Side-Story – Interludes: Volu Two – CH.122.5 – Renn – The Second Day at the Animalia Guild
This place was too perfect.
Way too perfect.
It was so perfect it was scary.
Walking down the hallway that was quickly becoming dark, I wondered if I'd be able to get any sleep tonight. Today had been such a rush, so full of new experiences and joys that I almost wanted to cry. Probably would later.
The building was quiet now. Darker. The place had been locked down, having closed its doors and shut down for the day. The bank had been the first to close, then the warehouse, then all the other departnts… as the mbers here called them.
There was so much. The bank was its own entity, but it had sections within it that were as important and as big as a normal business. There were offices, vaults, entire groups of people just working on paperwork and so much more!
Then there was the warehouse, the depot as those here called it. A place where goods ca and went in large scale. Hundreds of wagons, carts and so much more ca and went through the depot everyday it seed… and many of those wagons were huge. The kind of huge that made feel strangely uneasy.
A mailroom. A charter division for ships and cargo. A departnt just for nobles and royals, and there was even a departnt just for jobs! A place that people could co to find work, even at places other than the Animalia Guild itself!
It was all so overwhelming… I felt almost as if I'd entered a whole new world. The place was packed to the brim with activity… and to make it all even more amazing it was all centered on our mbers. Each departnt was outright ran by one of the Society's mbers. Sofia and Herra ran the banks, Reatti ran the general workstaff, rit ran the guards, Magda oversaw the depot…
Slowing at the end of the hallway, I reached an intersection. There were three new hallways to take, and I wasn't sure which to go down. One was completely dark, without even windows, and the other two went opposite directions from one another.
"To the rooms," I whispered as I glanced down the dark hallway. I couldn't see the tal door that led to the inner-housing area of this building, where all the non-human mbers lived, but I knew that was what the hallway led to. I'd been down there before, though not in this hallway in particular.
The whole building was basically a giant box. A huge square, with several floors. The place was actually rather easy to find one's way within, thanks to the hallways all being uniform, but occasionally so of them… diverted strangely. As if intentionally, so of the hallways curved and went a weird way.
I was alone, having recently left Reatti's side, and was just… walking around. Both to see more of the building and to collect myself.
Soon I'd be having dinner again. With everyone. A huge group of colorful people, and I'd get… overwheld again. Just like last night, I'll likely get emotional and cry. Especially now that I knew so of the mbers here a bit more well. Reatti had been an utter joy to spend the day with, and surprisingly everyone else had been very kind and friendly too. A few I'd not t yet, since they were busy, but it seed of all the places I'd been to… at least within the Society, this place was the neatest.
I loved the idea of it. This whole place was basically a giant store. mbers who lived here spent their days working, doing important tasks, to make the Society money. Money that was then distributed to those who needed it. And then once their hard day of work was done…? Well, they spent the night enjoying each other's company. They ate together. Sat and talked, drinking sotis, all night long. It was… well…
I sniffed as I reached up to wipe my eyes. I didn't feel any sha in the tears I wiped away, though I did hope they would not be joined by too many more later on.
No one would likely find crying over this experience strange or bad, at least I don't think anyone would say so if they did… but that didn't an I wanted to weep over it either. No matter how wonderful this experience was for , I didn't want to just… break and cry over it. At least, not in front of others. Not because I wanted to keep up a front of soone strong or sothing, but instead for another reason.
This should be normal. All of it.
This life. This place. These people. It should all be… normal. I should not be shocked or emotional over the simple fact that there were non-humans living, relatively, normal lives. It should just be… expected.
For to get so emotional over this place only further proved how rare it was. How special it was. And that fact hurt more than it did make happy.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
All of our mbers should be able to live like this. Free and happy. With purpose.
Yet instead…
"Lost?"
I jumped back a bit, and ran into the man who startled . I groaned upon bumping into him, since the feeling of his unmoving self was rather familiar.
"Vim…" I groaned at him as I turned around and stepped away from him. He had a small smirk on his face, obviously once again he was amusing himself over his ability to sneak up on .
