Master! Master! – Chapter 8.1

Latest fiction & first time story: Master! Master! – Chapter 8.1

by Sage_of_the_Forlorn_Path

I finally give the girls a glimpse of the outside world, and in the process, find a clue to some answers.

For several days, the whiteout continued. I was learning to live without TV and Internet, though the itch never went away. It was certainly nice to have a vacation and rest with my girls, but that wasn’t to say we weren’t busy. My driveway was bound to get plowed sooner or later, and when it did, all that snow would be pushed up right in front of my house-if the plow could even get that far. In preparation, we spent countless hours shoveling the snow, trying to get as much of it off the driveway as possible. We dug out my car and I was able to boost it with the generator.

Our days were simple: wake up, play for a bit, have breakfast, do some shoveling, take a nap, play a bit more, shovel, lounge, have dinner, and play until bedtime. It was a nice life.

“Masteeeeerrrrr! Momo’s sick of shoveling!” the feline groaned.

“Yeah, me too,” I replied, “but it needs to be done. Just focus on getting the top layers.”

Momo grumbled and continued to work. She stuck her shovel deep into the white powder and tossed it over her shoulder. Zooming back and forth with her tongue hanging out and a big grin on her face, Sonja jumped into the air and let the snow slam into her. For some reason, she just loved getting blasted with it.

“Sonja, come on, we need help. Quit screwing around.” Sonja pouted but retrieved her shovel and continued hauling powder.

I turned to Chloe, who was having the hardest time due to her size. The snow was high enough to reach her ears and her shovel was a little too big for her, but she did look cute, all dressed up. “Chloe, how are you doing?”

Hearing my voice, the tiny hybrid tensed up and squealed. “I’m ok! Master doesn’t need to worry about me!”

She said that, but her cheeks were flushed and her breathing was ragged. Without saying a word, I walked over and picked her up. But rather than cradling her in the ‘princess carry’, I was holding her vertically and upside down, making her squeak and terror.

“Sonja, Momo, let’s break for lunch!”

Both the cat and dog cheered and followed me as I carried Chloe inside.

Later that day, the plow came and cleared the road. Unfortunately, it was the public plow service, so my driveway was untouched. However, it did give me an idea. We got more clear weather the next day, so after eating breakfast and shoveling a path for my car, I turned to the girls.

“How would you three like to go for a drive?”

Momo looked at me in confusion. Sure, she had been in the car plenty of times before, but that was just to take her and Sonja to the park, and that was at night, as well as when I drove them to the cabin to show it to them. Until now, I had done everything I could to keep them hidden from the world, so what changed? Beside her, Sonja, the lovable airhead, was happy as could be at the prospect of going for a drive. Chloe pulled down her wool hat as far as it could go and was trembling. Unlike Momo and Sonja, she had never seen the outside world. Before I showed her those ‘planet earth’ documentaries, Earth to her was the ten-mile diameter circle around the house. Nothing else existed in her known universe, save for the mystical lands of “my office” and “the store” that I would disappear to during the day.

“Master, why would you take us with you? Momo thought you didn’t want us to be seen.”

“I still don’t, but I was thinking we could just check out how everything looks, see the damage. Besides, it might be good for you to see a little bit of the outside world. I need to pick up some things anyway. As long as the three of you stay in the car and keep your hats on, you’ll be fine. So, what do you say?”

The girls oohed and awed nonstop during the drive. I was in the same state, unable to believe the damage that the storm had caused. Every single tree had its branches weighed down near to the point of snapping, countless power lines were torn, and several houses were almost completely buried, save for their smoking chimneys. What was alarming though was how little work I was seeing done. Not even a single Central Maine Power truck could be found, and only a few sites of fallen trees had any kind of traffic cone or warning. I suppose this was a Catch 22: the fallen trees and branches had knocked out the power, but lines they landed on caught them and stopped them from falling into the street.

All three girls were in the back seat, namely due to Chloe’s anxiety. She was so nervous that she couldn’t face the outside world unless she was sandwiched in between Momo and Sonja. Hers were the widest eyes of all. With her tiny world view, she had expected us to enter a whole new ecosystem after driving just a few miles. Momo and Sonja were barely any better informed. To them, the planet was about the size of Azeroth in World of Warcraft.

