It's been a few weeks since I've become a trainee for the organization, and I think I'm getting on the right track. I could comprehend Perry's instructions with no problem at all now. Nyx may have mentioned my understanding issues to Perry after we went to the gym that time, you know when she bit me in the pool as I was trying to save her from drowning. I still sometimes feel sorry for my core for her; that near-death experience messed her up for sure.

From that day on, Perry has been more patient with me. Not that he was acting any impatient with me, but he used to not explain his instructions enough for me to understand because he assumed that I knew what he meant. After realizing he made a wrong assumption which might have major consequences, he started to explain his words more.

I even saw him cross his eyes during one of our sessions, which confused me. I got tensed up because I thought he was upset with me, but it turned out he was only trying to find a way to word the instructions more clearly to me. He told me that he has a tendency to cross his eyes when he was thinking hard. "It's kind of difficult to express what I've known for years too well in words since they had become a part of me, it just feels natural to me, like swimming," said him.

I can relate to that, for I have some personal experiences which have something to do with it. When I first got transferred to Danville Zoo, I have a roommate who couldn't swim backwards.

Every platypus, or maybe just every platypus I know of (including, of course, myself), was taught to swim backwards. We platypuses are natural swimmers, but we're not born with the capability of swimming backwards. We have to learn it, and for most platypuses, it's done at the age of one, while for a few, it's at two. However, that roommate of mine was three years old but had no idea how to swim backwards.

In fact, I didn't know that until one day, when he saw me swimming in the pool in our enclosure, switching between backwards swimming and forward swimming. The moment I got out, I noticed his strange look. He stared at me in awe, and I thought, it's not a big deal, every platypus could do that, why are you acting like that?

He admitted to me he couldn't swim retrogradingly when I asked him why he was looking at me in that way. He said that he's brought into the zoo since he was only a few months old, so he'd never learned how to do that, before asking me to teach him.

Honestly, I had no idea how to. All I could do is demonstrate the moves to him through swimming backwards as slow as possible and tell him what I was told- every single word from my family when they're teaching me which I could recall. For a few more days I tried to figure out a method to express it in my words while my roommate tried to get what I mean through practising and pondering until finally, he learned how to swim backwards.

But the funny thing is, neither of us knew if it was that I had explained enough, or if it was he himself who got the drill after all those time. Perhaps a little of both.

Perry and I walked into the auditorium. I played the twelve bars blues chord progression on the piano with improvised walking bass, while Perry jammed on his guitar, giving me chances to play the solo from time to time.

We played as long as we like, and then Perry gave me an eye and played a final solo, ending it all. I took my hands off the keyboard and my right foot off the pedal. I mentioned to my trainer Perry, "Nyx told me last night you have your own theme song."

"Yes, I do have one," he grabbed a guitar, "and it goes like this."

I headed toward the piano and played the chords to the song, which perhaps gave Perry a surprise. He didn't know that I knew the chords.

"I see you've read the chords on the O.W.C.A. Internet."

I nodded, not stopping playing, "Pinky showed me that." We sang the song together.

Then, an idea hit me. I played a brief melody on the piano out of impulse.

Suddenly, my trainer stopped singing and playing his instrument altogether. I stopped thereafter to look at him. He stared at me, his eyes growing wide and his mouth agape. He started to tremble and mumble words I couldn't distinguish.

"Perry," I stood up, confused and anxious. I wondered what was going on in his mind. Did I just provoke anything in his head? Is it some sort of bad memory? Is it something that hurts him? Or is it...

My thoughts were cut short by Perry pulling me into an unexpected hug. "Superb, Aus." I could feel his heart beating as his strong chest pushed against my body.

"W-What?" I was shocked by this behaviour of my trainer, for it was really unlike him.

"He moved the guitar to his front and shouted, "that riff you've played! It's exactly what I need!" He played the melody on the guitar a couple times in a row and concluded with a descend.

"Wow, thank you." I laughed in contentment, noticing that his expression was back to normal, "though I thought you were already done with this song."

"Well, yes and no. When I was writing the song, I got stuck after finishing the top lines, the backing vocals, the guitar chords, the bass line, and the keyboards. Actually, it could be considered finished by then, but I knew there was something missing. I also needed a guitar riff, where the lead guitar plays a short melody line. I apologize for my actions earlier, and thank you so much for the inspiration."

"No, it is I who owes you thanks. Perry, you're all my motivation and inspiration here in the agency. It doesn't matter what I do or who I become; I could never possibly thank you enough." I replied hastily, feeling my body temperature rising from anxiety.

"Still not used to compliments yet?" Perry inquired, noticing my behaviour.

I nodded, "yeah, not quite."

"It's best if you do as quickly as possible. I'm pretty sure you're gonna be flooded with praises sooner or later; it's just a matter of time."

"Thank you. I will try not to get stressed out too much when someone compliments me."

"Don't overthink about it, Aus. It will work out eventually," said Perry as he smacked me lightly, in an encouraging way, on the back.

Perry left about a minute later, while I practised playing the guitar. I started with various scales, my fingers running up and down on the fretboard; then, I played some chords that Perry had taught me yesterday- in the afternoon.

I went on to play a couple of chord progressions, strumming in arbitrary patterns. However, when I was playing the C-Am-F-G progression, a melody popped into my head like magic. Unable to resist the musical idea, I began to hum, my hands still playing the guitar.

I stopped humming and playing altogether a few moments later, putting down the guitar. I walked out of the room and headed for my room, a feeling of satisfaction in my heart which seemed to have come out of nowhere causing a smile to creep up my face. I could also feel my own footsteps getting lighter than usual as I passed the corridor.