Pet Part 1 (Nathayen POV)

One thing had to be left to the little one: he had understood when he was fighting in a lost position. I had expected that he might try to escape in Myro's apartment, but he didn't risk it. Either he sensed that he couldn't really escape us, or he knew that we would track him down as quickly as we had done the first time.

We didn't deal with him more than necessary during the ride. Why should we? We had more urgent matters to tend to, such as the question of what had actually happened. How was it possible that these paintings had been created without there being a sotarineonic informant? 

Not to forget that our next report was due soon. The Council would want to hear about the progress we had made in the human world. How they would react to our latest findings was uncertain. Especially since we ourselves could not say exactly what we had found among the humans, but I trusted Juliel's abilities. If he told me that the little one was not getting his information from anywhere, it had to be the truth. 

Yet, what did it mean to us, for our operation? There was so much that we couldn’t say with certainty and given that we soon had to justify ourselves to the most critical eyes for each of our steps, I disliked this situation at all. At this time, however, I was unable to change much about it. All we could do was for us to get to the bottom of this phenomenon personally.

The warehouse welcomed us with the usual appearance. The chair with the plastic tarpaulin was still ready for use, which was why I took a curious look at our new guest.

"Welcome to your four-star hotel." Dam grinned and pointed to one of the metal containers standing in the room. Juliel opened the door and revealed a camp bed, a sink and a toilet. We had worse accommodation options than this, but so far, there had been no reason to treat the dwarf worse.

"Hey, Jonas!" Dam slammed his hand against the container right next to the midget's future home. "Get up, we brought you your friend!"  Thanks to Dam's beatings, a panicked scream from Krewood sounded from inside.

He turned to our artist, visibly satisfied, and paused.

"What's your name, dwarf?" 

True, now that he mentioned it, none of us had bothered to ask him for his name. The little one gave Dam a disgusted look. 

"Do you only feel strong when you can bully weaker people?" he asked as he looked at his accommodation. "Dwarf is enough."

Damahir raised an eyebrow: "It's not my fault that he's weak. I also harass you, you just cry less because of it." He shrugged. He did not feel attacked by this at all. I snorted amused. If the man believed that he could put us in place with his morals, we had to disappoint him. Why should we hold back because of human standards?

The little one did not respond, but climbed into the container without resistance to settle on the bed. "Was that it?" he wanted to know.  

I smiled and looked at him amused. "Isn't he well-behaved? I think I'll keep it. Could make a useful pet." At least if it turns out that his pictures could have some deeper benefit for us. We had already found use in many of the lower people. If it became apparent that it was similar in humans, I would not miss such an opportunity. 

At first, the dwarf laughed as if I had told a joke, before he spat at my feet and demonstratively turned his back. 

I grinned at this obvious provocation. "Correction: I'll definitely keep it." Something told me that I could still have a great time with him. His unruly nature promised to be a refreshing contrast to the obedience of other people. 

Before I closed the door, Lyras threw a pad and pen right at his feet. "Draw more of your pictures." 

I did not wait for another reply, but demonstratively slammed the door of the container. Jonas certainly gritted his teeth again because of it. "A few hours for such pictures should probably be enough. I look for him later and feed him. Maybe." If he had delivered something, hopefully we were smarter about this strange gift. 

For the moment, each of us had better things to do than to deal with him further. "In the end, we can probably be glad that it was just a strange person and no traitor spat out information." I sighed, stretched and let my neck crack. Juliel nodded. 

"Still strange. I think that a person can do such a thing at all seems far-fetched," Dam noted. "But since Ju was right in his skull, we can be sure it's true." Yes. But the real question was what that would mean for us and our operations. 

"We'll see," Lyras added. I instinctively felt that this mystery would keep us busy for a long time to come.