“Sa! Sa!” Dia woke Sam up with his name shouted in a pleading voice.

He was glad that he had remembered to pull the blinds in front of the window, so the only thing the outside sun did was gleam through ever so slightly around the sides.

“Sa!!” She sounded desperate as she almost shook him awake.

“What?” He was still half asleep, but he managed a question through being shaken awake.

“Var tan druk!” She replied with urgency.

He could see in her eyes that this was important, but he needed a moment to analyse the words. Var Tan Druk... Var was herself, Tan... he didn’t know but Druk was... Toilet?

His eyes suddenly opened properly with realization. Checking the time it was 9 in the morning, they arrived in the afternoon yesterday, and they had both been without a toilet for a while, but her necessity might be more panicked as she had no idea where to go or what to do.

He had to chuckle a bit, which earned him another annoyed shake from the desperate Dia.

Getting out of bed he nodded out of the room. “Come, I’ll show you.” Pondering for a moment, he pointed and repeated. “Var druk.” As he understood it, this kind of meant ‘I toilet’ or something akin to that.

Dia’s eyes widened as a smile grew on her face, he didn’t know if it was for speaking to her in her words or the promise of somewhere to relieve herself, but he decided to take it.

Leading her into the bathroom, he gestured to the toilet. He didn't expect her to understand it properly, and having no shame he decided to just show her. Undoing his pants, which he forgot to take off before bed, he sat down and handled his simple business. After which he pressed the button which flushed.

Her eyes were wide with distrust. She didn’t like it, smelling it she didn’t seem to like it at all. And it took considerable coaxing from Sam to have her sit down on it properly. Now, he hadn’t spent time with women on the toilet before but there was a limit to how it could work. He also, as a teen, had unrestricted access to the internet so it wasn’t like he hadn’t passively learned this.

Eventually, she got her stuff done, but she didn’t seem to entirely agree with how things disappeared after she was done. Sam expected this to be somewhat related to the animal instinct of marking her territory or something. He didn’t know and he didn’t have the chance to ask her properly. Teaching her about toilet paper was a problem as well, leading him to realize that there were a lot of hygiene things he needed to show and teach her. Things like brushing teeth would probably be weird for her.

Making a mental note of that now, he realised there was something else before that. He needed clothing for her, as the receptionist stated yesterday. Though she would probably not care if she were to walk around naked, people around her might care and... Sam had to internally admit that he didn’t want her to walk around naked either, in a strange way for himself... This was an odd feeling.

The problem with this was that he didn’t have any idea where to even begin with that. Considering her body, especially with her digitigrade legs and tail, would probably not work well with full pants. Perhaps shorts? Something like a swimsuit-like thing could probably work but... that strangely enough made things almost more sexual... He pondered many different attires, but in the end, the most likely, somewhat normal, clothing he could consider was a simple dress.

There was a knock on the door, a very enthusiastic knock that lasted longer than it should have. It was clear that this was Janik.

Opening the door Sam got a single second of time to see Janik before something green sprung from his shoulder towards him.

“Dia, no!” Sam shouted before he was ‘attacked’ by Elara, who proceeded to coil herself around his neck and push the top of her head against the underside of his chin, repeatedly rubbing and pushing her head against him, giving a wide smiled snake-hug.

Having learned from yesterday he was afraid that Dia would see the ‘attacking snake’ and just straight up end her existence.

A glance towards Dia confirmed that she had taken a few steps towards them already, but looked at him with incredibly uncertain eyes.

“Good fuck.. That was close...” Sam commented, relieved.

“Oh.. shit... Should have seen that coming...” Janik commented apologetically. Having tasted a kick from her the day before, the damage that made it through his armour would be enough to take out Elara, he just hadn’t considered it.

“Hello there.” Sam smiled at his serpentine friend as he moved his hand down to pick up the front part of her, bringing her face up into view.

She had a wide and happy smile, even shedding a few tears through her smile, something Sam found strangely interesting. “Welcome back, Master. I have been waiting for you.” She coiled herself back around his neck and pressed her face against it, rubbing it almost like a cat wanting to cuddle someone.

