In Search of Home

Chapter 57

"Neyk, Kohgrash," Vok'Rul said gently, untangling Viktor's fingers from his clothing (when did he grab him?) "Kor," he said something else, then. He didn't hear the words denoting Blacksmith's name, so at least he wasn't going to be carted off there, no matter how much he missed Pedro. 

"Teyk," Viktor agreed hesitantly, shoving down the urge to grab onto the alien's clothing again. "Okay. I'm staying. Right here." 

When Vok'Rul took a few steps without Viktor following him, the alien hesitated for a second. He quickly patted Viktor on the head, murmured something else, and left the wing. 

Viktor lurched forward before he caught himself, quickly turning on his heel and pushing a chair against the window. He managed to get it against the glass and clamber up it just in time to see Vok'Rul leaving the mansion and ducking into the limo. Viktor watched him leave, staring at the empty road for a long while after he had gone. 

He clapped his hands together, just to make some noise in the quiet room. It was very loud. 

"What to do, Viktor," he muttered to himself. What did he usually do when Vok'Rul was gone? 

He had slept, mostly, in the beginning. Catching up on what his body had lacked for nine months in a much safer environment than his cell in the arena had been most of his days. Exploring the mansion on the days that he didn't sleep. Generally, though, Vok'Rul had taken him with him on most occasions. The school, that meeting... He hadn't needed to find something to fill his days, it had usually been filled for him. 

He wandered up to the office, wincing slightly at the pain in his arm. It had swollen back up a little, but he still hoped that Vok'Rul wouldn't take him back to the vet. Now that he had tasted freedom without a cast, he was loathe to get it back on. 

Well, he decided, hands on his hips and peering at the desk. Maybe he could finally make his English-to-alien dictionary he's been wanting to work on.

He did just that. Finding scraps of paper that didn't look important was rather easy - Vok'Rul had an entire stack of blank pages in one of the desk drawers he had opened - and finding a pen was less so. He search for nearly twenty minutes before he found one, buried under the massive mess the alien kept on his desk. 

God, this alien was messy. No wonder he had so many staff looking after him. 

Figuring out how to use the pen took an embarrassingly long time, but he eventually figured it out. He had no idea how their words were spelled in their language, so he decided that the best course of action was to scribble down how they sounded. 

It went pretty well, he thought. By the end of the hour, he had a long list of words and their meanings. He had definitely forgotten a few, but he shoved the paper (and the pen - Vok'Rul wouldn't miss it. And if he did, he'd probably blame it on his lack of organization before looking at Viktor) underneath his bed, carefully hidden. 

He wasn't sure if Vok'Rul would take it away or not. On one hand, it was proof that Viktor could use tools. He was pretty sure that was a classification of intelligence back on Earth or something. It could go a long way in helping out the whole 'I'm actually from a sentient species' argument. 

But on the other hand...

He really needed that dictionary. Like really badly. So hiding it under his bed it was. 

He nearly jumped out of his skin when a call of "Kohgrash!" interrupted his stealth mission of sneaking the paper under his bed. Then he cursed himself for his idiocy. This was his house! He didn't need to be sneaking around. 

The call came from down the stairs, and after hastily shoving the incomplete dictionary under his bed, he peered over the stairwell skeptically. Thruul was standing at the bottom, with a wide cheerful smile crossing his face. The shadows of the stairwell were thrown over his face. Viktor quickly blinked the ringmaster out of his vision, stomach rolling queasily.