Page 42 of Found in Obscurity

Glenn laughed heartily as he walked back to the kitchen to prepare the familiars some food. “The green thumb and cooking are skills I practiced and honed by myself. Helps me make money like I was saying before. My real calling is flowers and their meanings, imbuing them with intention to help those that call to me. Like you.”

Lorin scowled at the memory.

Glenn laughed some more as he washed his hands, the suds rolling over the dark depictions of flowers and abstract shapes on his fingers. “Don’t pout. I was right about the foxtail, wasn’t I? I knew there was something about it.”

He dried his hands and gave Kit a quick scratch behind the ears.

Kit allowed it before he leaped off the counter and onto one of the chairs at the table, sitting like a human would and staring at Glenn expectantly.

“Do you feed him at the table?” Glenn asked with a brow raised.

“No.” Lorin frowned. “He’s never done that before. Kit, down!”

Kit stared at him before putting his paws on the table, really sitting up and waiting like he could grab a knife and fork in his paws.

“First familiar I’ve ever seen seat himself, I must say,” Glenn said, setting a small pot of liquid in front of Forrest before grabbing a bowl of salmon for Kit.

Glenn placed it in front of him with a flourish. “Your order, good sir.”

“Don’t humor him. He already just does whatever he wants.”

“He exaggerates when he’s grumpy,” Glenn said to Kit.

“I do not!” Lorin seethed. “Just look at him!”

Kit lolled his tongue out in a vulpine grin and Glenn snickered. “He’s just playful. He’s a fox, after all. It’s in their nature.”

“Sure.” Lorin stabbed his fork into his salad.

He tried a bite of it dubiously and hated to admit that it was really, really good. Super fresh and weirdly balanced with a hit of something citrus. Better than canned soup by a mile.

“So tell me, is your bad mood tied to those bags under your eyes?” Glenn asked casually.

“Aside from the fact that you just waltzed into my house and I don’t even really know you?”

Glenn laughed, crunching a mouthful of fresh salad leaves. “Fair.”

“My house is haunted and it kept me up all night.”

“I know a witch for that,” Glenn said, chewing like a rabbit with a dandelion end sticking out the side of his mouth as he looked around the place. “Though it doesn’t seem that haunted, and I’ve never noticed anything strange when walking past the old place since I moved to town four years ago.”

“It’s a weird naked man.”

Kit abruptly pushed Lorin’s fork from his hand with a well-timed swipe.

“Kit!” Lorin exclaimed.

It looked like the fox was glaring at him.

Glenn snickered. “Clearly Kit doesn’t agree with you. Maybe he thinks the ghost is cute.”

Kit hopped up on the table to pad across and give a startled Glenn’s cheek a lick.

Lorin felt an answering rush of envy and jealousy bubble and pop like noxious acid inside him. “Kit. Back to your seat.”

Kit gave a sassy wave of his bushy tail before sauntering back at his own sweet pace.

Glenn kept his laugh behind his hand. “He certainly has a strong personality.”