“I heard. I trust that Janik has been treating you well?” Sam was incredibly touched by her display. Though they hadn’t spent that much time together it was clear that she had strongly bonded with him.

“I have spent most of my time with Grace, the kids are good, so even when Janik’s out I have been cared for.” She replied, not stopping her rubbing at all.

“I’m glad to hear that.” Sam smiled back but as he did, he suddenly reacted to a smell in the air.

Janik realised Sam’s expression and lifted a to-go package from the local burger shop.

“I thought you wanted something greasy and nasty after a week of just eating fish and fruit.” He smiled widely, knowing very well this didn’t come close to being considered healthy food. “I brought enough for you and your wife.”

Sam stopped a moment, it felt weird having Dia referred to as his wife... It.. might be correct... The special food she gave to him was probably some marriage ritual, and they did solidify their union that night so...

“You know... It really feels weird referring to her as my wife...”

“Well, isn’t she?” Janik teased, having the widest of shit-eating grins on the planet.

“I mean... I guess... but...” Sam felt oddly uncomfortable with this context. He didn’t hide that he liked her, it wasn’t even that uncommon to like the non-humans in the world after the Towers came, the Brothel’s roster was a good example of that. But it just felt odd, perhaps due to their lack of communication.

“Fine, fine. I’ll stop teasing you. Based on your explanation of the fancy food she gave you, I’m sure she thinks of you as her husband, mate, whatever. But I’ll stop.” Janik smiled, he had his fun but he was the person who was fine taking a piss at things but as soon as it wasn’t fun for the ‘target’, it wasn’t a good joke anymore.

Instead, he walked over to the table and placed the grease bomb that was the takeaway box on it, opening it to let the smells flow out. He also placed a small bag on the table next to it.

“You owe me $900.”

“Excuse me?!” Sam broke out in surprise. “That’s a fucking expensive burger.”

“No, idiot. I got you a new phone. Thought you would need one as your old 1862 model probably didn’t survive your island.” Janik smiled a bit at his joke about the old phone being from hundreds of years ago.

“Ah.. well... I suppose that makes more sense...”

Before Sam could consider checking out a new phone, he was drawn to the meal on the table instead. As was Dia, her eyes were wide, intrigued and curious. He expected her sense of smell having introduced her to new things from that box. The concept of fried food, as in the potato fries, was probably as alien to her as the fluorescent lighting.

The kitchen part of the room he was renting was fully furnished with cutlery and everything. He got some plates and placed them on the table, spreading out some of the food. Giving Janik a questioning look when dividing it had him shaking his head, it seemed to be all for Sam and Dia.

Dia smelled the burger with hesitation and interest, having to wipe some saliva as she did. Sam simply sat down and picked it up, taking a big bite.

This was... amazing. In his perception, it was only a week since he was on Earth, but that week had been less than calm. It was something unexpectedly calming and amazing eating something as modern and processed as a fast-food burger. Taking a few fries he shoved them into his mouth well before he was done chewing the burger still in there. As he chewed the collection of things, he also pulled off a small piece of meat and held it up for Elara to take, which she did, extending herself a little from her perch around his neck she toothlessly bit the piece of meat and started swallowing it.

Dia hesitantly sat down and inspected things, struggling a bit with holding the burger right she tried to mimic Sam, but in the end, she took a smaller bite and her expression was amazing. A mixture of a happy smile, uncertainty, amazement and contentment all mixed up in one. It didn’t take long for her to ignore how to hold the burger in favour of just letting her inner animal take over, dropping it back on the plate she started eating it without her hands like the canine she was. Sam couldn’t help but laugh, being joined by Janik.

“I think your girl needs to learn some table manners.” Janik commented through some chuckles.

“She learned what a toilet was earlier today, I think we’ll take one thing at a time.” Sam replied with a fun tidbit from earlier the same day.

“Oh... I didn’t consider that... Potty-training a Beastfolk sounds... oddly weird.”

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“Yeah, it helped that I showed her first but she struggled a bit to agree with it.” Sam continued. Given that Janik was the guardian of 17 kids, it felt right that he had been through potty training more than once.

