The New World: Old Habits

Chapter 6

Later that day, Jim and Turg were outside together. It had snowed overnight so there was fresh snow to run around in. Grim was inside doing their writing, they were writing a novel for the first time in a while. Jim was still in his werewolf form while Turg followed him towards the forest. He didn't know what Jim was planning, he was just happy to be involved. As they approached the trees, Jim started climbing up one. All the trees were bare for the winter as they were all poplar trees. Turg had no idea why Jim was doing this. 
"What Jim doing?" Turg asked as Jim was starting to struggle going up the trunk of the tree. He would then start sliding down, leaving long claw marks on the bark. 
"I just wanted to see if I could. I might be too heavy." Jim said once he reached the ground again. He started picking bits of tree bark out of his claws as Turg couldn't help but to laugh at him a bit. Jim looked at him with his ears folded back in attempt to look angry, but his wagging tail gave him away. 
"I'd like to see you do better." Jim told Turg as he stood back up on his hind legs. Turg didn't want to try, he was afraid of heights and also had no desire to climb a tree. After a few seconds with no response out of Turg, Jim then said "Yeah, that's what I thought."
"Jim fly though." Turg mentioned as Jim replied "Yeah, but it's more fun to climb."
Jim attempted to climb the tree again and was more successful. He made it up as far as he could. None of the branches could support him as they were all very small and thin. Jim started speaking but he was too far up for Turg to hear him. Turg would then be distracted by the sound of something prowling in the woods as he looked away from Jim in the tree. 
"See something?" Jim asked as he was suddenly next to Turg, startling him a little. Turg immediately turned to look at him briefly before looking back in the direction he heard the sound come from. Something small and black in colour was trotting towards them. As it got closer Turg saw that it was a fox, or he thought it was one. He had only ever seen orange foxes.
"It's a fox." Jim pointed out as he got down on all fours. Turg also got down on his knees and held out his hand for the fox to smell, but Jim got in the way and scared off the fox. Turg gave Jim a confused look as he explained "It's probably here to harass our chickens." 
"Speaking of which, it's probably time to feed them." Jim then mentioned as he turned around and started heading back to their home. He stopped to make sure Turg was following, who had stood back up and started following him. Jim then started laughing as he started running back on all fours, Turg was unable to keep up. He hoped Jim wasn't hurting himself by running like that, he tried it before and it hurt. 
Once Jim was at the chicken area he transformed back into a human, still with clothes on. Turg didn't understand how that worked, then again he didn't understand a lot of things. (Who can blame him, nothing in that world made sense. You'd think it would after four of these but nope). Turg eventually caught up to him as Jim said "Now I'm the one faster than you." 
Turg didn't respond to him, instead he focused on catching his breath. 
"Maybe you'd still be faster if you were a werewolf." Jim thought out-loud as he opened the gate and stepped inside. Turg followed him in, closing the gate behind him. Jim took out the bag of seed from the bin and started spreading it around. That was not a euphemism. All the chickens flocked around Jim as he exclaimed "Yes! Feast, my darlings, feast!" 
Turg couldn't help giggling about it, he liked seeing Jim be more silly. Jim continued tossing down more seed before he put the bag away, being careful as to not step on any of the chickens. Turg decided to get closer as Jim grabbed one of the chickens and asked "Hey Turg, guess what?"
Turg looked at Jim with his head slightly tilted, waiting for Jim to continue. Jim then held the chicken's rear up to Turg and told him "Chicken butt."
Turg giggled again before taking the chicken from Jim and letting it fly back down to the ground. Jim then said "You always fall for things like that. I almost feel bad doing it because of how gullible you are."
Turg didn't understand any of the jokes Jim made with him but was just happy to participate in them. Jim moved himself to the steps for the back entrance of their house and sat down on them, Turg joining him shortly after. 
"Can I ask you a rather serious question?" Jim asked Turg, who panicked a little on the inside upon hearing 'serious question'. Turg nodded in response, hoping it wasn't anything bad.
"How would you feel if I took a job that may require me to permanently remove someone from existence?" Jim asked Turg with a nervous smile on his face. Turg was confused by Jim's phrasing of that, but as long as Jim was happy then Turg didn't mind. 
"Turg don't mind." Turg replied, it didn't seem like a serious question to him. Jim then seemed surprised by Turg's response as he asked again "You sure?"
Turg nodded, he was sure. Jim then let out a sigh of relief and said "Good because I thought you would get mad at me for even having the audacity to say that." 
Turg was confused, he didn't understand why Jim thought he would be mad. He just hoped Jim didn't mean anything bad. 
"You cannot tell Grim though." Jim told Turg rather sternly before asking him yet again "You promise you won't tell them?"
"Turg promise." Turg replied as Jim then said "You're the best, Turg." 
Jim put his arm around Turg and told him "With that being said, I'll probably be gone for a day or two. I promise I'll return one way or another. I hope that won't also be an issue."
"Jim do what make Jim happy." Was Turg's only response to that. Jim then looked away while quietly saying "Yeah, I'll do what makes me happy." 
Jim then quickly looked back at Turg and asked him "But will you be okay while I'm gone? It may not seem like it but I worry about you too. That's pretty rare for me."
"Turg be okay." Turg assured Jim as he continued asking "You sure? You haven't been speaking much lately and that's usually an indicator that something's wrong."
Turg didn't think anything was wrong, he just didn't feel like talking. 
"Turg don't talk much. Turg don't want." Turg answered the best he could. Jim then told him "If something is bothering you, you're free to talk to either me or Grim about it and we'll try to help. You've been through a lot these past few years. We all have, so we'd understand."
Turg didn't like thinking about the past, he couldn't change it so no use dwelling on it. Turg only looked at Jim in response, he couldn't think of anything to say. 
"Whatever, you do what is best for you I guess." Jim said as he stood back up and started heading inside. As he opened the door he told Turg again "I'm going inside, you can stay out here if you want. Maybe you could check for eggs, if you want." 
As Jim closed the door behind him, Turg stood back up to do just that. As he headed towards one of the coops he noticed that the fox was back and Turg was able to get a better look at it that time. It had a grey body, black legs, tail and head with a white tip on the tail. It seemed like it wanted in to the chicken area but couldn't climb the rather high chain-link fence. Turg felt bad for it, it probably just wanted something to eat. He knew he wasn't supposed to, but Turg opened one of the coops and took an egg out to give it to the fox. Turg let the fox take it from through the fence, who ate it almost immediately. It started looking at Turg with wide eyes as if it wanted more. Turg couldn't say 'no' so he gave it one more before leaving, he didn't want to be caught. He quickly went back inside and pretended that nothing happened.