All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 64: Cooped Up

Chapter 64: Cooped Up

Bee greeted her master. She found that she had honestly missed Void during the brief time that she had been gone. Tony followed her inside a second later. Glancing at him, she supposed it was time for introductions. "Tony, this is Void. The other one staying here in the castle with me. Void, this is Tony."

Tony looked up to the top of the stairs and saw Void waving its claw and beeping excitedly. He responded by staring in utter bewilderment. Uncertainly, he looked back down at Bee. She just nodded at him.

"Well, erm, it's nice to meet you, Mr. Void," Tony said as he started up the stairs. Void gave him a welcoming beep. Bee let out a breath she hadn't realized that she had been holding. There was some subconscious part of her that had feared Void's reaction to another human. Well, feared wasn't the right word. Maybe it was better to say she was apprehensive? Anyways she wasn't sure how well it would take a new person coming back with her.

When Tony reached the top of the stairs, he reached down and gave Void a gentle pat, like one would pat a dog's head. Bee froze. All of that apprehension and fear came thundering back. She should have warned Tony. She knew it. But the damage was already done. She waited for her master to strike him down for such impudence and familiarity.

But Void didn't seem to have any inclination towards violence. In fact, it just beeped happily. Straightening up, Tony shrugged his pack up his shoulders slightly. "Where can we unload? I'd best get to work and take a look at the animals, I suppose."

Bee thought for a second. "I'm not sure. The kitchen was in a bit of disarray when I left."

Before she could finish the thought, Void beeped and took off down the hall. It raced towards the intersection of corridors. Then it rotated slightly, looking back at them before beeping impatiently. Bee met Tony's eyes and shrugged. He still just looked confused, but as she started after Void, he followed along.

Void led them toward the kitchen. On the way, she began to notice the surprising lack of dirt and debris along their path. The castle floors looked just as clean as they had before the catacombs trip. Void must have been busy. With that in mind, she figured that it must have straightened the kitchen out while they were away. That was very thoughtful of her master. She bet that it had many other important things it could be doing, but that it prioritized her food was quite touching.

Sure enough, her master led them right to the kitchen. When they made it, Bee took in sight. The kitchen wasn't perfect. There were still some things broken, such as cabinet doors and barrels, but there was no longer debris everywhere. And it was spotless. Even the debris on the counter was organized for the most part. She wasn't even sure how Void had managed that, as she had never seen it leave the floor before.

Void led them back toward the pantry. Using its claw, it indicated they could put many of their stores in there. Tony dropped his pack gratefully, and Bee followed suit. They began unloading the supplies. They had brought back nothing fancy but things that would last a long time and get them by until they could harvest the gardens from the castle grounds.

"I hope your chickens are alright. I would love to put an egg on some of this rice." Tony said while hoisting a bag to an upper self. Bee handed him another sack to put up there as well before she responded. "We should check that out tonight. I cleared all the eggs the day before yesterday because I didn't know which ones were good. I hope that means all the ones we get today will be okay to eat."

"Fresh eggs do last a while. You just have to rinse them before you eat them. Once you rinse them, you need to use them right away, or you might get sick." Tony said absently. Almost as if he was repeating a refrain. Looking down at Bee, "at least that's what my mom always says. I've never got sick from eggs before, so maybe she is on to something."

After a few more minutes of unpacking, the pantry looked much more healthy than before. The pair's packs were also considerably lighter. Bee stood, stretching. "Let's drop our stuff in the library, then I can show you around,"

As they walked to the library, Tony asked. "Why are we leaving our stuff in the library?"

Bee stuttered and missed a step. "Uhh, It's kinda where I've set up my home base. It's complicated. Besides, Void likes it."

Even to her ears, that didn't make too much sense. Why was she sleeping in the library anyways? At first, it was for safety. She guessed it was probably still safer than most other rooms. Also, it was closer to the books.

"Also, it's safer," Bee added. For some reason, the demons had never made it into the library. That was true about a lot of the rooms, she supposed. It was a good thing that the lesser demons started out too dumb to open doors, and before they figured that out, Void had killed them all.

Tony didn't ask any questions, but looking up at his face, Bee read concern in his eyes. When they made it to the library, she dropped her now much lighter pack by her blanket and pillow. Tony just stood at the door, taking in the odd state of the library. There was a broken bookshelf next to the entryway with many stacks of books, exactly 14 books tall, lined along the wall. Her alchemy table stood out from the rest from the tomes scattered across it.

"Feel free to take any of the tables. Besides that one or this one." Bee said, gesturing to her alchemy table and the one she was next to. Tony just sighed. Seemingly deciding to just go with it, he walked to a table a few down from her and set his pack down. Deciding to unpack later, she and Tony headed out right away to take advantage of the remaining daylight.

She decided that she would show him the chicken coop first. Doing that seemed to be the most important. If they still had light afterward, she would take them to check out the crops. She also would have to ask Tony to help her distinguish what crops were for food and which ones were for magical reagents. They could probably prioritize the magical reagents now, though, because they didn't have an entire castle to feed.

