Pet Wolf

We’re able to run two more dungeons before we all feel that it’s time to break for lunch. In that time, Paige levels up once more, as do Ivy and I. The unevenness of my endurance stat is annoying me, but I really can’t complain since the increase in statpoints is helping me reach my goals quicker in that area.

With each of our breaks, Skylar was nowhere to be seen. We all trust that she’s safe and that she’ll text us if she needs us to pick her up from the mundane world. As we come back from our third dungeon of the day however, ready to break for lunch, we find Skylar sitting in the living room. Sitting next to her, happily wagging it’s tail, is a wolf.

“Skylar….why do you have a wolf?” I ask her. “His name is Dave.” She says nonchalantly, scratching in between his ears. I shake my head in disbelief. “That doesn’t answer the question!” I exclaim, chuckling. The wolf is very much enjoying the head scratches, as the wagging tail and the nuzzling into Skylar’s hand can atest to.

“I wanted a pet wolf. You said the perk you got that put these guys here makes them friendly and incapable of being aggressive or fighting. So I figured, why not adopt one as a pet? I spent the morning bonding with him.” She explains. “But…oh you’re strange.” I tell her and she giggles. “He’s fluffy.” Skylar says simply.

I feel a wave of cute aggression from Ivy and look at her, to see her looking down at Sol brushing up against her leg, hissing at the wolf. I feel something down at my ankle as Luna nuzzles up against me, hiding most of her body behind my leg and looking fearfully at Dave. Gaia that feels weird to say in my head.

“Fluffy wolfy!” Mia giggles, who’s been silent up until this point. Paige just looks unsure of what to do in this situation. “He’s a very fluffy wolfy.” Skylar agrees, smiling as she pets the fur of the happy wolf. “He better not hurt our kittens…” I trail off, looking down at Luna as she trembles. “He won’t, I promise.” Skylar says with absolute confidence.

I know it logically but I’m still skeptical. “Let’s keep him! Fluffy wolfy, fluffy wolfy, fluffy wolfy!” Mia chants at me, pleading in her own strange way for me to let them keep him. Ivy even joins in on the chant, also looking at me in a pleading manner. “”Fluffy wolfy, fluffy wolfy!” Skylar giggles and joins in too, and I now have all three of my girlfriends chanting at me.

“”Fluffy wolfy, fluffy wolfy, fluffy wolfy!”” They chant. I look between all three of them and shake my head, laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. Paige looks absolutely bewildered at this turn of events. “Alright alright, fine! You girls are SO weird.” I say. “Yaaay!” Ivy giggles and Mia falls onto the couch in a laughing fit.

I walk over to Skylar. She stands up to meet me and I pull her into a cuddle. “I trust you. If this is what you want, then I’ll support you.” I tell her. The umbramancer wraps her arms around me. “I love you.” She tells me sincerely. “I love you too.” “I’ve already bought a bed for him in the library.” She says. “Let me know if you need any help.” I say, kissing her on the forehead gently.

After Ivy and I have made sure that our kittens are okay, with a healthy amount of surprise and happiness that they’re starting to warm up to us, Ivy starts on making the five of us lunch. Skylar in the meantime, shows Dave to his room in the library. She’s bought him all the essentials, like a refilling water bowl (bigger than the one we have for our cats), food and a bowl for it, and a large bed near the fire.

Skylar also bought him plenty of toys, which he seems quite happy to play with. I’m slightly jealous that Skylar has bonded so easily with her pet, while Ivy and I are still working on bonding with Sol and Luna. I shove it aside though, as dogs and evidently wolfs, are a lot different from cats. Dogs are super trusting, cats are much more cautious. Technically we also don’t even know if Dave needs food or water to survive, given that he was spawned out of a class perk, but it’s good to have those things anyway, just in case.

It turns out that Ivy has made us all simple but delicious sandwiches. Lettuce, tomato, cheese, ham and mayonnaise. As we eat, we take the opportunity to get to know Paige a little more. Mia is primarily leading the conversation with Paige, with Ivy and I jumping in whenever we see an opening. Skylar continues to be mostly quiet.