“Oh, on that topic.” Janik commented as he walked around the table to the bag the phone was in. He took out the small white box with the gadget in but also took out a bundled-up attire.

“I brought one of Emma’s old dresses. She’s outgrown it but they have somewhat the same build, thought it might fit.” He found the shoulder area of the dress and let the rest go, having it unfurl into its full size.

Sam had a look, it looked simple, a dress that would hang tight around the torso but loosely from the waist down. It was made of a rougher than cotton fabric and looked somewhat sturdy but still relatively nice. It was a practical dress before it looked overly frilly or fancy.

“It’s a while until Sophia can get into it, so thought it could be nice to at least see, that way she doesn’t have to walk around naked.”

Janik held the dress slightly towards Dia, almost like he expected to measure it up against her, but he pulled it back a second after as he saw the canid eat a burger like an animal.

“Perhaps... we’ll check that after she’s done...”

This had both Janik and Sam laugh a bit on Dia’s behalf. She didn’t seem to care and was busy consuming the burger and fries.

They continued eating until they were done, after which Sam decided to wash off the worst of the food gore from Dia’s face with a wet towel, she insisted on cleaning herself from that point by refusing to let him rub the cloth against her face.

Unpacking the phone that Janik had gotten, it was a decently modern phone, with a rugged strong design, it wasn’t the fastest or the best, but it was plenty good for modern uses. It was advertised towards Players because of its rugged and durable construction, also using a replaceable Aether Crystal battery, giving it quite the lifetime before needing recharging or replacing.

“You got me a KE Fortis II? I mean...”

Janik broke in before he could continue the sentence. “No, you got yourself one, I expect you to transfer those 900 when you got that thing up and running.” He smiled widely.

Sam wanted to comment, but... he needed a phone and... he had a lot of money to go on, compared to his old life. There was no reason not to get a modern rugged phone now that he was continuing his Player lifestyle.

They took a moment to get that setup, Janik had more experience with this kind of stuff than Sam, and they got it running soon enough. And as a ‘test’, in Janik’s words, he could send over the money he owed.

Sam chuckled and did as requested, he did save him the time to go find one and figure out how to set up everything. And since this phone was newer and had better updates, as well as processing power, he could access many of the TAC services as well.

“Now-” Janik changed the subject once he saw the money coming in on his side, again marking Sam as debt free. “-Since your girl is clean, let’s try to get her less nude.”

He put his phone in his pocket and got the dress, holding it up against Dia’s body, making her stop licking her hands and instead smell the fabric held against her.

It took some effort to get the dress on Dia, she didn’t seem to like it and had no idea how to move her arms to get it on properly. But with some guidance and Psyhands holding her hands and arms in place, they got the dress on her. It had to be tightened up a little here and there and settled in place to let Dia move her arms around, but in the end, she was wearing clothing for the first time.

Stretching her body around as she looked at the cloth now covering her body, squatting down to let the lower part pool around her legs she lifted it and smelled it, liked it, before getting back up and pulling at it around her torso.

“Varka nokar.” She looked confused but intrigued. Looking at Sam, Janik then back at the dress she inspected it some more before she walked over to Sam and grabbed his clothing, gently pulling it as she pulled a part of her dress. “Drakor Sa!”

Sam smiled, he had no idea what Drakor meant, but it seemed like she was comparing them so it felt like it would mean something like ‘similar’ or ‘the same’.

He just nodded, hoping he understood it correctly.

Janik looked at them a bit weirdly. “You... understand her?”

“Not really... But... Well... I know some words, the words that are easier to compare and point to. Her language seems to be somewhat contextual, I... don’t know if there is any grammar, as the same words are used in various cases. Like the word for Nose, I think that’s also used for smell, smelling, scent and so on.”

This was something Sam had puzzled together, he hoped he was right or he would probably be using words very wrong in the future. However, when Dia uses different words, like how when learning the word pointing to his nose, and then to her nose, they used the same word, meaning that the word would mean nose. However, that word was also used when she smelled herself after showering or noticed something and spoke referring to a scent. The same pattern was with other things, so it felt logical.

