"Ah, Kaitlin, come in, Adeline just spooked Bubbles over here."
Phen responded with the same calm as he had done to reassure Bubbles, however the petite girl still refrained from entering the room.
"Bubbles...?"
'I hate the fact that, that name stuck.'
Kaitlin timidly spoke as she gazed at the beast that the Hunter had insisted be brought back.
"So... Any reason for you being here or...?"
Phen prompted her, attempting to distract her fearful stare or to calm her frayed nerves.
"Um... Chloe wants you to sign a few things... Since you brought this... Bubbles into the city. Formal notice to the lord... The guild..."
The girl fumbled with her words as her eyes kept wandering around the room, before they inevitably came back to where Bubbles now lay, only to dart away to try & avoid seeming antagonistic, he did rather stick out, and despite the hunters assurances, Kaitlin couldn't dispel the fog of doubt & fear in her mind. She didn't seem too composed being around a monster, for someone who worked in what Bubbles could only describe as a guardhouse, which was populated with warriors & mages who could at least face something such as Bubbles without such a feeble display as had been proven earlier that day.
"Bring them over here, 'Ade', do you mind givin' me a hand with the niceties..."
Phen seemed unconcerned by the enormity of what he had apparently asked of the timid girl in the doorway, as she appeared to freeze on the spot upon being told to enter the room.
"Sure..."
Adeline responded in an almost cold tone to the hunters request, seemingly oblivious to the poor girl's plight.
"Um..."
Kaitlin finally spoke up, only to flinch away when everyone's attention turned to her.
'It's because she thinks I'm a monster or something, well I might be actually... I just have to show her I'm not a threat, right?'
Slowly and silently, Bubbles extended his arm along the floor, towards the now trembling girl, his palm open and upwards, until its full length lay outstretched on the floor, as a sign of his lack of malice. Bubbles kept his head as high as he could whilst laying down, the green hue that represented his eyes focused on her as she cautiously entered the room, her deep green eyes were, similarly, locked on Bubbles as she approached, tentatively, reaching out one of her arms, before gently stroking Bubbles' palm.
...
"The letters?"
Phen broke the peace of the moment and instantly Kaitlin retracted her arm & shot upright, almost falling backwards as some of the papers she was carrying slipped from her grasp. Flustered, she quickly began to gather the papers that had fallen.
The hunter let out a slight chuckle & picked up 2 sheets of paper that had wafted over to his feet. Bubbles simply looked down at the papers that had fallen in front of him, fearful that if he reached out to grab them, they might be stained or dissolved, as the smaller remnants of the days earlier assault that had been stuck inside his body eventually were.
"You, are, jumpy. Scared of your own shadow, huh."
Phen responded coolly whilst holding the papers out to the flustered girl as she continued to gather the papers that lay in front of Bubbles.
"I am not!"
She replied, flustered as she glared at the hunter with a pouting face, annoyance & anger in her eyes, she looked like almost like an upset child. With the papers gathered back into a bundle, Kaitlin moved to sit with 'Ade' on the far side of the table, spreading the sheets on the wooden table & procuring a quill pen & a small vial of black ink, placing them on the table and beginning to organize the stack of papers, leaving aside sheets that were placed facing the hunter, whom she even didn't look at, her annoyance still plain at the hunter's prior remark.
"It's a figure of speech. Come on lay everything on the table, lets sort this paperwork out, I don't think the big guy will be able to help out, will ya Bubbles?"
Phen turned away from Bubbles as he said this, seemingly uncaring to witnessing Bubbles' reaction, who shot his head up in response to the hunter's indignant remark.
'Hey! I know how to read AND write, lets have a look at this paperwork.'
Bubbles shifted in response to the hunter's words, standing & skulking over to the table where the rest of the group sat, startling Kaitlin as she noticed Bubbles' movement from beyond the other side of the table as her eyes widened slightly as she Bubbles now standing at his full height behind the hunter. 'Ade' also took note of this as she raised her head from the papers laid out on the table to observe the beast's movements as it now loomed over Phen & the table.
"I don't need any shade Bubbles."
Phen responded in his typical calm manner to the situation.
'Can't read... I'll show you.'
Bubbles moved itself to stand far enough back to not hit the table, but close enough to see the sheets of paper spread across the table, only to realize at that point.
