Adrianus looked like any other cat, his fur was a dark ginger and his piercing green eyes were sharp enough to stab through walls, but that wasn't accounting for the fact that the cat had the intellectual capabilities to hack into satellites, the strength of a tiger, and the speed of a cheetah. When Raven brought all the animals home, and had been swamped by a wave of animals running towards the their respectful owners, how they knew who to go to is anyone's guess. All of the animals, except for the raven, who fluttered it's indigo feathers and settled on Raven's shoulder, even I could see the irony.
Voulge picked up a pure white angora rabbit timidly, she obviously wasn't the one who decided on it as an idea. The puff ball of an animal wriggled into her arms, making her even more uncomfortable. The animal, somehow sensing her discomfort, loped out her arms with surprising grace and remained by her side.
Rapier was having a semi-literate conversation with a blue macaw, which had perched itself on his arm. He seemed as curious of the bird as it was of him, with the parrot making his way around him by grabbing onto the folds in his shirt.
Glaive was sitting with an emerald tree boa circled around him. The python was transfixed in some sort of staring contest, which made me laugh as snakes don't have eyelids. Glaive finally blinked and the snake made the most un-snake gesture of victory.
Loch had an iguana running all the way around his body, stopping every so often to check out his surroundings before running on, in a constant mission to reach an unknown end. Loch eventually caught the lizard, which then sat calmly on his shoulder.
Katana was busy trying to calm down an over excited golden retriever, which was inspecting everything about his new owner, especially the sword that hung from his left side. Katana tried to take its mind away from it by patting it and focusing the dog on him, which eventually worked.
Sling was holding three tiny blue poison dart frogs in her hand, which was protected from their poison by a gauntlet. The tiny animals looked at her so innocently, and it reminded me of her, sweet, kind and deadly. Sling seemed fascinated by the animals and was looking as closely as she dared, which was still a far distance.
Guisarme was busy playing games with a yellow mongoose, who seemed all too happy to oblige. The animal simply followed her finger, and when it caught the finger, it would chew on it playfully, much to the amusement of Guisarme.
Adrianus meanwhile sat at my feet, assessing the situation like a general might assess a battlefield, his green eyes flicking from one person to the next, as if trying to work out who was the biggest threat.
The cat stretched and moved through the group of animals and humans and padded up the stairs, where he sat, halfway up the stairs, swishing his tail as if he were beaconing me to follow. He turned and continued up the stairs when he noticed me coming. I let him into my room and he instantly fell asleep at the foot of the bed, not giving any head to what was happening downstairs, not caring about anyone's problems but his own, I can see why Raven picked him for me.
I came and laid down of my bed with my cat, who moved up and snuggled in next to me, giving me a strong sense of comfort which would never happen with any human.
The others went through as they wanted to, some even bothering to check on me, even though I was pretending to be asleep. Adrianus stayed where he was throughout the entire time, every now and then readjusting himself into a more comfortable position.
We stayed like this for ages before and idea crossed my mind. Picking up pieces of cloth, I made him a small blanket for him to sleep under, which he seemed to enjoy.
The cat became more active at about 10pm, stalking along the book shelves, as if looking for the right book, his tail trailing along the books, similar to a human finger trailing along the spines of books in bookstores or libraries.
The cat finally stopped and placed his paw on a book spine, this strange behavior prompting me to go and investigate. It was 'A Study in Scarlet' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I pulled the book out and Adrianus dashed onto the bed, where he sat expectedly.
I sat down next to him and started to read. The words spilled out, almost like an ocean, that was being held back by a dam, being released. The cat slowly grew sleepy and when he fell asleep, I put a bookmark in where I had read to and put it on the bedside table.
A dog barking woke me up the next morning, it also woke the cat, which looked towards the area where the sound of the barking was coming from like it was a mouse about to be caught.
We both got up and Adrianus went outside, where he went and sunned himself on the first storey roof. The others were up shortly afterwards, they all looked as tired as I felt. Over breakfast we all agreed to make our rooms soundproof, so that took up about half an hour of our morning routine.
The cat came in just after I had finished and fell asleep on the bed, as if knowing that nothing was going to disturb his peace now. I listened to classical music through a speaker quietly, which didn't seem to bother the cat at all.
After a while the cat went and placed his paw on the Sherlock Holmes story, which I read to him until I finished it, at which point I went and returned it to where it should be and the cat went and chose another book to read, this one was 'Poirot' by Agatha Christie.
The cat seemed as enthralled by this book as by the last one, looking as calm and relaxed as a book should do to the reader. The cat laid down on my chest and fell asleep after a little bit. I carefully put him down and pulled the blanket over him. I went and wrote some more in code, and eventually becoming too tired to focus properly and joined Adrianus and fell asleep.