“Interesting, so she’d just go ‘I nose you’ to say that she smells you?” Janik asked somewhat rhetorically, it was toned more like he was summarizing for his understanding. “I suppose that makes it kind of easier to learn?”

“For us, yes, but it’s going to be interesting having her learn English in the longer term... The concept of grammar might be very weird to her.” Sam smiled with a hint of sadness on her behalf.

“Well!” Janik exclaimed to bring the focus on him as he changed the subject with zero subtlety. “I think you owe me a duel, sparring... a Fight of some kind!” He looked pumped and ready.

“I don’t think I owe you shit. But I suppose we can do some testing.” Sam didn’t feel entirely ok with this, but at the same time, he did want to see how his skills had changed.

Since Janik had already shared that his Defence rating was 46, none of his weapons could make it through except critically hitting, and even then only the Moonblade could make it through. But, if this was a sparring the weapons wouldn’t do direct damage anyway, so they would probably make some point system or ‘if you get hit you’re out’ kind of thing.

“Great! Let’s go, I want to fight your girl as well, but... don’t let her kick me like that again...” Rubbing his face where the kick landed yesterday, he had healed fine, the Player's constitution and natural healing were almost cheating in that regard. Though it was less than 20 hours since they spoke yesterday, he probably got some aid in healing if he was back to full health.

Sam geared up before Janik eagerly led them down to the first floor, Dia seemed to feel awkward when moving around in clothing, when her tails lifted it didn’t do wonders for keeping her covered, but it was good enough for now. Sam felt a weird thought considering introducing her to underwear in the future. Her tails went back down between her legs and her ears flattened out when they went back into the elevator. Latching onto Sam’s arm and having already done this once yesterday seemed to make it a tiny bit better, but she still didn’t like the metal box that weirdly moved them up and down.

The whole way down, elevator and everything, Janik was doing things on his phone. Glancing over, Sam could see that he was booking a training room, making sure to get one with damage control, he probably wanted to see what Dia could do in a different setting when she’s not blindsinding him.

They got fewer looks from people now that Dia wore clothing, though not common it also wasn’t entirely uncommon to see tamed monsters around TAC or in Aetheria. Beastmasters, though an uncommon class was still well known. There were even certain beastfolk working on Earth as certain jobs, most even speaking English. So the structure was in place for it, although they were considered second-class citizens unless bound to a Player directly, as a beastfolk or monster bound to a Beastmaster Player would be considered part of his class, so it mattered differently.

Janik entered the door as soon as they had navigated the hallways to the room he had booked. Taking his swords off his hips he took out two training weapons that somewhat matched their size instead. Sam still had the homemade wooden and bark scabbards for most of his weapons, they served a purpose and he hadn’t taken the time to replace them yet. But mimicking Janik he took all the blades out of their scabbards and placed them next to his swords. It looked kind of weird, having Janik place two swords in a corner, and Sam floating 12 weapons into a pile next to it.

Sam used a moment to try and make Dia understand that this was training... He didn’t know what words to use for it but made a ‘stay here’ motion that had worked before. At the same time, he also explained to Elara to go to Dia, so she didn’t get hit or something.

Dia didn’t like the initial idea of the snake slithering over to her, but since it was Sam who encouraged it, and the fact that Elara had been coiled up around him since they met at least let Dia tolerate her slithering from Sam’s hands to her own.

Sam turned to Janik and brought up the important point of rules.

“How are we doing this? Normally your 46 in Defense would force me to need critical hits.” Sam asked as he cleaned the rack for weapons, bringing out a wide collection of anything he could lift.

“Idunno.” Janik replied in a single word with a shrug. “Let’s just have at it and see how it goes.”

Janik stretched out and waved his arms in circles, loosening up a bit before he took an aggressive stance.

Sam’s expression changed, his calm expression was overtaken by almost wide eyes and intense focus, something in the back of his mind narrowed his sight onto Janik as his mind only considered ways to win, identifying Janik as a threat to his life.