In the morning, I woke with the feeling of bags in my eyes. Could Jolteons even have eye bags? I saw that the sun wasn't even up yet, but I could still hear shuffling below me in the kitchen, so I went downstairs to check it out. My eyes were refusing to adjust, so I felt my way downstairs, quietly, so as not to wake anyone.
Through the darkness, I saw the figure of Diana, setting down a few duffel bags. I could hear that they were heavy from the sound they made as they hit the counter.
"What are you doing here? Did you forget something?" I asked her.
There was a moment of silence where she just stared at me, so I got impatient and demanded of her; "Why are you here?! You. are. not. welcome here!" …
"Um, hello? Can I help you?" He said, and I immediately knew that this was not Diana. It was obvious, as the voice was much more masculine. My vision finally adjusted, making it obvious who it was, or rather, who it was not.
"Who are you?" I asked, confused.
"Uhhhh… I'm Ian. I heard there was a vacancy here, so I applied to move in. I got uhh…" his voice trailed off, "What's your name?"
I hesitated, puzzled. I wasn't expecting that, but at the very least I wasn't actually dealing with Diana.
"Steve. Yeah, I'm Steve."
"Okay, then, Steve, do you know where the vacant room is?"
"No I do not, sorry."
"Then what?" He asked. I paused for a moment, before looking up and towards the ceiling.
"Elizabeeettthhh!" I called upwards, and within seconds, I heard her rush down the stairs.
"Oh, I am so sorry! I meant to wakeupbutighssosskdsfidvskakdsjosbwi" She accelerated her words so much that I couldn't understand anything she said after the first 2 seconds. Apparently, he managed, as he walked past with focus in his eyes. I turned back to Elizabeth and she silently whispered to me,
"Go back to sleep, we will talk in the morning. Goodnight."
I immediately knew I had slept in, as downstairs I could hear a conversation with the new Sylveon. I felt slightly better now with the extra sleep I had gotten, and I returned to the kitchen.
Toz and Gray were cooking while everyone else conversed. Tony stoked the furnace, Mark talked about plants from his greenhouse, Aza was telling stories, Elizabeth was introducing Ian, and Ian was just listening to it all, laughing and conversing. I smiled and joined the conversation. The warmth in my heart ended when I caught a certain word, one which I have known since the start.
"Those Humans…" I heard Tony start a story, so I walked over and readied my ears.
"I've been on this island for a long time now, so I've heard about a couple more humans than you…" he replied to Aza.
'A few more humans, eh? Were there more here with me?' I thought.
"But it doesn't take a genius to figure out that last winter there were 19 dungeons and 19 dead humans, but now there are 20 dungeons… with 19 dead humans. Personally, I think this is probably another special case like the one twenty years ago, but either way, people are getting scared now." Tony slowly got louder and louder, and Aza replied,
"Yeah, I just hope wherever they are, whoever they are, that they will be found before they turn violent and kill people. I wouldn't worry Tony, I'm sure it'll all be fine, hell, maybe this was taken care of already, and it's just not reported!"
It was like every word I heard made me get angrier and angrier. Were people saying this about humans, about me, the entire time, and this is just the first time I'm understanding it? Where did the notion of us being violent even come from? I needed to know more, but I couldn't just walk up and ask something that was assumed to be basic knowledge, right?
I closed out of my thought process and looked around to realize the tone of the room had completely changed. It went from introductions and talking about hobbies to a room of fear and anger. Ironically, I walked over to Tony, who was the only one who had quieted down, and joined him in just staring at the fire. I plopped down a log right outside of the metal plate on which the furnace rested, sat down on it, and just lost myself staring at the fire. Tony glanced over at me and understood my wishes to be left undisturbed.
Twisting, turning, and twitching, yet rhythmic, and melodic. Calming and comforting. There's a certain solace in every flame, so dangerous, yet so important to our daily lives. What if this place is like a fire? So bright and hot, so endearing, until it's not. If I'm covered in gasoline, it would be considered conventional wisdom to stay away, but what other alternative did I have? Leave and freeze?
I hoped I would never find out.
Once everyone else got bored and headed back to their rooms, I volunteered to do the dishes, along with Aza. I was handed a dry rag and given two tasks. The first was to dry the dishes, simple enough. For the second task, however, I didn't understand what she said.
I was expecting her to go out and fill a tub with water or something, so you can imagine my surprise when Aza instantly blasted away stains using water from her mouth. I practically jumped out of my skin-… er, fur. The Vaporeon noticed and laughed at me. Using their water powers, she cleaned away every stain nearly instantly. (Being aware of Germ Theory definitely left me with some questions which I didn't bother to entertain.)
I dried the dishes and left a few minutes after Aza did.
Aza was furiously pounding on my door a few minutes later. As soon as I opened it, I was immediately grabbed and dragged downstairs by Aza who gave me the death stare and demanded I put away the dishes. The entire time, she stood across the counter, staring at me. She made it clear that I would not leave until I was done. When I was only about halfway done, the worst possible thing that could have happened, happened. I dropped a plate on the ground, it shattered, and left tiny glass shards all over the floor. I had to stop what I was doing so I could retrieve a broom.
Aza moved to stand in the passageway, blocking my way to the closet. I tried to push past her, but she smacked me and demanded that I continue working on the dishes, completely regardless of the glass on the floor. Given no other choice, I continued. Over time, I started to tremble and ache, both from standing on my hind legs and from the glass on the floor and in my feet. When I finished, my legs were just about ready to give out, so I collapsed into a chair, now too tired to clean up the glass.
Aza snarked as they left the room. I checked myself and saw that my paws weren't nearly as bad as I thought they were, but I still had to rest for a bit.
After some deliberation, I decided to not say anything about what had just happened, as I felt like it was partially my fault for failing to follow directions, and I didn't want to make any more people upset than necessary.
Eventually, I did have to get up and clean the glass, as the last thing I needed was to be blamed for spilling glass shards everywhere.
