Dracius: Origins Part VII
#7 of Dracius
On a bit of a roll here. Dracius Part VII for your perusal. I feel this may be a little rushed and my fill it out a bit later on, just depending.
Time passed and I fell into a routine. Artos would leave in the morning and return in the afternoon most days. Sometimes he would work with one of his devices, other times he would simply talk to me. At one point he brought some toys in for me to play with and discovered that I would play catch with him after a fashion. At the time it was very difficult for me to overcome the instinct to pounce on the ball. As I grew to have more energy and practice, I grew more skilled at it. Artos seemed to enjoy it and I believe that is the reason that enjoyed playing with the ball as well.
I would play with the other toys from time to time, though I was not certain of what the point was, or even what they were supposed to do. Again, it seemed to please Artos that I did so.
Phaegus would come by occasionally with Ren beside him. The first few times I would hide from him, but soon I grew used to his occasional presence, if not comfortable with it. He had not tried to harm me since that first time and Artos seemed to be fine with his presence and so I trusted Artos not to allow harm to befall me.
Jerim, Artos' brother, also stopped to see how I was doing. I was leery of him as well, remembering him capturing me, but it was hard to stay so. Jerim was so upbeat and cheerful that even as uncertain as I was I grew to be relaxed around him. He also enjoyed playing with me, though the one time he tried to wrestle with me a bit it scared me into Artos' arms, much to his startlement.
The one person I never cared to see was Duke Grimal. When I heard him coming or detected his scent, I would hide on the other side of the bed or go into the closet if it were open. I tried to stay out of his sight as much as I could. Every time he saw me he would glare at me and ask Artos if I had caused any trouble, as if just looking for a chance to have me removed. Sometimes Artos would become rather heated with his father concerning me and those times frightened me more than any.
I was coming to understand that Duke Grimal was in charge and that if he ordered Artos to abandon me that Artos would be required to do so. I could not precisely determine their relationship I... you will find out about my parents later. I do not wish to write of it now. I knew whatever their relationship was that Artos wanted to please Duke Grimal as much as I wished to please him and it frightened me that his desire to do so could result in me being abandoned.
Even now, I fear abandonment some days.
I know you would never do so Artos. It is an old fear and not easy to overcome.
It had been several weeks at least, perhaps even a month and a half, when Artos was busy working on one of his little projects. Sometimes he would get so wrapped up in them he would forget to eat or to attend to whatever it was Duke Grimal wished of him which usually resulted in him being yelled at and me ducking away.
Generally, Artos would get lunch or dinner for the both of us before he started tinkering, but for some reason today he did not. Breakfast had also been light that morning and so I was quite hungry. I did not wish to disturb Artos, but I was also quite nervous about becoming so hungry. It had, after all, not been so very long ago that I was nearly starving.
I decided that if I stood next to him and watched him that perhaps he would notice me and get us something to eat, however he was far to engrossed in what he was doing. I touched his leg a few times and he smiled down at me, patted me on the head, and continued on with what he was doing. "Go play, Dracius."
I sighed and tried to play with the toys for a bit but I was far to hungry. My stomach was starting to hurt.
I went back to the chair and touched his leg again, whimpering, and he looked at me. "Go on, Dracius. We can play later; I'm busy."
I was starting to get very frustrated.
Finally, I tapped his leg. "Artos. Hun-gry," I said.
"Yes, Dracius, we will get something soon," he said absently then looked down at me in surprise. "What did you say?"
"Hungry," I repeated, trying to pronounce the word correctly, as I had heard them say it.
He just stared, stunned. "You can talk!"