Tessa woke up early to the sound of the nice pink-haired women walking outside. She knew it was the nice women because their shoes didn’t have little rocks in them that made the steps sound sharper, nor did they walk without shoes like many of the scary women.

Slowly, the mousy monstergirl looked around the room, checking the shadows and carefully rotating her ears as she sniffed. Nothing out of the ordinary. Her eyes glanced at her Master and she listened to his heartbeat. Strong, steady, slow. He was warm, and he was still asleep.

Tessa nodded again, slowly moving to get out of the special comfy warm bed the nice pink-haired women had let them use after Master had told them about travelling with little moneys to spare. Tessa’s brain told her she should know about moneys and why they were important, but it was a blur, everything before Master was. Like remembering words and trying to think of places she knew.

With a little squeak, she froze at the sound of stomping steps outside the room. Her ears sharpened and she paid attention. Heavy, strong, dangerous. She waited, unmoving, eyes locked on the door. Slowly, the stomping went away, and Tessa sighed in relief, taking a moment to turn towards the special bathroom the room had. There were many railings to grab onto, and a wooden stool that she could drag in front of the washbasin.

There was a toothbrush, pink, Master had said it was her toothbrush and it was important for her to wash her teeth every day. It took her some effort to open the faucet, it was tricky, but she managed to get it just right, then washed the brush for teeth under the stream, then carefully replicated the moves her Master had carefully taught her. She counted the times she did the whole movement all around her mouth, five times, that was good. She didn’t add the minty cold goop because it was tasty and made her want to chew on the toothbrush. Again.

She lost the last toothbrush that way, Master had insisted she should not do so again. So she didn’t.

Tessa looked at her reflection, something felt familiar, as it always did. The pink-haired women had said she might have had a life before going feral and being found by Master, but Tessa didn’t really care, she was with Master now and only that mattered.

Carefully she put the toothbrush back into its cup, then took Master’s and washed it before putting it next to hers. She liked them like that. Once done, she drank some cool water and reminded herself to close the faucet again. A little self-congratulation followed for remembering.

Next was food. Tessa hopped off of the stool, quietly moving it back to where it was. She headed for the room door, knowing the way to the food, but not remembering how to open the door.

Pausing, she tested the knob, it didn’t work.

Tessa knew she’d been told how to solve this, but… aha! Master’s red glowy box!

With quiet pitter-patters, she ran towards Master’s bag and pulled out the shiny green box that sometimes glowed when it was touched in certain ways. She approached the door and tested the knob again, this time it turned. But she had to stop, remembering the words from the nice pink-haired ladies. Tessa put down her shirt under the door so it wouldn’t close, returned Master’s shiny green box back to where it had been, and then stepped outside, making sure her shirt prevented the door from closing.

Immediately Tessa froze, eyes wide, there were people approaching! Why hadn’t she paid attention!? She leapt back into the room, almost throwing the door shut but the shirt kept it from locking all the way.

Heart hammering in her chest she waited, hearing the steps of the strangers as they walked past the door. Only a second after did she dare to peek back outside, this time it was empty. She hoped the strangers didn’t remember having seen her.

Stepping back outside she quietly nudged the door so it’d be as close to closing as the shirt would allow it to be.

A deep sigh, now it was time to look for the food. Her nose was her guide, her naked feet her preferred method of transportation, and her ears her first and best alarm against any possibly scary things that could approach or try to surprise her. Or worse, try to eat her. Like the scary cat lady of-

Alarms went off inside Tessa’s head as she could recognize the smell that had just reached her. Not of tasty tasty food but of scary scary cat lady! Her eyes whirled, empty corridors, where was the cat? Where was the threat? Tessa’s heart hammered as she clung to the wall. Above? Left? Right? She had to look for somewhere to hide, HIDE! Her feet took her in a mad dash down the corridor, she found a dark corner to hide in between two large machines that whirled and felt warm to the touch. Tessa didn’t care though, the machines were less scary than the scary cat lady!

A tight squeeze, Tessa looked outside into the brighter area with wide eyes and attentive ears. Where? Where was the danger?

Her nose told her it was close, but the only thing she could see was the back of…

Mister Scary Rick.

Tessa relaxed if only marginally. Mister Scary Rick was sitting with his back turned towards her, hunched over his glowy box. The human was mumbling under his breath as he scratched a piece of paper with something that looked black and sharp. Tessa decided she didn’t want to stay close, in case the scary cat lady was nearby, so she hastily pushed on, advancing towards the room that the nice pink-haired ladies had told her to go to in the morning.

A door without knobs, Tessa pushed it open and inside she found three nice pink-haired ladies and a scary black-haired lady with smoke and no-fire in her mouth. Tessa looked at them and felt like she should say words but they were failing her. What were the words? The words were important.

“Master Gabriel,” she said. Were those the words?

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The nearest nice lady smiled. “You must be Tessa.”

Tessa nodded, her ears flopping back and forth as she made extra sure the nice lady knew that Tessa was Tessa. “Yes, Tessa.”

“We have a special breakfast for Mr. Gabriel,” the nice-lady said, standing up from her metal chair and moving to the back.

Tessa did not move from where she stood because the scary black-haired lady kept glancing at her. “Is she feral?”

“We think she spent a little too much time feral and…”

“Shame that.” The scary-lady breathed the smoke that didn’t have a fire. “How’s the betting pool on the guy outside?”

“He’s taken, a sister from New Bark,” another spoke.

“Lucky bitch.”

