Page 51 of Solivagant

I sighed. “Listen to me, Tusks.” The nickname was meant to be an insult, but as it slipped from my lips something inside me seemed to shiver in contentment. The monster had a similar response, a rumble rolling through it just like the powerful growl it had previously warned me with. But this time, it stayed there without building in volume or evolving into a threat, and I realized this thing was actually purring.

I sighed again. “I can’t eat that, okay? I have to leave here. I have to go home.”

The purring cut out immediately, and the monster huffed at me.

Its head gestured in the direction of the crumbling house beside us.

“No, to my home. That’s not my home.”

Yes it is.

Shut up.

Tusks huffed at me, then stomped a short distance away as he sat down in the grass. The guard to this prison I’d found myself in.

I took a step off the porch, and he hissed at me in warning.

“For fuck’s sake. You can’t just keep me here.”

Tusks hissed again, saying without using words, “Try and stop me.”

I stormed inside, slamming the flimsy door closed. I waited for him to come after me. He didn’t. He just sat there in the grass. Keeping watch.

I paced, waiting for him to leave again. He didn’t.

I even tried sneaking out the back door, moving rubble and wooden beams out of the way, then checking to make sure he was still out the front before going back to quietly open it, only to find him sitting there instead, waiting. I closed it again, then crept to the front, and by the time I peered through the window he was back there again.

Whatever he was, he had excellent hearing, and he was very intent on not letting me leave this house again.

With nothing else to do, I kept moving the broken things out of the way, so that if something busted in while I was trapped in here, I’d have less chance of tripping and being impaled on some broken furniture.

Tusks was there waiting as I kicked the back door open again, but he didn’t stop me as I hauled out bits of wood and rock. His head tilted curiously, then he approached.

I remained very still as he came just feet away from me, and large hands with very sharp claws reached toward me as he took the busted chair from my hands and chucked it into the back yard himself. Then he turned to look at me, his ears twitching and his eyes crinkling as he attempted to smile.

Cute.

No. Not cute. Captor.

Cute captor.

I rolled my eyes, going back inside to get more of the unusable and hazardous debris.

Tusks attempted to follow.

“No!” I said firmly, and he sat down just outside the door, ears drooping. I sighed. “You’re not allowed to come in here. Understand?”

He huffed at me, but obeyed, remaining at the door but continuing to help as I brought broken wood and stone over, letting him take them and toss them out into the overgrown field.

When the area was cleared enough, I closed the door again. He went back to watching.

I was tired, and I was hungry, though not nearly hungry enough to attempt carving up and cooking that deer. I also wasn’t ready to trust any form of kindness the beast literally holding me captive seemed to be offering.

I went to the bedroom, trying to find anything to help keep me warm, but as I feared, whatever clothes had once existed in the wardrobe were dust now, leaving behind only green-stained brass buttons and rusted belt buckles.

Whatever. I could make do. I eyed the bed of grass and chamomile flowers. At least it smelled better than the rotting wood, moss, and dust filling the rest of the place.

If I was getting out of here, it wasn’t going to be tonight. I needed to rest. My body was sore, my energy depleted. I just had to hope that by tomorrow, Tusks might have lost interest in me and would let me leave.