'I can't read this...'
Bubbles looked down at the papers only to see unidentifiable scribblings and symbols that resembled nothing like the writings that he knew, which lead to another question being added to the ever growing list that plagued the creatures thoughts.
'Why can I remember how to write, but not in this language?... I can't make out the letters... Wait... What language can I write in?... What was it's damn name?...'
Lost in thought Bubbles hadn't noticed that another presence had entered the room.
"Hello again, Ellan..."
Phen spoke without moving his head from the papers before him.
"Oh, Miss Tearn, um..."
Kaitlin spoke quickly after turning from the stack of papers she was sorting and quickly stood to greet the figure. Bubbles turned towards the door and froze upon seeing the captain looming through the doorway, before slowly trying to take a step backwards onto the mat, which shifted & crumpled under Bubbles' clumsy movement.
"You've spooked him again."
Phen responded in an indignant manner to the Captain's fiery gaze.
"This beast has no place in the barracks, and any problems will fall on you, Phen."
The Captain, Ellan Tearn spoke in a loud and clear voice as though to emphasize her point.
"Clear as crystal, but don't make a mountain from a molehill, if you scare him & he does something, then *I'll* hold you responsible."
Phen gave a pointed answer to the Captain, eliciting no immediate response.
...
The moment held the air for what seemed like an age. The only sound audible was the scratching of what looked to be a quill pen which Phen had produced, seemingly from nowhere as he began scribbling away at the papers before him.
The moment continued to last with no one willing to break the silence & Ellan continuing to stand ominously in the doorway.
"Any reason for your visit, or did you just want to be a nuisance."
Phen broke the moment, his words lingered in the air, as they seemed to do whenever he spoke, it was indescribable in a way, this silent presence that he seemed to emit, Bubbles had, at first, found it calming during their earlier encounter, but now it seemed strangely chilling.
Ellan scowled even harder for but a moment, before her face & eyes softened to their previous, albeit, still cold expression.
"Sir Lin has been informed about this thing, I told him personally & he expressed an interest in it, before he had to leave for the summit."
"Ah, nice to know the world is still in mortal danger, like always."
Those last words were spoken with emphasis, yet Phen's tone was almost unconcerned, in complete contrast to the contents of his answer.
'Ade' was the only one in the room whose face seemed to bear no reaction to that statement, the slight look of shock was evident on Kaitlins face, on Ellan's rage and disgust grew ever more evident.
...
'What have I gotten myself into the middle of...?'
Bubbles thought as he tried to remain as still as possible, sensing the unseen hostility in the room just as clearly as everyone else in the room could.
Slowly Bubbles lowered itself onto the crumpled mat beneath it, before trying to retreat even further by slinking it's rear legs against the wall until they were almost unidentifiable from its bodies own slimy mass.
A low whimpering could be heard permeating the room, through the almost chilling silence.
The sound was intriguing to the inhabitants of the room, especially its source, as even Phen stopped and took notice of the near inaudible sound, almost startled by the unexpectedness of it.
Not Bubbles, to even his own surprise, instead the sound came from behind the inumerable wooden boxes just to the right of where Bubbles was sat.
Everyone turned to face the source of the strange noise, with Bubbles edging backwards only to pause after his 2nd step back.
'I'm getting closer to the person, who came in here... just to threaten to kill me...'
It was this sobering thought that had caused Bubbles to pause, but just as it did, the box atop the closest pile of wooden crates to Bubbles shifted as a scrabbling sound could be heard of tiny claws on wood.
Phen had calmed and stood up, his attention on the same thing as everyone else in the room, yet while they all appeared too afraid to move, Phen calmly approached the pile of crates.
And moved the topmost box to the next pile.
Before reaching in & scooping out.
...
3 kittens.
"And how did you 3 get in here?"
Phen asked as he cradled the timid creatures in his arms, before moving back to the table and all but laying them out on it.
Among the three of them, none of them was entirely clean or well fed & none of them shared any distinguishing features with the others.
1 of the kittens was white with a blue stripe on it's left side, visible as it rolled out of Phens arms.
Another was a shade of brown not too dissimilar from the wood of the boxes around the rooms edges, with green spots adorning its back as it hopped about the table.
And the last from what could be seen was a ginger-orange shade with at least 1 red stripe across its back & tail as it was obscurred by Phen as he remained standing after releasing them onto the table.
