"You seem to be enjoying that?" I said as I watched Davy devour his sandwich ferocity. "Here you have a little bit on your cheek."
I grabbed the little piece of tuna stuck to his cheek and shoved it in my mouth. I couldn't help teasing him like this, and the reaction he gave was exactly what I expected. His face went bright red, and his eyes quickly darted away from mine.
I chuckled a little and then went back to eating my sandwich. I had gotten a pulled pork sandwich, Lleu was having a toasted cheese sandwich, and Davy was of course eating the same tuna sandwich Miss Duffy had.
The three of us sat on a bench outside the sandwich shop and were enjoying our sandwiches. The shop was relatively close to my house, and the shop itself was very nice and cosy despite being hidden behind other businesses.
Today I vowed to support this local business by only buying sandwiches from this establishment. The sandwiches were terrific and were fairly priced for what you got, so I didn't mind the slight detour to get my lunch.
As I planned my future eating arrangements, we all finished our sandwiches, and it was time to move on to the main course of hang-out plans.
"Should we start heading to your place then?" I asked Lleu after he took the final bite of his sandwich.
"Yeah, I can't wait to get back. Other than Davy you're the only person who has visited my house." Lleu seemed excited and it was contagious.
"Let's get going then."
We started walking to the centre of Wylde village where all the houses are located, but what surprised me was that we went past the normal houses and into the richer district.
When I first arrived at Wylde village, I asked agent Coyle about the housing situation. I remember him saying something about the wealthy families owning and building most of the big houses, and now that I think about it my first two choices of houses were quite bizarre by human standards.
'I wonder what kind of house Lleu has?' I began to wonder what Lleu's house could possibly look like. 'Where would a sheep like to live? A field, barn, maybe he lives on a farm?'
"We are here." Now when Lleu said that I immediately thought he was joking.
"Yeah, sure it is, and I live on the back of a flying turtle. Where do you actually live Lleu?"
Davy started laughing, but Lleu didn't seem to find it funny. "No, I do live here."
The reason I couldn't believe Lleu was because the house in front of me was closer to a castle than a house. The building towered over the others nearby and whilst the architecture looked centuries old, the building itself looked to be in pristine condition. There was a family crest above the door that resembled two sheep with their horns locked together.
"Welcome back master Lleu. Is master Davy with you?" A maid opened the door, and she bowed to Lleu. She had purple hair and was wearing a traditional maid dress with a long dress, but the strangest thing about her was the stuffed animals clinging to her legs and clothes.
The maid looked up from her bow and saw me admiring the building. She turned pale as a ghost, and all the stuffed animals hid behind her.
"Eep! Master Lleu brought a girl home! Bearo, go get Edward and go tell him the good news." After she gave an order to a stuffed bear, it began to waddle away in a hurry. "First a friend and now a girl, you're quite the charmer master Lleu."
"It's not like that, Alice! She is also one of my friends." Lleu seemed incredibly flustered, and Davy seemed incredibly amused.
Lleu was trying his best to clear up the misunderstanding, but it had already gotten out of hand. A mature man with greying hair rushed to the door carrying the bear from earlier.
"Is it true? Has our young master climbed the stairs of adulthood?" The man asked the maid whilst panting from running.
"No, I have not!" Lleu shouted, he was clearly embarrassed now. "Kate is a friend, and she will only be a friend!"
It took a little while longer before the misunderstanding was fully cleared up and after it was the man and the maid insisted that we sat and have some tea. Lleu wanted to go straight to playing games, but the man scolded him about "Showing proper etiquette" and "treating your guests properly".
In five minutes, we sat at the table being served tea and pastries by stuffed animals. The man and the maid didn't sit at the table with us, but I could see their eyes through the slightly ajar door watching us.
Lleu let out a massive sigh. I could tell this wasn't the first time he had been through this. He probably had to go through this when Davy first showed up.
