Twenty-three sunrises to go.
I scurried down from the windowsill and ran towards the couch, then began clawing at the hard log that leaned against it.
I had finally gotten used to being outside the cage. I still didn't like it, but it was tolerable enough now that I felt comfortable wandering around the living room so long as the Kymari stayed on the couch.
If she got up and moved around I would run straight back to the dubious protection of my 'den', but if it seemed like she was going to be working on her tablet and listening to the screen for a few hours, I felt comfortable enough. Usually I would sprawl in the sand underneath the warm heat lamp - at some point Trenil must have clued her in that those things worked a lot better above the thing you wanted to heat, and she had placed it appropriately - but I also felt safe enough venturing out to eat and drink from the bowls left for me, or even shredding the log that rested against the couch.
The tray of dirt had gradually moved down the hallway and into the bathroom. I hoped that might have been part of some long term plot to train me to use Kymari plumbing - I doubted the other former humans were any happier using a litter box than I was, so it wasn't out of the realm of possibilities that they had worked out some way of tricking the Kymari into 'teaching' them to use the toilet. I had already figured out how to jump from the toilet up to the sink without hurting my leg or jarring my wings, and had been washing my hands when I was sure the Kymari wasn't watching. I wasn't sure what the red dirt was made out of, but I doubted it stayed very clean for long, and I didn't much care for the idea of walking around in it and then using my hands to eat with.
If the Kymari had noticed or considered it odd, she hadn't said anything.
The plant in the corner was still hanging on, but only barely. I had taken to dumping my own water into the dry soil when the Kymari was out. It was a bit tricky to balance the bowl of water and climb up the side of the planter, and I usually spilled some into the carpet, but most of the time I managed to get the majority of the water into the dirt.
I had tried to drag the planter to the other side of the room, so the plant could be in front of the window where the poor plant clearly needed to be, but it was too heavy.
Oh well. I had tried.
I still wasn't sleeping that well, but I hadn't really expected that to change. I hadn't slept well since Susie had died, and I doubted anything here would make up for that. The Kymari would wake up a little bit before dawn to watch me sing, and then she would go back into her bedroom to rest some more. She still didn't seem to be sleeping well, either.
An hour or two before noon she would get back up and leave the house, then be gone for most of the day. I would have the run of most of the house - she kept the doors to her bedroom and to the office closed after that first day of running around - and she would return as the day wore on into evening. She would take care of a few chores - refilling my bowl of water, cleaning out the tray of dirt, and so on - and then she would sink into the couch. She would fiddle around on her tablet and listen to background noise on the screen for an hour... then she would put the tablet away and turn her attention to me.
Usually she just tried to get me to accept treats from her or chase the knotted rope around, and after a few nights I began to give in and accept the treats... but occasionally she would try to get me to do a trick of some kind for the reward. I didn't care how good the sunburst berries tasted, I was not going to 'sit' on command for her.
From time to time something would happen that would lead me to scratching and biting her, which also led to my ending up doped out on the sedatives for a while. And Ivy had been right - the worst part about lying limp in her lap and being pet for a few hours was that I found myself a little less upset with her the next day. I had even begun having the occasional thought of seeking her out for a backrub when my back itched too much, which bothered me.
I had toyed with the idea of simply not biting her anymore, and relying on slashes from my claws instead - I had been doing that anyways, and she now bore several deep wounds on her hand and arm from when she was just a tad bit too slow - but the chance to sink my teeth into the person that had killed Susie still far outweighed the indignity of the sedatives.
Today seemed to be starting out the same way as the others had... but when I finished sharpening my claws on the log I noticed the Kymari still hadn't left the couch. She also wasn't wearing the wrinkled shirt and shorts she usually stumbled out of bed in - this time she wore one of the normal 'public' outfits she put on before going outside.
She caught me peeking up at her over the side of the couch and she waved back at me. I snorted and dashed into the box that served as my makeshift den... which caused her to giggle a little. Well. She seems a bit more awake today, or at least, happier about today.
I pulled the blanket close to provide some cover and peeked back out through the opening. She grabbed the tablet off the table and began fiddling with it, though this time she left the screen on the wall off. After a moment the tablet made a soft 'beep' sound, and she sat it back down on the table.
"Weekly report. End of week one." The Kymari glanced at the entrance to my den, then looked around the room. "Per Trenil's instructions, I am starting a weekly report on the fire lizard's progress." Her voice paused for a moment. "I should probably come up with a name for him at some point... 'the fire lizard' feels too impersonal, and Kymallata just feels weird. I should check with the archaeologists in case they've found any names the humans commonly used for their pets. Maybe one of them will cause him to respond, the way the dog's name did."
I... was not sure how I felt about that. 'Nate' wasn't really a name that was common for pets, but... if she stumbled across it and tried to call me it, it wouldn't be the worst thing to happen, would it? It had been nice to hear Ivy use my name... but... I wasn't sure I wanted to hear her say it.
