Warslave

Chapter 6: The Mind of a Warslave

The Wolf

It was another two days before they could really do anything. Wolf found it easiest to spend that time avoiding others, keeping his ears open and helping out in the kitchen, though Phil seemed content to let him rule the kitchen like a despot.

There was the issue he could not avoid however, and that was that he was not good with children, yet for all his effort he couldn't really avoid the two girls roaming around the building.

The youngest one caught him first, as he finished his shift, and his brother had just started his. He'd been in the room provided for him, studying his metal claws, trying to make the light from the lamp next to his bed reflect off them.

She radiated a sense of smugness that only a child who had just won a difficult game could have. She'd grabbed his wrist with one of her small hands, while proudly proclaiming that she had caught him.

Wolf understood little about it all.

"And...?"

"Well... now I go hide and you go seek."

"I'm not playing."

She stubbornly shook her head.

"But Aurora said you were playing."

"Well, she lied."

"Nuh-uh. Superheroes don't lie."

He could almost feel the sanctimonious attitude radiating from the Bureau's star, who was sitting only two rooms away. He just sighed and repeated himself.

"I'm not playing."

The child, in typical fashion, was already too distracted to remember why she'd started talking in the first place.

"You've funny hands."

"Why's that?"

"They're cold. And pointy."

Several replies shot through his head, before he realised that Phil would probably not appreciate it if he went into the gory details of it all.

"I didn't like my old ones, so I got metal replacements."

It was strange to see her eyes light up with curiosity as he spoke.

"Did it hurt?"

"Like a bi-... a bit."

Swearing was another thing their host would probably not appreciate. A fact that cut his vocabulary by a sizable chunk. The kid didn't seem to mind though, distracted as she was by the mechanical limbs.

"Can I get them too?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"You're a curious one, huh?"

"No, I'm Sam."

The way she said it made him smile for a second. It was so honest, as if replying with her name was the most normal thing she could have said to that.

"Well, I'm the Wolf."

"You don't look like a wolf. Phil said the Big Bad Wolf had big ears, big eyes and big teeth, but you only got teeth."

"I have eyes and ears."

"But they're not big!"

"I guess not. Still, that's just my name."

She grabbed his hand and shook it. The whole interaction felt very surreal to Wolf, so he couldn't help but ask.

"What... are you doing?"