"Will you two come, sit down and introduce yourselves? I'm sure Kate is confused about all of this."
The two were shocked that they were spotted, but after Lleu glared at them they sat down.
The man was first to give his introduction, and he did it whilst using filling everyone's cups. "I'm the head butler of this household, Edward Bell, and I have worked for the Taylor family all my life. When I'm not performing duties for master Lleu, I'm tutoring my apprentice, Alice."
"Hello, my name is Alice, and I work here as master Lleu's maid and as Edward's apprentice. I'm a mage who specialises in anthropomorphism. All the stuffed animals were created by me, and they help me clean and tend to master Lleu."
After Edward and Alice were done all the stuffed animals started to introduce themselves.
"Hi, I'm Octavia the octopus, and I'm the head chef, so any meals you eat will come from me."
"Hello, my name is Monk the monkey, and I'm the gardener."
"Good day, I'm Pawtrese the dog, and I'm the laundress."
"Howdy, the names Cowdon, and I help Edward with all his duties as a fellow butler."
The other stuffed animals made their introductions, and I realised there were a lot more of them than I originally thought. There was enough to fill the room, and they all seemed well-made and cared for. Not all of them called their name and profession some just made animalistic noises.
"Wow, Alice how long did it take to make all of them? They all look perfectly made." I asked petting a stuffed bear who was sitting on my lap.
"I can't take all the credit. They are all made from master Lleu's wool, and he did help me put them together. In fact, I might go as far as to consider them our children." Alice wore a teasing smile when she said that.
"Alice!" Lleu was getting redder by the second.
"So, miss Kate what kind of animal are you? From the look of your ears and features, you seem to be a canine. Are you perhaps a fox or coyote."
At that moment I realised they had no idea who I was. "Sorry, I forgot my introduction. My name is Kate Carter, and my animal is a wolf."
Edward dropped the cup he was holding luckily; Octavia caught it with one of her tentacles before it spilt on the floor. "A wolf! To think master Lleu could befriend a member of such a powerful and influenceable species."
Alice also seemed equally panicked. "No way! Master Lleu has two friends, and one of them is a wolf!" She started poking me to check if I was real, and Edward started to sniffle.
"Sorry, to appear so unsightly." Edward was now in tears at this point. "Master spent all his childhood locked inside, so I was worried that he would have a hard time fitting in. But to think he has already made powerful allies. His father will be so proud."
Even Alice and all her animals got a little weepy now. Everyone beside me and Davy was now staring at Lleu with a sad prideful look.
"Hey, stop crying, all of you. Did you think I was going to be friendless forever? Wait you actually did, didn't you!"
Whilst Lleu arguing with Alice and Edward, me and Davy were just sitting awkwardly in the middle of them all.
Our eyes met and he came closer to whisper in my ear. "This takes a long time. Want to see my room?"
"Sure. It seems like this got a bit personal." We left Lleu and his servants, and they unsurprisingly didn't notice us leave. The only one who was paying attention was a stuffed duck that followed us out.
Davy seemed to recognise the duck. "This is Quackson. He likes showing me where to go when I gets lost. He also likes riding on back."
Quackson was one of the animals that couldn't talk, so he just made loud noises. Quack Quack Quack
Davy turned into a cat, and Quackson climbed on his back. I once again marvelled at how easily he transformed I also wanted to transform, but I didn't want to start running in Lleu's hallways.
From that point, I followed Davy and his cavalier to a room with Davy's name scribbled messily on the front of the door. The door also had a pet door that Davy used to enter.
The way the room was decorated didn't seem to match the rest of the house. Instead of a conventional bed, there was an extra-large cat bed that could easily fit up to two humans. However despite the bed, nearly every unused surface had been turned into a bed with pillows and blankets. The rest of the room was a jungle of cat trees of all different colours, shapes and sizes. In the corner of the room, there was a tv with a console and controller plugged in.
The room was unapologetically Davy.
"So, what do you want to do first?"