Though I had to agree with her that the name 'Kymallata' felt weird.
Her voice paused for a few seconds before continuing. "Anyways, the fire lizard is making progress. He's settled in and seems comfortable moving around, at least as long as I don't move too much, and his leg has healed enough that he no longer seems to be in pain when he moves from one part of the room to the other. I think it's safe to have visitors again and will be testing that out later, since he should be able to retreat to the pet home if he needs to."
She lifted her hand and rubbed at it. "One side effect of his recovery is that he has gotten faster. He's landed a few nasty cuts on me and still likes to bite me, but the sedative seems to be helping with that. I... feel kind of bad drugging him, like I'm taking advantage of him, but... the notes were right. He gets noticeably less defensive each time." She rubbed her hand a little more. "That said... I don't know that it's really helping. He must know what I'm doing by now - it only took him one or two times before he stopped drinking any water that had the sedative in it - but he's still more than happy to bite me. If Senica was right and he had some bad experience with medication at one point, then... that means he still hates me more than he hates the medicine."
The Kymari sighed and shook her head before continuing. "So far he isn't responding to my attempts to teach him tricks, but I haven't really focused on that as per the schedule I was given, and I'm hoping that with the weekend I'll have more time to make actual progress. That fruit came in last night - did humans really cultivate that thing? It looks even pricklier than he acts, so I can't possibly imagine how anybody thought it would be a good idea to try and cut one open - but I should be able to see how he likes it. The harness came in with it, and I'll start practicing putting that together. I do not want to try putting that on him without knowing exactly how it works first. Those claws hurt."
I narrowed my eyes in the darkness. The fruit sounded like it might be interesting, but I did not like the sound of that last part one bit.
"Other than that, there's not much to report on; his behavior matches the notes I was able to find on other fire lizards. Given that he's only the second male we've identified in captivity, and how most of the other fire lizards in captivity are female, I have been trying to keep an eye out for any different behaviors, but so far I haven't noticed anything unusual, or any behaviors that haven't already been noted in Tom. He still sleeps for most of the day, which was expected with his injuries, and he eats about as much as other fire lizards do. He is drinking a lot more water than was mentioned in the notes, which is concerning, but Senica said his organs were all healthy. If it continues I'll bring him in for another checkup, but I was told he'd have a bigger appetite due to all the blood loss that went with his injuries, so I'm not too concerned."
Well. Sorry plant, but you're on your own. I don't want to get stuffed back in a box and dragged to the vet just to be told nothing's wrong.
"He scratches me a lot, but that's expected behavior. Everybody else went through it, so I can deal with it too. He does seem much more comfortable with my old blanket than the other fire lizards have been with similar bits of cloth, but I don't know if that's something humans trained into him, or just because it reminds him of the dog. He spends time in the sand and I've caught him dozing off in it once or twice, but when he wants longer stretches of sleep he always ends up on the blanket."
"I think he's calmed down enough from having the cage pulled that I'm going to move on to the other parts of the list. Still very much not looking forward to feeding him by hand. He will try to bite me during it, I know it, and his teeth hurt. 'Get him comfortable with me'. Sure. Because he's not already comfortable enough with taking bites out of my hand."
She sighed, and I saw her shake her head. "I've pulled his bowl, and gotten a few slices of that fruit ready. With any luck he'll decide he likes that more than my fingers. And if he doesn't then at least I won't have to go broke trying to afford that thing."
"End of weekly report." She reached back to the tablet and tapped something on it, and it made another 'beep' sound. I watched as she got up and headed off into the kitchen, then ducked out from my den to check where my food bowl normally sat. Sure enough, it was gone.
Well. This is going to get interesting.
She was obviously going to make me eat from her hand going forward. Which... ugh. She was absolutely right in that I definitely wanted to bite her at even the idea that I would eat food she handed me. It was bad enough that she had fed me a few times now when I was sedated, but to do it without that?
I ducked back into my shelter and hid behind the blanket again. She was going to have some sort of plan to go along with it, likely one involving that sedative. If I did bite her, I'd just end up being petted for a few hours and hand fed on top of it.
Though... hmm.
I took a deep breath and tried to think. It was something that was a lot harder to do as a dragonet than had been as a human - the instincts and emotions of this body were a lot stronger, or at least a lot harder for my rational mind to get a handle on. I really wanted to bite the hand that dared to try and feed me... but maybe it would work out better if I didn't, at least not at first.
I grinned to myself. She couldn't have an infinite supply of that nasty stuff - if I let her waste it a few times and didn't bite her, then she'd start to think it was safe to feed me without it.
Then I could bite her all I wanted without having to worry about being conked out for a few hours after.
She might even be shocked enough into going back to the food dish. These next weeks would be intolerable enough without having to go begging to her every time I was hungry.