The soft light of the approaching dawn woke me. I had a bath and changed into a suit, which was the next thing on my clean clothes pile, with a crimson tie. After dressing, I got ready to leave my room when Adrianus woke, ran and landed lightly on my shoulders, acting in the way a hunter would act when hunting his prey.
When I entered the communal area, I noticed that most people hadn't made such good companions with their pets.
Katana's dog wouldn't stop barking at everything and anything. Guisarme was having trouble keeping her mongoose interested in her now. Voulge and her angora rabbit looked like they were enemies more than friends.
For the rest, the animals seemed to be bearable. Rapier was sitting with his parrot, which would say something in English that he would ignore. The raven kept fluffing up its feathers as a sign that it wanted attention, but there was no response from Raven. The boa didn't seem to be doing anything other than resting, while the iguana was still running around madly. Sling's frogs let off the occasional croak, but nothing big.
Everyone looked up at me when I entered the room, Adrianus still balanced on my shoulder.
"How do you become such good friends with an animal?" Loch is great at asking questions because they are simple and straight to the point.
"Treat them like they are people, think of them as your new friend, tell them about yourself, tell them how you feel, include them in your life." Came my response.
For the next fifteen minutes, there was eight conversations going on between the people and their animals, although it was a bit one sided.
At the end of the time, the animals were not only more calm and relaxed, but also more friendly towards their counterparts, meaning that we could get down to business.
We were sitting in a circular ring of chairs, with a large round table in the middle where we often did important work. Adrianus sat on the table just to my right, overseeing the entire thing through his fierce green eyes, fixing them on anyone or anything that did something out of place.
The conversation was mostly about taxes and things like that and the idea to install solar panels to take us off the grid and have to pay no tax.
We all agreed and so ordered in solar panels, solar ventilation and solar hot water. All in all, we had the money for it, so we bought it to save money.
The day progressed really slowly, I mostly stayed in my room and read to my cat or drew or wrote.
Boredom set in and I was forced to turn to other methods of fun. I electrified the door handles of every doorway with 10 volts, not a lot but just enough to feel it. I changed the carpet from rainbow to black and white, which everyone agreed was much nicer than the original and so let it stay. I reached the end of the day with five pranks performed.
Adrianus was already asleep by the time I went to bed, obviously tired out by all the excitement which hadn't happened today. I promised myself that I would have more fun tomorrow.
The next day I rose early and went for a run, what made this run off was because I had a ginger cat running next to me, which I just laughed about and continued down the track.
I met the lovely lady again, who took a liking to Adrianus and he seemed to return the favour. We went out and looked at the horses, and Adrianus was placed on top of one of the mares and balanced there, appearing to be having the time of his life, as the mare continued with her grazing routine, which seemed quite patterned but I was unable to work it out.
I said my goodbyes and ran home, where everyone was happy and excited with their pets. Rapier and Raven were cooking this morning, with their companions grabbing this and that for them in return for bits of bacon.
Voulge sat brushing her rabbit, which was quite enjoying it's time in the spotlight.
Guisarme and Loch were both chatting while their pets played and ran around in front of them, seeming to be having a lot of fun.
Katana and Glaive sat together, with the dog resting patiently while the python made interesting designs on Glaive's arms.
Sling sat apart from everyone, her frogs messing around on the palm of her hand, which acted like a miniature playground for them.
Adrianus went and sat with the rabbit, and so I followed. I sat down next to Voulge and say awkwardly, watching her brush her rabbits fur.
"So, you and Rapier then, hey?" was the only thing I could think of in the context.
Voulge just simply laughed. "It could never work, me and him, not in these circumstances, anywhere else on earth I wouldn't hesitate, but in these circumstances no, I don't think I could."
"Personally, I think he likes you, maybe more than he should, but he likes you, there is no doubt about it." I don't do romance, I can't do anything to do with love, so my word doesn't mean all that much.
"Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't" Voulge shrugged. "I don't care, I love him probably more than he loves me, so if he was to ask me on a date, I would say yes, but not before knowing you didn't set it up, Knife." She said, turning on my with mock anger.
"Me?" I pretend wounded. "I have no idea why you would blame me with such a ridiculous accusation."
Voulge stops brushing to laugh. "Ok, I'm going to wait and see if he gets the courage the courage to ask me, and if I find out that you are behind it all, so help me." Voulge stood suddenly, cradling her rabbit, then moving off.
I was left sitting there, staring into blank space thinking about the four partnerships in The Storm and myself, and how it is going to affect them.
Rapier and Raven called lunch, so I plodded over towards the dining room, Adrianus following me, knowing that lunch with me means he gets food scraps that I 'accidentally' drop on the table, as 'no one eats from the floor unless they are dogs or lower class peasants' would be Adrianus' reasoning.