Captured by aliens (It was his own fault)

32. Could Toru be a pet?

This could mean that their society was fairly advanced, if they're domesticating for looks, instead of utility, but, it was also true that Toru was very strong for its size, which negated that idea.

He continued wondering about this for a while until Tonuk came into the room to tell him that it was time to leave, since they would be snowed in again in a while.

He helped tidy up and get the Turos ready for bed, preparing their beds and grooming a Turo's hair.

Basically, after very little time, this causes a chain reaction that has all the Turos clean eachother up, eating dinner, getting sleepy and finally, sleeping, plus, its easier than just waiting for a Turo to start it.

He rinsed the dishes from dinner, since Ri had prepared some vegetables for dinner and so, they said their goodbyes and went home.

Tonuk's perspective:
Once again, Toru was accepting of getting into the crate, plus, it seemed to prefer it as opposed to the one they got it before, remembering its expression.

They managed to get home without too much trouble, allthough he did have to carry Ri once again, which was difficult, but he managed.

Finally home, after cleaning off all the snow clinging to his legs, Ri went over to chat with Gint on the couch while he went over to continue planning out when their friends could come over.

Meanwhile, Toru continued exploring the place, and though for a moment they thought of stopping it, they rationalized that they didn't have anything dangerous to Toru, so they let it be for the most part.

They did close a couple door, like the storage and office, learning a bit from before.

After a while of discussion and catching up on what everyone was doing, they finally set up an official date for when to meet up, which was in three days.

Then, Ri started chatting with him about what Gint told him, which was basically that the tests were going well, and it was basically confirmed that Toru was either a pack animal or pet, it was just a matter of finding evidence for either possibility.

Along with this, Gint mentioned that it turned out that they had a bit more time than they thought to use the machine so there was the possibility of using it to test wether Toru was a pet.

Basically, they would simulate how it would live with Tonovo, since they guessed they would probably be the most similar to a third sentient species, so, they would see how it acts when it lived with them for its whole life, rather than when in a pack.

It was fairly exciting learning this, plus, they were fairly curious as to what would happen when they found out the results, maybe they'd take Toru over to the technological area of the planet for research.

He turned on the screen to add some background noise while they both cleaned up the house, which there wasn't much to do, but they had put it off for a while so fur was gathering up on the floor.

They spent time not talking, meanwhile, they were both thinking of evidence for wether Toru was a pet or not, and later on they would chat about it.

After cleaning up the whole house, aka, sweeping the place because there was nothing else to clean, they went back to the couch, where they found Toru sitting on the couch curled up watching the screen.

They went over and noticed that it was shivering, so, Ri took a blanket out and they pushed Toru to the middle of the couch and smushed it inbetween themselves to warm up.

Toru seemed to squirm around a lot but eventually gave in and stayed there, still watching the screen, now with them.

Not paying any attention as to what was playing, they started chatting about what they had thought of as evidence.

The main arguments for Toru being a pet were:
-It literally looks like a baby
-It got used to other, new species extremely quickly
-It repeats words and does a lot of things that are adorable, so it could be meant to be a companion
-It was wearing weird clothes when it came to Ri's planet
-It likes to cuddle
-Has a lot of bad characteristics for survival without a ton of help
-It kind of understands how to use technology sometimes, so again, it could be meant to just be cute

Evidence against it:
-Could just be a pack animal, as it liked being with Turos
-Could be a symbiotic relationship instead of a pet relationship, explaining its bad survival capabilities and that it gets used to other species fast
-The clothes are thought to come from the ship it came from, which had the capacity to make them, this would also explain why the clothes were so weird and badly coloured, since Toru could have just pressed random buttons
-It could also just be that its enviroment is way different than what they expect, explaining its bad survivability in their planets
-It could also be that Toru just presses the tablet randomly and doesn't actually understand what's happening

Plus, even if it was a pet it didn't necessarily mean that there was a third sentient species, though it was a good chance.

After a while of talking, they noticed that Toru had fallen asleep, and when they saw the time, they realized they should also be asleep.

They hadn't eaten dinner, but either way they all had ate a ton of food to bulk for winter quicker, while the Turos didn't look, as to not make them jealous, so they were fine.

After a while of idly watching the screen, they fell asleep as well.

Fun fact:
There are two main divisions in the planet for how everyone lives, there's the rural area, where Tonuk, Ri, Tegnuk, etc, live, and there's the technological area, where Gint lives.
The rural area focuses mostly on having everyone there have a relaxed life with not too much going on, along with food production, woodworking, production hobbies and other activities like it.

The technological area focuses on continuing research and, as the name suggests, has a lot more advanced technology to aid in this.

The division was made as there wasn't a need for so many researchers, along with the fact that not everyone wanted to be one, since after a while, there weren't many other jobs, as well as that it was found that living with so much technology isn't good for health.

Anyone is allowed to live on whichever area they want and the government has programs to help anyone with changing lifestyles.