Really, how did he do that? Yes I'd been lost in thought, and emotional, but still… this whole area was dead quiet, the kind that should not have allowed him to have snuck up on like that.
"You alright?" he asked, likely noticing my tear-stained eyes.
Sniffing, I nodded as I went to wipe them again. "Yes. I'm… not really crying, they're just watery," I said honestly.
"Hm…"
If he believed or not I couldn't tell, thanks to his placid expression, but I decided to let it be. "What're you doing?" I asked him. "Other than scaring ."
He smirked again. "Going to go see a friend, and saw you standing alone in a dark hallway all weird-like. I know you cats like to prowl, but really?" he asked.
Gosh he was teasing again. "Your pirate friend, you an," I said, ignoring his comnt on purpose.
He nodded. "What'd you do today?" he asked.
My ear under my hat twitched hard enough to make it itch. I reached up and went to scratching at it under my hat. He had just forcefully changed the topic. "Reatti introduced to everyone, again, and showed all the different departnts. Tomorrow I'll be joining Sofia at the bank, I guess," I said.
"That's fun," he said.
It was. It had been. It will be. But…
Glaring at him, I wondered why he seed so odd. His responses had been rather… well…
Short? Maybe. I wasn't sure, but it almost felt as if he was not really paying attention to our conversation. Yet he was obviously looking at , focused, and the way he was smirking at told he at least was paying enough attention to know I was annoyed at him at the mont.
"I've not figured out anything weird yet, Vim… if that's what you're asking," I said carefully. We were alone, but I wasn't sure to what degree. I didn't hear or see anyone in the hallway, but I knew so of our people had great hearing. The kind that made even far distances useless.
He had asked to study this place. The mbers here. To see if I noticed anything odd… but so far I'd not done so. If anything the only thing that was odd was how there weren't more people here. This place was aweso, more mbers should live here.
"Hm, I figured."
"Though uh… I do have a question," I then rembered.
"Hm?" he nodded as he shifted a little, waiting for it.
"rit. She's old, right…? I an, older than she looks at least," I said. I had wanted to ask others, but it had felt rude to do so.
"Yes. She's actually the oldest here," Vim said.
Wow! "She's so small," I said softly as I thought of her. She wasn't just small… she looked young. It was one thing to be short and tiny, but to still look like a kid?
Vim chuckled at . "She's like Lilly. One of the original mbers from back in the day," he said.
Oh my…! "I see… so she's the leader here?" I asked.
"Hm…? No. The leaders, if you want to call them that, are Gerald and Brandy. Though Brandy's not really seen as one, per say," he said.
"Right…" I nodded softly. I'd not t her yet. Supposedly she was off doing sothing elsewhere, sowhere up north.
"Any other questions? I should probably get going," he asked with a small gesture behind him.
Ah. Right… I nodded softly as I quickly considered a few…
"The human mbers. There's a few here, right? Like Amber was?" I asked.
"Yes. In fact there are quite a few. Most live in the building, but at the apartnts in the south not with us in the center, or across the street on the west. The company owns the whole block that way," he said.
"Why do you call it company? They all call it a guild," I asked.
"Just a habit. The proper term is guild, at least here and in this era," Vim answered.
So it was just another term for it. Sothing that the people here, today, didn't use much if at all… "And my room. It's nice, and I can tell no one's slept in it for a long ti… and the bath is pretty big, too," I said.
For a mont Vim said nothing… then he frowned at . "And…?"
Oh. Was that not good enough? "I was inviting you to it, Vim," I said.
He blinked at , and then chuckled. "I see."
My face went hot as I groaned and glanced down to our feet. "Yeah… Wasn't too good was it?" I admitted. I had wanted to invite him to it, but had also wanted to tease him a little. To get back for him startling earlier. Yet I'd done so badly at it that he hadn't even gotten the hint had he?
He chuckled so more, and then his hand gently patted my shoulder. I glanced up at him as he stepped away, smiling gently at as he did. "See you later, Renn."
Nodding softly, I watched him walk away… and once he was far enough I sighed at myself.
"Idiot," I whispered, at both of us.
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