“Tessa? Come here a sec will you?”

The first nice-lady called out for Tessa, and Tessa quickly moved deeper into the large room, moving between the large metal tables and finding the first nice-lady holding a wooden tray with things on top of it.

“This is important, Tessa, I need you to pay attention.” She crouched a little, bringing out a colourful yellow small rock. “Your Master needs to take this with his food. If he doesn’t, bad things will happen.”

“Bad?”

“Very bad,” she emphasized, and Tessa leaned forward to sniff at the strange rock. It wasn’t a rock- it was dirt except weird and wrong and weird. Tessa covered her nose and wrinkled it. “So make sure he takes it with breakfast, ok?” A large floppy nod followed as she then took the tray, but the nurse stopped her with a grip on the wooden tray. “And what else is important?”

“Nice lady brought food to room, Tessa no leave room, Tessa knows.” Tessa emphatically nodded again, this time nearly spilling the tray.

“Atta girl.”

Tessa had been about to begin her hasty retreat back into the room, but paused, looking at the nice-lady. “Tessa have wrong head?”

“Wrong head?”

“Tessa think and remember, bit, then gone. Tessa talk, but talk make Master sad.”

The nice-lady’s expression changed a bit, and she leaned forward to pat Tessa’s head. She didn’t like it when people other than Master patted her head, but nice-lady was nice so she didn’t complain. “In time things will work themselves out, you just need to practice.”

“Prac-tice.”

“Do it over and over, until it comes out good,” the nice-lady said.

Tessa nodded, turning back around and moving to leave the big room with doors with no knobs. Tessa’s feet slowed when she saw the back of Scary Rick and she made extra sure not to make a sound. One step at a time, she carefully watched his back as he kept scratching the paper with the black thing. Once she was back in the corridors she moved faster, wanting to get back to the room before Master woke and before anyone could scare her or worse, eat her.

But as Tessa rounded the corner she froze.

Where was the door? Where was the door with the shirt? She turned around, looking back, and then turned to look forward. Oh no, oh no! She couldn’t remember the door! Tessa almost dropped the tray as she rushed down the corridor, sniffing. The door should be near, she knew it; it should be near and she should be able to smell her Master and her clothes and her warm bed and nice Master.

Yet when she stopped she was not in front of the door but looking at the entrance that led to outside where things were even more scary. There were people walking, scary people. One was approaching her! Tessa turned and began running- she had to hide! Hide! She had to hide as fast as she could! Her eyes looked and looked, trying to find a dark place to hide in.

There! Between two brown things with plants in them. She’d been just about ready to dive when she realized she was carrying the tray with food for good Master and the important dirt that he had to eat or bad things would happen.

Heart hammering, Tessa looked at the space between the two plants, and turned towards the sound of the incoming footfalls. What would she do? She couldn’t fit if she was carrying the tray with important things! But the steps were getting closer, closer!

She put the tray on the floor right in front of the plants and dove into the space between them. Her eyes glued to the tray and the things on it, especially the yellow dirt. It was very important that it not be lost or taken; Master had to take it, or bad things would happen.

“What’s this?”

The tray had been spotted? Someone scary was getting close- they were right in front of the plants. Tessa was breathing shallowly and quickly.

“Mine!” She declared loudly, and the scary person took a step back. Tessa covered her mouth and wished herself to become invisible. She’d be seen if they looked between the plants, she had to hide, she had to…

“Ok.”

The voice spoke and began to walk away. Tessa’s heart was thundering so hard she could hear it in her ears. Her hands were trembling as she peeked out between the plants and took the tray before anyone else could appear, and her steps took her away from the entrance and back inside, where it was safe but where she was lost.

How could she find the right door? She hesitated, sniffing, but nothing. She had to hurry, or Master might wake up; she began walking down the corridor. The first door she thought might be hers she pushed, but it didn’t open, and the next door she pushed also didn’t open. The third did, but the smell from inside wasn’t of Master so she moved to the next one quickly.

Had she lost her Master because she’d been distracted? She knew the nice-lady had said how to find the room, she just needed to focus. Focus! Everything was always so fuzzy and foggy, but Tessa really needed to know how to find her Master again.

The red labels were for older people!

Heart skipping a beat, Tessa looked up to the labels next to the doors. They were green! Of course! She was in the wrong area. She just had to look for doors with red labels and she’d find her Master. Quickly she moved again, avoiding scary people when she heard them, and needing to hide two more times (though fortunately not needing to shout again in either case).

Once she found the corridor with doors with red labels she began nudging each door.

A familiar scent came over her and she knew she’d found the right one. Stepping inside she quickly set the tray on the small table and removed the shirt so the door could close properly. With the door closed, Tessa checked to make sure it was locked, only relaxing once she was sure everything was safe again.

Tessa checked the tray, and saw the food was still in it, safe within the little cardboard boxes it came in, and the yellow dirt was there too, so everything was in order.

Tessa moved back to the bathroom, washing her hands and face like the nice-lady had once said she always ought to do whenever getting into Master’s room. Tessa checked her reflection again and preened, feeling proud at having brought Master breakfast. There was also a box for her own food which had a nice smell, but she wouldn’t eat it until her Master woke up to eat breakfast.

Determined, and a little too rattled from having gone outside alone, Tessa clambered back onto the bed, wrapping her arms around her wonderful Master as he slept. His own safe embrace pulled her closer- Master Gabriel might be older than most humans Tessa knew, but he was the bestest safest Master.