Page 50 of Inferno
Immediately, Zandro brightened.Hi, hello human!The words came clear and excited into Yorin’s mind, and he reeled backwards in shock.
“Oh, goodness, that’s an odd sensation.” He took a moment to steady himself, grateful when Zandro didn’t immediately say anything else. “Right, then. Okay…”Can you hear my thoughts?he thought at the dog.
Yes, yes. Very good. Zandro teach human to think right.
Yorin laughed, delighted at the novelty, and amused at Zandro’s enthusiasm. Well, that was something he had in common with domestic dogs, then; an abundance of joy with the simple things in life. “Do you prefer it if I think at you, or talk to you?”
Talk. Talk is good. Can think, but two-legged people think different from four-legged people. Makes head feel strange. Better talk.
“Okay, then,” Yorin said, more than happy to oblige. “So, I suppose the first question is do you need any help this afternoon? Are you going to stay here, at Nerik’s house? Do you need food? Or water? Or anything else?”
Zandro bounced up and down, then spun in a circle.Zandro like. Oh, such nice human!
“My name is Yorin,” Yorin told him, not at all offended by being called a human, but he supposed it would be polite to introduce himself.
Zandro likes Yorin. Nerik likes Yorin. Nerik sad, all night so sad when Yorin ran away. Happy now Yorin came back.
Yorin smiled at that, though he was well aware of all the complications they were going to have to deal with if they were going to make something of their relationship. “I like Nerik, too. But I’m asking about you. Do you need food?”
Inside, Zandro said, rushing off and bounding up the path to Nerik’s cottage. Yorin stood up and followed him, opening the door. Zandro trotted over to the fireplace, tail wagging. There was a fire going – presumably intended to cook some dinner on. It had been burning for some time, glowing coals nestled in a bed of ash, while a couple of new logs burned over the top.
Get metal shovel. Zandro nudged the tool stand beside the fire, and Yorin picked up the little shovel off the stand.
Put coals on shovel. Just coals. No wood.
Yorin obliged, not really questioning what Zandro was going to do with them. After all, he’d seen Nerik absorb wood directly through his abdomen. He trusted Zandro to know what he was doing.
Put shovel on floor, came the next instruction. Yorin set it down, then stood back as Zandro came forward, sniffing at the coals.
But despite his acceptance of unexpected things happening, Yorin still felt a rush of fear as Zandro suddenly reverted to his natural black, leathery appearance. He looked leaner and more muscular this way, and his glowing red eyes did nothing for Yorin’s peace of mind.
But nonetheless, he tried to maintain his composure. Zandro was the same dog, regardless of what form he was presenting. And then, when Yorin was barely over that shock, he couldn’t help but wince when Zandro picked up the first glowing chunk of coal in his mouth and tossed it back, crunching twice and then swallowing the pieces. Gods above, if Yorin so much as brushed his hand against that, he’d have blisters for days.
Zandro finished off the coals on the shovel, then sat down, tail wagging.More please.
Well, at least he was polite. Yorin pulled out some more coals, using the fire poker to sort them from the unburned wood, and set the shovel on the floor again. Once he’d finished his meal, Zandro licked his muzzle and gave himself a shake. Then, once again giving Yorin no warning, he suddenly sprouted fur and paled to a dull brown colour. That was going to take some getting used to.
“Will you stay here tonight?” Yorin asked. “I should really go back to town.”
Zandro stay.
“Do you want the door closed? Or left open? What if someone comes? Or do you need more wood? Goodness, I’m not really sure what I’m doing here.”
Leave door open. Zandro come in, go out. No people come. Zandro bark. He gave a loud bark, then a low growl to demonstrate.Zandro just human dog. Nothing interesting.
By ‘human dog’, Yorin assumed he meant a domestic dog, the sort that humans kept. “What about more food? Do you want me to put more wood on the fire?”
Zandro burn wood. Zandro can do.
“Okay, if you’re sure.”
Not wanting to leave a mess for Nerik, Yorin went outside to collected the cup he’d given Nerik, bringing it back inside to wash and put away. And while he did so, his mind wandered back to his unique lover.
It seemed like quite an imposition, to expect Nerik to take a two day trip up the mountain every time a unicorn came through the gate. Yorin wasn’t sure if Stanley’s manner today had been the norm, but either way, he seemed like a bit of a pain in the ass, dumping unicorns on Nerik at the drop of a hat. Maybe that was why Nerik had been so interested in the idea of ‘taming’ unicorns. If they were able to be trained like horses, or at least appear to be so, then he wouldn’t have to trek up the mountain every time one arrived in Minia.
In light of Yorin’s new understanding of Nerik’s physiology, his detailed sorting of his wood stack made sense now. It wasn’t just his storage for his fireplace, it was effectively his pantry as well, and if his life depended on having the right sort of wood available at the right time, it was fair that he was particular about how it was sorted. “Hey Zandro, are unicorns telepathic?” Yorin asked the dog, as he stacked more wood beside the fireplace.
Yes, unicorns speak into minds,Zandro confirmed, trotting along behind Yorin.Very posh. Very clever.