"Terrifying, aren't they."
Phen jested as everyone in the room turned a slight shade of red, save for 'Ade', who looked to have lost interest and was instead picking up documents that were still strewn about the table from the filthy creatures paws, and Bubbles, who had softened & was returning to his oh-so luxurious straw mat.
Kaitlin hadn't even noticed that the animals were trampling her documents as the adorable creatures had her rapt attention, Phen didn't seem to care & was instead observing the curious creatures behaviour and Ellan, who had dropped her hand fron her blades hilt, was returned to simply looming in the doorway, observing the scene before her.
The white cat remained on its stomach while the brown one pattered across the table, and as for the orange one, it had now turned to face Phen, the scene was like a staring match between man & beast.
"Look at those predatory instincts at work."
Phen remarked having lost interest in his staring match and instead turning his eyes back to Bubbles.
"So does that make 4 pets I'm responsible for... OR... Are we going to execute these three?"
He spoke now towards Ellan, a hint of condemnation & perhaps condescension in his voice.
Ellans glare flared for a moment, before she huffed and walked off, back into the darkness of the corridor.
"Well I hope you don't mind sharing Bubbles, but it looks like you may have some bunk mates."
Phen's slight chuckle had returned.
'Great... Something else to be worried about, if one of those furballs starts clawing at me what am I supposed to do? That chick'll kill me if I move too quickly!!'
"Glllaaaarrrrggghhiiii"
"We'll empty a box or two, they can stay inside those, Bubbles doesn't seem too pleased to have them around."
Phen addressed Kaitlin and 'Ade' turning his head to see that the orange animal was still sat, eyes fixed on Phens.
Kaitlin, however had all but scooped up the brown cat and was tentatively stroking it as it nestled up to her chest.
"If that thing hurts them it's getting put down!"
Kaitlin said with a newfound fire in her voice, her eyes fixed on Bubbles as he lay, observing the situation.
Bubbles slinked his head at the comment knowing all too well just how precarious his situation was.
"If he's smart, he's probably more afraid of them."
Phen smiled as he'd turned around again to face Bubbles, perhaps also to avoid meeting the judging gaze of his newest burden sat on the table behind him.
'I swear, if you could read my thoughts this whole time, I'm going to be so pissed...'
Bubbles thought silently to himself.
"After all, looks like at least one of them might have monster blood in them. Maybe they'll make a hierarchy, and since you've got the captains ear... And he apparently has yours."
Phen gestured to the cat now snuggled up in Kaitlins arms as spoke, illustarting his point & causing Kaitlin to flinch at the accusation, before she & Bubbles realised something, which she quickly voiced.
"M... Monster blood?"
Kaitlin uttered it meekly.
Phen nodded, before responding "Yeah. I can smell something, although it could just be that they need a bath, I don't think the big guy needs one."
The ever casual Phen leant back on the table, causing the little orange furball behind him to finally stir from it's seat, finding a new one on the floor, it's eyes still fixed on Phen, as if disregarding Bubbles entirely.
"We can start looking into Bubbles more tomorrow, for now paperwork, pets & what the hell is it you little creep?"
Phen finally vocalized something akin to unease, whilst looking down at the curious cat, an obstacle between him and his original interest & a creature that actually possessed the power to unnerve the hunter.
"Heh-heh." Kaitlin giggled, before speaking "I'll take care of these guys, you just finish that paper work & give the captain something useful about that thing by tomorrow."
She ushered them towards the door, with no success, however her carrying their sibling seemed to grab their attention as both the curious animals followed her as she walked around them to the door, before slowly leaving the room, both animals still in tow.
The room was silent again.
"Try to get some sleep if you can Bubbles, I'll finish this damn clerk work."
Phen paused and sighed.
"And then, maybe tomorrow we can actually learn something useful about you."
Phen smiled as he said that before slumping back and returning to the piles of crumpled & dirtied papers spread across the table with the silent 'Ade' helping in the sorting and marking of the unspecified documents.
Bubbles fully laid back down on the straw mat and could slowly feel a sense of tiredness slowly overtake it's body, as it tried to organise it's rampant thoughts, feelings, concerns & the seemingly growing list of potential threats he now had to contend with.
'What a day...'