The Non-Human Society

Chapter Eighty Nine - Renn - A Book For A Protector

      Waving goodbye to the family, I slowly closed the gate behind them.

"She was not mean like you thought!" Fizz told her parents. I smiled as I turned away, as to not hear any of their private conversations.

No one else realized how good my hearing could be, and I didn't want to betray their friendship by snooping.

Hurrying back to the house, I slowed my approach once I noticed Vim. He was standing away from the porch, on the grass. He was looking down at something.

There didn't seem to be anything in front of him, so I slowly approached... just in case it was something that I could scare way by not being quiet or careful.

Vim ignored me as I stepped up behind him and peered around him.

It was a small mouse, busy cleaning its fur.

"They were happy. You did well," Vim said softly.

"Hm? Fizz and her mother are nice," I said. I hadn't spent much time with John, her husband, but he seemed gentle. A little meek, he had bowed to me as a greeting and on goodbye.

"They are. Gentle souls who pity the world around them," Vim said.

The mouse looked up, but not at us. It looked to the sky, and then after a moment returned to cleaning itself. Why was it sitting out in the open like this? Usually they hid away.

"A typical field mouse. Found everywhere, in abundance. A pest to most," Vim said with a gesture.

"Hm... they are everywhere," I agreed.

"Yet, not usually here," Vim said after a moment.

"Oh?" was that why he was staring at it? "Is that because there're no fields here?" I asked.

"Rather because of what's hidden in the stones. But it is of no importance. Probably just got carried in somewhere. The storage rooms aren't too far from here, after all," Vim said as he stepped away.

I studied the little mouse a little longer, and wondered what he was thinking. Was he trying to decide if its presence was worth noting? Did he simply notice it and find it odd? Or was he worried about it, or the possibility of it being here?

Joining Vim, I too stepped away and we went back into the house. I closed the door behind us, and for a tiny moment the house felt cold. Empty.

It had been so quiet a few moments ago.

A single plate of pastries remained, stacked on a small silver plate on the table. We hadn't eaten so much as that was all that were left, they had taken a plate or two back home with them.

Vim paused before the table, and then after a moment reached out to grab one of them. I smiled as I watched him eat the pastry calmly.

I see. So he felt comfortable eating in front of me, yet not everyone else.

Why was that? Maybe I was reading too much into it.

Maybe he just didn't like eating in front of Henrietta. Maybe it wasn't that I was special, but that she was... in a certain way.

"Did... did Henrietta act strange to you, or was that just me?" I asked him carefully.

Vim paused in his chewing. He turned to me and smiled. He then swallowed and nodded. "She acts odd around me, yes. I'm assuming she became more natural after I left?" he asked.

"She did," I nodded. That was the entire reason I had noticed it. She had become almost a different person, becoming much more talkative and happy. Where before she had all but ignored me, once Vim left she actually acknowledged my presence and did so in a good way.