NOVEL NEXT Chapter 20 – The Wrong Way to Use a Collar
A little while earlier:
Anortha tried her hardest to wake Pochi up, but it refused to get up. After shaking it around for three minutes, she thought that it must have been tired from trying to run away from the rats, so she gave up, telling it that it won’t be getting breakfast.
She went out to the dining room and enjoyed her bread and berries with her parents. As she was eating, she was wondering why her parents seem to be paying extra attention to her. She thought nothing of it, until she took an extra slice of bread and nonchalantly put it in her pocket.
Immediately, her mother said, “What are you doing with that piece of bread?”
“Hm? Nothing, just feed…” Anortha said, and then remembered her promise of providing food for the lupo herself. “Uh, saving it for later.”
“Really now,” her mother replied while raising an eyebrow. “In that case you can just come back to the dining room and eat it. I’ll be sure to save it for you later. Unless you were planning to feed it?”
Realizing that she couldn’t pull the wool over her mother’s eyes, Anortha gave up and put the bread back on the plate.
Her mother then added, “You know, if you want to feed it bread, you can make it yourself. Even though you would be using our ingredients, we’ll still consider it you sourcing the food yourself. Besides, it’s time for you to learn how to properly cook anyways.”
“I don’t think I’ll magically learn how to cook all of a sudden.”
“I know, that’s why you need to practice. And what’s the perfect time when you can easily get rid of your failed attempts without wasting food.”
“I don’t think Pochi would appreciate eating burnt bread,” Anortha muttered.
“Well, it’s just something to think about. I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to just feed it nuts forever.”
After breakfast, Anortha went back to her room and found the lupo fast asleep. Wondering what to do with it later, she realized she needed some way to let the other elves know that Pochi was not some wild animal.
She decided to leave for the general store to see if they have anything. After climbing a whole bunch of stairs and wondering why did the store have to be located on one of the highest trees nearby, she finally arrived.
She looked around the store and didn’t see anything, although they were selling collars for the large birds that some of the wealthier elves owned to travel around. Unfortunately, the collars were way too large for Pochi, so she ended up asking the shopkeeper for a smaller collar.
The shopkeeper asked, “So how small do you want it anyways?”
Anortha never really measured exactly how large Pochi’s neck was and ended up forming a circle with both hands and saying, “About this big? Although it’ll grow up so make it adjustable.”
The shopkeeper grabbed a spool of string, wrapped it around her hands, and cut the string.
“Alrighty then, that’ll cost you twenty-four.”
Silently thinking that it is a tad expensive, Anortha nevertheless put down two silver coins on the counter.
“I’ll be done with it by one o’clock, see you then!”
Anortha went home to find Pochi still fast asleep. Since Anortha had nothing to do, she decided to continue her studies and do some homework. By the time fourteen o’clock rolled around, Pochi was still asleep. Anortha was somewhat worried how long it had been sleeping, and thought to wake it up at noon if it hadn’t gotten up.
The elf went and grabbed the sandwich her mother made in the morning and ate it in front of Pochi, wondering if it would get up from the smell of food. It never did, and she finished her lunch.
When the clock hit fifteen, Anortha shook the lupo awake, and it finally got up and began eating the nuts she handed it. It tried to leave the room at one point and she had to drag it back. The lupo began to slowly eat the nuts, one at a time. It reminded her of the squirrels she fed, although Pochi’s cheeks were not bulging with just a nut. She kept watching until she saw the clock already at one o’clock.
Yelling, “Stay in my room!” to her new companion, she rushed out the door and headed to the general store.
Unfortunately, when she got there, her collar was still not completed yet. The shopkeeper offered a discount of six iron coins, which she accepted. Bored, Anortha browsed the store while the shopkeeper made the collar whenever there weren’t any customers to attend to. As there were a good number of customers, it took a few hours before Anortha finally received the collar.
“The smallest size does fit what I asked for, but isn’t it a bit large?”
“Hm? Yours is a baby, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Ferinas grow quite large you know?”
“Ferinas? Ah…” Anortha realized she never told her what the collar was for.
Anortha really wishes she was rich enough to afford those large birds, but if she had that much money, she would rather just live in the city. Since the collar was still usable, Anortha didn’t bother to correct the misunderstanding and left.
She was expecting to run to the general store and back fairly quickly so there was a limited amount of damage the lupo could have done, but then she ended up waiting for hours. Worried, she ran home, only to end up shocked at what she saw.
A myriad of thought ran through her head, ranging from “Ah right, I could have gotten it clothes instead of buying this collar,” to “Ahh! My clothes are strewn all over the place! Now I have to fold them back again!” to “Wait, that white jacket looks familiar. Wasn’t that the really old jacket I thought I lost ten years ago?” to “Did Pochi just sew up the jacket in the few hours I was gone? It looks pretty well done. Does that mean it’s better than me in sewing? Ahh! I’m such a failure!”
Feeling a bit shameful, Anortha looked away from Pochi, only to see that the chalkboard was filled with circles and numbers. This only made the problem worse, as Anortha realized somewhere along the way, Pochi learned how to write numbers. Now she had to contend with the fact that a supposedly inferior animal who was still like five years old managed to learn how to write without anyone teaching it.
Anortha reasoned that Pochi must be older than it looked. To be fair, the conclusion wasn’t technically wrong, but the logic behind it was.
She would have spent even longer thinking, if it weren’t for the blur of grey moving in her vision. Startled, she finally realize the lupo was waving its hand in front of her face. She decided to shelve the thoughts for later. She looked around the room again and saw her clothes strewn all over her bed.
“Bad Pochi! Bad!” Anortha yelled while lightly hitting it on the head. “Now I have to fold these clothes again,” she added as she grabbed her undergarments and folded them.
The lupo looked rather confused, but after a while, it joined in the clothes folding and upon seeing that, Anortha let it do all the work. It was responsible for the mess in the first place.
After that was done, the lupo led her to the chalkboard and alternated looking at the chalkboard and at her.
Assuming that it wanted to be praised for learning how to write numbers, she patted its head while saying, “Good job, you did it right. Oh right, I have a present for you.”
Anortha took out the collar from her purse and gave it to the lupo. It looked at in confusion, and right before Anortha decided to go and attach it to her neck, it went and undid the ribbon and wrapped the collar around its waist instead. Anortha wanted to complain that’s not what it was for, but since the collar did do a good job prevent the coat from opening up, she decided to just let it be.
Looking back at the chalkboard, Anortha thought that if it was smart enough to understand numbers, maybe she could teach it the language. And since it can sew clothes, surely it could cook its own food right? As Anortha was at an impasse with the food situation, she decided to act right away. Picking Pochi up, she left for the kitchen.