“Master, are there really people living in all these houses?” Chloe asked.

“Yep, every single one. There are over a million people in the state alone.”

“How many is a million?”

“It’s a one with six zeroes.”

Her face somehow became even paler as she tried to imagine such a number. Our first stop was the gas station to get fuel for the generator, but it took a while to find one that actually had power. We arrived to find a long line ahead of us with cars idling on either side of the road, everyone waiting for their turn.

“Master, are you sure it’s ok for us to be here?” Chloe asked.

“Don’t worry, you’re completely safe. Just don’t make eye contact with anyone.”

I turned up the radio, listening to news of the weather. Apparently, we hadn’t even reached the halfway point and blizzards would just keep coming. This really was the storm of the century. In the back seat, Momo was snoozing, Sonja was breathing on the window and drawing shapes, and Chloe was wringing her tail. Every couple of minutes, one of the pumps would become available and the line would slide ahead, making the girls all perk up. At last, my turn arrived.

First, I topped off my car, then began filling up empty gas cans. Now that we were actually at the station, there were a lot more people around. The girls did as they were told, looking out through the windows but avoiding eye contact. For Momo and Sonja, it had a long time since they had seen other people in real life, and for Chloe, it was the first. I watched their eyes dart around, wondering what they thought of all of these people. Were they maybe comparing me to them in some way?

Once my task was completed, we took off, heading to the nearby grocery store. Just like before the storm, the lot was completely packed, and I had to circle around again and again until someone finally left their spot. Before getting out of the car, I turned to the girls and handed them my phone.

“I’ll be back soon, so just wait quietly and don’t get out of the car. Here, play Angry Birds until I get back.”

“Uh… M-Master?” Chloe asked.

“What is it?”

“I have to go to the bathroom.”

This would prove troublesome.

“Can you hold it until we get home?”

She shook her head.

“Ok, they’ll have a bathroom inside. Come with me.”

After tucking her tail into her sweatpants, she climbed out of the car and took her first nervous steps onto the cold pavement. As soon as I started moving towards the store, she grasped my hand and clung to it like a little kid, though because of her size, that’s all anyone would think she was. I could feel her breaths becoming frantic as we approached the door, with people passing in and out.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.”

The automatic doors scared her, but we got through them without issue. She was utterly amazed once we stepped inside the store, unable to believe that a building could be so large or that there were so many people on Earth. Of course, the store was packed, and there was little left on the shelves. Even in the storm, they had been receiving shipments of food, though it clearly wasn’t enough the satiate the desperate and unprepared. The store was running on generator power, so only half the lights and a few refrigerators were working. It was kind of cool to see it this way, almost post-apocalyptic.

She continued clinging to me as I led her to the bathrooms. Once there, I got down on one knee. “Ok, just go through there and you’ll find a row of stalls with toilets. Pick one, do your business, and come back out. I’ll be waiting for you right here. Can you do that?” She nodded. “Good girl.”

It took some courage, but she let go and entered the female restroom.

In the car, Momo and Sonja bounced and chirped in excitement as they took turns with my phone. Due to their childlike intellects and personalities, the games on my phone held their attention like they were eight-year-olds kept pacified in a fancy restaurant. The sounds and colors were like crack to them. The only thing that broke their focus was the owner of the car next to Sonja arriving. The two girls did as they were told, keeping their heads down and their eyes focused on the phone, waiting for the woman to leave. But as soon as she pulled out, another car took her place, this one driven by a man.

Again, Sonja and Momo waited for him to leave before daring to look out the windows. Sonja’s nose picked up the scent before her eyes took in the sight. She whipped her head around, looking into the other car. She had her face pressed to the window, which was open just a crack to let fresh air in. The owner of the car next to her had done the same thing, leaving a window slightly open, and it was through those small gaps that two scents were exchanged and Sonja now found herself locked in a staring contest with a black and white Border Collie.

The two dogs were completely fixated on each other. The unnamed hound was confused beyond words, unable to tell what Sonja was. Was she a dog? Was she a person? She smelled like a mix of both. Sonja was equally bewildered, finally meeting one of her own kind since she had become a person. It felt like it happened a million years ago. Living on four legs, unable to talk, covered in fur; she had almost completely forgotten what that life was like. Behind her, her tail began to wag, and seeing it, the collie began wagging his own tail.