As they made their way towards the exit, she looked at Void in case it wanted to come with them. It stayed close to Bee as they neared the entry stairs, nudging her foot slightly. Having company really wasn't much of an issue, so she bent down and reverently picked her master up, holding it with both hands in front of her. It was nice that she'd have Tony to help her with free hands this time. Now she wouldn't have to worry about balancing her master on a single hand. It really was quite nerve-racking worrying about dropping Void constantly.

They made their way down to the chicken coop.

---

I was grateful to get a ride down the stairs. Beatrice had just come back, and I wasn't ready to leave her alone just yet. Especially in the company of a human, I didn't trust. To be fair, she had spent a lot of time with him, and nothing bad had happened yet, but I didn't feel like I could be too careful.

I had to say that Tony had gone a long way toward changing my first impression of them. Cleaning off his boots before coming into the castle was the bare minimum if still appreciated. But those head parts were top-tier. Truly, I had missed them, but I hadn't quite realized how much. It made me devote far more processing time towards incorporating his presence into our current routines than I would have otherwise. But still, he was quite a dirty individual from the outside. For now, he was on a probationary period where I would monitor him closely to make sure he didn't misbehave.

But I had to see if I could get more head pats from him. Beatrice didn't seem inclined to give me many, but perhaps she could learn from a good example. That would be the most optimal outcome here.

We made our way to the coop. I still heard the same cacophony of animal noises as when we first approached it. And now that I knew it was coming, paying attention to my sensors, I could see the disgusting stuff floating in the air around it.

The clucking sounds were even louder than last time if that was possible. When Tony opened the door for us, I confirmed that it was just as bad inside as it was when I was last here. If not worse.

Taking one look at the angry birds, Tony exclaimed, "Wow, these are really on their last legs! Where's the feed? We won't get fresh eggs until all these ladies are fattened up."

Beatrice indicated the same bag she had spilled last time we were here. Tony went to that cupboard and opened it up. Grasping one of the bags, he ripped it open and tossed it on the ground. That clearly wasn't an accident. Perhaps he was training the birds? But that was a question mark that could go in as an X on his record. Intentionally making messes is much different than accidentally spilling bags of grain.

The birds didn't seem to mind nearly as much as I would have. They scrambled around, pecking it up with surprising efficiency. Beatrice didn't complain either. I didn't have much faith in her concept of cleanliness, but I suppose she would have objected if something was really wrong. Perhaps Tony really was training the birds? I would stay silent and follow Beatrice's lead for now.

After spilling the seed, Tony seemed to turn slightly red and then whirled at Beatrice, pointing at her and then pointing at the cabinet. "If there's this much feed, why are they this thin? The area around here has been picked clean! Have you not fed them in a month?"

Okay, this was way out of line. No one gets to yell at my human like that. I let out an angry beep waving my grabby arm threateningly at Tony. He'd better not try anything. If he did, he'd regret it. In fact, he was lucky Beatrice was holding me. If he tries anything, I would still sic one of the last demons in my dustbin on him. Or maybe do the tornado thing that scared off the last humans. Still, Beatrice was too close to risk that. I didn't want her to put me down here. That would be gross. But maybe when we got back to the castle.

My outburst seemed to cut Beatrice off from responding. It also seemed to shock Tony enough that he stopped and visibly took a breath to calm down. Beatrice was the first to speak. "I didn't have a chance to get out of the castle until recently. Also, I didn't know it was here exactly until the day before I went to the farm."

Tony was still watching me warily but seemed to take in Beatrice's words. "Okay, there are a few things that are rubbing me wrong here. I noticed there was a decent amount of damage in the kitchen. Did that have something to do with you not being able to leave the castle until recently?"

Tony stared levelly at Beatrice. She took a deep breath as if she was preparing to give a long-winded answer but just nodded. "I think that I'm going to have to tell you the whole story. It's a long one. We don't have to do it here, though. It still smells like chicken poop."

Beatrice carried me back up to the castle as Tony followed. It was a weighty silence. There were definitely things we all needed to talk about and get clear. I would have to make sure that Tony never mistreated Beatrice again. It seems that he said those things because he was being protective of the birds, but that was still not acceptable.

Beatrice put me down when we reached the top of the stairs. I rolled over to Tony, extended my grabby arm toward his face, and wiggled it back and forth. I had seen my other humans do this sometimes to chastise the small human. He looked down at me, confused, so I smacked him in the shin with my arm. Yelping, he jumped back and glared at me reproachfully. "What was that for?"

He knew. I gave him an angry-sounding beep and then proceeded to explain to him in explicit detail his failures and errors. He seemed very confused, but Beatrice seemed to pick up the gist of what I was saying. She translated for me. "I don't think it liked you yelling. I would try to not do that in the future if I were you."

"Aww, that's cute," Tony grinned, still wincing.