“Well what music do you like then?” Mia asks the terramancer. “I like a lot of metal, punk and emo music, but I can’t deny that some pop music from like the 2010s is great too.” She says, her eyes lighting up with clear passion for the subject. “Hey same! Got any favourite bands?” I ask, grinning at the fact that we have a shared interest.

“Too many.” She says jokingly. “Paramore, Sum 41, Black Veil Brides, Bullet For My Valentine, Arch Enemy-” “Oh my god same! Bullet For My Valentine is my favourite band! Are you going to Good Things later this year?” I ask, interrupting her, my voice raising in excitement. She visibly gets excited at my words. “Yeah, I can’t wait! Bfmv, I Prevail, Corey Taylor and Fall Out Boy!” She exclaims and I squeal.

“Yesss, you can come with us if you like! Skylar can’t handle big crowds, but I managed to convince Ivy and Mia to come along! It’s my first metal festival, I’ve been too nervous up until this point.” I say. “I understand that. I’d never be able to go alone. I was going with some of my friends from the tattoo place I go to.” She says.

“Your tattoos are so pretty by the way!” Ivy compliments. Paige blushes, starting to play with her hair. “Thank you.” She giggles, her voice going super quiet. “I’d like to get a tattoo sometime actually. A snowflake on my shoulder would be really pretty. It feels appropriate too.” I tell her. The gothic terramancer looks up at me. “I’d be happy to introduce you to my artist if you like. I know a few, one in particular who is really good at that kind of thing.” She says.

“Yes please! I’ve wanted it for a while, but I’ve always been too nervous.” I say. She smiles affectionately at me. “I get that. The first time is always scary, you’ll love it though.” She replies. “Did you get your tattoos for the meaning or because they’re pretty?” Mia asks. “Both honestly. They’re all really pretty and most of them have a lot of meaning to me.” Paige answers. She blushes harder as she thinks about her answer.

“The full sleeve of flowers and plants, I got both because it’s really pretty and because to me, it symbolises the beauty of life and love. I live to love, and I love hard. Life is amazing and beautiful, and something worth cherishing. I love what I do, and all the little things I get to enjoy as a part of my life, even if life isn’t perfect.” She says, and it melts my heart.

“That’s adorable, you’re so cute and sweet!” Mia voices my thoughts. Paige hides her face behind her hands, and I can hear her giggling happily. It takes everything in me to not get up from the table then and there, swooning over the adorable goth girl. She gives me way too much cute aggression with how she reacts to every compliment.

Once she calms down, she continues. “I have a little devil girl on my thigh because I thought it was really pretty. It reminds me of…nevermind…” She trails off, her blush returning. “Anyway, I also have a tattoo on my other thigh and hip of Zeus and Poseidon. I’m a massive nerd for Greek mythology.” She quickly moves on.

“Cool as! I wonder if they actually exist in the abyss?” Mia says. Paige nods enthusiastically. “They do! At least as far as I can find. Supposedly they and most other gods live in some sort of separate dimension. They don’t really care about the rest of the abyss and apparently the dimension they live in is like a version of heaven? That’s all I’ve really been able to find on the subject because seeing a god in person is so rare.” She says.

“I can’t really say I’m disappointed. The mythology and the stories are cool but Zeus is like…really mean.” Mia replies. Paige giggles. “You can say that again. There’s a joke that goes around that says half the stories in Greek mythology can be summed up with the words ‘The world was good. Unfortunately, Zeus was horny.’” We all laugh at that, and Paige smiles to herself, happy at the fact that she made us all laugh.

The rest of lunch, we get to know Paige more as a person. She’s an adorable gothic terramancer who has a habit of getting extremely flustered and playing with her hair around people she finds pretty, but she’s more than that. When she’s talking about something she’s interested in, she can get past being flustered and happily infodump about it.

She’s sweet, adorable, passionate and seems very much interested in us from everything I can tell. All in all, I and the others are all extremely interested in her. None of us make any moves yet. We want to wait for a bit longer and spend some more time with her before we decide on anything.