wanted
to do the same.,
All the while, the rat did not make a move towards him, only encouraged
him and made sure that none
of the other bathers got near the timid slave. Finally,
Orion made it to the shore, and managed to stand still
when the water sloshed over his feet. Hintracrii smiled widely.
"Good boy! You're doing very well, little one.
Just a little farther in..." She extended a hand, having gotten
on her knees, to his level. Shaking. Orion slowly
let her take his hand almost expecting her to jerk him in. But
she didn't, only let him go at his own pace.
Soon, Orion was sitting down in the shallow water, looking both very
scared and somewhat proud. it
showed a great deal of trust in the woman to be doing this...but he
felt mostly okay with it. The rat stayed with
him the while time. She splashed him a tiny bit, and got a surprised
look. but then Orion giggled. It was a high
pitched, nervous laugh, but it was there. He even splashed her
back.
There was a brief splash war, during which Hintracrii was very careful
only to splash gently. Afterwards,
Orion was soaked, and ready to get out, but he looked happy with himself
as he stood, looking relieved. "I'm
proud of you, little one," she said to the child, ruffling his mane.
"You faced your fear, and even had a little fun."
Orion beamed at her. "I-I did!"
She laughed., "Yes, you did. Come on, let's go on back home.
The chores can wait, let's play a game or
something."
Orion nodded. All the way back home, the child told her of his
day and the children he had met. he
sounded excited, and Hintracrii did not know whether to be happy for
him or not. To be so happy over such a
little thing!
They spent the rest of the day playing games, and watching the televiewer.
And Orion was happy.
Chapter 21
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