Night's Omen

Lothaire stood with a puzzled look on his face as she explained the ways of Arctic Fox society. It was true that he knew little about them, other than the fact they were rare and usually lovely looking. He looked at her for a moment, thinking about what she had said. It was going to be quite the task to mold her into the kind of pet he desired. He wanted a beautiful ornament for his arm, not another slave. He was going to have to put some serious work into her. When she fell silent Lothaire looked up and stared at her a moment.

"What you said is true, I know little about what your kind does amongst themselves. But here you are not a slave...you are my pet. You will be allowed more freedom here if I deem you worthy of it. I am not a cruel master...as long as you obey."

It was true, Lothaire wasn't the cruelest master in Midnight by a long shot. But he did have the dark brutal side that made him such an effective trainer. Hopefully though, Lily would be a good girl, and never have to see that.

Lilyana nodded, though in truth she really didn't know what he meant by freedoms. She was thankful that she was able to speak at all, and not be in that cage - wasn't that enough? She wondered, though, what else there could be. "I think I understand," she said, still hesitant. She twisted her fingers together as a child might a few times, fidgeting before she spoke again.

"Are... there any other Arctic Foxes here that I could play with? While you're away, I mean? I mean, I don't have to. I mean, I of course would rather be with you, but I don't do well on my own, and, oh - nevermind," she sang, flustered with herself. She'd just suggested she'd prefer someone else's company to his, hadn't she? She was so rotten! Why would anyone want her as a pet?

Lothaire listened to her with amusement. It did please him that she had such a deep fear it seemed of angering him, that meant that he probably would not have to teach her to fear his anger. He watched as she twitched and fidgeted as she spoke. She was nervous..it was again amusing to Lothaire, but at the same time it reinforced the idea he already had about the worthlessness of her former master. Another artic fox to play with? Yes he knew of another one in Midnight, but he would have to speak to her master first. But the thought of her having a "playmate" did seem like a good idea, it would help to be more calm when not around him he hoped.

"Do not be afraid of my anger for what you just said. I told you that sometimes I will have to leave you to attend to business, and perhaps it would be a good thing for you to have some company other than these slave..because they are simply robots built of flesh instead of metal. There is another Arctic Fox here in Midnight, and I shall see if I can arrange something with her master. "

Lothaire would seek out the other foxes master soon, because his brothels and other flesh dealing business interests in the city were taking up a quite a bit of his attention lately.

Her eyes positively lit up. "Really?" she squeaked. "Really, really?" She was in shock, utter disbelief. "Oh, you mean it? You're the best!" And she rolled up onto her tiptoes and gave him the most chaste of kisses on his cheek, one foot up and hooked back girlishly. She was positively floating on air.

She remembered herself, though, and then realized that it might seem as though she were ungrateful because she desired the company of someone else over Lothaire. That wouldn't do, not at all, and she bit her lip a little, ceasing her celebration. "I didn't mean to imply that I would rather have another playmate as opposed to you, Mas- I mean, Lothaire. Not at all," she shook her head. "I just mean to say that... well, nobody has ever cared about me enough to make sure that I was well looked after when they left, so it just proves that you're the best Master I ever could have asked for."

She smiled sweetly to him, truth in all she said. She was so lucky, Lily was, to have such a wonderful Master.

Lothaire was momentarily shocked by her response. When she practically lunged toward him, he was already raising a most awful mental maelstrom to project into her mind. But her actions stopped him. He felt the surge of happiness come over her, momentarily washing away the doubt and fear that clung to her. But then like a wet blanket the fear returned. She was once again afraid she had offended him. He reached out his hand to pat her on the head.

"I took your words for their true value. I will try to make arrangements before the next time I know I shall be away on business. But you will have to behave yourself, this  other fox's Mistress is not as kind as I am, but I believe that she will allow the two of you to entertain each other if you can demonstrate to her proper behavior and respect...which, I believe that you are quite capable of, for you have made it this far with out displeasing me."

Lothaire looked at her smile, and it was almost enough to make him smile....almost. Yes he was a wonderful master, and she was lucky to have him. Because if not for Lothaire, she would still be in a dog kennel somewhere no doubt. But as long as she remained obedient and grateful, he believed he would not have to remind her how much worse off she could be.

Lily leaned in to his touch, like an over-affectionate cat might, and nuzzled his hand with her cheek. The gesture really was so animal-overtoned that it was wondered just how long Lily had been in her other form. Days, perhaps? Weeks? It would be a strange notion for a fox to go feral like that, but it was possible with all animals if they were kept that way long enough.

"I will try," she promised, nodding firmly.

Still, Lily seemed just as buoyant as ever, doing nothing more and nothing less than what a normal 12-year old might do, despite the fact that her papers clearly displayed her age as older still. It seemed that her innocence and captivity perhaps had stunted her mentally; if she were ever released into the real world, she'd be eaten alive.

Complacently, she plopped down into a chair and began looking through a large-printed picture book. Lily couldn't read, but she loved the colours, and she especially liked the kind that popped up when you turned the pages.

Lothaire noticed as Lily nuzzled his hand that it wasn't simply a gesture of contentment. It had a very strong animal overtone to it, almost as if she was close to going feral. But it was almost unheard for a Fox in Midnight to be driven to that point, mostly because of the cost it took to acquire one. But based on what Lothaire had already seen of the way Lily's old master treated her, he could see how spending most of her time in animal form might have been better for her.

He noticed that she picked up one of the many large colorful art books he had sitting about the living room. Lothaire preferred to do his serious reading in one of his offices or elsewhere in Midnight, preferring to have relaxing art books to sit and just stare at in his quarters. But he did notice that she was flipping right past the few pages of written texts that gave details about certain photos or paintings in the book. That was certainly interesting.

"Lily...are you enjoying the pictures in that book? Do you know how to read....earlier you mentioned that you like crossword puzzles. How can you do them if you don't know how to read? And if you don't know how...would you like to learn?"

Having a pet with a stunted personality due to the ineptitude of her former master was not something Lothaire could correct, but if she was unable to read...well he could solve that problem rather quickly, especially since Lily seemed to be fairly intelligent.

She glanced up when he asked her about the book, and closed it. "Oh, yes. I like pictures a lot. I like the colours," she explained. When he asked her about reading, she seemed almost confused. "I.. no. I don't know. But you don't have to read to do crossword puzzles," she said, frowning a little. "You're supposed to colour in the boxes - make patterns. See?" she asked. She opened one up, and pointed to a few open squares. "You can make things out of them. I thought that's what you were supposed to do."

She paused, and thought about his offer. "I suppose I would like to learn - if you want me to, anyways. I never had much of a use for it. The few books I was allowed were the kind where the pictures come out at you. That seemed to be good enough for me," she said with a little shrug.

She wondered how it would be to read. She'd never really thought about it before; reading wasn't something that women did, not really. She wondered if it would be very hard.

Her reluctance about reading was understandable. Many of those bred for service in Midnight were taught the bare minimum of skills, only what they needed to server their masters. Those bred to be pets..well they were taught even less since they were mainly meant to be a source of amusement. Lothaire cocked his head and looked at the shaded in crossword puzzle.

"The kind where pictures pop out at you? You enjoy those? There are some books of that kind that also have stories in them...I think maybe if you would like I could teach you to read. It is a good way to pass the time, and I think perhaps I would enjoy the teaching process, you seem like you would make a good student. But if you would just like to have pictures to look at I have plenty of art books on these shelves...though some of them you may find to be..frightening. Just avoid that shelf over by the television....."

Lothaire was a collector of many forms of art, and some of it leaned very much to the grotesque. The tamer volumes were H.R. Geiger collected works...some of the others were things you could only find on the black market. But then again, who would expect a Midnight Trainer to be normal in any sense of the word?

"Oh, I like pretty pictures," she said emphatically, setting the crossword book aside for the time being. She'd colour more patterns later. Or maybe she could find a bigger pattern book, with markers or crayons, or coloured pencils. "If you think that I can learn to read, than I will most certainly try my best," she said honestly, nodding at his words. She didn't really think she could, but what she thought didn't really matter, did it?

She glanced over to where he pointed, and made a note to avoid that shelf at all costs. In fact, she would not even look at it, and so she turned back to him, making the area a sort of forbidden one. She would never go near it so long as she was instructed not to.

Her schedule was seeming quite full all of a sudden. Reading, public, playing with other pets. Lilyana was used to sitting on her own and doing a lot of nothing. She seemed very puzzled by the idea of it, and suddenly very tired. She yawned incredibly wide, putting her hand over her mouth with an embarrassed sort of gaze at the floor.